Best Evil Queen and Paradise Found

Yesterday Isabel, Esteban and I went to see Snow White and The Huntsman.  I know there has been a lot of hype about the movie and some have given it bad reviews.  I am also a big fan of Once Upon A Time, the TV show about storybook characters including Snow White.  While these kinds of things usually keep me away from a movie, I was excited to go see this version of the story.  While there was magic and fairies, this seemed like it was more grounded in the real world.  For example, Snow White is dirty through most of the movie.  And I mean dirty, dark marks on her face, sloshing through sewage and her hands with dirty nails.  The queen was evil like I have never seen, but there were moments when I felt sad for her.  Charlize Theron was amazing.  The dwarfs were also funny and the special effects were sharp and not overdone.  I liked the movie very much.  It has a Lord of the Rings meets Lady Hawke flavor. If you like that kind of thing you should go see it.



Before the movie we were starving and had lunch at Paradise Bakery.  I have not been there in a really long time, so it was nice to see that the place is even better than I remember.  Hey, Esteban's half walnut chicken salad sandwich is not pictured because he began inhaling it before I could get a snap in;)  My salad is not pictured because I deleted it by accident:) yikes.



Isa had the French Onion soup in a bread bowl.
I had the new chicken avocado salad, it had little bits of bacon.  And bacon improves everything;)

Have a great Saturday!

Spice Up Your Life

 I have been eating really well lately and wanted to share some photos of a few plates Esteban made for me.  A Penzeys Spice shop opened recently in our nearest shopping center.  That shop is so amazing, with just a few spice blends our food is so much more flavorful. if you have never been in one I suggest going in.  You will be amazed at the variety and quality of the spices.

I found them online and they say they stock over 250 spices and blends. 
Here is the site:  Penzeys Spices
In the last few days, Esteban has focused on sea food, take a look. The photo on top is shrimp with tomatoes, mushrooms and brown and wild rice. I believe the spice mix he used included saffron. Delicious. This was like a home made shrimp scampi made more healthfully.

The first photo below is salmon and shrimp and onions with a bit of curry spice. The second is salmon and onions on pumpernickel. The salmon was rubbed with an Indian spice blend called Tandoori.  You can see we are loving the pumpernickel bread right now, it has such a great strong smell and taste. 

This just goes to show that finding the right spices can change everything.  So here's to finding all the right spices in life as well as in cooking.