Books I read on vacation

Drop Dead Healthy by AJ Jacobs:  AJ goes on a quest to become healthier so he can be a better dad and be here for his kids longer.  Each chapter is devoted to a different part of the body.  AJ wades through the health mumbo-jumbo on the internet and seeks help from medical professionals.  He tries plenty of  wacky activities and therapies but also many sensible ones.  Somethings he tries once and others he plans to stick to for a long time.  AJ is humorous while still being serious about his health.  It was a great read.

The Shack by William P. Young:  I have been told to read this book over and over, so I finally succumbed to reading it.  It is an incredibly painful book, I cried a lot.  The story focuses on a family whose daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered.  The father struggles to figure out how God could let this happen and eventually he gets an invitation from God to spend the weekend at the shack where his daughter was killed.  God turns out to be a large African woman, Jesus a plain Middle-Eastern man, and the Holy Spirit a fast-moving Asian woman.  While kinda crazy and not very well written this book is very thought-provoking and attempts to answer the questions: Where is God when bad things happen? & Why does God let bad things happen?  I'm glad I read it.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin:  This is one of my favorite books from early middle school.  I got it from Scholastic in 5th grade when they did their yearly book giveaway.  It is a great mystery of families in an apartment building being thrown together by a crafty old man to play a game of intrigue.  I reread this book every few years because it is just that good.

The Pinballs by Betsy Byars:  This is another easy reader book.  I read it in a hour and a half.   This book tells the story of 3 kids brought into foster care because of bad home situations.  When I was in elementary school this book taught me that not everyone has parents who meet their needs and a lot of their dreams.  I realized how blest I was because of this book.  It is another one that I like to reread.

One Day by David Nicholls:  While on vacation I ran out of books to read for our long journey home, so I ran into a store one day and just randomly grabbed this book.  Apparently it was made into a movie with Anne Hathaway, I guess I'll have to check that movie out sometime.  Anyway One Day is a bittersweet story of  Dex and Em who meet at the end of college and stay in touch for the rest of their lives.  The story opens on July 15th 1988 and each chapter is that same day the next year.  Their story is a lot more bitter than sweet.  Dex becomes an alcoholic, gets into drugs, and sleeps with random women like it is his job.  Em struggles to find her passion and ends up in dead end jobs like fast food for a long time.  It's well written but an overall very sad story, with a few very bright moments.

Cinnamon Raisen Beer Bread

Do you remember when Tastefully Simple Beer Bread was all the rage?  You just had to add a beer to it, mix it up and bake til golden.  Oh yum.  My mom ordered it a few times, but it was really expensive so she found a way to make beer bread from scratch:

3 cups self-rising flour  ( make your own self-rising flour: 1 cup AP flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder & 1/4 teaspoon salt )
3 tablespoons sugar
1 (12 oz.) beer or carbonated beverage

Mix til moistened and pour into a greased 8" bread pan.  Bake on 350F for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.

This beer bread is perfect with soup for supper and great toasted with butter and jam for breakfast the next day.  Even though it is a quick bread it smells and tastes a bit like yeast bread from the beer.

Yesterday I woke up to the most amazing smell coming out of our oven.  My mom had made a new version of her traditional beer bread: Cinnamon Raisen Beer Bread.  It smelled and tasted kind of like cinnamon rolls.  YUM.

Instead of beer my mom used Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Hard Cider and added cinnamon and raisens to the original mix.

Cinnamon Raisen Beer Bread

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 ginger hard cider

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup raisens

3 tablespoons butter, cut into thin slices

Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8" bread pan. In a bowl stir, flours, cider, sugar cinnamon, and raisens together  until moistened. Pour into prepared pan.  Place butter evenly over dough.  Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown around the edges.



Smore's Bars

I love smore's.  There is something about the crunch of the graham cracker, meltiness and richness of the chocolate and the pure sugar sweetness of a golden brown marshmallow that just says summer.

But I have 2 issues with smore's:

1. I do not have enough patience to hold a marshmallow over the embers of a campfire and slowly roast a marshmallow to perfection.  I burn it every time.

2. My hands are always sticky after eating a smore, there is no way to avoid it, then I'm sitting around the campfire for another few hours with sticky hands.  Gross.

