#streamteam Archives - Daily Rebecca

Summer Netflix Watch List

June 30, 2015

This weekend Andy and I did something we haven’t done in ages.

We rented a movie.

It used to be a regular occurrence for us, but with Netflix we usually don’t have any reason to venture out to the video store.

This weekend we were in the mood for something a little different and we both like watching Oscar nominated films so we rented The Theory of Everything. It was a great film and certainly worthy of the nominations it received. Eddie Redmayne was absolutely brilliant in the role of Stephen Hawking. I always find it fascinating to learn more about the lives of real people, so this movie was right up my alley.

(This movie is available on DVD through Netflix, but my Netflix subscription includes instant streaming only which is why we cheated on Netflix with Family Video!)

I really really enjoy movies. I love the way they teach me things, expand my knowledge base, pique my imagination and take me to faraway lands from the comfort of my sofa. Watching a movie over the weekend instead of putzing around the house or wasting time on my phone reminded me how much I enjoy movies. It made me want to put my darn phone down more often and pick up a good film (or documentary) instead.

I do well with lists, so I decided to put together a “watch list” to reference the next time I find myself wasting an evening in the Bermuda Triangle of social media on my phone.

Here are some of the titles that made my list….these are all available to watch Instantly on Netflix:

The Butler: This is another Oscar film that I remember wanting to watch when I first heard about it.

Chef: This movie was recommended to me by my dad and it involves a food truck, so I’m basically sold.

Fed Up: This one is a documentary and I’m a total and complete sucker for documentary films. It talks about the crazy sugar problem in America. After doing the Whole30 and being utterly astounded at the amount of sugar in so many foods that aren’t even sweet, I’m a total sugar nazi now and scour nutrition labels to see how much sugar things contain.

The Mind of a Chef: Anthony Bourdain interviews renown chefs to learn about their creative process. There are two seasons of this show and I’d like to try a few episodes to see if it grips me as much as I think it will. You know me and food :)

Chef’s Table: This is a Netflix original 6-part documentary series that peeks inside the kitchens and minds of 6 international food stars. Netflix has proven itself pretty awesome at creating original programs and again, this one is about food, so sign me up!

I’m realizing the bulk of the items on this list aren’t even movies at all which kind of negates the point I was making in the beginning about how I want to carve out more time to enjoy movies. But they are about food and that’s another passion of mine, so you can see how I couldn’t resist them when I was making my list!

What about you?

Have you streamed anything awesome on Netflix lately??? Hit me with your recommendations, I want to add to my list!

Disclosure: I am a member of the Netflix Stream Team and will be sharing monthly tips and stories about how my family uses Netflix on a regular basis. As a member of the Stream Team I was provided with welcome kit including a voucher to apply towards my Netflix account. I was not otherwise compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

Retro Family Fun With Netflix

May 31, 2015

A couple weeks ago my sister and soon to be brother-in-law came over for a Mad Men finale dinner party. Some of us have been big fans of the show for a while now, and Andy’s always down for good food and good company ;)

I thought it would be fun to have a retro dinner party featuring food and drinks from the 60’s, the decade in which most of the show was set.

Ellen and Kevin brought the drinks (Gin & Tonics and Old Fashioneds) and garnishes (hence the perfectly coordinated fruit in the picture above) and I supplied the meal.

We started with shrimp cocktail served up in style :)

After enjoying cocktails and appetizers while listening to actual vinyl records, we headed into the dining room for the main course.

It was fun to set the table with fancy linens and our wedding china. Every time I pull all that stuff out I think about how I should do it more often!

I used this tutorial to quickly learn how to fold the cloth napkins into the crowns you see on each plate. So easy and such a fun touch!

We were all pretty hungry, so I didn’t snap any pictures, but we enjoyed Beef Wellington, Potatoes Au Gratin and Creamed Spinach.

I chose these dishes based on food featured on the show…Betty orders those sides at a restaurant in episode 2 of the first season and Beef Wellington was featured as a part of room service to Joan and Roger a few episodes later.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from foods so different than our usual repertoire, but OMG everything was so delicious!!!

I found it interesting that the potatoes didn’t call for any cheese, only crème fraîche and heavy cream which more than made up for the cheese that’s typical in so many modern potato recipes.

The Beef Wellington called for pâté , and that is hardly a common ingredient, but I know it contributed to the rich savory flavors of the beef wrapped in the light and flakey puffed pastry.

Creamed spinach may sound like some kind of torture you’d be dished up by a grumpy lunch lady, but holy yum was it good! That stuff could turn me into Popeye any day!

We hung out after dinner and let our stomachs rest while we listened to more records and got the kiddies off to bed. Shortly before the last.ever.episode of the show aired, I popped into the kitchen to whip up the topping for the Baked Alaska I’d prepped earlier in the day.

I used this recipe and was so proud of myself for pulling off a dessert that involved BAKING ICE CREAM!

I may have gone on and on about it during every commercial break. LOL

It was such a unique and delicious dessert! I know I’ll be making it again.

