MiaMas Dinner

Since Ms. Mia's birthday falls on Christmas her family celebrates by letting her pick what they're eating for dinner. This year, Mia went southern. Well, her version of southern that is. 

She also celebrates by sending me photos in the middle of the night and taunting me with things I won't be eating. At least she's nice enough to send the recipe so that we can make this dinner if we so choose. 

I've never heard of cherry ribs but it sounds great. Miamas also included Frank's Red Beans and a chocolate ganache cheesecake, Mia celebrates in style!

I don't really cook ribs, I love them but when I buy pork ribs I cut it up to use for soups. These ribs look so delicious and sounds so good that I might try and make them this week before the new year and the healthy eating really kicks in. I don't think Nancy will mind. 

Justified

Justified is one of my favorite shows on TV. It's so good that when it's on, I usually watch the repeat right after it airs. It's so good that FX just recently ran a marathon of episodes in the middle of the night and I stayed up until 5am watching it, even though I had seen every episode!

Raylan Givens, as played by Timothy Olyphant reminds me of Doc Holliday as played by Val Kilmer on the movie Tombstone. He's a tall drink of cool water and I'm thirsty. Raylan is a US Marshall in Harlan County, KY where he grew up which makes for complicated relationships with his father (a petty criminal) and the main antagonist, Walton Goggin's Boyd Crowder who used to be Raylan's best friend.

Egg Nog Bread

My friend Stephanie recently posted a photo of some egg nog bread that she made and it looked so delicious I asked for the recipe, after all, I have some home made egg nog sitting in my fridge waiting to be imbibed, or in this case, eaten.

I just made a batch and my roommate delivered them to my family, still warm. My sister called me and the first words out of her mouth were, "tell me you have more muffins!" You can't beat that reaction!

My sister was surprised to hear this was made with egg nog. She was like me, she didn't think she liked egg nog. If you have tried egg nog in the past and not liked it, I would recommend making your own. It makes all of the difference.

Egg Nog Recipe

My brother-in-law Jeff loves egg nog, I've never been a big fan but since Jenn shared her family recipe with me I decided to make this for Christmas this year. I have to say, I am now a fan of egg nog! 

The egg nog I've had in the past had flavors in it I didn't really like, the great thing about making it myself is, I controlled what flavors went in and kept it pretty simple. 

When Nancy found out I was making this she suggested I double the batch. Turns out she's a fan of egg nog also. It was a good call on her part, it's going to go quickly. I've had 2 glasses of it already. I had to do quality control on each batch. 

Jenn suggests making the egg nog a few days before Christmas to let the rum really work its way into everything. If it tastes this good already, I can't wait to see how it tastes on Christmas day!

Darlene Love

It's not Christmas until Darlene Love sings "Baby, Please Come Home" on Late Night With David Letterman. It's a holiday tradition for Dave and it's a holiday tradition for me. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs and I love that she sings it every year. She still looks fabulous and sounds amazing. Now, it feels like Christmas to me.

Home-Made Salted Caramels

I found this recipe on Pinterest, my favorite place to find new recipes. Photos definitely help inspire me. Pinterest is a wonderful tool for bloggers so don't forget to pin any photos on here of recipes that you like. :)

I wanted to make this for Thanksgiving but football was on and I still thought I had a shot of winning at that time so I had my nephew make this Thanksgiving morning with Nancy supervising while I supervised them from the couch. This recipe is so simple and easy Jordan had it memorized by the second batch.

Peppermint Meringues

I haven't made these in a couple of years since I was living in FL last year and flew in for Christmas. I love them. A light holiday candy to counter balance all of the cookies and fudge, not that those aren't wonderful, I normally don't eat a lot of either of them. These, I love. Since I changed the original recipe I couldn't remember how much peppermint extract I added, so I added too much last night but I found my original write up from my old blog so you don't have to have such strong meringues as we are eating.

