Friday, February 26, 2016

Pasta And Pie...

That's what we had for dinner!

Linguini with red sauce!

Sauced the right way according to Serious Eats!

I heated the sauce in a pan and then added the pasta and a bit of butter!

So delicious!

 

The we had pie.

Apple Pie!

From Nomadic Pies!

So good!

Reading this...loving it...set in Australia...the writing is lovely!

Have an amazing weekend!

Hugs,

Patty

 

Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Perfect Dreary Day...

This book really messed with my life today. It was sort of brilliant. It was sort of heartbreaking. There was a ton of truth in its starkness and in its realness and in its sadness.

It was so good.

There are three central characters...Caroline Ferriday...socialite/actress...Kasia...a young Polish girl and Herta...a German doctor. Caroline spends her time at the French Embassy sending care boxes to Europe. Kasia works with the underground in Poland. She was caught and sent to Ravensbruck...a German woman's prison/concentration camp. Herta was a doctor at the camp who experimented on about 90 Polish women. Evil, vile, painful experimental surgeries...Kasia and her sister were two of these women. They were all called the "Rabbits Of Ravensbruck".

So...the book was pretty much divided into three parts...the war and its aftermath. The first part is the nightmare...the last two parts are about survival and recovery.

I didn't start to really love the book until the second part but I was riveted to the nightmares in the first part. Every single devastating action that made up WWII and Hitler and his army blitzkrieging through Europe with ruthless abandon was in this book.

Of course I had to google everything...which made parts of this book even sadder because so much is true.

But every word in this book is worth reading. I can't even begin to tell you how much.

And then there are the lilacs...surviving the winter to bloom in the spring...

Up next...

 

Off to watch Idol...

Hugs,

Patty

 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Really Great Thoughts For Today?

I have none.

It's a wet slick windy cold day here. I do not even remotely want to venture outside today.

Is anyone else tired of listening to Oprah tell the world that she loves bread?

It can't just be me.

The girls were fussy about lunch today.

Roxie devoured turkey and duck.

Lucy walked away from it.

She preferred salmon...wild caught.

And because I need her to eat...I cater to her!

Roxie hates salmon...wild caught or not.

And there is no meeting of minds on this one.

It is what it is.

They are staring at me. Mentally conveying to me that it is lunch time. If the double stare doesn't budge me immediately...Lucy walks closer and taps my face repeatedly. Roxie just waits for Lucy to do all of the intense staring and tapping.

Books!

Finished this one...it's fun...it's cozy...it's filled with yummy food descriptions! A new one is out in June!

 

Reading this...historical fiction...takes place in the 40's...war and relationships.

So...Den is out in the wind and rain grabbing lunch and dinner.

Wedge salads...this one is from Serious Eats but the ones we get look just like these.

Have a great day!

Hugs...

Patty

 

 

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Totally "Bowled" Over...

I happened upon an article in the New York Post the other day about a trend...eating everything out of a bowl. Here are some "bowlful" ideas...

This is the outline for power bowls.

It just so happens that I love bowls and after looking in my cupboards I have tons of them. Now I need to spend a morning shopping for bowl foods. And then I need to spend an afternoon roasting and chopping and cooking and prepping all of the bowl foods. And then by Friday afternoon we can actually eat a power bowl filled with food.

Who's with me? Aw...come on...we can do this! Tomorrow my foodie topic will be bone broths! I bet you can't wait!

Books!

New ones that I cannot wait to dive into!

Off to finish this...a family consisting of one older brother and two and a half sisters...a talking cat...Pithfwid...killer dust bunnies...a truth stealer...and I can't forget the harridan. I know you must be wondering how I can read this stuff...but...this book is funny, scary, magical and totally fetching! It's labeled a "children's" book but I swear I saw the word quiescent in this book somewhere! And other words like apparition and subterranean. Are there 9 year olds out there who use these words? Hmmm...it really sort of slides over into a middle grade/adult area. But...that's just me!
Ok...off to quiescently read my book! Did I use that word correctly?
Hugs,
Patty
 

 

 

 

Monday, February 22, 2016

Guilty Pleasures...

So...here's the thing...I wanted to read something that was sorta fluffy, sorta foodie, sorta sweet, sorta beachy and sorta nothing I really have to pressure myself to read...so...up popped catering Penelope! Penelope is catering for a movie. Filming is on a small island in Florida. The book is filled with sand and shrimp and drinks and beach walks and then two teen aged girls who work for Penelope disappear! It was a totally fun addictive book. Well...other than the missing girls. I loved it.

 

The author has this one out, too! Thank you NetGalley! And now that I have started this one...I realize I should have read it first!

 

Saturday night stay at home dinner...baked cheesy rigatoni...this was so good!

Seriously good! The recipe and this photo are from a site called the Stir.

I also read this book over the week end...quite the opposite of the one above.

So...this one was written by a local author. It was fast paced and so down and dirty my head was spinning. Vivid images are stuck in my head from this book. I could not put it down! Vicious nasty people disguised as pillars of the community do some really nasty stuff in this book. One...maybe two...good guys were against all of the bad ones. It also had the added attraction of being formatted in Philadelphia...which is not far from me. So landmarks mentioned...even the fieldstone old farmhouses...were familiar to me and fun to read about! The main character even had a duck pond...like me...but a car with a dead guy in it never landed in mine...yet...although one of our "way behind" neighbor's car rolled into our pine tree...a few years ago.

 

Den was supposed to be away on Sunday through Tuesday but his trip was cancelled...so we had a relaxing and enjoying more normal Sunday.

I made a Dutch Baby Pancake for breakfast...so much fun to watch this baby puff up! You are seeing what's left of it in its flattened stage!

 

And in its about to be eaten stage! Den bought turkey sausages with raisins in them...all I can say is ick!

That was my week end...

Reading this now...it is seriously good! Based on the life of the real Jean Harlow! It's a bit of a page turner!

 

Soooo...Monday...I am longing around with coffee...reading...and in between chapters I am getting boring stuff done...

Have a great day!

Patty