Three Wishes

I don’t have a sister but I have friends who have sisters and I observe their interactions.  Some are so close they seem to know what the other is thinking.  Some hate each other.  It’s complicated.  So I found this book a really interesting read. 

Three Wishes is a book about triplets two of which are identical  twins and the third is fraternal.  So genetically speaking the fraternal twin seems to be a bit of an outsider. So Cat, Lyn and Gemma are triplets who fight like cats and dogs but still have this incredibly tight bond and are there for each other if needed. Their parents divorced when they were six which was very traumatic for them.

They are in their 33rd year and it is proving to be a not good, pretty bad year. One has a lying, cheating husband.  The other has fear of committing to someone but when you read her story you can understand why.  The third is trying to do it all, run her successful business, take care of a new baby and a step daughter and keep her marriage going or not. 

This is the second book that I have read by this author.  The first was The Husband's Secret.  I enjoyed that book as well.  The thing I like about this author's writing is her character development.  I feel like she leads the reader inside the characters' heads.  Both books are worth reading. One final note.  I find the title confusing so if you have any comments on why the author chose it, I would love to hear them.

After reading this book, I think I am glad I have a brother.

Foodie Resolution #10

Found this delicious recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala.  Since one of my foodie resolutions was to cook something in a slow cooker I made this recipe in the slow cooker.  I loved the recipe.  It was so good that I am making it again this week but I have decided not to use the crock pot.  I will give you an update.  One thing I must say is I love the garam masala spice.  Check out the recipe on http://tryingtocookbysuzc.blogspot.com

Sunday Notes on Monday

 Snow.  Here we go again.  Winter is setting in.  I woke up this morning and while it is snowing here in the Mid-Atlantic it is not sticking YET.  I understand Boston, NYC and Long Island which I hold near and dear to my heart since I grew up there are going to get clobbered.  They are expecting a Nor'Beaster or at least that is what the meteorologist are calling it on the news. I tis still messy here.

There is always some good and bad when it snows.  The bad part of snow is driving in it.  The good part is if it happens on a weekend and I am off and don't have to worry about my family  being out there or I don't have to drive anywhere. The good part is if it is snowing so hard that everything gets shut down.  I was hoping for the shutdown scenario this morning but unfortunately that did not happen.

Being stuck inside gives me the excuse to curl up in front of our fireplace and read. I can read for hours but you all know that  about me already.  Last night I stayed up pretty late and almost finished the book Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty who also wrote the book The Husband's Secret which I talked about in a past blog post.  Once I got wrapped up in the characters I couldn't put the book down until I fell asleep.  I will blog about it on Saturday.  I also started the book Us about a marriage on the brink. The book is narrated from the man's perspective, a man who loves his wife very much and will do what it takes to keep the relationship going.  Interesting book. Stay tuned for my post on that book.

So if you get stuck in the house, hope you have a good book.  If you are out and about stay safe.

Resolutions

So it is January.  So people make resolutions, so what.  I had no plans to make any New Year's resolutions until I read about the 51 Foodie Resolutions and thought what fun.  Believe me, I can use some fun right about now and I bet there are some of you who could do with fun as well. Below is a list of the resolutions I liked and their order Number on the list.  I have picked the ones that seem to be a good fit for me and seem the most fun.  I will not be doing them in any particular order that would be too boring.

1. Clean Out and Reorganize your Fridge
3. Learn a New Cooking Technique
4. Go Meatless on Monday for a month
5. Flip over fried eggs without breaking the yolk
6. Make tomato sauce from scratch
9. Read a non-fiction food book
10. Slow cook a recipe
11, Visit a winery and/or brewery
13. Cook a whole grain new to you
14. Bake bread from scratch
16. Make a layer cake from scratch
21. Host a dinner party
22. Clean out your spice rack
25. Visit your neighborhood farmers market
26. Make a souffle
31. Make homemade macaroni and cheese
32. Learn to cut a whole pineapple
38. Create a well stocked pantry
39. Make chicken or veggie stock from scratch
42. Make homemade pasta
43.Flip pancakes without having them fold
44. Follow a recipe to the T without making any changes
45. Caramelize onions
47.Grow something
51. Find your signature drink

So I have picked about half of the resolutions.  I might do some of the other 26 but I might not. They don't interest me as much as the ones listed above.  I started on number one because I thought that would be a slam dunk to knock off the list but have not quite finished it yet. I mean it is easy enough to throw everything out but organizing it so you stock what you need is a little harder and that is how I am interpreting the resolution.  I will show you the before and after once I am satisfied.

I did complete number 9 Read a non-fiction food book which I blogged about.  You might enjoy the book as well Provence 1970.  The next resolution I will tackle is number 10, slow cook a recipe.  I want to make something that is different from the beef stews and pot roasts I have mad in the past so I am searching for a recipe. Hopefully I will find one to talk about this week.  

Winter Street

Winter Street  is the second book I have read by this author.  It is Christmas time and Kelley and his wife Mitzi run the Winter Street Inn.  They host a party every year with a man playing Santa and Mitzi playing Mrs. Claus.  To his surprise he walks into one of the guest bedrooms to find Mitzi on Santa's lap.  Not a good thing. She then informs him she is leaving him for George (Santa) who has been playing Santa at the Inn for years.  To Make matters worse, she tells Kelley that she has been having this affair with George from the time she met him. This is Kelley's second marriage and he is definitely caught off guard.

His three children from his first marriage have been living with he and Mitzi since they were married because their Mom a famous TV Anchor thought it would be better to have the kids live with their father. The children are all adults now including the one son Mitzi and Kelley had together. He is in the military and has been sent to the Middle East.  Up until a few days before Christmas they all had been in contact with him and now nothing.  This has put them all on edge. The other children all have problems of their own and they seem to be hitting a head right at Christmas.  How will things work out. I guess you will have to find out.

Sunday Notes On Monday

A funny thing happened to me this week.  I started two books and could not get through either of them. I am not saying they were bad, they just did not catch my interest enough for me to continue reading them. The two books were Diary of a Mad Diva by Joan Rivers and Yes Please by Amy Poehler.  I really admire both women a lot but I like Joan Rivers humor when she delivers the lines in person. Since she passed away recently that is no longer possible.  I guess reading her words is not the same. She is a comedian that will be missed.  As far as Amy Poehler's book, I think I will give it another try at a later date.  I guess I was just not in the mood.

So I picked up Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand.  I have read one other book by her which I enjoyed entitled Summerland. You can read my post from April 14, 2013.  Both books are set in Nantucket and the characters are all locals as opposed to tourists or summer people.  I enjoy how she writes her characters.  I am almost done with the book so look for my post on Saturday.  Have a great week!

        

The Good Old Days are truly gone

I was reading the Washington Post and I came across this article and it made me sad.  Growing up in a small town on Long Island, one of the great things was having free range of the town.  My parents had their set of rules and one was to be home by dark.  That meant that if I wanted to walk or bike  to a friend's after I finished my homework or on the weekends and if it meant leaving our block to do it, all I would have to is leave a note or call to say where I was.  If I was going to be late I called. 

In the summer, my friends and I would be out and about all day.  Sometimes we were at each others' house, sometimes at the pool clear across town and sometimes at the high school playing tennis.  It didn't really matter we were all over the place and that was ok.  When I got into High School my parents would joke that they couldn't remember what I looked like  because I was never home.

The bottom line was that we were not homebound couch potatoes.  We were outdoors and moving around town.  It was great.  Even as a kid I appreciated the ability to come and go.

Now a day's kids don't have that luxury and that is almost ok until I read this article why-are-we-criminalizing-childhood-independence and that is when I became sad. Not only can kids not have some independence to venture out anymore,  but parents are being told that they are neglecting their children.  This determination is being made by some of the counties here in the state of Maryland and Virginia.  All I can say is our kids are the ones who are suffering. While we learned how to survive and live independently when we are young they are learning these skills so much later.  Aside from financial reason, maybe this is why they don't leave home until they are in their mid to late twenties.

The Lost Key

I have been doing a lot of driving lately.  It is mostly highway driving which is so boring. I also feel guilty for what I feel is wasting valuable time, all those hours in the car.  That is why I listen to books on CD.  I have talked about this in previous posts.  For me the biggest problem I have when I pick an audio book to listen to in the car is the subject matter.  If it is something I need to really focus on, I usually choose to read the book because after all I am trying to maintain control of my vehicle and I get very involved in the book.  So The Lost Key  was a perfect choice for me.  It kept my attention and I enjoyed the story.  I think that Catherine Coulter’s collaboration with J.T. Ellison is a good one.

This is an FBI thriller but instead of Dillon and Savich as the main characters you have Nicholas Drummond and Mikala Caine (Mike).   If you read The Final Cut  which is the (first book in this new FBI series ) we met Nicholas  when he becomes involved with the theft of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond the centerpiece of the British Crown Jewels which is being exhibited in New York City.  His american counterpart is Mike Caine.  In this novel Nicholas is now an FBI agent and his partner is of course Mike Caine.

Their first case is a stabbing on Wall Street. But this is not your ordinary stabbing by some gang member or disgruntled employee.  This stabbing has international implications and turns out to be part of part of a hunt for a sunken World War I U boat that contained gold and a lost key.  The stabbing victim, a seller of rare books and historian was Just his cover. And of course the man behind the killings and the race to find these items happens to a maniacal, power hungry guy that is Cra Cra.  This book is written with a sense of humor.  I like the characters and the story.  If you haven't read the first book read it and read this one as well.

The Lost Key

Provence 1970

PROVENCE 1970

This book is written by Luke Barr who is the grand-nephew of M.F.K. Fisher a writer of many books focused on cooking.  In December of 1970 a group of very famous foodies, Julia Childs, James Beard and Simone Beck all found themselves in the South of France where they cooked and ate and debated with each other about cooking techniques. Fisher being the writer she was kept detailed journals. Some of this event was captured in Fisher's journals and provided the content for this book.

I am really not that familiar with this set of chefs for lack of a better word. In actuality, they were cook book authors and TV personalities.  Julia Child wrote the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol I and II which was revolutionary.  It brought The art of French Cookery into the American home kitchen and sat on the shelf next to the Betty Crocker Cookbook.  Home cooking became and art form with so many new options.  If you could follow the recipes you could create new and delicious dishes to serve to your family and friends.  Dinner parties were taken to a whole new level.

Of all the chefs mentioned in the book, Julia Child is the most recognizable to me. We had a copy of her cookbook in our house.  I was a little too young to appreciate her first TV show The French Chef but I did occasionally watch the show Julia Child and company if I was home from school.  Her voice and her ability to laugh at herself during the show if something happened while preparing her dish was impressive.  She was Like the founding daughter for food shows today.

Until I read the book I had never heard of Richard Olney.  He had originally started out as a painter in Greenwich Village and ended up going to France and becoming a cook and food writer.  He was very much into the food to table type of cooking, growing many of his ingredients right in his garden.  He built his own wine cellar and collected wine which he took great pleasure pairing with the dishes he prepared. He believed in seasonal cooking. When he planned a dinner party, food prep could span over several days. 

The book is very readable.  The subject is interesting. If you would like more information about this book click on this link Provence 1970

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Great Book Alert

In case you have not read The Invention of Wings at the moment Amazon has the kindle version at a really great price.  Click on my link to see more.  Don't know how long this great price will last. All I can say is it was a great book.