Adult Summer Reading Club

If you're a fan of reading, you might want to check out the Adult Summer Reading Club at the TNRD Library.

It runs until the end of the summer with some great prizes.

While there is no way I could come close to completing the list by the end of the summer, I will be taking it on as a longer term project.  I had fun reading the categories and thinking of books I've got to read that would fit in.

You can see all the rules here.

Big THANKS to the always entertaining and informative A.L. Smithey for posting about this cool event.

The categories are:

• A graphic novel 
• By a female author 
• Romance 
• An Autobiography or Memoir 
• Published in the decade you were born 
• Out of your comfort zone 
• An award winner 
• Adapted into a movie (Watch the movie too) 
• Recommended by a friend 
• An overdrive E-book or E-audiobook 
• Has more than 500 pages 
• By a BC author 
• A book “everyone” has read 
• By a person of colour 
• A magazine on Zinio 
• Published this year (2016) 
• Science Fiction or Fantasy 
• Juvenile or Young Adult

Make sure you check out the booklet that you need to fill out (and color!) -it's super cool.

Heavenly Roasted Cauliflower

This is a new favorite around our house.  I've been in a veggie rut the last little while, choosing "easy" veggies for the baby (peas, corn) and raw carrots, brox, pea pods and the like for the rest of us.  I had a jumbo head of cauliflower that needed to be used up but I wasn't in the mood for steamed or raw, so we roasted instead.

This recipe is brilliant and can be made ahead - roast almost until done in advance, then when you are ready to eat - toss back in for 10 minutes or so.  And don't leave out the onions and garlic!  

Parmesan roasted cauliflower

Slow Cooker Beef Roast

We had a cheapie beef roast in the freezer that I wanted to use up, 

but I wanted, nay, needed the recipe to be quick and easy.  

First I pulled out the crock pot, then I headed to Pinterest to see what I could see.

I found this slow cooker french dip sandwich and ooooh boy, was it tasty.

We didn't follow the recipe exactly, we don't have any creole seasoning, 

and The Mister added a big glug of red wine from the previous Sunday dinner, 

we added some carrots and other spices, but this is a good recipe to 

follow to the letter or play around with.  

The meat was tender and flavorful and the sauce was delicious.  

I did omit the mayo on the bun because that just doesn't seem right on a beef dip sandwich.

Is that just me?

Farmers Market Visit

We made our first visit of the year to the market last weekend,  

Picked up some cherries, carrots and green onions.

Bought the Boy a stale overpriced cookie from the bakery stand we usually frequent.  

Probably not any more.  

The Girl charmed a vendor out of a free cookie herself - hers was much more fresh and delicious. 

 I was on the lookout for strawberries, but there were none to be found.  

Did I wait too long?

Everyone had spinach and garlic scapes, it seemed.  

Not many choices for ready to eat food - the Bellringer Bus was there - with a For Sale sign on it.  Kamloops needs a good kick in the pants some days it seems.  

Why can't we support local eats, food trucks, culture?  Nope, not for us. 

 We'll take smoking in our parks, running food trucks out of business, 

and banning sales of local wines in the stores.  

What a town.

Watermelon, Feta and Mint

It was hot as heck around here for a few days back, and since we don't have air conditioning in our house, I was almost glad to go to work in the mornings - ALMOST.  

I made this salad as part of our dinner on one of those crazy hot nights when we were trying not to cook much, or even move around much. 
It's a simpler version of  this - just feta, watermelon and mint.  Yum.
The Boy was not a fan - he doesn't like feta - but he and The Girl devoured most of the watermelon while The Mister and I ate what scraps were left behind.  

This could possibly be our salad of the summer?

Book Club - Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

" "I wanted it to be right between us, but I think somewhere deep down I always knew it couldn't work, if that makes any sense?'  'I know just what you mean' she says, knitting her brow in sympathy.  'Like when Julia Roberts married Lyle Lovett.'  "

"I can almost see the letters that formed the words suspended in the air between us.  Part of me wants to bat them away and watch them fall to the ground by making a joke, or saying something deflective, but I also want to leave them floating there, to savor the complement for just a second more."

"Positive thoughts.  Positive thoughts.  It's not always easy to think positive thoughts."

Sunday Dinner - Quesadillas and Lazy Daisy Cake

Often on Sundays The Grandfolk will come over for dinner. 

We like it and are always happy to see them, but it's just another meal to plan and cook. 

Will there be enough veggies? Can't make anything too spicy. 

What is The Boy refusing to eat this week? 

I'm a bit sad to start this new series off on a low note - this dinner - 

the main course at least, was not well received. 

