Fright Night - a brief review

official movie poster via IMDB.com

I have to admit - I'm a bit of a nerd.  Yes, I know it is a complete and total shock for most.  Well, maybe not for most, but for some.  Ok, maybe it's not really a shock at all but whatever, just go with it.  I'm a bit of a nerd and I'm easily excited by the opening of movies with some of my favorite actors and a storyline full of my favorite monsters.  So all of that to say I was chomping at the bit to see the Fright Night remake.  I was not disappointed.  It was great fun and I even forgot the horrific price I had to pay for a freaking 3D movie. (DON'T get me started on 3D)

I won't summarize the movie here since this is a brief review and the Internet is littered with good full-length reviews if you are really interested.  I would recommend fore-going the reviews all together and just seeing the movie. 

One thing I will say, there was not much "fright" in Fright Night but if you've seen the original you weren't expecting much in the way of scary anyway.  The new version does have much better "jump" scares.  But the terrified, can't look out from between my fingers scenes are not to be found in this tale.  Don't worry, you won't miss it.  The film makes fun of itself, the original, Twilight vampires and books, etc.  It's a brilliant throw-back to classic horror flicks that were more about the camp and laughs than the screams.

Colin Farrell was excellent.  He was the perfect sort of creepy sexy.  I'm not sure anyone else could have pulled it off as well as he did.  And of course David Tennant was brilliant.  I liked the changes they made to his character from the original.  I don't think he stole every scene as I've read in other reviews; I'm just glad I wasn't distracted by his acting or the whole "Doctor Who is killing vampires" thing.  He did make a great ass but I was glad you grew to like him by the end of the film.  I also liked the changes they made to Poots character.  I think the original Evil character was a better option but they did make the relationship between the two boys more believable.

There's not a lot of depth but that was part of the appeal.  Nothing was too serious, the acting was spot-on, and the updates were wonderful.  The head-nods to the original were perfect and the best parts of the 3D was the cool effect they put on the lettering.

Vamp on my friends!  And enjoy the show.
BrewedB

End of Summer Beer Review

This summer was hot.  I know what you're thinking - thank you captain obvious.  But seriously, this summer was hotter than normal; at least my normal.  Swimming pools were tepid, ice melted in mere minutes, and ACs worked over-time just to keep things luke warm.  What did this mean for the Brewed bunch, you ask?  No baking, very little grilling and tons of cold beer just to get through the afternoon.

I found a new summer favorite and we sampled a helluva number of new beers all in the name of internal air conditioning. ^_^  I thought it only appropriate to share our likes and give a few head nods to some local brews.

First up, my new summer favorite.  You've probably seen it listed in a few other posts since I've been drinking it like water this season.  Devil's Backbone by the Real Ale Brewing Co.  These guys have become my new favorite Texas brewery too (sorry Rahr!).

From their site:
"Named for the scenic ridge that runs between Blanco and Wimberley, Devil's Backbone is a Belgian-style tripel. Czech Saaz hops and Belgian yeast give this ale its distinctive flavor and aroma. Candy sugar made in-house at the brewery adds strength without increasing heaviness. The result is a deceptively strong, pale golden ale."

We also sampled their 15th Anniversary Ale - DELISH.

via Realalebrewing.com

It is a darker beer, more in line with the stouts I normally prefer but still yummy on a hot summer afternoon. 

And of course, we tasted the Real Ale IPA on IPA day.  (Yes, there was a national IPA day - look it up!)

I can't say enough about these guys.  If you haven't tried them - hop to!!

Next in line was a surprising like for me; Hop in the Dark CDA by Deschutes Brewery

I'm not normally a hop-head; I leave that up to the Hubby.  But this beer was awesome.  It was dark and aromatic with a smooth aftertaste.
From their site:
"Can an IPA be black?  Semantics aside, this noir version has subtle coffee undertones born of a blend of oats with dark, Munich and crystal malts. What emerges is something deeper, less orthodox, and all its own. After 22 trial runs in our Bend and Portland pubs, we got it right."

It's well worth a try even if you're not into hoppy tasting beer.

Of course, one of the Hubby's favorite breweries is Dog Fish Head.  And of course we sampled their IPA as well.

The Hubby liked it; it was a little too hoppy for my tastes.  I prefer their Midas brew. ^_^

The last IPA I'm going to list (yes, we did gravitate to the IPAs this summer) is Ruination IPA by Stone Brewing

I only got a sip of this one so I can't say yeah or nah but the bottle alone is worth the purchase.

We did have one Pecan Porter that was to die for by the (512) Brewing Company.  It was TASTY!

via (512)Brewing.com

Of course, I had plenty of my original favorite - Guinness.  Some day, I'll get to try one in Ireland. (And then promptly get picked up off the floor.)

Now it's time to bring on the cooler temps and the winter beers!

