Last Thursday night was, in one word, EPIC. A few months before I got a text from a friend asking us if we wanted to go to the midnight premiere of Batman with her and her husband. Um...Yes! So we bought super advanced tickets to the 12:01am IMAX showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The weeks went by, and we forgot completely about it. Then we flipped the calendar to July and there it was, written in BIG letters - BATMAN. It felt like finding a $20 bill crumbled up in a ball in the bottom of your purse that you didn't even know was missing. We were so excited and could hardly wait 19 more days until we could finally cash in those movie tickets. Brad even asked off work for the next day so he could sleep in after our big night (that turned out to be a huge blessing for him since we didn't get home until about 3:30am...but our poor friend Amanda had to be a work super early the next morning.)
The day finally arrived. Amanda and Adam come over around 6:30, and we were off! They were so incredibly sweet and took us to Buffalo Wild Wings. I'm a little (ok, a lot) embarrassed to say that we ordered 50 wings and between the 4 of us there were probably about 5 left over. And to make it worse they had calorie counts on their menu. Who does that?! Oh well, it was delicious! We then made our way to the theater, because A and A still had to print out their tickets. We then decided what the heck, we're here we'll just go ahead and wait in line! We were the second or third group in line, which meant we got great seats once we finally got in the theater. Amanda and I decided we needed to swing by the Target and get some candy, so we left the boys with camp chairs to save our place in line. Once we got to Target we got distracted not only by the swim suits but also by the rows and rows of clearance items. What the boys assumed would be a quick trip across the street turned into a 30 minute shopping experience.
When we got back we just hung out, laughed, joked, and took lots of pictures. As the night went on more and more people showed up, and I really enjoyed people watching. The news was even there! But they were interviewing more colorful characters than we.
There are so many things I love about this picture. First of all, and probably my most favorite aspect, Spiderman is in the background. After we realized this we could not stop laughing! Brad and I were part of a small group of Batman goers who weren't dressed up. We were asked by a few people why we were dressed in normal clothes, and Brad wittily replied that we were ordinary victims of Gotham.
Around 9:30 or 10 we were allowed to go into the theater, pick our seats, and wait for another 2 hours until the movie started. It was so nice to get out of the heat and humidity. In order to entertain us while we waited we were graced by every super hero ever thought up. Amanda lovingly referred to it as "the nerds unite".
We had a great time, and we're so glad A and A invited us to go with them. We loved the movie, and if you haven't seen it yet GO! I would suggest watching the other movies marathon style before seeing this one though. That was one thing we wished we had done. It's hard to remember all the details of the other movies when you haven't seen them in so long. And for those of you who know me, you know I am by means a movie critic, and I usually like everything I see. But it seems like everyone in the whole world likes this movie, so at least just this once you can trust my opinion on movies.
I love pinterest. (Follow me HERE.) I especially love perusing the recipes. I've found some really good recipes, and I've found some really bad ones. Like so bad that after-one-bite-we've-had-to-toss-the-rest-of-the-meal-out-bad. And others that after a little tweaking have turned out much better than the first time I made them. But all-in-all I've benefited greatly from pinterest recipes. And I've definitely added to my stash of awesome meals. Last night I made one of our more regular tweaked pinterest recipes.
Crispy Chicken with Creamy Italian Sauce and Bowtie Pasta
what you need:
3 large chicken breasts
5 cups Panko Japanese bread crumbs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
6 Tablespoons olive oil
1 12oz. package bowtie noodles
1/2 container Philadelphia Cooking Cream (Italian Cheese and Herb flavor)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup chicken brother
1/4 cup milk
fresh parsley, chopped
what you do:
1. Add the 1/2 teaspoon salt to the 3/4 cup flour. Stir to combine.
2. Place the panko and the milk in separate bowls. (So you should have 3 bowls of stuff.)
3. Place your chicken breasts in a gallon sized ziploc bag and seal the top. Pound the chicken flat with a meat mallet (or whatever you have handy).
4. Slice the pounded breasts into strips.
5. Dredge the chicken in the flour, making sure to cover both sides. Throw in the freezer for about 5 minutes.
6. Start cooking your pasta.
7. Remove chicken from the freezer and dredge each piece in the milk and then immediately into the panko, making sure to cover both sides.
8. Lay each piece in a skillet coated with olive oil. Sprinkle with pepper.
9. Cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes or until the undersides are golden brown.
10. Turn the pieces over. (If you're pan is dry just add a little more olive oil and swirl it around the wet the whole pan.) Cover and cook for another few minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
11. Once the chicken is done place it on a plate and cover with tin foil (or let it sit in your microwave...just do something to keep it warm).
12. Into the same pan pour the broth, cooking cream, cream of chicken, and milk. Whisk the sauce around and let it get warm and bubbly.
If you've never used this stuff before, it's great! We love it. You can find it by the cream cheese in your grocery store.
