2014 - Book 23

"Julie of the Wolves" - Alaska

This was a Newbery Medal winner by a great author, so it couldn't help but be a good book. I would recommend it for any younger readers out there, especially those who like animals. I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, but it is a very real story and the writing is fantastic. The details are so vibrant, I almost felt like I was Miyax, living out in the Alaskan wilderness with her adopted wolf family. I feel like I learned a lot about Eskimo culture and wolves in this story, so it was educational as well as entertaining. Maybe I'm channeling my teacher friends, but this would be a great book report subject. Apparently there are two sequels to this one too, so even though it is a rather short book, there is more material out there if you would like to read it. If you're feeling too hot in the warm summer months, take a mental trip to Alaska and give this book a read :)

The recipes I have this week are chocolate "lasagna", grilled bok choy, and cookie dough Greek yogurt.

The chocolate "lasagna" was the typical all-American layered dessert with Cool Whip, chocolate pudding, and Oreos. Really, when you've had one of these type of desserts, you've had them all. It was tasty, but not home-made tasting enough for me, and kind of boring. But, this is easy to put together and it's pretty much a given that everyone at whatever pot luck you take it to will love it, so give it a try :)

The grilled bok choy was a new experience for me. It was tasty, provided you don't burn the thin ends of the leaves, but it wasn't really that good of a recipe. It was too salty, and it didn't make nearly enough. I had to double the recipe and a few of them weren't very well coated. It got mixed reviews, so I don't think I'll make it again, but it was an interesting new way to cook a veggie that I'm not very familiar with.

Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt sounded like a great idea, but again, this recipe didn't live up to my hopes for it. I bought a whole bunch of single serve yogurts and took this to a Pinterest party. Not too many people tried it (probably because it was put out after we were done with crafting and people were tired of "creating" things). Of the people that did try it, some said it was good, but it didn't really taste like cookie dough, and I'd have to agree with them. It's not bad, but just tastes like sweetened yogurt with chocolate chips in it . . . no resemblance to cookie dough, unfortunately. I really wanted this to be good, but it just wasn't. In the end, I was left with many unused Greek yogurts, and they were very useful in other dishes in the following week (soup and pasta sauce primarily) . . . so it wasn't a loss after all :)

Sorry for a week of mediocre recipes, hopefully I'll have better ones to share next time. Until then :)