James Patterson Zoo- Spoiler Free opinion

I'm going to be blunt here. Zoo was a bit of a bummer for me. I've never been a huge James Patterson fan because of the two other books I read I found the ending to be anticlimactic with his work. Just not my cup of tea. Zoo was a whole other bag of worms though. The book got off to a shaky start with the lion attack being the most interesting thing in the first hundred pages and that was the prologue. It felt more like watching a train wreck than reading a book. I wanted to stop but just couldn't look away. I realize that is vague so I'll try to elaborate. Zoo has a cute premise that something in the atmosphere is causing the animals to go insane and attack humans in a way never before seen. Sounded fun. The problem is the book starts so close to the conception of the problem and takes so long to build up that I kept reading just to see if it would.

 

All of that being said the book wasn't all bad. It did pick up and got extraordinarily interesting for a few chapters, it was wonderful. Then the book did a five year time jump and I was back at square one waiting for it to get good again. AND IT DID! Want to guess what happened next? I found the book came to no conclusion, instead we got another time jump and an epilogue of no real use. Bummer. 375 pages of come and go greatness.

 

Overall conclusion, it wasn't the biggest waste of time but I expected better from a book with James Patterson's name on it. I would also like to throw out there that this does not read like a horror book at all. It's more like a dark comedy. I had more moments where I giggled than where I felt any real tension in the story.

 

This is just my two cents on the subject. If you LOVE his work. Give it a go. You'll probably like it. If you're like me and not really a fan from the get go then I'd shop elsewhere for a weekend read.

 

-amanda

Rum Cake Experiment pt 2

Rum Cake
Ingredient
for the cake:
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
3 tablespoons + 1/2 cup canola oil, separated
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch (I know I said flour sub but screw that it's inconsistent)
4 teaspoons baking powder (DON'T sub this either. Yikes)
1 cup vanilla instant pudding mix (JELLO is my choice)

3/4 cup whole milk
4 large eggs
3/4 cup dark rum (Myers Dark Jamaican Rum)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (Don’t use imitation if you can help it. This is a recipe where you can taste the difference but if you do it won't ruin it)

for the rum syrup:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup dark rum (myers)

Special Equipment: One 10-15 cup Bundt pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan. How you grease and flour is up to you but I found Bakers Joy spray with flour in it was perfect. Set aside.

In the base of a mixer, cream the 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and the 1/2 cup butter. Add the 3 tablespoons oil, flour, cornstarch, baking powder until evenly distributed. (should look a bit like crumbs) Mix in the pudding mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, rum, vanilla extract, and remaining vegetable oil. Add to the dry mixture and mix well until combined. The batter will be smooth, thin, and pour easily. Scrape your bowl often.

Pour into the prepared bundt pan and bake for an hour, or until a tester inserted in the cake comes up clean. (1 hour and 5 minutes in my oven)

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack. Let cool for 20 to 30 minutes.

While the cake cools, prepare the rum syrup: In a saucepan combine the butter, water, granulated sugar. Cook over medium or low heat until the butter completely melts and the sugar dissolves. Let reduce slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum.

Wash and dry the bundt pan, then place over the cool cake and invert the cake back into the pan. Pour the hot rum syrup all over the cake. You can let it hang out overnight but I found it stuck like you wouldn't believe when I did that and besides the syrup soaked in about five minutes. So I just waited and then flipped it on a plate. Still wait until morning to eat it though. It needs some time to sit before its perfect. Two days is ideal.

I like the myers rum better than the Appleton estate but I think that's partly because I asked for dark rum and when I bought the Appleton estate they sold me an amber rum. D:< Dark means Dark.

So ya. The experiment for perfect rum cake continues. I'm getting warmer though and I really do prefer no nuts in my cake.

-amanda

Stephen King: The Running Man

Hi guys. I want to talk about books today because I’m starting to feel like I am the only one who reads anymore. If I want to talk to someone about a video game plot or what happened on Scandal last week then they are a dime a dozen but after I went on my latest book bender, I found myself lacking someone I could share my thoughts and have a discussion with. I bought 27 books and no one I know has read any of them.

It’s a bit of a bummer to be honest.

However read on at your own risk. I’m not promising spoilers or any context but I’d like to talk about some of the books I’ve recently read. Let’s start with Stephen King’s book, The Running Man.

The Running Man is a wonderful dystopia about an over populated world filled with devastating poverty and a man who is willing to risk his life to save his child, stop his wife from earning rent on her back, and be gainfully employed. However to get the money he needs to save his family our protagonist applies for a set of lethal game shows that pay based on how difficult it is to survive. Obviously he gets into one of the games or there would not be a plot.

I think one of my favorite aspects of the book is the honesty of the protagonist to himself the whole time. As I read the book I kept waiting for him to realize he was wrong about his beliefs and I adored the part of the book where I finally came to terms that he was right. As you read about the world he lives in I found myself wanting it to all be a lie but our protagonist is no superman in a cape.  

This is the point where hubby and I start to disagree. I see the protagonist joining the game as a way of finally embracing the dystopian society as all his rebelling did was drive them into poverty. My husband sees it as him rebelling because he is snarky and takes out his anger on those in wealthier positions.

If you are confused or intrigued at this point I’d recommend you go buy the book. Brand new it’s $8. I don’t know about you but I found my copy used for $1.50. Just throwing that out there.

