More Book Reviews

I think I might do this on more of a continuous basis now that my summer of Pinterest recreations is over.  I have to have something to blog about right?  Why not offer my opinion on the books I read?  Maybe someone out there can use my two cents on taking a chance on a new book.  

Into the Still Blue (Library - hard copy)

As mentioned previously, I had high hopes for this book and it did not disappoint.  I was very happy with the ending and thought it rounded out the series very well.  I still recommend this and can now confidently say it doesn't have a crappy ending.  So hey, that's got to be worth something. :)

Wool (Omnibus Saga 1-5) by Hugh Howley (Amazon Prime - Lending Library)

This was recommended to me by another friend who is a Amazon Prime member and had picked it for her monthly lending.  This is another kind of dystopian futuristic kind of book.  I guess I am on a kick for those lately.  This book is about living life in a silo which is underground by about 134 floors.  They talk about taking days to journey from the "down deep" to the "up top" and I thought that was weird.  I mean it's only 134 floors, how can it take days?  So we did some research on how many floors were in really tall buildings.  So the Sears Tower is 104 floors, so that sort of put it into perspective.  In any case, it's a completely fascinating story.  Who knew how much drama could be in one silo?  They talk about being sent to cleaning and the IT department with their severs and the sheriff and mayor.  All kinds of good stories.  Apparently it was written as mini books (1-5), but later it was put together into an Omnibus series.  I would recommend reading them all together under that heading.  All together they are about the equivalent of one book.  He does have plans to write more Silo books which I will be on the lookout for.  :)

Strawberry Mimosas

I needed another reason to use my champagne flutes, so I decided to make a cocktail from my Cocktails! board now that I can actually have them again.

http://lauriearons.blogspot.com/2011/07/weekly-inspiration-seasonal-cocktails.html

It was totally tasty and pretty simple.  I think I would strain the strawberry puree since you get a lot of seeds, and in fact it might be easier to just add strawberry syrup instead.  Either way, I got a fruit serving and a bit of bubbly in for the morning. ;)

Salisbury Steak Meatballs

Talk about comfort food.  I saw this recipe while browsing Pinterest and I literally could feel my mouth watering.  I love meatballs in pretty much all forms (ooo, new post idea - Meatball Menagerie) so didn't take much to convince me to look through this recipe.  After reading it through, it sounded simple enough, so I figured this could be one of the last experiments before going back to work.

From my Real Food Board:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs/

I did make the raw meatballs up earlier in the day because I was worried I wouldn't have enough time around dinner time with all that was going on that day.  Honestly, they came together fairly quickly compared to some other meatballs I make. I cooked them and finished the rest of the meal at dinner time so everything was nice and hot. Warning - this meal really does make close to 12 servings.  There was enough to feed 3 adults and 1 toddler for 3 meals really big meals.

I did use their suggested method of cooking the meatballs in two batches. Yum Yum Yum!

Making the sauce to go with these was pretty simple.

Also, it was really "pretty" at the end. And yes, fresh parsley from the garden to top it off!

It was super tasty and filling and a hit with the whole crowd.  I also love that this meal provides leftovers.  However, in the future, if it was just my husband and I with our kids, I would probably half this recipe rather than having so many leftovers.  BUT!  If you have company coming over or a larger family (grown kids), this is an amazing dish.  Add a vegetable for a side and some rolls and BAM.  Everyone will think you slaved and in reality, this maybe took 40 minutes start to finish (the time on the recipe is right on).  Easy peasy and totally delicious!

Summer Reading

I took advantage of my laid back summer to try out some new books.  I consider myself a pretty avid reader.  I read every day and enjoy finding new authors.  A fairly new development in my love of reading has occurred in where I am starting to not waste time on "junk" books.  There are so many good books out there and with all my reading over the years, I guess I have developed a knack for determining when a book isn't going to go anywhere.  It's a pretty handy skill to hone when you want to make the most of your time with leisure reading.

