Another belated post

Hello everyone. Are you read for a ton of recipes to be thrown at you today? I hope so, because in an effort to catch my blog up to my cooking, I am doubling up on recipes for this post (and probably the next few posts as well) :) I do have a few winners in this post, so keep reading to find out more.

The first, and in my opinion, the best, recipe for today is these Black Bottom Coconut Bars. Generally Martha Stewart recipes don't steer me wrong, and this was no exception. I thought these were fantastic. I didn't know how the slightly drier coconut top would go with the chocolatey bottom, but the answer is . . . amazing. I took these to a dinner party at a friend's house and everyone loved them. Plus, the color contrast makes them very visually interesting too. If you like coconut macaroons and brownies, give these a try.


I also wanted to make some potato chips to go with sandwiches I was trying to copy from a favorite lunch spot and this recipe did the trick. To prep the potatoes I rinsed the slices and then soaked them for about 30 minutes in cold water that I changed every ten minutes (based on some other suggestions that I had read). Once they were cooked, I sprinkled them with garlic salt, and . . . yum. They kept well for a few days in a plastic container, and were the perfect accompaniment to my tasty veggie paninis (sauteed portobello mushrooms with garlic, hummus, avocado, tomato, shredded carrots, and a little ranch dressing).

Not quite as good as the restaurant, but very tasty! 

I even made my own bread for the sandwiches. I figured ciabatta would be a good bread for paninis, and since I've been obsessed with "The Great British Bake-Off" lately, I tried Paul Hollywood's ciabatta recipe. I can't say I was perfectly successful. It was good, but got kind of funky shaped and not as ciabatta-like as I would have liked . . . there weren't as many holes in it. Oh well, it still tasted good and made a good sandwich.

Another "British Bake-Off" inspired recipe that I tried was this Hot Chocolate Cake Roll. They had made cake rolls on an episode and then I saw it on Pinterest and felt inspired to make it, especially since I had never made anything like it before. I think it turned out pretty well. It wasn't my favorite type of cake, but it was pretty impressive looking, and everyone that had it liked it :)

Okay, last recipe for today, I promise. I saw a picture of ice cream in hollowed out apples with caramel sauce  (like this) on Pinterest, but I figured that they would taste better if the apples were cooked, and I didn't want to wait to bake them in the oven, so I found this microwave method. I stopped at step two, because I definitely didn't want cheese in my baked apples, I wanted ice cream with caramel sauce. The skin got a little tough, so it was best to cut it up with a sharp knife before putting the ice cream and sauce on top. That way it was much easier to eat with a spoon, Not the fanciest dessert, but it was very tasty :) I didn't take a picture, because once cooked, they didn't look very pretty, but this blog post is long enough as it is, so you'll have to forgive the lack of a picture.

Whew, you made it though this ridiculously recipe-packed post. Stay tuned for another one soon :)

Long Overdue Post

So sorry this is long overdue. I usually write a post when I've finished a book, and to be honest, I haven't finished any of the 50 States of YA books in a long time. I was a bit bummed that I didn't finish them all last year, so I kind of ran out of steam, plus I've gotten sidetracked by other books, and just haven't had a lot of time to read lately.

It's been so long that my recipes are really starting to get backed up, so I think I'm just going to have to do a few posts of just recipes. I will include a book in this one though, seeing as I read it.

"Allegiant", the third and final book in the "Divergent" series, is that one that I finished for this post. I also read "Insurgent", the second book, but didn't have enough to say about it to warrant a blog post. It was a typical second book with not a lot of progress in the story, just a lot of shifting things around to set up for the third book. "Allegiant" on the other hand, was a pretty good book. I don't want to give any spoilers since I really enjoyed this series, but I was told by multiple people that I wouldn't like "Allegiant", so I guess I went into it with that expectation. Since so many people said that, I figured there had to be something that happens that does not give the typical happy ending. There is, but personally, I think it was a good choice for the story. I ended up liking this book more than most of my friends because I thought it ended just as it should and kept the characters true to themselves. I still liked the first book in the series, "Divergent", the best, because I love the thrill of getting introduced to a new society, but "Allegiant" was a decent way to end the series. I look forward to seeing the movies :) Anyone else read this? What did you think?

For my recipes this time, I have a doozy: the White, White Chocolate Cake Bake-off. Some of my friends are host parents for junior league hockey players (players between high school and college looking to get recruited by colleges). These boys have huge appetites and since I made that amazing "Death By Chocolate" cake for their first hockey player, I offered to make a cake for their next one. He requested a white cake with white chocolate . . . that sounded simple enough, or so I thought. Apparently, his dad is a baker or chef, so I secretly think that he knew how tough this would be and was trying to challenge me, but who knows. All I know is that I looked at this site for some research and ended up very conflicted about what to do, so guess what I did? Yep, I made two cakes. Of course I did ;) Take a look at the website and you'll see that they made EIGHT cakes, so I had a lot of recipes to choose from. I wanted something really, really white, but at the same time, I wanted it to taste really good. Behold, my process:


The first cake I chose was a white cake made with shortening. I added 3 tsp. extra flour, 2 tsp. butter extract, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract to try and improve the flavor based on the reviews, and I think it was pretty tasty.

This one was filled with white chocolate German buttercream (which was also the frosting for 2nd cake . . . read more about it below) and frosted with a crusting buttercream. The frosting worked great for what I was planning to do with it, but I guess I just don't like taste of shortening frosting. It was beautifully white though. The reason I needed a crusting buttercream was because I wanted to try a neat frosting method that I found on Pinterest for making buttercream look as smooth as fondant. Mine wasn't quite as perfect as the example, but it was a pretty slick method, and did look quite a bit like fondant. What do you think?

I attempted to make white chocolate curls to top the cake with, but this did not work at all. I ended up just prying white chocolate pieces off the sheet pan and making a piece of abstract art on the top of the cake. It didn't help that I ran out of time during the decorating phase . . . oh well.

The other cake was a White Butter cake. This recipe was much more exact and included the weights of ingredients, which is something that I appreciate. I couldn't fault this cake either, it was also tasty, but definitely not as white.

The filling for this cake was supposed to be a white chocolate mousse. If you recall from my cake month, I had a few issues with the chocolate clumping up in the milk chocolate layer of my Triple Chocolate Mousse cake. Unfortunately, this happened with this white chocolate mousse too :(
Such a frustration. Have I told you how much I dislike white chocolate? I cannot seem incorporate white chocolate without it seizing up into little chunks :( Therefore both the mousse and the German buttercream frosting became "white chocolate chip" flavored, despite my best efforts. It tasted pretty good, for white chocolate, but the chunks were a bit off-putting (and made for sloppy, desperate piping).

This German buttercream is one of my go-to frosting recipes . . . nice and creamy without an overpowering butter flavor. I couldn't find anything about making it white chocolate flavored though, so I followed the directions here for making a Swiss buttercream chocolate flavored. It probably would have worked better if I had used regular chocolate, but white chocolate is a bit more temperamental. The German buttercream has worked very well in the past, maybe if I had put the chocolate into the warm custard so it could fully melt instead of adding melted chocolate into cooled frosting it would have worked better? I don't know if that would work or not, but since I don't really like white chocolate, maybe I just never try to do this again? That would work ;) So, there you go, my white, white chocolate cake madness. Who knew such a simple request could become so complicated. I took a poll of those who ate the cakes and the votes were as follows:

Appearance:  Smooth frosting - 5             Piped frosting - 1
Cake:           Shortening cake - 4              Butter cake - 2
Filling:          German buttercream - 3      White chocolate mousse - 3
Frosting:       Crusting buttercream - 3      German buttercream - 3

So besides the lovely appearance of the "fondant" frosting method, the cakes were pretty much tied. I guess give them both a try and let me know which one you like better :) Have a great week.

2014-2015 - Book 38

"Revived" - Nebraska

I actually rather enjoyed this book. It was an interesting look into a sci-fi type program run by a secret group who were developing a drug to bring people back to life. An Iowa bus crash with over 20 fatalities, mostly small children, was the launching point. The 21 "Bus Kids" that were Revived became the test subjects and this book focuses on one of them, Daisy. She was an orphan at the time so she is being raised by two of the program's scientists, or Agents. When she dies and has to be revived for the fifth time (she is severely allergic to bees) she is forced to relocate and assume a new identity . . . again. She meets new friends and begins to fit into her new Omaha high school but she is also discovering some unsavory aspects of being in the Revived program.

I liked most of the characters in this book and there wasn't really anything in here that was inappropriate (unlike some of the other books I read). The story was engrossing and it was fun to imagine a program like that actually existing. All in all, a pretty good read :)

My two recipes to share this week are both exceedingly tasty: Candy Cane Tree Meringues (Idea & sugar info / Other idea / Recipe) and homemade Chocolate Pudding.

First of all, these recipes complement each other perfectly. The pudding requires 4 egg yolks, and the meringues require 4 egg whites, so what are you waiting for? Go make both right now :)

These little trees were amazingly easy to make and tasted really good. I didn't even bother dipping them in chocolate, and for how much I love chocolate, it's amazing to say that I didn't miss it. These were perfect just the way they are . . . I will definitely be making these a Christmas tradition.

As for the pudding, I think that boxed pudding has given pudding a bad reputation. I thought that I loved pudding (Jell-O cheesecake pudding with mini chocolate chips on top is amazing), but this pudding is in a class all it's own. Mousse is supposedly the fancy thing to make for dessert, but once your guests take one taste of this homemade chocolate pudding, their ideas about pudding will be completely transformed. This was oh so rich and chocolaty and just plain yummy. We topped it with just a little whipped cream, and it was SO GOOD. Yes, it's pudding, so it's not the most impressive looking dessert, but trust me, use up those four egg yolks you have left from making the lovely meringues and treat yourself to some really amazing pudding.

That's all for now folks . . . hope you are all doing well :)

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.

2014-2015 - Book 36

"Blood Magic" - Missouri

While interesting, this book was a little dark, and could be taken the wrong way by some people. The main characters are experimenting with blood magic, which involves cutting their fingers or palms to get enough blood to do the spells. In the wrong situation, I could see this being taken as a self-destructive behavior. It isn't portrayed that way, and that isn't the character's motivation, but some of the other characters in the book think that it is. Besides that, the story is pretty good. It's a bit violent though, so it's better suited for older teens.

For my recipes this week, I have almond cookies with blanched almonds, homemade caramels, and some really yummy banana bread.

These almond cookies are just like the ones that you can find at Chinese buffet restaurants. One of my coworkers really likes them, so when I found this awesome book on my library's free book shelf, I knew just what to make :) The book was published in 1962 and has a bunch of interesting Chinese recipes geared toward American kitchens with relatively simple ingredients. I haven't tried any of the other recipes yet, but the cookies turned out just right. I know the size of eggs can be an issue in recipes though, especially those with not much other liquid, like this one. I did have to add an extra egg, but the rest of the recipe was spot on:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup shortening (lard, chicken fat or butter . . . I used butter)
2 eggs, beaten (I used 3)
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbs almond extract
1/4 lb whole almonds blanched

1. Mix dry ingredients
2. Cut shortening into dry ingredients.
3. Add beaten eggs. Stir until well mixed. Add almond extract.
4. Roll out dough. Shape into circles 1 1/2 inches in diameter. (I used a small shot glass as my cookie cutter)
5. Put on a greased baking sheet with an almond in the center of each cookie.
6. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25 minutes.

I have never blanched almonds before, but it turned out to be very easy, and the 1/4 lb that I measured out worked out perfectly to cover the cookies. I don't remember exactly how many I got, but I want to say it was about 4 dozen. I guess I need to be better about taking notes while I'm baking . . . oops. Anyways, this is the website that I used: How to Blanch Almonds. Basically, you just bring some water to a boil, drop in the almonds for exactly one minute. Put them in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Squeeze the almonds out of their skin, and pat dry . . . how easy is that?

Mmm . . . caramels

As for the caramels, the recipe that I used (Creamy Caramels) was really good and very easy. Much easier than the recipes I've tried in the past. The tip in there about testing your candy thermometer was very helpful to me too . . . that might have been why I had troubles in the past . . . mine was off by 7 degrees. Everyone really raved about the caramels, especially the ones that I dipped in semi-sweet chocolate. Personally, they were a bit too soft for me . . . I like the chewier caramels like Riesens, but these would make a great gift. If anyone knows a foolproof caramel recipe that's chewier, I'd love to try it :)

This banana bread recipe came from the grocery store Hyvee's magazine. They have amazing food photography, and apparently, really good recipes in there. If you live near a Hyvee, see if you can sign up for it. The only part that didn't really work was the banana slices on top. I think if they were more in the middle, they might work, but since they were next to the sides, they kind of stuck to the pan and when I tried to get the bread out, they all peeled off. The bread didn't need them though, it was fantastic without them. Give it a try.

That's all for today. Hope you have a great week.

End of 2014

Well, unfortunately, for the first time, I didn't finish my challenge :( But I did successfully read 35 of the 50 books on the 50 States of YA Literature list, plus a few others for the series books that I just HAD to know what happened. If you've noticed I haven't posted for a little while, it's because I was finishing up the last two books of the "Starcrossed" series by Josephine Angelini. The first book was by far the best, and I was really hoping they would make a movie out of it. By the time I got through the third book though, it was so "out there" that I can see why movie makers shied away from it. Not as great of an ending as I was hoping . . . things got a little too weird for me . . . but I still really enjoyed the series.

Now that it's a new year, I would usually be starting a new challenge, but I do want to finish up the 50 States of YA list. I do kind of have an idea for my 2015 challenge, but it's rather boring and not work blogging about . . . taking care of all of that adult paperwork stuff that no one wants to do but everyone really should. Things such as putting together a will, creating a stellar budget spreadsheet, and figuring out all of our insurance and investment information and getting it all consolidated in one place so we know where to go to look for our information. See, boring but necessary. If you have any tips for me, feel free to share.

One lesson I think I learned this year is that life is too short to spend your time reading books that you are not interested in (unless, of course, it is an assignment and you have no choice). But reading for pleasure is a great pastime, and just trying to read all the books off a list is not always the best way to go. There are so many books out there, I'm sure you'll find something that you are interested in reading :) I've already started a list of books I really want to read, and I want to go through  my multitudes of books and read the ones I haven't read yet too . . . that will be a more fun challenge.

So, there is my summary from 2014 . . . lots of books, lots of recipes, and now on to 2015. My husband has decided that we should try and not eat so many sugar-laden desserts, so hopefully I'll have more healthy recipes. I doubt I'll be able to completely quit making desserts though, so there will still be some now and then. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday season and are well on your way to accomplishing lots of fun new things in 2015.

2014 - Book 35

"Starcrossed" - Massachusetts

This has got to be one of my favorite books of the year . . . I couldn't put it down. It has intriguing characters, a good number of historical / literary references (Greek Mythology), and a nice PG love story. The story follows Helen, a girl growing up with her single dad on the small island of Nantucket. She knows she is different, but doesn't know quite why . . . that is, until a gorgeous and mysterious family moves in, and Helen finds she just can't stay away from them. There are tons of interesting plot points and while some of it might be a bit confusing at the end, I can't wait to read the next one. I began reading this book thinking it was a stand-alone novel, so I was very distraught when it ended with so many loose ends, but luckily (or not, since so many books on this 50 States of YA list seem to be series) there are already a 2nd and 3rd book out for me to enjoy :) This is not high literature by any means, but I really did enjoy it.


This was a recipe that I was going to try (Freezer hash browns), but had a little run in with the potatoes beforehand, so unfortunately, I can't actually tell you how it works out. But, feel free to give it a try and let me know how it works. . . it sounds like a really good idea. I think I cooked my potatoes a little too long (I just used the sensor cook on the microwave) and they got mushy when I tried to shred them so I just turned them into fresh hash browns . . . they were okay. But my tip about potatoes, and I can't stress this enough, is DON'T EAT GREEN POTATOES. It would seem like common sense to cut them off, and if you do, the rest of the potato is fine to eat, but I was eating a whole baked potato with toppings on it and apparently didn't realize how big of a part of green I ate. First of all, it tasted horrible, but I figured that it was just one bite, so it wasn't a big deal. I was wrong. I had a very bad evening of intestinal distress and didn't end up feeling any better until I threw up. Yep, really gross, sorry, but I just wanted everyone to know. There is nothing else to do . . . the green potato contains a poisonous toxin called solanine, so just be really careful, especially with kids. The smaller the person, the more they are affected by it.

Okay, that's my green potato rant . . . for how much food stuff I do, I would have thought I would have heard of that by now, but I never did . . . so, now you know . . . please learn from my mistake.

To make up for that gross tale, I have something much better to share with you, my very own slow cooker banana bread flavored steel cut oats recipe. I developed this recipe as a Christmas present for the girls that I work with. I began with the sweet potato steel cut oat recipe that I loved so much and tried different variations to find out what tasted the best. To be honest, I did not go buy the Quaker oat packets to find out what commercial banana bread oatmeal tastes like, I just tried to make it taste as much like banana bread as I could.

Since I'm a scientist, and this is my life's lab notebook, I did try to document most of my experiments . . . sorry that makes this post a little long, but I wanted to keep track of all of the different trials :)

Trial 1
3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 Cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cooked on low for 5 hours.

This variation tasted a little off. I don't know if it was the vanilla in it, but I didn't really like it. It did taste better the next day after the flavors melded a little bit, but I decided the vanilla was not a good addition.

Trial 2
3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 Cups), previously frozen and thawed in the microwave for 2 minutes
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cooked on low for 5 hours. I learned from the last trial to let it rest overnight in the fridge before trying it and this variation was very good.

Trial 3
2 large bananas, unmashed, previously frozen and thawed in the microwave for 2 minutes
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cooked on low for 4.5 hours. I thought maybe the bananas would kind of dissolve while cooking and I would be able to eliminate the prep work of mashing them, but that definitely did NOT happen. They pretty much looked like nasty brown worms on the top of the oats and since they had cooked that way, it was a bit difficult to get them to incorporate. Not appetizing. They still tasted good, but that experiment did not give good results.

Trial 4
3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 C)
1 C steel cut oats
4 C skim milk
1/2 C water
1/4 C brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cooked on low 4.5 hours. I found that the previous versions were plenty sweet and since bananas are so sweet themselves, cutting down the sugar was definitely a good call. The additional cinnamon couldn't even be tasted however. It's kind of a waste to put that much in at the beginning. If you want a stronger cinnamon taste, just put a little sprinkle on top before you eat it.

FINAL RECIPE
2 - 3 bananas, mashed (~1.5 C), can be fresh or thawed from frozen
1 C steel cut oats
4 C milk (any kind works)
1/2 C water
1/4 C brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cook on low 4.5 - 5 hours. Refrigerate over night. Heat up with milk before eating and top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and some walnuts. Yum :)

Banana Bread Oats

Pecan Pie oats

The other part of my recipe development was to find a way to make these easy "grab-and-go" breakfasts. I found that placing a strip of parchment paper in the bottom of a custard cup or ramekin and then adding ~200 g oatmeal (almost filling the 6 or 7 oz. cup) was just about a perfect way to do it. (Wax paper did not work, so make sure you use parchment paper.) After freezing, place the ramekins briefly in a small water bath and then use the parchment tabs to pull out the oatmeal "puck". These can be stored in freezer bags. I also froze skim milk in ice cube trays and placed two of those in a sandwich bag with one oatmeal puck and there you go, "grab-and-go" breakfast. Just pull out the oats, peel off the parchment, heat for 2 minutes, stir, add in the milk cubes, heat for another 1.5 - 2 minutes and TA DA, yummy steel cut oats . . . easy peasy :)

My kitchen, the oatmeal factory, I made 32 oatmeal packets :)

Enjoy :)

2014 - Book 34

"Delirium" - Maine

This was sort of a sci-fi story, and I found it really fascinating. It takes place in an alternate present where love has been ruled to be a disease. All people over the age of 18 get the "Cure", basically a brain surgery that cuts off the part of the brain that feels strong emotions. The government has closed the U.S. borders and major cities are contained within electric fences. All residents are closely monitored and if they are deemed to be "infected", or sympathizers, the consequences are severe. Outside of these cities are "The Wilds" where the uncured, "Invalids" (their identities have been invalidated) live and try to make it on their own. The story follows Lena, a girl getting ready to have the cure performed, whose life is pretty much set in stone (the government decides where you go to college, what you major in, how many children you will have, and each person is given a choice of 4 potential spouses to choose from). Besides tragically losing her parents at a young age, she is relatively content with her life, that is, until she meets Alex. Alex is unlike anyone she's ever known before, and of course, the fact that she is actually talking to a boy is pretty risky in itself. Now Lena must decide what her true destiny is going to be.

This is the first in another trilogy, but I think I will try to make a point to read the rest of these next year because I want to find out what happens :)

Instead of recipes this week, I have two crafty projects to share that I think are pretty awesome. The first one is this ADORABLE baby bear hat:

Isn't that just the most adorable hat???

I had to relearn how to crochet to make this hat, but it went together really easily by following this knit-along video by iKnits: Crochet Bear Hat. I also used this pattern from CrochetRochelle to make the cute little flower: Small Petal Flower.

The bow is on a barrette so it can be removed for a boy's hat

I made the 3 - 6 month size for my soon to be born niece . . . my brother and sister-in-law loved it :) I hope the baby will too.

I enlisted the help of my stuffed Scottie to model it as I didn't have a baby on hand ;)

The second is this cabled hat I made for my husband. It took me almost a year to make it because I was just not motivated to knit, nor did I have a lot of free time during the summer, but I did manage to get it done in time to give it to him for Christmas this year. I think he likes it :) The bamboo circular needles were interesting, I can't say that I really liked them all that much, but they were a good way to make a hat. I just like resting the end of my knitting needle on my lap and that's not possible with circular needles, so it felt like more work. Also, the wavy type of yarn I used was a bit of a problem and the cabled rows ended up getting really, really tight, so they weren't too much fun. The end result was worth it, but I don't think I'll make this pattern again (Snappy Hat). Time to try something new (or make a whole bunch more baby bear hats because all of my expectant mother friends decided they want one now too :))

The cabled hat

Details

2014 - Book 33

"Blood and Chocolate" - Maryland

This was back to the typical YA novels of the times, a story about werewolves. The writing was kind of weird, I don't know if it was because the author was trying to get into the wild creature mentality, but it just seemed too carnal or sensual for a YA book, but then again, too many YA books are like that, in my opinion. It just surprised me that this was a YA book written by a children's librarian when I thought she would have been a romance novelist or something instead. It was shorter than some of the books I have read though and the plot all fit together well, which I liked. The story follows a young girl and her pack family of werewolves. There is much dissension and unrest following a fire that killed her father, the pack leader, and drove them from their previous settlement into a more heavily populated town. Suspicions rise when a few humans are killed and Vivian (the main character) has to figure out out if she belongs with her pack, or with a human boy she's fallen for. It was an interesting read, I guess, but only for older YA readers.

And now for something totally different, a house remodeling tip: How to paint clean lines

We recently remodeled our half bathroom and I wanted to make sure we had clean lines between the wall and ceiling. I found this gem on Pinterest and it worked beautifully.

Look at those lovely clean lines.

This was the inspiration for our remodel: Half Bath inspiration

I didn't get as nice of pictures as she did, but here are some before and afters:

Overview

Biggest area of change, in my opinion. Also, the mirror is a medicine cabinet :)

We still need to add some shelves above the toilet, some artwork on the large wall, and some sort of window treatment, but you get the idea. It's so much nicer now :)

Now you know I couldn't resist throwing in a recipe too: Monster Cupcakes ("green eyed monster" & "orange you spiky monster")
These turned out really cute, but were rather putsy to put together. Usually I have a pretty high tolerance on my "putsy-meter", but putting individual chocolate sprinkles into frosting behind a tiny M&M just about pushed me over the edge. I only managed to do half of them before I gave up and decided that half were girl monsters and the other half without the eyelashes would be boy monsters ;) The green ones had too much frosting on them for my liking, but if I would have made homemade buttercream that wouldn't have been a big deal. I just really don't like store bought frosting anymore . . . I've spoiled myself into becoming a frosting snob I guess . . . oops. Well, these little monsters were pretty cute anyways, I really liked the addition of the chow mein noodles, and the cupcakes were a big hit with the kids at our gathering around Halloween time.

Have a great week :)

2014 - Book 32

"Arise" - Louisiana

I thought I would like this book quite a bit, but I had a hard time getting into it. I don't know why they decided to put the 2nd book in the series on this list, but I don't think it was a good idea. I spent the first third of the book wondering what the back story was that I was missing. It is about a girl who is a ghost but dating a live teenage boy. His family can almost all see ghosts and when they travel to New Orleans for the Christmas holiday, things start to get really weird. There is some strange voodoo stuff and I just wasn't that enthralled by it. Also, it was rather long. Oh well, on to the next book now. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to finish all 52 this year, but I've made good progress. Maybe some of the other books will be shorter and I'll be able to get through them faster.

For my recipes this week, I have Mile-High Peanut Butter Pie and another round of crock pot freezer meals.

The Peanut Butter Pie was very tasty, and I really liked the Nilla Wafer crust, but I didn't take a picture of it because my chocolate and peanut butter "drizzles" were more like globs and didn't look very nice. I think to get it to look like the picture, you would have to put it in plastic baggies with the corner snipped off. Oh well, it was very tasty and everyone liked it . . . yum.

These are the recipes I used for my Slow Cooker Freezer Meals:

Mom's Slow Cooker Chili - http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/02/10-slow-cooker-freezer-meals-in-less.html
This was a repeat recipe, I made two bags because I knew it would be good. This time I used ground turkey instead of ground beef to try and save money, but the chili really is better with the beef.

Crock Pot Pork Carnitas - http://www.mommysfabulousfinds.com/2013/10/easy-crock-pot-freezer-meals-2.html
So far, this one is the real winner, it is AMAZING. Maybe it's just that I haven't had pork in so long, but this was really yummy. We put it in tortillas with tomatoes, lettuce, hot sauce, cheese, and sour cream . . . so good. Go try it :)
 
Crock-Pot Chicken Sweet Potatoes - http://www.mommysfabulousfinds.com/2013/06/crock-pot-chicken-sweet-potatoes.html
I haven't tried this one yet, but I'll let you know how it is when I do.

Crock-Pot Honey Garlic Chicken - http://www.mommysfabulousfinds.com/2013/06/crock-pot-honey-garlic-chicken.html
This was was just meh. The chicken turned out dry and really the sauce served over rice was the tastiest part of the meal. I won't make this one again.

Crock-Pot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti - http://www.mommysfabulousfinds.com/2014/03/crockpot-freezer-meal-recipes.html
I haven't tried this one yet either. I'm really skeptical about putting precooked pasta into the crock pot, I'm expecting it to be super mushy and gross, but I thought it was a good experiment. The pasta took up so much space in the bag that I didn't have room for the Velveeta, and the Velveeta package says not to freeze it, so I'm just going to add it in the morning when I put the rest in the crock pot and hope for the best.

Sweet Potato Basil Soup - http://www.mommysfabulousfinds.com/2014/03/crockpot-freezer-meal-recipes.html
I was hoping for more with this one . . . it was not too bad, but the onions were kind of chewy yet and it wasn't as creamy as I thought it would be. Not a make again recipe, but it was okay. 

