Casablanca at Cinebistro

I've never seen Casablanca.  Well, hadn't until this Thursday night.  Is that weird?  I know it's a classic, I've heard all the cliches, I knew the general story, I knew the songs, but hadn't seen the movie.

*hangs head in shame*

So when Cinebistro posted this on Facebook...

...I jumped at the chance to get tickets!  We love this theater - I don't think we've seen a movie anywhere else since the first time we went to Cinebistro.  

It just feels cozy and adult - it's 21 and over so there are no kids emo teenagers cutting the line, cussing, and generally making me feel old while standing in line to see the latest movie in the Twilight Saga.

They play old movies and TV shows in black and white behind the bar - they don't need a stinking screen, they just use the stone wall as the backdrop:

The best part is combining your dinner with seeing a movie.  It takes away the drama of figuring out how much earlier than your movie time you go to dinner factoring traffic and crowds, or having to starve yourself through the movie to eat after without any time constraints.  This way, you show up 30 minutes before your movie time and order your meal in the theater from your comfy leather seat and dinner tray!

This might be weird if fishy smells bother you because your neighbor might be eating salmon, or the noise of forks or glasses clinking might take your attention away from the previews or movie.  But the noise isn't really bad - and most people are finished eating by the time the previews are over.  My favorite dish is the Alfredo with chicken, and the deconstructed peanut butter pie is so yummy!

As for the movie, I LOVED it!  At first I wanted to scream out [SPOILER ALERT] "She cheated on her freaking husband while he was in a concentration camp?"  But then I learned more, and gave her a pass.  

Here's the whole movie smashed into 4 minutes:

In the end, Rick made an impossible decision and I admire him for the choice he made.  Not many people look beyond themselves and their feelings to do what's best.  Great flick.

Next up at Cinebistro?  Hopefully Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter!

Question:  Should I read the book first?  I downloaded it, but haven't started it.

Perfect Easter treat!

I was in charge of bread and plates/napkins this year for our annual Easter dinner at the Colleluores' house.  I also wanted to bring something that took a little effort and/or skill, so I naturally trolled Pinterest for ideas for a quick snack or appetizer.

I found something close to the Rolo turtles I made in December, only these have some pastel goodness perfect for Easter :)  And they're versatile, so you could make them using any other holiday M&M's deemed worthy enough for specialty-colored candies.  You could also use the ultra-expensive colored M&M's they have in every color at Party City to make this match any party decor, right?

via

And the easy peasy instructions:

• Place a chocolate hug in the center of each pretzel - I used pretzel snaps because they have more surface area and don't allow the chocolate to melt all over the place
• Bake at 275 for 2-3 minutes or until chocolate is softened
• Remove from the oven and place a candy (logo side down unless you want them to be a commercial) on each, pressing down gently
• Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes or until chocolate is firm
• Store at room temperature

I made at least 75 of these, and they were gone within minutes!  So good!  The sweet and salty combo is so tasty!

Blue Ridge pesto bread

On our trek to Farm 2 Family yesterday, we picked up some Wade's Mill Blue Ridge pesto beer bread mix.  Sometimes Dave finds something and hands it to me  quietly as if to say "Please make me this!"  This was one of those times.

So I paired it with my favorite beer...

...and baked it to eat with our Sunday spaghetti dinner!..

Bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed

For Christmas, my sister-in-law, Amey, got me 2 bars of soap from a local company called Rural Revolution.  They have scented Hog Wash soaps that come in the cutest country packaging - she got us What's Shakin' Bacon and Hanover Tomato and they smell fabulous!

Since then, I've been following Rural Revolution on Facebook hoping I could get my hands on some more soaps - sure I could order some from their Etsy shop, but since they're from Hanover I knew they'd eventually have soaps in some local shops that I could smell beforehand.  All of the scents sound lovely but soaps and candles are questionable if you haven't smelled them first-hand, am I right?

Adding to my suspense was a new product they developed called Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed Eye Serum for laugh lines, dark circles, and puffiness.  Lately I've had some dark circles going on because I've been staying up too late either doing schoolwork, wasting time on Facebook/Pinterest, or just vegging in front of the tv...so I wanted to try this serum.

Yesterday Dave and I tracked down place that carries both the soaps and serum - Farm 2 Family - the market that has a bus that parks in a random place in the Fan every day selling their vegetables.  They came to Capital One once during a buy local event  and gave me shit about using my debit card to buy a $4 onion, but I forgave them for the day :)

Looks like a crappy day but it was beautiful outside!  We didn't buy any vegetables because the selection was pretty limited in the store (I'll stick to Berry's Produce), but it was hard to resist this MONSTER asparagus!

The phone is in there just for scale - holy crap these things were enormous!!

They had a pretty awesome DIY jewelry display that I might copy - I've seen similar things on Pinterest and love them!

We picked up 2 new soaps - True Grit (almond) and Berries 'n Cream - and I found the serum!  How cute is this little bottle!?

Can't wait to try it!  It smells really good and is all natural - the only ingredients are natural oils.  Here are the benefits of each, from their site:

• Grape Seed Oil: full of antioxidants that fight aging, loaded with fatty acids which help with the production of healthy cells
• Carrot Seed Oil: removes toxins and water build-up, creates firmer skin
• Pomegranate Seed Oil: high in lipids, it helps reduce puffiness and swelling, highly effective when treating eczema
• Cranberry Seed Oil: contains vitamin E which is highly moisturizing and helps with under eye circles, contains vitamin A which helps with acne and dry skin
• Lavender Essence Oil: calming scent

The soaps are in use already - the strawberry one smells so good!!

Full of strawberry seeds! <3

We also picked up a bread mix that I'll share later :)

License, registration, and coupons please.

The other day I was trolling Pinterest <-surprise, surprise, and I came across this pin:

Source: elementaryorganization.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

I've had a bulky, boyish trifold organizer in my glove compartment for a while now, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I got pulled over a few weeks ago and struggled to get my registration and insurance card out of the stupid pockets:

It looks functional, but the inside of each pocket is a cheaper vinyl fabric that gets sticky in the heat,  so the documents stick to it and I almost ripped them both when pulling them out to hand to the cop.  That would have been embarrassing :)

So the accordion file pin caught my eye!  It's cheap, easy, and a great way to keep everything organized and at your fingertips when you're stressed out and being stared down by a police officer.  Haha.

I picked up a black file from the Dollar Spot at Target for, you guessed it, $1!  I decided what documents I would store in there (why would she keep her sale paperwork, which contains her SSN, address, and DOB in her glove box?) and used the same method from this S&TC2 invite project to make a legend for my file, with the numbers corresponding to a tab in the file:

In the tool section, I fit a flashlight, pen, and tire gauge.  They fit and don't even make it bulky!  Score!  The whole thing is about 1.5 inches wide at the bottom even with those tools.

Easy Peasy.  Next victim was my coupon organizer:

I got this beauty at Target as well, and have been using it for a few months.  I wanted to use it for a while before making any changes to it so I knew which categories I needed.  I didn't want to make a slot for frequent shopper cards if I felt like it was better to keep them somewhere else.  

Here's where I landed:

I love this binder because it came with a notepad!  I can write down what coupons I have, and note the expiration dates so nothing hides in there and goes to waste!  NERD.

So those were two little projects for today.  What to organize next?