I thought I’d start with something light hearted and add some cute to your Friday.

Man, no one knows the value of the nap quite like dogs.

I think there’s something we can all learn here.

Everyone looks cute while napping.

And can’t we all stand to look a little cuter?

Though, sometimes, the waking up can really kill ya.

I know this sounds ridiculous but don’t expect a hamburger when you eat this… it doens’t taste like a hamburger and if that’s what you expect you’ll be disapointed. Think of it as a chicken sandwhich and it’ll be much more enjoyable.

This recipe is really quite simple. Just throw everything in a bowl and mush it all together. Ok, so the recipe calls for onions, I don’t care for onions so I left them out, but most people like them in this dish.

Form the chicken in to patties, I like 1/3 lb patties, but you can make them any size you want. If you end up with really thick patties just make sure they’re cooked all the way through. Brush the patties on both sides with a  little olive oil, since the chicken doens’t have as much fat as beef it needs a little help.

You can cook these on a grill or in the broiler, about 4 minutes on each side.

Put your chicken patty on a bun and top with whatever floats your boat…. er, burger…. whatever, you know what I mean.

Full recipe is below and also here in pdf.

Ingredients

• 1 ½-2 lbs ground chicken
• 3 tbsp water
• ¾ c crushed garlic crutons or seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• ½ c chopped onion
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• olive oil (for brushing)
• hamburger buns and other desired fixings

Directions

1. Place all ingredients except oil into a bowl and mix until well combined.
2. Form chicken mixture into patties. I usually make ⅓ lb patties.
3. Brush both sides with olive oil
4. Cook on a grill or under the broiler for about 4 minutes per side.
5. Place patties on a bun and top as desired!

First off, let me say that this book made the second one worth reading. I was hoping this would be the case and I was not dissapointed! I think Jones is maturing as an author and Entice really showcases that.

The pace of this book was much better than the first two. Book two especially was really slow to get going and then ended quite abruptly. Entice kind of starts and stops a lot but the action is spread out throughout the book and makes for a much better reading experience.

I’ve complained about the secondary characters in both previous reviews but they really get filled out in Entice. Astley plays a large role in this book and I really like him now. The relationship that develops between Astley and Zara is very sweet. It feels very reminiscent of Edward and Jacob with the whole love triangle, but sometimes I think Twilight is so ingrained in our collective minds that it’s hard to not see parallels in other YA fantasy.

Zara really comes into her own in Entice. She’s strong and powerful and willing to sacrifice herself to protect the people she cares about. She’s figuring out her place in the world and really stands on her own two feet. I found myself going “Go Zara!” a couple of times. I really like the way she’s matured through the series and I like her as a character even more now.

Really looking forward to book #4 which is scheduled for 2012.

TL;DR

• Title: Entice – Amazon site
• Author: Carrie Jones - Author’s Website
• Genre: YA Fantasy
• Length: 288 pages in paperback
• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
• Is it worth purchasing?: Yes, but I’d recommend getting the whole series used since the first two are a little rough.

The Problem

Let me be clear. I don’t have body image issues. I do want to be smaller but I don’t hate my body the way it is. I’m also not unhealthy, but everything points to the inevitability that I will be unhealthy if I continue to maintain this weight.

Let me be clear on another point. I’m not talking 15 or 20 pounds here. I’m talking closer to 100 pounds that I could stand to loose. I’m 5’4″ and weigh a little over 250 (I say a little over because I haven’t actually stepped on a scale in a while and I don’t know for sure).

No matter how you slice it, I need to loose some weight. It puts me at a higher risk for countless diseases and conditions. I’ve already got problems with my knees and carrying weight only makes it worse. It’s likely that one of the contributing factors to my infertility issues is my weight. Let’s also throw in the fact that shopping for clothes can be very difficult because I have to go to specialty stores. Doing things like flying are very uncomfortable because I don’t fit in the seats very well.