 I made quesadillas, and for the filling I made a batch of taco meat from The Maui Taco Cookbook. We ate there on our trip 9 (!!!!) years ago and it's still a big happy memory for me.  

The beef is cooked for an hour with pineapple juice, spices and water and is so delicious, although the recipe calls for too much salt in my opinion.  

We used the beef, some cheese, and salsa, veggies....I thought they were pretty tasty, but no one seemed to like them much except me and The Mister, who had to eat the leftovers every day for about 4 days.  Oh well.  I guess they can't all be winners.

The big hit was the dessert - I made a Lazy Daisy cake, since The Mister was complaining that I made one for the bake sale and not for him.  IT WAS SO GOOD.

I'm on the lookout for this week's Sunday Dinner recipe - stay tuned!

Snapshot - new chocolate shop in The Kam

Bad photo, but I'm not a good public place photo person.

New little - and |I mean little, maybe room for 2 or 3 people at a time 

- chocolate shop opened on 3rd. 

A.L. of Kamloops Bumbling has some details - check it out.

Instagram - 80 books reviewed.

80 books down, with 61 staying on our shelves. 

6 additional books left without being tested - a French Bistro cookbook from a garage sale, a Tuscan cookbook from a charity sale, a Betty Crocker book, a (gasp) Jamie Oliver AND an Ina Garten, plus an old Emeril Legasse, possibly from before his BAM days. 

Coming soon - bbq, bread, and Indian food.  Yum!

Bake sales

Now that I have a kid in school we have entered the lovely world of fundraising, donating and volunteering. We do what we can when we can but it never seems enough. 

Ah, mom guilt.

The school has an annual festival in the Spring, and I'm on the list to bake for 

that section of the fundraising. 

Things like this normally put me in a tizzy because I worry that what I bake won't taste good, so I have a few favorites I like to make each time. 

The Pioneer Woman's brown sugar oatmeal cookies are the bomb.  So easy and so good.  It make a huge batch, so I had enough for a plate for the school, one for us, and one for work.  

This time around I added 3/4 cup of coconut, and they were extra delicious.

brown sugar oatmeal cookies

A few years back at a work potluck I tried a Lazy Daisy cake.  Another delicious and easy recipe.  The cake is very flavorful and that buttery coconut topping is heavenly.

Hey, I just realized I made 2 coconut things this year!  We do love our coconut.  

lazy daisy cake

Book Club - The Martian by Andy Weir

"And now I'm out of the daylight again.  I can't wait to get out of this damn shadow."

"I started the day with some nothin' tea.  Nothin' tea is easy to make.  First get some hot water, then add nothin'. "

"But really they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out.  It might not seem that way sometimes, but it's true."

Snapshot - a perfect sprinkle donut

Snapshot - My Dad went to Penticton, and all The Mister got was some beer from Bad Tattoo

Pizza Ring

I found this recipe for Easy Sausage Pesto Ring in a magazine called Fall Baking.  

I switched it up with pasta sauce and pepperoni for The Boy.  He loved it.  

Here's what I did.

1 TB butter

2 pk pillsbury biscuits

pepperoni

cheese

pasta sauce or pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 350'.  Grease a bundt pan with the butter.

Open the biscuits and lay them out on a cutting board.  Gently flatten them slightly.  

Cut the pepperoni into roughly the same size as the biscuits.  

Top each biscuit with a spoon of sauce, some pepperoni, and some grated cheese.  

Stack the biscuits in groups of 3 or 4.  Turn each stack on its side and place 

in the pan, forming a ring.   

Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, sprinkle with some additional 

cheese, and bake 5 more minutes.  

Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before eating.

Book Club - Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

"It takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for.  It takes years to find your voice and seize your real estate."

"Stop whining about getting old.  It's a privilege."

"Make "No" a complete sentence."

"I am a moon junkie.  Every time I look at the moon, I feel less alone and less afraid."  

"I love my boys so much I fear my heart will explode.  I wonder if this love will crack open my chest and split me in half.  It is scary, this love."

Fail, fail, fail

It wasn't the best week in my kitchen. 2 recipes that I had such confidence in both completely tanked.

 I've had icebox cakes on my mind for a while.

 I made a basic one years and years ago - chocolate wafers layered with whipped cream, and oh, how delicious. 

While doing a purge of the remaining recipes from my cooking notebooks, I found an article from and old Food Network magazine on fancier ice box cakes. Most of them didn't interest me or used cookies or biscuits that I couldn't find here but one sounded super easy and good - ritz crackers with a grape jelly cream. Mmmmm!

