(Not so) Weekly Recipe: S'mores Cookies!

This week, I planned to throw a party, so, obviously I wanted to make some party food. I decided to go with a favorite for all teenagers: cookies! While browsing through the internet, I found a recipe for S’mores Cookies.

The recipe was fairly simple. What makes these cookies unique is not only the added chocolate and marshmallows to the top, but the crushed graham crackers to the dry base of the cookie. These cookies turned out delicious, but the only thing I regret is not adding more graham crackers. I added to amount for the recipe, but I couldn’t taste it in the cookie at all. Other than that, I really loved this recipe!

Try it out for yourself! Or even make something else S’mores related! Like cupcakes!

Here’s the link to the recipe.

Restaurant Review: Maroo Creative Japanese and Korean Cuisine

(I apologize for the terrible quality of the sushi pictures- they were taken with a phone as opposed to my normal photography camera.)

I love Japanese food. Specifically, I love sushi. I am always looking for local restaurants that serve great sushi, so when I heard of Maroo in Fresno, I got very excited. Maroo is a Japanese and Korean Cuisine Restaurant, with a full lunch and dinner menu, as well as three different specialty sushi menus. 

First off, the service at this restaurant is great. My family arrived there before the dinner rush, so it was not crowded at all. We asked a waitress if we could sit at a booth, and she said yes, but we’d have to wait for someone to clean it off. Three minutes later we were seated. The waitress gave us our menus and apologized for the wait. She went out of her way to apologize for that few minutes wait, which really was not at all a problem for us. For the rest of our meal we continued to get great service from that waitress, as she passed by frequently. Our table was close to the kitchen, so we did get all of the wait staff traffic by us anyway, but we were constantly checked on.

Then we got our food. The whole family ordered sushi rolls to share. All of our rolls were quite delicious, although I didn’t bother trying my dad’s roll: a spicy “Sumo” roll, topped with Sriracha hot sauce; I’m not overly fond of very spicy foods.

The roll I ordered was especially delectable: the baked lobster roll,

a simple but elegant roll filled with avocado and baked lobster, and then topped with even more lobster. It’s rich, unctuous flavor showed how less ingredients is more. Another roll of note that we ordered was what I believe to be the Maroo Roll, which was covered in creamy coconut sauce and silvered almonds, making it stand out in comparison to the flavor of our other rolls.

Overall, Maroo is a great restaurant. Prices for sushi rolls are average roll prices, which ranges from about $8-$12. Not expensive, but I can’t say it’s cheaper than any other sushi restaurant in town. What sets this restaurant apart is not just the quality of the food they serve, but of their waitstaff and servers as well. Service is top. Food is wonderful. Try this place out for yourself; I was highly satisfied with my dining experience at Maroo.

- Megan Hilliard

(Credit for the picture of Maroo goes to City-Data.com)

Minarets Round-up Entertainment: 5 Reasons Why You Should See ‘Gravity’

Let me set this straight. This is not a movie review. There are no spoilers (hopefully). Rather, this is a list about the best things about this film that will make you want to watch this movie. 

First of all, let me say that I cannot tell you how great ‘Gravity’ is. Really. I was sitting in the theater watching the credits roll, speechless. This is the best film I’ve seen all year (and I’m not exaggerating) and here are five reasons YOU need to go see it:

1. The Acting

I must tell you, the cast for this film was well chosen (and when I say cast, I really mean a cast of two). Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are both phenomenal as their roles as a medical engineer and an astronaut. Sandra Bullock in particular shines throughout the film. As she is the main character, she does an amazing job portraying a character who has that raw human instinct of survival. I felt like I really was side-by-side with Bullock’s character; feeling her anxiety, shedding her tears, laughing in her triumph. There were parts in this film that were so tense I held my breath. After watching the movie, I heard that Sandra Bullock was not the first choice to be the lead role for this film. She was in fifth, against tough competition such as Angelina Jolie (the first choice), Scarlett Johansson, Marion Cotillard, Blake Lively, and Natalie Portman. I firmly believe that none of these actors could do half as good a performance as Bullock’s. Also, let me add something about the cast: there are exactly seven people in the entire cast of this film. Five out of seven of them are on-screen roles. 

