Snowbell Jewelry

BB: Mixed berry Cheesecake

2010-08-31T08:06:00.002+01:00

August's first recipe was chosen for us by me! I was planning to bake the cake while still in London but a couple of weeks went by and before I knew it, I was on my way to see to my sister in Israel. They were of course absolutely thrilled to have me bake something but berries are not exactly common here (except in the frozen form) so I had to improvise. The cake wasn't bad though a tad sweet for me and it was gone within a day.

Comments & substitutions
1. I used fresh figs instead of berries
2. I used less sugar.
3. I baked the cake in a bain-marie and left it in the oven for a bit less time.
4. There are no graham crackers here so I used Petit beurre which are a bit sweet so I didn't add any sugar to the mix (I also didn't pre-bake it).

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

2 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 whole extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the topping:

1 cup red jelly (not jam) such as currant, raspberry, or strawberry
1/2 pint sliced strawberries
1/2 pint fresh raspberries
1/2 pint fresh blueberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the crust, combine the graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter until moistened. Pour into a 9-inch springform pan. With your hands, press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

To make the filling, cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and add the eggs and egg yolks, 2 at a time, mixing well. Scrape down the bowl and beater, as necessary. With the mixer on low, add the sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and pour into the cooled crust.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 225 degrees and bake for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door wide. The cake will not be completely set in the center. Allow the cake to sit in the oven with the door open for 30 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for another 2 to 3 hours, until completely cooled. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the cake from the springform pan by carefully running a hot knife around the outside of the cake. Leave the cake on the bottom of the springform pan for serving.

To make the topping, melt the jelly in a small pan over low heat. In a bowl, toss berries and the warm jelly gently until well mixed. Arrange the berries on top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-08-17T08:00:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Iain Pears' 'Giotto's Hand'

The man gestured vaguely in the direction of a pathway a hundred yards or so further on. 'There's a man in there', he babbled.

Mailbox Monday

2010-08-16T08:00:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted this August by Chick Loves It

Here's what came through my door this week:

Aberystwyth mon amour - Malcolm Pryce
Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why. Louie Knight, the town's private investigator, soon realizes that it is going to take more than a double ripple from Sospan, the philosopher cum ice-cream seller, to help find out what is happening to these boys and whether or not Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, is more than just a sinister bully. And just who was Gwenno Guevara?

The broken shore - Peter Temple
Broken by his last case, homicide detective Joe Cashin has fled the city and returned to his hometown to run its one-man police station while his wounds heal and the nightmares fade. He lives a quiet life with his two dogs in the tumbledown wreck his family home has become. It's a peaceful existence - ideal for the rehabilitating man. But his recovery is rudely interrupted by a brutal attack on Charles Bourgoyne, a prominent member of the local community. Suspicion falls on three young men from the local Aboriginal community. But Cashin's not so sure and as the case unfolds amid simmering corruption and prejudice, he finds himself holding on to something that it might be better to let go.

The sirens sang murder - Sarah Caldwell
There's no such thing as a free lunch...Young barrister Michael Cantrip has skipped off to the Channel Islands to take on a tax law case that's worth a fortune - if Cantrip's tax-planning chums can locate the missing heir. But Cantrip has waded in way over his head. Strange things are happening on these mysterious, isolated islands and something - or somebody - is bumping off members of the legal team, one by one. Very soon Cantrip is calling upon the aid of his colleagues back at Lincoln's Inn and it's up to amateur investigator Hilary Tamar to get Cantrip back to the safety of his chambers - alive!

The reunion - Simone van der Vlugt
A brilliantly paced psychological thriller, 'The Reunion' is a chilling story of just how difficult it can be to cope when the past comes back to haunt you! Sabine is twenty-four years old and has just returned to work following a nervous breakdown. Unsurprisingly, life in the office has changed since she left, and Sabine is now the brunt of her colleagues' cruel jokes, as well as the main topic of office gossip. It soon becomes clear, however, that Sabine's problems are far deeper than those she faces daily at work. Unable to forget her friend Isabel, who went missing when the pair were still at school, an approaching class reunion forces Sabine to think about what really happened all those years ago -- and why. The terrifying flashbacks that she begins to experience make her all the more determined to solve the mystery of her friend's fate. A new love interest and even her own brother soon fall under Sabine's suspicions. Do they know what happened to Isabel? Were they, in fact, present in the forest from which she vanished that fateful day? As the pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place, Sabine realises that the answers lie even closer to home -- much closer than she could ever have possibly imagined. Exciting, frightening and utterly compelling, 'The Reunion' is a psychological thriller that is impossible to put down.

A patchwork planet - Anne Tyler
Barnaby Gaitlin is a loser - just short of thirty, he's the black sheep of a philanthropic Baltimore family. Once upon a time, he had a home, a loving wife, a little family of his own; now he has an ex-wife, a 9-year old daughter with attitude, a Corvette Sting Ray that's a collector's item but unreliable, and he works as hired muscle for Rent-a-Back, doing heavy chores for old folks. He has an almost pathological curiosity about other people's lives, which has got him into serious trouble in the past, and a hopeless charm which attracts the kind of angelic woman who wants to save him from himself. Tyler's observation is more acute, more delicious than ever; her humour slyer and more irresistible; her characters so vividly realised that you feel you've known this quirky collection for ever. With perfect pitch and poise, humour and humanity, Anne Tyler chronicles, better than any writer today, the sublime and the ridiculous of everyday living, the foibles and frailties of the ordinary human heart.

Past reason hated - Peter Robinson
It should have been a cosy scene - log fire, sheepskin rug, Vivaldi on the stereo, Christmas lights and tree. But appearances can be deceptive. For Caroline Hartley, lying quietly on the couch, has been brutally murdered.

Inspector Alan Banks is called to the grim scene. And he soon has more suspects than he ever imagined. As he delves into her past, he realises that for Caroline, secrecy was a way of life, and her death is no different. His ensuing investigation is full of hidden passions and desperate violence . . .

