The First Avenger

I'm off to travel the world again this week.  I'll be in a whole other country until Friday.  Before I leave, I wanted to get this review out there for "Captain America: The First Avenger." 

I think Nuke described this best to me when he said that it felt like a prequel to "The Avengers" rather than a super hero movie.  I thought "Captain America" felt more like a war movie than it did a super hero movie.  Overall, it wasn't a bad movie, but it just didn't stand out like "Thor" or "X-Men: First Class". 

From what I know of the original Captain America story, I think this movie follows the story pretty well.  Captain America is played by Chris Evans, and he does a reasonably good job in this role.  The villain is Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving (a.k.a. Smith from "The Matrix", Elrond from LOTR and V from "V for Vendetta").  I really like Hugo, so I did like him as the Red Skull.

"Captain America: The First Avenger" is a 3.5 star movie.  While it's rated PG-13, there is no reason that I can see why an 8-10 year old kid can't watch this one...it's a pretty tame PG-13.  In fact, I'm going to let my son watch it tonight before I mail it back.

I'm Sappy

One of my favorite lines in the Sorcerer's Apprentice is when Dave and Becky are in Dave's lab and Dave goes on this monologue about how listening to Becky's radio show made him stop and see things he'd never seen before.  Then he says "I'm sappy" in a groaning voice.

I have those moments in my life.  I had one of those moments tonight.  Lately I've been on a country music kick, mostly Garth Brooks but some other stuff too.  This brings me to the Garth Brooks song "Standing Outside the Fire" and the following Youtube video:




This video really hit my soft spot.  I don't know if it's because my wife and I have a special needs child and I'm all too familiar with the father's role here (except for the yelling part).  You want your child to succeed and to try the things "normal" kids do, but are afraid of the potential negative consequences.  I'm also familiar with the elation when your child succeeds, like when our son won the spelling bee. 

It could be that...or maybe it's just that I'm a sucker for happy endings.  Whatever the reason, I felt the need to tap into my inner teenage girl and share this video tonight.  I hope you enjoy it.

Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Today I was really excited to watch Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.  Had I known that Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos were going to play terrible and lose 45-10, I would not have been so excited.  But, alas, I was excited so when I made this week's meal plan, I planned a recipe for the crock pot so I could get it going well before the game started.

For the last 2 years, my wife and I have made several attempts at a vegetable beef soup with mixed results.  We made all these soups without recipes.  Some soups have been really good, others have been average at best.  As we all learned from past chili experiences, I'm better off with a recipe.  Today, I think the soup turned out really well, and I actually remember what I did to cook it, so I'm going to document the recipe on this blog so we have it for future reference.  Note that I didn't completely make this up.  I reviewed several recipes online and took themes from them to make this soup, so this is a variation on 5 or 6 different recipes that I looked at.

Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients:
1 - 1.5 lb. stew beef
1 yellow onion, diced
3 large russet potatoes, cubed
32 oz. beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.)
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables (16 oz.)
1 TBSP Italian Seasoning
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Black Pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Heat Olive Oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add stew beef and cook until brown.
2. Add diced yellow onion to the skillet and cook until onions appear translucent. 
3. Combine beef and onions with the remaining ingredients in a crock pot.  Cook on high for 2 hours then on low for approximately 4 hours.  Stir once per hour.

This soup turns out to be very hearty.  It has the typical beef soup flavor with an Italian flair to it due to the tomatoes and Italian seasoning.  The black pepper brings a little heat, but not in an overwhelming way.

I loved this soup, and my oldest son liked it a lot too.  My wife gave it 3 out of 5 stars, but I learned for the first time in our wedded life that she's not a big fan of stewed tomatoes, which would be a problem since that's essentially what happens with the diced tomatoes. 

I will be adding this one to our rotation, especially if the Broncos ever get better.