Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, January 20, 2014

Mailbox Monday has returned home to Mailbox Monday’s site this year.

One of these days I will learn to stay out of the bookstore!

Cemetery Girl The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Starter House

And one e-book for review:

The AccidentAs dawn approaches in New York, literary agent Isabel Reed is turning the final pages of a mysterious, anonymous manuscript, racing through explosive revelations about powerful people. In Copenhagen, veteran CIA operative Hayden Gray, determined that this sweeping story be buried, is suddenly staring down the barrel of an unexpected gun. And in Zurich, the author himself is hiding in a shadowy expat life, trying to atone for a lifetime’s worth of lies and betrayals while always looking over his shoulder.

Over the course of one long, desperate day, these lives will collide as the book begins its dangerous march toward publication, toward saving or ruining careers and companies, placing everything at risk—and everyone in mortal peril . .

Recipes

RECIPE: Pizza Chicken Roll-Ups

Pizza Chicken Roll-Ups (4 servings)

  • 4 chicken  breasts
  • 12 pepperoni slices
  • 8 slices mozzarella cheese
  • 1 can (15 oz) pizza sauce

Directions

  1. Flatten chicken to 1/4″ thickness. Place three slices of pepperoni and one slice of cheese on each. Roll up tightly; secure with toothpicks. Place in a greased 11×7″ baking dish. Spoon pizza sauce over top.
  2. Cover and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Uncover; top with the remaining cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. 

Recipe Source: Taste of Home

Pizza Chicken Roll Ups

Personal Review: Right before the arctic weather hit our little neck of the woods, I went onto Taste of Home’s website and printed out 4 new recipes to try (nothing like a little homemade food on cold wintry nights!) The first recipe I tried was a total bust and won’t be featured here. The second one was this one. 

It gave me the opportunity to put my handy dandy new meat tenderizer as well! I’ve made other roll-up recipes before and never had a tenderizer. So I was excited that I would be able to flatten the chicken breasts correctly! That said, I will admit that I failed to make them thin enough to roll them very easily. But you live and learn and now I know how to flatten those suckers properly, ha! 

Anyway, this recipe is incredibly easy (read: idiot-proof). It’s fast and simple. It tastes great. I will say that I used more than 3 pepperoni slices, opting to put 5 on each roll-up. I think in the future I will add even more pepperoni because I just love pepperoni. I also didn’t plan very well in advance and had absolutely nothing to serve with it. Next time I will try to have some garlic bread, noodles of some sort and a salad. 

Not much else to say about this recipe. It’s good and I highly recommend it. 

wkendcooking

Meme, Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting On Wednesday: Ripper by Isabel Allende

New WoW

Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine, is where we showcase upcoming books that we can’t wait to get our hands on!

Today I’m spotlighting a book that I have seen mentioned here and there on blogs, but one that I am really interested in trying (eventually … my TBR wish-list is miles long!) It releases on January 28th.

Ripper
The Jackson women, Indiana and Amanda, have always had each other. Though their bond is strong, mother and daughter are as different as night and day. Indiana, a beautiful holistic healer, is a free-spirited bohemian. Long divorced from Amanda’s father, she’s reluctant to settle down with either of the men who want her—Alan, the wealthy scion of one of San Francisco’s elite families, and Ryan, an enigmatic, scarred former Navy SEAL.

While her mom looks for the good in people, Amanda is fascinated by the dark side of human nature—as is her father, the SF PD’s deputy chief of homicide. Brilliant and introverted, the MIT-bound high school senior Amanda is a natural-born sleuth addicted to crime novels and to Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.

When a string of strange murders occurs across the city, Amanda plunges into her own investigation, probing hints and deductions that elude the police department. But the case becomes all too personal when Indiana suddenly vanishes. Could her mother’s disappearance have something to do with the series of deaths? Now, with her mother’s life on the line, Amanda must solve the most complex mystery she’s ever faced before it’s too late.

First chapter, Meme

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros #12

20120807-073336.jpg

Diane over at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts this meme.

Little Girl Lost

Today I’m featuring a book that I’m reading for review. 