Fun Foto Friday - Bradley Cooper

I was a huge fan of the tv show Alias, and  loved the character of Will played by Bradley Cooper. I was bummed they never  made him a real love interest for Jennifer Garner's character. That would have been a fun triangle, I'd love to be in the middle of a Bradley Cooper/Michael Vartan sandwich! 

The Museum of TV and Radio had a seminar with the cast of Alias and I was in heaven. All of the cast was extremely nice but there was one who went out of his way to be friendly to everyone and that was Bradley Cooper. He introduced me to his girlfriend, he introduced me to his cast mates, we conversed. This is very unusual. I was a fan before I met him and more of a fan after and I'm so happy to see all of the success he's had since Alias. 

Reality Roundup - The finales

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much as usual. I don't normally have insomnia for more then a day but this last bought has been going on for weeks and you all know, even under the best of circumstances I don't have energy, factor in not being able to get to sleep and I'm a walking zombie. Hopefully this passes soon. A girl needs her sleep. My plan is to shut down the computer sooner and read a book, it won't help me shut down my brain, if I'm reading a great book I'll keep reading but at least I'll be spending those wee hours into the morning catching up on my reading.

Now on to the fun stuff! First finale on the list is Survivor. I watched the first couple of episodes this season and then jumped right to the finale. If nothing else is on, I'll watch the finale of Survivor because I usually follow the recaps online even if I don't watch and since nothing else was on, I watched all 3 hours. Wow, they really drag it out. I think the reunion show flies by the actual final 2 hours of the show has a lot of filler in it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

My, what a big sword you have...

I've never had much interest in J.R.R. Tolkien but when The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings came out I enjoyed it so much I went to the theater to see it again. I also decided I had to read the books because I couldn't wait a year to find out what happened. 

My friend Bernadette was very cute, she's from the Philippines and when I said I had to go read the books she said, maybe they should have waited to release the books. I had a great laugh and let her know the books were written a long time ago.

I devoured the books, I definitely didn't think they were the best thing ever written, way too much description and too many characters with multiple names, my favorite part of the book was the appendix, I loved knowing what happened to everyone afterwards but I did enjoy the story and eagerly anticipated every LOTR movie and watched them all twice in the theater. I remember bouncing in my seat when Legolas did something badass and yet, I was sort of ambivalent about The Hobbit.

A Saturday Smile

I hope this brings a smile to your face. Enjoy your friends, love your family and count your blessings. Today is a day to celebrate life and those you love! I always say it and I always mean it, I'm blessed with wonderful friends. Happy Holidays!

Fun Foto Friday - Family Togetherness

Nancy and I have been friends since our senior year in high school. She's as much a part of my family as I am. She's been hanging out with us so long that she tells people she's asian. She eats our food, she has the slanty eyes, her dad eats kimchee, she's one of us. Until she wasn't.

I come from a family of 9 kids. While growing up, it wasn't unusual to only have one couch and it wasn't a sectional.  So when we watched tv, we dog piled. This is one of my absolute most favorite pics because this was us when we were on the couch, except someone would also be laying on the other side of the couch. 

As adults, we're just as comfortable piling onto the couch. Nancy was in the middle of the pile with my sister-in-law Christina sitting next to her, squeezed in between every one else. At one point they noticed that they were practically on each other's lap but no one else was on the couch. Christina apologized and was moving away when Nancy said these fateful words, "Us white people have to stick together." Unfortunately for her, my sister Kimberly over heard her. Nancy, who has always told us she was Asian had kicked herself out of the Asian club. She's working hard to get back in. See where she's sitting now.

What's in a name?

The other day I was watching one of my guilty pleasure shows, The League. It's a comedy about a bunch of fantasy football fanatics, the characters are awful to each other but it's hilarious. I watched this show before I started playing fantasy football but now I love it even more. 

One of the characters on there is named Taco. No one ever meets him and asks, why is your name Taco? He's just Taco. It made me think about other nicknames. Right now, I love the fun football ones, Megatron, Legatron (he's a kicker), Beastmode and The Law Firm to name a few.

