OMG Pancakes!

I was recently offered the opportunity to review OMG Pancakes! by Jim Belosic (available October 4, 2011). From the book's website:

When Jim Belosic started making pancakes in unusual designs, he was just trying to earn some cool cred with his daughter, Allie. Little did he know how happy he'd make her-and the millions of fans who eagerly await his latest creations on the Internet.

Pancake unicorns, beehives, and even bridges, Ferris wheels, and construction cranes have all risen to life through Jim's artful use of squeeze bottles, tasty and nutritious coloring and flavor techniques, and fearless creativity. OMG Pancakes also includes holiday-themed creations like Ghost and Pumpkin for Halloween, Turkey for Thanksgiving, a Christmas Tree, and much more.

Now-with a little help from Jim-everyone can turn breakfast into art. Filled with four-color photos, and step-by- step instructions, OMG Pancakes! will be devoured by families and crafty foodies alike.

I'm not the resident pancake expert in the house, so I relied on my wife's opinions for some of this review.

The introduction was excellent, with tips and tricks as well as recipes. We really liked that he gave us recommendations for natural colouring of the batter instead of just relying on food colouring all the time.

The book had plenty of detailed full colour photos that we found quite helpful, and the shapes were very impressive and diverse: there were seasonal themes, sports, animals, etc.

We really liked the fact that it was split into chapters, and that the titles were nice and large which made finding what we were looking for that much easier.

Overall, while the pancakes will take more effort than "normal" ones, your family will appreciate them that much more. Check out Jim in action below:

Game Time: Tackling The Past

Tonight I had the opportunity to preview a Family Movie Night movie called Game Time: Tackling The Past that will be shown Saturday, September 3 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT. From the movie's website:

Pro football star Jake Walker is living the dream… or so he thinks. The veteran tight end is a fan favorite and on pace to set the all-time receiving yards record that will guarantee him a spot in the Hall of Fame. While working out at training camp, Jake receives an unexpected call from his brother Dean – their father Frank has suffered a major heart attack. Jake immediately leaves practice and returns to Riverton, North Carolina, the small hometown he’s avoided for nearly 15 years. Memories of glory and regret flood his mind as he returns to the family and friends he abandoned in pursuit of his career. Jake dutifully visits with Frank and Dean, but hurt and misunderstanding from the past begins to resurface, leaving him counting the days until he can return to his team.

A second unexpected call, this time from his agent, delivers Jake another crushing blow. His contract is not being renewed amid concerns about his surgically repaired knee. Suddenly, the life Jake knows is over. To avoid the media circus around this news, Jake reluctantly decides to extend his stay in Riverton. Attempting to make the best of the situation, he begins reconnecting with the community that once revered him. Jake is reintroduced to Sarah, his high school sweetheart, and helps Dean take over their father’s high school coaching job.

Surprisingly impacted by the people around him, the real Jake begins to emerge from behind his armor to see that life is much more than the accumulation of personal stats. But when Jake’s offered a lucrative new contract to play for another team, he is forced to decide whether to go back to the career he thought he loved, or stay in Riverton and embrace the people who always believed in him.

To be honest, this movie was kind of a ringer for this reviewer, given that I'm a huge fan of both football and the NBC series Chuck (the main character in the film - Jake Walker - is played by Ryan McPartlin, who also stars as Captain Awesome/Devon in that series). Fortunately, it was a great movie as well.

The story was completely plausible, moreso than other football movies I've seen recently, and the characters were believable and well developed, especially for the length of the feature. As a viewer, you really get a sense for how the characters are feeling, which only enhances the story itself.

The general message in the film - the importance of family and teamwork as opposed to individual glory - is well defined and demonstrated without being overly preachy. I would not hesitate to show this to my children, ages six and nearly three (assuming they could stay up that late).

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and highly recommend it to any fans of football, or people with children, or pretty much anyone.

You can view the trailer below. Also, please take a moment to visit the Family Movie Night Facebook page where you can learn more about the Family Movie Night program.


I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Family Movie Night: Who Is Simon Miller?