There was definitely something moving between the trees. He’d been aware of it for a few moments now, a flitting movement he’d catch in the corner of his eye, weaving through the black tree trunks set vertical against the snow. At first he had dismissed it as the result of snow hypnosis from staring too long through the windscreen into the unrelenting down-draught of snowflakes.

I was sent the link to this book in Edelweiss from a publicist. It immediately caught my eye and I read most of it during Bout of Books. It’s really a good book. It releases in the US on February 18, so look for my review on or around that date!

Bout of Books

Bout of Books Wrap-Up

Well… Bout of Books is over! Whew. Let’s just briefly recap what my original goals were:

  • Read at least 100 pages each day.
    • Load my recently acquired e-galleys onto my Nook and start at least one of them.
    • Make some more progress on my current read, a 750+ page chunkster! (I’m on page 335)
  • Participate in at least 1 challenge.
  • Visit at least 5 new blogs each day. And comment :)

So … how did I do?

Ummm…

  • I didn’t make it to 100 pages each day … although I did on two days!
  • I did load, start and finish one of the above mentioned e-galleys.
  • I read 223 pages in the chunkster that I’m *still* reading.
  • I participated in Doing Dewey‘s challenge, introducing people to my favorite genre.
  • And I visited lots of new-to-me blogs, but only left comments on 8 of them.

Here’s my final totals:

  • Time spent reading: 7 hours 36 minutes
  • Pages read: 467
  • Books finished: 1

I’m very pleased with how things with for me this time around. I had participated in Bout of Books once before a while back, but stumbled along the way and never even came close to finishing. However, this time around I was very pleased with my progress. I could have done a lot better had I not had two work days from hell … you know those days that you just want to come home, crawl into bed and go to sleep. And that’s exactly what I did! But really, I have a 19 month old son who keeps me on my toes constantly. I worked two days. And I didn’t officially sign up until Tuesday. … I consider this week a success! 🙂

Not sure I will participate in the May Bout of Books simply because that week is our 7 year wedding anniversary, two weeks before Garrett’s 2nd birthday and one week before my  best friend’s bachelorette party. I will have a lot on my plate that week, so we shall see, but I’m seriously considering it.

Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, January 13, 2014

Mailbox Monday has returned home to Mailbox Monday’s site this year.

A good week this week as far as new books. Two physical ones came in through Paperbackswap and 3 e-books for review (I’m really excited about these!)

The physical books:

Club Dead We Need to Talk About Kevin

And the e-books:

Critical Damage

Liz Goldman, wife of San Francisco mayor Richard Goldman, wants former cop and recovering junky Mark Mallen to find her missing eighteen-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, Mallen’s blood brother Gato is searching for his sister, Lupe, a call girl. When Gato and Mallen’s search leads them to a pimp in hiding, Teddy Mac, they realize they have stumbled onto something big.

Digging into the seedy hiding places of San Francisco’s lowliest criminals, Mallen and Gato begin to suspect the worst as friends of the missing girls start showing up dead. Leaning hard on Teddy Mac’s family, Mallen and Gato stumble upon a videotape that shows some very bad things—things that could take down a powerful man and most of San Francisco with him.

Precious Thing

I know her inside out.  I know what she’s thinking, I know what she wants. So I can’t give up on her, she knows I never will.

Some friendships fizzle out. Rachel and Clara promised theirs would last forever.

They met in high school when Rachel was the shy, awkward new girl and Clara was the friend everyone wanted. Instantly, they fell under one another’s spell and nothing would be the same again. Now in their late twenties Rachel has the television career, the apartment and the boyfriend, while Clara’s life is spiraling further out of control. Yet despite everything, they remain inextricably bound. Then Rachel’s news editor assigns her to cover a police press conference, and she is shocked when she arrives to learn that the subject is Clara, reported missing. Is it abduction, suicide or something else altogether?

Imagine discovering something about your oldest friend that forces you to question everything you’ve shared together. The truth is always there.  But only if you choose to see it…

Little Girl LostDuring a winter blizzard a small girl is found wandering half-naked at the edge of an ancient woodland. Her hands are covered in blood, but it is not her own. Unwilling or unable to speak, the only person she seems to trust is the young officer who rescued her, DS Lucy Black.

