2014 - 2016 - Book 44

"The Truth About Forever" - North Carolina

Okay, I know it has been FOREVER since I've made a blog post, which I guess makes this book title quite fitting. In my defense, I still have been doing lots of tasty cooking and baking, I just haven't been documenting it as well, and I generally don't write a post unless I've finished a book, which was the real problem. I just did not have a lot of time to read because:

Yep, that's right, there's a baby on the way!!! I hope that the mountains of baby-related preparation is a good enough excuse for my sad lack of blogging. I am pleased to announce though, that there is a post today, and hopefully I will be able to get the rest of the books done and posted before baby arrives (ha), but if not, please be patient with me.

As for this book, I actually rather enjoyed it. It might have something to do with the fact that I hadn't actually sat down and read a book in a while or that I got to read about half of it on a very relaxing afternoon, but I ended up with a favorable impression. There was quite a bit of underage drinking as well as some bad language in spots, but other than that, it was a good book. It is a story about a girl who has kind of closed herself off from the world after her dad died suddenly, and how she is coping with life with her mom and sister. It follows her over the course of one very eventful summer where she starts some new jobs and makes some new friends and just documents her changes and the changes that take place in her family. It doesn't sound very interesting, but it was a nice, light read. I didn't' take a picture of this cover because the copy I had was covered with an "artwork redesign" by some student, so it wouldn't have made any sense.

Now, you know I have a ton of recipes to share, but I don't want to overwhelm you too much, so I'll only post the good ones:

GBBO English Muffins: I really like English Muffins, and I really like the Great British Bake-Off, so when they produced Paul Hollywood's English Muffins on the show, I was inspired to try his recipe. It didn't go quite as planned, because I didn't get nearly as many muffins out of it as I was supposed to, but the end product was still pretty tasty.

Fluffy muffins :)

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cereal Bars: These tasty treats were easy to make and they looked good, so that ticks two boxes in the "Make It Again" column. They weren't anything extraordinary or fancy, but if you have a craving for peanut butter and chocolate, they will fill it, just don't expect them to be anything more than the simple dessert that they are.

The swirl design actually worked. 

Mmm . . . chewy. 

Oven Fajitas: Wow, this one was a find. Granted, I have a cast iron skillet, so I don't know why I bothered with it this way, but it does have it's advantages. Mostly, that I don't have to stand over the stove stirring anything. I just set the oven timer for 20 minutes, come stir once, bake for another 20 minutes, and then they are done. Just give another quick stir and a squeeze of lime juice and you have very tasty, very easy fajitas. Also, since they are made with a homemade spice mix, you know exactly what is going into them. I'm not a big green pepper fan, so I used orange and red, and I also added some black beans for extra protein. After making them a couple of times, I realized they would be a good idea for a freezer meal too (chop, season, and freeze; then defrost and bake), so I made up two batches that way. We'll see if they turn out or not ;)

Before baking

After baking.

Okay, I think that's all for my catch-up for now. Hopefully I'll get some more books read and posts written soon, but I do have a stack of pregnancy/childbirth/parenting books that are probably a little more pressing at the moment, so I'll just do what I can. Hope all is going well with you :)