2014 - Book 35

"Starcrossed" - Massachusetts

This has got to be one of my favorite books of the year . . . I couldn't put it down. It has intriguing characters, a good number of historical / literary references (Greek Mythology), and a nice PG love story. The story follows Helen, a girl growing up with her single dad on the small island of Nantucket. She knows she is different, but doesn't know quite why . . . that is, until a gorgeous and mysterious family moves in, and Helen finds she just can't stay away from them. There are tons of interesting plot points and while some of it might be a bit confusing at the end, I can't wait to read the next one. I began reading this book thinking it was a stand-alone novel, so I was very distraught when it ended with so many loose ends, but luckily (or not, since so many books on this 50 States of YA list seem to be series) there are already a 2nd and 3rd book out for me to enjoy :) This is not high literature by any means, but I really did enjoy it.


This was a recipe that I was going to try (Freezer hash browns), but had a little run in with the potatoes beforehand, so unfortunately, I can't actually tell you how it works out. But, feel free to give it a try and let me know how it works. . . it sounds like a really good idea. I think I cooked my potatoes a little too long (I just used the sensor cook on the microwave) and they got mushy when I tried to shred them so I just turned them into fresh hash browns . . . they were okay. But my tip about potatoes, and I can't stress this enough, is DON'T EAT GREEN POTATOES. It would seem like common sense to cut them off, and if you do, the rest of the potato is fine to eat, but I was eating a whole baked potato with toppings on it and apparently didn't realize how big of a part of green I ate. First of all, it tasted horrible, but I figured that it was just one bite, so it wasn't a big deal. I was wrong. I had a very bad evening of intestinal distress and didn't end up feeling any better until I threw up. Yep, really gross, sorry, but I just wanted everyone to know. There is nothing else to do . . . the green potato contains a poisonous toxin called solanine, so just be really careful, especially with kids. The smaller the person, the more they are affected by it.

Okay, that's my green potato rant . . . for how much food stuff I do, I would have thought I would have heard of that by now, but I never did . . . so, now you know . . . please learn from my mistake.

To make up for that gross tale, I have something much better to share with you, my very own slow cooker banana bread flavored steel cut oats recipe. I developed this recipe as a Christmas present for the girls that I work with. I began with the sweet potato steel cut oat recipe that I loved so much and tried different variations to find out what tasted the best. To be honest, I did not go buy the Quaker oat packets to find out what commercial banana bread oatmeal tastes like, I just tried to make it taste as much like banana bread as I could.

Since I'm a scientist, and this is my life's lab notebook, I did try to document most of my experiments . . . sorry that makes this post a little long, but I wanted to keep track of all of the different trials :)

Trial 1
3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 Cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cooked on low for 5 hours.

This variation tasted a little off. I don't know if it was the vanilla in it, but I didn't really like it. It did taste better the next day after the flavors melded a little bit, but I decided the vanilla was not a good addition.

Trial 2
3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 Cups), previously frozen and thawed in the microwave for 2 minutes
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cooked on low for 5 hours. I learned from the last trial to let it rest overnight in the fridge before trying it and this variation was very good.

Trial 3
2 large bananas, unmashed, previously frozen and thawed in the microwave for 2 minutes
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cooked on low for 4.5 hours. I thought maybe the bananas would kind of dissolve while cooking and I would be able to eliminate the prep work of mashing them, but that definitely did NOT happen. They pretty much looked like nasty brown worms on the top of the oats and since they had cooked that way, it was a bit difficult to get them to incorporate. Not appetizing. They still tasted good, but that experiment did not give good results.

Trial 4
3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 C)
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/4 C brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cooked on low 4.5 hours. I found that the previous versions were plenty sweet and since bananas are so sweet themselves, cutting down the sugar was definitely a good call. The additional cinnamon couldn't even be tasted however. It's kind of a waste to put that much in at the beginning. If you want a stronger cinnamon taste, just put a little sprinkle on top before you eat it.

FINAL RECIPE
2 - 3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 C), can be fresh or thawed from frozen
1 C steel cut oats
4 C milk (any kind works)
1/2 C water
1/4 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cook on low 4.5 - 5 hours. Refrigerate over night. Heat up with milk before eating and top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and some walnuts. Yum :)

Banana Bread Oats

Pecan Pie oats

The other part of my recipe development was to find a way to make these easy "grab-and-go" breakfasts. I found that placing a strip of parchment paper in the bottom of a custard cup or ramekin and then adding ~200 g oatmeal (almost filling the 6 or 7 oz. cup) was just about a perfect way to do it. (Wax paper did not work, so make sure you use parchment paper.) After freezing, place the ramekins briefly in a small water bath and then use the parchment tabs to pull out the oatmeal "puck". These can be stored in freezer bags. I also froze skim milk in ice cube trays and placed two of those in a sandwich bag with one oatmeal puck and there you go, "grab-and-go" breakfast. Just pull out the oats, peel off the parchment, heat for 2 minutes, stir, add in the milk cubes, heat for another 1.5 - 2 minutes and TA DA, yummy steel cut oats . . . easy peasy :)

