The Best of 2011

Here we are at the end of 2011, so I thought I'd list off some of the best things that happened in 2011.

Best Movie of 2011 - "Super 8", by a hair over "Thor".  "Super 8" is just a classically great movie.  Everybody I've talked to has liked it, but I only talk to people with like opinions because I can't handle conflict.

Best New Recipe of 2011 - This was a close one, but in the end, I have to pick my BBQ Chicken recipe.  It was so good...so very good.

Best Sporting Moment of 2011 - I'll have to give this one to my South Dakota State Jackrabbits Men's Basketball team, upsetting the University of Washington a few weeks back.  It was a big win for the Jackrabbits, and in blow out fashion.

Best Family Sporting Moment of 2011 - This one goes to my 11 year old, who had his first bowling game over 100 earlier this year. 

Best Individual Sporting Moment of 2011 - This may not count as individual, but it would have to be my golf trip with my friend Stanton to Cragun's Resort in Brainerd, MN.  Such a fun trip.

Best Blog of 2011 - Nuke's Retro Movie Review was top notch.  He had me going until I got to "Highlander 2".

Best Purchase of 2011 - This would have to be my new smoker.  I've had so much fun smoking various meat products.  There's just something manly about smoked meat.

Best Tebow Moment of 2011 - The comeback win over the Bears was insane...INSANE!!!

Best Faith Growing Experience - The 15th Annual Catholic Men's Conference was an awesome day.  This is always one of the best days of the year. 

Best New TV Show of 2011 - "Person of Interest" on CBS is the best...the best I tell you!  Of course, it has Jim Caviezel in it, so how can it not be great?  Caviezel is like Denzel, everything he touches turns awesome.

Best New Cartoon of 2011 - This would have to be "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness".  I love "Kung Fu Panda".

Best "Phineas and Ferb" Episode of 2011 - "My Fair Goalie" may be my favorite Phineas and Ferb episode of all time.  It's available on Netflix Instant Watch if you want to see it.  Not only do we learn about the Emu Curse, but we also get to listen to "Nostrils on the Bus".

Best Book of 2011 - It's tough for me because I read 2 Rick Riordan books this year, but I'm gonna give this one to Inheritance, which is the final book in the Eragon series started so long ago.  This was Paolini's best written book of the series and captured me the way Eragon captured me.

Best Golf Shot of 2011 - This would be the drive I hit on #4 at my club on an unseasonably warm day in October while playing golf with my friend Joe.  I drove the green on the 288 yard hole, sticking the ball about 6 feet from the hole, then I made the eagle putt.

Best Trip of 2011 - I'll go with our family trip to Madison, WI.  We stayed at a hotel with a water park, had a positive zoo experience and ate some good BBQ.

Best Work Trip of 2011 - Though I went to Brazil twice this year, and Maryland and South Dakota for work, my best trip was Germany, way back in January. 

Best Gift of 2011 - I got a new Food Processor for Christmas.  I love to process food!

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie of 2011 - This would be the cookie I had yesterday at the Prairie Soup Company.  It may be the best Chocolate Chip Cookie ever!!!

Best Dip of 2011 - We had a dip day at work.  This is a day when everybody brings a dip (salsa, cheese, etc.) in and then we vote for the best dip.  The winning dip was a desert dip that was like a pumpkin gingerbread dip...it was so yummy.

Best Commercial of 2011 - The Jonah Hill Modern Warfare 3 commercial cracks me up every time I see it.

Lazy Day Movie Reviews

Yesterday afternoon/evening was a lazy day for me.  The family was in South Dakota, so I was batchin' it.  So, other than making Buffalo Wings, I decided to just chill out and watch movies.  I watched 3 yesterday.

"The Captains:  A Film By William Shatner":  Nuke already rated this one, and I agree with his rating of 3 stars.  I had virtually no expectations of this Shatner directed film.  Basically, Shatner goes around and talks to each of the Star Trek Captains about being a Star Trek Captain, including Chris Pine (though he doesn't talk to Pine very much).  It's a little weird, but once you realize that this is Shatner's attempt to justify the fact that he will forever be known as Captain James T. Kirk and justify his place in Star Trek history, it's sort of a fun ride.

A couple other observations from this.  Avery Brooks, who played Capt. Benjamin Sisko is a weird dude.  Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula are the most down to earth of these actors, and both seem the most comfortable in their own skin.  Finally, for being 80 years old, Shatner isn't doing too bad.

"Memphis Belle":  How is it possible that I had never seen "Memphis Belle"?  That was the question I was left asking myself after watching this 4 star movie for the first time yesterday. 

Made in 1990, this film is loosely based on the actual Memphis Belle, a B-17 that flew during WWII that is believed to be the first bomber to successfully complete 25 missions.  The movie focuses on the crew of the Memphis Belle as they prepare for, then execute their final mission.  The story weaves between the battle and the relationships of the crew members, who don't all get along, but somehow band together when most needed to complete the mission.

