2014 - Book 10

North Dakota - The Beet Fields

Alright, maybe I was against it from the start, but I didn't like this book. The author is Gary Paulsen, and albeit stereotypically, I tend to think of his books are more or less "boy books". Granted, "The Hatchet" was a good read, but not the type of book I, or most other girls, flock to. This book was short though, and as you can see from the rather odd cover, took place during the summer. I was cold at the time, so I thought it would be a good read . . . unfortunately, it did not warm me up.

It was basically the story of all the things that happened to him during the summer when he was 16. There was a lot of bad things and not a whole lot of plot or happiness . . . not my type of story. Maybe some would like it, but to me, there weren't really any characters I could relate to and I was left feeling kind of empty at the end. Oh well, at least it only took me about four hours to read the whole book . . . not too much of my time was wasted. Maybe there weren't too many books set in North Dakota to choose from?

On a happier note, here's a good method of baking some potatoes . . . yum :) I made 10 pounds in one day using this method and kept them warm in a styrofoam cooler . . . they stayed hot throughout our whole party and who doesn't love a baked potato bar?

Also, I made these adorable fruit and brownie kebabs. I made up my own chocolate ganache to use as the drizzle so it would harden and they could be stacked for serving. They were a big hit at our party . . . so elegant, yet so easy to make (and tasty :)).

Hope you all are doing well . . . talk to you again soon.