Leave Paula Deen Alone!

I'm so sick of everyone picking on Paula Deen.

I saw a headline the other day that said, Paula Deen photographed eating a cheeseburger.

Yes, she has diabetes.

So does my mom. My mom also has heart disease.

She's still here.

Granted Paula's recipes are not health conscious. They aren't supposed to be. Down home cooking is never healthy. And Paula isn't telling you to eat her cooking every day of your life.

Even a diabetic can splurge every now and then.

I am so sick of everyone butting into our lives.  If I want to eat a meal full of butter, fat and calories, that's my business. And it's Paula's too.

Leave her alone!

Her health is not our business.

'Burgh Band Hits #1! Sort Of.

A little while ago, Pittsburgh's pop-punk darlings Punchline embarked on a quest to have the #1 album on iTunes with their new EP, So Nice to Meet You. Bassist Chris Fafalios threatened to quit if they didn't succeed, but I think most Punchline fans knew he wouldn't. We chose to indulge him anyway while naysayers sat back, called him a douche, and said the band only wanted money and the whole thing was a publicity stunt. I can see how it looked that way on the outside, but anyone who's ever been to a Punchline show knows the opposite.

The boys succeeded--almost. They hit I #7 overall and did take #1 in rock. Pretty impressive. All because their fans pushed to make it happen. People were banding together, buying copies for people who couldn't afford it, etc. It was pretty cool to watch it unfold on Facebook and Twitter, and it was great to see the band so happy about something they admitted they didn't think would happen.

And the songs are good--really good. Delicious and sweet pop rock, all about love. "Universe" and "Everything I Wanted" are the immediate standouts, with Punchline's distinguished sound, great lyrics, and infectious hooks. Check it out for yourself. And no pressure to get them high on the charts this time.

By the way, although the release did coincide with singer Steve Soboslai's appearance on the show "Mobbed," I'd hardly call his valiant and successful attempt to woo a lady by singing "I Want You to Want Me" a publicity stunt. I call that smart marketing and an adorable tie-in of sorts to the show. The cover is even featured on the EP, and Punchline's one of those bands that can really rock a solid cover.

Must See TV: The Finder

Fox has a new and awesome detective show going on. I try not to fall for shows on this network because they like to cancel them without giving them much of a shot, but this one is one I simply can't resist.

Geoff Stults as Walter Sherman is fabulous and he is so cute. His character reminds me a bit of Shawn Spencer from Psych but he's smarter and not as obnoxious. But the character I really love is Michael Clarke Duncan as Leo Knox.

Here's the show's summary via its official Fox website:
From the creator of the hit series BONES comes THE FINDER, a quirky, one-hour procedural centering on a different kind of detective: a remarkable man with the extraordinary ability to help people find the unfindable.
Iraq war veteran WALTER SHERMAN (Geoff Stults) gained a reputation in his army days as being the go-to guy for tracking down insurgents and deserters and finding improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Unfortunately one IED found Walter before he could find it, resulting in severe brain damage with a lasting and unexpected effect. Walter transformed from someone skilled at the standard recovery of people and things to someone much more extraordinary: a Finder.

If you are a fan of Bones you definitely want to check out the episode called Bullets, because Sweets is abused rather amusingly in that show. I really hope this show sticks around, it has a lot of potential, and I love that it isn't the typical cop/detective/lawyer show.

Falling Out Of Love With You

Oh Duran Duran, how I used to love thee.

Age has not been very kind to some of you and your music has lost its luster.

There are a lot of artists I love, but I don't usually find myself losing affection for them, however Duran Duran are different.

They have put out shitty album after shitty album since the early 90s, with one or two gems in between. Ok, one gem. If you listen to any Duran Duran album recorded after The Wedding Album, let it be Astronaut. That album won't disappoint you, especially if you love the sound of their earlier material such as Rio and Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

I found myself listening to the band again today and found myself loving the stuff pre-1992. Any time any of the newer material came on I wanted to change my playlist.

I don't think I've ever felt this way about a band. I get so disappointed by their music these days. I doubt I'll buy their next album without hearing the whole thing first.