If you like WWII movies, this one will be right up your alley.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Narnia:  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader":  The 3rd movie in "The Chronicles of Narnia" franchise is, like it's predecessors, much more action packed than the book.  In this installment, we find Edmund and Lucy Pevensie back in Narnia with their cousin Eustace, aboard the Dawn Treader on a mission to find the 7 lost lords of Narnia.  Again, they are aiding Caspian, who is still King of Narnia.

I actually liked this movie better than "Prince Caspian" because I got really tired of the bickering between Peter and Caspian in the last movie.  They did attempt to have a little conflict between Edmund and Caspian, but it was not to the extent or annoying level of the 2nd film.  Still, neither movie has captured the excitement or epic nature of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe."

I gave this one 4 stars.  If you are a fan of the Narnia movies, I think you'll like "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

Buffalo Wings...at home!

Like a beacon of hope in the darkness, today when I checked my e-mail, I had a weekly update from allrecipes, and included in the food offerings was a recipe for Buffalo Wings.  I could pretty much live off Buffalo Wings and BBQ if it was healthy to do so.  Sadly, it's not, even if you eat celery with your wings.

As an aside, one of my pet peeves on recipe websites are when people give a recipe a 5 star rating, then you read their review and they changed just about everything about the recipe.  I'm fine with minor tweaks, but check this one out from the Buffalo Wing Recipe I used (note, I left the typos and spelling errors):

"This recipe is pretty basic with most wing cooks. I on the other hand jazz them up with the Frank's hot sauce, or you can use your favorite. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon juice and garlic. If you want to mello the flavor, add a half a stick of butter. Heat all those ingredients up togetherand pour over the wings when they come out of the peanut oil. If you really want to have what I call "rip your lips off hot" add a small amount of chilli powder and or cayanne to that mix. Now your talkin' cookin' HOTWINGS, "GMAN" style"

Seriously!  Just post your own recipe...geez!  And really, if you are going to claim that your cooking is good enough to be called GMAN style, then learn how to spell CAYENNE and CHILI correctly!

Ok, glad I got that off my chest...now back to the topic at hand.  I made this recipe for wings tonight.  I did have to tweak it because I didn't want to deep fry the wings in a gallon of peanut oil.  And really, who wants to buy a gallon of peanut oil?  So I "pan fried" them.  Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
Enough peanut oil to fill an electric skillet or cast iron skillet to 1/4" depth of oil
25 wings
1/3 cup unsalted melted butter
1/2 cup Frank's RedHot
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat the oil to 375 degrees (I used my electric skillet for this).
2. Prep the wings by rinsing with cold water.  Pat the wings dry and gently add them, 1 at a time, to the oil.  Cook for 10 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook for another 10 minutes.  This should get it done, but you can check with a meat thermometer.  The wings should be at 180 degrees.
3. Add the melted butter, Frank's RedHot, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper and Red Pepper Flakes to a bowl and mix until combined. 
4. Add the cooked wings to the sauce and toss to coat.
5. Serve with celery, carrots, blue cheese, ranch, or whatever else floats your boat.

This turned out to be a really good wing (see picture above of the actual wings I prepared tonight).  It's not what I understand the flavor of a "traditional" Buffalo Wing to be, but I've never actually eaten a Buffalo Wing in Buffalo, NY, so perhaps I don't know what the true flavor is.  That said, I really liked these wings and I will make them again.  They have plenty of heat (my lips were burning when I finished, but it's a good burn), but the garlic powder adds a nice twist.  Think "traditional wing" with a garlic/pepper kick and that will get you close.  I am so excited that it is possible to make really good wings at home, without a deep fryer!

If I was making these for a large group, I'd probably make multiple batches to tweak the spiciness.  For a more mild wing, I would think leaving out some of the black pepper of all of the red pepper would do the trick.  For a hotter wing, more red pepper would git 'r done.  Try these out as Super Bowl Sunday approaches!

Overdue Movie Reviews

Again, I'm not watching many movies, but I have watched 2 worth rating recently. 

"Cars 2":  Those who know me know that my favorite Pixar style animated movie is "Cars".  My kids got "Cars 2" for Christmas so I finally got to watch it.  While it's not as good as the original, and wouldn't make my top 5 list, it's still a really good movie. 

In this sequel, Lightning McQueen is off to race against the best racers in the world in the World Grand Prix.  But, that's not the real story here.  The real story is that Mater, who finally gets to come along to a race, gets mistaken for a secret agent and drawn into a James Bond style action movie.  Along the way, Lightning has to learn the value of a friend, and that he has to accept Mater as he is.

Like I said, really good movie.  I give it 4 stars.

"Season of the Witch":  The best thing I can say about this Nicholas Cage flick is that it's not terrible.  In fact, if you go into this one with really low expectations, you might actually enjoy it.  I had almost no expectations, and found that it was a bearable 94 minutes of movie watching.

Nothing really stands out in this movie, good or bad.  Basically, if you're really bored, you might enjoy this movie.  Otherwise, stay away.