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!