The Blondissima

Serena - Movie

Monday, March 30, 2015

I thought spring was here, but the weather this weekend proved otherwise. But it was good weather for the kite festival I went to, nice and windy! I also went to brunch with a couple friends and their moms who were in town. I made my lunch for the week with this kale recipe.

Then I went to the movies and saw the historical drama Serena, since I read the book earlier this year. It's only showing at one theater in my area, I guess instead of going straight to video they did a token theater run. See this movie was finished 3 years ago yet they are just now releasing it. Starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, this is their third movie together after Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. The author of the book, Ron Rash, also wrote The World Made Straight which came out as a movie earlier this year which I thought it was a dark but an interesting movie starring Noah Wyle set in Appalachia

Serena is set in the North Carolina mountains at the end of the 1920s with newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton who build a timber empire. Serena soon proves herself to be equal to any man: overseeing loggers, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man's life in the wilderness. With power and influence now in their hands, the Pembertons refuse to let anyone stand in the way of their inflated love and ambitions. However, once Serena discovers George's hidden past and faces an unchangeable fate of her own, the Pemberton's passionate marriage begins to unravel. The movie only had one set location but costumes were really nice period style. As with all books made into movies, you really need to read the book first because the movie glossed over so many scenes. I knew the back story to a 5 second scene but someone else would not get the relevance of it all. The movie has a completely different ending from the book. I was surprised the movie got poor reviews, I really enjoyed watching it but highly recommend you read the book first.

Hip-Hop Running Playlist

Friday, March 27, 2015

Here's some songs that will make you want to workout! Make sure you download the remixed versions. Since I love reggae music you'll hear a little of that in this mix.

Chris Brown - New Flame (feat Usher) [Dave Aude Remix]
Gwen Stefani - Baby Don't Lie [Kaskade & KillaGraham remix]
Beyonce - Standing on the Sun (remix feat Mr. Vegas)
Enrique Iglesias - Bailando english version feat Sean Paul
Nicki Minaj - Truffle Butter (feat Drake &Lil Wayne)
Beyonce - Ring Off
Deorro & Chris Brown - Five More Hours
Eve - Tambourine
Fetty Wap - Trap Queen

To see my previous playlists click here.

Quinoa & White Bean Casserole

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Quinoa is a great alternative to rice. It has all 9 essential amino acids, it's high in protein and fiber. I love caramelized onions so if you don't mind putting in the time to caramelize your onions, this is a delicious recipe! The casserole makes 8 servings so I put 5 into containers for lunch with some carrots on top.

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup dry)

2 cans of canellini beans

3 large onions

4 oz cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)

3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 tsp minced garlic

½ cup red wine

1 cup vegetable broth

1 TB balsamic vinegar

1 ts fresh rosemary

¼ ts red pepper flakes

½ ts salt and pepper

Directions:

In a large pot add chopped onions and salt and cook for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 20 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar and cook for 5 more minutes. Stir in garlic and red pepper flakes. Add wine and cook for one minute.
Preheat over to 400 degrees and spray a casserole dish.
Add the cannellini beans, quinoa, vegetable broth and rosemary to the pot with the onions. Bring to a simmer and stir in cheeses. Mix until combined and season with salt and pepper.
Pour into casserole dish and bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Nutritional Analysis:
8 servings
433 calories, 65g carbs, 9g fiber, 18g protein

Recipe source: cookingquinoa

Audible review

Monday, March 23, 2015

My favorite quote from the book Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore - Robin Sloan is when Clay buys a walkman off ebay to listen to an old book on cassette tape and he says:

"I've never listened to an audiobook before, and I have to say it's a totally different experience. When you read a book, the story definitely happens inside your head. When you listen, it seems to happen in a little cloud all around it, like a fuzzy knit cap pulled down over your eye."