The Solution

The solution for me, and your mileage may vary of course, is to set realistic, achievable goals with short term goals to keep me motivated. Duh, I know. Some people think that overly ambitious goals will motivate you to reach farther than you might not have otherwise. “Aim for the moon and even if you miss you’ll be amongst the stars.” That’s fine in theory, but in practice I get overwhelmed if I try for too much. If I start small, the success encourages me and I’m more likely to keep going past that small goal.

I also have to change things slowly. I’ve done the thing where I change everything overnight, extreme diet, exercise, all at once and it doesn’t work for me. I wind up miserable and overwhelmed and quit before I’ve gotten anywhere. This time, I’m going to change one thing every 2-3 weeks.

The Goal

I’m starting out with a smaller goal. My goal is to get below 200 pounds in the next 12 months. My goal for the next 2 weeks is to go to the gym for 30 minutes of cardio 3 days each week and to bring my lunch to work every weekday. I’m going to put some progress bars up on the side bar to keep me accountable.

Feel free to share your goals with me and we can encourage each other!!

Start by slicing your squash lengthwise. Cut each one in half and each piece in half again to make 4 slices.

Lay the slices out on a cookie sheet covered with foil and brush with melted butter or oil.

Sprinkle your squash with some fresh ground black pepper. I don’t recommend salting them since the cheese adds quite a bit of saltiness. Then sprinkle with cheese… yummmmmy cheese… cheeeeeeeeeeeesse…. Sorry about that, please ignore the drool dripping off my chin.

Bake your little squashes for about 20 minutes. For a really great finish, broil them for the last 5 minutes or so but watch carefully, the cheese can go from golden-brown-and-delicious to black-and-burned very quickly.

Full recipe below and here in pdf.

Ingredients

• 1 Zucchini
• 1 Yellow squash
• 3 Tbs butter, melted
• ½ c Parmesan Cheese
• Fresh ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Slice zucchini and squash lengthwise into 4 slices.
3. Arrange slices on a foil covered cookie sheet. Brush with melted butter
4. Sprinkle with a little fresh ground pepper then with Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake for 20 minutes, until cheese is golden brown. For best results broil the last 5 minutes

Synopsis: Zara and her friends knew they hadn’t solved the pixie problem for good. Far from it. The king’s needs grow deeper every day he’s stuck in captivity, while his control over his people gets weaker. It’s made him vulnerable. And now there’s a new king in town. A turf war is imminent, since the new pixie king, Astley, is moving in quickly. Nick nearly killed him in the woods on day one, but Zara came to his rescue. Astley swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he’s one of the good guys. Nick isn’t buying it, though Zara isn’t as sure — despite herself, she wants to trust the new king. But it’s a lot more than her relationship with Nick that is at stake. It’s her life — and his.

Like the first book, the writing is very stream of consciousness. This time though it was much more chaotic and I felt like I was being whipped around in a tornado. Like the first book, you really identify with Zara’s emotions… she’s just a little further off the deep end now. Maybe that’s the point.

I think my biggest beef with this book is the utter lack of a specific antagonist. The “Bad Guy” is an amophorus group of bad pixies, distinct from the good pixies (this is a paradigm shift from book 1). They don’t really do much, Astley just talks about how they’re out of control and he wants to stop them. They’re the only people I can point my finger at as the bad guys but there’s no conflict witht them. The primary conflict is all internal. The whole book is a set up for Zara to make one decision. Then, BAM. She makes it, and the book is over. I felt really let down when I finished it.

The secondary characters are much the same… flat. We’re introduced to two new characters who both have lots of potential, but like the bad guy in book 1, don’t quite live up to it. Astley seems so very one-track-minded and his obsession with Zara never made any sense to me. I think it was supposed to be a destiny thing, but I never quite got there. I really hope Cassidy gets a chance to shine in the third book, she’s got the potential to be a lot of fun, but we spend most of book 2 very suspicious of her.

One redeeming thing from the book is the references to Buffy. As a child of the 90′s, I really enjoyed that. There’s even one point where Issie says to Zara “I have them all downloaded, if you’d just watch Buffy you’d understand all of this.” It made me chuckle.

