Miscellaneous Monday: Baked Goods Make The World Better

I have to apologize for the late and sparse nature of this weeks post. The world has once again raced ahead of me, and the summer is only going to get busier!

This year I'm trying to learn new baking recipes and improve old ones. This is what I made this week:



That, dear friends, is ginger pumpkin ginger bread. Pumpkin bread is more of a fall food, true, but I'm getting my practice in early.  For those who might be curious, you can find the recipe HERE. But I added icing because...it needed something. Next time I plan on doubling the ginger and cinnamon to give it some extra kick.

I hope your week is full of all things delicious! Happy Monday! 

Miscellaneous Mondays: Happy Holidays!

So first off, I hope all of those who celebrated Christmas had a good one! I know I did! I've been blessed with a family, both blood relatives and acquired ones, who always make my holidays warm and happy.

This is Mr. Penguin Hat, which was a present from Mom. Being a hat lover by nature, I was pretty excited about this one. I think I'm going to make it my official reading hat.

I've mentioned before that I'm collecting the Monster High dolls, so Josh got Toralei for me. She's pretty awesome. I was never really into dolls as a kid--Barbie just never caught my interest. These, on the other hand, are full of imagination and pure awesome. You might say I'm making up for lost time.

We got so much stuff, ranging from the practical to the silly. I think the gift Josh and I are most excited about is The Muppets Monopoly. Every family has one cut throat Monopoly enthusiast, and that's me. I've been a fierce Monopoly competitor since I was old enough to count the money. Combining that with Josh's love of The Muppets is beyond awesome.

My big non-present related tradition is cookie baking. I'm a decent cook, but baking is my real skill, and cookies are the top of the list. I made 8 varieties this year, for a total of roughly 32 dozen cookies. Cookies for everyone! I'm not surprised that our weekly poll revealed that an overwhelming number of people prefer chocolate chip. They are the go-to cookie that everyone likes, and they're really easy to make.

How are you celebrating the holidays? Did Santa bring you anything special?

Next weeks poll is up! We're asking what qualities you think are essential in a book hero. You can select as many as you like (or tell me about all the ones I forgot about, in the comments). Next week's primary discussion will be on heroes, so don't miss out!

Miscellaneous Mondays: Post Insanity Edition

My original goal in starting this whole Misc. Monday weekly post was to make sure I got on here at least once a week to touch base with my followers. It's secondary purpose is to talk about things that have nothing to do with reading. For the most part that has meant discussing my favorite TV shows and movies I've been watching, and other random tidbits. Well, this week has been so full of work that I have missed most of my TV shows, have failed to see any interesting movies, and this is the first day that I've even peaked at any blogs in over a week. AH! Don't worry, I still have some things to share, but if you find it more boring that usual blame my cancer bio test and mycology projects.


My artistic side

This is one of my more eccentric habits. At least, I've never met anyone else that does this. I've had long, fast growing nails since I was six or seven (they came with the thicker hair, which I can tell you is much less desirable). I've been an enthusiastic nail polish collector for almost as long, and I've gotten pretty good at the whole manicure process. This is where the story turns geeky--I really like choosing patterns to match my book covers. This weeks isn't the best example (I was feeling lazy, and stripes are easy), but in general this is what I do to express my dubious artistic side. I often paint my nails while a watch TV or listen to a book--multitasking is key! I don't use anything fancy, just toothpicks soaked in acetone and ordinary nail polish does the trick. They get destroyed over a weeks worth of lab work and library work, so I get to try something new every 5 days or so. I've gotten compliments, and a few less friendly reactions, but they make me happy, and that's all that matters.

Why Mushrooms Are Awesome

I mentioned above that this semester I'm taking Mycology. The big project for the class was trapping and identifying molds, which is even less interesting than it sounds. Pretty early on, however, our class went out and collected mushrooms and other fungi from the gorge adjacent to the campus. The first thing I found was one of these cute little red things. My professor's response to this was "Just don't don't your face--those things are hallucinogenic."

When I shared this story with Josh, he was surprisingly knowledgeable on this subject. He proceeded to tell me that these are the mushrooms that inspired Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland, which subsequently inspired the mushrooms used in the Mario games. Normally I'm the one that knows all of the useless trivia! I do love Alice in Wonderland, and in fact I just watched the Disney animated version for the first time ever.

