Archive for December, 2007
December 30th, 2007
We can’t believe it is New Years already! For any of you still looking for a fun activity to do New Year’s Eve night, we have one idea: Laser tag USA.
Laser Tag USA is an entertaining new place, located in the Video Outlet in Roscoe. We recently went there and were quite surprised with how fun it was! We’ll admit that it seemed a little sketchy being in the basement of a video store, but it was really nice inside. It looked recently renovated and was well kept. The basement included a full laser tag area and a game room complete with plenty of activities: Guitar Hero 3, Dance Dance Revolution, foosball, air hockey, Xbox, Nintendo Wii, and pool.
The game here was unlike any other laser tag game we’ve played in Rockford. There were two different teams, orange and green, which were competing. Each player had a set number of lives and needed to get more when they ran low. You lose lives by getting hit and by shooting. To reload lives during the game, the player has to find their team’s designated reloading station, which is harder than it sounds in a dark room with strobe lights going and being chased by your opponents. We promise it’s not that confusing once you start playing; it just added more complications to the game. Overall, it was one of the best laser tag experiences we’ve had. We went from -2000 in the first game to 3000 in the second - an impressive comeback!
We liked that it was a smaller and more private game. It was fun to be competing against just our friends, because it can get a little awkward when you play against random, intense people that run around like James Bond wannabes. If we had gone earlier, we would have stayed a little after our game and played with all of their video games in the other large room. This is the perfect location for a private party with the wide-open rooms and fun, private laser tagging.
If you’re still looking for plans for New Year’s Eve, they are throwing an all-ages party! For $25 a person, you can play all of the laser tag and games you want to. The deal even includes a meal of pizza, soda, and snacks. This party is a complete New Years celebration from the noisemakers and confetti to a countdown to 2008. If you don’t have plans, you should definitely stop on by; it will be a lot of fun. Happy 2008!
[Laser tag USA is located at 5486 Elevator Rd. in Roscoe. You can call them at 815.623.2991.]
December 24th, 2007
Winter break is awesome; you’re out of school, and then Santa comes. Unfortunately, there’s always that chance that you’ll be forced to clean the house or shovel snow. To avoid being stuck in that situation, we recommend accessing a computer and “studying” (though we’re never lying when we say we’re doing that, mom.) We’ve assembled a list of great “studying” sites to occupy your time.
The first website is semi-educational, but not as bad as being actually educational. We know you’re on break and you want to give your brain some down time, but Free Rice is a fun way to help poverty-stricken families all over the world. Major corporations, like Macy’s, have sponsored this vocabulary-based website and for every word you correctly match with its synonym, they donate 20 grains of rice to a needy family. 20 grains is not a lot, but if you get caught up in the game (which you will), the rice really adds up. We’ve found that if we think of the levels of Free Rice as levels on a video game and grains of rice as points, it helps us feel a little better about out video-game challenged selves. Plus, you learn big words to annoy your friends or impress your teachers!
The next online activity isn’t so necessary right after Christmas, but it’s still an option. Online shopping is a great way to waste both time and money, but it’s still a favorite past time. Most clothing stores have websites to buy their clothes from, so you can shop at stores not located near Rockford like Nordstrom, Delia’s, and Forever 21. Also, Zappos.com offers a great shoe selection and the best part is they usually have free overnight shipping. Some websites allow you to email not-so-subtle hints to family and friends about gifts you might enjoy in the future. Wouldn’t that have made Christmas a lot easier?
Youtube is becoming hugely popular. The number of entertaining videos grows daily. Some of our favorites are the SNL cartoon Maraka and Laguna Biotch, a mockery of the popular MTV reality show Laguna Beach. Plus, you can watch a number of TV shows and see your favorite musician’s music videos. Now is the perfect time to stop being left out and successfully master Crank That, if you haven’t already. If these kids can do it, so can you.
To all college kids, if you have not joined Facebook yet, you have incredibly strong will power and we commend you. We have yet to meet a college student without a Facebook profile, and the high school students without it are growing fewer. For those who don’t know, Facebook is a networking site where you use your personal profile to post information like your favorite movies, quotes, pictures, and communicate with your friends in a relatively public way. It’s better than Myspace because of the more organized look and better privacy settings, though there are some pretty stupid applications now involving things like werewolves and pirates. Yeah, we don’t get it either.
These days, the internet is becoming even more popular and useful. We have included a few websites that we enjoy, but we know there are millions of other entertaining ones out there. Let us know of your favorites and try out some of ours. Merry Christmas everyone!
[Disclaimer: We do not condone lying to parents in any way to avoid helping them, which we know you all want to do because you’re good kids.]
December 16th, 2007
This past weekend, like promised, we discovered the best pizza in Rockford. But, before we tell you what it is, we’ll tell you how we came to this tough decision.
First, we assembled a list of eight pizza places in town to battle for the title. These were taken from comments to our previous pizza post, emails, and suggestions from other people. We then gathered a group of people who would be willing to take part in this difficult experiment; we decided on about eighteen people (it was really difficult to find people willing to try eight different pizzas.) We then ordered a pizza (1/3 pepperoni, 1/3 sausage, 1/3 cheese) from each of the eight locations: Lino’s, Luigi, Capri, Gulotta’s, Primo’s, Altamore’s, Giuseppe’s and Nunzio’s. We numbered each pizza. This way, there would be no bias since no one knew what pizza they were eating. At the end, our pizza-tasters voted for their three favorites.
