.png)
If you've read my other reviews, you'll predict my Christmas reads will include ghosts. There is a reason that The Christmas Carol was always my favorite December read, and that reason was not Bob Cratchit.
Readers' Favorite
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
December 9, 2020
July 12, 2017
Summer Salad and a Book: #HomemadeCaesarSalad and #BirdBoxReview
by Alison DeLuca
Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today!. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.
“How about homemade Caesar Salad?”
 |
| image courtesy of Pixabay |
We just made our annual trip to Lake of the Ozarks, where we stay with lots of cousins and uncles and aunts. Since it’s such a large group, we trade off cooking one meal for the everyone. And each year, I spend weeks trolling Pinterest for recipes that will feed a huge crew.
Amazon affiliate links are used in this post.
This summer I was clueless. Should I make lasagna? (Too hot.) Chili? (Too blah.) My brilliant idea was homemade pizzas until our host ordered pizza for everyone the night before I had to cook. That ended that.
At a loss, I considered PB&J’s or cold cereal until I had a brainwave. “How about homemade Caesar Salad?” I asked the host. “With side toppings everyone can add to create a personal entrée?”
This idea got an enthusiastic thumbs’ up. I made my own dressing and croutons. A dish of shrimp and one of roast chicken flanked the display to turn it into a do-it-yourself bar.
Not only did the family eat up every scrap, one person told me the dressing was the best he’d ever eaten. And – guess what?
The recipe is super easy, and there are no raw eggs in the dressing.
Here it is so you can offer a fresh take on summer with your family and friends:
Caesar Salad Bar
4 cloves garlic, peeled
¼ cup + extra olive oil
At least 4 cups bread cubes cut from an Italian loaf
Salt
Fresh-ground pepper
Finely grated Parmesan, as fresh as possible
1 lemon
Worcestershire sauce
Good-quality mayonnaise (I used 8 ounces of Sir Kensington’s classic)
At least 3 hearts of romaine (no matter how much lettuce you prep, they will eat it)
Shrimp (I used 2 bags of 16-20 cooked and frozen)
Rotisserie chicken
Process the 4 cloves of garlic; as the machine is running, add the ¼ cup of olive oil. Run the processor for at least a minute. Set aside to allow the garlic to soak into the oil for another 5 minutes.
Strain oil with fine-mesh strainer, reserving the processed garlic.
Prep lettuce. Tear into bite-size pieces, wash well in a spinner, and put into a large salad bowl. Store in the fridge under a damp paper towel to keep it fresh.
Prep the dressing: squeeze the lemon into a small container. Whisk 1 cup of mayonnaise, at least 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire, half the reserved minced garlic, one tablespoon Parmesan, and a touch of salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings (I suggest you try a little dressing on one leaf of the lettuce you just prepped.)
Cut up the rotisserie chicken into small pieces and place on a platter.
Prep the croutons. Put the cubes of bread into a large bowl and shake half the garlic-infused olive oil over them. Stir, repeat.
Prep two frying pans. Coat them with 1 tablespoon olive oil in each pan and put over medium-high heat. Add the rest of the garlic to one and thaw the shrimp in the mix. Stir repeatedly until the shrimp is warmed through.
Put the coated bread cubes in the other. Stir repeatedly until the bread cubes are browned on all sides.
Serve the salad with the dressing on the side, the chicken and shrimp on platters, and the croutons in the big bowl for your guests to add.
You can also put out extra cheese, the pepper shaker, and lemon wedges so they can personalize as they wish. Dishes of fresh parsley, sliced cucumbers, walnuts, and fresh summer tomatoes are all nice touches as well.
Enjoy!
*****
 |
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
After all that slicing and dicing, you definitely deserve some Me Time. How about a novel filled with thrills, tension, and constant emotion?
I loaded up the Kindle before our plane ride, but Bird Box stood out as a novel I Could. Not. Put. Down.
This post-apocalyptic novel is set inside a house, where several survivors cower with a diminishing supply of canned food. One of them, Malorie, is pregnant when she arrives at the house – a perilous journey, since going outside with your eyes open makes you insane.