In any case, mushrooms are pretty much the weirdest things you'll see growing on land, and aside from their medicinal properties and recreational drug use, they happen to be tasty on pizza. All in all, it doesn't surprise me that they play such interesting roles in fantasy and mythology--ever heard of the fairy ring legend?

Pie Poll Is Tragically Inconclusive!

The pie poll ended with a tie between Apple and Pumpkin--both traditional Thanksgiving pies for those of us in the US! I think something went a bit wrong with the poll though, because it wasn't showing as many votes as I thought there were. Hopefully this won't continue to happen.

Pie is absolutely my favorite dessert, and it's up there on the list of favorite foods in general. I'm still working out how to make perfect flaky crust for my homemade pies, and right now I don't have a really good kitchen to practice in. But even store bought pie crust makes a pretty enjoyable pie. I know a few of you are probably more brownie or cookie people, so perhaps later on we'll do a more general dessert question.

This week's poll is part of an ongoing joke between my room mate and I. She believes that, as a scientist, I should be dedicating my time to making devices that will enable her laziness or otherwise improve her life. Those in the poll are the highlights of her wishlist. Please vote for the Best Mad Scientist Invention on the right side of your screen. Just in case I ever do become mad with genius.

On Parasols and Octopuses

On this lovely Memorial Day morning I'm enjoying a breakfast of coffee and treacle tart. While this is both a decidedly un-American and un-breakfest-like meal, it is ideal when it comes to at last completing Soulless
 by Gail Carriger!


I found this book to be completely delightful and wholly deserving of the high praise and many recommendations that lead me to read it in the first place. If I were grading on personal enjoyment alone I would give it five stars, but I try to be a bit more critical than that. So, on to my review.

Plot Summery! (SPOILERS): This is the story of Alexia Tarabotti, a spinster half-Italian Englishwoman and person lacking a soul. Her soulless state renders her capable of canceling out the supernatural powers of vampires and werewolves. Together with her inquisitive nature and incurable stubbornness, this often gets her into a great deal of unladylike trouble. For example, they lead to a series of encounters with Lord Maccon, the local werewolf alpha. Lord Maccon is investigating a series of mysterious vampire appearances and disappearances, which poor Alexia keeps getting mixed up in. He also takes an intense personal interest in Alexia.

Now, I found this book listed under fantasy and seem to always find the series in the fantasy section. However, I think it would appeal equally (if not more so) to romance fans. A decent amount of time is spent on the budding relationship between Alexia and Lord Maccon. Their banter is quite amusing. The actual fantasy bits have a steampunk feel--a lot of wacky yet menacing science. So I feel this book would appeal to a fairly diverse audience.

Alexia is a wonderful character. She's intelligent and forcefully independent, is blunt and honest in her mannerisms, and carries a weighted brass parasol as both weapon and accessory. Essentially she's a loveable miss-fit. Lord Maccon is equally appealing but a bit less well developed. He is similar to many alpha wolf characters that I've encountered in my reading expeditions--commanding, willful, loyal, and of course very attracted to our heroine. The secondary characters were also amusing and very appealing. Those that stand out most to me are Ivy Hisselpenny of the horrible hats, Lord Akeldama the gay vampire, and Professor Lyall the pack beta. All distinct, memorable, and likeable.

As for the plot, it has it's flaws. It flows all right, but gets a bit slow at times and relies pretty heavily on coincidence to progress forward. Alexia doesn't precisely save the day, but she is present for all of the action and helps a great deal. I've grown used to the alpha females of urban fantasy who run in guns blazing and fix everything themselves, and this wasn't like that at all. But at least she's not helpless. Furthermore, I found the ending satisfactory, is just a touch sugary sweet. There is also a notable amount of sequel baiting including the unexplained mystery of the brass octopuses.

As I mentioned, this was a five star book for personal enjoyment. It would be a four star book after honestly evaluating it's flaws. So I'll split the difference and give it a 4.5.

Incidentally, on of the ways I first heard about this book was the this cool little promotional link: behold, paper dolls!