2. The Sound Mixing

I found the sound mixing in this movie to be highly important to this film. Mostly because, to stay accurate to actually being in space, 90% of this film has no sound effects at all. As an aspiring filmmaker, I know that sound is very important to setting the mood of a film. In this case, what sets the mood is the lack of sound. During some scenes you could hear a pin drop; it made slightly coughing and eating popcorn sound like bombs going off. I really appreciated this lack of sound and that it made “movie space” seem the closest its ever been to “real space”. Now I am not saying this movie was super quiet all the way through. Far from it. What this movie relies on, sound-wise, is the music and the dialogue. When I say “dialogue” I really mean all the noises the actor makes, because we hear all of it. Many parts of this film were very intense, and heavy breathing was sometimes the only line delivered. The musical score for this movie is also great. It was just right and was able to carry emotion throughout scenes, especially when there was no dialogue. There were parts of this film where the music gets exceedingly louder and louder and louder, and then becomes deafeningly silent. Not only does this immediately resonate, but I think that it ties in with the symbolism in this movie (I’ll talk about this more in “The Story”).

1. The Cinematography

Director Alfonso Cuarón

I appreciate good cinematography, and what I’ve learned from practicing good camera work is that camera shots should have purpose and relevancy to the subject of your film. ‘Gravity’ displays this so well by having very little cuts. Basically, what a “cut” is, is when the camera quickly changes angles to play out a scene. What was awesome about the little use of cutting in ‘Gravity’ was that it simulated space and drew the audience in. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that the first 15-20 minutes of this film are one continuous shot. This gives you the feeling like you’re there, in space, floating around with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Drawing the audience in like this is a way of making the camera work have purpose to the film. Also, I’d like to note that it also ties in with Bullock’s acting; it adds to the feelings of attachment you have for the characters in this story.

1. The Story

Obviously, I can’t say much about the plot of this movie without giving out spoilers, so I’ll try to stay to a basic overview. Unlike many movies today, this movie’s plot is very simple. The summary of the plot on IMDB is simply this: “A medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space.” One sentence sums it all up, basically. Just because the plot of this story can be summed up in a sentence does not mean it’s a bad story. Not at all. It’s really the themes and symbolism expressed in the movie that bring the story into reality. First, the main theme of this film is the raw human instinct of survival that I mentioned earlier. It’s a theme so fleshed out in this story, in fact, it doesn’t need explaining. Many films, near or at the end, have a character basically summing up the theme or the “moral” of the story, making it very clear as to what this movie is trying to say. Not this film. The theme of this movie is such basic human nature that it needs no explanation, and everything about this film expresses it in a language without words. Second, there is symbolism in this movie that also help express this theme to the audience. Symbolism in film does not happen often so explicitly as in ‘Gravity’. Without saying too much, this movie symbolizes the rebirth of the Bullock’s character. In one particular scene, she goes into a shuttle, removes her spacesuit, and floats in a curled up position, almost resembling a fetus. It’s a small action, but it says so much. I’m sure there are so many more symbolic things that I missed, so definitely look for them.

1. The Rating

I think the rating on this film is a just one; it’s rated PG-13 for “intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language” (IMDB). This movie is very intense but for reasons I’ve already mentioned; to give the audience an emotional connection to the characters and their situations. I recommend not bringing small children to watch this movie, as some scenes are very, very loud. As for the “disturbing images”, I don’t want to say too much, but there are corpses of dead people shown for a  few brief scenes, but there is no blood or gore. Finally, about the strong language. What has always bothered me about PG-13 movies today is that they can have the “F” word once in them now, and many films take advantage of that and characters do say it. Sadly, this movie also has the “F” word in it, at the very beginning. Let me say that it is also during an intense scene, and because of the music, it is somewhat hard to hear. As for other bad words, there are a few scattered uses of the “s” word, and “son of a b-” once. Like the rest of the parts of this film, there is a distinct reason for the use of these curse words. Despite these words being in this movie, I am happy with the fact that there is no sexual content or nudity at all. 

