I'm going to post a campfire that might get me into hot water with the lot of you, and it might tick you off, but this has been on my mind for a long time and I wanted to finally get it off my chest.

Lately, Rob Pattinson has been saying stuff that kind of...how shall I put this...ticks me off. For example, when he called Twilight fans crazy and then basically said we all just sit around on our computers. And he acts, to me, like every woman wants him when I know several of them (myself included) that don't.

Now, I know he might not be because I don't know the guy - but sometimes - to me at least, he seems arrogant. And there are different types of arrogance, some obvious and some not. I'm not saying he thinks he's God's gift to women, but he does seem to "know" how attractive he is.

I'm not trying to start a war, but I do wonder, am I the only person who thinks he seems rather...smug? Has he ever said anything that ticked you off?

Lovely camper SouthernCharm recently approached me with a most fascinating idea. Twi-fic read alongs are always popular. The weekend recipe campfires over the past few weeks have garnered a lot of response- what if we combined those two things and had a COOKALONG?!?!

How fun would it be to all get the same recipe and make it, checking in with one another online, asking questions, posting pics, etc? Some of us love to cook, some of us need a little encouragement. What a great way to combine all level of cooks and try something new!

SouthernCharm has provided a mouth-watering recipe for Coq au Vin. Let me use my very limited bilingual skills to tell you that that translates to Chicken with Wine. I have ALWAYS wanted to try this, but honestly- I've been too intimidated. Now, however, I'm ready to try! Charm tells me that even though there are several steps to making it, it's not actually a difficult recipe. Score!

So today I'm going to list the ingredients and what you'll need to make it. Next Sunday I will post the actual recipe. I know we're in all different time zones, so just hop on and start cooking when you have time. Please post any comments or questions here. You've got a week to go grocery shopping and buy a new apron!

Ingredients

3 lbs bone-in chicken (boneless bird can be used as well, it's just that the bone gives the stock more flavor)

1/3 lb pancetta or bacon (pancetta can be found in your grocery deli)

3-4 carrots

3 celery stalks

2 onions

2-3 garlic cloves

1 bottle red wine

2 cups chicken stock (can be found in the soup aisle)

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon herbs de provence (if none on hand, just add a combination of thyme, sage, and rosemary)

3 tablespoons room temperature butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 lb mushrooms (if you hate shrooms it's okay to leave these out)

salt/pepper

peas or baby carrots are optional and can be added to the dish

rice or potatoes or egg noodle to serve over- your pick!

Supplies

You will need a large pot, like an 8 quart stock pot

sieve or collander

blender or food processor or stick mixer

I WAS GOING TO INSERT A DELICIOUS LOOKING PICTURE OF THE FINAL DISH HERE. HOWEVER, NONE OF THE PICS ON GOOGLE IMAGE LOOK THE SAME. AND SINCE I'VE NEVER MADE IT BEFORE AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE, YOU GET....NOTHING! :-P

We have seen so many great Twilight Fanfiction contests.

I don't know if there is already a general list of them anywhere.

Here are a few that I have posted in my facebook group called :

Twific Directory

https://www.facebook.com/groups/twificdirectory/ - join here 

If you don't  have a FB account, here are the links below.

Feel free to post them in your own blogs. 

List in comments below.

Also let me know if I should add any other contests to the list.

Recently, there has been a steadily growing trend of restaurants banning children from their establishments. Some of them take a small approach (hanging a sign that says "Noisy Children Will Not Be Tolerated"), others go a step further (La Fisheria in Houston has banned children 6 and under from their establishment during the dinner hours), while some are no-holds barred (The Sushi Bar in Virginia has banned anyone 17 and under). 

What are you thoughts? 
Would you support an adults-only restaurant?
Do you believe a restaurant should reserve the right to refuse service? 
Do you have any horror stories from restaurants? It doesn't just have to be kids, either! It can be unruly adults too! 

**The reason I'm posting about this is because I had an extremely unpleasant dining experience last night. My story is inside in the comments.**

p.s. I have to go to work later. So if I don't respond, that is why. ;) 

Edit: SO I GO TO WORK FOR A FEW HOURS (WORST NIGHT OF MY LIFE, TOO, BTW), AND THIS THREAD BLOWS UP WHILE I'M GONE. WOW. LOL. 

Since it's free for all, I have an idea.

I cannot WAIT to go to this concert. My only issue is finding a place to stay (and possibly getting there, but idk yet)
 

As promised last weekend, today we're looking for your best or easiest or favorite potato recipes. I am not too proud to admit that I'm a total potato head. I've never met a spud I didn't love. Come post 'em if you got 'em. Any kind of potato will do - yellow, red, baked, fried, sweet, yam. All are welcome!

Check out our previous weeks' recipe threads for more deliciousness!

Chicken

Veggies

Next week- Main Course Casseroles!

While it's still FFA and I'm feeling brave...

My third book, The Oracles of St. Ambrose: Going Under, released for Kindle yesterday. As you might imagine, I'm super excited to share (but also scared, because self-promotion has never been my fave.) I wrote it specifically for teens, but I think adults enjoy it, too. I wanted to capture that old Nancy Drew feel from when I was a kid, as well as a little bit of paranormal fun. So here's the cover:

Chase Bradford, king of New York City’s high school elite, is dragged to Nashville for his senior year at St. Ambrose Academy. On his second day, the Queen Bee is found dead in the school swimming pool. Chase isn’t surprised, since he saw a vision on the water’s surface during swim practice just hours before Cheyenne died.