In order to get to a safer place, Malorie has to escape with her two children, known as Boy and Girl. They must travel twenty miles in a boat on the river behind the house – all while being blindfolded.
The unseen menace creates a rising sense of danger that never degrades when the monsters come out of the shadows – because they can’t. One sight of them, so the theory goes, drives humans into a murderous and suicidal frenzy.
In order to reach safety without killing herself or her children, Malorie cannot lift her blindfold.
No matter what happens.
The author, Josh Malerman, is the lead singer for The High Strung. His writing style is simple, not overblown at all. I found it perfect for the devastating story he tells. In fact, Malorie’s POV is told so well I was convinced the book had been written by a female.
Not only is the book exciting, it also touches some very interesting themes, including trust and, more importantly, what it means to be a parent. Motherhood, Malorie discovers, quickly changes in the face of disaster.
What are you reading this summer?
Alison DeLuca is the author of several steampunk and urban fantasy books. She was born in Arizona and has also lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mexico, Ireland, and Spain. Currently, she wrestles words and laundry in New Jersey.
Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today!. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.
January 13, 2016
A List of Books for 2016
 |
| Heaven. Courtesy wikipedia |
Like many writers, I love blank notebooks. Those lined pages are filled with possibilities, unborn stories and poems.
A new year offers the same magic, a blank slate on which to write the story of your life. One thing I love to do each year is read lists of recommended books. This year I’ve gone a step further to create my own lists.
Making lists is an art. You start with your blank notebook
you just bought and draw up ideas. What genre will you read?
Perhaps you’re a
confirmed a sci-fi fiend. Maybe you prefer literary fiction and are looking for
additions to your book club’s offerings. Or perhaps you prefer to browse the
non-fiction section.
I’ve listed my own three must-read sections below, one in
each genre: literary, sci-fi / fantasy fiction, and non-fiction.
Stay tuned after the pretty shiny books, and I’ll complete your reading time with a snack.
Literary fiction has exploded over the past few years,
although I’d say it’s always been a huge genre and people just didn’t realize. It
goes at the top of my list of lists, since I love good writing and clever turns
of phrase.
LITERARY FICTION
1. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – I can’t
tell a lie. I’m already a few chapters in and entranced with this novel about a
blind French girl and a German boy, whose paths collide in Saint-Malo on the
Brittany coast during World War II.
There’s a mysterious jewel involved, one
with a strange curse, as well as a miniature city Marie Laure uses to learn her
way around Saint-Malo. (My link leads to the paperback version since it's cheaper than the Kindle.)
2. Keeping with the World War II theme, The Nightingale by
Kristin Hannah is next on my list. The sample on Amazon promises a riveting
tale with a clunkier writing as Doerr’s. However, according to Goodreads reviews it’s not a ‘desperate romance played
across the war-torn fields of France’, and for that I’m grateful.
The book is about two sisters, one married and one single.
Again, there’s a German soldier, which I find very intriguing – I love to get a
feel for the humanity of what was then the enemy. Nightingale promises personal
growth, a theme I dearly love. It’s probably the main book for a lot of book
clubs, so I’m going to join my fellow readers and put this one on my nightstand.
3. Language Arts by Stephanie Kallos looks really promising.
It’s the story of Cody, a low-functioning autistic boy given ‘stimming’
exercises as therapy for some of his behaviors. His father, a high school
Language Arts teacher, does his own form of stimming, endlessly drawing Palmer
loops (those circles kids used to have to draw to learn cursive.)
Language and the loss of words, as in the case of a nun in
Language Arts who is entering dementia, is perhaps an inner World War. Narrated
by Cody’s sister, Emmy, the language seems plain and layered with tender
emotion as well as the everyday trauma many people suffer.
4. Voices in the Night by Steven Millhauser – I had to start reading this short story collection the night the library emailed to say it was in. Slipstream is my
not-so-secret addiction, and the Pulitzer-winning Millhauser serves up lovely
little slices of magical tragedy. The first story, Miracle Polish, could be seen
as a riff on Dorian Grey: magic liquid changes your reflection to a more vivid
version of yourself. Mermaid Fever is about how the discovery of a dead mermaid
changes a town forever: women start wearing sequined tails, legs are seen as
unattractive.