A-Z Wednesday

2010-08-11T08:00:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesday

2010-08-10T08:00:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Anne Taylor's 'A Patchwork Planet'

I never did explain her presence to Natalie. I honestly don't know what I would have said.

Mailbox Monday

2010-08-09T08:00:00.001+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted this August by Chick Loves It

Here's what came through my door this week:

Lonely Hearts - John Harvey
Shirley Peters is dead. Murdered. Her body is found twelve hours later in her own home. Just one of the many sordid domestic crimes hitting the city. Tony Macliesh, her rejected boyfriend, is the obvious prime suspect and he's just been picked off the Aberdeen train and put straight into custody. But then, another women is sexually abused and throttled to death. And suddenly there appears to be one too many connections between these seemingly unrelated crimes. Detective Inspector Resnick is sure that the two murders are the work of one sadistic killer - two lonely hearts broken by one maniac. And it's up to Resnick to put the record straight - and put the bastard where he belongs.

Journey to Ithaca - Anita Desai
Like so many other young Westerners in the 60s and 70s, Matteo leaves home to search for spiritual enlightenment in the ashrams of India. He believes he finds it at the feet of 'the Mother', but down-to-earth Sophie, who accompanies him, does not find her inspiring so much as mysterious, and decides to trace the Mother's own story - from her travels with an Indian dance troupe in Paris, Venice and New York, to her search for divine love in India.

True detectives - Jonathan Kellerman
TRUE DETECTIVES follows Moe Reed and Aaron Fox on the twisted trail of a missing girl, a dark, baffling whodunit that forces the brothers to put aside their mutual animus – and to confront the unresolved family mystery that turned them into enemies. PIs can do things, legally, that cops can’t. And cops have access to resources denied their private counterparts. Only by pooling their efforts – and by consulting a man both brothers respect, psychologist Alex Delaware, do Fox and Reed stand a chance of peeling back the secrets in high places that explain the fate of an outwardly innocent young woman. And, by doing so, the brothers learn about much more than murder.

Gone to ground - John Harvey
Will's first thought when he saw the man's face: it was like a glove that had been pulled inside out...Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, is found brutally murdered in his bathroom. Will Grayson and Helen Walker, police detectives investigating the case, at first assume that his death is the result of an ill-judged sexual encounter: rough trade gone wrong. But doubts are soon raised. Bryan's laptop has gone missing - could the murder be connected to a biography he was writing on the life and mysterious death of fifties screen legend, Stella Leonard? Convinced there's a link, Bryan's sister Lesley sets out to prove that Bryan had uncovered a dangerous truth, and that - desperate to keep it hidden - Stella Leonard's rich and influential family have silenced him. But soon both Lesley and Helen Walker find themselves victims of the violence that swirls around them, as gradually the investigation uncovers the secrets of a family corrupted by lust, wealth and power...

Birthday Berry ideas

2010-08-05T08:00:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago, a friend of my aunt's asked me if I could make the dessert for her husband's birthday party. Naturally I agreed - I love baking after all (and she said she would pay me!!!). I immediately started thinking about what to make. I have a few crowd pleasers in my repertoire (my chocolate mousse, my chocolate charlotte, my cheesecake and my tiramisu) that I tend to make for friends (unless I have to make something for the blog of course) and I was sure one of them would fit the bill.

Then she said 'it has to be with lots of berries and be very light'. Mmmmm... not many fruity desserts on my list and no light ones either. So I frantically started to comb over all my cook books and came with a tentative list:

Raspberry tiramisu
Pavlova
Eton Mess
Summer pudding
Strawberry charlotte
Strawberry/Raspberry tart
Berry mousse

I just couldn't make my mind up (and if you have a bright idea let me know!)

Then it hit me: why not make a trio of desserts - something cute and dainty, It would be light because it would be tiny and would allow me to experiment with different type of desserts. I was thinking something like a mini tart, a mousse, a small salad along with a macaroons.

Anyway, I'm meeting her tomorrow so we'll see what she thinks of my splendid idea!

A-Z Wednesday

2010-08-04T08:00:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesday

2010-08-03T08:00:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Robert Crais's 'L.A Requiem'

I finished going through the letters, and found six more references to Joe, the next being that Joe was 'soooo cute' (she's gotten the picture).

Mailbox Monday

2010-08-02T08:00:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

The clothes on their backs - Linda Grant
In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sandor so violently unwelcome in her parents' home? This is a novel about survival - both banal and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live. Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise and tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.

Genesis - Karin Slaughter
Someone had spent time with her - someone well-practiced in the art of pain...Three and a half years ago former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton moved to Atlanta hoping to leave her tragic past behind her. Now working as a doctor in Atlanta's Grady Hospital she is starting to piece her life together. But when a severely wounded young woman is brought in to the emergency room, she finds herself drawn back into a world of violence and terror. The woman has been hit by a car but, naked and brutalized, it's clear that she has been the prey of a twisted mind. When Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Investigation Team returns to the scene of the accident, he stumbles on a torture chamber buried deep beneath the earth. And this hidden house of horror reveals a ghastly truth - Sara's patient is just the first victim of a sick, sadistic killer. Wrestling the case away from the local police chief, Will and his partner Faith Mitchell find themselves at the centre of a grisly murder hunt. And Sara, Will and Faith - each with their own wounds and their own secrets - are the only thing that stands between a madman and his next crime.

5th horseman - James Patterson
The fifth novel in the Women's Murder Club series.

A young mother is recuperating in a top San Francisco hospital when suddenly she’s gasping for breath. The call button fails to bring help in time. How and why did this happen? With help from the newest member of the Women’s Murder Club, Yuki Castellano, Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer discovers that this is not the hospital’s first suspicious case. Other patients have taken unexpected and devastating turns for the worse just as they’re planning to go home. Are these just appalling coincidences? Or is a maniac playing God with people’s lives?

