Fun Thanksgiving-related video

My dad showed me this early this morning and I figured I'd share this with you guys.  I find it pretty darn true!  And quite funny, too.

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

  It's that time of year again and we all know what that means--food, food, family, and more food!  I love that it's starting to get colder and the holidays are coming up.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two favorites.  For Thanksgiving this year, I'm thankful for quite a few things:

1) My wonderful companion animal, Crockett

Crockett relaxing on the couch with
me as soon as I took a break from
cooking

2) My absolutely wonderful boyfriend

3) My fabulous family and friends

4) Having the opportunity to attend Texas A&M University

5) The loft that my boyfriend and I share

6) Health and security

   Both last year and this year, I was able to prepare an all vegan Thanksgiving dinner for my family.  This year's dinner included Gardein's Holiday Roast, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, corn, kale and navy beans, as well as 2 types of pie for dessert--chocolate and pumpkin.  I absolutely love being able to cook vegan food for my family and that they're so supportive of having an all-vegan Thanksgiving, especially since I'm the only one in my family who doesn't eat meat.

  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Enjoy your day and keep track of all of the wonderful things you have going for you.

Movie: Listen Up, Philip

  This weekend my boyfriend and I decided to enjoy a relaxing evening at home, complete with a homemade dinner and a movie.  It always takes us a while to decide on what we're going to watch, but eventually we picked Listen Up, Philip.

   I had been wanting to watch this movie for a while, both because I really like Jason Schwartzman and also because I thought the trailer looked interesting (which you can take a peek at here).  I knew this was going to be out in select theaters, but unfortunately College Station was not going to be one of them.  I figured I'd probably just have to wait until we went to visit Austin or another larger city before we were able to watch it.  But good news came when Schwartzman was on Sirius XMU Total Control.  He had mentioned that it would also be available on-demand.  So, of course my boyfriend and I rented it from Amazon.

  Upon starting the movie, I had high hopes for it.  I mean, I wasn't familiar with anything the director had done previously, but with Elizabeth Moss and Johnathan Pryce in it, I figured it'd be worth the $6.99.  Unfortunately, this was not so.

  The movie starts out like a typical melancholy film, but rather than take the audience on a roller coaster of a ride, it just stays that way.  For the entire movie.  Okay, sure, there are a few interesting parts, but for the majority of the movie it just wasn't innovative or enjoyable enough.  The actors gave a good performance, but the script just wasn't supportive of their capability.  The writing was sub-par throughout the duration of the film.

  It's one thing if you're Wes Anderson and have this style of movie (because he can pull it off), but Alex Ross Perry is not quite as good as Anderson at that style of film.  Perry has the cast he would need if he were to execute a film like this, but just can't seem to do it.  Maybe you'll have better luck next time.

Happy World Vegan Day!

  Let's celebrate with some vegan mac 'n' "cheese"!

  Now, who doesn't love mac 'n' cheese?  I mean, really.  People of all ages love it and it's a great go-to food.  Since it's starting to get a bit colder here, it's also a nice homey meal to make and eat together with your friends and family.

  I've used several recipes, some with different flavoring options (such as a roasted red pepper mac from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's newest cookbook, Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Recipes for Every Day of the Week) but you can never go wrong with some straight-up, plain and simple mac 'n' cheese.  The recipe I based my own off of can be found on Detoxinista's website here.  I make a few adjustments which are:

• add about 1 tsp. of margarine (Earth Balance is a great brand)

• replace 2/4th's of the water with vegetable broth

• add a few dashes of black pepper

• use 4-6 oz. more pasta, depending on how "saucy" you like your mac

  Both my boyfriend and I love this recipe and is definitely our go-to for when we both just really feel like having a quick but delicious meal for dinner.  The texture is great; just make sure to blend it for a long enough duration in your food processor.  I feel like the margarine helps add a bit more of the "creaminess" I remember in my mom's mac 'n' cheese, the vegetable broth and pepper give it a bit more flavor, and the additional pasta helps to make it not seem "soup-like."  Give it a try and let me know what you think!