Cloudy with a Chance of Bizarre
Spaghetti with No Chance of Meatballs!
Since it was a school holiday thanks to Yom Kippur, I took the girls to see the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” I’ve always loved the magical, mysterious, QUIET book that the movie was based upon. I can now report that the movie bore little resemblance to the book, except for the food falling from the sky. Someone took the original book, gave it a sugar high, infected it with a case of ADHD, and set it loose in the theater. When you walk out of the theater, you may feel as though you are having a sugar crash as I did.
This was truly one of the more bizarre movies I’ve seen in a very long time. The last kids’ movie I saw that was this weird was “Barnyard” where the lead male cow walked around with a huge set of udders. The last adult movie that this reminded me of was “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” which some of you may not remember since it was a very long time ago. In one especially freaky scene from that movie, the cooked chicken on the dinner plate gets up and dances. In “Cloudy”, the hero, if you can call him that, enters the monstrous food cloud he created and meets giant Thanksgiving turkeys that come alive and begin to attack. I told you, weird.
The girls liked the movie and I have to agree it became funnier as it progressed. When all food breaks loose at the end, the art was similar to the book, even while being more colorful, frenetic and bizarre.
Were there lessons to be learned here? I suppose there are if you’re the kind of person that likes to walk out of movie feeling enlightened. The town of Swallow Falls gives you more than enough to chew and swallow. Let’s see, there’s the time honored lesson of “be careful what you wish for” since Swallow Falls goes from subsisting on sardines, to being clobbered by steaks and meatballs, and swept up in a spaghetti tornado. There’s also the lesson for parents to pay more attention to your children so they don’t go to extremes for your attention. Let’s not forget the old familiar lesson of “listening to your inner voice” which the hero would have done well to heed. Or, finally, eating extremes are never good. Living on one type of food, such as sardines isn’t good, but neither is looking for so much variety and quantity you become so fat, sick, and overwhelmed you need to escape your world.
But really, this movie wasn’t made for the lessons, they were just the icing on the cake. It’s all about the bizarre situations, outlandish animation, and silly laughs.
Just a Gallon of Milk
Oops!
My errands this morning took me past Trader Joe’s, a store I hadn’t visited in about six months. Since I needed to buy a gallon of milk, I decided to drop in there to pick up a few staples and see what was new. Oops, $58 later I came out with three bags of groceries. So how does this happen every time I go to Trader Joe’s? Well, it’s a mix of my favorite staples in that store, combined with temptation. I was especially hungry when I dropped in today.
1 gallon of milk – $2.99
3 pounds of imported Italian pasta – at 99 cents per pound, it’s a bargain
2 packages of gyoza – another deal – especially since they’re as good as you’ll find in a local Chinese restaurant
1 large boxes of oat O’s – at $1.99 you can’t pass them up
3 boxes of cereal bars – $1.69 apiece, you can’t find them cheaper anywhere else and they’re a quick on-the-go breakfast for Joe, who would otherwise eat nothing in the morning
Blueberry flax seed – $3.69, healthy and tasty, for flax seed anyway
4 mini cheese pizzas – $4.59, an easy lunch that Annie or Louisa can fix for themselves on the weekend
Evening Primrose Oil – $5.99, the most expensive purchase, but it’s worth it, at least for women of a certain age if you want to stay sane naturally
Package of Mini Babybel Cheeses – $2.99, a great snack or lunch addition for the girls
And now, for the temptation…
Lime chile mixed nuts – $3.99, a healthy snack, right?
Jelly Beans – $1.99, I owed some to Louisa since I allowed Annie to eat her share a few weeks ago
2 Boxes Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – $2.29 for six servings each, and they’re organic too
Chocolate Mint Altoids – $2.29, for when Annie raids my desk looking for mints
Crispy Apple Clusters – $2.29, recently learned that apples are Annie’s favorite fruit on their own and in desserts
Bag of Yogurt Covered Pretzels – $3.29, no good reason, except they’re good
Mini Chocolate Hazlenut Biscotti – $3.99, well I need something to go with my coffee, don’t I?
And this is why my Trader Joe’s visits are limited to 2 or 3 times a year. And the next time I’ll make sure I’m not hungry when I visit.
Never Judge a Dish By Its Appearance
Just not as good as it looks.
Food styling is an amazing thing. It takes an ordinary tasting dish and makes it look drool worthy. The recipe pictured above looks pretty good, doesn’t it? In fact, Joe thought it looked so good that he made me take this photo of it before digging in. Unfortunately, as we started to eat, there were no happy sounds coming from anyone’s mouth. The recipe also looked good in the magazine where I found it. I’ll bet their recipe tasted just as bland. The problem is that this was a quick cook type of recipe, and it didn’t have enough time to absorb any love or flavors.
I’ve always tried to teach this lesson to the girls when they see food on tv thats looks so unbelievably good to them that they want to go to that restaurant RIGHT NOW. Maybe last night’s dinner proved that I’m not a liar when I counsel them to be suspicious of commercials. Then again, did you ever believe your parent’s lessons? Didn’t think so.