Disco for the departed - Colin Cotterill
Dr Siri Paiboun may be in his seventy-third year, but he's still as sturdy as a jungle boar - and as crafty as one. Reluctant coroner to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, he's been despatched to the country's mountainous north where the sudden appearance of a mummified arm protruding from a concrete path laid in front of the President's new mansion has caused an understandable degree of embarrassment. Dr Siri's disinterment and autopsy of the body attached to the arm provide some grisly surprises but it is his gifts as a shaman that put the septuagenarian doctor on the trail of the killer. As Siri and his team close in, they must tackle a marriage proposal, brave the perils of the life on the open road, and come face-to-face with a horrific sacrificial ritual. Is it any wonder Dr Siri takes up disco dancing?

The devil's whisper - Miyuki Miyabe
Slowly, the answers are uncovered by sixteen-year-old Mamoru, the nephew of the taxi driver currently being held by the police on charges of manslaughter for the death of the third victim. Determined to help his uncle, the enterprising young protagonist discovers that the girl killed by his uncle's taxi had participated in a devious scam to separate vulnerable men from their money, and that three of the four girls involved in the ploy are now dead. When a powerful businessman reveals new evidence that could free Mamoru's uncle, Mamoru decides he must go all out if he is to save the last of the four girls being targeted by the real killer. And then the killer contacts him.

BB: Greek Panzanella

2010-07-31T21:07:00.002+01:00

July's first recipe was chosen for us by Tara from Smells like home . Luckily I got tomatoes, cucumbers and Ramiro peppers in my organic vegetable box so I knew that the salad would taste great and it did.

Comments & substitutions
1. I used ciabatta rather then French bread
2. For seasoning I only used olive oil and lemon - the tomatoes and peppers were bursting with flavor and I didn't want to add mustard and vinegar.
3. I really don't like organo so I omitted it.

Ingredients

Good olive oil
1 small French bread or boule, cut into 1-inch cubes (6 cups)
Kosher salt
1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 red bell pepper, large diced
1 yellow bell pepper, large diced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 red onion, sliced in half rounds
1/2 pound feta cheese, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup calamata olives, pitted

For the vinaigrette:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup good red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil

Directions

Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread cubes and sprinkle with salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until nicely browned. Add more olive oil as needed.

Place the cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes and red onion in a large bowl.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper in a small bowl. While still whisking, add the olive oil and make an emulsion. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the feta, olives and bread cubes and mix together lightly. Set aside for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.

BB: Blueberry coffee cake muffins

2010-07-31T20:52:00.004+01:00

July's first recipe was chosen for us by Maria from Close to home . I love muffins and I love berries so I was hoping this would a winner. It wasn't bad actually but they were way too many muffins so I had to freeze quite a lot.

Comments & substitutions
1. I made mini cupcakes instead of big ones
2. I used brown sugar and used less of it.
3. I used a mix of berries - I didn't have enough blueberries so I used strawberries, blackberries, jostaberries and gooseberries as well.
4. I forgot to buy sour cream so use yogurt instead
.

Ingredients

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Aloo Gobi

2010-07-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

It's Thursday and time for a recipe! For today I decided to stay away from cakes a cookies a make one of my favorite Indian dishes - Aloo gobi. There are millions of recipe but I stumbled on one from the Hairy

Comments & substitutions
1. I used a bit less tomatoes
2. I wanted to add peas but I forgot
3. I used less chilli
4. I loved it!

Ingredients

2 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4cm/1½in piece fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 curry leaves
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground fenugreek
2 green chillies, left whole
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp salt
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
250g/9oz tomatoes, chopped
½ small cauliflower
1 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
4 naan breads, to serve

Directions

Heat the ghee or vegetable oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. When hot, add the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes, or until softened.
Add the ginger, mustard seeds, curry leaves, ground turmeric, ground fenugreek, whole green chillies, chilli powder and salt. (Caution: when heated, the mustard seeds will start to pop.) Stir the mixture well and cook for two minutes, or until the seeds start to pop and the spices smell fragrant.
Add the potatoes and stir well, then add the tomatoes, cauliflower, lemon juice, sugar and water and bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the mixture for 25-30 minutes, or until the potatoes have cooked through and the mixture has thickened.
To serve, spoon onto four serving plates and serve one naan bread alongside each.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-06-30T08:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: U

This week's book is Mari Jungstedt's 'Unknown'

Synopsis:
It's summer on Gotland and an international group of archaeology students are excavating an ancient Viking site. The camaraderie and holiday spirits of the group are shattered when one of their number, a Dutch student called Martina, disappears. Rumours abound about a secret relationship she was having with someone on the island, but is her disappearance simply a lover's intrigue? When the body of a horse is discovered in a local farmer's field, other rumours begin to circulate. The horse had been decapitated and the head has vanished. As Inspector Knutas begins his investigation, echoes from Gotland's Viking past begin to trouble his search. When Martina's naked body is found hanging from a tree, with what look like ritualistic markings on her skin, there can be little further question. Someone is calling to the old Gods of Gotland. Martina has been killed according to the Viking ritual of the three-fold death, and the one thing the ritual points to is that more deaths will follow.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-06-29T08:00:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Donna Tartt's 'The little friend'

When Harriet was younger, the east end of Natchez Street had been all white. Now both blacks and whites lived there, harmoniously for the most part.

World Cup Madness - South Africa 2010

2010-06-25T12:17:00.003+01:00

I'm not a big fan of football (soccer) - in fact I avoid it like the plague, especially league games. I know they call it (in England at least) the beautiful game but I find it rather boring. I'd much rather watch a basketball game or a (ice) hockey games just because there is some action.

I have to admit that when it comes to world cups I tend to be a bit more involved - and this year inexplicably (probably because I'm home) I find myself knowing everything from games ahead to scores. It doesn't mean I watch all the games - no, my rule of thumb is as follows: if there is no goal within 20 minutes then I switch it off and if I don't like they way they play, I'll switch it off too. To be honest, I can't really watch an entire game on TV, in most cases I'll multi-task.

The big problem is off course whom to support - as none of 'home' teams made it this time, I had to find an 'adoptive' country to support. The obvious choice would obviously be England as this is where I live but I never cheer for the country in which I live in - that's too easy. And besides, I don't like they English team - they can't pass a ball and they whinge.

In the end I decided that there is no need to restrict myself to one team - I can support a few and hopefully one of them will be crowned champion so here's whom I'm currently cheering for:

USA
Germany
Holland
Argentina
Denmark (the didn't make to next round)
Brazil

May the best team win!

BB: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

2010-06-24T08:00:00.000+01:00

I'm taking advantage of the relaxed posting requirements and posting the first recipe (which was chosen for us by Gwenn from Cooking in pajamas) second.

I love cakes but I'm not a big fan of Ina's. I'm also not a big fan of 'white cakes' with no flavorings so I wasn't expecting it too be spectacular. In the end it was OK - I still prefer a good lemon drizzle though.

Comments & substitutions
1. I made a couple of mini loaves and a few cupcakes instead of one big cake so I left it in the oven for way less time.
2. I only used the streusel on top
3. I used only brown sugar and used less of it.
4. In view of some of the remarks about the cake being dry I used slightly less flour.
5. I didn't use the glaze

Ingredients

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the streusel:

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional

For the glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Mix in the walnuts, if desired.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate. Whisk the confectioners' sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-06-23T08:00:00.000+01:00

Synopsis

A young woman with a foothold in two cultures, Rei Shimura has gone wherever fortune and her unruly passions have led her throughout her chaotic twenties. Now, after the streamers for her thirtieth birthday celebration have been taken down, the Japanese-American antiques dealer and part-time sleuth finds herself with an assignment to find and authenticate an ancient Middle Eastern pitcher that disappeared from Iraq's national museum.

The piece is believed to be in the hands of a wealthy Japanese collector, whose passion for beauty extends to Rei herself. But when a devastating typhoon hits Tokyo, Rei is trapped with the object of her investigation—and with much much more than the fate of an ancient pitcher at risk.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-06-22T08:00:00.001+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Mark Billingham's 'Lazy bones'

Holland and Stone had been thorough. It was largely about trial and error, about narrowing the search down and coming up with hits that might be significant.

Mailbox Monday

2010-06-21T08:00:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

A dedicated man - Peter Robinson
The body of a well-liked local historian is found half-buried under a drystone wall near the village of Helmthorpe, Swainsdale. Who on earth would want to kill such a thoughtful, dedicated man? Penny Cartwright, a beautiful folk singer with a mysterious past, a shady land-developer, Harry's editor and a local thriller writer are all suspects--and all are figures from Harry's previous, idyllic summers in the dale. A young girl, Sally Lumb, knows more than she lets on, and her knowledge could lead to danger. Inspector Banks's second case unearths disturbing secrets behind a bucolic facade

Dead right - Peter Robinson
The broken body of Jason Fox has been found in a dirty alleyway. At first it looks like a typical after-hours pub fight gone wrong. But Inspector Alan Banks soon realizes that the truth is rarely so straightforward....

Jason was a member of the Albion League, a white power organization. And there are many people who might have wished him dead: the Pakistani youths he had insulted in the pub that evening; the shady friends of his business partner; or someone within the Albion League itself.

And just as Banks begins to get a grip on the case, an unexpected discovery forces him to reconsider everything he believes....

The dead place - Stephen Booth
Bones where there should be none and a chilling warning of an imminent killing challenge Detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry in their sixth novel. "This death will be a model of perfection. The details will be precise, the conception immaculate, the execution flawless!" When a caller taunts the police with talk of a 'dead place' and the threat of an imminent killing, most think it's a sick hoax. But Detective Diane Fry is sure there's a murderer at work. And when the voice calmly invites them to meet the 'flesh eater', Fry fears it may be too late. Meanwhile, her colleague DC Ben Cooper is investigating Derbyshire's first case of body snatching, entering the macabre world of those whose lives revolve around the deceased and their disposal. But does an obsession with death make for a killer? And what horrors will greet them when they finally find the dead place?

The comfort of Saturdays - Alexander McCall Smith
Isabel Dalhousie is a new mother and a connoisseur of philosophy; she'd rather not be a sleuth. But when a chance conversation at a dinner party draws Isabel into the case of a doctor whose career has been ruined, she cannot ignore what may be a miscarriage of justice. Because for Isabel ethics are not theoretical at all, but an everyday matter of life and death. As she attempts to unravel the truth behind Dr Thompson's disgrace, Isabel's patient intelligence is also required to deal with challenges in her own life. There is her baby son Charlie; Cat's deli to look after, not to mention her vulnerable assistant Eddie; and a mysterious and unlikeable composer who has latched on to Jamie, making Isabel fear for the future of her new family. Isabel treads a difficult path between trust and gullibility, philanthropy and interference, while keeping in her sights the small but certain comforts of family, philosophy and a fine Saturday morning.

The Chelsea girl murders - Sparkle Hayter
When a fire forces TV newswoman Robin Hudson to vacate her apartment, she and her cat Louise Bryant move into the legendary Chelsea Hotel, the bohemian hostelry where artists both famous and infamous have long lived in semi-peaceful coexistence with countless hungers-on, wannabes, and rubberneckers looking for the "real" New York. When a fire forces TV newswoman Robin Hudson to vacate her apartment, she and her cat Louise Bryant move into the legendary Chelsea Hotel, the bohemian hostelry where artists both famous and infamous have long lived in semi-peaceful coexistence with countless hangers-on, wannabes, and rubberneckers looking for the "real" New York. A smoky-eyed man she's just met dies in an apparent suicide, but Robin's not so sure. Could it be murder? Perhaps a genuine suicide subtly staged to look like murder and thereby frame someone? Maybe even the last word in performance art? Is it related in some way to the star-crossed and rather irritable young lovers who have appealed to Robin for help? To sort it out, Robin must brave the whole downtown thing and more: guerrilla artists, jealous women, brooding poets, feuding magicians, art forgers, and befuddled tourists.

