Book Review: Cremains of the Day

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I know, I know. Another cozy. But the thing is, now that I’m writing some cozy procedurals, it’s kind of research, right?

Cremains of the Day by Misty Simon is the first in a new series about a youngish woman who moves back home to the family funeral home after her divorce.

Tallie, the main character was fairly well drawn. I get a solid feeling about who she was and how she came to change which is nice. Unfortunately, the back story was delved out with a bit of a heavy hand in my opinion, think large spoon slapping down clotted cream, rather than sprinkles. But I have a soft spot for characters who do what needs to be done, especially when it’s vastly unpleasant.

There is of course a ex in the back ground making things icky. Old friends who are new bosses and extra icky. And a love interest who came across as a little overly possessive.

Toss in a couple of dead bodies, a chief of police who wants to hang them around Tallie’s neck and she’s off to the races investigating and stumbling across many, many clues.

It was a solidly decent book. Some issues with her time line. A few procedural mistakes. I will probably check out the next one though, see if the author hits her stride.

Sunday Sup: Apple Pie Cheesecake Bites

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I promised the recipe for these back at December’s Kindness Challenge. And since then I have made a variant. See good things come to those who wait. Double down on the yummy goodness. Variant will be posted next week.

Apple Pie Cheesecake Bites

The idea for this came from Delish. But again, full of gluten and sugar and ick. My body deserves better, even when indulging. I found this recipe for Paleo snickerdoodles which I used as a base.

Into your food processor : 2 cups almond flour, 1/8th tsp baking soda, 2 shakes cinnamon, 1/4 c butter, 2 tbsp honey. Pulse into dough.

Grease a mini muffin tin. Press enough dough into each tin to give a thin crust. I filled 18 mini muffins.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

You can sprinkle a touch of cinnamon and coconut sugar into the bottom of each cup when it comes out of the oven. Totally optional.

While the crusts cool:

Chop an apple and saute in butter, coconut sugar, and cinnamon. I like rich foods so I used like 3 tbsp of butter but just a shake of sugar and cinnamon. Saute until soft and lightly browned. Cool for a few minutes and then give it a run through with your immersion blender.

Mix cream cheese with maple syrup. I used 8 oz and a 1/4 c but I had a lot of mixture left over. I purposely didn’t make this too sweet. I wanted the cheese to come through.

When the crusts and apple are cool, build your cheesecakes. Do not try to assemble these in the pan, pop each crust out first.

Add cream cheese mixture reaching the top of the crusts. Add a spoonful of the apple mixture on top like a crown.

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Fiendish Friday: The Lure of Youth

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 6 Comments

Did you know if you go on a cruise and your age is 25 years younger than the average, you will be flirted with constantly no matter how you look?

Yup.

Just saying. Everywhere I went. Sweet old men, dirty old men, chatty old men – all flirting with me.

And I know it’s all about my perceived youth.

I must say it was very nice to have doors opened for me and men stand when I left the table though. LOL

 

Book Review: Hidden Figures

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

I heard so many great things about Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. I figured I would get around to it one of these days. Then one of the kids in my history class asked if he could do his second half project on this book. He’d seen the movie and wanted to know more. Well sure, why not.

So I ordered it from Amazon. It came and I started reading because I won’t assign my kids anything I haven’t read myself.

I like non fiction. Let’s get that right out there. Well researched non fiction is in fact my preferred genre of reading. The non fiction nature of this book was a not a problem for me.

I am a historian by training. I research tirelessly. So the setting of the novel was not unfamiliar to me.

Where I ran into issue, was the first 2/3rds of the book. Extremely short on actual details of the “incredible contributions” they made. And extremely long on preaching about racism in the south.

I get it, the south was heinously racist. If your book is in fact about racism in the south, bill it that way. Don’t pay lip service to the “incredible things they accomplished” and go on at infinitum and often repetitively, entire paragraphs repeated almost verbatim, about racism.

