Laugh with your Scare?

Shaun of the Dead –  2004 – Not to be missed, this thing is Fu-unny. I became a Simon Peg fan right there. – There comes a day in every man’s life when he has to get off the couch…and kill some zombies. When flesh-eating zombies are on the hunt for a bite to eat, it’s up to slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his best pal Ed (Nick Frost) to save their friends and family from becoming the next entrée. Novelist Stephen King gushes Shaun of the Dead is “a 10 on the fun meter and destined to be a cult classic” and Newsweek calls it “a bloody hoot!” It’s a screamingly hilarious zomedy that will have you dying with laughter.

Director: Edgar Wright Writers: Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright

 Zombieland – 2009 – The cameo in this film was the bomb. Plus Woody is fan-#&%*ing-tastic!  Nerdy college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has survived the plague that has turned mankind into flesh-devouring zombies because he’s scared of just about everything. Gun-toting, Twinkie-loving Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) has no fears. Together, they are about to stare down their most horrifying challenge yet: each other’s company. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin co-star in this double-hitting, head-smashing comedy.

 Director: Ruben Fleischer  Writers: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick

My Boyfriends Back – 1993 – Teenager Johnny Dingle will do anything to keep his date with the hottest girl in school — even come back from the grave! You see, Johnny had the perfect scheme to win the heart of Missy McCloud, the town beauty. Unfortunately, Johnny’s scam goes sour and he winds up dead! Even so, Johnny’s determined to keep his date — unaware of the hilarity waiting for him upon his return! See for yourself why everyone’s dying to see this outlandishly funny comedy!

If you want to laugh with your flesh eating films…

Cole the Vampire –  Horrific Cinema Lover

The Poutine Truck

Poutine: Something you might never have heard of unless you have been to Quebec Canada.

I am serious about that. Never heard of the stuff till I saw the truck and thought, GRAVY. I’m a wolf what do you expect!

I got the classic – Frites

It has a whopping three ingredients – Fries – GRAVY – Curd (Cheese)

If you have never heard of the item before then you may be intimidated, it comes out of a truck after all. GO AND EAT IT! Wait, let me match words to ingredients. GO EAT IT!

THE FRIES –

On their own some of the finest I have enjoyed. The square tipped edges and uniform size made the experience consistant from beginning to end. That may not sound like the biggest compliment, but it is. NOTHING is worse then one too big and under cooked, one too small and dried out. Hand Cut and Awesome

Made From Kennebec Potatoes – Didn’t know what those were so I looked them up.

“The Kennebec is a large potato, and it looks very pretty with its light tan skin, nice uniform appearance (it usually doesn’t have large ‘holes’ like many other potatoes), and attractive white fleshy insides. The skin is thin so it peels quickly (and is fine to use even unpeeled), and it’s a nice oval potato so it is more attractive on the plate than some other irregularly-shaped ones.” – Taken from http://www.kennebecpotato.com/ 

– Lets be honest. I love to eat, but never thought of a potato as attractive, even when all dressed up.

THE GRAVY – Homemade  

Thick, rich, the natural meat juices just calling to the tongue. I refrained from licking the last spots of this masterpiece off the cardboard tray, but it was close. I had the classic once again, Veloute made with chicken broth. Yummy feathery little beasts.

THE CURD – Made Locally

Well not too locally to North Hollywood where I found the truck but I like when a place that is using up their carbon footprint traveling around does not make their ingredients travel far.

Plain – Garlic Herb – Fire House

It was recommended to me that the Fire House would stand out against the gravy, but old dogs, new tricks, foolishly did not listen. THERE are NO mistakes cause it is all good. Just a miscalculation. The plain was a fine cheese, it was lost in the gravy, becoming more of an enhancement to the flavor than a stand alone element.

CONCLUSION

This stuff is good! Every element start to finish was a delight to enjoy. Mine may not have had meat, but I was reasonably full after a serving. – Keep in mind, werewolf here – Normal person might be close to exploding and yet unable to put the fork down.

Advice: Stalk them like a deer in the forest, tackle them to the ground if you get close and eat until you are ready to burst.

Their Site:  http://www.thepoutinetruck.com  On Facebook

On Twitter – thepoutinetruck

The Banned Books Giveaway Hop is over for another year.  I hope that fun was had by all.  I can imagine entering over 300 giveaways!