TL;DR

• Title: Captivate – Amazon link
• Author: Carrie Jones – Author’s website
• Genre: YA Fantasy
• Length: 304 pages in paperback
• Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
• Is it worth purchasing: I wouldn’t purchase new. If the third book winds up being good, then it might be worth a used purchase just to get to the third book. If you liked the first book, the second’s worth a check out at the library

Synopsis: When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin. But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own. To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic…

It’s taken me several days to be able to write this review. I downloaded the book on Tuesday morning, the day it was released and was finished by Wednesday evening. I’m a huge fan of this series and its author Jim Butcher.

If you haven’t read the rest of the series… it’s a bit daunting, this is book #13. If you’re really opposed to getting into something this long, you could probably get away with reading Changes (#12) and then Ghost Story. Jim Butcher’s website also has sample chapters of all his books, you can probably get a good idea if the series is worth the time investment from that.

If you’re familiar with the series, Ghost Story won’t dissapoint. This book feels a little different from the others, it’s a more introspective story. Harry’s forced to really take stock of his life and how his choices have affected others… he doesn’t always like what he sees in himself. As usualy Harry’s beeing manipulated by outside sources, and hopefully he’s going to come out the other side of this experience with some new perspective.

The story is full of the dry wit and self-deprecating humor we’ve come to expect from Harry. I found myself laughing out loud in several places. There’s not as much action as we usually see in a Dresden novel, but that’s to be expected… Harry’s a ghost.

As usual the supporting cast is excellent. We meet a few new characters and get to know a few old ones a little better (the villain is a repeat offender). Mortimer Lundquist features heavily, as does the usual crew of Murphy, Molly, and Butters. Some of my favorites are notably absent, but it all makes sense by the end.

It’s [SPOILER] and I love it when [REDACTED]. The ending is [BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP]. Sorry, I think I’ll have to restrain myself, the spoilers abound.

When some authors get several sucessful titles under their belt sometimes editors take a hands-off approach and the work suffers for it. This came up in the comments of a post over at Tami’s site. This book doesn’t suffer from the rambly, wandering novels we’ve seen come out of notable authors lately(George RR Martin and Charliane Harris, I’m looking at you!). Kudos to Jim Butcher and his editor for continuing to put out a superior product

One of the reasons I waited a little while to write this is so that I could get a little distance and maybe see a flaw or two. It’s been nearly a week and I can’t think of a single complaint. Either I’m just that big of a fangirl or it’s just that good. Hopefully it’s the latter!

TL;DR

• Title: Ghost Story - Amazon Link
• Author: Jim Butcher – author’s website
• Genre: Urban Fantasy
• Length: 496 pages in hardback
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• Is it worth purchasing: Unreservedly yes! In hardback!

Chris Evans played a wonderful Steve Rodgers. He really seems to be coming into his own as an actor and this role really let him shine. Unlike Johnny Storm, this character has a little depth to him! Evans has great comedic timing and delivered some really funny lines. His interaction with Peggy was sweet and heartfelt and made me just want to pinch his cheeks. Some of the other characters fall a little flat. Johann Schmidt in particular is little more than a foil for Cap. Dr. Abraham Erskine and Col. Phillips however, stand out as excellent supporting characters, though how can you go wrong with Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones?

Next thing I want to talk about is the CG… there’s a lot of it. I usually find lots of CG distracting. My brain likes to look for it and then analyzes how good it is and I wind up thinking about the effects and not the movie. Captian America was no different. I spent the first 30 minutes trying to figure out how they made Evans look like a 90 pound toothpick instead of getting to know his character. On the other hand, most of it was done really well. It was smooth and seamless; everything from the first part of the movie really reminded me of old school comics. The Stark Expo espcially brought to mind all the old black and white Superman shows I used to watch as a kid.

I’m saving this for the end because it’s a little spoilery. I’d recommend not reading if you haven’t seen the movie:

SPOILER ALERT

Something Scott Kurtz of PvP mentioned also hit home with me. The good Dr. Erskine was an excellent character and Stanley Tucci was excellent as well. As a person of German heritage I greatly appreciate how they handled Dr. Erskine’s character. He reminds us that Nazi and German aren’t synonymous. A lot of Germans weren’t in for all of Hitler’s genocide, they just wanted a better life after the economic depression of WWI. Hitler promised a better life. I caught some flack in school for being proud of my German ancestors, mostly from stupid kids who didn’t know any better. My family immigrated to the US in the mid to late 1800′s, they fought against Napoleon as Germans and as Americans in WWII.