Most haunting, however, was the story Sons and Mothers, in which
a man visits his aging parent and can’t stop falling asleep. Each time he wakes from his naps his mother recedes, and the house slips into a darker, more abandoned form.
His writing is spectacular – free of embellishment, the
simple words drag you in with bare poetry.
5. Look, I know it’s popular to mock all things
Elizabeth Gilbert, but the truth is I loved Eat Pray Love and Gilbert’s TED
talk on inspiration. Yes, the final section was a bit of a disappointment, like
the movie. (Sorry, Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem.)
So The Signature of All Things goes on my list, even though the book was published a few years back.
This is another historical novel, the story of a family of botanical explorers
in the 18th and 19th centuries. There’s the same
spiritual discovery, according to the jacket copy, reflecting the search for
‘the hidden mechanisms behind all life itself.’
Sounds damn interesting.
My fantasy/sci-fi blends with the literary list, since I
always look for expert writing along with my magic.
1. Station Eleven, yet another post-apocalyptic novel, came
recommended from several sources. It follows Kristen, a member of Shakespearian
actors and musicians. They do their best to follow the Star Trekkian quote
tattooed on Kristen’s arm: ‘Because survival is insufficient.’
Of course, not all survivors agree, and the little troupe
runs into violence and insanity as well as the eternal concept of love.
2. The Buried Giant is by Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of The
Remains of the Day. In the novel, the Romans have departed from Britain and, as
a result, the island is in decline. An elderly Briton couple go in search of
their son. They are joined by three travelers, a Saxon warrior, his orphan
charge, and a knight. Together they face mysterious dangers and strange
adventures, framed by the changing nature of their own memories.
Did I mention this has a gorgeous cover and an untitled map?
I love maps, and the mystery of this one draws me in.
3. A Darker Shade of Magic (‘epic and gripping’) highlights
the travels of Kell, a magician who can move between parallel universes. They
are delineated by colors: there’s Grey London, dirty and boring, Red London,
White London caught in a fight with itself for magic, and Black London, a place
no one even speaks about any longer.
Kell is officially an ambassador from the established and
settled Red London, but unofficially he works as a smuggler. When he encounters
Delilah, a thief, the pair is drawn into a perilous and deadly adventure.
Oh hell yeah.
And here are my nonfiction choices:
Orange is The New Black – Okay, it’s not really nonfiction
but more of a memoir. Piper Kerman writes about her year in a women’s prison,
and to preserve people’s privacy she changed many of the names and
characteristics. Still, I’m fascinated by life behind bars, so I can’t wait to
dive into this book. And I love the Netflix show, so there’s that.
To go full circle and return to my World War II theme, I’m
going to read Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard. I adore books
on Japan (I devoured Murakami’s Underground about the Tokyo subway gas attack)
and, as I mentioned earlier, I’m really interested in World War II. Plus, I’m
always up for learning about one of the deadliest events in history in order to
keep those victims in mind.
As a bonus, a sort of free prize inside my box of Cracker
Jacks, I’m going to reread Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. It’s a Victorian
romance but a very unconventional one, the story of a kidnapped girl who turns
out to be much more than she seems. Forced into the life of fingersmithing or
being a pickpocket, she becomes maid to Maud Lilly and ends up falling in love
with her.
Waters may have invented this genre, the lesbian version of
historical romance. Fingersmith was my favorite novel by her. Violent and
tender, it’s really good.
Now, look. I know it’s difficult to budget for books AND
silly things like food. I got most of these from the library, although I’ll
probably end up buying two or three of the ones I really love. Fingersmith was
a gift, so I get to read it over and over again.
When you have your list of books ready, don’t forget to
treat yourself with a snack and beverage. My choice is tea,
properly made in the pot with boiling water and Irish teabags. I’ll pair my brew with some shortbread, since that stuff goes with everything and it’s
so easy to make. Here’s my own Granny Clancy’s recipe, transcribed from her
exquisite script:
 |
| Mmmm. courtesy Wikicommons |
Preheat the oven to 325.