I have a Kindle Fire which I was fairly reluctant to use for reading for a while.  I have owned it for about a year and a half now and I LOVE it.  It's fantastic.  I can borrow books from the library with it and as an Amazon Prime member, I get a free book a month from them under Amazon First, and another book a month to "borrow" under the Prime Lending library.  The Amazon First books have opened a lot of different authors and styles of writing.  Some have been pretty big duds, however there have been a few hits too.  Kind of the point if you ask me.  The Prime Lending Library also opens up new options for reading, but typically if you find an author you like, you can read all of their stuff.  Meaning you can get locked in a comfort zone.  I read all of Deborah Geary's books that way.  I really enjoyed them and it was completely new to me, but I spent a year (one book a month) reading them and not anything else.

So what have I been reading this summer?  A lot of dystopian trilogies apparently.  I guess I am just attracted to that genre right now.  So here's a shake down of what I have read or attempted to read:

The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner (digital library):
I had heard nothing but good things about this series, so I thought, what the heck, maybe this will be another Hunger Games kind of set of books.  For me, this was so wrong.  The first book, The Maze Runner, annoyed me.  The way it was written it was like you and the main character are not supposed to know anything that's going on despite the apparent need to be clued in.  I understand there's usually a reason for writing this way, but this book didn't have it right.  You don't really learn much until the end of the book and at that point I was like, well, maybe The Scorch Trials will be more revealing and I was right!  That was a really enjoyable book.  Then I read the final one thinking, it's got to be as good as the second now that they are rolling.  The Death Cure was meh.  I didn't like the ending and felt the author had tried to make it go one way and kind of gave up/realized there was no logical way to make it happen to they abandoned ship and kind of abruptly changed course and ended the book.  Overall, only the second book I would honestly recommend anyone read, but it's kind of pointless if you don't read the other two kind of crappy books too.  Not exactly what I would call worth it.

The Atlantis Series by A. G. Riddle (Prime Lending Library):
The description of this book caught my attention and I thought, hey, why not?  This followed the same kind of writing style of The Maze Runner for the first book.  However in this book you could tell there was going to be a big story plot working behind this "mysterious" plague that's spreading. I would call this book a bit more sci-fi dystopian because there is talk of spaceships, aliens, and the method by which they administer a "cure" I find kind of ridiculous.  I finished reading the first book and there was not a lot of resolution so I did read the second book and like The Scorch Trials, I found a lot more answers in that book, but I found myself speed reading to just get the part that explained anything that was going on.  If I am doing that, I really don't care about what's actually happening.  I just want to have it wrapped up so I can read something else.  I haven't read the third book and I don't plan to.

Moving Day: A Thriller by Jonathan Stone (Amazon First):
I read the first chapter of this book and I stopped.  The set up to this is that an elderly couple is moving to their retirement home and taking a life time worth of possessions with them.  They are scammed by fake movers that show up a day early and pack their house and take everything.  They realize this when the real movers show up the next day.  This was clearly described in the synopsis for the book, but the writing style describing these possessions and some desperate longing for all the memories wrapped up in them had me mentally checked out.  If it's a thriller as it's so titled, don't waste words on making it more dramatic than is really necessary.  I didn't want to waste any more time on it, so I stopped reading after two nights.  I own it, but doubt I will go back to it.

Inamorata by Megan Chance (Amazon First):
This book confused me.  It's about twins who flee to Venice and a poet that's looking for revenge on someone called Oldie.  I have read about 25% of this book and not sure I really care if I finish the rest of it or not.  It's not bad, but there's nothing making me want to know what happens.  I was confused by the characters for the first 4 chapters at least.  This could very well be due to my lack of attention to detail when I read.  The chapter titles are the character names, but it took a while for me realize Sophie (one of the twins) and Oldie are two different people.  Clearly Oldie has some issues to work through, that much I know.  But unless I get really bored, I am probably not going to come back to this book.

Legend by Marie Lu (hard copy library - first in series):
This book was recommended to me by a middle school English teacher friend of mine.  I loved this book.  I read it in two days which is saying something considering I have an infant and a toddler at home.  It's again a kind of dystopian future, but the writing is wonderful.  You are submersed in the character's life styles almost immediately.  There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, but the book is fast paced enough not to dawdle on mute points.  It cuts to the heart of the chase and there are enough revelations to keep you saying, "And then what happens?"  I love Day and June and their relationship and the course it takes throughout the book.  I am excited to read the rest in the series although I have been warned the other books don't carry the momentum the first does.

Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi (hard copy library - third in series):
I was able to read the first two of the series on my Kindle as e-books through the library, but I guess the third is too new to have the e-book available?  In any case I was able to reserve it and get a hard copy from the library.  It must have been about 6 months since I finished the last book, but there are hints to what happened to help people remember, but not so blatant you are rehashing all the details.  It's more like, oh yeah that's right, he can do that.  I haven't' finished this yet, but I am really curious what happens and if they make it to their garden of Eden, the "Still Blue".  I would recommend this trilogy for anyone interested in the dystopian genre.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (hard copy - own):
I love this book.  In my first ever blog post, I talk about how this book kind of inspired the name of my blog. I try to read this book once a year just because it's hands down my favorite fairy tale.  It's fairly quick and whimsical, and well written.  I have not and never plan to watch the movie they made based on the book.  I have the characters and scenes in my head and I like them just the way they are.  So, this one wins just for being my favorite.

That's been most of what I have read over the last two months.  I have another Prime Lending Library book in my queue for August called Wool Omnibus (1-5) by Hugh Howey and I have read about 3 chapters into that and I think it's going to be a really good book too.  Maybe I'll have to do actual reviews when I finish these for people who may want something new to read.  I usually find myself in an author rut where I'll find an author I like and then read their entire collection of whatever they have written and thrive on it until it's done.  Then I just feel sad they didn't write more and drag my feet while looking for the next author.  I guess I'll just add that to my to-do list. ;)

S'mores Dip!

I don't know who decided that chocolate and marshmallows should be melted together and sandwiched between graham crackers, but I would love to shake their hand.  It's truly a beautiful combination.  Usually the opportunity to enjoy this is limited to over a camp fire, which in my opinion is the best way to have them.  However, we have no camp fires in our future or nearby.  So what's the next best thing?  S'mores Dip!

From Food Love:
http://www.southernplate.com/2014/06/oven-baked-smores-how-to-get-an-autographed-copy-of-southern-casseroles.html

I made this for our last mother's day play date with the babies and I didn't think to grab a photo of this, but I can tell you it was well loved by the mommies and children alike.  The best part?  It's so stupid simple!  I basically just took a bag of chocolate chips and tossed them in the bottom of a 2 QT casserole dish and covered with marshmallows (was about half a bag, but I could have, and probably will in the future, added more).  I plopped it in the oven for 5 minutes at 450* and it was just toasty enough on the top.  We went through 2 sleeves of graham crackers, but that will vary depending on your desired ratio of delicious per cracker.

Great for a last minute dessert and great for groups of people to enjoy.  Although I wouldn't judge if you made this for just your family.  :)  It's scalable too, so if you need to just cover the bottom of a smaller pan and top with marshmallows.  Winning tasty treats!!

Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Sometime last year I found a recipe for making Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing through the canning process.  I thought it sounded amazing, but I was past the strawberry season.  This year I planned on picking enough to make sure I could make this.  So at 8 month pregnant I went to the strawberry field around here and picked enough to make the smaller batch which is called out on the site I went to.

From my Canning Board:
http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2011/05/canning-strawberry-vinaigrette-salad.html

It was fairly straight forward with soaking the strawberries overnight and then boiling the juices with sugar.  Kind of similar to making jam if you have ever done that.  I altered the recipe so instead of all white vinegar, I used half white distilled vinegar and half balsamic vinegar.  On my first batch, I think I got 4 small jars of dressing.  Once sampled I knew what I wanted to make more of!

My parents came to visit over the 4th of July and brought a boatload of strawberries from the family farm in NY.  I froze a lot of them for smoothies which I am quite fond of and the rest were prepped for shortcake, dressing, and eating.

So I stood at the sink cleaning and hulling strawberries into the night time hours (in my very best clothes to boot!).  I of course sampled as I went.  Can't beat fresh berries from the patch!  

The process was a bit more labor intensive with the full recipe in use:

http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/strawberry-vinaigrette-dressing

Just more berries to squeeze juices from was really the major impact.  The rest was pretty simple.  I still love this as a dressing and I am so glad I made more than the 4 jars from the first batch.  Scrumptious!  

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

People are always telling me I need to add chocolate chips to my grandmother's banana bread and I consider that an act against nature.  I love her banana bread recipe just the way it is.  Besides, I can make chocolate chip anything else I like, so why mess with a classic?  While strolling around on Pinterest recently I found a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and I thought, ok, those I could make.

