Easy A

Easily Adulterous

This movie tells teens, don’t sleep with anybody, but say you did. This is what Olive, played by Emma Stone, does throughout this movie. When Olive’s obnoxious and foul mouthed best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka), demands that Olive must have lost her virginity over the weekend spent without her, Olive lies to shut her up. This lie is overheard by Bible-thumping Marianne, which causes this lie to spread through the school causing the entire student body to start paying close attention to Olive as she is now viewed to be available. When we see Olive confront Marianne about the rumor she is acknowledged with this exceptionally great conversation,

Marianne: “There’s a higher power that will judge you for your indecency.”
Olive: “Tom Cruise?”
Marianne: “You've made your bed... I just hope for your sake, you've cleaned the sheets.”

When Olive’s gay friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd), comes to her after having learned the truth and asks her to have a fake hook up with him, giving him instant straight status, she agrees. When Brandon tells his friends about the favor, they also want help and are willing to pay generously for the fake flings.

Olive soon realizes that there is a difference between being available and being the school slut. As it so happens, they are reading the book The Scarlet Letter, the book is summarized very well throughout the movie in case you have not read it. Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter is forced to wear a red A on her clothing as a symbol of adulteress behavior, which Olive takes the initiative and embroiders an A on all of her clothing to make this title of “School Slut” to a whole new level.

Emma Stone plays the role of Olive, the clean cut high school girl that tells a white lie which spreads like wild fire. You may recognize Stone from Zombieland, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and Superbad, as she plays this role with as much great humor as the rest, but now mixed with a clear and meaningful message.

Aly Michalka, known from Hellcats, is seen playing Olive’s foul mouth best friend. While Amanda Bynes is recognized in She’s The Man, What a Girl Wants, and Big Fat Liar, she plays a drastic change from her normal psychotically chipper characters to Marianne, the Bible-thumping girl that spreads the rumor school wide. We then have Dan Byrd from A Cinderella Story and Cougar Town, playing Olive’s gay friend that urges her to have a fake hook up with him to boost his status in this hell known as, High School.

This is defiantly a comedy, as well as a bit of a romance. The movie is great for many different age groups, just remember it is rated PG-13. Appealing to many people, mainly high schoolers, but also anyone that happens to have hated high school as there is a bit of advanced word play throughout this movie, which is not something you would be likely to see from many of today’s teens, it is still easy to follow. This movie makes for a great movie to see with friends, family, or even a date.

Pies

Pie Crust

Ingredients:
2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
1 stick of butter (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
Directions: 
1. Spray pie pan with cooking spray
2. Mix together: Graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar
3. Form into pie pan. 


Creamy Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
1/2 cup cold milk
1 package (6-serving size) vanilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup butterscotch
1/2 cup vanilla chips
2 tbs. milk
2 1/2 cups frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
1. After making crust, mix together 1/2 cup butterscotch, 1/2 cup vanilla chips, and 2 tbs milk in microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave for 30 seconds, then stir. Smear to coat crust, let cool. 
2. In large bowl beat milk, pudding mix and spice with wire whisk for 1 minute. (Mixture will be very thick.) Whisk in pumpkin. stir in whipped topping. Spread in crust. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until set.
3. Garnish as desired. Store in refrigerator.

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:
4 tbs milk
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate
1 tub (8oz.) frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed.

Directions:
1. Combine chocolate and 2 tbs milk in microwave safe bowl, microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and spread evenly on bottom of crust. Refrigerate about 1/2 hour.
2. Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until smooth; gradually add sugar, beating well. Beat in peanut butter. Reserve 1/2 cup whipped topping; fold remaining whipped topping into peanut butter mixture. Spoon into crust over chocolate. Cover; refrigerate about 6 hours or until set.
3. Garnish with reserved whipped topping. Cover; store in refrigerator.

Apples are Fall-ing

So now that it is Fall and people are headed out to apple orchards and Octoberfest's all through the area, I thought I would share some recipes that are always great to use when you buy all those apples and then realize you don't just want to eat all of them by themselves.

Apple Sauce Recipe

I like my applesauce to have chunks of the apple in it as well as some of the peel, which sounds weird, I know. Yet this is how my grandmother used to make it, so if you don't like it...too bad for you. 

3 lbs (8-9) baking apples (golden delicious, macintosh, etc.)

"You need apples that are sweet - NOT something like Granny Smith's. Yeah, I know you like them (why do sweet women like sour apples???) and even if I did, they still wouldn't make good applesauce - you'd have to add a lot of sugar." - pickyourown.org
Brown sugar to taste (about 1/4 cup)

Pinch of salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (or to taste, we don't think there is much wrong with adding much more cinnamon, either)

2 to 3 tablespoons water, if needed

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Spray 2 shallow baking pans with cooking spray.

Cut apples in half vertically and core them. (I use a melon-baller).  Place the halves, cut side down on the baking sheets, cover with aluminum foil.

Bake apples until tender, about 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, slide the peels off about half of the apples, or how every many you prefer.

While the apples are still warm, mash them with a fork (we leave it a little chunky), stirring in some brown sugar, a pinch of salt, ground cinnamon and water (if needed) to help scrape up any brown bits in the pan and to lighten the texture of the applesauce. (I've made this many times and have never needed to add water).

Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.

Now I know most of you have your own recipes for Apple Crisp but here is one just in case you do not know how to make it. 

What You'll Need:
* Three lbs of apples
* 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
* 1/2 cup of light brown sugar (pack it tightly)
* 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
* 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup of rolled oats
* 4 tablespoons of cold butter (Half a stick)
* 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans (OPTIONAL!)

How to Prepare:

The first step is to chop the apples. Remember to remove the core. In one bowl, add the apples, lemon juice, and sprinkle on some cinnamon. In the other bowl, combine the brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Now combine the bowls and mix together. Grab another bowl and mix the flour, sugar, oats, and sliced butter. Now use two forks to combine the flour mixture until it looks crumbly. (Add the chopped nuts.) Grease a 9x13 baking dish and spread the apple mixture on the bottom of the dish. Top it with the flour mixture. 

Cook for 30 - 45 minutes at 375°, or until the apples are soft and topping is browned. I know everyone tops theirs off with something different but I like to top mine off with either homemade whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.

Sugar Snaps!

So whenever my Mom has the urge to swear she will say "sugar snaps" instead. Making the fact that she is saying "sugar snaps" instead of a swear word makes the whole thing a little ridiculous because everyone knows what she is really thinking. But anyway! One day she brought home some sugar snap peas and that made me laugh, because I just kept thinking about how she uses the term. When I asked her what we could make with them she told me to find something that I would like because she was just going to eat them on their own, uncooked and fresh from the market.

There are so many different recipes that you can use sugar snap peas with but I found this one and love it. This recipe is super easy and so light, it's great. You can even add chicken with this recipe if you would like some type of meat with it. Sugar snap peas are usually hard to find but they are so good.  Putting sugar snap peas in stir fry is a great way of cooking them as well.You can put it in any type of stir fry, really, but if you put them with peanut sauce, chicken, bell peppers, and water chestnuts...they are great.

                                                                  Birdwatching.com