13. Serve the chicken over the cooked pasta and sauce. Garnish with parsley.
Happy eating,
Courtney
Crispy Chicken with Creamy Italian Sauce and Bowtie Pasta
3 large chicken breasts
5 cups Panko Japanese bread crumbs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
6 Tablespoons olive oil
1 12oz. package bowtie noodles
1/2 container Philadelphia Cooking Cream (Italian Cheese and Herb flavor)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup chicken brother
1/4 cup milk
fresh parsley, chopped
1. Add the 1/2 teaspoon salt to the 3/4 cup flour. Stir to combine.
2. Place the panko and the milk in separate bowls. (So you should have 3 bowls of stuff.)
3. Place your chicken breasts in a gallon sized ziploc bag and seal the
top. Pound the chicken flat with a meat mallet (or whatever you have
handy).
4. Slice the pounded breasts into strips.
5. Dredge the chicken in the flour, making sure to cover both sides. Throw in the freezer for about 5 minutes.
6. Start cooking your pasta.
7. Remove chicken from the freezer
and dredge each piece in the milk and then immediately into the panko,
making sure to cover both sides.
8. Lay each piece in a skillet coated with olive oil. Sprinkle with pepper.
9. Cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes or until the undersides are golden brown.
10.
Turn the pieces over. (If you're pan is dry just add a little more
olive oil and swirl it around the wet the whole pan.) Cover and cook for
another few minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
11. Once
the chicken is done place it on a plate and cover with tin foil (or let
it sit in your microwave...just do something to keep it warm).
12.
Into the same pan pour the broth, cooking cream, cream of chicken, and
milk. Whisk the sauce around and let it get warm and bubbly.
13. Serve the chicken over the cooked pasta and sauce. Garnish with parsley.
Have you seen that Geico commercial about the opossum? No? Well you're in luck here it is.
I love this commercial. I seriously can't stop laughing after every time I see it. "He's probably just playing dead...Yup. There he is."
Last night around 11pm I forced Killer outside once more before bedtime. We've been having some trouble with her peeing inside - a completely different issue. But in order to get a better grip on it I take her out right before I get in bed, and most of the time that means me waking her up, which she's never happy about.
We have some pine straw out by our back fence that she likes to go in. As she's sniffing around looking for a good place to pee, she all of a sudden gets a shark fin. I have yet to capture this response on film. She does it whenever she gets scared. She raises all the fur along her spine, and it looks just like a shark fin (or a mohawk), hence the name.
She then commences to bark with a low growl (her usual scared bark). She's not exactly sure what she sees so she tries to check it out but is still quite scared so she keeps a good distance. At first I thought she saw a snake, because our home inspector saw a snake in that area back in May. I was so proud of her because we've been trying desperately to teach her to be afraid of snakes. So I ran over to get her (I didn't want the snake to strike at her). I bend down to pick her up and happen to be looking right in the eyes of an opossum hiding behind our tree.
I scoop up the K-pup and rush inside. I tell Brad, "Oh hey. There's an opossum in our yard." He says, "What?!" Having spent half my life on a farm in North Carolina I've seen everything from skunks to coyotes on the front porch, but Brad was pretty excited to see a LIVE opossum up close and not just driving by a smashed one on the road.
Knowing how unfriendly they can be, I suggested we take Killer out to the front yard to pee (since the opossum distracted her from her duties) and leave the little critter alone. But Brad didn't "want it to have babies in our backyard", so he set out to expel it.
He walked up to the tree as I'm coaching him not to get too close all the while reminding him of how large a rabies shot needle would be. He saw it and said, "Ohhh...It's kinda cute." "Don't let it deceive you," I say, "it's mean."
The poor thing was pretty scared itself. I don't know how it got in our backyard. I suppose it climbed that tree and up over of 7 foot fence.
Brad grabbed a rake that was out on our back porch and opened the gate. The closer he gets to it the more it hisses. He proceeds to prod it with the rake. Mr. (or Mrs.) Opossum does not want to move, and in retaliation digs it's claws into the ground and refuses to move. It was quite the sight. The opossum holding on tight, and Brad almost turning it over on its side from pushing it so hard. "Come on you stupid thing, just leave." Go back to your home! (Anyone??)
This is pretty blurry, but here's a close-up from the above picture of the opossum. Its mouth is open, and it's hissing.
Well, the opossum finally gives up and nonchalantly walks along the fence and out the gate. Brad then chases it out onto the street, rake in hand. He claims he didn't want it to be close enough just to climb back into our yard, but I'm pretty sure he just needed a victory lap. The opossum ran down the street and into a neighbor's yard (sorry neighbor).
We close the gate and bring Killer back out so that she can finally pee before bed. She had to sniff all over the backyard, making sure the opossum was gone. At the time she seemed to be on the hunt, perhaps wanting to catch it after building up her confidence waiting inside. But all day today she has been so apprehensive to go out into the yard. She just stands on the edge of the deck sniffing the air. I'm pretty sure she's nervous she'll find another intruder.
Honestly I'm glad she got so scared of the opossum. If she had decided to try and expel it herself, she would have been picking a losing fight.
And just because our little scaredy-cat is so cute right now, here's a picture for you. Half asleep but making sure no one's going to take her new duck.