Anywhoo, I’m getting side tracked. I just really appreciate that the writers and director took the time to make a real, sympathetic German character in the movie.

TL;DR

• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
• Take the kids? It’s rated PG13. Skip it for the little ones, I don’t think there’s anyting they’d enjoy, but over 10 or so should be ok. If they’re sensitive to violence you might want to preview it first, but there’s nothing gory or bloody that sticks out in my mind. Of course, YMMV.
• Length: 124 mins, if you need to go to the bathroom, go right after Cap rescues the soldiers there’s a little lul and you won’t miss any important plot points (though you will miss the Stan Lee cameo)

About Chris Evans: that man has eyelashes that make me want to cry, they’re so long and dark and thick. I’m jealous.

No couscous.

Not to be discouraged, I started perusing the pantry. I found quinoa. If you’re not familiar with quinoa it’s a grain that’s cooked just like rice. The grains are smaller than rice, but bigger than couscous (which isn’t a grain at all, but that’s another post). I don’t think it has much flavor on it’s own, but will soak up the flavors of whatever it’s cooked or served with.

I started pondering what I would need to change to add the cranberries and here’s what I came up with (it’s more of a guideline than a recipe):

• Cook the quinoa as directed, you usually boil water, add quinoa, cover and simmer for about 15 mins. The liquid is all absorbed just like cooking rice.
• I cooked the quinoa wtih chicken broth (which I almost always do, adds a little extra flavor) but water would work fine. You could even replace some of the water with juice, OJ might be interesting.
• Add the dried cranberries at the same time as the quinoa, I’d recommend 1 or 2 tablespoons per cup of uncooked quinoa. The cranberries plump up while cooking, if you want smaller pieces you could chop them first.
• Add just a tiny bit extra broth since the cranberries will absorb some of the cooking liquid. I’d say about a tablespoon per cup of water. If you wind up with too much liquid you can cook a few minutes longer without the lid to cook some if it off.
• I’d imagine you could do this with any dried or frozen fruit or veggie. If using frozen you don’t need to add extra water and it’s probably best to thaw them before adding in with the quinoa.
• Fresh herbs would be a nice addition as well. Cilantro, parsley, and rosemarry all sound like appetizing options to me.

If you try other variations let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear how it turns out.

P.S. Sorry folks, I forgot, again, to take a picture of the finished product. Thus the generic picture of uncooked quinoa you see at the top.

I was not prepared for how tough it would be to loose a dog. Missy was my first dog.

I’ve now written and deleted about 7 sentences for that paragraph and I don’t like any of them, so I’m just giving up and starting a new one. I’m finding this whole thing to be really crappy. I miss my dog.

I miss her snoring in bed at night.

I miss the way she would reach out to us with her paw because she just wanted to touch us, didn’t need anything else, just wanted to touch us.

I miss the way she would suck on her favorite toy like a pacifier.

I miss her soft ears and how she liked them scratched in a specific way.

I miss how she would run to the door when The Hubby came home.

I miss my dog.

I’m very glad we have another dog, Zoey. I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to come home to an empty house that night a month ago. Thankfully we had a dog to hug and love on. A dog who misses Missy too. Zoey’s afraid to go outside by herself. I think all she knows is that Missy went outside and never came back. We have had to go back to going outside with her every time she goes to the bathroom because she won’t leave the back door unless one of us goes with her. Zoey spent about a week staring out the window next to the front door… I think she was looking for Missy.

I’m not sure where I’m going with all this, I think I just needed to get some thoughts out. Hopefully going through all this today will make it easier to move on. We’ll always love Missy and we’ll always miss her but I’m just waiting for it to hurt a little less.

If you have a dog, go give them a hug right now… tell them you love them and appreciate every day with them.