Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Just finished book 2 in the Potter series. Would have finished it a lot sooner, but I was sharing the book with the twin and she took it on vacation to Indy last week.

I was able to finish it off in the car ride home from Vegas this weekend and enjoyed it mucho. I know I am in too deep yet and have been told they get dark, but this one was not too bad - unless you are afraid of the image of spiders the size of small elephants. I could not stand Professor Lockhart in the movies and found him even more annoying in the book...so that makes me 'ugh' for whichever coming book introduces Dolores Umbridge.

I liked this one because you get to start seeing the set-ups for the Ginny/Harry and Ron/Hermione connections begin to play out. And...I love me some Dobby!!!

Off to the Mission Viejo library to get book 3.

Duck Face

I love being an aunt. You get to hang out with the little nuggets all you want, but send them home to their parents when you are over it. You get to buy them totally impractical gifts that inevitably annoy the parents to tears. You get to teach them the good stuff like how to head butt bully kids on the playground and how to use humor to get out of trouble. Eventually you get to be the one they come to when they are either too ashamed and/or too scared to talk to their parents about something they did that they shouldn't have. And in that case I will treat each little misdirected adolescent with a good mix of sarcasm and cynicism that they will probably end up thinking it would have been a better idea to go see mom and pop's before crazy ol' aunt Hoolay. But that is a long way off. Right now I get to enjoy moments like these...

Getting to see their newest tricks and talents.

I mean, I am *favorite* auntie to this little crazy baby who thinks she is a duck!

A chunky little duck who apparently thinks the more she flaps her arms she may actually start to fly.

Chile Relleno a la Hoolay!

This weekend I took a stab at Chile Relleno...it was quite the task. Luckily I have mad skills and it turned out awesome and I shall further more be known as Julie the Relleno Master.
It was a labor of love with me coming in at just shy of 4.5 hours if you count prep time, random hale storms and clean up.

First I had to fire-roast the Poblano peppers. I have never done this before and it was intense. I left a wake of ash and sizzle and may or may not have a full set of fingerprints left on my right pointer finger.

I kept thinking I was burning them, but then reminded myself that burning them was the point. Nice and charred is what we are looking for here people.

After nice an crispy, they went into a sealed plastic containers to sit for 10 minutes. I created my own little Poblano Sauna. Then one at a time so they kept their steamy heat I peeled all of the charred skins off. I had not idea how long this would take and how messy it would be.

Then as I was cutting slits in the peeled peppers and removing the seeds and membranes I was interrupted by loud thunder and then a hale storm. The completely distracted me and I went outside to watch the crazy that came down. I mean, it was 100 degrees just a day earlier. It lasted about 5 minutes, then I went back to my peppers.

Next came the filling for the peppers. I sauteed zucchini, portobellos, corn, red onion and garlic then mixed it together with shredded chicken, roma tomatoes, black beans, red bell pepper, queso quesadilla cheese, salsa verde and avocado. Then I mixed some Tapatio with sour cream and added just a touch of that to the mix to help bind it.

Then I added MORE cheese. Then I stuffed those suckers to the brim, covered them in foil and got ready for our trip down to San Diego for a Mexican Food Fiesta with the cook-off crew.

When I came back up to the Twinner's house ready to pack up my goods I saw this little squish bottom. They asked me to help prop her up so they could capture her awesomeness in photo...and I could not help but get into a pic with her. I mean, I did get her that epic Bono onesie.

Then we made our way down to San Diego, where we were able to make our first acquaintance with this handsome little guy, Bennington! I have a feeling that he and Stella are going to be fast friends. I mean, look at that face!

Back to the Relleno! I topped those suckers with more cheese and popped them in the oven for about 35 minutes, then another 5 with the foil removed and the broiler on.

While they were baking away we went to town on homemade guacamole and 9-layer dip a la Daniel, cheesy bean dip a la Twinner, homemade salsa a la Husbro and Street Tacos a la Barbara. Everything was awesome, but those tacos kicked butt!

We hung out with Margaritas a la Troy, which David and The BEST relaxed with out on the patio.

Not that we still needed to eat anymore...the Chile Relleo came out of the oven nice and bubbly hot!

I dished that plump little sucker up and piped the Tapatio sour cream onto it and served. Success! 

We also had super yummy enchiladas a la Daniel and Sangria a la David. Troy and I preferred to double fist the margaritas and sangria because nobody likes a pansy.

The night of never ending food finally ended with Tres Leches Cake al la Darrin and Flan a la Barbara. Although I love doing the cook-off's, having a fiesta themed potluck was equally amazing. I think I could be happy for the rest of my life with good food, good drink, good conversation and great friends! Oh, and millions of dollars would kick hiney too!  

No Iphone Needed

As we were leaving for a wedding on Saturday I realized that my camera battery was dead...sad face. There was not enough time to charge it, so we just left. Kirk could not have been happier to hear of this news since he loathes taking pictures just as much as Madonna loathes hydrangeas. I feel like most people don't carry cameras anymore. Why would they? They all have fancy iphones and such that take great pictures. Pictures that they can even edit on their phones, making them look super artsy and fancy, then post them to facebook instantly for every one's instant gratification. My phone does not even connect to the internet...and it never will because I am a cheap little lady who refuses to pay for it when I already pay for it at home. Call me old fashioned...call me lame...I will call myself thrifty! Anyway, I took some pics this weekend with my run o' the mill LG cell phone. I could not let Kirk escape that easily. And here are the results.

The wedding was beautiful...
and I am a sucker for anything written in fancy calligraphy.

The Happy Couple! Dannye & Gary.

The HUSBRO! Gotcha Kirker :)



The Culver Clan came out to escape the 108 degree temps.
The guys introduced them to the Frisbee/bottle game at a nearby park.



Mason and Kirk feeling pretty confident!



It started to rain randomly and Karis was channeling her inner-Wendy.
She did NOT like the rain!

Christy dodging football tosses while staying out of the sprinkles.

Let the Potter Begin

I just finished reading the first in the Harry Potter series and enjoyed it very much. I am not sure how I would have interpreted it had I not seen the movies first, but with having only read the 1st book so far - I am glad I have seen the movies. I know that many would look at this as a negative, but I like picturing Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as I am reading. I mean, they act pretty much flawlessly in the movies, so I do not see it as distracting, but as helpful in "seeing" the story progress on the pages. But then I also wonder how I would have pictured those characters if I had read pre-movies.

Back when these books were at the peak of their popularity, I remember people saying that they would not want their kids to read them. Although I would maybe agree that certain parts might be a bit scary or gruesome at times, I think the first book was pretty cool and that kids would love it. The messages the books portray are great and you can't help but root for the good to prevail. I know I have mucho more books left to read, but I am pretty certain this will be a series that I look forward to re-reading with my future kidlets one day