This is exactly how I felt when I listened to the next two books on my phone via the Audible app. I normally borrow all my books from the library but since the following two books are new releases, the top two books on the New York Times best sellers list and in the top 10 of Amazon's best sellers (ahead of them were American Sniper and 50 Shades of Grey), they each had either a 300 or 500 person wait at the library. I went to Barnes and Nobles book store and one of the hardcovers retailed for $27! So I got a livingsocial deal in February to get 2 months of Audible free, it's a part of amazon that sells audiobooks.

Normally Audible is $15 a month for which you get one credit for a book each month, so it makes sense to only get new releases that cost more than that. Sometimes the Kindle version of the book plus the add-on Audible version together are less than the full price audible version so be sure to look for Whispersync matches. Since I don't have a commute to work, I found it was easiest to listen to at the gym on the bike, while cooking or while I finished my photobook of my last vacation. I've found that I can't listen to them before going to bed because I fall asleep and thus lose my place in the book. lol If you ask if listening has the same effect as sitting down and reading book, I'd say with the first book I didn't retain as much while listening but that may have just been my adjustment period. I will say that the narrators reading the books gave an amazing performance and really drew me into the story.

Thankfully the audible app does not drain my iphone battery but it does take up a lot of storage space on my phone, more than any other app I have. Well it's not the app that takes up space, it's the book I downloaded so as soon as I was finished I had to immediately delete it.

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr 544 pages 2014

The book tells two parallel stories about a blind French girl and a German boy and their wartime experience during World War II in occupied France and Germany. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable diamond that Hilter is looking for, so he conceals it in a model he makes of Saint-Malo for Marie-Laure.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister and becomes an expert at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's converge. The light in its title is, among other things, a topic that Werner hears discussed on a late-1930s radio broadcast by Marie-Laure's grandfather about the brain’s power to create light in darkness (radio waves). This book is very lyrically written, which took the author a decade to write and Amazon ran out of stock of it at Christmas. Having listened to this book, I still want to go back and slowly read the book so that I could soak in every detail of the vivid images, puzzles and metaphors. I read the questions and answers readers posted to goodreads and got a bigger appreciation for the mysteries of the book.

"In August 1944 the historic walled city of Saint-Malo, the brightest jewel of the Emerald Coast of Brittany, France was almost destroyed by fire....Of the 865 buildings within the walls, only 182 remained standing and all were damaged to some degree." -Philip Beck

Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 336 pages 2015
If you liked Gone Girl, you'll love this psychological thriller.
This book is totally worth all the hype of the library wait list being hundreds of people deep, even Amazon had gone out of stock of it once. The best part about the book is that no one can be trusted, including the three female narrators who share the storytelling of this book. Between an alcoholic, a liar and a cheat, who can you trust? This book is just full of secrets. Rachel is divorced, gained weight and lost her job due to alcoholism. She spies on her ex and his beautiful new wife and kid. She gets up every morning and takes the train to London, pretending she's still employed, to watch people from the train, especially one couple who seem to have the life she has always wanted, they are both attractive and loving to each other, and live houses down from her ex. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. I couldn't figure out the mystery until the very end and listening to this book kept me on my toes the whole time!

See the rest of my books I've read here.

Spring Fashion Trends 2015

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Pantone color of the year is Marsala, a beautiful red wine shade. I haven't seen it yet in stores but you can wear it on your nails with Zoya's Marney shade. Of the spring colors above and I will focus on the bottom three colors Tangerine, Custard and Marsala. As a blonde I love wearing yellow, it looks great with my hair. Orange to me is the new black because I rarely wear black clothing, don't even own a black dress, pumps or purse.

Have you heard of the Third Piece Rule? If you shirt and pants are your first and second pieces, then you add a third piece to your outfit (not counting shoes). Both the Banana Republic and Nordstom require their employees to follow the third piece rule to ensure that they look stylish at work. Your third piece can be a cardigan, vest, belt, or statement necklace. That third piece adds the finishing touch to any outfit to transform it from boring to fab. I think it's a fabulous idea that really makes sense to me now that I think about it, the outfits I've pinned on pinterest have all followed that rule as did my fall fashion challenge. It's a pretty simple idea that makes your outfit more put together and polished. I'm definitely going to start implementing that in my outfits!