Tonight I was able to preview a Family Movie Night movie called Who Is Simon Miller? that will be shown Saturday, August 6 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT. From the movie's website:

Like most families, the Millers have their challenges. Simon’s (Loren Dean) frequent business trips have created some distance between him and the rest of the family, leaving Meredith (Robyn Lively) stretched and struggling to keep things together. Daughter Sarah, an 18-year-old honor student, has recently gotten herself into trouble at school while son Kevin, 15, struggles to engage with anything outside of a video game…

But these issues all prove to be trivial when Simon goes missing. Sensing something is not right, the family frantically searches Simon’s office for information. Discovery of a stash of passports, all with Simon’s picture but each with a different alias, reveals that their father has been keeping more than a few secrets. In a frantic phone call, Simon urges the family not to tell anyone of his disappearance, not even the authorities, right before the line goes dead. Who is Simon Miller? And what exactly has he gotten himself – and now his family – into?

Shocked, scared and unsure if they can even trust the dad they thought they knew, the three embark on their own international mission to get him back. With Meredith’s sharp instincts, Sarah’s foreign language skills and Kevin’s natural techgenius, they try to unravel the mystery behind his disappearance. It’s a heartpounding family thriller that tests the limits to which families will fight for each other.

Realistically, this is a made-for-tv movie, and it is geared for kids, so expecting it to be Tom Clancy meets Jason Bourne meets 007 isn't fair. It is with that mindset that this review will be given.

As a whole, the movie delivers what it sets out to: it is filled with intrigue and suspicion and excitement, just like any good spy film would be. It also tries to be funny, but often misses the mark and while I'm sure the intent was to lighten up the situations with some humour the jokes come across as injected moments rather than part of the story.

On the matter of violence, my wife (and viewing partner for the preview) and I were of different minds. While we both felt that the content was wholly inappropriate for our family (children aged six and almost three), she believed that it was better suited for teenagers whereas I felt kids as young as eight or nine could handle it with parental guidance.

Overall I would say this was a good, but not great movie. It tries to be too much: part spy thriller, part engaging family tale, but ultimately doesn't do a great job at either.

You can view the trailer below. Also, please take a moment to visit the Family Movie Night Facebook page where you can learn more about the Family Movie Night program.


I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Kenmore Grill Giveaway

If you're looking for an opportunity to win something awesome for Father's Day (or yourself, if you're feeling selfish), Brad’s Deals is giving away a brand new Kenmore grill, steak, and accessories, an over $500 value. You can enter at http://www.bradsdeals.com/blog/2011/06/06/fathers-day-grill-giveaway/.

The prize package includes:

• Kenmore 4-Burner LP Mocha Gas Grill with Searing Burner
• Grill cover and grill accessories set
• 4 (8 oz.) Filet Mignon with Bacon
• 4 (10 oz.) Kansas City Strips

You can enter once per day until the contest closes on June 15, 2011 at 11.59pm CST.

Disclosure: I am being compensated for posting about this giveaway.

Family Movie Night: Field of Vision

Over the weekend, I had a chance to preview a Family Movie Night film called Field of Vision. The promotional summary of the movie says:

Through mysterious footage captured on an old malfunctioning video camera, Sinclair High School's star quarterback, Tyler McFarland, learns that some of his teammates have been bullying Cory Walker, a troubled new transfer student. Aware that sharing this information with the coach might get his friends kicked off the team and ultimately cost the school the state championship, Tyler must choose what's more important: winning or doing what's right.

Without giving away too much more of the plot, the movie centers around Tyler and Cory, and their interactions with Tyler's mother (not-so-coincidentally the school guidance counsellor) and younger sister, and the events surrounding the bullying of Cory, Tyler's decision, and the resulting fallout. (There is no discussion of Tyler's Bieber hair, which I found mildly disturbing; but maybe that's just me.)

The plot is somewhat simple, but that is to be expected with a film that targets the whole family. Its message - that bullying is unacceptable in any form - is clear and a positive one at that. The antagonists (they are nowhere near deserving of the title "villain") are clearly in the wrong without being painted as overly frightening or scary (which is a product of the film's target demographic, I believe); families with young children, I would say even as young as seven or eight years old, can watch this together without fear.

There were a couple of elements of the film that, even in light of the "mysterious" camera, hindered the suspension of disbelief (specifically the relationship between Cory - a 17 year old boy - and Tyler's younger sister Lucy, who is roughly 12 years old; I found it odd that no one in the film found it odd). Those minor aspects aside, it was a good film with a very strong positive message, and one that I wouldn't hesitate to share with my six year old daughter (if, you know, she could stay up until 10.00pm to watch a movie and not be a complete grump the following morning).

