Kyle and I escaped to Nashville on Saturday. We always love going there, especially in the fall. Our October calendar is looking busy, so we decided to go a little early. We went there for part of our honeymoon, and it's just sort of our place. We love walking around and looking at the little shops, although we never buy much of anything. But, we always struggle finding a place to eat. On Saturday, though, we discovered the Big Woods Brewing Company.
Big Woods Brewing Company, 60 Molly Lane
I was starving by the time we got lunch, so I would have eaten anything at this point. The menu had sandwiches and pizza, and several vegetarian options. It all looked good!
Kyle chose a salad and a grilled buffalo chicken sandwich. I went out on a limb and tried the mini black bean burgers with an avocado dressing. The food was fantastic! It was fresh and some of it was local, which is always a plus.
Kyle's (small) side salad with local Tootie Frootie dressing
Kyle's sandwich
My black bean burger (I even ate the little pieces of corn!)
I hope I can find a way to make my own black bean burgers. To drink, Kyle had the Possum Trot Pale Ale. He said it was great; I didn't like it, though.
My diet coke and Kyle's beer
We finally found a restaurant that we love and will definitely go back the next time we are in Brown County. I can't wait to try the pizza next time!
Friday, the 12th, was Kyle's birthday. He took a vacation day and we spent the day shopping in Indy. Then, we headed to Fishers, to our friends' home. The four of us had planned on going to the Def Leppard/Heart concert for awhile. No, not for Def Leppard or Heart, though!
One of Kyle's good friends, Evan Watson, got a gig opening for Def Leppard this summer. He has a band, but he's touring solo this summer. Here's a link to his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/evanwatsonmusic. I got two pictures of Evan before my camera died (I hadn't charged it since vacation!):
We met up with Evan afterward, and he took us backstage. We got to shake hands with Rick Allen, Def Leppard's drummer! It was a great evening and so exciting to see one of Kyle's friends on the big stage!
I finally got to give Kyle his presents, too. He's been wanting movie posters for his future movie room. Since real movie posters are way too expensive, I've been searching Etsy for something more reasonable. So many artists make these fantastic movie/television posters. I had trouble picking a few out because there's so many. I finally settled on this shop: http://www.etsy.com/people/TheArtOfAdamJuresko?ref=ls_profile. I chose three posters, all three ended up being television shows, not movies, though. Here are the three I chose:
Buffy, the show we're currently watching
Freaks and Geeks, one of our favorite shows
Twin Peaks, Kyle's favorite show
These posters look amazing and I like the fact that they are unique and hand-made. Plus they will look awesome in our future house!
A couple of weeks back I wrote about my New Year's resolution: to watch 100 movies in 2011 that I had never seen prior to this year. When you set out to watch 100 new movies in one year, there are bound to be some duds. Here are some movies that I watched this year that didn't really do anything for me.
5. Black Christmas (1974)
I have a love/hate relationship with horror movies. The horror movies I love (Halloween, The Fog, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream, to name a few) are among my absolute favorite movies. However, when I watch a horror movie that I end up not liking, I generally hate it. That was my experience with Black Christmas. Directed by Bob Clark (who, oddly enough, directed the beloved, decidedly non-horror A Christmas Story), Black Christmas is considered by some to be a genre classic and is thought to have been a major influence on Halloween and the "slasher" films that followed. I really didn't like it at all. It's not so much scary as completely unpleasant. It's an important film so I'm glad I watched it once, but I don't think I'd ever watch it again.
4. Insidious (2011)
Insidious is an exception to my typical love/hate horror movie experience. I certainly didn't hate it. In fact, the first 3/4 of the film is actually genuinely scary and pretty fun. However, in the last 1/4 of the movie, Insidious flies completely off the rails. The last half hour is so laughably terrible that it retroactively ruined my enjoyment of the earlier portions. If you ever watch it, turn it off around the time that the dad starts to, like, enter another dimension or something. You'll be glad you did.
This dude is coming to ruin the end of your movie.
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
In late 2010, Erin and I started watching the acclaimed television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We got the first season from the library, and then we just ended up buying the whole series. We've torn through five seasons so far, and we are a few episodes into the sixth season. The show is wonderful. It's funny and scary and exciting and sad, oftentimes within the same episode. The movie, however, is none of these things. It's terrible. Paul Reubens is pretty great as a one-armed vampire, but that's about all this one has going for it. Skip the movie and go straight to the series.
Not even a one-armed Paul Reubens can save this one.
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
I love Steven Spielberg. I love E.T. I love Jaws. I really like Close Encounters and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I love some of the films he's produced, like Gremlins, Back to the Future, and Super 8. But the fourth Indiana Jones installment is really, really terrible. The story is absurd, and the ending is insane. And it's not Harrison Ford's fault that he's gotten older, but Spielberg has to use CGI to make Indiana Jones jump. It's pretty embarassing.
1. Teen Wolf (1985)
People think they like Teen Wolf. The premise is amusing, and everyone loves Michael J. Fox. But if you actually sit down and watch Teen Wolf, you will realize that it is truly a bad movie. For one thing, it may be the slightest movie I've ever seen; I think it was about forty-five minutes long. Secondly, I assumed that there was a scene near the beginning of the film in which Michael J. Fox is bitten by a werewolf. However, this never happens. He just starts turning into a werewolf, and then his father explains that it's a family curse or something, and that the father is also a werewolf. Michael J. Fox's friend "Stiles" wears a t-shirt that says "What are you looking at dicknose" (which is, admittedly, sort of awesome), but the sentence, which is clearly a question, does not have a question mark at the end, which drove me crazy. Michael J. Fox's nemesis (who, oddly enough, looks more like a wolfman than Michael J. Fox dressed as a wolfman) is allowed to stand under the hoop when Michael J. Fox shoots technical foul free throws, which would never be allowed. What a terrible movie. There is, however, one big laugh, which I've included below. I should've tried this tactic in high school.
I tried a chocolate zucchini bread recipe a few weeks ago that I wasn't too impressed with. The loaf stuck to the pan (even though it was greased). A friend made this version a couple of years ago, and I decided to give it a try. We still have zucchini by the way...
Here's the recipe:
Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cake
1/2 C margarine
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C buttermilk
2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 Tbsp cocoa
2 C shredded zucchini
1 C chocolate chips
1 C nuts (I used English walnuts)
Cream margarine, oil, and sugar.
Mix in eggs, buttermilk, flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and cocoa. Mix in zucchini. Pour into greased and floured 9 X 13 pan.
Bake at 325-350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 C chocolate chips and 1 C nuts while still warm.
I thought it was better the day after I baked it. It's so moist and delicious! I've been eating it for breakfast (it does have vegetables in it, after all!). I still think Kristy and Lou make this recipe better than I do, maybe they have a secret ingredient? Anyways, thanks to the West's for sharing!
We've been bad bloggers this week. But, we've been soooooooo busy: three softball games, house shopping, and trying to keep up with the garden. My garden and my kitchen are overflowing with zucchini and tomatoes. I love this Everyday Food recipe: No-Bake Summer Lasagna. Lasagna without the baking! Plus it uses zucchini, tomatoes, and basil: all in my garden.
I made it once last summer and we had it a few weeks ago. I think it's a little hard to cut and eat. So, tonight I decided to make it with linguine noodles.
It was delicious and easier to eat. I should have quartered the tomatoes, though. I actually ate them tonight, too. I've never liked tomatoes, but these were pretty decent (maybe it was the olive oil, ricotta, and parm on top!).