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

I'm a little behind this Christmas season. Normally I start listening to Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving is over but I didn't realize my Xmas songs weren't on my phone yet so I just sat down  to do my music.

I love Christmas carols. I love when radio stations start playing strictly Xmas music. My radio usually stays on those stations for a month. In Sarasota they actually had a station go commercial free and 24 hour Xmas the first week in Oct. A little early for my tastes but you know I was still listening.

I went Christmas caroling when I was stationed in Korea. It didn't really feel like Christmas so my roommate and some guy friends (you know I talked them into it, LOL) and I went out to sing for some of the military families. We weren't very good and it was extremely cold but it was a lot of fun and the families really appreciated it. 

Les Miz Monday (updated with new video)

Since Les Meserables is coming out in a few weeks the publicity machine is out in full force but I've been able to contain myself and keep it all for one post.

The world premiere was last week in London and I am lady gaga over her dress! I've always thought low cut backs are sexy. 

Samantha Barks looks amazing in her dress. She's making the most of her red carpet experience and I love it! She was amazing as Eponine in the 25th Anniversary special and am so happy she's in the movie. 

The big red carpet disappointment is Amanda Seyfried. Do any of you like this dress? Here's a link to the rest of the dresses.

The Studs of Sunday- Eric Decker & Danny Amendola

Unfortunately, with one week left to go before fantasy football playoffs I have zero chance of making it in my money league. I'm 10th out of 10. No way to dig myself out of that hole. I know next year I'll be better prepared and won't pick a kicker based on looks who won't even make the final cut on his team. 

The good news is, all of this fantasy football play has given me an appreciation for the studs guys who play football. The last time I really noticed what a football player looked like was when Refrigerator Perry was doing the Super Bowl shuffle. Since I'm out of the money I figure now would be a good time to share my knowledge of football. 

Easy Irish Soda Bread or Scones

Last St Patrick's Day I happened to be in Northern CA visiting my fabulous friend Barb and she made this recipe for us (Su and Nancy were on this trip with me). We woke up to the delicious smell of bread being pulled from the oven. 

She raved about how easy the recipe was, we raved about how delicious it was. She sent a loaf home with us which I shared with my family and they raved. My brother wanted the recipe so she sent it, I don't know if my brother ever made it but I've probably made it about 20 times since then.

Fun Foto Friday - Suzanne Brockmann

This week I'm actually going to post Friday's foto on Friday. Something new I'm trying out. Today's pic is me at my first author signing. I've been a reader for a long time but for some reason never made it to a booksigning until 8 or 9 years ago. I was living in Los Angeles and had to drive out to the Valley but I was very excited to meet Suzanne Brockmann. 

She writes amazing Navy S.E.A.L books with hot Alpha males. If you have never read her Troubleshooter books I highly recommend them. My only caveat is I didn't love the first couple of books but books 3 and 4 knocked my socks off and I thoroughly enjoyed her books after that. Due to the fact that there are recurring characters I think it helps to read from the first book but you could always start at book 3 and then go back if you want to get a feel for her. 

Have you read SB before? What do you think? Either she's really tall or I'm really short, ok, maybe a little of both. 

You're the one that I want!

I debated posting this but you know my love for cheese, I had to share. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John reunited for a Christmas album with all proceeds going to charity. I don't know if this is how I want to imagine Danny Zucko and Sandy after they drove off into the sunset. Let's not call this Danny and Sandy 2.0.

This video has become a viral sensation with some people loving it, most hating it.  have to say, the video and song are growing on me. Apparently they decided at the last minute to do a video. It cost them $12,000 to do this video and they spent 4 hours before the shoot hashing things out. I have to say for $12,000 I would expect more. No this isn't a big budget video but you don't need a big budget to shoot a good video. Apparently the guy who shot this normally does wedding videos. The rest of the cast were locals in Ocala and John's family which I think is fun. The officer is a natural and that's really his son, although he's not in the military. Here is the original article.