Many thanks go out to everyone who entered!  The people who caught the extra points on the Facebook clue – bravo!  I wish I could give away a book to everyone who entered, but sadly we are only giving away 2 copies.

The winners are:

Audrey of The Book Analyst and

Lista Peters of Book Him Danno

Your books should be coming by e-mail very shortly!

Sugar Babies Cupcakery

It may not be manwolf-y or wolfman-y, but I love cupcakes. They are small cakes, tightly packed with delicious goodness, or they should be… 

With that in mind I set out to taste some cupcakes, even if the only size option is mini at places like Sugar Babies Cupcakery. Unfortunately good things coming in small packages did not apply here. The package is small, the baking lazy, and expensive too.

So how does one be a lazy cupcake baker? I was told to come in on a Sat when they had all of their flavors, yum right? A tasty selection right? Nope. My first question was which cupcakes had a different cake. There are a lot of types of cake out there. At which point I was told they only bake two, TWO kinds of cake. Chocolate and Vanilla. There are not different cupcakes there are different frostings!

They have eliminated one of the key components in enhancing flavor and making the experience limited when you try different ones. Lazy. Maybe if the cake had been the most amazing cake ever I would have let it go. No. They were dry, they had little flavor, and though some of the frostings were good they all lacked fillings besides two.

To be fair I went to another cupcake place before writing this review. They are a place that serves food as well as baked goods. They make five, FIVE different cake flavors, Their review is coming next Wednesday.

I may be a werewolf and once a month I do burn a lot of calories, but in between I have been starting to watch my calories a bit. Reviewing food is hard on the waist line. So of the 6 mini cupcakes purchased I did not finish 1. Buy a mix and make your own.

Cupcakes Tasted

Pancakes ‘n’ Bacon – Moist vanilla cake, maple cream cheese frosting, brown sugar candied bacon.

Grade: C

All My Heart – Rich chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream frosting, milk chocolate candy heart.

Grade: D – no Heart on top

Mint Chocolate Chip – Not listed on the menu – Chocolate Cake  Frosting made with fresh mint.

Grade: D+

The PBJ – Vanilla cake, rich grape preserves filling, sinful peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

Grade: D

Red Rose – Classic red velvet cake, sumptuous cream cheese frosting.

Grade: F – EXACTLY the Chocolate Cake recipe dyed red.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Moist vanilla cake, sweet vanilla buttercream frosting, candied pearls.

Grade: D – Boring

Conclusion:

It is not worth going into great detail when the final statement is – There are better, cheaper cupcakes all over. The grocery store comes to mind for better cake though Sugar Babies Cupcakery does have better frosting.

No Go for the Babies

Storefront:  4810 Fulton Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Well what? They are making both. Are they trying to confuse us.

Grimm: Once Upon a Crime

vs.

Once Upon a Time?

“Grimm” is a new drama series inspired by the classic Grimm’s Fairy Tales.Portland homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli, “Turn The Beat Around”) discovers he is descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as “Grimms,” charged with keeping balance between humanity and the mythological creatures of the world. – Taken from http://www.nbc.com/grimm/about/

Plus: Dark and Scary looking.

Minus: Can’t think of one yet…

Once Upon a Time: Centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real.  – Taken from IMDB

Plus: Margine from Big Love and the chick from House.

Minus: It may just be too fantasy for mainstream.

We will just have to watch and see…

Welcome to The Sanction Chronicles!

And welcome to the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!  We are taking part in the massive giveaway hop that is sponsored by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and The Diary of a Bookworm.  There are well over 400 sites participating in this hop, so limber up your typing fingers and get ready to win some bookish prizes!

Today we are giving away two copies of our book – Welcome to Sanction Year One Volume One.  The Sanction Chronicles is a serial YA paranormal novel with one book being released each month for the next three years.

We are offering 2 copies of the first book – September’s book.

To enter the giveaway, fill out the form below.  To get extra entries you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook.  You can get extra entries if you tweet about the contest!

Once you fill out the form, start on the list of blogs and enter as many giveaways as you can in the next week!  Good luck!

Welcome to Audrey’s Study Tip

Audrey here!

Each week I try to suggest a tip that might make your studying easier.

I always suggest that students take some time at the end of each week to review what was covered in each subject.

Pick an evening – I suggest Sunday – clear your desk and work on your review.