~

To conclude, you need to go see this film for yourself. I purposely wrote a list of reasons and did not write a review of this movie because I feel like I can’t judge this film any more than I have. Personally, I think this movie is a shoo-in for some Oscar nominations like: Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Sceenplay, Best Directing, maybe even Best Picture. Just my guess. I loved this film, and I hope, by reading this, you now want to go see it. It is definitely worth watching.

-Megan Hilliard

(pictures courtesy of imdb.com and collider.com)

Taste Bytes Weekly Pinterest Recipe: Pesto Shrimp from Megan Hilliard on Vimeo.

Here's my weekly Pinterest recipe, grilled pesto shrimp skewers. Enjoy!

Restaurant Review: Sea Harvest Fish Market

For this week’s review, I decided to visit the Sea Harvest Fish Market at Monterey Bay. Just looking at the place from the outside, I could tell it was a small restaurant. My instincts did not fail me when I went inside. My family arrived at the peak of the lunch rush, and the packed room saw every seat filled with customers. My mom gave a waitress our name and we were told it would be about a 20 minute wait. 

Overall, the wait wasn’t that bad, as I could preoccupy myself by looking at the front counter. As its name implies, this restaurant also doubles as a fish market, proudly displaying its fresh catches on ice. In fact, the first thing that caught my eye was the vast array of seafood selections on sale. They had everything from thick maroon tuna steaks, to whole, local wild salmon, to huge jumbo prawns. Even in between the front counter and the dining area was a tank of live lobsters. 

After our wait, we were seated. Glazing over the menu, I chose my dish: seafood pasta with salmon, prawns and bay scallops. I have to tell you I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed the taste of the alfredo sauce with the fish, and was glad to see that there was plenty of that seafood. Although the “prawns” were not what I expected (I expected a few jumbo prawns, instead these were more like shrimp), they were still delicious. I think my favorite part of the dish was that there was a good proportion of fish to pasta. After I eaten all the prawns and the salmon, there was still plenty of scallops hidden in my bowl and I’d suddenly discover more when I thought they were all gone.

There are some downsides to this restaurant though. Although I very much enjoyed my dish, everything else that my family ordered was not of note. The restaurant’s menu seemed to have all the typical “seafood restaurant” dishes like clam chowder and fish and chips, which weren’t anything special. Not bad, in a sense, but not great, like my pasta. My younger brother even told me he’d wished he would have shared food with me, instead of getting his fried fish combo meal. That would have been great for the both of us, too. My pasta was the size of two good servings, so it would have been nice to share instead of leaving stuffed.

Another thing I have to criticize about this restaurant are its prices. All of the menu items that seemed appealing to me, for example, the grilled jumbo prawns, were $16 or more. My pasta alone was $12. My other family members ordered less expensive, hence less quality, items. I do wish I would have tried something from the expensive, appealing side of the menu, but I can’t ignore the prices. Nonetheless, my pasta really was delicious, and I don’t regret getting it. My only wish is that I could come again and be able to try other things. 

Overall, I was satisfied with this restaurant’s food. The only advice I’d give before going to this restaurant is if you plan on getting something great, prepare to pay a lot of money for it.

Pinterest Weekly Recipe: Martha Stewart's Outrageous Chocolate Cookies

I was skimming through Pinterest today and I came across this awesome recipe for some chocolate cookies. I thought this recipe was similar to a brownie recipe; you have to melt semisweet chocolate and butter together and pour it into the batter, making it extra rich. If you are at home and you suddenly have a insatiable craving for chocolate, make this recipe. There's only a few simple ingredients needed, and I was able to find everything I needed in the backs of my pantry and fridge without having to resort to buying extra ingredients. These cookies were well appreciated by my test group (aka my family), and my mom said they were the best homemade cookies she'd ever had. And for her, that's saying something.

As you can see, my brother enjoys them (perhaps a little too much!).

Try this recipe out for yourself and tell me what you think!

Martha Stewart's Outrageous Chocolate Cookies


--Megan Hilliard