If your book is about the amazing things these women accomplished, show the goods. Show what they did at least in equal proportion to the amount of time you spend talking about what they over came to do the amazing.

The last third of the book she gets it right. The odds and accomplishments are both showcased in detail and in almost balance. Which made both for a compelling and emotional read.

I haven’t seen the movie. I might. I am undecided. While I applaud the real accomplishments of the women, I wish they had had a better biographer.

Sunday Sup: Roasted Zucchini Layers

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I have no idea where the original for this came from. But I’ve been making it in one form or another for years. I have changed the amount of potato over the years. Originally I think the layers went potato, onion, potato, zucchini, etc but that’s way more starch than I like these days.

Zucchini Layers

Preheat your oven to 425.

Peel one medium russet potato. Thinly slice the potato, two zucchinis and one medium onion. Cut the onion in half first.

Layer, slightly over lapping, on a parchment papered sheet. Your call on the layers.

I do zucchini, onion, zucchini, potato, zucchini, etc. Top with dill Havarti cheese, shredded.

Baked 30-40 minutes, it depends on the thickness of your slices, until done. IMG_20171213_184029

Book Review: Dial Meow for Murder

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A while back I reviewed Death by Chocolate Lab. Dial Meow for Murder is the amusing second book in that series by Bethany Blake.

Poor Daphne, once again she finds a dead body. That girl should never go anywhere alone. She finds bodies every time she does. She says she is trying to stay out of this investigation, but she’s not. LOL.

The murder felt super low key in this book. The focus seemed more on the complications in everyone’s lives, which I can’t say made the book any less enjoyable.I’m kind of invested now and I want to see where things are going.

The series also makes me think I’d like to live in a small town. Just maybe not Sylvan Creek, people keep dying there. LOL.

℘℘℘℘ – Four Pages. I can’t wait to get my hands on Pawprints and Predicaments.

Sunday Sup: Hash and donuts

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Winter just calls for breakfast for dinner, don’t you think? And sometimes it’s so easy I can’t help but indulge.

Sweet Potato and Brussels Sprout Hash

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Peel Sweet Potatoes and chop into smallish (1/2 inch) cubes. How many? Well I did 4 small ones for my family of 3 and had two breakfasts worth extra.

Dice one medium red onion or half a large one.

Toss both veg onto a sheet covered with metal oil. Spray with olive oil and roast 20-25 minutes. Just shy of done.

Cook 1/2 pound of bacon cut unto 1 inch pieces. (Cook a full pound if you are making the donuts that follow.) Usually I do bacon in the oven but I want the fat for saute the Brussels Sprouts.

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After you pull the bacon to drain on paper towels add a pound of shaved Brussels Sprouts to the pan and saute. After about five minutes, I pulled my oven veg and tossed those into the pan, added half the bacon back in, and sauteed on.

Serve warm with a fried egg or two on top.

 

Apple Bacon Donuts

The idea for these donuts came from a recipe at Delish. However, that recipe was gluten heavy, sugar bombed, and fried. I needed better. When I have an idea of what I want to do but I’m not quite sure on the specifics, I go to Paleomg.com, every time, and I am never sorry.

Put 7 pitted dates in your food processor. Pulse until they form a ball. (If your dates are super dry you might soak them ten minutes in warm water first)

Add 1/2 c applesauce, 1/4 c melted butter, and 4 eggs. Blend til soupy.

Add 1/3 c gluten free flour blend, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and a few shakes of cinnamon (unless your applesauce was already cinnamon).

Blend until batter.

Add half the cooked bacon from the hash.

Spoon into greased donuts pans. This made 11 donuts. (I know, right. 11?)

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. They’ll look spongy and you’ll question if they are done but when you press it feels slightly firm and no batter sticks to your finger.

Cool in the pan but don’t let them linger too long. I find baked donuts stick, even if you greased, if you leave them in longer than a couple of hours.

Top with maple cream cheese frosting. (Cream cheese mixed with maple syrup. Your call on the sweetness factor. 4oz to 1/4 c gives a super “this is real frosting, holy cow feel”.)

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Fiendish Friday: Positive Peer Pressure

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I talk now and then about my son. He has special needs and we’ve had some learning challenges. His eyes were misaligned and he could not see correctly to learn to read until we figured this out and got him medical assistance to realign his eyes. Which insurance didn’t cover because it was a learning disability? Seriously? Whatever, that’s a post of other horse.

All of this is to explain it has taken some effort to get my son to embrace reading as a fun past time. I started with books about star wars and avengers and scooby doo. But then he quickly moved past those type of readers. Now what?

He would not try anything new.

Then I hit upon a scheme of epic proportion. I would get audio books from a new author, play them in the car without telling him it was a new author and then when he loved it, I would whip out other books from the same author and say look, more x, y, z.

But that is a lot of work. Like seriously. I do it, because he’s my kid. But holy cow batman, that’s a lot of planning and effort.

So the other day we’re at the library for a chess meet up and afterwards the kids are all looking through the youth section books. A very pretty little blond girl hands my son a book he has never read, by an author he has never read, and says “You’ll like this.”

He nods, says ok, and pulls every book in the series off the shelf.

ROFL. Guess all it takes is a pretty blond.

Book Review: Writing Jane Austen

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

After my mad experience last fall, this was a bit of a natural read. I’ve read it before of course, I adore Elizabeth Aston’s books. She does a delicious series on the Darcy women and then this one, Writing Jane Austen, set in modern times.

The protag, Georgina, has been commissioned by her agent and her editor to write a pastiche of Jane Austen based on a recently discovered first handwritten chapter by Jane. Wow. For some writers that might be a nightmare – sully the memory of one of the most amazing writers in history? Or a dream come true – pay homage to one of the most amazing writers in history.

The kicker of course is A) they want the book ready for PUBLICATION in 12 weeks.

and B)

Georgina’s never read an Austen novel in her life. Gasp. Shock. Horror.

But a series of unfortunate events convinces Georgina she must try. And try she does.

It’s a fun adventure following Georgina around England as she tries to avoid her publisher and her agent and anything to do with Jane Austen while looking as though she’s doing research. LOL

℘℘℘℘ – Four Pages. Amusing. Fun. A titch predictable if you read Austen but a good time none the less.

Sunday Sup: Steak and Veggie Stir Fried Rice

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I’ve made this a few times, tweaking it a smidge each go, based off a Buzzfeed recipe. I know. Don’t ask how I ended up on Buzzfeed. I promise it will never happen again.

 

Steak and Veggie Stir Fried Rice

You have to marinate for this one. I know it’s a pain but worth it.

Into a gallon zip lock add: 1/4 c tamari (gf), 1 tsp minced garlic, 2 tbsp coconut sugar, 1/2 c water, 2 tbsp sesame seeds, 1 tbsp olive oil. (If you have sesame oil sub that for the olive oil and omit the seeds.)

Slice a pound of steak (flank works just fine for this – don’t go high grade) into thin ribbons and then large bite size pieces. Add to the bag. Mash it round to coat the steak and pop in the fridge for an hour.

Saute the steak in its marinade over medium-high heat for about five minutes. You want the steak cooked but not leather. Transfer all the steak and marinade to a bowl. Set aside.

Saute in olive oil: one medium onion – chopped, half a bell pepper – chopped, and a couple of handfuls of broccoli (fresh is best but you can actually get away with frozen broc here). Use the same skillet but lower the temp to medium.

When the veg are soft, 6-8 minutes, add three eggs whisked with 2 tbsp tamari. Scramble them.

Add 3 cups cooked rice, or riced veg of your choice, to the pan. Stir. Add the steak and it’s sauce to the pan. Stir.

Cook for a few minutes until every thing is hot and combined.

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