2012 Wrap Up

I'm having a hard time saying that 2012 was a great year. It was a year. It had its ups and downs and made me really sick of it sometimes but it could have been a lot worse in many ways. So on this, the very last day of the year, while I sit here in my office I am very thankful for the benefits I have received this year and that for the most part, I have made it out of this year and into the next healthy and ready for more. 

In November, I tried to play catch-up with the blog and write about all of the things I have consumed but not wrote about this year. Turns out, I got distracted and didn't get around to everything. So here is a end-of-the-year wrap-up so that I can move into the new year with a clean slate. So here, for your consuming pleasure, are some mini-reviews of things. I guess I can consume a lot more media that I can create.

"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"

This is the superior Tim Burton project to come out this year. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and wouldn't mind owning it. I know a lot of people didn't like this movie because they said it was offensive to remember such a great man in this awful, false way. Come on, it's a movie! It's supposed to be totally ludicrous! Don't get your panties in such a bunch. I'm all for it.

I didn't read the comic books. I didn't see the original movie. I'm pretty sure my sweetie just wanted to go to hear the line, "I am the law." I wasn't a huge fan. Way too much gore and meat sounds. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The action was great. The discussions on time travel were fantastic. The acting was wonderful. The little kid was creepy as hell. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's fake nose was distracting. I am ready to watch this one again. 

This movie was funny. This was not the best movie of the year as some unknown source liked to claim.  This isn't an "instant classic" or anything like that. It was funny once and I will probably forget it exists by this time next year.

This was a really fantastic movie that I never got around to writing about because I didn't want to have to write about the shooting. That event terrified me. It also led to six months where I really didn't feel safe anywhere. (Actually, still not over that.) A good villain in a movie makes me really happy and this movie packed a great punch in the villain department. The one thing I wasn't a huge fan of was how glossed over Catwoman's story felt. I REALLY REALLY wanted her roommate to be Harley Quinn. In my head-cannon, she was. Eventually I would like to marathon all three movies... Especially after listening to John Hodgeman talk about the first one on a recent episode of the Nerdist podcast.

I liked the other movies better. This was still a good action film but not the best of the series. I admit I'd rather watch the Mission Impossible movies any day.

This was delightful and well worth the wait. The movie was both heartfelt and yet still light and silly. I really enjoyed where they took the story. I am curious to see if we'll get another one. I wouldn't be against it.

No brains, all big hair. If you went into the theater hoping this movie would cause more than two brain cells rub against each other, you're doing it wrong. This is pure cinematic cotton candy. All sugar, fluff and hairspray.

This is another remake that I have not seen the original of. Unlike Dredd 3d, this movie actually made me interested to see the original. The technology within the movie was really neat. I was really digging on those "Place Hand Here" phone screens. Super cool. I loved the ambiguous ending. I'm kind of happy in the pain of not knowing what was real and what wasn't. Oh, and yay for the alien with three boobs. 

Cinematically stunning. Absolutely beautiful to watch. It was so enthralling that when the tiger finally did spring into action on the boat, my sweetie lept out of his seat, arms flailing and yelled, "Oh shit!" and then I laughed at him. If Ang Lee doesn't get all of the awards, it will be a damn shame.

Get Drunk and Sugared Up with The Doctor

Okay, so you've done your best to keep the peace in your  family during this crazy holiday season. You've played LEGO with your little cousin, you've reprogrammed all of your Grandma's electronics and vanquished the flashing 12:00 of doom and now it's not for some "you" time. It's Christmas Day and you've managed to lock yourself in a closet with the tv to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special. It's time for a bit of a treat.

The Sonic Screwdriver

Makes 6 – PREP 5 mins plus chilling – NO COOK -Easy

Ingredients

3 cups orange juice

3 ripe peaches, peeled, stoned and pureed

4-5 cups lemonade

few mint leaves

few handfuls ice

Directions

1. Chill the juices, peach puree and lemonade for at least 1-2 hrs before serving.

2. Divide ice and mint leaves between glasses. Mix the juice and puree together and pour over the ice. Carefully top with the lemonade.

