2014 - Book 21

"I Am Number Four" - Ohio

I'm generally not very fond of alien stories, they tend to give me the creeps, but I was rather intrigued by this one. A peaceful race was brutally destroyed by another, evil, alien race for their natural resources. The only hope for survival of the peaceful (Loric) race was the nine little children with special powers that they managed to send to Earth before their planet was destroyed. This book series (yep, another series) follows one of those nine children, who is now a teenager, and his guardian as they try to blend in on Earth and not arouse the notice of the evil aliens who have followed them there and relentlessly hunt for them. To be sure, the evil aliens are really creepy, but I found the main characters very likable, any bad language or smut was kept to a bare minimum, and it was an interesting new culture to explore. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good book . . . strange, but good.



Here are the recipes I have to share this week: kale and tatsoi with truffle oil, crock pot pesto ranch chicken thighs, and Neapolitan Rice Krispies.

The kale and tatsoi idea came from my desperation to find a use for those two ingredients that came in my weekly produce box. I had never heard of tatsoi before (it is a cousin of bok choy) and didn't really know what to do with it. I love truffle oil, so I got some cherry tomatoes and gave this recipe a try. It wasn't phenomenal, but it was a very tasty way to use up those greens, and I think I'd try it again.

Next is the pesto ranch chicken thighs. This was also a bit of a desperation recipe trial because I really needed a few easy meals for the week and had no time to prepare them. This wasn't my favorite way to eat chicken thighs because they were kind of mushy and fall-off-the-bone, but they were still tasty. I think they might have been better if I had used the Hidden Valley ranch packet. I didn't have that and just used some ranch seasoning that I had and so the ranch flavor didn't come through as much as I was hoping that it would. Still a very easy weekday meal though.

Nutella Krispies on the top,
Cocoa Krispies on the bottom

Also slightly disappointed with the rice krispies . . . I guess this must have been the week of good, but slightly disappointing recipes; they just didn't quite make it to the level I was hoping for. The colors weren't vibrant enough and the flavors were a little muted (check out the recipe link to see the recipe author's beautiful rendition of them, frosted and made into a "cake"). I tried grinding up the freeze-dried strawberries a little more in my second batch and that improved flavor and color, but I think there needs to be more of them. After all, I went to all of the trouble of visiting multiple grocery stores just to find them, I would have liked to have used more than a couple tablespoons :) The Nutella version and the Cocoa Krispie version were both good . . . I didn't have a real preference between the two. They were well received at both workplace potlucks that they went to, but no one fawned over them like my pinata cake ;)

I hope you all are enjoying the last few days of July . . . see you next week.

2014 - Book 20

"Hex Hall" - Georgia

So, I was going to break my cycle of high school supernatural books, but I just watched the "Vampire Academy" movie, so I had to keep it going. This book was pretty much on par for most of the rest of the genre, and I enjoyed it. More interesting ideas about angels, demons, vampires, etc. abounded, and it had a pretty good plot line too. Again, it's another series that I will probably not finish, but I still enjoyed reading it. The basic plot is that a girl with pretty poor (uncontrolled) witch powers gets sent to a reform school for young witches, faeries, etc. because she showed her powers to humans. She has to juggle fitting in at the new school with trying to learn to use her powers and making friends with her new roommate, a vampire. There are some shady things going on at the school though and she finds herself in a very dangerous place. I don't want to get too much into the plot spoilers, but it was kind of a fun read. I'll try to pick a different type of genre for my next book though so I don't bore you too much :)

As for my recipes to share this week, I have crock pot BBQ ribs and s'more blossom cookies.

The crock pot ribs turned out just okay. Nothing too special to speak of. It was an easy recipe, but I don't think I'll use it again. The cookies however were fantastic. I used Biscoff spread instead of cookie butter and it was magical. Eating one of these just a few minutes after taking them out of the oven was the closest thing to having a s'more inside the house that I've ever had. I love s'mores, so this was definitely a good find. Seriously, go find some Biscoff spread or cookie butter and make these . . . you won't regret it (unless you're one of those weirdos who doesn't like marshmallows or s'mores).  ;)

Mmm . . . s'mores

I hope you all have a good week (full of s'more blossom cookies).