Ann Arbor Family – DIY style

I am excited to share my latest from Ann Arbor Family. It's an article featuring Blue House, a studio that inspires creativity and craft. You can read more online at Ann Arbor Family – DIY style and in the July issue on newsstands now.

Success or Mess: How old is too old?

You’re only as old as you act, right? Well, a friend and I plan to attend a midnight premiere of Eclipse. No biggie, except we are grown women, not perky teenagers. We’re ok for a weekend matinee, but this is an honest to goodness weeknight-into-the-wee-hours-of-the-morn deal…are we crazy?

Of course! But, sanity aside, do you think we’ve got what it takes to hang with the kiddies and survive the next day, or that we’ll be ‘dead to the world’ after?

Tune in again to see if our crack o’ dawn adventure with a bunch of frenzied teens on summer vacay is a success or a midnight mess.

I’m thinking it might work if the movie theater plans to sell steaming vats of Starbucks along side the Junior Mints.

Summer Reads - Book and TV series

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

If you haven’t read this author yet, you might want to start. Gerritsen continues the series featuring a detective (Jane Rizzoli) and a medical examiner (Maura Isles) from Boston. A ski trip leaves Isles and her friends stranded in Kingdom Come, a secluded town with dark secrets. And the plot twists promise to keep things suspenseful.

You can read a full review at Publishers Weekly.

Also notable: TNT is set to launch a new show, ‘Rizzoli & Isles’ based on this series July 12. That’s in two weeks in the 10 o’clock spot.

Writing - work and creativity

If you find it difficult to balance creative inspiration with the demands of building a profitable writing career, take a deep breath and read the latest post from Jane Friedman at Writer Unboxed. It’s good advice to remember when things get hectic.

Summer Reads - 06/24/10

If you enjoy Shakespeare or festivals in the park, check out A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Every summer takes me back to a time, many years ago, when some friends and I acted in an outdoor production of this very play. The characters, the dreams and the humor make for a great summer experience.

If you’d rather watch it than read it, then try checking online for a local Shakespeare festival – and get thee to the theater!

Summer Reads - 06/22/10

Steig Larsson The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy Series #1)

Book three is released, but I recommend starting at the beginning of this intriguing series. You can shoot to the official web page (click the link above) and peek at the first chapter, the trailer and more.

Also, here’s a book blurb straight from Random House:

An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

Summer Reads - It's Official

Now that summer is finally here let’s stretch a little. I’ll post book suggestions each week and include new titles as well as some older selections that might interest you. Check back and comment or share your recommendations with others.

It’s time to grab a good book, pour a cold one, spread a beach towel and enjoy the summer!

Results for Weeknight Beer Can Chicken: Success or Mess?

Challenges:

Beer Can Chicken on a weeknight? Things could get pretty messy. Why? Because it involves a whole bird, a punctured beer can and an aging Weber grill.

Plans:

The original plan was to cook this on a weekend day – leisurely tending to it over a couple cold ones. When that didn’t happen it became less of a plan and more of an attempt to use what we had before it expired. So, I threw caution to the wind and grilled a whole chicken, on a weeknight.

Preparations:

Mix spices in a small dish and rub, rub, rub your 4-5 lb. bird! I used the Memphis Rub recipe from the Barbecue Bible as a guide – like most things, I altered it to fit our tastes and the ingredients on-hand.

Get one beer can. This is where things got interesting…

Realities:

While shopping for a single beer can I ran across numerous cases and multi-packs, the only ones that were single cans were pint size and larger. (I had half a mind to attempt mini-keg chicken, but that’s another story for another day.) So, I whistled my way to the register – Kid Rock, drinkin’ the 4-0 – and bought what I hoped would fit the bird.

Preparations (continued):

Crack open the beer. Pour some off the top or put it in a glass and drink it. Puncture the top of the can a few times with a pointy can opener. Now, sit the bird on top of the can with the open holes up.

Take a moment to admire the raw chicken, speckled with seasoning, atop that glistening old-school beer. Try not to laugh at your Chicken-on-the-Can, although it’s pretty hard not to.