Mini Chocolate Dalek Cakes

Makes 6 – PREP 35 mins – COOK 20-25 mins – Moderately easy

Ingredients

1 stick of butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

1 cup light brown soft sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup self-raising flour

½ cup ground almonds

1⁄2 tsp baking soda

5 tbsp cocoa, plus a little extra for decorating

½ cup milk

To Decorate

4oz bar dark chocolate, chopped

4oz bar milk chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

6 marshmallows

1 – 2 cups chocolate drops

few thin sticks licorice or Japanese chocolate pocky sticks

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 350F. Grease and line the bases of 6 dariole moulds or individual metal pudding basins with baking parchment or grease-proof paper. Put the butter, sugar, egg, flour, ground almonds, bicarbonate, cocoa and milk in a mixing bowl. Beat together until lump-free. Divide between the tins then bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, then remove from tins and cool completely – upside-down.

2.  Mix the two chocolates in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream to just below boiling point, then pour over the chocolate and stir together until melted and smooth. Chill until thick enough to spread.

3. Use a small dot icing to stick a marshmallow to the top of each cake. Completely ice all the marshmallow-topped cakes. Dot with chocolate drops to look like the outside of a dalek, and add small sticks of licorice or pocky sticks to be the guns, arms and eye-sticks.

Special thanks to the BBC America website for these recipes! Find more here: http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/photos/doctor-who-dish/#4088

Peeta's Stuffed Cheese Buns

Peeta's Stuffed Cheese Buns

While Peeta ran hot and cold throughout the entirety of the "Hunger Games" trilogy, the one thing that always remained consistent with him was his baking. In a lot of ways, I can identify with Peeta in this regard. When all other forms of communication fail, sometimes the easiest way to say "I love you," is with hot, steaming carbs covered in cheese. Instant heaven, instant understanding. I'm all for it. Show your loved ones you care this holiday season with some cheesy, melty goodness. 

"These cheese buns are delicious. Real or not real?" Totally real, Peeta. Totally real.

1 cup warm water (probably somewhere between 105º and 115º. I just get it hot from the tap. Don't get it too hot or it will kill the yeast.)

2 tablespoons yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

-At least 8 oz. of cheese, the more the merrier (I used chunks of mozzarella for the inside and a mixture of shredded colby and swiss for the top. I was just trying to use up all the forgotten chunks in the hidden corners of the fridge)

-Parmesan cheese

-A few tablespoons of melted butter mixed with a sprinkle of garlic powder and some fresh herbs if you want. 

Mix together the yeast and water and let it sit for a couple minutes. Add the sugar, garlic powder, melted butter, and oil. Add the flour a little and a time, mixing in your stand mixer with a dough hook. Add the salt. Knead for 10 minutes, in the stand mixer or by hand. Let the dough rise in a greased bowl (I used the same bowl) covered with a wet cloth for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375º. Divide the dough into about 20 pieces or so (you can make them as big or small as you want). Put about a 3/4 inch chunk of cheese in each one and make sure you pinch all the edges back up tightly. Put the pinched side down on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle the buns with more shredded cheese and some parmesan cheese. Bake at 375ºF for about 11-15 minutes until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly. Brush with the melted butter and serve warm.

Special Thanks to FoodGawker.com for this one!

Go and check out Yammie's Noshery for the original recipe. This lady has some great pictures!

http://www.yammiesnoshery.com/2012/08/peetas-stuffed-cheese-buns.html

Ruby Sparks

I know I've been really behind on my movie reviews recently. I'm not really sure why with most of them. I love movies which means I watch quite a few of them and I guess maybe I don't want people to think I just gush all the time and I feel like sometimes I should be more critical? I don't know. If you want me to be really critical, I'll review "The Campaign."

