Monday, February 27, 2017

Crockpot Monday: Broccoli and Three Cheese Soup

9:16 AM 0 Comments
When your kids were young did you put cheese on their veggies to get them to eat them? Do you do it to your veggies? If so, you may just love this recipe. It's all those yummy cheeses with some veggie thrown in!

Ingredients:
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups milk
2 10 oz bags of frozen broccoli florets
1/2 diced white onion
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup each of three different shredded cheeses

Directions: 

Mince the onion into really small pieces. Add the onion to your crockpot and top with the milk, broth, and spices. Stir in the two frozen bags of broccoli.

Cook on low for 7-9 hours, or on high for 4-6. The broth is done when the onion is cooked nicely.

20 minutes or so before serving, shred all the cheese you are going to use (if you didn’t buy it already shredded) and stir it in.  The cheese will be stringy and will stick to the broccoli. If this bothers you, you can use an immersion blender to blend up some of the larger pieces of broccoli.

Serve with your favorite rolls or drop biscuits.

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Monday, February 20, 2017

Crockpot Monday: Baked Potato Soup

8:07 AM 0 Comments
Ut-oh...another thing that I already professed my love for has turned into another recipe! I'd apologize if these weren't so yummy! Plus, it's the perfect time of year for soups and stews and my favorites are always the really hearty ones!

Ingredients:
5 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced in 1 to 2-inch chunks
1 teeny onion, diced (a bit less than 1 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
2 quarts chicken broth
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, to add at the end
Crumbled bacon and green onion or chives as garnish (optional)

Directions:

Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot. Peel and dice the potatoes, and put them in. Add onion and garlic. Sprinkle in the seasonings and pour in the broth. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4. The potatoes should be fork-tender. You can use a potato masher to mash the potatoes in the soup, or a hand-held immersion blender.

After smashing the potatoes, crumble in both packages of cream cheese, and put the lid back on. Cook on high for about 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is completely dissolved. Stir a few times during the 30 minutes.

Garnish with crumbled bacon, green onion or chives or even some shredded cheddar cheese. Yum!

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Friday, February 17, 2017

Book Review: Before Him Comes Me

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Faced with an unexpected choice, a simple nod is all it will take to change the course of Zara's life.

Bound to a life predetermined by the restrictive traditions of her community, Zara is offered a glimmer of hope by a complete stranger, a man selected for her. She can choose to walk away from the life she has been trained for.

Make new friends and lose her best friend.
Explore new places and lose her home.
Find herself and lose herself.

Will Zara nod and risk everything she knows to discover who she is meant to be?

**Disclaimer**


Although this book is BDSM theme it is not an erotic/a genre. No Sex scenes invovled, BHCM is categorized as a NA Contemporary Romance Genre.

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Okie dokie...here's a new book for all of you! Let me start by saying that I included the disclaimer simply because the author chose to include it on her book synopsis. (Yes, including the misspelled word.) Do I agree with it? Sure. It doesn't include any sex scenes and I'm assuming that NA stands for New Adult so any adult themes are covered under that.  Now...let's get into the review!

The Good: The story line moved at a smooth pace and was interesting. As someone with some experience with BDSM, I found the idea of the cult that the author writes about intriguing. It wasn't entirely a new idea, but still an interesting one. I also appreciated that the author used "hometown" locations that she's familiar with. Living not too far away from that area, I may check out one or two that she mentioned. That brings me to the characters. I appreciated the fact that they were well thought out and developed. It's easy to overlook secondary characters and Ms. Sure did a good job of making sure that didn't happen.

The Bad: The book is written entirely in present tense which can make it incredibly difficult to read. There's a reason that few authors go this route and more than once I had to take a break while reading because of this. On top of that and perhaps because of it, some of the scenes read more like a play by play than narrative. First this person does this, then that person does that. I'm not going to lie...though the book held me until the end, more than once I thought that the author set about to write the "anti-50 Shades of Grey" book and that she herself didn't have much experience within the BDSM lifestyle. If that was her goal, she was entirely successful. This book does show what is in essence the anti-Christian and it does it well. Since I know y'all are waiting for it...yes, the author did use an editor and yes, she needs to find one who pays a bit closer attention to details. Maybe I'm just too picky but I've read too many books with amazing attention to detail and grammar to believe that not paying attention is the norm.