It could make a girl crazy, having to dig deep into the history of the venerable hotel nicknamed (not without reason) "the mothership." Oh, and plus...one final, terrible complication: Robin seems to have fallen accidentally in love. Will Robin get the bad guy? The good guy? Both

BB: Scalloped tomatoes

2010-06-17T08:30:00.000+01:00

I'm taking advantage of the relaxed posting requirements and posting the second recipe (which was chosen for us by Josie from Pink Parsley) first - mainly because I had all the ingredients at hand and I needed a recipe for today's post.

I have to say I wasn't really expecting this to be very good - I was afraid of the bread being soggy and let's face it, a mixture of warm tomatoes soggy bread doesn't sound very appealing but I was pleasantly surprised and finished the lot. I'll even do it again!

Comments & substitutions
1. I didn't remove the crusts - I think it helped with the non-soggy factor
2. I used ciabatta
3. I halved the quantities

Ingredients

Good olive oil
2 cups (1/2-inch diced) bread from a French boule, crusts removed
16 plum tomatoes, cut 1/2-inch dice (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup julienned basil leaves, lightly packed
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12 inch) saute pan over medium heat. Add the bread cubes and stir to coat with the oil. Cook over medium to medium-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the cubes are evenly browned.

Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. When the bread cubes are done, add the tomato mixture and continue to cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the basil.

Pour the tomato mixture into a shallow (6 to 8 cup) baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with the Parmesan cheese and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the top is browned and the tomatoes are bubbly. Serve hot or warm.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-06-16T08:30:00.001+01:00

Teaser Tuesday

2010-06-15T08:30:00.002+01:00

When Cooper got back to his flat that night, the light on the answering machine was flashing and the cats were demanding to be fed. One was always more urgent than the other, so it was a few minutes before he pressed the button to play back his messages

Mailbox Monday

2010-06-14T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

Can any mother help me - Jenna Bailey
In 1935, a young woman wrote a letter to Nursery World magazine, expressing her feelings of isolation and loneliness. Women from all over the country experiencing similar frustrations wrote back. To create an outlet for their abundant ideas and opinions they started a private magazine, The Cooperative Correspondence Club. The deep friendships formed through its pages ensured the magazine continued until 1990, fifty-five years after the first issue was put together.

Blindman's bluff - Faye Kellerman
A riveting new thriller from Faye Kellerman, featuring LA detective Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Guy Kaffey thought his wealth could acquire anything- including the best security money can buy. When his family are gunned to death on their vast Butterfly Ranch estate, it's clear that he was tragically wrong. Lieutenant Peter Decker of the LAPD is given the task of piecing together what happened. From the start, he suspects an inside job and that the answer lies with Kaffey's fortune. The daunting scale of Kaffey's business empire produces no shortage of suspects: from members of his bodyguard, to business partners, rival tycoons, even family members. But as LA's ferocious street gangs hire themselves out to unknown paymasters in a cycle of revenge and death, Decker's own family is threatened. And if a billionaire like Kaffey can't protect his own, what hope does Decker have?

Bad Debts - Peter Temple
This story is set in Melbourne in winter featuring rain, wind, pubs, beer, sex, corruption, and murder. A phone message from ex-client Danny McKillop doesn't ring any bells for Jack Irish. Life is hard enough without having to dredge up old problems: his beloved football team continues to lose, the odds on his latest plunge at the track seem far too long and he's still cooking for one. But then Danny turns up dead and Jack has to take a walk back into the dark and dangerous past.

8th confession - James Patterson
When a rock star, a fashion designer, a software tycoon and a millionaire heiress are all murdered in mysterious circumstances, Detective Lindsay Boxer is quickly assigned to the high-profile investigation. Few people are as interested when a local hero, Bagman Jesus, is found brutally executed. Reporter Cindy Thomas however becomes fascinated by his story. He was loved by so many - who would want to kill him? Could the down-and-out Samaritan have been hiding a dark secret? Both Lindsay and Cindy need the help of their fellow members of the Women's Murder Club to crack these complicated cases, but with tensions running high will the friends be strong enough to stick together or will the strain tear them apart?

My soul to take - Ysra Sigurdardottir
If I die before I wake . . .

A grisly murder is committed at a health resort situated in a recently renovated farmhouse, which turns out to be notorious for being haunted. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is called upon by the owner of the resort – the prime suspect in the case – to represent him. Her investigations uncover some very disturbing occurrences at the farm decades earlier – things that have never before seen the light of day...

MY SOUL TO TAKE is a chilling, dark and witty crime novel, and a welcome return for Thora, the heroine of the highly-acclaimed LAST RITUALS.

Job hunting - the disappearing act

2010-06-11T08:30:00.001+01:00

As some of you know, I have been out of a job (and looking for one) for a while now. It's not a pleasant situation and it can be a bit stressful at times. Looking back at my blog, I've come to realize that:

a. I've been neglecting it somewhat
b. Except for ranting about my job interview from hell, I didn't really talk about my job search adventures.

I will endeavor to remedy to both...

As you know, the economical situation is the UK (and elsewhere) is not that great and jobs are rather scarce which means that for every job offer there a lot more applicants than there used to be. It is essentially an employers market and boy do they take advantage of it. It presents itself in many different ways - first there is the drop in salary (they want you to have 10 years experience, speak 3 languages, have an MBA but will only pay you £24,000 per year) and then there is the total lack respects towards the candidates.

I'm not talking about the fact that your application is rarely acknowledged if they decide not to call you from an interview -I totally understand that as they must be getting hundreds of applications. No, I'm talking about those of us who came for a face to face interview, who spent a few hours preparing for that interview, traveling for an hour each way, talking to the interviewer for an hour, sometimes making a presentation, sometimes taking tests that last 3 hours.

They tell you they're going to call as soon as they have made a decision so you wait, and wait, and wait, and...

...NOTHING

So you email them to ask if they've reached a decision...

... your email goes unanswered

You call to ask and they can't talk to but will get back to you and...

... they never do

This is what I call the disappearing act or poofing (those familiar with online dating will know what I'm talking about)

So OK, I get the point, I won't be getting the job, but would it kill you to send me an email to let me know (I'm not expecting a phone call, heavens know it's way too time consuming)? It can be one of those cut and paste jobs - I'm not fussy, I just want to know.

And it's not only employers who are acting this way, agencies are the same (in the UK quite a few jobs are advertised via recruitment agencies - they do the initial screening and forward a list to the employer who then decides who interview) and I could swear it wasn't like that a few years ago.

Let me give you a couple of examples of cases that happened to me in last few weeks:

Company A:

Did a phone interview that lasted 30 minutes
Critiqued their website via email (that took me about an hour to prepare)
Came to a face to face interview that lasted 90 minutes (it was very inconvenient because i was due to leave for a week and they weren't willing to wait so I had to there with my luggage just before catching my train)

Poof: they never got back to me and ignored both email and phone calls

Company B:

Came for an interview that lasted 3 hours and which included role playing and presentation.
Answered some more questions via email

Poof: they never got back to me and ignored both email and phone calls

Agency A

Spent 20 minutes on the phone
Did an hour trek to the agency office changing three times and had a 90 minutes interview

She was supposed to let me know if she would shortlist me or not for the job but she too poofed despite numerous attempts to reach her.

Ginger and orange cookies

2010-06-10T08:30:00.001+01:00

My barefoot bloggers seem to have disappeared this month so I had to scramble to try and find a recipe for today. I didn't want anything too complicated or anything that necessitate shopping as I really didn't have the time.

I was reading an Israeli newspaper and all of a sudden I saw this recipe - as luck would have it, I had all the ingredients, including the date syrup (I use it sometimes to sweeten my yogurt).

Comments & substitutions:
1. I only used half of the sugar and I used brown sugar
2. I was a bit heavy handed with the ginger (cap fell off) so it was a tiny bit too gingery
3. I didn't have any ground cloves so I didn't use any
4. I like the taste of orange so I used the zest of 2.
5. My dough was very soft

Ingredients

50g softned butter
200g (1 cup) sugar
1/4 cup date syrup
1 tbs canola oil
1 tsp of vanilla essence
zest of 1 orange
280g flour (2 cups)
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 (180c) and line two trays with baking parchment
2. Beat together butter, date syrup, sugar, oil, vanilla and orange zest until you get a smooth mixture.
3. add all the dry ingredient and mix until you get a ball of dough
4. Roll the dough into balls about 3 cm large (generous inch)
5. bake for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool before storing.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-06-09T08:30:00.000+01:00

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: R

This week's book is Elizabeth Buchan's 'Revenge of a middle-aged woman'

Synopsis:
Rose Lloyd was the last to suspect that Nathan, her husband of over twenty years, was having an affair, and that he was planning to leave her. But the greatest shock was yet to come; for his mistress was Rose's colleague and friend, Minty. Left alone in their once-happy family home, where she and Nathan had brought up their children. Rose started thinking - about the man she'd married, and how well she really knew him. About the carefree yet studious girl she had been before she met him. Twenty years ago she had to make the choice between two very different lives. Could she now recapture what she nearly chose back then, a life where she put herself first?

Teaser Tuesday

2010-06-08T08:30:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Ysra Sigurdardottir's 'My soul to take''

Matthew raised his head from the pillow. He was thirsty and wondered whether that was what had woken him up or a noise from outside.

Mailbox Monday

2010-06-07T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

Cold case - Faye Kellerman
LA detective Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are back for another riveting thriller follow-up to 2007's 'The Burnt House', from the bestselling Faye Kellerman The savage murder of beloved teacher Bennett Little shocked a community and baffled police. That his killer was never caught has haunted one of his pupils in particular, the gifted but shy Genoa Greeves. Eighteen years later, software billionaire Genoa reads of a similar carjacking and murder in Hollywood. Now able to wield enormous influence, she pressures the LAPD to direct Lieutenant Peter Decker to re-open the case and solve the homicides. With Decker facing nothing but cold trails and dead leads, he enlists the help of his daughter, Hollywood detective Cindy, as well as Rina, his wife. It's a decision he may come to regret as the line between cops and robbers gets dangerously blurred. Now Decker's cold case is re-awakening treacherous secrets in a city where the price of fame has no limits!

Quite ugly one morning - Christopher Brookmyre
Yeah, yeah, the usual. A crime. A corpse. A killer. Heard it. Except this stiff happens to be a Ponsonby, scion of a venerable Edinburgh medical clan, and the manner of his death speaks of unspeakable things. Why is the body displayed like a slice of beef? How come his hands are digitally challenged? And if it's not the corpse, what is that awful smell? A post-Thatcherite nightmare of frightening plausibility, QUITE UGLY ONE MORNING is a wickedly entertaining and vivacious thriller, full of acerbic wit, cracking dialogue and villains both reputed and shell-suited.

The girl next door - Elizabeth Noble
What makes a house a home? For Eve Gallagher, home is miles away in England since she and her husband relocated to an apartment building on New York Upper East Side. And life isn't remotely coming up roses. What makes a neighbour a friend? Violet has lived in the building for decades but she's always kept herself apart, until Eve's loneliness touches her heart and friendship blossoms. What makes a wife a lover? Jason Kramer in Apartment 6A is no longer sure he loves his wife, but he's head-over-heels for Rachael Schulman in 6B. What makes the girl next door the woman of your dreams? Meeting Emily Mikanowski from 3A turns Trip Grayling’s world upside down. It’s love at first sight, but he needs help from Charlotte, the shy romance addict in 2A, if heÂ’s going to win the girl. Dreams come true, hearts are broken and no one is left unchanged when the secrets and desires hidden behind closed doors are finally brought into the light.

Rounding the mark - Andrea Camilleri

He began swimming in slow, broad strokes. The sea smelled harsh, stinging his nostrils like champagne, and he nearly got drunk on it . . . In a fraction of a second, Montalbano realized he’d struck a human foot. Somebody else was floating right beside him, and he hadn’t noticed.“Excuse me,” he said hastily, flipping back onto his belly and looking over at the other.The person beside him didn’t answer, because he wasn’t doing the dead man’s float. He was actually dead. And, to judge from the way he looked, he’d been so for quite a while.

Increasingly disillusioned with his government and the world in general, Inspector Montalbano is considering retirement. He is starting to feel his age, and even his favourite restaurant has closed. But when he bumps into a dead body during a bracing swim, his detective instincts are aroused once more. Particularly when the most likely identity of the victim is a man already long buried . . .

Ritual - Mo Hayder
Just after lunch on a Tuesday in April, nine feet under water, police diver Flea Marley closes her gloved fingers around a human hand. The fact that there's no body attached is disturbing enough. Yet more disturbing is the discovery, a day later, of the matching hand. Both have been recently amputated, and the indications are that the victim was still alive when they were removed. DI Jack Caffery has been newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol. He and Flea soon establish that the hands belong to a boy who has recently disappeared. Their search for him - and for his abductor - lead them into the darkest recesses of Bristol's underworld, where drug addiction is rife, where street-kids sell themselves for a hit, and where an ancient evil lurks; an evil that feeds off the blood - and flesh - of others...

Cookie Carnival - Outrageous Chocolate Cookies

2010-06-03T12:52:00.004+01:00

The (slightly late) May recipe for the (which is hosted monthly by Tami at Tami's Kitchen table) was Outrageous Chocolate Cookies (well there was a choice of recipe but i really didn't like the look of the other ones)

I was actually quite happy to see the recipe because I love chocolate. The recipe reminded me a bit of the Dark Chocolate Chipotle recipe (withoutthe chipotle obviously).

Comments & Substitutions

1. I only used half the sugar (and only brown sugar)
2. I ran out of dark chocolate chips so I also used white
3. I added a bit more butter
4. Yum!

Ingredients

Makes 2 dozen

* 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring in between, until almost melted; do not overheat. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.

3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-06-02T08:30:00.001+01:00

Teaser Tuesday

2010-06-01T00:11:00.002+01:00

It was all a question of method. If the object was to understand Stillman, to get to know him well enough to be able to anticipate what he would do next, Quinn failed.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-05-25T08:30:00.001+01:00

The phone call, however, had made him miss the Free Channel's late-night newcast. He turned on the television anyway and tuned in to TeleVigata

Mailbox Monday

2010-05-24T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

The rise and fall of a domestic Diva - Sarah May
The queen of the black-hearted soap opera is back! Welcome to the upwardly mobile Prendergast Road! On Prendergast Road, deep in Nappy Valley, among olive trees in terracotta, lower fuel emissions, Lithuanian prostitutes, teenage drug dealers, stalkers and soaring house prices, five desperate women wait! The progeny of the IVF generation is ready to start school and only one of them is destined to get a place in Nappy Valley's most oversubscribed cradle of learning. How far will these women go to get that place? Follow Kate Hunter into the depths of her impeccably honed life, as she struggles to maintain the facade of perfection. When exactly did life become a life class? Is happiness overrated? Is it just possible that beneath the flawless sheen of her friends' and neighbours' amazingly trouble-free lives, beneath the freshly-ironed shirts and home-grown veg, lie the same half-truths, the same uncertainties and the same desperation to keep up with the Joneses!? Sarah May is an intimate observer of society (AKA curtain-twitcher of the highest order) and her novel is an hilariously dark-hearted soap opera of our everyday lives.In a society that always strives to be more organic, less carbon-polluting, more virtuous than any other, 'The Rise and Fall of the Domestic Diva' is a breath of fresh air (imported from the mountains of Nepal and filtered organically for purity, of course.

The paper butterfly - Diane Wei Liang
In the outback of China, a political activist, arrested after the Tiananmen massacre, is judged to be a reformed character and released. But Lin is a changed man in more ways than one; haunted by memories of his time in prison, and the events (and people) that put him there, he heads for the country’s capital, where he hopes to confront his demons once and for all. Mei Wang, meanwhile, is struggling to juggle the desires and demands of her family alongside the pressures of running her detective agency, and when her sister recommends her for a new case – the disappearance of a gorgeous young starlet called Kaili – she feels obliged to accept. It’s a risky business, however, investigating the truth in a society that is still catching up with the secrets of its past.

The patience of the spider - Andrea Camilleri
Chief Inspector Montalbano is on enforced sick leave. But when a local girl goes mysteriously missing, the whole community takes an interest in the case. Why are the kidnappers so sure that the girl’s impoverished father and dying mother will be able to find a fortune? The ever-inquisitive Montalbano steps in, to get to the heart of the matter in his own inimitable style.

The paper moon - Andrea Camilleri
As he gets older, Inspector Montalbano is plagued by existential questions. But he doesn’t have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man – shot in the face at point-blank range with his pants down – commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, dirty cocaine, dead politicians, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vigàta.

BB: Spring Green Risotto

2010-05-20T08:30:00.000+01:00

May's first recipe was chosen for us by Kimberly of Indulge & Enjoy. As luck would have I had made a similar risotto a couple of days before this recipe was posted - it was really good so I was quite curious to see what Ina came up with. In my recipe I used asparagus, sugar peas and green peas and lemon of course.

Comments & substitutions
1. I didn't blanch the asparagus ahead and it's a good thing i didn't because they were slightly overcooked even though I put them raw.
2. I used frozen peas and put them just before I turned the stove off
3. I halved the quantities
4. I didn't really taste the fennel.
5. I didn't use the mascarpone.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
1 cup chopped fennel
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
4 to 5 cups simmering chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 pound thin asparagus
10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted, or 1 1/2 cups shelled fresh peas
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, preferably Italian
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

Directions

Heat the olive oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and fennel and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add the rice and stir for a minute to coat with the vegetables, oil, and butter. Add the white wine and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until most of the wine has been absorbed. Add the chicken stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring almost constantly and waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more. This process should take 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the asparagus diagonally in 1 1/2-inch lengths and discard the tough ends. Blanch in boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until al dente. Drain and cool immediately in ice water. (If using fresh peas, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes until the starchiness is gone.)