Things I Suck At

I believe in being honest with myself and to do that I have to come to terms with my shortcomings, and boy do I have a lot of them.

Here are a few of the things I suck at.

1. Organization: I try and I try but chaos is all I'm good at.

2. Housecleaning: Somehow I think that goes hand in hand with organization.

3. Laundry: I procrastinate here. I hate laundry. It is a lonely chore. Before my grandmother passed away, I almost enjoyed it because we had time to catch up on things while we used her old ringer washer, but now..it is a lonely thankless chore and I hate doing it and probably suck at it too...cos I don't believe in ironing!

4. Multi-tasking: OK just can't do it...I try and try but I never succeed.

What are some of the things you suck at?

Arrrrr! Pirates Everywhere

SOPA/PIPA has me thinking.

All the big wig industries want to limit our freedoms because of piracy. Piracy is bad. I understand that.

If you are a recording artist/author/actress...you want people to pay for your product.

Makes sense

However it would be nice if the publishers/record companies/movie studios would stop gouging consumers for that product.

Oddly, I think that music piracy has helped the recording industry in knowing what is fair in pricing. (At least with digital media). A full album is seldom more than $9.99, which is actually what albums cost on vinyl many many moons ago. There are also many deals on new releases where you can get the album much cheaper than that. Physical CDs are priced too high...but I guess that explains why most people don't buy them anymore. Why buy a CD when you can get the download. Who needs the cases and liner notes? (I do..but I'm in a minority here)

The cost of movies etc...is just ridiculous all the way around. That's all I can say on that front. Tis a shame the films coming out these days are mostly crap..it is no wonder people don't want to pay for them, but hey at when you buy a DVD it is cheaper than taking your girlfriend/boyfriend/child to the theater.

With books however, digital copies are priced almost as high as the book. It really is amazing there isn't more piracy there. I guess it is because reading isn't as cool. But I have to gripe that a trade paperback copy of The Woman in Black was priced at $10.99 and the ebook $9.99.

WTF!

Oh and a further gripe...if I buy a print copy of a book, I can share that with a friend or as many friends as I'd like..that's not the case with ebooks.

It really is no wonder piracy abounds in the entertainment world.

Rant ended..I'll step off my soap box for awhile

Madonna VS Elton

Elton and his hubby David are seething because Madonna won the Golden Globe for Masterpiece from the film, W.E. Elton's song was Hello Hello with Lady Gaga. The scary thing about Hello Hello, is that Gaga sounds oddly like Stevie Nicks.

Here are both songs, I have to say both are great songs:


Hello Hello


Masterpiece


To be honest, I think Madonna's song is superior and feels right for the award. It really is one of Madge's better offerings in years.

What do you think?

Too Many Novellas Out There

I love a good book. I also love to discover new authors. Thanks to book blogging I've found quite a few great new writers in many genres that I absolutely adore.

What I can't stand about self publishing is that so many of the stories out there are novellas. W

Hmmm

I wonder how much that stupid Nanowrimo has to do with it? The word count of Nano is less than most Harlequin romances, m'kay and they are usually only about 180 pages.

Alot of the novellas out there have to be the results of Nanowrimo.

I despise Nanowrimo.

Ebooks are entirely too expensive when it comes to novellas.

$3.99 for 100 pages?

I don't fucking hardly think so.

Now I know many writers get on the discount train for Amazon and Barnes and Noble...so that the books cost is taken down to about a buck, but still, it leaves me feeling I didn't get my moneys worth.

How apt are you to buy a novella in print form or ebook form?

Something To Ponder

Each week as I enter payroll taxes at work, I marvel at our stupidity. You know that Payroll Tax issue between the democrats and the republicans?

Well here's the thing...that bit of savings that doesn't really amount to much in your paychecks is a decrease in the employees contribution to Social Security.

Social Security is something that's failing because the gov't keeps dipping their greedy hands into it.

Yet we want to decrease our contribution to it...so we can have more money here and now.

