Saturday, December 19, 2009

Dead Until Dark - Sookie #1 makes About.com Top 10 books of the Decade !

What were people reading in the 2000s? Here are 10 books that dominated the bestsellers lists from 2000-2009. These books impacted popular culture and were ubiquitous in the 2000s.

1. 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' by J.K. Rowling
2. 'Twilight' by Stephenie Meyer
3. 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown
4. 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini
5. 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell
6. 'Three Cups of Tea' by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
7. 'Freakonomics' by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
8. 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy
9. 'The Shack' by William P. Young
10. 'Dead Until Dark' by Charlaine Harris

Cranberry Coffee Cake from Charlaine's Forum Recipes


Cranberry Coffee Cake

(great for Christmas morning)
1 Stick soft butter
1 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pint sour cream
1 teaspoon almond extract (can sub vanilla)
1 7 oz. can cranberry sauce
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Grease and flour 8" tube pan. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and cream in sugar. Blend in eggs one at a time. Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Add extract.

Put a little more than 1/2 batter in pan. Swirl half the cranberry sauce over batter. Add the remaining batter and then swirl remaining cranberry sauce on top. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake at 350 for about 55 min. Remove from pan after cooling 5 min.

Topping if desired: 3/4 Cup confectioner's sugar and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 1 Tablespoon warm water. Mix together and drizzle over top of cake, allowing it to run over the sides. Enjoy!

Crystal Norris is cast


And the powers-that-be behind HBO's popular series True Blood still aren't done filling out the character roster for Season Three. Today another new female was added, one named Crystal Norris, who shares an "electric connection" with Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten).

According to The Hollywood Reporter Crystal, a beautiful "barefoot, sundress-wearing woman", will be portrayed by Lindsay Pulsipher, whom genre buffs will likely recognize from the Masters of Horror episode "The Fair Haired Child". Most recently she's been in A&E's The Beast.

In the Charlaine Harris books on which True Blood is based, Crystal is a full-blooded werepanther who is first introduced in the fourth novel and reappears throughout the storyline up until the ninth book, Dead and Gone. We'll see how much showrunner Alan Ball deviates from that formula come June, 2010, when the third season premieres.

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/35058/true-blood-adds-yet-another-recurring-character-season-three

True Blood Music Video of the Day: "Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas



"Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas