2014 - Book 30

"The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer" - Florida

Wow, this book was really interesting. It kept me confused and guessing for most of the book. It had a love story, villains, mystery, and suspense . . . in short, I rather liked it. Unfortunately, it was part of a series again, so the ending was a huge cliff-hanger. I'm going to have to keep a list of books from this year that I need to read the rest of the series next year.

I would like to write out a short plot synopsis for you, but 1 - I don't want to give anything away, and 2 - Some of it was just so strange that I don't know how to write it down. I'll give it a shot though: basically it is a story of a girl who can't remember the tragic night when she and her 3 friends were exploring a condemned insane asylum. She escaped with minor injuries, but her friends were killed. She was then diagnosed with PTSD, starts seeing weird things, and convinces her family to move from Rhode Island to Florida to sort of start over. She has an interesting family dynamic with a lovable younger brother, a seemingly perfect older brother, her mom, a psychiatrist, and her father, a defense attorney currently working a grisly murder case. When other things and people start dying around Mara, she can't help but wonder if she is somehow involved. Also, her one friend at her new school, warns her off the British boy with a reputation, Noah, but Mara discovers that maybe there is more to him than he lets on.

Sorry that my summary is kind of vague, but you'll just have to read it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Does anyone else have the same problem that I do where you get so involved in a book that if you have to tear yourself away you are cranky and distracted until you can finish it? I've been like that for as long as I can remember. I guess I just love resolution and always want to know what happens in the end . . . which is hard to do if I have to stop in the middle of the book. I think that's why I like movies so much, because I get the whole story in one sitting. I will attest that reading a whole book in one sitting is one of my favorite little joys in life. Anyways, that's a digression, I just wondered if others have that same problem.

For my recipes this week I have one miss and two home runs: Cream of Celery soup, Chocolate Raspberry Souffle, and Sweet Potato Steel Cut Oats.

Now, if you like celery, and use the store-bought kind, this recipe is probably just fine. I got it with my CSA (community supported agriculture) box containing organic celery, which is not like store-bought at all. It was much stronger flavored, and I thought it made the soup bitter tasting. So I guess it's not so much of a fail for the soup as for my use of the celery. I don't really like celery that much to begin with, unless it's covered with peanut butter or used in chicken dumpling soup, so that might have something to do with it too. The bacon was a good addition though . . . I never buy bacon, so I  overcooked it . . . oops.

Before

Oh well, to make up for that failure, I have two wonderful successes. I attempted a cheese souffle here: Cheese Souffle, but this was way better. Put a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on top . . . yum :) They were very easy to make too . . . a wonderful way to use fresh raspberries.

After

I think you all know by now of my dual loves of steel cut oats and my crock pot. I found a new version of crock pot steel cut oats to try, and it was just fantastic. I had a few sweet potatoes that needed to be used up, so I cooked them in the microwave and put them in a food processor with some of the milk to get nice and smooth. I've made this recipe a few times now, and I have to say, that was my favorite version. I never have evaporated milk on hand, but I figure you can substitute evaporated milk + water for whole milk, so why not substitute whole milk - water for the evaporated milk. It's not like there wasn't water added to the recipe anyways, so I wasn't changing the liquid levels, I just added more milk and less water, and it turned out just fine. If you'd like to do that, I substituted 24 oz. whole milk + 12 oz. water for the 12 oz. evaporated milk + 3 cups water. Also, I though with the sweetness of the sweet potato that it was too sweet (even for me . . . surprising, I know). So I reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup and that was better. I also put some sort of nuts on it and if you want to make it really special, a little bit of whipped cream . . . it's like eating sweet potato pie for breakfast, but not quite as naughty ;)

The original recipe actually calls for pumpkin puree, so the next few batches I made I used that. We cook and puree our own pumpkin and it is always more watery than the store-bought kind, so I used the following amounts: 2 cups pumpkin puree, 3 cups whole milk, and 1/2 cup water. I made it later with skim milk too, and while it's not as rich tasting, it is still good. I make a double batch and then just throw it in the fridge for 2 weeks of tasty breakfasts. I've put walnuts and almonds on it too, and they all taste good. Also, in the recipe she states it is not a good overnight crock pot recipe, but if you have a programmable crock pot like I do, it's not a problem at all. I've tried 4, 4 and a half, and 5 hours on low, and I think it was good every time. Subsequent days, I just add some milk to it, microwave for about a minute and half and stir it up really well to make it creamy again. Easy peasy. Give it a try, I guarantee it will give you a nice, warm, festive fall feeling :)

Have a wonderful week :)

2014 - Book 29

"Under the Blood-Red Sun" - Hawaii

Usually I really love historical fiction books, especially those set during World War II, but I just couldn't connect with any of the characters in this book. It's probably because it is narrated by a young boy, but it just felt like a book that I would have been assigned to read in grade school, not something I would have picked out myself. Not that it wasn't a good book, because it really was, I just didn't really get into it.

The story follows a young Japanese-American boy living with his family in Hawaii when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. It is obviously very difficult for him, but he has a great group of friends in his baseball team, The Rats. So if you know any grade school age boys who like baseball, they would probably really like this book, it just wasn't for me.

The recipes I have to share this week are hearty breakfast muffins, slow cooker beans, and chipotle tomato soup.

Although the muffin recipe was a top-rated recipe on Allrecipes.com, I almost didn't make it, just because I was so annoyed with whomever wrote the recipe. Seriously, "one zucchini" is NOT a measurement. Sure, bananas are pretty uniformly sized, so I can understand that one, but even carrots vary greatly in size. How is anyone supposed to know if they are creating the recipe properly, and if they do happen to succeed, how on earth will they be able to recreate their success again? We grew zucchinis that were approximately "medium-sized", but I've seen them in the store about the size of a carrot, and I've gotten some from friends and neighbors that netted me at least 10 cups of chopped or shredded zucchini, EACH. Can you imagine doubling the recipe, using 2 of those giants, and ending up with 20 cups of zucchini in this recipe?!? Now, I would hope most people would use a little common sense and not do that, but still, my initial argument stands, "one zucchini" is NOT a measurement.

Being of a scientific mindset, I of course set out to remedy this problem. I got out my kitchen scale (if you don't have one yet, you should get one . . . it really makes so much more sense, especially for measuring flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder) and weighed my ingredients. I took the most helpful suggestion I found in the Allrecipes reviews and tried to get approximately the same amount of carrot and zucchini. Who knows if my carrots were "average" size, but I tried to find ones that weren't too big and weren't too small. I ended up using 4 carrots (I doubled the recipe) for 183 grams shredded carrot (~ 2 cups), and ~one and a half medium zucchini (318 grams after draining it through a strainer, again ~ 2 cups). Notice the large weight difference in the "same amount" (~ 2 cups) of each ingredient? That's why weighing is better. Anyways, I also used four bananas (492 grams).

After all of this headache, I did end up with some very tasty muffins, so I will be posting my findings on Allrecipes and hopefully be able to help out other picky bakers like myself ;) Also, instead of dried cherries (because they are expensive and hard to find), I used half dried cranberries and half mini chocolate chips . . . I liked the substitution. This recipe is pretty amenable to any little tweaks like that.

As for the beans, I've cooked beans in the slow cooker before, but this recipe didn't really work. They were just not done enough. I've gotten suggestions from friends to add one teaspoon of baking soda to the water, and that seemed to work, but even after an overnight soak, these were still a bit hard. I ended up freezing half of them because I'm trying to get away from buying canned foods. I want to do another round of slow cooker freezer meals soon and those always call for many cans of beans, so I thought I would be ready, but I think when I need to use these, I'll have to thaw them and then do another short cook so they aren't so crunchy. It was a good experiment, but next time I'll try a different recipe.

So, this soup was not much of a success, but I think that was mostly due to the undercooked beans. Even though I braved the molten lava-esque boiling soup to attempt a few rounds of immersion blending, it still didn't have that creamy texture I was looking for. I was trying to be healthy and substitute beans for cream, but it just didn't work. The soup was pleasingly spicy, so it grew on me after a while, and the beans were good protein, but it just wasn't that good . . . oh well. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, I just used it as a guideline, so maybe if you use the actual recipe and add canned or properly cooked beans you'll be more successful.

That's all for this week folks . . . sorry for my lack of pictures.

2014 - Book 28

"My Life Next Door" - Connecticut

This is a perfect "beach book". Typical boy meets girl-next-door summer romance, but with a really nice storyline behind it too. A little bit too much focus on the physical aspect for my liking, but still PG rated. I really liked the different family dynamics and the main character, Samantha, has a good head on her shoulders, which I appreciate. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but it was one of my favorite books that I've read all year. Every girl deserves a nice guy like Jase :)

For my recipes this week, I have Slow Cooker Sticky Chicken Drumsticks, "Magic" Cake, Crock Pot Applesauce, and Dried Apple Skins (& this recipe for the apple skins too).

For the slow cooker sticky chicken drumsticks, you'd be better off following this recipe. There really is no way to get the good sticky sauce in a crockpot. I found that out the hard way by making it in the crock pot and ending up with cooked chicken and liquid sauce. So I looked over the other recipe and put the chicken in the oven and cooked down / thickened the sauce and then brushed it on a few times in the oven. I put them back in the crock pot on "warm" to serve at a pot luck, and they were SOOO good. I love cilantro too, so sprinkling that and the toasted sesame seeds on the end was a good addition. The first recipe didn't really work, but the flavors are great, just follow the oven procedure and you'll be good to go.

When I made the "Magic" cake, I thought there was no way that I was doing it right. Why would I whip the egg whites and then literally stir them back into a liquid mixture (as opposed to folding them in the make the mixture more light and fluffy)? It just seemed wrong, but I watched the little video at the bottom of the page, and that's what they did, and to my surprise . . . it worked. It kind of had the flavor of flan, minus the caramel part, and it had all three layers . . . amazing. There are lots of other desserts I like better, but I might try a different variation of this, just because it was kind of cool. I think the chocolate version might be good.

Magic :)

I really enjoyed the crock pot applesauce. I used 8 medium apples that we picked at a local farm (not sure which variety because we had four different ones), but I think using different types is a good idea. The addition of the strip of lemon peel was really tasty too. With all of the lifting the cover off and stirring, mine was not nearly done enough after the allotted time, so I let it go quite a bit longer (maybe two hours on low plus on "warm" for the rest of the night . . . I had to let it go overnight since it was too late to stay up and watch it. Programmable crock pots are my friend.) I didn't need to use a blender, because it was so soft at this point that I just stirred it and it was perfect. I warmed it up when serving and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and ate it with graham crackers as my spoon = YUM. I don't really like pie crust, so this was like the perfect apple pie in my book. Give it a try, it was really good.

Since I peeled all of those apples for the applesauce, I had a ton of leftover peels. I didn't want to just waste them, so I read the two recipes I linked above and just sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar and put them in the oven on the lowest temp (170 F I think it was) until they were done. The smaller pieces were done first, but some of the larger pieces took a bit longer. I don't remember how long I had them in, but it was quite a while. Just keep checking them, and take them out when they are fully dry and crispy. They were actually pretty tasty if you are just looking for something to snack on.

I hope you enjoy all of the yummy food this week. Make a big pot of that applesauce, sit down with "My Life Next Door" and have a wonderful day :)

2014 - Book 27

"Beneath a Meth Moon" - Mississippi

This book kind of hit home because it was about a girl dealing with addiction, and I'm close to a few people who struggle with various kinds of addictions. Thankfully, none of them are meth addicts like the girl in the story. From some of my criminal justice classes in school I've seen before and after mug shots of people addicted to meth and it is obvious how destructive it is. The book was an interesting view into her past, how she first got into meth, and how it affected all of the people around her. I hope it serves as a good warning for anyone thinking they might want to try it to run the other direction.

The writing of this book was of a much higher caliber than the last book, and the characters were very real and compelling. I didn't really enjoy this book, because it's not really my favorite genre, but it was a quick, easy read, and would be good for teens to see how destructive this kind of behavior can be. She thought she could get out whenever she wanted, like she was just "experimenting" with it, but no, once you use, you are a user . . . and it is so damaging to everyone. Here is my public service announcement, and not just because I abhor illicit substances: Please, PLEASE don't go near that kind of stuff. Keep your body clean and find your peace and joy in the good things around you. Even if times are hard and you don't see a way out, there is still beauty in nature, in the miracle of living, and even if you don't believe, in the God who created you and loves you more than anyone else. Cling to these things, don't go chasing some chemical-induced release, and you and everyone around you will be so much more blessed in the end.

Okay, off my soapbox now and into the kitchen . . .  here are the recipes for this week: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffins, Copycat Chili's Queso Dip, and Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread. As you may have guessed, I had lots of zucchini to use up, and the dip was for a friend's housewarming party. All of these recipes were fairly successful.

The muffins were easy and tasty . . . a very good recipe. Not too much else to say except they were a success.

The queso dip was pretty good, but not as well liked as the cheeseburger dip I made once that was similar. It was a very good copycat of the Chili's version. I didn't realize how expensive Velveeta cheese has gotten though, which is a bit of a detriment to making this recipe. It is definitely  not healthy, but would probably be a hit at a football party or something of the sort. But if you were going to make it, I'd make the cheeseburger dip instead.

The glazed lemon zucchini bread was probably the biggest success of the week. I thought it looked just like it had come out of a Starbucks or Panera bakery . . . it was very moist and tasty. It thought the green in it gave it some nice color. The zucchini did give it a bit of a spongy texture, but I still liked it.

Hope you all have a great week :)

2014 - Book 26

"Ashfall" - Iowa

This book wasn't too bad, but the writing wasn't that great either. Apparently it was the author's first book, and it kind of showed. All of the early chapters had obvious cliff-hangers at the end, and pretty much every bad or gory thing that could happen in this sort of situation did happen. I might be a bit biased as a girl though . . . I think boys would like this book more. I will admit it was an interesting concept, and I liked seeing how certain scenarios played out.

It is a story about a boy and his family trying to survive after the super volcano under Yellowstone erupts and destroys most of the U.S. Some people he met were helpful and kind, others were ruthless, horrible, and mean, and a huge number of people died. I don't know how our society would fare if that were ever to happen, but I don't think his predictions were too far off the mark. It wasn't a great book (not that I'm in a position to really be a book critic or anything), and I won't be reading the sequel, but it did make me think, which is always good.

I have one bad dish, one okay dish, and one good dish to share this week...can you guess which is which? Curry Chicken Pasta Salad, Homemade Mayonnaise, Zuppa Toscana

The bad dish first . . . homemade mayonnaise. Now, I'm not just saying it was bad because I don't like mayonnaise . . . on the contrary, I figured that if I made it myself it would taste better and I would like it. That part at least proved to be true . . . it did taste a whole lot better than the nasty stuff you can get in a jar at the store. My beef with this recipe is that I could not get it to work. It was probably my own fault because I cooked the egg yolk to a higher temperature than it said to, but I could not find pasteurized eggs anywhere, so I needed to cook it longer to make sure there was no salmonella. Does anyone know where I could possibly find pasteurized eggs for future reference? Anyways, it looked like it was working and I thought it was fine, until I set it aside and came back to use it later and it was complete liquid. So then I sort of tried again with another egg yolk and the immersion blender, and that worked a little better. But then I set it aside for a couple of minutes and when I came back to add the last little bit of oil (after my immersion blender had cooled down), the emulsion completely broke and I was back to eggy oil liquid grossness :( This was so frustrating because I ended up having to throw it all away . . . what a waste of tasty olive oil. So if you make it in a blender or use an immersion blender right away, and don't care about using raw eggs, I think this would work just fine and be tasty, but for me, the experience was horrible.

The reason I needed the mayonnaise was the Curry Chicken Pasta Salad. This was a recipe I found in my Penzy's Spices catalog and it sounded pretty good. It would have been super easy, if not for my stupid desire to try and make my own mayonnaise for it at the same time. A lot of people liked it, and it really is a complete meal (starch, protein, good fat, fruit and vegetable) . . , my husband took it for lunch the next few days and he said it was very good. I did end up cutting the curry down a bit because I only had the spicy curry powder and I didn't want it to be too hot, but I should have added more, because for me, it was a little bland. Since my mayonnaise didn't work, my mom was nice enough to give me her olive oil mayonnaise from the store, which I'm sure made it much nicer than just generic mayonnaise. Overall though, not my favorite. I think I like the Italian type of pasta salads better.

And now for some good news: when we got a large bunch of kale from our local farmer, my mind instantly went to Zuppa Toscana, and I was surprised to find that I hadn't shared it on my blog yet. This is a great recipe that comes together easily and can be adapted a bit, if you like. We usually double all of the ingredients except the sausage, and add extra potatoes and kale to make it more hearty. The flavor is great, and you don't even have to leave your house to get soup just like Olive Garden :) Now if only I could perfect those breadsticks ;)

Hope you all have a great week :)

2014 - Book 25

"White Cat" - New Jersey

I had a difficult time getting into this book. It had a very abrupt beginning . . . if that makes any sense? I felt like I got thrown into something way over my head and I wasn't eased into the story. Once I figured out what was going on though, it was a pretty interesting book.

"White Cat" follows a boy named Cassel Sharpe, as he navigates his way through boarding school and family drama as the only "non-worker" in a family of "workers". In this society, some people are born with a gene that allows them to do a certain kind of magic (luck, emotion, transformation, death, etc.) just by touching someone else. Therefore, everyone wears gloves. And the magic has consequences too . . . Cassel's grandfather is a death worker and for every person he kills, he loses a finger. It a very corrupt society with heads of worker families running the show like mob bosses. It wasn't a feel good book with a happy ending like I usually like, but it was still interesting. I didn't like it at first, but once I got into it, it was rather fascinating. It really makes you think what it would be like to live in a world where your dreams might be more true than your memories. Whoa . . . deep, right?

For the recipes to share this week, I have zucchini bread with crunch topping and roasted summer squash.

Neither recipe was earth shattering, so I don't really have much to say about them, but they were both very good. Easy and tasty . . . good kinds of recipes to have on hand. Give them a try :)

Hope you all have a great week.

2014 - Book 24

"The Splendor Falls" - Alabama

This has been the best and most entertaining book that I've read so far this year. It was just right up my alley. Historical fiction including some wartime stuff, an awesome PG-rated love story, very few bad words, some cool sciencey-stuff (archaeology and geology), a little bit of the supernatural, and throw in other interesting things like the world of professional ballet dancing and a love interest with a sexy British accent...perfect ;)

The story centers on Sylvie, a young professional ballet dancer who breaks her leg and can't dance anymore.  She has a bit of a breakdown after her mom's wedding and her new stepfather (a psychiatrist...she calls him the "step-shrink") and her family think she needs a change of scene. She is sent to her family's historical home in rural Alabama, which is completely unknown to her, and begins to discover her family's rich history and the many mysteries surrounding the house and the town. I won't give away any details for you, but she does think she is going crazy because she might be seeing ghosts and her interactions with her little dog, Gigi, are really adorable. Also, she has to go to a grocery store at some point and is incredulous when she hears the store is called Piggly Wiggly. I've always gone to that store, so it never seemed weird to me, but now thinking about it, it is a pretty funny name. I like it even more now :)  

I wish they would make this one into a movie, although the ghosts might give me nightmares. I just think it would be a really interesting movie and would love to relive the story again. This might not be everyone's cup of tea, and I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed that the supernatural stuff went a little too far at the end to quickly close up some of the loose ends, but overall, it was still a really good book in my opinion.

In other news, just so you don't think that all I do is read books and bake, I am almost done with a 20 class pass at the hot yoga studio . . . I've been going almost every day, and I have been practicing my cello as well as listening to the Pimsleur approach Spanish CDs on my daily commute. See, I am keeping up with some of the things I started in 2012 :)

But of course, I do have recipes to share, and they are good ones this week: The Best Brownies #1, The Best Brownies #2, quick gnocchi, and chicken & gnocchi soup.

Brownie #1

Brownie #2

The reason for the two brownie recipes is that I was looking through my "Desserts to Try" board on Pinterest and noticed that I had two brownie recipes that both claimed to be "The One" . . . the only brownie recipe you will ever need. Well, the couldn't BOTH be the best brownies ever, so of course I had to undertake what I dubbed "The Great Brownie Challenge". It was a tale of two different types of brownie, one sweet and cakey with a rich ganache frosting, the other dark and chewy. I took a poll of all of the people that ate them and despite most people initially thinking they would vote for the frosted brownie, the chewy brownie ended up winning out in the end by quite a large margin. Truthfully though, they were both really good. The cakey ones were easier to make, but it really all just depends on which type of brownies you prefer. Anyone would probably be crazy if they didn't like either one of these recipes though. Granted, I took a few liberties with the chewy brownies because I didn't have unsweetened chocolate, so I used semi-sweet and cut down a little bit on the sugar and butter content. They still worked out perfectly fine. If you have a day and you are seriously craving brownies . . . give one, or both, of these a try.

The Great Brownie Challenge

As for the soup, I was going to make regular old chicken dumpling soup (which I love by the way), but decided to branch out and try something different. One of the girls I eat lunch with had gnocchi once and they looked so good that I decided to try them. They weren't the most beautiful things in the world, but boy were they tasty. The recipe was really easy and I just cooked them in the boiling soup and removed them with a slotted spoon. When I reheated the soup on subsequent days, I just dropped them in after heating and it was a perfect leftover meal. I did store them separately though, because I didn't want them to get soggy sitting in the soup for too long. I will admit I didn't follow the soup recipe perfectly, but it was my basis for the soup that I ended up making. I don't know how that exact recipe will turn out, but I must say, the chicken gnocchi soup that I ended up with was one of the best soups I've ever made. I'm really sad that it's all gone now. Give these recipes a try, and finish off the meal with some of those brownies . . . perfect dinners all week long :)

Enjoy :)

2014 - Book 23

"Julie of the Wolves" - Alaska

This was a Newbery Medal winner by a great author, so it couldn't help but be a good book. I would recommend it for any younger readers out there, especially those who like animals. I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, but it is a very real story and the writing is fantastic. The details are so vibrant, I almost felt like I was Miyax, living out in the Alaskan wilderness with her adopted wolf family. I feel like I learned a lot about Eskimo culture and wolves in this story, so it was educational as well as entertaining. Maybe I'm channeling my teacher friends, but this would be a great book report subject. Apparently there are two sequels to this one too, so even though it is a rather short book, there is more material out there if you would like to read it. If you're feeling too hot in the warm summer months, take a mental trip to Alaska and give this book a read :)

The recipes I have this week are chocolate "lasagna", grilled bok choy, and cookie dough Greek yogurt.

The chocolate "lasagna" was the typical all-American layered dessert with Cool Whip, chocolate pudding, and Oreos. Really, when you've had one of these type of desserts, you've had them all. It was tasty, but not home-made tasting enough for me, and kind of boring. But, this is easy to put together and it's pretty much a given that everyone at whatever pot luck you take it to will love it, so give it a try :)

The grilled bok choy was a new experience for me. It was tasty, provided you don't burn the thin ends of the leaves, but it wasn't really that good of a recipe. It was too salty, and it didn't make nearly enough. I had to double the recipe and a few of them weren't very well coated. It got mixed reviews, so I don't think I'll make it again, but it was an interesting new way to cook a veggie that I'm not very familiar with.

Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt sounded like a great idea, but again, this recipe didn't live up to my hopes for it. I bought a whole bunch of single serve yogurts and took this to a Pinterest party. Not too many people tried it (probably because it was put out after we were done with crafting and people were tired of "creating" things). Of the people that did try it, some said it was good, but it didn't really taste like cookie dough, and I'd have to agree with them. It's not bad, but just tastes like sweetened yogurt with chocolate chips in it . . . no resemblance to cookie dough, unfortunately. I really wanted this to be good, but it just wasn't. In the end, I was left with many unused Greek yogurts, and they were very useful in other dishes in the following week (soup and pasta sauce primarily) . . . so it wasn't a loss after all :)

Sorry for a week of mediocre recipes, hopefully I'll have better ones to share next time. Until then :)

2014 - Book 22

"Shattered Souls" - Texas

This was a really interesting book, and I liked it quite a bit. It seemed kind of weird at first, but I was quickly sucked in. It's a story about a girl who is hearing voices and thinks she's going crazy. It all starts to make sense when she meets a boy who tells her that she is a "Speaker", a reincarnated soul who can speak to the "Hindered", souls whose bodies have died but have some unfinished task preventing them from going to heaven or hell. This boy, Alden, is her "Protector", and they supposedly work for a secret organization in charge of helping the Hindered, eliminating the "Malevolent" (evil souls), and keeping all of this secret from humans. There are a lot more details to it, but it is an interesting look at how she deals with discovering all of this and what path she will choose to spend the rest of her life on. To top all this off, she also can't remember any of the past lives that she's spent with Alden, so that complicates everything. At any rate, I rather liked this story, and I was sad when it was over. Hopefully I'll have lots more books like that in the near future :)

The recipes I have to share today are watermelon cake, grilled cranberry chicken, and Snickers peanut butter brownie ice cream cake (yes, all of those wonderful things were combined into one dessert).

The watermelon cake was the surprise cake I made for my husband's birthday. He loves fruit . . . I mean really loves fruit, way more than cake, so this was right up his alley. The whipped coconut milk was a bit messy to work with, but the real mistake was following the directions and slicing the cake before frosting. I didn't do the best job of making it a perfect cylinder, so the pieces kept falling over. Combine that with frosting that doesn't stick too well and you have one big mess on your hands. I managed to make it look okay for the presentation, but it was definitely not my best work. Next time (and I think there will be a next time, because he loved it so much he requested it for his birthday cake every year) I will not slice the cake beforehand, and I'll try to do a better job of making the sides flat. I might try cool whip or a different type of frosting too. I did read one review who left it in the fridge over night on a piece of paper towel to let it dry out a bit so the frosting would stay on better . . . that might be another tip to try. All in all though, he loved it and it tasted good, so it was a success :)

The grilled cranberry chicken was also fantastic, but I forgot to take pictures of it. I don't like jellied cranberry sauce, so I just made fresh cranberry sauce using the very simple directions on the cranberry bag. I doubled the recipe and didn't bother reboiling it before serving (the sauce wasn't applied to the chicken until it was safely cooked, so there was no fear of contamination). It's just a really good combination of sweet and savory and spicy . . .  yum. We've made this recipe multiple times now, and it's been tasty every time, give it a try.

I don't think a dessert can look too much more appetizing than this crazy pile of sweetness. It was indeed just as good as the name implied it would be, and it was pretty easy to make too. However, I've been trying to wean myself off of liking the taste of overly processed foods and candy, so all of the candy, syrup, cool whip, and boxed brownie mix wasn't quite to my liking. It was pretty impressive though, it tasted good, and everyone liked it, so I'd say it was a winner, even though I probably won't be making it again.

Now that I've been posting multiple recipes every week, has anyone actually tried any of them? I know one of my awesome aunts tried the steel cut oats and loved them, so if you do try one of the recipes I've posted, leave me a comment and let me know how you liked it :)

That's all for this week . . . talk to you again soon.

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).

2014 - Book 19

"A Beautiful Dark" - Colorado

This was actually a really interesting book. I liked the characters and I thought the story was really original. Some of the plot twists were a little predictable, but it was still good. It's a story about a teenage girl who begins to have strange powers on her 17th birthday, and it coincides with the arrival of two strange new boys in town. When she gets to know them (and struggles with deciding which one she wants to date) she finds out more about herself, her past, and who is really in control of the universe. I don't want to give any spoilers, but it will make you look at angels in a new light. Really interesting story, I thought. I don't think I'm hooked enough to read the sequel, but it was a good book to read on a summer day :)

Here are a few recipes, two good and one bad, to share with you: marinated chicken, cheesy baked rice, and slow cooker steel cut oatmeal.

This marinade was really good, especially because it's easy to mix and match with whatever spices you like and have available. The first time we made it, I think it was better, but it was still good and easy both times. I just used it to marinade the chicken before we cooked it, I didn't do the freezing step, but I'm sure that would help enhance the flavors.

The next recipe was the cheesy baked rice. I don't know if it was because I used brown rice instead of white, but I even cooked it much longer and it was still crunchy and not done. It was also WAY too salty. So here's my warning . . . do NOT try this recipe. I figure it's good to share some failures and warn you off recipes from time to time as well as promoting most of the awesome recipes that I get to try.

And finally, slow cooker steel cut oatmeal. I thought I had shared this before, but I think I forgot. It is a super easy recipe and it SO good. It's my new favorite go-to oatmeal method. It has just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess . . . yum. I can make a full batch and eat it for breakfast for two weeks. Or make it for company with a variety of toppings = awesome breakfast oatmeal bar. I like to put cinnamon, nuts, milk, and some sort of fruit on mine . . . such a yummy breakfast. Give this one a try.

That's it for today, have a great week :)

2014 - Book 18

"Deadline" - Idaho

This book was interesting and thought-provoking. It's the story about a high school senior who gets diagnosed with a fatal blood disease (the book doesn't go into specifics) and is told he only has one year to live. He chooses to forgo treatment in order to live his last year looking healthy on the outside at least, and he keeps his diagnosis from those closest to him. I can't say that I agree with all of his theology (he often has dream conversations with "Hey-Soos"), but to read of the passion in which he tries to live his last year and the lessons that he learns, is a pretty good experience. It is a good reminder to always tell the truth, try and have a purpose for your life, love the ones closest to you as well as you can, remember that you're not the only one with big secrets, and to give the other guy a break as often as possible. So it wasn't my favorite book I've read this year, but I did enjoy it.

Here are the two tasty treats that I have to share with you this week: pinata cake, and deep, dark, flourless chocolate cookies.

First off, I have to say that both of these were fantastic. The pinata cake was a huge hit at our taco pot-luck at work. No one wanted to cut into him because he was SO cute :) It was very time-consuming to make, and a lot of the reviews on the recipe were bad, but I put mine in the freezer overnight in the two sections, and just assembled it right before eating, and it was fine (no falling apart problems). It wasn't a huge surprise, but in the taste department, it just tasted like a boxed cake and canned frosting, but it was so cute, I didn't even care :)

CUTE :)

As for the cookies . . . YUM. It's an interesting recipe because it's made without butter or flour . . . a bit strange for a cookie, but they turned out great. I used about 2/3 bittersweet and 1/3 semi-sweet chocolate. This was initially because I didn't have enough bittersweet, but I'm glad I did because I think they were "dark" enough, just the way they were. They were super easy to make too, and soooo tasty.

Mmmmm

Go try out these recipes (the cookies at the very least), and have a great week.

2014 - Book 17

"If I Stay" - Oregon

This story was heartbreaking. A young girl, so full of promise, is involved in a tragic car accident. She then has an out-of-body experience where she can move around and witness what is going on around her, even though her body is in a coma. A couple of the nurses taking care of her tell her that is up to her to decide if she fights through and stays on this earth, or if she dies. I can't say that I agree with all of the religious or moral views of some of the characters in this book, but that didn't make me enjoy it any less. I thought the book was very well written and I was really able to connect with the characters. Also, as a budding cello player, I really liked the fact that she was fantastic at the cello . . . it makes me want to play more. Her love interest was good, the author kept it very PG-13, and everyone was described so well, it really made it seem like the reader could be part of the family too.

It seems this is getting turned into a movie, and a sequel is coming out as well. I don't think a movie will be able to do it justice, since so much is going on inside her head, but it might be interesting to see. As for the sequel, the first chapter was included at the end of this book, and I'm not looking forward to it too much (I'm a sucker happy endings and I'm not sure this one will be), but I am curious to see where the author takes the characters. Even though this is going to be a series, it is a good stand alone book, and you just try to keep from getting emotionally involved ;)

The recipes I have to share today are: pecan pralines and chicken nacho bake.

The pralines were not my favorite, but I might not have made them right. I guess I wanted them to be more chewy and caramel-like, but they weren't. They still had a good flavor, but since they aren't a very appealing color, they weren't a very big hit at the gathering I took them to either. They did take a bit longer to make and by the time I was finishing putting them on the parchment paper, they had cooled off and the oil had started to separate out of them resulting in very ugly pralines. Overall, the taste and time was just not worth it for me to make them again, oh well.

The chicken nacho bake on the other hand was very good and super easy to make. This is one recipe that could easily be made any night of the week. Easy and tasty . . . an excellent combinations.

Enjoy your week :)

2014 - Book 16

"The Raven Boys" - Virginia

This was a rather intriguing book. It was difficult to get into at first because there were a lot of characters introduced at once, and they all have really odd names, which made if hard for me to put a mental face to each person. Finally about halfway through the book I had most people figured out, but then as I neared the end, it seemed to me that there were far too many things that weren't resolved yet. Go figure, this is another in a series of books. I think there are supposed to be four books, but only the first two are out yet. They should not be allowed to put series books on this 50 States of YA list, because then I have to read way more than 50 books in order to truly get the whole story. I would be interested in reading the rest of this series, just to find out what happens, but I don't absolutely have to, I don't think.

I have some weird premonition that I'll write a book someday and work really hard at it and then some young person with hardly any literary training will just tear it apart (kind of like I've been doing to most of the books on this list) . . . we'll see if I eventually get a taste of my own medicine. So, if there are any authors out there reading this, I apologize for being so harsh on so many of these books, but I'm just trying to tell my opinions about the books, and I understand that lots of people like lots of different things. That being said, this book, besides being difficult to dive into, was lacking a little bit. Some of the character development was really shallow, and it was clearly written to be a series, which I think is kind of a cheap money-making scheme. If the book you write is so excellent it deserves continuation, so be it, but if you write a rather lengthy book (408 pages) just to foreshadow for the rest of your books, I feel a little taken in. There were quite a few plot elements introduced in this book that didn't have any sort of purpose or conclusion . . . yet. I'm assuming they will come up and be resolved further along in the series, but I did leave some questions at the end. Oh well . . . it really was a rather interesting story, kind of a paranormal / magical teen thriller about psychics and magical forces with a good bit of history mixed in too, so if that's your cup of tea, then maybe this series is for you. I did like the story better than the previous book I read by this author "Shiver", the first book I read this year. So all-in-all, I'd give this one a pretty medium rating . . . definitely not the best book I've read, but not nearly the worst either.