½ lb. butter
¾ lb. flour
¼ lb. castor sugar
3 ozs. ground almonds
Mix butter with ½ lb. flour and other ingredients. When
mixed well add remainder ¼ lb. flour. Knead together with hands for about 5
mins.
Press into round tart pan about 9” with removable bottom.
Score into triangles and prick the edges with a fork for a classic petticoat
tails pattern. (You can also put the mixture into a rectangular tin and score
into bars.)
To quote Granny Clancy, “Some chopped almonds in the mixture
are an improvement.”
Do tell me what you plan to read in the comments, won’t you?
I’m always looking for new ideas for my reading shelf.
Related articles
- Featured Book: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (girl-who-reads.com)
- Review: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (girl-who-reads.com)
June 23, 2012
Cocktails with Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvan Reynard
There seemed to be something a bit old fashion about the wording which made it a little difficult for me to believe it was modern day. Even Gabriel's mannerism are old fashion. He is suppose to be in his mid-thirties. I went to a conservative college and even looked at an ultra-conservative university (women and men weren't even allowed to walk along the same sidewalk). Most universities have a policy against fraternization, some more stringent than others. Even going with a most stringent policy, I was still caught off guard by Gabriel's thought:
But I think this old-fashion style added to the fantasy of a romance novel. Every girl wants that debonair gentleman. And it played well with the art of seduction that was portrayed throughout the story. I'm not a huge romance fan, but I do enjoy the build up to a relationship. I love the courtship. Unfortunately too many romance author these days rush through that stage and have the characters hoping into bed by the second chapter. Thankfully, Sylvain went the route of more classical romance authors. That doesn't mean there isn't sex in the book. Every page is filled with intimacy and foreplay, but at a poetic level that modern romance authors often do not attain. It leaves the reader swooning.
 |
| Photo by Donna |
Now any drink that has a cherry in it ranks high in my book of good drinks, but this may very well become my cocktail of choice. It was more like drinking punch and if you aren't careful you could quickly drink this down. I suspect the one with cranberry juice would be a slow sipper (at least cranberry drinks tend to be for me)
I know many book clubs match libations with their read and this would be a good choice. Or perhaps, you are looking for something a bit different for girls' night out. Why not head to your favorite drink establishment and do a read-a-long? While sitting in Magnolia last night sipping my flirtini with friends, I thought it had the right atmosphere for a ladies' book club.
I know I'm late to the game on reading Gabriel's Inferno and since it is the second most popular keyword search to my blog, I am hoping to answer most of the search queries. I've provided a couple of quotes (though I learned my Nook did not save the ones I highlighted). Goodreads.com has a good selection of quotes if you want more). There is sex in the book, but intercourse is not the focus of the plot. It is about seduction, courtship, foreplay. I will admit I skimmed over the one true sex scene (I don't care to read that kind of thing), but it wasn't full of moans, groans, and OMG. I will leave it to you to decide if the sex is good or not. For those searches for the audio version - it isn't available, but it is a possibility. Audio books take a bit more work and technical skills, so be patient with a newish, small publisher while they work through those issues.
If you are a romance novel fan, read Gabriel's Inferno. If you like romance in the true sense, read Gabriel's Inferno. If you are looking for escapism/fantasy, read Gabriel's Inferno. If you have read Gabriel's Inferno, make sure you pick up the sequel that is now available - Gabriel's Rapture (see my review). If you need more recommendations for what to read next: I've seen several recommendations for Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. I think you should try Sempre by J.M. Darhower (it's on my summer reading list). I read an early draft of Take the Cake by Sandra Wright, but really enjoyed it so maybe check it out, too. If you don't mind a little kink, Slave (see my review) and Need (see my review) by Sherri Hayes would be a good choice.
Buy Gabriel's Inferno at Amazon
Alright, I think I addressed all the search queries. I'm now off to enjoy my vacation with some great reads. What's on your summer reading list?
 | |
| Kicking off my vacation with a little review research. Photo by Angel |
Published April 2011 by Omnific Publishing
ISBN13: 2940012336156
Read June 2012
Source: publisher
Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. A free book was obtained from the source mentioned above in order to provide an honest and free review.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