I thought the series finale of the show was perfect. It tied up some story lines, but still left much to the imagination. It didn’t “finish” the characters off, rather it gave us a peek into the directions they were heading.

Mad Men was such an artful drama. For me it was just as much about the costumes and design as it was about the story line. The series felt like an honest look into the past and how life was then. It was also a real display of human nature. How flawed and cyclical our lives are. People are complex and dysfunctional and contradictory and beautiful and messed up. They were then and they are now.

Netflix currently has season 1 through the first half of season 7 available to stream. I don’t have the time to re-watch the whole series, but I have gone back to watch the first few episodes again, and it’s so interesting to see how everyone started off.

We had fun talking about our favorite moments in the show and anticipating the ending. TV can often seem like a time waster, but I think when you enjoy it with people you love, it can be a cool way to bring everyone together.

I’m so glad we decided to have our little viewing party to watch the finale. It was a sweet evening that I’ll remember for years to come.

Thanks Netflix for getting me hooked on the show in the first place! Allowing me to binge watch great shows like this one commercial-free is the bomb dot com.

Netflix Stream Team

October 18, 2014

Like millions of other Americans, our family has a Netflix subscription.

AND like millions of other Americans, we love it.

I became highly disinterested in cable TV sometime after Grace was born. All my favorite channels started to have marathon after marathon of shows I didn’t like.

Any shows that did seem appealing to me were aired at times that I couldn’t watch them and, since we didn’t have a DVR, I just fell completely out of touch with what was on TV.

EXCEPT for the shows that were available on Netflix.

Because Netflix allows me to stream full seasons of my favorite shows commercial-free, I’ve become completely spoiled.

If it’s not available on Netflix, I pretty much don’t watch it.

Commercials drive me bonkers and I don’t have patience for waiting a whole week between episodes of the shows I love most.

Well, except The Walking Dead :)

But even in the case of The Walking Dead, I might never have become a huge fan had it not been for Netflix. I was skeptical about the whole plot originally (I mean zombies??? Come on!) but because I was able to watch a bunch of episodes commercial-free and then start binge watching them once I got hooked, I became a huge fan.

I know, I know, zombies.

BUT it has an incredible cast and the character development and relationships keep me coming back for more!

I digress…

We are big Netflix fans over here. Every one of us.

Thanks to their Kids Only profiles, Grace and I can scroll through show options worry-free because I know she’s not going to see anything inappropriate.

Some of her favorites are…

This one surprised me because she’s such a girly-girl, but she caught pirate fever! I like it because of all the counting and learning elements.

When it comes to manners, hygiene, and general good behavior, this one’s a favorite of mine and Grace & Avery love it too!

I only recently learned that Daniel Tiger is a descendant of the tiger on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood which was a childhood favorite of mine. Mr. Rogers was such an awesome dude.

My favorite outcome of this show has been the “You can take a turn, then I’ll get it back” song that encourages kids to share. I’ve been singing it rather frequently lately, and I think Grace is starting to understand how true it is! Sharing is such a battle with siblings, so having an arsenal of things like this jingle is really helpful.

I try to limit the time that both Grace and Avery watch TV because no matter how good the shows are, my girls get whiney and irritable if they have too much screen time.

I also don’t want them exposed to the slew of marketing out there in the form of commercials. Even the preschool cable channels have tons of commercials ranging from toys to geriatric medical supplies to pharmaceuticals.

Grace gets irritated (like me!) with commercials and just plain doesn’t need to be exposed to all of that advertising.

Netflix is a great solution. We pick what we want from their Kids Only section and I know the girls won’t be bombarded with ads.

As far as Andy and I are concerned, we love to find a mutually enjoyable show and watch the heck out of it together snuggled on the couch.

Now that he’s in his 3rd year of medical school, his study schedule has become much more manageable. It’s like we get a little bit of “normal” before he starts his crazy residency schedule.

In the spring we really fell for this show…

Parks & Rec is hilarious and super quirky. It kind of reminds me of The Office, but isn’t nearly as cringe worthy.

Amy Poehler is brilliantly funny and lovable and I cannot get enough “Ron Swanson” (played by Nick Offerman). I mean…

LOL!

Once we’d watched all of the Parks & Rec that Netflix had available, we began searching for a new show to watch together. We tried 24 for two whole seasons, but it just dragged on too much for us. I think it should have been called 12 and covered 12 hours of a day rather than the whole 24! Ha!

After hearing rave reviews, we checked out House of Cards…

It’s definitely a show for mature audiences and we fast forwarded a few scenes that were outside of what we are comfortable with, but at the end of the day it’s a fantastic political drama.

Kevin Spacey is extraordinarily cunning and the cinematography is beautiful. There were episodes that actually made me jump up off the couch in total shock.

Both seasons were gripping. You just didn’t know exactly what to expect.

I could go on and on about more of our favorite shows, but I’d love to hear recommendations from other Netflix addicts! What are you hooked on? What have your favorites been?

Let me know and I’ll be back next month with more of our favorite picks :)