Today I have to gush some more. I watched "Ruby Sparks," at home last night with the sick boyfriend while we ate grilled cheese and tomato soup. (Homemade grilled cheese has healing powers, at least the way I make it.) When we renting this movie, I prefaced it by saying, "This is probably going to be really silly and dumb but I have to see it anyway. This is every writer's dream."

This movie met all of my expectations and exceeded them. From her first appearance, I fell absolutely in love with Ruby. She was smart, quirky, adventurous and did a wonderful job of getting the young writer out of his comfort zone a bit. But gradually, I began to hate the writer. He took her for granted. He just assumed that because he had created her, she would always be there waiting for him. But he had managed to create a whole human and as a result, she had her own opinions about things and she wasn't content to wait around his house all day while he wrote... or tried to write... or didn't write and just brooded.

At the point when the writer realizes once again that he can play God and make Ruby do whatever he wanted, my heart broke. (I'm tearing up right now at work just thinking about it.) She was so perfect in her imperfection. I loved that she looked at the world in a different way and thought that if you named your dog after your favorite author, you were subconsciously killing your idols. See her as a puppet was devastating. I don't know know why she crawled under my skin so much. It could be that I know that if the same situation happened to pretty much any writer in the world, we'd all manage to screw it up. It is so severely dangerous to get exactly what you want.

R2's Artichoke Spread

Make yourself a dip or spread that's just as frisky as everyone's favorite droid. Also, it has been found that if you tell a kid that a robot made it, you can get them to eat just about anything... (I mean cool gourmet robots, not processed snack robots.)

R2's Artichoke Spread

Ingredients

• 28 oz. artichoke hearts (not marinated), chopped
• 1 C. mayonnaise
• 1 C. grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• Paprika for garnish

Directions

Using a food processor, combine all ingredients until coarsely chopped. Pour into an oven-proof casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until brown and bubbly. Sprinkle with paprika and serve hot with crackers. This spread can be prepared the day before and stored covered in the refrigerator. Warm in a microwave at 80% power for 3 minutes before serving.

Yield: 3 1/2 cups 

Once again, thank you to Pinterest for pointing me to the Star Wars Cookbook.

The recipe can be found also here: http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/yummy_artichoke_spread_recipe.htm

Princess Peach Surprise Cupcakes

Even if your Mario still can't seem to figure out which castle his princess is in, you can console yourself with these amazing cupcakes while you're waiting. If he's lucky, there may be one left when he finally figures it out. ;)

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon peach extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup peach puree
• red food color

Filling:

• 2 cups fresh or frozen peaches, pureed
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Frosting:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• yellow food coloring

Crown:

• fondant
• yellow food color

Directions

Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter together using an electric mixer until it looks creamy. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and peach extract until the mixture is smooth. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until almost combined. Add the buttermilk and peach puree and stir again until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and stir until all the ingredients are mixed in.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Filling:

Place small saucepan on the stove top and put on medium heat. Put the peaches and sugar in and bring to slight boil. In a separate small bowl, mix the cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water until no lumps. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan and keep on medium-low heat for about 1 minute. Cool completely before use.

Frosting:

Beat butter with mixer on medium-high speed about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating after each addition, about 5 minutes. (After every 2 additions, increase speed to high, and beat for 10 seconds, then reduce speed to medium-high). Add vanilla, and beat until smooth.

Fill the cupcakes with the peach filling and then frost with the buttercream frosting.

Once again, I found this recipe on Pinterest. Thank you Pinterest!

And thank you When Geeks Wed for the recipe! http://whengeekswed.com/blog/2012/10/11/pink-peach-cupcakes/

Hot Nerd Friday: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Big brains are sexy. This is a fact. Therefore, this man is a sex god. He could do whatever he wanted, as long as he was talking to me about space while he did it. It is so hot to find a man who knows so much about the universe who is also approachable and willing to explain things to you if you don't understand. I really appreciate a man who is so excited about the things he is studying that there is no air of aloofness concerning his knowledge. No! He is smart and he wants you to be, too!