About Last Night: Thursday Quickies

Big Bang Theory: I love this show. My sister doesn't think it's funny at all. She's cray cray. Amy was a bad girl so Sheldon had to spank her. I have a feeling Amy will be a bad girl a lot now. How hilarious was her reaction?

Glee: A great night of singing, the only one that didn't do it for me was Brittany and Sam, I like them as a couple, trouty mouth and all but I didn't think they sounded that great together. I loved Rachel's call to Finn. My favorite song of the night was Rachel singing "Oh Holy Night." One of my favorite Christmas songs and she sung it beautifully.

Scandal: Wow Fitz and Olivia are smoking. I can't think of two characters who ooze chemistry more. Supernatural should take note. Was shocked by the shooter, were you? My theory was Norm Lewis' character was behind it because he seems too good to be true. Can't wait til next week!

Angela's Awesome Enchiladas

Unlike Sharon's Sensational Salsa, I have no idea who Angela is but this is a recipe I found on Allrecipes and it lives up to it's name, Angela's Enchiladas are Awesome!

I don't know why I made this the first time. I'm not a big enchilada eater myself. I think I was looking for something I could make for my family and this was it. Everyone loved it, well, everyone but Nancy, doesn't mean she didn't eat it. She just thought it was ok, it has since grown on her. She has even made it herself a time or two. You can find the original recipe here. As always, I make changes based on my preferences.

About Last Night… Wednesday edition

Supernatural went on their mid-season hiatus and I have to say, I wasn't wowed by tonight's episode or cliffhanger. Doesn't make me countdown the days until it's return. Maybe if they had done a better job of making me care about Sam and Amelia, but I don't and because of that, the ending was weak sauce to me. 

I hear it all the time online how awful Supernatural is when it comes to women and I think I have to agree. I am a total romantic so I should love it when Sam and Dean are in a relationship but whenever they bring on a female for more then one episode the chick makes whoever they're involved with weaker, and we don't want to see the Winchester brothers weak. We want them alpha and bad ass but with a soft emotional center. Same thing with Dean and Lisa, no interest at all. My favorite girl for the boys was Bella who apparently the fan base hated. She was strong and she kept the boys on their toes. I was looking forward to her hooking up with Dean, it never happened. I am enjoying Dean's relationship with Benny, thought that was wrapped up a little early in the ep, should have known better. I think Sam is jealous of their relationship. He should be. Course, those we love the most also have the ability to hurt us the most.

Les Miz Flash Mob

I normally try to spread out my Les Miz love posts but I saw this today and had to share. If I ever get married, I am telling you now, I want something like this. No need to rehearse yet, you have time. They called this a flash mob but no one is dancing but they are singing! I love it! Only wish they had better camera work, where's the videographer?

The Voice: And then there were 4

Do not read if you don't want to know who The Voice Final Four are. Even though I am rooting for Teem CeeLo, because I think he's an awesome coach and I love Trevin Hunte my Adam Levine loving heart is breaking for him. Did you see the prophetic commercial where Adam said there was a possibility of both of his team members going home? 

I really thought Amanda Brown had what it took to take it all the way. She was beautiful, she could sing rock, she could sing ballads, her voice was powerful yet she knew when to tone it down. I fully expected Melanie to go home but not Amanda, oh no, not Amanda!

The Walking Dead Winter Finale

It's the winter finale, 2 more months until we find out what is going to happen on The Walking Dead. Will Daryl and Merle survive? Will Andrea finally figure out the Governor isn't all he's cracked up to be (heads floating in a fish tank are a good clue, IMO)? Will Tyrese live up to the hype? And will anyone figure out that Rock is cuckoo for cocoa puffs? RIP T-Dog's replacement, we barely knew you, thanks to Rick's  hallucination of Shane. 

Here are couple of teeny tiny video previews of the next episode of TWD.  I guess waiting 2 months is better then waiting a year like we have to for Game of Thrones.

What was your first?