Anyway, as the story progress I found the point where I saw him to be rebelling occurred much later in the plot. You know after stuff happens and he is challenged on many levels. I am also at this point just going to throw out there that I am a bit torn between revealing oodles of spoilers or hoping I intrigued people enough to go read the book and pose some questions we can talk about. I’ll start.

1.     Do you think our protagonist is rebelling against the system from the get go? Yes, No, Maybe so?

2.     What do you think actually happened to his daughter?

3.     Do you think he was justified in his actions?

4.     What about the games corporation? What events do you see occurring that could lead a society to a place where they would try and kill people for a game show?

If you haven’t read the book and this all sounds interesting I would like to place a challenge out there for you. Just one hour a day where you would watch tv, play a video game, putz on your phone and text people about what you want to do before giving up. Just stop and read a book for an hour. Or just one chapter at a time when you have a little to spare. It’s fun, honest. Who knows, if I can get enough people reading then maybe I will have someone to talk about books with.

Rum Cake Recipe Experiment. Part 1

Ok. So I looooove rum cake. Like a lot. I've eaten it in the Bahama's, ordered it in from Jamaica and jumped for joy when a local bbq place had a secret recipe and I could just go drive out and get a slice. However woe is me that place has closed and I am tired of spending money on shipping cake to me. So here we go. Round one.

Rum Cake
Ingredient
for the cake:
1/2 cups walnuts, crushed (optional)
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
3 tablespoons + 1/2 cup canola oil, separated (or not. Honestly worked fine for me either way. My Kitchen Aid is a beast)
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch OR ½ cup flour (I prefer the cornstarch. I could taste the extra flour when I used it) 4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup vanilla instant pudding mix (JELLO is my choice)

3/4 cup whole milk
4 large eggs
3/4 cup dark rum (Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (Don’t use imitation if you can help it. This is a recipe where you can taste the difference.)
for the rum syrup:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup dark rum (Same as above or you can mix and match)

Special Equipment: One 10-15 cup Bundt pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan. Set aside.

In the base of a mixer, cream the 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and the 1/2 cup butter. Add the 3 tablespoons oil, flour, cornstarch, baking powder until evenly distributed. (should look a bit like crumbs) Mix in the pudding mix add walnuts.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, rum, vanilla extract, and remaining vegetable oil. Add to the dry mixture and mix well until combined. The batter will be smooth, thin, and pour easily. Scrape your bowl often.

Pour into the prepared bundt pan and bake for an hour, or until a tester inserted in the cake comes up clean. (1 hour and 5 minutes in my oven)

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack. Let cool for additional 20 minutes.

While the cake cools, prepare the rum syrup: In a saucepan combine the butter, water, granulated sugar. Cook over medium or low heat until the butter completely melts and the sugar dissolves add rum. Let reduce slightly.

Wash and dry the bundt pan, then place over the cool cake and invert the cake back into the pan. Pour the hot rum syrup all over the cake and let soak for 8 hours (overnight). <-- This step didn't work for me at all. I think next time I'm going to soak it in a big bowl because it came out of the pan perfect when cooling but this morning it stuck and broke in half.

This cake also wasn't nutty enough for me and I think I'm going to add about 50% more rum syrup on my next go. Overall my hubby loves it but it's not quite what I had in mind. I also want to use Bacardi Rum next time. I've had a Bacardi rum cake and it was tasty. Plus like I said this is a good cake but just not what I was looking for.

The Nightmare Before Christmas and Other Misc. Thoughts

Ok. Recently I have been so swamped that I barely have time to breathe so when all my plans for a Monday went belly up I found myself with nearly six hours of free time. Chores were done. No work. Already gone to the gym. I weighed my options. I could always FIND more work that needed to be done. Or I could pop some kettle corn and have a movie marathon until my husband got home.

I started my marathon with a few episodes of Attack on Titan but for anyone who has seen it, it's a bit dark and not in the funny way. So I moved on to What to Expect When You're Expecting. Great cast list, super funny, and curbs my baby fever but by the time it's done I wanted something a bit less bubbly and that's when I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas on my Netflix queue. It had been years since I'd seen it or really thought about it. When talking cartoons with my friends who have kids it generally doesn't make the list and never understood why before now.

I was reflecting on that movie and it seems the great underlying theme of The Nightmare Before Christmas is that if you try to branch out of the place society has created for you, you will make people suffer and ultimately fail until you move back into your place. Wait, what? Was that really the concept that they wanted us to take from the movie. Society will put you somewhere and you better stay there? Now I'm not sure if I want my own kids watching that, you know, once they actually exist.

Of course this couldn't be allowed to stand. I loved this movie as a kid. I don't think I came out to scarred for watching it. I attempted to try and find something redeeming about the message that this was portraying and I'll admit I came up with slim pickings. The best I could do is change it from 'your being punished because you branched out' to 'we are presented with a protagonist who learns to be happy with what he has in life and with this enlightenment he is greater fulfilled as a self conscious being.' That's an ok message but I guess it's not the worst thing cartoons has thrown our direction.

I burst out laughing when I heard Disney finally made a cartoon about sisters bonding and the concept that you shouldn't marry the first good looking man you meet. Pat yourself on the back Disney. I'm proud of you.

Have a lovely weekend. I'll try to be a little more insightful next time. Maybe. We'll see how it goes. I might give you a rum cake recipe instead.

-Amanda