So I decided to make smore's bars in the oven.  No mess, no fuss.  My pinterest feed has been blowing up with smore's bars for the last few weeks, so I could hardly resist making my own version of smore's baked in an oven and served on a plate with a fork.

My version has dry roasted peanuts layered inside the bars, because this recipe needs something to cut the sweetness of the chocolate and marshmallow, they also add a great crunch. 

Smore's Bars

9 whole graham crackers (1 bag of the 3 bags that come in a box)

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (7 oz.) tub marshmallow cream
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup dry roasted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350F and spray an 8x8" pan with cooking spray.  To a food processor add the graham crackers and pulse until you get fine crumbs.  Add butter, applesauce and vanilla, pulse until combined.  Press 2/3 of the crumb mixture in the bottom of the pan. 

Uncover tub of marshmallow cream and microwave for 20 seconds or until spreadable: cover crust with marshmallow cream.  Sprinkle evenly with chocolate chips and peanuts.  Sprinkle on remaining crumbs.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until marshmallow cream around the edges is puffed and just starting to brown.

Summer Reading 2012

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins:  Wow, this series was intense.  I really couldn’t believe how much evil there was them, and how much the evil won.  This series is full of death for death’s sake and it made me really sad.  I really think that anyone 13 and under should be reading this and discussing it with their parents.  There is so much trauma, pain, suffering, huge moral dilemmas, and sacrifice that is way more than a young adult can handle alone.  This book is really quite scary, not just warfare-scary, but there-is-no-one-whom-I-can-trust-scary.  While I think this series is quite adult in theme, I am still glad I read it.  It really made me think about how the government works and what loyalty and family really mean.

Peter Pan by JM Barrie:  I thought this was going to be very similar to the Disney movie or even like the movie Hook, but man was it not.  Well I guess the story was mostly the same, but it was written  in England at the turn of the 20^th century so the language was confusing as well as some cultural aspects which I didn't understand.  It is a short read, but I think I’d rather watch the movies than reread it.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer:  More like Extremely Heart-Breaking and Incredibly Poignant.  I really liked this book.  It tells the story of a peculiar 12 year old boy who lost his dad in 9/11 and how he goes on an epic adventure to try and reconnect with his dad.  Letters throughout the book tell the story of his paternal grandparents and how his father came to be.  There is an amazing amount of truth in this book, every character, especially the boy, has a whole lot of wisdom to share.

Spinach Stuffing Rounds with Cranberry Orange Sauce

This is another recipe that I developed for The Soyfoods Council.  It is based on a recipe for Spinach Balls from the family I stayed with last summer. I really enjoyed it and while developing recipes using Textured Soy Protein I thought of the Spinach Ball recipe and decided to modify it and add a sauce to it.  

Spinach Stuffing Rounds with Cranberry Orange Sauce

Serves 6

Thanksgiving feasts only happen once a year, but the flavors of Thanksgiving can be enjoyed all year long in Spinach Stuffing Rounds with Cranberry Orange Sauce.  Store bought stuffing mix, combined with TSP and spinach are baked to create a crispy exterior, while the inside is moist; just like stuffing.  The Cranberry Orange Sauce brightens up the Stuffing Rounds with tart cranberries and sweet orange marmalade, making a delicious and easy no-fuss meal.  This recipe has plenty of protein to be a main dish but it also works great as a side dish or appetizer, just form the rounds smaller.

 Stuffing Rounds

1 cup milk

¼ cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 eggs

1 cup TSP

1 (6 oz.) box stuffing mix

1 (10 oz.) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Sauce

½ cup orange marmalade

1 (14 oz.) can whole berry cranberry sauce

1/3 cup vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.  In a large bowl a combine milk, butter, garlic and onion powders, Italian seasoning, and eggs, whisk until smooth.  Add TSP, stuffing mix, and spinach, stir until evenly distributed.  Form into 2 inch rounds, pressing each round together firmly, and place at least ½” apart on prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan over medium high heat; add all sauce ingredients, whisking often until cranberry sauce is melted.   Reduce heat to low and simmer until rounds are baked.

Serve sauce over rounds.

Yield: 6 servings (12 rounds total)

Calories:  440, Total fat:10g, Saturated Fat:5 g, Cholesterol:  90mg, Sodium: 610mg, Carbohydrates:73 g, Dietary Fiber:  6g. Sugar: 39g, Protein:  17g