Bean Tator Tot Casserole - http://growingtofour.blogspot.com/2014/09/crock-pot-freezer-meal-bean-tater-tot.html
Tator tots are always better in the oven I think. After cooking, I had to stir it up to mix in the cheese and soup and the tator tots pretty much fell apart. Luckily the recipe calls for less than the full bag, so I baked some of the left over tator tots in the oven and put them on top. It was a very mellow flavored dish and I think kids would like it, but I think making it ahead and then baking it in the oven is probably the best way to go. I did see some crock pot recipes that line the crock pot with the tator tots and then thaw the soup mixture and pour it over . . . I think that would turn out better, but I still think the oven would be the best.

Chicken Taco Soup - http://www.lovingmynest.com/learning-activities/cooking/freezer-crock-pot-recipes/ AND http://www.allergyfreecooking.net/chicken-taco-soup/
I've made this before too and it's excellent so I also made two batches of it. I couldn't remember if the beans were supposed to be drained or not (one link says to rinse and drain the black beans and the other doesn't), so I made one batch with all of the beans rinsed and drained, and one batch without doing that, so we'll see which is better :)

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. Go make some pork carnitas, it will make you feel better ;) See you next week.

2014 - Book 31

"The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls" - Delaware

I found this book very strange. It's about a book club, and I think it was written to be a book club book. There just seem to be lots of things left unanswered that the reader can decide for themselves or discuss with others. I don't really like books like that . . . I want the author to tell me what happens. Maybe I'm boring, but I like answered questions and happy endings. So, if you're looking for a book about four very different teenage girls and their mothers and what happens in a small town in Delaware over one boring summer, then this is for you. Take it to your book club and discuss it, but it just wasn't for me.

My recipes this week, on the other hand, were definitely for me: Blackened Tilapia, Parsley Pesto, and a Great Zucchini Brownie Challenge (Fudgy Zucchini Brownies vs. Low-Fat Zucchini Brownies).

I wish I could give credit to whomever came up with this tilapia recipe, because it's delicious. However, I got it off of the tilapia package and I only saved the recipe part, I don't even know what brand it was. Here is the recipe:

I think MasterChef has improved my plating skills :)

1 lb. of tilapia fillets, thawed
1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cayenne
2 tsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. onion powder (I didn't have this, so I just upped the garlic powder)
1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. ground thyme
1 tsp. brown sugar

Combine the dry spices together to create a rub. Completely coat the tilapia fillets and allow to sit for 15 - 20 minutes before cooking. Heat oil in a large pan (I used a cast iron griddle) and add fillets. Cook fillets for 2 - 3 minutes on each side. Enjoy :)

So good :) I made a southwestern style salad to go with it. Yum :)

I had a big bunch of parsley from my CSA box that I didn't really know what to do with. Luckily, the CSA farm sends recipes with the boxes and this recipe was included. I don't really like parsley all that much, but I do love pesto, so this was a very good way to use it up. I have no idea who thought 1/5 of a cup was a good measurement though. Are you starting to see why I prefer to use weights in a lot of my cooking? Oh, and I don't think I've shared this page before, but it is very helpful once you transition to using a kitchen scale: How Much Does a Cup Weigh? It's a very handy chart with weights in ounces and grams for one cup of a wide variety of different ingredients. Give it a try.

And finally, another brownie challenge, but this time with zucchini brownies. I think you can probably guess, just by the names, that the fudgy zucchini brownies won by a landslide. The low-fat ones were still good, but the fudgy ones were GOOD. I used dark chocolate cocoa powder for both the brownie and the frosting of the fudgy brownies and it was very tasty. If you want the nice color contrast that she has on her blog though, I would use regular cocoa powder in the frosting. Mmm, so good :) Not to neglect the low-fat brownies though, they were still good brownies, and much healthier than your typical brownie. Give them a try if you are watching your weight and still want something sweet. But if you are just looking for a really yummy zucchini brownie, go for the fudgy version :)

That's all for this week folks :)

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 :)