That's nice in theory but when you think hard about it, it is pretty stupid.

Now I'm not one to side with Republicans on anything.

I can't fathom a good thing about any of them, especially the ones running for President, but what I do know is that sometimes I find that most of the country is uninformed about all the goings on in Congress.

We're scared of what may happen to Social Security and Medicare down the road, but we want the tax savings that may kill Social Security.

Doesn't make much sense.

Seriously....I think everyone in Washington should be fired.

Beyonce and Baby Blue Ivy

Am I the only one that wants to scream that Blue Ivy (can you say stupid name) is just a freaking baby like all the other babies in the world.

I mean this kid is just another soon to be pampered and obnoxious child, like Suri, or any child spawned by Brangelina etc or rather bought by Brangelina.

It isn't as if this is the child of Prince William and Duchess Catherine who would at least grow up to be king or queen of England. Some wouldn't agree that that child would be special either, you know if Duchess Catherine were indeed pregnant...(is she? isn't she...is it twins...yada yada)

I'm just so sick of the media going on and on about this child, like it was royalty or Jesus Christ returning.

Uh no...you are just the child of some talented people. (And that is debatable too).

Take Me To The Movies

The next few weeks are filled with movies that I desperately want to see. Some of them cheesy...some not so cheesy.

I'm dying to see Joyful Noise with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. Those two alone could make the crappiest movie enjoyable, plus they will be singing...so it can't be all bad, right?


Next up is One For The Money. This one I'm 100% sure is going to be godawful, but I've been a fan of the Stephanie Plum novels forever and a day. I love them, even though they aren't nearly as good as they once were.  I want to see this one because sometimes watching a trainwreck can be really fun.

I mean, can you imagine  Katherine Heigl eating Krimpets? I think not? Stephanie Plum was a real woman...oh and Morelli was erm...Italian..and Jason O'Mara, while super hot...is not. I'm also having a hard time wrapping my mind around Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur.

Lastly, I really really really must see The Woman In Black, I also really must read the book.

I think I'll buy a print copy so I can drool on the cover for awhile.

Dear God, Daniel Radcliffe is hot.

Weekend Tunes

I discovered Schuyler Fisk this weekend and one of the songs I've totally fallen in love with is called Paperweight, which she recorded with Josh Radin. It appears on the soundtrack for Dear John and The Last Kiss.

Have a listen to a live version and fall in love with



Oh and lastly...Mika can sing anything...and he can sing it in French...

The Hardest Part Of The Christmas Season

I don't know about you, but I hate taking down the Christmas decorations. I can fully understand the people that leave their lights etc up all year long. There's something terribly depressing about it.

I started the process of dismantling one of the 3 trees we have up in our house, and it is a slow process. I love my Christmas trees. In fact, the tree is the thing I love the most about the holiday...ok aside from the cookies. I hate putting them away.

When the tree goes up there is a sense of anticipation....When it comes down it feels so sad...There's a whole bleak year ahead of us until next Christmas.

I'm not a fan of the hustle and bustle of the holiday, but I love the lights and the decorations. I always have. When it goes away...it makes me just a little bit sad. Maybe that's why the months of Jan-March are so miserable...its dark and dreary and cold and yucky and there are no pretty lights to brighten up the winter months.

Something I Don't Understand

Why do I always forget to load my gift cards when I'm making purchases at Barnes and Noble?

I don't do this for Amazon.

In fact, most of the time I have my gift cards preloaded to my account.

Sadly that's not the case with B & N.

I have a $25.00 gift card that I got for Christmas and it is sitting downstairs. I bought 2 ebooks for my Nook tonight and do you think I was intelligent enough to load that card to my account.

Hell no!

So I paid $6.00 for something I didn't have to.

Pardon me while I put my head on the desk.

I'm so stupid!

Please tell me that I'm not the only one that has ever done this.

A Childhood Favorite

I got an email from TCM annnouncing that Angela Landsbury was the featured actress of the month and it listed Bedknobs and Boomsticks as one of her films.

Believe it or not, I've never seen that film, but it did get me looking on Amazon for movies that I watched as a kid.