Here are a few recipes to share too: orange cardamom bunnies (here is another link to a site with pictures) and sauteed chicken breasts with balsamic vinegar pan sauce.

Bunnies :)

I made the bunny rolls to take to my family's Easter gathering. The rolls were actually very tasty, most dense and bready than pastry-like, but still good. The dough cutting directions were a little confusing, so really read through the whole thing before you start cutting it. Also, the 4 large bunnies are huge . . . I think making 20 smaller bunnies would be a better idea.

Glazed . . . yum

As for the chicken dish, it was VERY vinegary. It smelled a lot stronger than it tasted, but it was still too strong. Also, I've never made polenta before, and I don't think it turned out very well. The polenta in the recipe's picture looks kind of soft and creamy, and mine was more solid and grainy . . . not so good. That might have been my fault for being an inexperienced polenta-maker, but I think the recommendation to serve it over orzo would have been much tastier. So, I won't be making that dish again, but if you really like balsamic vinegar, than maybe you should give it a try.

That's all for now, have a great week :)

2014 - Book 15

"Devilish" - Rhode Island

This book was different from a lot of the other ones that I've read. The story wasn't as gripping as something like "Divergent", but it was interesting. Not many people write about demons and selling souls to the Devil nowadays. It was a bit chilling, but still intriguing. I didn't like how cupcakes became a tool of demons, though ;) On a serious note, since I believe that demons are real, it was kind of scary to think of how they might be operating in our world today. Hopefully the next book I read will be a bit more lighthearted.

I have a few recipes to share today, pepperoni pizza lasagna rolls, strawberries and cream cheesecake, and bird's nest cookies.

These were all actually pretty good. The pepperoni pizza lasagna rolls were pretty easy and very tasty. I don't even like lasagna that much. The only thing they were missing was a stronger pepperoni flavor, so I think chopping some up and putting them in the sauce would be a good idea.

This cheesecake was way better than my first attempt at cheesecake (Oreo Cheesecake). This one was very creamy and the baked strawberries added a really nice flavor. I had to bake it a little longer than the recipe called for (I waited until the center was at about 150 F). Give this recipe a try, you won't regret it :)

The final recipe, bird's nest cookies, turned out a bit drier than I was expecting, but were actually pretty good . . . similar to a shortbread cookie. I found the speckled peanut butter M&Ms and they looked cute in their little nests. A good spring cookie :)

Enjoy your week :)

2014 - Book 14

"The Queen of Kentucky" - Kentucky

Yup, you guessed it . . . "The Queen of Kentucky" is, in fact, set in Kentucky ;) This book was actually pretty descent. If you've seen the movie "Mean Girls", the story line is very similar, but I found this one more enjoyable and the characters much more endearing. The book chronicles the drama of being the new girl in school and starting Freshman year wanting more than anything to fit in. There is a lot of the usual teen problems, but also some bigger ones, and quite a few quirky characters so I think almost everyone will find someone in this book that they can relate too. Is it my favorite book? No, but it was a good story and I'd recommend it, especially for younger teen girls who are nervous about high school and trying to fit in.

My recipes to share this week are both sweet ones, chocolate chip cookie in a cup, and homemade pound cake.

The chocolate chip cookie in a cup was just okay. I wouldn't make it again, but I was really desperate for a chocolate chip cookie, so I tried it. It did taste more like cake than a cookie, and the recipe says that might be because I cooked it too long, but honestly, it did not look done any sooner than when I took it out. So, it was a sugar fix, but it wasn't very good.

This was the "before baking" picture. I didn't bother taking an "after" picture because it just wasn't that good. 

My second recipe was much better. I got this really fun book from some friends as a house-warming present: "Cupcakes, Cookies, and Pie, Oh My". Since we were going over to their house for dinner, I decided I should make a dessert out of the book. Most of the recipes include a lot of store-bought ingredients, and this was no exception, but I figured I could make it a little more homemade by making the pound cake myself. It turned out pretty well and stood up to all of the craziness I put it though (with much help from my husband who did all of the painstaking marshmallow work). The cake got a little hard on the outside, but that didn't really detract from the flavor at all. Let's be honest though, this isn't really about the cake . . . it's about the SHEEP :)

I only made 4 instead of 7 . . . that was plenty. 

Isn't he ADORABLE??? Quite filling too . . . at least two servings, if you can bear to eat him at all

I also whipped up some cream and put it on top of the leftover cake with some strawberries for dessert another night . . . yum.

Whew, that's a lot of dessert :) Hope you all have a great week.