2014 - Book 13

"Pretty Little Liars" - Pennsylvania

When I think of Pennsylvania, I generally think of Amish people, so I was not expecting the Pennsylvania book to be about spoiled rich girls who would probably fit in better in southern California or a big east coast city. Anyways, I'm sorry if you like this book, but to me, this book is poison. You know that song, "That girl is poison"? Yeah, these girls fit into that category. They are all lying about some big, bad thing in their past and they all have new skeletons in their closets too (homosexuality, bulimia, shoplifting, drug and alcohol abuse, kissing her sister's boyfriend, almost sleeping with her English teacher, etc.). It's just all drama and lies and nothing good at all. If you want to read a good book about a group of high school girls, I highly recommend the "Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants" series. They go through lots of real troubles too, but they rely on each other and the book just oozes friendship and love and sticking together . . . the antithesis of this icky book. I know it is wildly popular and even has a hit TV series based on it, but I would not recommend it to anyone.

Now, for something nicer:

First up are these are fruity Jell-O roll ups. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, but I made them in orange, and they were a big hit. I don't really like Jell-O, but they were pretty good. Make sure you check the size of your Jell-O, because I used a small 3 oz. box, so therefore I needed two. They were easy to make and I think kids would love them.

My other treat was this sweet & salty pretzel tart. Again, I didn't get a picture of it, but mine didn't look as pretty as the recipe anyways because I didn't dot the peanut butter around enough so it kind of took over the top. It still tasted good, but was not my favorite dessert. It sounded fantastic, but the flavor was a little one-dimensional for my tastes. Oh well, it was good to try. If you do make it, please ignore the stupid directions how to make the crust. I don't know if my way would improve it any, since I always try to follow a recipe exactly the first time I make it so I can do an accurate review, but the way she suggests to make the crust is super time consuming and really didn't work for me. I would just mix it all together and then press it straight into the pan, none of this chilling and then trying to roll it out . . . it did not work. I think just pressing it into the pan and then chilling it would work much better. Hopefully, I'll have better things to share in my next post!

2014 - Book 12

"Divergent" - Illinois

Yes, another winner :) I know this book series is really popular right now, and I can see why . . . it's very interesting. I don't want to give too much away for those who are going to see the movie, or haven't read the book yet, but it's another dystopian society with a pretty awesome heroine, the next "Hunger Games", I guess you could say. I liked the premise of this society better than the "Hunger Games" though. There are essentially five factions with strict rules which you must abide by until you are 16. Then you take an aptitude test to help you see where your true strengths lie, and you are finally asked to choose which faction you will exist in for the rest of your life. They all have different values (knowledge, bravery, selflessness, honesty, or kindness) and operate in very different ways. This book focuses mainly on the Abnegation (selflessness) and Dauntless (bravery) factions and the rising tensions between all of them. I know there are more books in this series, and I might read them, but honestly, getting to know the society and the characters is my favorite part, so reading the rest right now is not my #1 priority. Besides, I have lots of other books on my 50 States of YA list to read yet :)

My one negative about this book is that it was pretty violent and could be scary for the younger audience (there is a lot of discussion of various fears and the author is very good at making it seem so life-life). Other than that though, I have no complaints.

Another thing I liked is that it is set in Chicago-future. I've been to Chicago quite a few times, so I thought it was really interesting to read about the possible futures of places that I know now. Have any of you read this book? What did you think? How was the movie? I would like to see it, but I might be too scared ;)

I also have a few recipes to share this week: lasagna skillet pot pie, and "Death by Chocolate" cake.

The lasagna skillet pot pie was very good, and very easy. Make sure that you get the cinnamon evenly distributed throughout the dish. It adds an interesting flavor, but it's not very good if you get it in large doses. I would recommend this for a fast weeknight meal though.

The "Death by Chocolate" cake was mostly my own invention. I promised to make a friend a cake and he only said that he liked chocolate, so I kind of ran with that and made if full of all kinds of chocolaty goodness that I love. I used this chocolate cake recipe, and the used two of the three cakes to sandwich about a quart of Zanzibar Chocolate Ice Cream (made by Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, quite possibly the best chocolate ice cream in the world). I topped it with chocolate ganache and mini chocolate chips. I just made up my own ganache instead of using the ganache in the recipe. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake (it wasn't as pretty as I would have liked because the ganache didn't completely cover the sides), but I did use the remaining cake and more ice cream to make a mini version that was quite interesting. It was really good though . . . I highly recommend it :)

Assembling the large cake

The mini half cake

Yum!

That's all for now . . . have a great week :)

2014 - Book 11

Vermont - Jip His Story

Ah, this book was refreshing. It was wholesome, with good morals, and I really liked it. Considering I like Katherine Paterson as an author, and this book won the Scott O'Dell award and I like his books too, I had a feeling I would like this one . . . and I did :)

This is a story of a very hard-working young boy who is of unknown ancestry and grows up practically running the town's poor farm. He is a simple kid who knows how to love people and take good care of animals. I think he is a great role model for any young adults reading the book and it was also a good historical fiction read as well. I would recommend it to teachers and parents alike.

For my recipes to share this week, I have two treats that I liked just as much as this book :)

The first are these absolutely adorable bears in the bubble bath. They were pretty easy to make and would be a really great treat to let the kids help you make. Since they were mostly pre-made ingredients, I wasn't expecting much in the taste department, but they were actually really tasty too . . . give them a try :)

Aww . . . bathtub bears :) 

The other recipe I tried were these M&M bars. They tasted exactly like the giant M&M cookies that my mom would get me when we would go to the mall together . . . a little reminicence from my childhood :) I doubled the recipe and only used about one and a half 12 oz. bags of M&Ms instead of two. So good.

I saved some M&Ms to make these for you when you come visit, Mom :)

Give these lovely recipes a try and let me know what you think :) Have a great week!