The winner was clear when tallying our surveys: Altamore’s is our favorite Rockford-dish pizza! Good job to all of you who recommended that to us; it truly was the best pizza. Second place went to Primo’s, and third place went to Lino’s. Although Altamore’s had the best pizza, we were a little disappointed that they were the only restaurant that could not accommodate our 1/3 pepperoni, 1/3 sausage, 1/3 cheese request. Thankfully, their sausage was pretty delicious.
We just want to say that all of the pizzas we tried were excellent, and you should try them all out. We have proven that you don’t have to resort to chain pizza restaurants for good pizza in Rockford; there are plenty of local, original establishments that really know how to make pizza. If you agree with our decision, or have your own favorite, let us know! We are interested in what you have to say about the best pizza in Rockford.
December 9th, 2007
One of our Christmas traditions is having a group of friends over to bake Christmas cookies and watch Christmas movies. We’re really excited to continue that this year, and we thought we would share a few recipes in case you feel the urge to bake some of your own Christmas goodness.
To prepare for our cooking, we usually pick our favorite recipes online. It’s an easy way to find a wide selection of recipes without wasting much time. We usually end up going with recipes from Cooks.com, like we did for these cookie recipes. Foodnetwork.com works, too, but we’re kind of bitter towards them after a Rachel Ray recipe gone awry.
One of our favorites is almond crescents. For these, you need: 2 sticks of unsalted butter, 2/3 c. sifted powdered sugar (additional powdered sugar needed for rolling), 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp. almond extract, 1 c. coarsely chopped almonds, and 2 ½ c. sifted all-purpose flour.
For these cookies, start by preheating the oven to 350°. Then, you want to blend the butter and powdered sugar until it’s fluffy. Add the two extracts and the almonds. Next, mix in the flour and beat together. When everything is mixed, divide into two 1”- thick rolls. Divide the rolls into ¾ “pieces and roll those pieces into 2” cylinders. Place in crescent form on the baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes and cover them in powdered sugar once they’re cool. Now enjoy, but check your shirt for loose powdered sugar before you leave the house. That would be embarrassing.
Thumbprints are another holiday classic. This time, you need: 1/4 c. butter (softened), 1/4 c. shortening, 1/4 c. brown sugar (packed), 1 egg (separated) 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1 c. all purpose flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 3/4 c. finely chopped nuts, and tinted confectioners sugar icing.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix everything except the nuts, eggs, and icing and separate into 1” balls. Then, dip the dough into the egg whites and roll into the nuts. Put them on a non-greased baking sheet and make a thumbprint in the center of each one. Bake for 10 minutes or until they’re a little brown, and then let them cool. Finally, fill the thumbprints with colored icing. You can also use jelly, but icing is better so we recommend that.
For those of you cooking-challenged readers, peppermint bark is delicious and simple to make. The grocery list is much shorter: 1 lb. white chocolate, 1 c. peppermint crunch (you can also use crunched peppermints).
First, melt the white chocolate. You can do this in increments (stir in between) in the microwave, or just stir in a pot on the stove. Then, when it’s all melted, add in the peppermint. From experience, try to find peppermint crunch. You can buy peppermints, but you have to unwrap a ton of them and then find something to mash them all up. It ends up being loud and messy; find them already smashed up!
If you don’t have the skills or time necessary for these treats, there is no shame in buying them pre-made. Cannoli Caffe on Bell School has a great selection of fresh cookies. They’re all really good, and you can get 3 of them for $1. They’d be a hit at any cookie exchange. People will think that you slaved over a hot stove for weeks to make them!
We’re planning on having our cookie extravaganza as soon as we go on Christmas break, so we have a few (endless) days to go. Let us know if there are any other cookies we should make so our celebration is a success!
December 2nd, 2007
This Christmas season has officially hit Rockford. We say officially because it is now December and therefore acceptable for decorating. Too many places begin decorating so early, and we think it ruins Halloween and Thanksgiving. But as of December 1, we decided our Christmas plans would officially begin while visiting Ambrose Christmas Store.
Ambrose is located on North Second north of the North Suburban Library. Our trip was especially spectacular, because we finally broke out the much-missed Christmas music! Some may say it is always in season to play “Feliz Navidad,”and we completely agree (we have been caught playing it in July!), but now itis acceptable by everyone’s standards.
Ambrose is one of the best Christmas stores in Rockford. The amount of merchandise they have is incredible. Ambrose’s layout reminds us of an old house, with many different rooms. Each of these rooms has a separate theme, and the ornaments and decorations in that room represent its theme. Some of these themes are white/pearls, old-time bridal, Western, ballerina, silver, and Nativity. Our favorite was probably the silver room. All of the ornaments were very shiny which immediately drew our attention. It was very elegant and modern, and would look great with the many large crystal chandeliers we’re going to have in our houses one day (we can wishfully think, it’s the Christmas season!) Most ornaments ranged from about $6-$15.
Other than ornaments, Ambrose has all of your other Christmas decoration needs. This includes artificial Christmas trees, garland, Christmas lights, and Christmas village pieces. They had many options for all of these things, so you will be sure to find anything you’re looking for. Also, the workers are all very friendly and helpful which contributed to our cheery Christmas mood.
Our trip to Ambrose was a great Christmas season opener. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re pretty hard-core about Christmas. We’re going to look into a few more Christmas themed things throughout the month of December, maybe popular gifts, Christmas cookie recipes (yum!), or more Christmas-themed stores. Let us know what your favorite parts of Christmas are and we’ll try to check them out!
[Ambrose Christmas Store is located at 6715 N 2nd St. in Loves Park. You can call them at 815.654.3111.]