Grill on medium until done, roughly a couple hours.

Lessons:

Don’t attempt this on a weeknight unless you can start cooking and drinking early.

Get someone else to watch the kids or give them an activity while you wrestle with the bird and the grill.

Buy or borrow a small can of beer, because unless you have a tall grill, it might not fit. Just imagine my shock when the bird on the big beer can didn’t actually fit in our grill. I was in too deep by then to let that stop me, so I just squashed the chicken with the peeling grill lid until it could budge no more. The photos show that part of the chicken pretty much charred, but it still tasted tender and yummy.

Summer Reads - Heating things up

There is a place where dreams come true – it’s called New Jersey. Not convinced? Might I suggest Sizzling Sixteen? It’s the next in the Stephanie Plum series and a sure cure for the summertime blues (if in fact that’s what you have).

Wondering if Stephanie gets lucky with Morelli or Ranger? How many cars get torched, or if she gets out of danger in time to save Vinnie and the bond business? Then you’ll want to clear the decks for the new Janet Evanovich book that hits stores next week.

SYOAS!

Weeknight Beer Can Chicken: Success or Mess?

What do you think about Beer Can Chicken on a weeknight? Things could get pretty messy. Why? Because it involves a whole bird, a punctured beer can and an aging Weber grill.

Tune in later this week to see if it’s a success or a total mess.

Summer Reads

Dean Koontz works his magic on a classic in Frankenstein: Lost Souls. It’s sure to be a suspenseful summer read – better keep the lights on for this one.

Summer Reads

Released last year, South of Broad is Pat Conroy’s first novel in around 14 years or so. This book is said to have the prose and drama his fans love, which should make a good summer escape.

Summer Reads

Update:

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella is free online now until July 5^th at breetanner.com.

New Stuff:

The Passage by Justin Cronin has a lot of buzz. It’s new, got vamp-like beings and Stephen King himself is touting the book. Publisher’s Weekly reported that this is the first of a trilogy and already in the works as a film with Ridley Scott. Whew – I better get a copy and start soon if I want to finish the nearly 800-page book by summer’s end. :)

Summer Reads

If you devoured the Twilight Saga and still want more, try The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella. The story is said to chronicle the life of newborn vampire Bree Tanner who appears in Eclipse.

Stephenie Meyer explains how the book was written and published on her website. Here is an excerpt: “This story was something that I worked on off and on for a while, just for fun, in between the times I was writing or editing other Twilight novels. Later, when the concept for The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide came up, I thought that might be a good place for Bree. Her story is a nice complement to Eclipse; it explains a lot of the things that Bella never knew.”

An interesting bonus is that one dollar from every book sold gets donated to the American Red Cross.

I get chills just thinking about a new point of view for this series. If you’ve read Midnight Sun, you know what I mean. If not, it’s a good time to sink your teeth into the saga Oprah calls a “worldwide phenomenon.”

SYOAS!

Fall Nights Look Hot

The fall competition is heating up. At our house, we are going to need plenty of DVR space so we don't miss a moment of Alex O'Loughlin, er, Hawaii Five-O or Castle.

If you haven't seen the trailer for Five-O, check it out. And you can watch full episodes, get all the cast info and latest news on Castle too, indeed.

p.s. Thank you networks. Keep going in this direction and I might start watching your commercials again. :)

Ann Arbor Family - Playful pachyderm

I am excited to share my latest work. It's an article featuring Elephant Ears, a fun children's store in Kerrytown. You can find it online at Ann Arbor Family - Playful pachyderm and in the June issue.

Summer Reads

It’s the unofficial start to summer, so why not get a jump-start with the latest warm weather reads?

The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch is now available.

Publishers Weekly declares it "An aching, honest look into the death and rebirth of relationships. Scotch answers hard questions about the nature of personal identity and overwhelming loss with a wise, absorbing narrative."

This sounds like a great summer read, and since Allison shares such helpful information I just can’t help but cheer her on!