Thought this would be a fun recurring post. I'm not asking "who was your first," don't want to get anyone in trouble. Today Kim and I were running errands and the new Maroon 5 song "Daylight" came on the radio and I told Kim I was digging the song. She pointed out he had sung it on the Voice.  I rarely ever like a song the first time I hear it, it has to grow on me so I didn't really notice it then.

The first song I remember really capturing my attention was The Police's "Every Breath You Take" that was the song that I had to listen to every time it was on the radio and MTV (you know, when they played music). What was the first song that made you sit up and take notice? Why?

A heart full of love...

As you know, I'm very excited about the release of  Les Miserables, the movie.  Lei-Lei is even in one of their movie posters. But I've been curious as to how Hugh Jackman would sound as Jean Val Jean. I think he's a great singer, I've heard him sing during the Tonys but this is an iconic role. So I was thrilled to learn that they've finally released some videos of the rest of the cast singing.

Restaurant Review: Palace Kitchen (Seattle)

On Top Chef: Seattle a couple of weeks ago one of their guest judges was Tom Douglas. Tom is a legend here in Seattle (and was an awesome and sweet judge), yet I've never been to one of his restaurants. How in the world is that possible?

OK, I know how it's possible. When you live somewhere you just always think you'll make it there versus when you visit a city you make a point to go. Or I let Su choose whenever she visits me in whatever city I'm living in at the time. 

This past weekend I went out to celebrate a friend's birthday and I was thrilled when she picked Palace Kitchen, a Tom Douglas restaurant for her celebration! It was like her birthday present to me.

Fun Foto Friday - Jason Segel

Technically it's not Friday but Fun Foto Saturday doesn't have the same ring to it. Consider this post a day late or 6 days early. Prior to Facebook I lived in Los Angeles for 8 years and I worked at the Museum of TV and Radio, now known as the Paley Center For Media. The pay sucked (unless you worked in the front office, oh the joys of non-profit) but there were definitely perks. 

One of them was when we did the Freaks and Geeks screening for the shows that never aired due to it's cancellation. I was a huge fan of F&G. The moments were sometimes so real it was painful to watch. It was also where Judd Apatow met a lot of the guys he would continue to work with  including Jason Segel.

The People's Choice Awards

Before the age of internet I used to wonder who in the world the people were that were voting on the People's Choice Awards, now I know, teeny boppers!

OK not really but based on some of the categories, they definitely cater to the teen sect. I don't think they limit how many times you can vote either so if you have a large and unemployed fan following, your chances of winning are strong.

American Horror Story

I got Nancy hooked, have to say, it's less scary watching it with someone. Too bad she went to bed before it came on this week. Poor Lana, she can't cut a break. Seriously, she finally escapes bloody face to get picked up by a suicidal driver. 

One of the ongoing questions is who is present day bloody face. I will post a pic after the jump. 

Scandal

I can't believe I haven't talked about this show yet but my favorite new show of last season was Scandal. It came on as a mid-season replacement and I didn't even know about it until my sister in law asked me if I was watching it. I checked it out and was hooked!

Scandal is a Shonda Rhimes show, she is also the Executive Producer of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Two shows I've thoroughly enjoyed at some point. I stopped watching Greys when the brought back Denny as a ghost. When I watch Supernatural I expect ghosts, when I watch Greys, I don't. But the first couple of seasons were awesome and I'm feeling that love for Scandal. It's delicious!

For the man in your life

Having trouble finding something for that special man in your life. On EW they had this as their gift of the day and I loved it. Who doesn't love a snuggie? Who doesn't love Batman? A snuggie Batman sounds like a winner to me!  I did buy my nephew snuggie PJs last year that he never wore, what a disappointment, then again, they weren't Batman snuggies! 

Good news Nancy, they also have Wonder Woman!

Girl Meets World

The big news all over the interweb is the fact that Disney is launching a sequel to Boy Meets World and when I say it's big news, every entertainment news outlet is talking about it. 