The premiere of Field of Vision is on Saturday, June 11 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT. In the meantime, you can read more about the movie at the Family Movie Night website, and on Family Movie Night Facebook page. Finally, here's a preview of the movie:



I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Who Is The Greatest TV Dad?

When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s, I remember wishing my dad would be more like Cliff Huxtable (from The Cosby Show) or Steven Keaton (from Family Ties) instead of the emotionally distant, I'm a provider and not much else approach he adopted (possibly from Ward Cleaver of Leave it to Beaver, or his own father; who knows). Back then, there was a seemingly endless supply of good fathers on tv.

Today, however, for every Richard Castle (Castle) or Eric Taylor (Friday Night Lights) there are dozens of men like Homer Simpson (The Simpsons) or Jim (the man with no last name from According to Jim) or Ray Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond): lovable, entertaining, well-meaning buffoons without an ounce of parenting skill among them. For every father who is interested in his child's life, who succeeds in some form or another of enriching his children's lives we get tons of idiots who need to be "saved" by their wives, or who are outsmarted by everyone including the family pets (to be clear: Homer and Jim and Ray aren't "bad" fathers in the sense that they aren't trying; they just fail miserably at the task most of the time).

In an effort to identify some of the better ones, and ultimately crown the best one, Man of the House has created the World's Greatest TV Dad Bracket for readers to fill out and compare 32 tv dads as a means of determining the best of all time. The fathers were selected among all tv dads based on the following criteria:

1. Shared Household Responsibilities
2. Relationship with Children
3. Personal Health/Style/Appearance
4. Work/Family Balance

(I'm not going to get into my thoughts about #3 and how it relates to being a good father, except to say that I may never wear anything beyond t-shirts and jeans, but I don't think I'm a bad father for it.)

In the opening round, one of the closer races is Danny Tanner (Full House) vs. Red Forman (That 70s Show) - really people? "can of whoop ass" is good parenting? - while one of the walkaways is Tim Taylor (Home Improvement) vs. George Lopez (of his own show); Tim got lucky in the opening round, if you ask me. My final four, based on the brackets, would be: Eric Taylor, Richard Castle, Hayden Fox (of Coach; and a travesty at the six seed, and Cliff Huxtable.

Who do you think is the best tv dad of all time? Vote now, vote often, and check back each week to vote for the next round!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received promotional items to thank me for taking the time to participate.

The Geek Dad's Guide to Weekend Fun

Recently, I was provided with a review copy of The Geek Dad's Guide to Weekend Fun by Ken Denmead. I was excited about the opportunity to see Ken's second effort (I previously reviewed his first book and enjoyed it a lot).

The first thing the author tells you is that this book isn't designed to be followed step by step (although there are clear directions for those who favour that approach), but to act as a guide or a launching pad for ideas and projects that parents (although geared to dads, moms are completely capable of doing these projects too) can do with their children. I liked that he felt that was important enough to mention.

Like the original, each project has an overview that allows you to quickly assess critical factors like cost, time, and difficulty, (not to mention required items) so you don't end up deciding on a task only to discover you don't have enough time to do it. When you get into the details, the instructions are clear and written with a sense of humour.

Since my children are on the young side for the target demographic for this book (mine are six and two and a half; I'd say most projects are suited for eight to twelve, or even older), I didn't get a chance to try out many of the projects, but they did give me ideas for later on. One thing that did bother me - but this is a personal thing - was the number of projects that involved weapons.

There were, however, some very interesting ideas, among them:

• sewing a cape - he even made it sound plausible that I could do this
• web-based scavenger hunt - a very unique twist on a traditional game
• designing Lego minifigs - this one actually got me excited
• homemade root beer - something we will try when they're a little older

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried to sell it, however, I could not get behind "pun wars".

In addition to the projects, there was an essay written by David Hewlett (known to most from the Stargate franchise, but will forever be etched in my mind as the quirky guy from Traders) which was entertaining and insightful.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and thought it was a good follow-up to the first. I look forward to seeing his next collection of ideas for stuff I can do with my kids (not to mention a time when they can actually do the stuff).