Thank you, Dr. Tyson. You sexy, sexy scientist you...

Arya's Lemon Cakes

If you're an internet weirdo like me, you are aware that there is currently and official and at least one unofficial cookbook based on the epic book and television series, "Game of Thrones." This series for some reason inspires people too cook. I guess with all the back-stabbing and wolves howling and dragon snatching and king slaying, eventually you could probably corner a Stark into saying, "Dinner is coming."

So here are a recipe to eat while you read, watch or just to unknowingly feed to your loved ones. More to come!

Arya's Lemon Cakes

Makes 10–12 small cakes
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon lemon verbena oil or lemon extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons dried lemon verbena, crushed

1. In a large bowl, mix milk, sugar, and yeast. Set aside for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. Mix in egg, lemon verbena oil, 1 tablespoon of the butter, salt, flour, and dried lemon verbena. Beat together 5 minutes until a smooth dough is formed.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and rise in a warm spot for about 11/2 hours (until doubled in volume).
4. Heat griddle over high heat. Test by sprinkling on a little water. If griddle sizzles and water evaporates, it’s ready.
5. Lower heat to medium-low. Melt remaining tablespoon of butter on the griddle. Place muffin rings on griddle and fill halfway with batter. Cover loosely with foil and cook until cakes are browned on the bottom, about 5 minutes.
6. Using spatula or tongs, flip over each small cake and ring. Cover and cook another 5 minutes. Serve warm.

A Word of Wisdom: Muffin or crumpet rings will keep your cakes thicker and compact. If you don’t have any handy, you can cut open both ends of short, metal food cans—like those used to pack tuna. Remove the labels and wash them very thoroughly. When you’re ready to make lemon cakes, flour the inside well then use them instead of muffin rings.

Thank you to Pinterest for pointing toward this recipe!
the recipe above was found at: http://www.flavorwire.com/275253/5-delicious-recipes-inspired-by-game-of-thrones
If you are interested in the "Game of Thrones" inspired cook books they are "A Feast of Ice and Fire": http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Ice-Fire-Official-Companion/dp/0345534492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354825467&sr=8-1&keywords=game+of+thrones+cookbook

And "The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cookbook": http://www.amazon.com/The-Unofficial-Game-Thrones-Cookbook/dp/1440538727/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354825467&sr=8-2&keywords=game+of+thrones+cookbook

About Decemebr

(I began this post on December 1st. sorry it took a few days to see the light of day. It was a long, terrible weekend.)

Today is December 1st which to me, means a lot of different things. First, it means that no, there really isn't a chance I'll "win" National Novel Writing Month this year. I didn't even come close. I believe I finished with 12,500 words. I know I didn't come anywhere close to reaching my full writing potential. What can I say? I found myself getting really distracted all month. First I went down to LA to visit a bunch of my friends. No writing happened that week. I had a bunch of scarves that needed to be knit. Unfortunately, knitting doesn't count as writing. Thanksgiving? No writing done. And then the last week of November I got entirely engrossed in a quest to bring a Nerdcore show to Emerald City Comic Con next March. It really didn't matter that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I wanted a thing! The thing I learned from this experience is that it pays to know people who know things, if you want something to happen sometimes you are the best person to make it happen, and even if it doesn't go exactly as you want, good things can still result! While there will not be a nerdcore show at ECCC next year, they had already started planning a nerd rock show. So yay!

With the holidays fully on top of us and potentially rubbing its butt in our face, I would like to do something special here to celebrate. For the remainder of the month I will be posting nerd culture-inspired recipes to bring a little bit of joy to your family gatherings. So starting this afternoon, I will be posting fun recipes and I hope you will all try at least one.

Happy Holidays from Mega Nerd Queen!

MC Lars TEDx Talk

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