Happy Drinking!
BrewedB

Hideaway food find - Orange Cream Cake

The Hubby found the coolest site/blog.  He knows how much I love food blogs and cooking so when he came across the Handwritten Recipes blog, it was a no-brainer to forward the information to his loving and adventurous wife. ^_^

This site is awesome.  The premise is a collection of handwritten recipes found tucked away in books.  Two of my favorite things combined!  Now all I need is a good luck dragon. <wink>  The site is fun to click through, not only for the recipes but for the cool books in which the recipes were found.  Very fun and very much a time-sucking black-hole for someone like me.  I immediately added the site to my RSS reader then spent a few hours poking around. 

Last week, a recipe rolled through that was perfect for book club, sounded adventurous and included ingredients I had on hand. Win, win, win. ^_^  I made the Orange Cream Cake by Mystery Chef with a little guess work and very few modifications.  Yum to the power of 3!

The original recipe went something like this:

Orange Cream Cake

1/4 c. butter or other
1 1/3 c sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sifted flour
3 t. baking powder
1/3 t. salt
2/3 c. milk
1 t. orange extract

Cream butter and sugar, beat egg yolks and add, sift flour B.P. and salt, add alternatively with milk, cut and fold in egg whites.

That was it.  No other instructions or comments.  But I thought, "It's a cake so how hard can it be?"  (Those of you who have seen my numerous cake fails can refrain from commenting here.)  Luckily, this cake was easy.  Below is the method I used:

Orange Cream Cake

1/4 c. butter
1 1/3 c sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3 t. baking powder
1/3 t. salt
2/3 c. milk
1 t. orange extract

• Grease a rectangular cake pan
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Cream butter and sugar
• Separate the eggs with yolks in one bowl and whites in another
• Beat egg yolks into the sugar/butter mixture
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
• Mix the orange extract into the milk
• Alternate adding the flour mixture & milk mixture into the sugar/butter/egg mixture
• Fold in egg whites - I will definitely insert a "beat whites to a soft peak" step before folding in the future
• Pour into greased pan
• Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes or until top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean

Don't ask me why I have orange extract - I have no idea why it's in my pantry.  (I also have peppermint, almond, rootbeer, and 2 different vanillas.  Maybe I have an extract problem.) O.o 

This time around, I served the cake sans icing.  It works well without icing and is almost a breakfast cake.  It isn't too dense and is very moist.  It goes wonderfully with coffee.  Next time (and there will be a next time), along with the egg white whipping step I'll add a vanilla frosting to see if I can get a dream-cicle taste.  Wish me luck!

Late but still great

Sully - the Brewed Book pet of the month; "who me?"

This past Friday was Book Club night.  Yes, we had tasty food again even with a hard "food" book.  And yours truly even donned a time travel t-shirt. (I realize that makes me a super geek; no need to point it out.)  We had a delicious Lemon-"Time" dip;

It was so good in fact, we all requested the recipe.

1 C low fat sour cream
1/2 C low fat mayo
1 lemon juice and zest
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh thyme
Coarse salt and pepper to taste

Try it - you will be glad you did!  Refreshing NOM.

We also had Philly cheese steaks, pretzels, a Boston cream pie, a old-time orange cake and donuts.

The book discussion was very good even with our full tum-tums.  Our venture into sci-fi/fantasy was a light story unlike our dessert laden plates:  The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch.

 Everyone enjoyed the concept and thought the book was a fast read.  Some felt there were too many deaths; I mean really, how many times does a person have to die?  And a few felt the main character should have "done more" with his chances; tried different things and approaches.  Several areas of the story felt rushed, especially in the last few chapters.  It was very hard to believe a person could wake up from a coma/near death experience and be able to eat oreos without at least a stern look from the nurses. But things needed to be wrapped with a neat little bow for some reason so oreos it was.  There was also a feeling of too many characters and especially too many bad characters.

Even with all the "really?" <eye-brow cocked, head tilt face> moments, there were some gems in this book.  The idea of "perceived value" was very intriguing.  Is an object as valuable as we perceive it to be?  The book also highlighted the concept of what should be important isn't usually what we focus on.  And the story briefly discussed the ripple-effect of one person's choices; we impact the lives around us even when we don't realize it.  So there were a few deep ideas running through the action; they just weren't developed as fully as we would have liked.  Overall, it was a C+ to B- book.

Next month, a French book; let the noms abound!  

Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation; a History of Literary Paris in the Twenties & Thirties by Noel Riley Fitch.

Club will be hosted by the Slaughter's on Friday, 9/30.  7PM as usual.  Hopefully, the promise of French food and wine will have everyone excited!

Until then - Happy Reading!

BrewedB

Who knew ferrets could be so cool

Did you know that some bloggers get books sent to them directly from publishers just to review??!  Sign me the hell up.  Seriously, how does one get a gig like that? I am totally looking into the specifics.  I spend at least eighty percent of my entertainment budget on books.  At least.