The Summary: For a first book, the author does a very good job at telling what is a very interesting story. If you'd like to read how a teenage girl "bucks the system" and changes her life, there's a very good chance that you could really like this story. Would I recommend this book? I would, but with the caveat that it's written in present tense and that you need to pay attention when you're reading it. For now, it's going onto my shelf and I'm going to keep my eyes open to see if the author goes back and tells the stories of the 3 other ladies who "bucked the system".  They were merely touched upon in this novel and I think they deserve their own telling.


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Monday, February 13, 2017

Crockpot Monday: Baked Bean Soup

8:59 AM 0 Comments
If I'm not careful, y'all are going to think I have some sort of obsession with baked beans! I can hear it now... "She loves them so much that she turned them into a soup!" I can't even deny it because I'm about to type in a recipe for baked bean soup. Just promise me that you won't have me committed, okay?

Ingredients:
1 (15-ounce) can white kidney beans, or pinto beans
1 cup finely diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
3 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 (14.5-ounce) can fire roasted tomatoes (and juice!)
2 cups water
salt to taste before serving

Directions: 

Use a 5-6 quart slow cooker. Put beans into pot, and top with onion and carrot. Add all seasonings and spices. Pour in the entire can of tomatoes, and add water. Stir.

Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. Before serving, pulse a bit with a hand-held stick blender to blend some of the beans. This will thicken your broth and provide a richer flavor. If you don't have a stick blender, scoop out about 1 cup of liquid and pulse in a traditional blender, and stir back into the crock.


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Monday, February 6, 2017

Crockpot Monday: Cheesy Creamed Corn

8:50 AM 0 Comments
Sometimes you just want something that is in no way good for you and is in every single way is delicious! This recipe fits that bill perfectly! It's soooo good! Again, try to make sure you save some to go alongside whatever you make with it!

Ingredients:
2 (16-ounce) packages frozen corn
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese
2 Tablespoons white sugar
2 Tablespoons water
4 slices American cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Use a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker. Empty the corn packages into your slow cooker. Unwrap the cream cheese and put the blocks on top. Add sugar and water, and fold the American cheese slices a few times, then crumble it in on top.

Cover and cook on low until everything is all melty, about six hours. Stir well before serving.


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Friday, February 3, 2017

Book Review: Stellar Detective Tales - The Hunt for the Living Shadow

8:30 AM 0 Comments
In the year 2073, Earth, suffering from overcrowding, energy shortages, and planetary disaster, sent 8 million people aboard a colony ship towards Proxima Beta, the nearest habitable planet. For 100 years this ship, the NEW YORK, better known to its inhabitants as ‘The NAWK’, has traveled in relative peace. But with 900 years to go, cracks are beginning to form in the perfect society. It is into the warm pot Detective Leslie Flynt finds himself thrust into the life of Officer Samuel Teegs, becoming a member of the thin blue line in a century he’s never even imagined.

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Every so often, you get something kind of spectacularly cool. In this case, I received the very first copy of the very first print run of a book. Then, every so often, life gets in the way and you have to shelve it for a couple of weeks before you get to read it. That was the case with this book. Then, I had an entire day where I just refused to do anything. The oldest and I caught up on some tv and then while he was watching some Netflix, I picked up this book...

The Good - So many books have been written about time travel and gritty police drama, but somehow this one managed to come at it from a new direction. There are bits of sci-fi, bits of noir, and lots of adventure packed into one 222 page book. The characters have a good level of development and while the book takes place far into the future, there wasn't anything so "unbelievable" that you went hey, wait a second....In fact, I found the futuristic setting to have a realistic feel to it that allowed me to sink into it and keep reading.

The Bad - This author badly needed to get his hands on a good proofreader/editor. While his story is great, his grasp of commas just isn't. While the author had manually made corrections in this edition of the book, there were so many more that needed to be made. I also spotted two times where the author had put the wrong name.

The Summary - Great book that I won't hesitate to recommend, so long as comma misplacement doesn't bother you. I get paid to find these things so I know that they jump out at me more than they might the average reader. I'm also thrilled that this was written in such a way that it's clear that it's book one of a series.  I'm eager to get my fingers on book 2 once it's released.  This book and hopefully future books will have a spot on my bookshelves for sure. Want to pick up a copy for yourself? It's available on Amazon!

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