Hot Nerd Girl

Category: Harry Potter

  • Harry Potter Photo Shoot & Contest

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    Today is my birthday (that’s right, I’m a Groundhog baby) and for the past three years I’ve posted a photo shoot to mark the occasion. In 2012 it was Batgirl. In 2013 it was a superhero character I created named Delilah. Last year it was the Dread Pirate Tracy.

    This year I FINALLY got my acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (thank YOU Professor McGonagall) so I grabbed my robes, my broom and my handmade wand (I totally whittled and painted it myself thankyouverymuch) and snuck into the Forbidden Forest for some practice.

    In case you were wondering, I got sorted into Gryffindor. The socks may have given that away.

    I always have a lot of fun writing the silly little stories that go along with the pictures (yes, I know exactly how silly they are) and folks seem to like them so I’ll just keep doing it 

    What’s that? You want to win a signed copy of one of these pictures? Ok, fine. There’s a contest after the pics. BUT WAIT! This time there’s actually TWO contests!

    My name is Tracy and I just got accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy! 

    I wonder why they chose me, I’m a bit old for a First Year…

    Oh well, don’t care! I love practicing spells with my wand.

    Sometimes I even get a spell to work!

    Flying on my broomstick is also pretty wicked.

    Wait – full stop – what is THAT??

    The Dark Lord is back! Better race back to Hogwarts and warn everyone!

    I got this guys!

    Take THAT Lord Voldemort!

    All in day’s work.

    Big thanks, as always, to my friend and photographer, Jon Upson. The Harry Potter pictures were supposed to be a few quick ones for the calendars and thanks to his wonderful talent, we ended up shooting a ton! To Mama Jedi for assisting on yet another photo shoot and for being my biggest cheerleader. To my friend and HNG Podcast co-host Darcy for over 4 years of constant motivation and support. Seriously, I couldn’t do this without him. To Reba for the lovely, and very last-minute, watermarks. And to my talented artist friend, Ben Risbeck, for fabulous, and also last-minute, photo shopping of the spell effects.

    Quick announcement! Me and the Podthingy boys (John Mulhall, author of Geddy’s Moon; Blayne Alexander, lead singer of Idiot Stare; and Hayden Lawrence, NerdBFF and Geek Outlaw) will have a booth at Long Beach Comic Expo February 28th-March 1st! Come say “Hi!” and check out the entire first season of the podcast HERE.

    ON TO THE CONTESTS!

    Part 1: If you want a chance to win a signed print of your choice from this photo shoot, leave a comment below by Thursday, February 5th at Midnight PST. I’ll pull five names out of a hat and contact you directly if you’re a winner!

    Part 2: I love, love, love all of the photo shopped photos that people have sent me over the years. So much so that I have a facebook photo album dedicated to them! Photo shop a spell or a Dementor or anything Harry Potter-related that you’d like into one of the 5 photos below and myself and an expert panel of judges will choose a winner. The winner will get a customized package full of HNG swag and will be featured on the HNG Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest pages! Photo shopped image must be submitted by the Thursday, February 5th at Midnight PST deadline! Send to: princesstrek@hotmail.com

    Option 1:

    Option 2:

    Option 3:

    Option 4:

    Option 5:

    Thanks to everyone who participates!

  • Best Nerdy Cakes Ever

    How did I manage to get in this predicament?!

    I’m not gonna lie, I’m more of a pie girl than a cake girl…Mmmmmm…rhubarb….but one thing that cake has going for it that pie doesn’t is it’s artistic possibilities.  Seriously, you can do ANYTHING with cake.  As a Food Network afficianado I know this for a fact.

    A friend recently sent me a photo of a Clone Trooper cake made by her friend Loriann at Ah, How Sweet bakery and it got me thinking about what other awesomely nerdy cakes might be out there.  The following cakes were made by Loriann: Pink Laptop, Steve Jobs Apple, Pac-Man, Starry Night, Clone Trooper, and Jack Skellington.  All of the rest I found via Google so if it’s your cake and you want credit for it, hit me up and I’ll be happy to oblige.  In an attempt to save some space (there were just too many that I loved!) I clumped some of them together.