My kitchen, the oatmeal factory, I made 32 oatmeal packets :)

Enjoy :)

2014 - Book 34

"Delirium" - Maine

This was sort of a sci-fi story, and I found it really fascinating. It takes place in an alternate present where love has been ruled to be a disease. All people over the age of 18 get the "Cure", basically a brain surgery that cuts off the part of the brain that feels strong emotions. The government has closed the U.S. borders and major cities are contained within electric fences. All residents are closely monitored and if they are deemed to be "infected", or sympathizers, the consequences are severe. Outside of these cities are "The Wilds" where the uncured, "Invalids" (their identities have been invalidated) live and try to make it on their own. The story follows Lena, a girl getting ready to have the cure performed, whose life is pretty much set in stone (the government decides where you go to college, what you major in, how many children you will have, and each person is given a choice of 4 potential spouses to choose from). Besides tragically losing her parents at a young age, she is relatively content with her life, that is, until she meets Alex. Alex is unlike anyone she's ever known before, and of course, the fact that she is actually talking to a boy is pretty risky in itself. Now Lena must decide what her true destiny is going to be.

This is the first in another trilogy, but I think I will try to make a point to read the rest of these next year because I want to find out what happens :)

Instead of recipes this week, I have two crafty projects to share that I think are pretty awesome. The first one is this ADORABLE baby bear hat:

Isn't that just the most adorable hat???

I had to relearn how to crochet to make this hat, but it went together really easily by following this knit-along video by iKnits: Crochet Bear Hat. I also used this pattern from CrochetRochelle to make the cute little flower: Small Petal Flower.

The bow is on a barrette so it can be removed for a boy's hat

I made the 3 - 6 month size for my soon to be born niece . . . my brother and sister-in-law loved it :) I hope the baby will too.

I enlisted the help of my stuffed Scottie to model it as I didn't have a baby on hand ;)

The second is this cabled hat I made for my husband. It took me almost a year to make it because I was just not motivated to knit, nor did I have a lot of free time during the summer, but I did manage to get it done in time to give it to him for Christmas this year. I think he likes it :) The bamboo circular needles were interesting, I can't say that I really liked them all that much, but they were a good way to make a hat. I just like resting the end of my knitting needle on my lap and that's not possible with circular needles, so it felt like more work. Also, the wavy type of yarn I used was a bit of a problem and the cabled rows ended up getting really, really tight, so they weren't too much fun. The end result was worth it, but I don't think I'll make this pattern again (Snappy Hat). Time to try something new (or make a whole bunch more baby bear hats because all of my expectant mother friends decided they want one now too :))

The cabled hat

Details

2014 - Book 33

"Blood and Chocolate" - Maryland

This was back to the typical YA novels of the times, a story about werewolves. The writing was kind of weird, I don't know if it was because the author was trying to get into the wild creature mentality, but it just seemed too carnal or sensual for a YA book, but then again, too many YA books are like that, in my opinion. It just surprised me that this was a YA book written by a children's librarian when I thought she would have been a romance novelist or something instead. It was shorter than some of the books I have read though and the plot all fit together well, which I liked. The story follows a young girl and her pack family of werewolves. There is much dissension and unrest following a fire that killed her father, the pack leader, and drove them from their previous settlement into a more heavily populated town. Suspicions rise when a few humans are killed and Vivian (the main character) has to figure out out if she belongs with her pack, or with a human boy she's fallen for. It was an interesting read, I guess, but only for older YA readers.

And now for something totally different, a house remodeling tip: How to paint clean lines

We recently remodeled our half bathroom and I wanted to make sure we had clean lines between the wall and ceiling. I found this gem on Pinterest and it worked beautifully.

Look at those lovely clean lines.

This was the inspiration for our remodel: Half Bath inspiration

I didn't get as nice of pictures as she did, but here are some before and afters:

Overview

Biggest area of change, in my opinion. Also, the mirror is a medicine cabinet :)

We still need to add some shelves above the toilet, some artwork on the large wall, and some sort of window treatment, but you get the idea. It's so much nicer now :)

Now you know I couldn't resist throwing in a recipe too: Monster Cupcakes ("green eyed monster" & "orange you spiky monster")
These turned out really cute, but were rather putsy to put together. Usually I have a pretty high tolerance on my "putsy-meter", but putting individual chocolate sprinkles into frosting behind a tiny M&M just about pushed me over the edge. I only managed to do half of them before I gave up and decided that half were girl monsters and the other half without the eyelashes would be boy monsters ;) The green ones had too much frosting on them for my liking, but if I would have made homemade buttercream that wouldn't have been a big deal. I just really don't like store bought frosting anymore . . . I've spoiled myself into becoming a frosting snob I guess . . . oops. Well, these little monsters were pretty cute anyways, I really liked the addition of the chow mein noodles, and the cupcakes were a big hit with the kids at our gathering around Halloween time.

Have a great week :)