From Food Love:
http://www.runningwithspoons.com/2014/06/24/banana-oat-greek-yogurt-muffins/
Also, I am going to stop here and mention how much I like her blog title. :)

These were incredibly easy to put together.  Most because I only had to measure the oats (I used half old fashion to finish the container I had and half quick cooking) and brown sugar.  I eyeballed a 7oz container of Faye Yogurt against my 1 cup measuring cup and decided that was really close.  If a recipe calls for 2 bananas, it's kind of gray anyway.  Bananas can be all sizes, so I figured the small amount that my yogurt might be off, I wasn't worried.  Also, muffins are a one pan deal so nothing like cookies which usually take a few rounds in the oven.

I only baked mine for 15 minutes and they were plenty done.  Mine don't look like theirs they showcased for the recipe, but they tasted pretty darn good.

I even let it cool slightly before diving in.  These are made with generally healthy-ish ingredients (minus the chocolate of course), so if you needed a sweet fix, these would be more acceptable for the waistline than say scones (ie - breakfast cookies).

Teriyaki Salmon

We really enjoy salmon and I have found a few recipes that we just really love.  This is one of them.  This comes from my Real Food board:

http://damndelicious.net/2012/05/30/teriyaki-salmon-with-sriracha-cream-sauce/

I also started to realize in the last week or so, that I have a lot of pins from the Damn Delicious website and all the ones I have tried, I really enjoy.  They are simple and tasty!  My favorite combinations!  They also have published a handful of One Pot recipes which I consider to be the ultimate trifecta; simple, tasty, and one pot mess!  I have edited the side of my blog to include a link to the Damn Delicious blog so people can hop over and check them out.

The recipe for this salmon is pretty straight forward.  I think it makes almost too much marinade for two servings, so I could easily see doing up to 4 with the same marinade.  The only thing I don't like it waiting for the marinade to cool back down.  I usually have forgotten to make this until mid-afternoon and thus, my allotted marinade time is winding down.  To aid in cooling the sauce more quickly, I have frozen cold packs I just drop into the sauce and then wash them later.  I have made this recipe twice and both times I have gotten only about 30 minutes of marinating in.  Still tastes awesome though.  Hopefully, next time I can make the marinade the night before and not worry about it as much.

We made some oven roasted asparagus to go with this and used brown rice instead of white (trying to be healthy).  I didn't make the Sriracha cream sauce the same way because I can't for the life of me figure out what to do with the rest of a canned of sweetened condensed milk.  The good news?  The mayo and Sriracha make it delicious anyway.  It's that sweet with something spicy combination that's just amazing.

If you are looking for a new way to do salmon, I would definitely recommend giving this a shot.  It's now in our current recipe rotation.  Some of the comments on their blog have inquired about possibly doing this with chicken which seems to be a viable alternate if you aren't a big fan of seafood, although you may want to marinate it longer.

Homemade Bruschetta

With the bounty of our garden being pretty decent this year and having gotten a cheese making kit from my brother in law as a Christmas gift, I thought it would be fun to make completely homemade bruschetta.  

I have never made cheese before, but I thought, how hard could it be?  There were instructions, the kit ingredients I needed, got some milk, and I thought I was good to go.  Well, it turns out there's something to picking the right milk, which I am not very good at.  Yet.  I did pretty good until I added the rennet tablet and then it kind of went south.

 My cheese never really "set up" to a curd state, so I kind of got this ricotta looking stuff instead.

On the upside, it still tastes pretty decent, so I decided we still had a green light for bruschetta.

I picked some basil from our deck.  The scent of fresh basil is unmistakable! 

Then I harvested some really red tomatoes.

During the day I made some homemade baguettes thanks to our nifty bread maker.  It has the option to do those which has been handy more than once.  Finally, I put it all together. (You can see my "helper" in the background)

For me personally, I thought this was pretty tasty.  This is saying something since I don't really like tomatoes.  I have gotten a lot braver over the years to try them in different ways, but I think bruschetta is about as close as I will come to having that much tomato with little else around it.  My husband thought it was extremely good and he is much more a connoisseur of these things than I am.

I think it's pretty awesome that all of this was either grown or made by our own hands.  I'll be looking for more ways to take advantage of our garden in the coming years, but this was definitely fun!