Some of my childhood favorites were Yellow Submarine and Willy Wonka (Even though the Oompah Loompahs scared the crap out of me). But the other film I absolutely loved as a kid was Pete's Dragon.

When I was little, I must have watched this film dozens of times, and that was before VHS and DVD.

I had a Little Golden Book copy of the story that I read all the time.


Like the Pixar films of today, the story is a bit depressing at times. But how can you not love Elliot the dragon?

I think I'm going to have to buy a copy of this one so I can revisit it now and again.

What movies did you love to watch as a kid?

Best Beatle Cover Ever!

I've found that Elvis Costello is one of the few artists that can cover a song by The Beatles and do it admirably. The first cover I heard was You've Got To Hide Your Love Away.

More recently he covered Penny Lane at the White House when Paul McCartney was honored.

Have a listen.



Bloody brilliant, isn't it?

2011 in Review

This was a very busy year for news both entertainment wise and "real world" wise.

~ Republicans still don't have a clue who may get the nomination. (Its hard to pick a wingnut when there are so many of them around)

~ Many many weddings this year...some high profile (Prince William and Duchess Catherine) Kim and Kris (which ended 72 days later)...some low profile...Big Ben.

~ Many celebrity deaths: Liz Taylor, Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H), Bill Keane (Family Circus), Andy Rooney, Elisabeth Sladen and Steve Jobs to name but a few.

~ Some great albums released this year...Miranda Lambert had 2...Erasure, Lady Gaga.

~ Some very interesting new television: Once Upon A Time, The Unforgettable, 2 Broke Girls, Grimm to name a few.

Share some of your favorite highlights or lowlights of 2011.

Merry Christmas!

A little interesting tidbit I learned about the English custom of plum pudding. The recipe has its roots in Catholicism.

Here's a bit of what I learned about the Puddin' via Wikipedia.

Basics

Many households have their own recipe for Christmas pudding, some handed down through families for generations. Essentially the recipe brings together what traditionally were expensive or luxurious ingredients - notably the sweet spices that are so important in developing its distinctive rich aroma, and usually made with suet. It is very dark in appearance - effectively black - as a result of the dark sugars and black treacle in most recipes, and its long cooking time. The mixture can be moistened with the juice of citrus fruits, brandy and other alcohol (some recipes call for dark beers such as mild, stout or porter).

Christmas puddings are often dried out on hooks for weeks  prior to serving in order to enhance the flavor. This pudding has been prepared with a traditional cloth rather than a basin.

Prior to the 19th century, the English Christmas pudding was boiled in a pudding cloth, and often represented as round. The new Victorian era fashion involved putting the batter into a basin and then steaming it, followed by unwrapping the pudding, placing it on a platter, and decorating its top with a sprig of holly.
Initial cooking usually involves steaming for many hours (the period can be shortened without loss of quality by using a pressure cooker). To serve, the pudding is reheated by steaming once more, and dressed with warm brandy which is set alight. It can be eaten with hard sauce, brandy butter, rum butter, cream, lemon cream, custard, or sweetened béchamel, and is sometimes sprinkled with caster sugar.