DS Black is baffled to find herself suddenly transferred from a high-profile case involving the kidnapping of a prominent businessman’s teenage daughter, to the newly formed Public Protection Unit. Meanwhile, she has her own problems—caring for her Alzheimer’s-stricken father; and avoiding conflict with her surly Assistant Chief Constable – who also happens to be her mother. As she struggles to identify the unclaimed child, Lucy begins to realize that this case and the kidnapping may be linked by events that occurred during the blackest days of the country’s recent history, events that also defined her own childhood.

Recipes

RECIPE: Mexican Lasagna

Mexican Lasagna (6-8 servings)

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with garlic, drained
  • 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
  • 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (optional)
  • 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
  • 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
  • 1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Cut chicken into 1/2″ pieces.
  2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken, chili powder and cumin. Cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and hot pepper sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 2 minutes.
  3. Combine ricotta cheese, chiles and 2 tablespoons cilantro in small bowl; mix until well blended.
  4. Spoon half of chicken mixture in bottom of 12×8″ baking dish. Top with 6 tortillas, ricotta cheese mixture, remaining tortillas, remaining chicken mixture, cheddar cheese and remaining cilantro. Bake 25 minutes or until heated through.

Recipe Source: 100 Best Chicken Recipes Cookbook (ISBN: 0-7853-8052-3)

Mexican Lasagna

Personal Review: This cookbook has been sitting on my shelf forever (I’m terrible about buying cookbooks at bargain prices and then never even cracking them open.) Anyway, Garrett got into all my cookbooks one day and while Nathan was helping me put them back in their bookcase this cookbook caught his attention. He started flipping through it and found this particular recipe and told me he wanted me to make it.

So I did.

And I’m torn about it. First of all, I liked it overall. But I have an issue with cilantro … I’m not a huge fan of it. I think it’s way too strong at times and like I said, I just am not a fan. Nathan, on the other hand, is obsessed with cilantro. I swear he would put it on everything in sight if he could. Now that being said, I made this before I got my new handy-dandy herb mill for Christmas and so I was just chopping the cilantro up and it was in big huge pieces (you can see them in the pictures). I think if I made this recipe again with the aid of my new kitchen tool the cilantro wouldn’t be as strong and I would like it a lot better.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this recipe. It really had a good taste. I didn’t use the hot pepper sauce, but I think I would add it next time I make this one (although I think I would add it to the ricotta cheese mixture, I felt as if it needed just a smidgen more taste other than just ricotta cheese).

If you make this recipe, I’d be curious as to your opinions. And if you have any suggestions on how to make this recipe even better, I’m dying to hear them as well. Because the recipe itself is a good start, but I think it needs some tweaking, but I don’t know where to begin with that.

wkendcooking

Bout of Books

Bout of Books … I’m Joining In…

Bout of Books

…late, of course. But that’s okay, right? I mean the sign up link is still open 🙂

Anyways, I decided to join in because everyone (and I do mean everyone) is in on the party and I felt left out, lol.

I’ve done one Bout of Books before a while ago and didn’t even make it the whole week. But I’m going to do better this time. … Right? Sure! Ha!

Anyway what is Bout of Books?

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

And what are my goals? Well I’m going to keep them pretty low key.

  • Read at least 100 pages each day.
    • Load my recently acquired e-galleys onto my Nook and start at least one of them.
    • Make some more progress on my current read, a 750+ page chunkster! (I’m on page 335)
  • Participate in at least 1 challenge.
  • Visit at least 5 new blogs each day. And comment 🙂

Here’s where I’ll be keeping my progress:

Monday Jan. 6 

  • Time read: Approximately 45 minutes
  • Pages read: 38
  • Challenges: 0
  • New blogs visited: 0

Tuesday Jan. 7

Wednesday Jan. 8

  • Time read: 2 hours 36 minutes
  • Pages read: 153
  • Challenges:
    • Doing Dewey asked us to introduce someone to our favorite genre. Here is how I answered:
    • My favorite genre is mystery/thriller/suspense. So where would I suggest you start?

