Date Night

Earlier this summer, our neighborhood theater closed "for renovations." It reopened, but no longer as our neighborhood theater. Now it was something much much more. Part of the new generation of theaters. Back when I was in college the earliest progeny opened. It was a theater with leather seats where you could actually choose your seat. But other than that, it was your standard movie theater.

Now our "neighborhood" theater is like that theater, but on crack. Thatboy and I really wanted to try it out, and thought it was a good idea to do it sooner rather than later since our date nights will be limited pretty soon. For this reason we're trying to fit more and more of those in over the next couple weeks.

Friday night Thatboy called me on his way home from work and asked if I wanted to check out the new theater. We picked a movie, reserved our seats, and were on our way after dinner.

Upon entering the lobby we realized we probably didn't need to eat dinner first. We could have eaten there! This is not your typical movie theater lobby:

The theater has a full bar and full food menu. Which we knew going in to the deal. What we didn't know is that the lobby was set up like a bar/lounge/restaurant. Our plan was a little simpler. We were going to head to our seats and order from there. Yup, order your drinks, your popcorn, your pizza, your quesadilla, your panini, your sushi directly from your seat. And let me tell you about those seats.

The seats are in love-seat formation. Two leather recliners with a small swinging table on either side for your food and drinks. Each side of the love-seat fully reclines. Which is probably the best kind of seat when you're pregnant and short and constantly changing position. So Thatboy and I got to spend the whole movie kicking back with our feet up, cuddling, and eating some of the best movie theater popcorn ever. (And I'm a connoisseur) Thatboy loved having his beer brought to him, and I'm very much looking forward to trying some of their specialty martinis some time in the future.

I can see this being a regular event.

I'm also including a recipe that's a little different than my typical posts. Mostly because it's a sweet! I've started working on filling our freezer with things that will be useful - breakfast foods and snacks among them. And if there's one thing I've learned from Thatmom it's that quickbreads freeze very very well. I made two of these loaves, a twist on a lemon poppyseed bread since I prefer oranges to lemons. One of them went straight into the freezer and the other got dressed with a sour cream glaze. It's double duty for sour cream, which, as I've mentioned before, I use to give the batter some tanginess. It also serves the same purpose as egg/butter/oil so I can leave them out. Yogurt would work equally as well if you're looking for a sub or hate sour cream.

Sour Cream Poppy Seed Bread
1/2 orange
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a loaf pan with baking spray. Zest half the orange and reserve the zest.
2. Juice the orange half and combine with the zest and remaining ingredients in an electric mixer.
3. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes. Cool completely.