I remember watching this show, sure, it was a cute show but I'm shocked by the amount of attention it's getting. The kids are coming back as the parents, which I think is fun but it's such a big deal that even the supporting actors are issuing statements on whether they're getting cast or not. At this time, Rider Strong is a no. Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are a yes. Please bring back Mr Feeney. I loved him and Cory's relationship as he grew up.

Hottest Baby Name of 2012

Sophia and Aiden top the list of baby names for 2012 according to this yahoo article. My question is who are the people naming their children after names from 50 Shades of Grey? The name Grey jumped 155 spots and Anastasia is up 43 spots. I think the name Grey is pretty cool but maybe not the best baby name this year. Maybe baby Grey was conceived while reading this book?

I really enjoy unusual baby names but I think the parents need to remember that their children have to live with the names. A family recently named their baby Hashtag. Really? What's her nickname going to be? Hash. With parents like that, I see therapy in her future.

Ben Affleck Entertainer of the Year

I was surprised when I saw EW picked Ben Affleck as their entertainer of the year. I decided to look back at his early work to laugh at how he got there but there's not really a lot to laugh about. One of his earliest movies was Dazed and Confused, not my type of movie but it's still a classic. My brother Andy made me sit thru it. Of course it's his type of movie.

Then he began his Kevin Smith years with Chasing Amy and Mallrats, I love Kevin Smith movies, well, most of them (I skipped Jersey Girl) and let's not forget Good Will Hunting a movie he co-wrote and starred in with some guy named Matt Damon.

Oops (UPDATED)

The good news is we now have a custom domain name, http://www.leihatalks.com/ (the next step on my way to world domination) the bad news is, it messed up my facebook comment plugin so all of our earlier comments are missing. We (Lin) are working on getting it fixed. If you notice any other quirks please let us know.

Unfortunately it looks like we can't recover our previous comments, I guess it's better now then a year from now. 

Sharon's Sensational Salsa

Sharon made her salsa for us on a girls weekend, it was so amazing I actually craved it and began cooking Mexican food just so I could make this. Once I moved back to WA I started making it for family gatherings and this summer I was making it every week for my sister, it's that good!

When a recipe calls for salsa I have to make salsa, I can't use the jarred version, it's just not good enough anymore. Not when you're used to having a salsa that's so fresh tasting it's like you're eating out of a garden. 

Mini-me wallpaper

Thanks to Mia's talents we're going to be adding wallpapers to this blog. It's wonderful to be a sometimes muse for an artist! Click on the image to pop up a larger version and save.

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas!

Nestled oh so nicely on my Christmas tree are Powerball tickets. Nancy picked up $14 worth of tickets yesterday for us. As the old WA state lotto ticket commercial says, "you can't win, if you don't play." Someone at some point will win, why not us? OK the chances are slim that we're going to win, I would say 14 in 425 million chances but that's better then zero chances.

I don't buy lotto tickets often but always find it funny that those of us who don't play on a regular basis will buy when the winning amount gets crazy high. Is 1 million not worth trying for? The reason I don't buy lotto tickets more often is because I'm lazy and I'm cheap. While a ticket is only a dollar, I could use that dollar towards some beef jerky.

Damn, it's good to be me!

Entertainment Weekly had a recent article, 21 Classic Opening Lines in Books. One thing I notice about lists such as this is they never include books that I actually read.

I don't really remember opening lines from books but one I will bever forget, maybe because I can relate so easily to it, is this line from The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie Moning, "Damn, it's good to be me." Adam Black, talk about setting up a book!

Are there any opening lines that you remember? Please share.

Adult diapers outselling baby diapers

Nancy told me about this article, it was a business week article about stocks in Japan and we both took away only one line from it: Last year, for the first time, sales of adult diapers in Japan exceeded those for babies.

Apparently Japan has an aging population. All I could think about was the fact I know I'll be wearing them when I get older.