    So grab your R2D2 eggs and your whisk and get ready to see some kick ass cakes!

    Let’s start with my favorite franchise, shall we?  That would be Star Trek  for any first time visitors. Here are a couple of nice insignia cakes:

    Oh no! The Klingons and the Borg!

    Phew! Our heroes are here to save the day.

    And then, of course, there’s this:

    Not creepy at all Data, not creepy at all…

    On to Star Wars.  We’ve got these familiar faces:

    And these:

    You want to see some Doctor Who? Ok fine:

    If you’re as big a fan as I am of the “Vincent and the Doctor” episode, this one is for you (add a little “For Amy” text on the cake for some extra credit):

    Nothing says “I do” like a nice Aliens wedding cake:

    This would be the ultimate birthday cake for my friend (and uber Ghostbusters fan) Hayden:

    How about we switch gears and look at some fantasy cakes.  Here’s one for the Lord of the Rings fans:

    And one for the Harry Potter crowd:

    And an epic tribute to Dungeons and Dragons:

    Are you a gamer?  Here you go:

    Or if you’re really old school:

    Or if you’re really REALLY old school:

    If you’re just into math and technology in general:

    But what about us comic book fans?  It’s ok, I got you covered.  Here’s all your favorite heroes in one delectable creation:

     

    And my personal favorite:

    I really missed the giant alien squid in the movie version of Watchmen but they definitely nailed this guy:

    Whether you’re a Walking Dead  fan or just like zombies (that would NOT be me) this wedding cake is for you:

    Nightmare Before Christmas is ridiculously awesome and also full of undead dead characters:

    If you’re a child of the 80’s like me then you’ll love these.  This Bumblebee cake is from the Michael bay movies but I couldn’t find a great Bumblebee cake from the cartoon and this one is pretty awesome so I’m rolling with it (hee hee, get it?):

    Heroes in a half shell!  Turtle power!

    And so ends are cake odyssey.  I hope that you’ve enjoyed the trip as much as I have.  I’d like to end it on this classy note:

    You're welcome.

  • Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl: Butterbeer

    Just remember, you've been warned!

    I don’t cook.

    Let me repeat.

    I. do. not. cook.

    I decided a while back that I should at least TRY to learn.  And if I was going to risk setting my kitchen on fire then I wanted to do it while making food that sounded appealing to me and what’s more appealing than food inspired by Star Trek? 

    Mmmmmm….Gagh…..

    So I got out my Star Trek cookbook and thumbed through all of the recipes until I found some I thought I could pull off.  I told a friend what I was doing and he suggested I film my attempts for posterity.

    Uff da.

    THEN I saw International House of Geek’s Thanksgiving post and the recipe for Lembas bread and decided to try recipes from several different franchises.  Really, I just wanted to try the Lembas bread. I explored The Geeky Chef and between the Star Trek cookbook, IHOG and Geeky Chef, I found 5 recipes to try. One entree, one bread, and three beverages. 

    I showed the rough edit of the first video to a family member and her first reaction was: “It’s obvious you don’t know what you’re doing.”

    It’s true.  I don’t.

    So feel free to laugh at my cluelessness in the kitchen.

    Up first, my new favorite Holiday beverage: Butterbeer! 

    (From Harry Potter, in case you didn’t know)

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYfAKaYWM94]

    –

    And here’s how to make it:

    Ingredients

    1/4 cup unsweetened condensed milk

    1/4 cup butterscotch topping

    2 tablespoons whipped butter, room temperature

    1 1/2 cups vanilla cream soda

    Directions
    Combine condensed milk, butterscotch topping, and butter in a glass heatproof measuring cup. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir until butter has melted and incorporated into mixture. Meanwhile heat cream soda in another heatproof measuring cup for 1 minute 30 seconds. Divide butterscotch mixture between 2 (10 to 12-ounce) mugs. Fill mugs with heated cream soda and stir thoroughly. Serve garnished with a cinnamon stick or an old-fashioned butterscotch candy stick.

    Enjoy!

    I sure did!

    Look for more Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl videos in the very near future!