1.29.2011

Linky Links

Just some links I’ve been wanting to share (some for a looong time):

Stephanie Perkins’ post about her journey as a writer is so inspirational, and then Kiersten White’s post about dumb girls made me rethink some things...

Attolia fans: I found this page on the Queen’s Thief fansite, Sounis, that shows the gorgeous concept art for the Conspiracy of Kings cover. It’s amazing to see how much work goes through making the physical book itself and be able to look behind-the-scenes.

Dean Hale (Shannon Hale’s husband) wrote this heartwarming post on his blog, Dread Crumbs.

Congrats to Shannon Hale herself, for being mentioned on NPR on her birthday! :)

Choco, in In Which a Girl Reads recently wrote about her favorite underappreciated books. Mine? The Courageous Princess by Rod Esponisa (a lovely graphic novel), Sammy Keyes (my favorite mysteries when I was in middle school but no one seems to have read these!), and basically the rest of Wendelin Van Draanen’s novels. What are yours?

Scott Westerfeld put up some footage of a real Tasmanian Tiger. It's strange to think that they're not really roaming around Australia anymore.

Want to know what books topped the NY Times bestsellers list during the week of your birthday? Find out on Biblioquest’s International! Some bestselling books on my list are The Chamber by John Grisham, Disclosure by Michael Crichton, and Beyond Peace by Richard Nixon. :D What books came out during your birthday week?

James Dashner's right. I really, really liked the King’s Speech. Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon, because wow, everything was just so elegant: the acting, cinematography, the music...

Speaking of the King’s Speech, the Oscar/Academy Awards nominations came out a couple days ago if you haven’t seen them yet. The nominees aren’t as predictable as I thought they would be, so I’m really looking forward to February 27th now. ;)

But it looks like the academy made a huge mistake with the Best Animated Feature category because why isn’t TANGLED there??!? I mean, Toy Story 3 is going to win anyway, but a nomination is a nomination, and it was a critical and box-office success! (And...I unquestionably adored every bit of it.) It deserves a nomination! :(

*sigh*

Anywho, in a somewhat related note, Meg Cabot back in December wrote about the Princess Thing. It’s worth reading. :D

Anddd, that’s all for now. Ciao for now! I'll have a review of Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly very soon...

-Nonie

1.09.2011

About the Bouche de Noel...

It's always been a dream of mine ever since I started French, to bake a perfect Bouche de Noel for Christmastime...

So I did make one this year. It didn't look at all like my ideal logs, but hey, it looks okay :-D (but please don't laugh when you see the pictures) -


A very chocolatey filling...


It turned out to be real tiny (about 6 inches in length to be exact). Why? Well, for some strange, mysterious reason unbeknownst to me, 2/3's of the cake got burnt and turned charcoal black. The sight of my beloved cake left me in anguish and completely shattered (seriously), but fortunately, it didn't do the same to my mom who just quickly salvaged the edible 1/3.

The frosting part didn't turn out so well either because the cake broke into pieces as soon as I started rolling it up to start spreading the cream, so then I had to turn to my trusty home-made chocolate filling to glue them all together again.

And call me weird, but despite all these mishaps, I'm quite proud of how the Bouche turned out to look almost like a real log with real tree bark, layers and all (see last picture), even though yes, I know the cake's not supposed to be like that. And...it didn't taste bad. A little too chocolatey perhaps because of the extra frosting I had to use for gluing, but overall I liked it. :D

Anyway, after the whole incident, I resolved to just write a letter to Santa in French next year for extra credit. I'm still a little burned out from all that cooking...

-Nonie