 I made it for my Mom's birthday and it was a total embarrassment. 

First - and I do blame the recipe a smidgen for the directions on plating - it looked hideous.  Like a blindfolded kid made it.  But worst was second and third - the cream was gritty, not soft and pillowy like the magazine photos, and third - it just didn't taste good.  I was very embarrassed about serving it to my family, especially for a birthday dessert.  Everyone said it was ok, but not much got eaten.  

 

Then I decided to make some flourless peanut butter cookies from a well known food blog. 

I read through some of the comments, which were people saying how good they looked or asking for substitution information, but no one who had made them.  But whatevs, well known food blog.  I'm sure it will be fine.  

Nope.  I wasted the last of the peanut butter on this mess.  

Flat, greasy, oily, YUCK.  At least no one but myself was witness to this disaster.  

Ugh.

Pumpkin-Raisin Doodles

When I was on maternity leave last year I tried my best to do a big purge of the house - go into every room, all the nooks and crannies, and CLEAN. 

I have always hated clutter, but something in my brain has tweaked and gone
into overdrive, and now clutter drives me bonkers. 

It's super fun for all. 

One thing I really surprised myself at doing was taking a hard look at my notebook collection

and ask myself -do I really need all these books?  All these recipes?  

The answer was no.
 The first thing I did was go through them all and see what I wanted to save - what recipes did I love and which ones would I realistically make.
(Like the recipe for Lobster Oil that I'd saved 10+ years ago - I don't like lobster.  We don't cook lobster at home.  Why did I think I was going to MAKE my own oil from lobster shells???)

The pile has been moved around from place to place, and finally, over the past few weeks I've started going through it to cull it even further, and try to figure out how to store it for actually being used.

This was a recipe that I kept because  The Mister loves pumpkin.  I gave him a choice between these cookies and a pumpkin cake for a family dinner and was pretty surprised he chose these.
I loved them! 

(A plate I brought to work to share.  Although I helped myself a couple of times before actually sharing.....)

Pumpkin-Raisin Doodles

From Fall Baking

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 2/3 cups flour

3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup sugar

1 TB pumpkin pie spice

Beat butter with a mixer on medium for 30 seconds.  Add sugar through salt.  Beat 2 minutes.

Beat in egg, then flour.  Mix in raisins.  Cover and chill 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350'

Combine the 1/2 cup sugar and the 1TB pie spice in a bowl.  Scoop the dough into 1 1/2" rounds and roll in the spiced sugar.  Place cookies 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake 12 minutes, until the edges are set.  Cook on wire racks.

Makes 32 cookies

Grocery Shop - May 1

Soy sauce, burrito kit, wheat germ, juice, pizza sauce, cookies, butter, cottage cheese, cheese slices, cheddar cheese, avocados, bell peppers, salad x 2, strawberries, apples, watermelon, steak, pita bread, english muffins, pepperoni, ham, cereal bars, fruit leather.

$105

Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach Pie

I don't know who Bill Smith is, but I will love him forever because of this pie. 

OMG for real, y'all. 

This pie is amazing, this pie is incredible, this pie is easy.  Make this pie.

My only quibble would be that I used a slightly larger pie pan than the recipe called for, because when I poured the crust mixture in to press into the pan, there seemed to be SO much I was sure the filling wouldn't fit.  

Also, that crust was so delicious I could have eaten it all as is.  Crackers.  And sugar.  AND BUTTER, OOOOMMMMMGGGGG.

And I don't think I crushed the crackers enough...But next time I will fix that.

Recipe: Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach Pie

Lemon Butter Chicken

I have fallen down the Tasty food video rabbit hole on Facebook.  Mostly I watch the short videos, think hmmm, looks good, and move on, but this one stayed with me..... the Lemon Butter Chicken.  

I made it for Sunday night dinner and was so happy with how it came out.  It's easy and so delicious.

Here's the link if you want to watch the video.

I'm rewriting the recipe here as they have omitted the chicken broth in the recipe written under the video, and I plan to make this again very very VERY soon.

6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 Tbsp. paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3 cloves of garlic

1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Parmesan
1 lemon
2 cups baby spinach

Instructions:
1. Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and paprika.
2. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a large oven-proof skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown. Drain excess fat and set aside.
3. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in the skillet. Add garlic, stir until fragrant, then add chicken broth, heavy cream, Parmesan, lemon juice, thyme, and stir. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low.
4. Stir in spinach, simmer until spinach has wilted and the sauce has thickened. Return chicken to the skillet.
5. Bake at 400˚F / 200˚C for 25 minutes.
6. Serve immediately.