My Sister's Keeper

I do not in any way consider myself a movie critic, but this one disappointed me so deeply that I feel the need to voice my opinion. I do promise to not ruin the ending for those of you that do still want to see it.


I really don't read many books, but I saw this book in the walmart best sellers section earlier this summer to grabbed it to help break up the constant wedding planning. I did really enjoy the book. I wouldn't say it was one of my favorites, but I love books with a surprise twist ending, so this ended up being a pretty good book in my eyes.


The movie came to the base last week, so we girls planned a movie night. Everyone kept telling us we would bawl our eyes out by the end. Well, I did NOT cry! Actually, I yelped "WHAT!" at the part that most of the people in the theater were crying.

Here are a few of the things that really made me mad:

- Anna is 13 in the book, but 11 in the movie. Considering she is trying to sue her parents, the age difference is pretty significant in my eyes!

- Kate and her boyfriend, Taylor, did something together in the movie that they did NOT do in the book. I know it was all for extra drama, but I really don't think it was necessary. In fact, overall Kate is a much more central figure in the movie.

- Pretty much all of Jesse's story was left out. I figured that's just because the movie didn't have enough time.

- The guardian ad liem, Julia, is completely cut out of the movie, but again that's probably just because of time restraints. By cutting her, they also cut a pretty in depth side story of her romance with Campbell.

- Which brings me to one of the biggest disappointments; Campbell has a service dog, Judge, but no one knows why he needs a service dog, so Campbell makes up witty reasons each time he is asked. In the book, he must have come up with 10 different witty responses, but in the movie we only hear 2. Those were a nice comedic break in the book, and really they wouldn't not have taken up much time in the movie.

- How Brian came up with Anna's name when she was born is a cute little side story that I also think would not have taken much time to include, so I'm sad that they didn't.

- In the end, the REAL reason for the trial is the same in the movie and the book, and the outcome of the trial is the same as well, but a certain dramatic event at the end of the movie is too predictable, and not at all how the book ends. This was by far the biggest disappointment and is why I now wish I had never seen the movie!

Overall, if you are not a reader, watch the movie, it is actually good if you haven't read the book and don't plan to. But if you are a reader, skip the movie altogether and just read it!

Chive & Onion Mashed Potatoes

I love Ore Ida Steam & Mash Potatoes! They are so easy to make, literally just steam the bag, pour into a bowl, and mash them. When I prepare them I usually only add milk and butter, but Jake says they taste too boring. I found a recipe from the Food & Family Magazine for these Chive & Onion Mashed Potatoes.

I prepared the Steam & Mash Potatoes as usual and then mixed in half a tub of Chive & Onion Philidelphia Cream Cheese.

Parco Naturale Dolomiti Friulane

This morning, we headed up to the Dolomite Natural Park, about 45 minutes away. The Dolomites are the mountains in our area that are the very southern edge of the Alps. We planned to hike up a certain trail to see the supposed dinosaur foot print and take lots of beautiful pictures.

When we got there, it was lightly sprinkling, but no big deal. We got a few pictures before heading up the trail.

Jake took the picture too quickly, I was adjusting my sunglasses.
Here's the only picture I got of Jake.

It's Meagan & Bing!
By the time we got about 50 m up the side of the trail, it was pouring! I hadn't thought to check the forecast, but the others told me the chance of rain got greater as the day went on. With the steepness of the trail and how slippery it was, we decided it wasn't such a great day for a hike.

We did get a few really cool pictures on the way home. I think the fogginess makes the photos really neat!

Here you see the sun was really trying to shine through.

Strawberry Daiquiri Pie

I got a recipe from a friend from church, Kathy Matthews, for Lemonade Pie. This recipe calls for frozen lemonade concentrate, but the Commissary on base was completely out of frozen lemonade. They did have other flavors of frozen concentrate, so I figured this recipe would work for any of them. I chose the Strawberry Daiquiri flavor. (non-alcoholic)

Ingredients: (to make 1 pie)
Graham cracker pie shell
6 oz frozen strawberry daiquiri concentrate
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz carton of cool whip (thawed)

The commissary didn't have 6 oz. juice concentrate or 8 oz cartons of cool whip, so I altered the recipe a bit and made 2 pies.

Ingredients: (to make 2 pies)
2 graham cracker pie shells
10 oz frozen strawberry daiquiri concentrate
1 can sweetened condensed milk
12 oz carton of cool whip (thawed)


Directions:
Mix the three ingredients until smooth, pour into pie crust and refridgerate.



I'm kind of sad I'm selling these at the bake sale. They are so light and fruity, perfect for summer!

Checkerboard Sugar Cookies

I got the recipe from the Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade desserts cookbook.

Ingredients:
Sugar Cookie Dough (the recipe calls for refridgerated dough, I just used the mix and prepared the dough as it says on the package)
2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips (I didn't have mini, so regular size works too)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Once you have the sugar cookie dough prepared, split it into three equal portions.
Mix one portion with the cocoa powder. Mix one portion with the chocolate chips. Leave the third portion plain.
Pinch one small ball of each portion together to form a triangle.
Bake for about 10 minutes.

The biggest pizza in Italy!

Last night, Meagan and Bing came over so Meagan and I could bake for the ACES bake sale. Here are SOME of the baked goods. Not even all of them! I'll be posting the recipes for some of my favorites later.We sent Jake and Bing to get pizza. We have never tried Bum Bum Pizza, but it's right up the road, so they decided to check it out. The regular pizza was fairly small, so they decided to get the Maxi. They didn't realize how huge they are until they were handed two huge boxes!

As a bonus, you get to see our horribly outdated flooring!

Spicy Chicken Dip

I love this dip! The original recipe is from the Food & Family Magazine. I used to get so many easy recipes from that magazine, and I haven't started to receive it in Italy yet. I'm starting to get worried that I won't get it at all!

2 10 oz cans of chicken, drained (you could probably use fresh chicken, but the canned stuff shreds so easily!)
3/4 cup hot sauce (I just grabbed the cheapest on the shelf, it was Texas Pete I think)
2 packs cream cheese
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat chicken and hot sauce in a medium saucepan.

Add cream cheese and ranch. Mix in half the cheese.

Scoop into bowl and sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

Serve it hot or cold. I like it with triscuits, but of course it's good with tortilla chips also!