Cranberry Chutney

I've never been a fan of canned cranberry sauce, part of it I'm sure is because I don't eat cranberry with my turkey. It's all about the gravy for me, I may have mentioned that before. But I do love to make this awesome and easy cranberry chutney and use it as an appetizer, with some set aside for those who want to enjoy it with their turkey. 

It's not quite as popular as my cheese ball but I really enjoy the tart sweet combo and of course, it's served with cream cheese so it has to be delicious. I tried it once with brie, cream cheese is definitely better. 

That was the Thanksgiving that was

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have to say, I think this Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. Since I cooked most of what I needed to cook I stayed in bed watching football when I woke up and then dragged myself into the living room to watch it and do a little cleaning in the kitchen. 

The football game went into overtime so we left the house a little later then planned but since I was planning on getting there early, we weren't really late. We have a family tradition of going to Andy and Christina's house for Thanksgiving and Kimberly and Jeff's house for Christmas. 

Soap characters are like family

This week General Hospital said good-bye to the much loved Edward Quartermaine and the actor who portrayed him John Ingle. I wanted to blog about it after the holiday, this story made even more poignant by the death of the actor who made JR Ewing and "Who shot JR?" a national catchphrase Larry Hagman. 

When my mom moved to the US soaps were what she watched to help her with her English. Since she watched soaps, I watched soaps. I remember waiting until after my shows were done before I'd run out and play with my friends. Or coming home for lunch to watch Bo & Hope on Days while my mom watched a different soap in the living room. My dad also came home for lunch and would make fun of the characters the whole time yet he knew everyone's name. 

He Ain't Heavy, He's Alfie Boe

It's one month until Les Miserables comes to our movie theater featuring Hugh Jackman. I love Hugh and think he's a wonderful talent but he's going to have to sing his butt off to erase the memory of Alfie Boe in my head.

Alfie played Jean Val Jean in the 25th Anniversary edition of Les Miz. While rehearsing for the show he became great friends with Matt Lucas who played Thenadier. They were such good friends that Matt opened his home to Alfie while he and his wife were house hunting. The only requirement was that Alfie sang for his supper. Here they are singing, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." Talk about talent! He's sitting in the kitchen belting this out!

Nancy and I are hoping to see the midnight showing Christmas Eve but I can't find any info on it. Anyone have any information about it?

What I'm thankful for this year

Tis the season to be thankful! Unless you're from a really dysfunctional family, we're all thankful for our family and friends so I thought it would be fun to think of non-tradional reasons to be thankful. Here's my list:

I'm thankful that my eyes are bigger then my stomach, if my stomach was bigger then my eyes, well, it's not a pretty picture.

Speaking of pretty, I'm thankful that my mini-me is as pretty as the real me. 

Flashpoint

Does anyone I know watch Flashpoint? It airs in syndication on ION with new episodes airing on Tue nights at 11pm. Yes, I know it's late but since it's on cable, it repeats a lot. 

Syndication is huge for tv shows, it helps them find a new audience. Some shows I started watching once they were syndicated (when their re-broadcast rights are sold) are Supernatural, NCIS, Criminal Minds and Flashpoint. I stumbled across Flashpoint on accident. I have been trying to catch up on all of the Criminal Minds episodes, which is made easier by the fact that ION and A&E are constantly running reruns of it but a couple of nights a week, late night, when I tuned in for my CM fix, Flashpoint would be on instead. At first I would just change the channel but then I started leaving it on that channel because nothing else was one and then I found myself watching the show and now I actively seek it out.

Writing so bad it's bad

Did you know that there's a Bad Sex in Fiction award given out by the British magazine Literary Review? I didn't either! After reading the excerpts on EW where I originally read about this I think it's a much deserved award but not one someone wants to win. They included snippets of those nominated, here's my favorite. And I thought purple prose was dead. 

Infrared by Nancy Huston: “He runs his tongue and lips over my breasts, the back of my neck, my toes, my stomach, the countless treasures between my legs, oh the sheer ecstasy of lips and tongues on genitals, either simultaneously or in alternation, never will I tire of that silvery fluidity, my sex swimming in joy like a fish in water…”

The full bang!