Until I am deemed cool enough to review for free, I have a lot of catching up to do; with my new fantasy boyfriend.  I'm about five years and six books behind.  Unfortunately, because I am so far behind in the Cal Leandros series I'm having a hard time finding the next few books in the series.  But never fear, I got the next best thing; I picked up a newer book by the same author.  It's just a different series.  A different set of brothers; a different type of monster; a different large US city.  I'm sensing a pattern here, aren't you?

via RobThurman.net

Chimera by Rob Thurman has brothers, very bad villains, really cool guns, and a ferret.  What more could a girl want in a standby, fill-in boyfriend?  No, I can't think of anything else either. 

In all seriousness though, Chimera has its own stand-alone street cred.  It does have a few similarities to Nightlife but it is a completely different story with different relationships, characters and energy.  Thurman's writing style has changed slightly from her 2006 debut but it still has the same raw beauty I loved in my intro book.  It was a little disorienting at first, what with an updated sentence structure approach but Chimera opened up about a quarter of the way through and became a truly delightful read.  I definitely think the slow start was all on my side since I did not "grow" with Thurman's style over several books but rather jumped ahead.

The story is not fantasy but could probably still be considered scifi given the genetics play.  The best part was how Thurman made the theories very plausible.  I could totally see some form of government funded crazy genetic experiments being performed that resemble what she has in this storyline.  Of course, I am a conspiracy theorist so anything is possible.  It is really the characters that make this book a gem.  Once again, they are believable and deep for an opening sequence.  The story had a nice twist at the end too, which was not the twist I expected exactly.  Thurman does write good side characters; my favorite personality in this book was Saul, a sidekick to Stefan.  He steals every scene he is in.

The villains in this series are very human but still just as nasty as the "demons" Cal and Niko face.  Actually, these bad guys might be just a shade worse because they are human.  The writing showcases the darkness in the baddies hearts well; I'm amazed at the clarity of human vileness.

Overall, it was a good story (solid A- on the BrewedB reading scale) and did the job of tiding me over while I searched for Moonlight, the next Cal book.  I scored a copy a few days ago and can't wait to dig in however, I'm heading to my local bookstore to pick up Basilisk, the next book in the Chimera series.  It was released today and promises to be every bit as entertaining as its predecessor.

Happy Reading!
BrewedB

The Cup - A Coffee Shop in Review

I was excited when I first saw the awning for a new coffee shop within bike riding distance from my house.  A local bakery had moved down the street to an old church building and The Cup was opening in it's place.  I had dreams of a homey decor with the smell of roasted coffee wafting along the block.  I imagined myself working remotely from one of the cafe tables while sipping on a mom-n-pop brew.  I envisioned giving my hard earned cash back to the local economy in real bohemian style.  My fantasies for this little shop were grandiose to say the least.

I watched with baited breath, waiting for the day the brown paper covering the windows and doors would be removed.  I watched and I waited.  Then I waited some more.  I waited a little longer and watched a few more times.  Then after several long months, I eventually forgot to watch and missed the actual opening.  Damn!  I heard about the opening on my twitter feed; how humiliating is that?!

I continued my stake-out, scanning the store for hours of operation and crowds.  I wanted to go with the Hubby and needed a time we were both away from work so we could spend a stint getting to know our new local coffee shop.  I didn't see much in the way of hours or people though.  I didn't think much of either since the place was brand new.   Instead, I found a morning the shop was open and the Hubby and I both had a few extra hours.  We drove to the shop with excitement in the air.  And by excitement, I mean my fast chatter about how cool it was going to be with a coffee shop just down the street.  I had heard the shop specialized in Italian espresso, which had recently become a favorite brew (since the Italian book club experience.)  I'm not sure I could have said the words "how cool will that be" any more without the Hubby throwing me out of the car in annoyance.  It's a good thing it was a short trip.

We finally walked in and the first thing that struck me was the smell, or lack thereof.  It did not smell like coffee, brewing or otherwise.  Don't get me wrong, it didn't smell bad.  It just didn't smell like coffee.  The decor was nice, new and upscale; the pictures of different Italian scenery were beautiful.  But it wasn't homey by any means.  There was no place to "plop down" with a good book and a good cup; at least not without hurting your ass.  That was two desires down the drain just by walking in the door.

The staff was nice and everything was prompt.  They did miss a cross-sell since I was hungry and eying the breakfast panini sign but they did have soy milk so I let the food thing go as "too new to push anything but coffee" nerves.  The shocker came when I sat to wait for my latte.  I just happened to sit by their coffee display.  CANNED COFFEE people!!  Canned coffee I could buy from Central Market.  There was nothing mom-n-pop about this place except the size.  The Cup specializes in Illy Coffee.

Again, don't get me wrong - it wasn't bad it just wasn't at all what I was expecting.  I was hoping for something a little more like Avoca over on the south side.  I'm not sure The Cup will grab the local crowd but I'm sure they will pick up those who enjoy shopping the Bricks.  As for BrewedB - we will keep trekking to the SouthSide for some truly amazing brews at Avoca.