Have a look at what was covered in each subject.  Go through your notes and make study cards if that is something that works for you.

Make sure that assignments are on a calendar or in your daytimer.  Try to organize your studying as various deadline approach.  Should cut down on last minute cramming!

That’s my pearl of wisdom for this week!  Come back next week for more helpful hints.

Sophia On Ghosts

Is there something wrong with being a ghost and liking to watch ghost movies. Obviously some are better than others.

Best Ghost Movies:

1. Ghost: A classic and the movie Whoopie Goldburg won her Academy Award for. It is a timeless Hollywood tearjerker that easily gets under one’s skin. I have a soft spot for this one for sure!

2. Poltergeist: What a combo! Tobe Hooper, the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, teamed up with family-oriented producer Steven Spielberg to make Poltergeist. The film is about a haunted suburban tract home in a development very much like the Arizona one in which Spielberg was raised. It even came out the same summer as Spielberg’s E.T!  Though as frightening as Hooper’s  A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist is one of the smartest and most entertaining horror pictures. I watch it with the lights on…seriously.

3. Thirteen Ghosts : Cool sets, gory make-up, in a haunted-house chiller. And it has the actor from Monk! 13 Ghosts grows is loud and sometimes silly, getting yucky. It’s just fun, I cover my eyes periodically till some of the movie is over after which I’m just exhausted.

4. Ghostbusters: Bill Murray gets all the best lines and moments in this one. Who you gonna call? Well actually I would prefer you didn’t call anyone.

Worst Ghost Pictures:

1. Goosebumps–Headless Ghost: The first episode is entitled “The Headless Ghost”. Duane and Stephanie are frequent visitors to Hill House; an old mansion that is rumored to be haunted. During a visit they stumble across the ghost of a young boy who lost his head. Now, he’s come for one of theirs! Zombies wanting brains would be more interesting. Yawn.

2. Ghost World: It has ghost in the title, but there are no ghosts. Don’t be fooled.

3. Ghost Ship: Scary abandoned ship. Totally gross and an interesting take on not being greedy.

4. The Haunting: Be careful of giant fire places, you might loose your head. Houses that come alive to trap you are just dumb.

I did not even find it funny and I like Owen Wilson. I would have been out the door right away, or maybe through a wall.

The West Coast Werewolf

Tells ALL

The BEST of the Oh, My, God Food Moments

If you have been following my reviews you know that I have been gorging on delicious food in my search to find the best Werewolf eats on the West Coast – of Los Angeles really.

I have been covering food trucks, diners, bakeries, and food trucks and after a month on the food trail there have only been a few Oh My God moments. Followed by some very close highlights.

I have decided to share where I am at starting with a tie for the two items that had me saying those three words again and again.

WINNERS –

The Patty Wagon – Burger, the straight up BEEF

The Cheeseball Wagon – Hot Ham and Cheese Slider

I am not ashamed to say that I am a werewolf and I would hunt these trucks through the streets of Los Angeles shifted and in danger of exposing the entire supernatural community to get my teeth into these two items.

For the Baked Goods – the Sweets – Ice Cream and Cakes 

Winners –

Auntie Em’s Kitchen – Cupcakes

They battled others who specialized in this area and arose victorious while still making kicking food!

CoolHaus – Ice Cream and Ice Cream Sandwiches

The divine has come down to earth in the form of a mix and match ice cream sandwich.

Fresh made Ice Cream that drives around offering 10 flavors of creamy goodness and 5 cookie options. It is too much awesomeness really. PS. Can be found in Some Grocery Stores near YOU!

SO FIND THESE GUYS FOR YOURSELF!

Auntie Em’s – Site – Twitter

The CheeseBall Wagon Website – Twitter – Facebook

CoolHaus – Site – Twitter – Facebook

The Patty Wagon – Site – Twitter

Welcome to Audrey’s Study Tips!

Audrey here!

Today we are going to talk about the order in which you do your homework or your assignments.

If you are like me, you do Math last    Nasty subject!  Usually I would put off Math until I was so tired I would fall asleep on the book.

Do you do that?

In reality, you should do the assignments or homework from your hardest subjects first! That way you are at your freshest – using your full brain power – doing things you find the hardest.  Another way you can look at this is that you can reward yourself by doing your favorite subject last – finish off on a happy note.

Give it some thought – maybe it will work!

Until next week……