      Along Came a Spider by James Patterson (first in the Alex Cross series)
      The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon
      The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
      The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen (first in the Rizzoli/Isles series)

      I know that I’ve probably raised some eyebrows by including James Patterson on this list, but in all honesty his early Alex Cross series books are by far the best (my personal fave in the series is “Violets are Blue”) The more recent installments are just “eh” for me, but those first 10 or so – awesome! Also the Rizzoli and Isles book series is nothing like the TV show, so be forewarned before going into the books. Jennifer McMahon is a new find for me, but I’ve enjoyed her so far. And “The Lincoln Lawyer” was really a great book; if you’ve seen the movie, it stayed relatively true to the book.

      I’m sure I could come up with some better selections, but those were just the first few that popped into my head.

  • New blogs visited: Doing Dewey / Unbound Books / Reading Until Proven Innocent /

Thursday Jan. 9

  • Time read: 37 minutes
  • Pages read: 38 pages
  • Challenges: 0
  • New blogs visited: 0

Friday Jan. 10 

  • Time read: 1 hour 41 minutes
  • Pages read: 81 pages
  • Challenges: 0
  • New blogs visited: 0

Saturday Jan. 11

  • Time read: 55 minutes
  • Pages read: 53 pages
  • Challenges: 0
  • New blogs visited: 0

Sunday Jan. 12

  • Time read:
  • Pages read:
  • Challenges:
  • New blogs visited:
First chapter, Meme

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros #11

20120807-073336.jpg

Diane over at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts this meme.

The Hostage

Today I’m featuring a book from my shelf that I’m currently reading for the TBR Challenge. 

As an American, Jean-Paul Lorimer was always annoyed or embarrassed, or both, every time he arrived at Vienna’s international airport. The first thing one saw when entering the terminal was a Starbucks kiosk.

The arrogance of Americans to sell coffee in Vienna! With such a lurid red neon sign!

This is a humongous chunkster (750 pages) that I wanted to get off of my shelf and get it out of the way first, ha! I will admit that the above excerpt does not do justice for getting a feel of the book. Because of that I will also leave you with the blurb from the back of the book:

An American diplomat’s wife is kidnapped in Argentina, and her husband murdered before her eyes. She is told her children will be next if she doesn’t tell the kidnappers where her brother is – a man who may know quite a bit about the burgeoning United Nations/Iraq oil-for-food scandal. There is an awful lot of money flying around, and an awful lot of hands are reaching up to grab it, and some of those hands don’t mind shedding as much blood as it takes – even if that blood comes from Charley Castillo…

I will say that I’m 300 pages into this book and enjoying it, but I don’t think it’s going to be a book that I can recommend to everyone. Can’t wait to see what everyone else is reading this week 🙂

Mailbox Monday, Meme

Mailbox Monday, January 6, 2014

Mailbox Monday has returned home to Mailbox Monday’s site this year.

My Christmas money was burning a hole in my pocket so what else would I do but go to the bookstore 🙂 They were even having a buy 2 get 1 free special! And the JFK book was 60% off the hardcover copy! I love sales 🙂 So here’s what I came home with:

Dark PlacesShadow of NightBlackberry WinterA Cruel and Shocking Act

And I requested this one off of Edelweiss. I’m so looking forward to it, but it’s probably a good thing it doesn’t release until April since it’s 800 pages and will probably take me that long to get it all read! Ha!

Natchez Burning

Growing up in the rural Southern hamlet of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned everything he knows about honor and duty from his father, Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor and pillar of the community is accused of murdering Viola Turner, the beautiful nurse with whom he worked in the dark days of the early 1960s. A fighter who has always stood for justice, Penn is determined to save his father, even though Tom, stubbornly evoking doctor-patient privilege, refuses to speak up in his own defense.

The quest for answers sends Penn deep into the past-into the heart of a conspiracy of greed and murder involving the Double Eagles, a vicious KKK crew headed by one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the state. With the aid of a local friend and reporter privy to some of Natchez’s deadliest secrets, Penn follows a bloody trail that stretches back forty years, to a shocking truth that will forever alter his perception of both his father and himself.

With everything on the line, including his own life, Penn must decide how far he will go to protect those he loves . . . and judge whether justice is worth the cost.