Before Chase can properly freak out, he discovers snarky writer Natalie and narcoleptic computer genius Bryan also possess unusual abilities. The three must work together to discover how Cheyenne died and why…before the killer can get away with it. But Natalie and Bryan are from different social circles and pose a threat to Chase's elite status. High school politics are nothing new to Chase, but the psychic abilities are.

The list of suspects isn’t surprising, since few people actually liked the popular queen of the elite. Chase, Natalie, and Bryan follow every vision, every lead – even Cheyenne's own father – right up to the shocking end.
 

So, what books are your kids reading? Or, if you like to read books for teens, what are your current favorites?

Hi guys!!

OMG I joined Nerd Fitness which was mentioned by Jennrosee and it's amazing!!

Going off of that, this week share something food/fitness related that someone else shared with you :)

Although I find the following fascinating, inspiring, complicated and incredibly evocative for almost anyone interested, much of what is described rang the loudest bells, so to speak, for me as a writer and an artist.

In perhaps far more moderate form, I confess that some of this is relevant and extremely familiar to me - as well as to many other writers and artists with whom I've discussed similar phenomena. Yet it's not exactly something you can often bring up or discuss in casual conversation, at a dinner party, in a professional setting, or even amongst people who love you yet have no clue as to what you are referring or experiencing.

So, I was hoping that it would be possible to discuss it here, if anyone is game or feels so moved.

I believe many writers & artists - and their characters & subjects - experience some of this all the time, in some version or another. I know that I have as often felt like a transcriber or a translator as I have felt like a creative artist honing a craft; and I'll leave it at that, for the moment.

I do particularly appreciate her distinction between 'symptom' vs. 'experience,' between 'What's wrong with you?" vs. "What's happened to you?" But I will shut up now because I'd rather know what any of you may think about it first.

This is Eleanor Longden - speaking at yet another great TED Weekend event - in a talk entitled "The Voices in My Head."

Ok i've kind of stepped away from fiction for awhile and am ready to get back to reading i'm looking for a few fics that i can no longer find. 

1) I think its called Aha Shake where bella is a hand model and Emmet is a chubby chaser

2.) Order of the seers sequel

3) One where bella and edward hunted zombies

4.) The Bitch and the HellCat (this story is freaking awesome and i can not find a completed version anywhere and its been forever and a day, is this on hiatus or something?)

I had these stories saved but my computer crashed and i lost everything so it really sucks that i'm now ready to start reading again and cant.

_________________________

Bella Swan: Kidnapper » by Kambria Rain reviews

Summary: Um. Hi. I don’t really know how to say this, but I have your kids with me, and I was thinking maybe you would like them back. So yeah… call me.
  Rated: M - English - Romance/Humor - Chapters: 23 Bella/Edward - Complete

Just wondering if anyone has found any good songs in the last little bit, or just good music that you've been listening to for awhile ….. I'll post a couple videos in the comments..

Thinking about what to do today to waste time and forget about the world outside, I sat on my bed and started going to the ussual motions. Sit, start the computer, take off shoes....go to you tube to see old and new seasons of..."Say yes to the dress". Yeah, that's my current guilty pleasure. I'm not engaged, I don't even have a freaking boyfriend but I can't stop looking at it and searching every youtube corner for episodes I haven't seen (which are many but some are not allowed in my country :-[). Anyway...I want to ask you all, what's that obssesive guilty pleasure you can't stop enjoying when you're not reading fanfiction?. Who knows maybe I can get new ideas lol.

I´ll live this for my joy :P

I'm just going to leave this here to discuss:

http://news.yahoo.com/girls-film-confounding-problems-fan-fiction-090500984.html

I just went and saw City of Bones with my sister (110% not even close to impressed), my two youngest daughters (neither have read the book) and my niece (read all the books with me) and personally I thought it was borderline horrible.

Terrible casting... I only liked Jocelyn, Luke, Hodge and Simon the rest were just terrbile in my opinion.

Talked to the movie theater people and they said at 11:30 they had about 10 people in line for the midnight opener.  Alas, TMI is no Twilight.  But what does this say for fanfiction now?  We seem to be the running punchline with these fanfic to book to movie deals... 

I'm going to sit and have a glass of wine tonight and ponder this.  I'd love some good conversation to go with said Wine.

Did you see it?  What'd you think?  Does anyone else want to teach JCB how to do his hair in a more manly fashion?  Do all English men have no butt?  Can we get someone who actually resembles the main character to act the main character?  Did we learn nothing from bad hair dye jobs and wigs from Twilight?  Red hair black eyebrows O.o

free for all

this place is quiet, man

so lemme ask

what kind of campfires would encourage you to post more?

is there anything you miss seeing? certain people?

will you buy the new jandco/wtvoc novel when it comes out?

would you like to start the fandom for it now? just write angsty fanfiction set in the late 60s/early 70s, that'll get you on track. include "under my thumb" by the stones and "crying" by roy orbison on your fanmixes.

anyway, post whatever you want until sunday evening, and tell me in this here campfire what you want on adf besides removing that sour wolf off the damned background gd it

the kinks are always relevant fyt: