2014-2015 - Book 37

"The Miseducation of Cameron Post" - Wyoming

I will admit, I went into this book already thinking I wouldn't like it. I knew from reading a summary that it was about a young girl exploring her sexuality (lesbianism). I know there are tons of people out there who think that this is great, and you might all hate me for this, but I am a Christian and think that homosexuality is a sin, along with so many other things that you and I do every day. This is such a difficult topic to discuss, and there are so many staunch opinions about so many different facets of it, but I will just simply state that I don't agree with it. I think it is a sin that some people are tempted with more than others (the Devil is very crafty) and it's very sad to see families being broken apart because of people refusing to acknowledge that they are all sinful and need God's love, forgiveness, and strength to fight against sin every day.

Now, as far as the book goes, I will say that it is very well written. The author is very talented and all of the characters really came alive in the story. I liked the descriptions of the landscapes and all the different character personalities. That's pretty much where my liking for the book stopped though. Putting the homosexuality aside, I don't think this is a very good book for young people to be reading. There are way too many instances of underage drinking, illegal drug use, vandalism, and very foul language. According to some reviews on the back of the book, this is considered "A new classic", but I sure hope not. While I didn't enjoy reading this book, if one day in the future my kid or a kid of a friend comes home with a reading list with this book on it, I will know well enough to be warned about it. So, sorry for such a scathing review, but I didn't like this book and I felt that I should warn others about it too.

Onto a happier subject: food. This week I have mushroom risotto, caramelized onion and herb buns and peppermint marshmallows for you :)

Mushroom Risotto

The mushroom risotto used a Progresso recipe starter that I got as a free sample. I was actually pretty impressed by the ingredient list on it and would be willing to use it again because it wasn't filled with tons of artificial ingredients. To be honest, I'm not sure which of these two recipes I used: Creamy Mushroom Risotto or Mushroom Garlic Risotto, but I'm pretty sure it was the first one. (See, this is why I need to write my blogs more frequently.) On that note, I'm sorry it's been so long. I didn't fall off the face of the earth, I just didn't have a lot of time to read, and when I did, I was reading "Insurgent" (Book #2 of the "Divergent" trilogy). I enjoyed that book . . . it was a typical middle book with not a lot actually happening, just a lot of things to get the story set up for the third book. I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie . . . the preview looks very intense. Anyways, back to risotto . . . I am a sucker for risotto, and mushrooms and thyme are two of my favorite ingredients, so it was pretty good, as far as I am concerned. It wasn't really satisfying enough to be a main course, but it would make an excellent side dish.

Before baking

The caramelized onion and herb buns came from my "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" book. If you haven't tried it yet, you should, because it's really great. At least check it out from the library and try it if you don't want to commit to buying a new cookbook. It really does give artisan bread with an awesome structure that I struggled to get even using fancy, two-day methods. I just made the regular boule bread and added the caramelized onion and herb mixture on top. I doubled the onion recipe to make extra rolls and used both oregano and thyme in it . . . yum :) I also just used water for the wine and apple cider vinegar for the white wine vinegar. The rolls were so good.

After baking . . . yum

Peppermint hot chocolate is another one of my favorite things, so I decided to try and make homemade peppermint marshmallows. I followed the same marshmallow recipe as the first time I made these, but added peppermint instead of vanilla. Well, actually, I think I used 1 Tbsp vanilla + 2 Tbsp peppermint instead of the 4 Tbsp vanilla called for in the recipe. Whew . . . they were REALLY strong. I called them "Altoid marshmallows" because they actually did act as a breath freshener. So, note to self, vanilla and peppermint extracts should not be substituted 1 to 1 . . . not even close. Of course I wanted to dip them in chocolate though, and once those little beauties were covered in dark chocolate, the amount of mint was just right. Also, if they were dissolved in hot chocolate, that was pretty okay, but still a bit strong. So, if you want minty marshmallows, definitely cut down on the amount of peppermint, but if you are going to dip them in chocolate, go right ahead and make Altoid-mallows :)

That's all for now. I'll try and have another post sometime soon. Have a great week.