Thank you to Brenda, she found the full version of Big Bang Theory's Flash Mob. I was originally going to just replace the original video but this is so fun I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see it. It's a song mash-up. BTW, Leonard does participate!

Supernatural at Comic-Con

Last night I couldn't sleep so I caught up on the episode of Supernatural I missed online. While looking at their various links I found that they had video from their Comic-Con panel. What a treat. Usually comic-con vids are shaky cams taken with people's phones so you're  looking at the back of someone's head. The video is 45 minutes long but if you're a Sam and Dean fan, you'll want to check it out. They don't do much press so it was fun to see them being themselves. If you're not a Sam and Dean fan, why aren't you?

I tried to embed the video but CW wouldn't let me. Here's a link if you want to watch. 

I'm crazy for gravy!

If you know me, you know that gravy is a must for any Thanksgiving gathering. When I lived in Los Angeles I would join friends for Thanksgiving dinner and was traumatized by attending a dinner that didn't have gravy. They were a stuffing family, not mashed potatoes and gravy. What the what?!?! Yeah, crazy!

Now I always bring a couple of packets of gravy as a back up whenever I go to a Thanksgiving dinner. Why packet gravy? Because for all of my gravy loving I don't know how to make gravy! Sob! 

About Last Night… Sunday edition

The American Music Awards were on last night instead of Once and Again and Revenge. I'm not a huge music person (gasp!) so don't really watch the music awards shows, not that this really is an awards show, it's just a bunch of live (or not so live) performances by some of the hottest musical acts out there.

While I didn't watch the show there were a couple of performances that were so buzzed about I had to look them up and share. The first is Pink. She is one of my favorite female performers right now. She can sing, she's a strong woman and she tells it like it is, not to get publicity but that's just who she is.

Luscious Slush Punch

For the holidays we like to make a punch for those of us who don't drink that is also pretty kid friendly. A super easy punch is a carton of rainbow sherbet ice cream dumped into a punch bowl with 7-up. It tastes delicious but you can't really drink much of it, it's pretty sweet and it doesn't quench your thirst. 

So back to allrecipes I went. I found this recipe and it had so many raves I had to try it. I made it for the first time a few years ago and it's now my go to holiday punch. I went to a party this weekend and Linda wanted a drink for her guests that wasn't alcoholic, I volunteered to bring this. It was a hit! I had no doubt:)

Leiha's Easy Peasy Cheesy Balls

Today I went to a friend's housewarming/birthday party and I volunteered to bring my famous in my own family Cheese Balls. Not only are these cheese balls better then any pre-made ones in the store, they're super simple and get better as each day progresses if by some slim chance you have leftovers. Actually, in my family, if we don't have leftovers, sometimes I will make more the next day to give out. It's that good. 

I can't remember why I decided to make a cheese ball the first time, other then the fact, I love cheese and I love balls. I found my recipe on allrecipes.com. I love this site due to the recipe reviews. Before pinterest scouring allrecipes is what I did to kill time.

Black Friday!

Should we even call it Black Friday anymore? Both Target and Walmart will be open on Thursday night so it's really Black Thursday now. There are some people who are so die hard about their shopping that they start lining up early on Thanksgiving so this works out well for them, for the employees of these stores, not so much. In fact, 2 workers from Target started a petition against them opening on Thursday and who can blame them? When you work in retail there are very few guaranteed holidays off, one of them used to be Thanksgiving.

A Not So Top Chef

Have you read this scathing review of Guy Fieri's new Times Square restaurant written by a New York Times food critic? He raked the restaurant over the coals but it's hilarious how he did it. 

Here are a couple of snippets: Were you struck by how very far from awesome the Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders are?When you hung that sign by the entrance that says, WELCOME TO FLAVOR TOWN!, were you just messing with our heads?" "Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?" That is just a taste of the review.