History

The plum pudding's association with Christmas goes back to medieval England with the Roman Catholic Church's decree that the "pudding should be made on the 25th Sunday after Trinity, that it be prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles, and that every family member stir it in turn from east to west to honor the Magi and their supposed journey in that direction".^[1] Recipes for plum puddings appear mainly, if not entirely, in the 17th century and later. Their possible ancestors include savory puddings such as those in Harleian MS 279, crustades,^[4] malaches whyte,^[5] creme boiled (a kind of stirred custard), and sippets. Various ingredients and methods of these older recipes appear in early plum puddings.
Features of these recipes were combined or refined in ways that could have yielded plum pudding recipes. For example, combining the stirred custard with sippets makes it into a fool, a contemporary of early plum puddings, which is very similar to a pudding. Some early custard tarts, such as the crustade lumbard in Harleian MS 279, are only unlike plum puddings in that they are held together by a pastry crust and not by crumbs or meal. Malaches whyte, another kind of pastry, has a filling of eggs, bread crumbs, and butter, but no plums. So a fully developed plum pudding recipe could be derived from the above list of possible ancestors by some recombination. This is not to say that there were no other ancestors, only that there need not have been any.
Although it took its final form in Victorian England, the pudding's origins can be traced back to the 1420s, to two sources. It emerged not as a confection or a dessert at all, but as a way of preserving meat at the end of the season. Because of shortages of fodder, all surpluses livestock were slaughtered in the autumn. The meat was then kept in a pastry case along with dried fruits acting as a preservative. The resultant large "mince pies" could then be used to feed hosts of people, particularly at the festive season. The chief ancestor of the modern pudding, however, was the pottage, a meat and vegetable concoction originating in Roman times. This was prepared in a large cauldron, the ingredients being slow cooked, with dried fruits, sugar and spices added. In the 15th century, Plum pottage was a sloppy mix of meat, vegetables and fruit served at the beginning of a meal.^[6]
In 1714, King George I (sometimes known as the Pudding King) requested that plum pudding be served as part of his royal feast in his first Christmas in England. A recipe for "plum porridge" appeared in Christmas Entertainments in 1740.^[1] As techniques for meat preserving improved in the 18th century, the savory element of both the mince pie and the plum pottage diminished as the sweet content increased. The mince pie kept its name, though the pottage was increasingly referred to as plum pudding. Although the latter was always a celebratory dish it was originally eaten at the Harvest Festival, not Christmas. It was not until the 1830s that the cannon-ball of flour, fruits, suet, sugar and spices, all topped with holly, made a definite appearance, becoming more and more associated with Christmas. In 1747, London food writer Hannah Glasse had given a recipe for Christmas plum porridge, but it appears that East Sussex cook Eliza Acton was the first to refer to it as "Christmas Pudding" in her cookbook.^[7]

I Found A Funny @ Groupon

Take a look at this guide to Body Language from the Groupon website.

I love how snarky this is..

To communicate, humans use body language 95% of the time and slogans they learned from pizza commercials for the other 5%. Communicate clearly using this guide to the language of the human body:




• Holding Hands: Couples are often seen holding hands during the beginning stages of a relationship because they're trying to memorize each other’s fingerprints—a critical part of the test to get a marriage license. For non-couples, holding hands is a way to gauge each other's hand sweat; whoever is sweating less is not as alive as the other person and should be rushed to the nearest adrenaline-producing skate park.



• Crossing Your Arms: Crossing your arms holds your organs in, letting people know that you love yourself for what’s on the inside, not just for your good outer looks.



• Hugging: People used to wrap their arms around each other so that they could punch each other in the back more easily without their sympathetic-looking faces getting in the way. Today, hugging is taboo, because it just looks too disgusting to see two grown adults embrace each other.



• Shaking Your Head: Shaking your head slowly lets people know that something is "a crying shame," and shaking your head vigorously means that you just had such a sick thought that you're trying to shake your brain out of your skull

Mmmm Nutella

I love making cookies...and a few weeks ago I found a basic cookie dough recipe that can used in making 3 different cookies...

Allow me to share them with you. They appeared in last week's Relish magazine..

Here's the basic dough

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour


1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla



Instructions

Sift flour, baking powder and salt onto wax paper.

Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar and beat with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until evenly blended. Dough can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 3 days. Makes about 4 cups dough.


And now for the Nutella Sandwich Cookies

For rolled cookies, always start with cold dough,


Ingredients



2 cups Basic Cookie Dough

1/4 cup Nutella

1/2 cup powdered sugar



Instructions



Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.

Divide 2 cups of Basic Cookie Dough into 4 pieces. Wrap 3 pieces individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Roll remaining piece on a sheet of lightly floured wax paper to about 3/8-inch thickness. Cut into 9 (2-inch rounds); arrange 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until tops look done. Let cool on cookie sheet 3 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire rack; let cool completely.

Spread Nutella on half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies. Dust with powdered sugar.