When the risotto has been cooking for 15 minutes, drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto with the peas, lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Continue cooking and adding stock, stirring almost constantly, until the rice is tender but still firm.

Whisk the lemon juice and mascarpone together in a small bowl. When the risotto is done, turn off the heat and stir in the mascarpone mixture plus the Parmesan cheese and chives. Set aside, off the heat, for a few minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot with a sprinkling of chives and more Parmesan cheese.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-05-19T08:30:00.000+01:00

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: O

This week's book is Janet Evanovich's 'One for the money' which I read not so long ago and really enjoyed (yes, I know I'm a bit behind on the series)

Synopsis:
Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash--fast--but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family.

Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. Neither does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water--wanted for murder.

Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight--and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-05-18T08:30:00.001+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Christopher Broomyre's 'One fine day in the middle of the night'

Matt quietly closed the bedroom door and stood motionless in the corridor for a few moments. He didn't know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or punch himself hard in the face.

Mailbox Monday

2010-05-17T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

No suspicious circumstances - the Mulgray twins
It can be tough being an undercover revenue officer, but DJ Smith has a little help from her trained sniffer cat Gorgonzola, a moth-eaten Persian with gourmet tastes. This first investigation finds DJ and Gorgonzola on the trail of a heroin smuggling ring operating in and around Edinburgh. Along the way they make the acquaintance of Felicity Lannelle, an unscrupulous gastronome and Hiram J. Spinks, an American golfing fanatic. As the duo near the climax on the lonely Isle of May it appears that a real cat and mouse game has just begun...

Muffins Galore - Catherine Atkinson

Little imfamies - Panos Karnezis
Panos Karnezis' remarkable stories are all set in the same nameless Greek village. His characters are the people who live there - the priest, the barber, the whore, the doctor, the seamstress, the mayor - and the occasional animal: a centaur, a parrot that recites Homer, a horse called History. Their lives intersect, as lives do in a small place, and they know each other's secrets - the hidden crimes, the mysteries, the little infamies that men commit. Karnezis observes his villagers with a forgiving eye, and creates a world where magic invariably loses out to harsh reality, a world at once universal, funny and utterly compelling.

A guilty thing surprised - Ruth Rendell
The discovery of Elizabeth Nightingale's broken body in the woods near her home could not have come as a bigger shock. Called in to investigate, Chief Inspector Wexford quickly determines that the Nightingales were considered the perfect couple - wealthy, attractive and without an enemy in the world. However, someone must have been alone with Elizabeth that night in the woods. Someone who hated - or perhaps loved - her enough to beat her to death. The case seems straightforward. But Wexford soon learns that beneath the placid surface of the Nightingales' lives lie undercurrents and secrets no one ever suspected.

A Florentine Death - Michele Giuttari
Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara knows that the beautiful surface of his adopted city, Florence, hides dark undercurrents. When called in to investigate a series of brutal and apparently random murders, his intuition is confirmed. Distrusted by his superiors and pilloried by the media, Ferrara finds time running out as the questions pile up. Is there a connection between the murders and the threatening letters he has received? Are his old enemies, the Calabrian Mafia, involved? And what part is played by a beautiful young woman facing a heart-rending decision, a priest troubled by a secret from his past, and an American journalist fascinated by the darker side of life? Ferrara confronts the murky underbelly of Florence in an investigation that will put not only his career but also his life on the line.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-05-12T08:30:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesday

2010-05-11T08:30:00.000+01:00

She sat crossed-legged on the floor as he ate. 'I'm afraid Lao Jong was a bit beyond his depth'

Mailbox Monday

2010-05-10T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

In a dry season - Peter Robinson
During a blistering summer, drought has depleted Thornfield Reservoir, uncovering the remains of a small village called Hobb's End - hidden from view for over 40 years. For a curious young boy this resurfaced hamlet has become a magical playground . . . until he unearths a human skeleton. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks is given the impossible task of identifying the victim - a woman who lived in a place that no longer exists, whose former residents are scattered to the winds. Anyone else might throw in the towel but Banks sets out to uncover the murky past buried beneath a flood of time...

Darkness and light - John Harvey
A phone call intrudes on retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder's solitary life in Cornwall. It's his estranged wife and she needs a favour. A friend's sister, Claire Meecham, an unassuming widow in her fifties, has gone missing. Elder agrees to return to Nottingham to try and track her down. Then, Claire is found, dead. The killer has arranged her body meticulously, almost lovingly, forcing Elder to remember another dead woman, arranged in an almost identical way. It was his first case with the Serious Crimes Unit. His first case and never solved. It's clear to Elder that this is the work of the same unbalanced individual and, to find the killer, Elder must shine a light into the darkest recesses of human behaviour, the dark and twisted recesses of a disturbed human mind...

Country of the blind- Christopher Brookmyre
The murder of a media moghul in his country mansion appears to be the result of him disturbing a gang of would-be thieves. The robbers are swiftly caught, but when they are unexpectedly moved to a different prison they escape. Back in Edinburgh, a young solicitor reveals to the press that one of the subjects had left a letter with her some time before the break-in which proves his innocence. Jack Parlabane, journo-extraordinaire, is intrigued, but when he approaches the lawyer he discovers someone else is trying to get near her - someone with evil intent, political connections of the highest order and a corrupt agenda. Fast-moving, blackly humorous and intriguingly credible.

The coroner's lunch- Colin Cotterill
Laos,1976. The monarchy has been deposed, the Communist Pathet Lao have taken over. Most of the educated class has fled, but Dr Siri Paiboun, a Paris-trained doctor remains. And so this 72-year-old physician is appointed state coroner, despite having no training, equipment, experience or even inclination for the job. But the job's not that bad and Siri quickly settles into a routine of studying outdated medical texts, scrounging scarce supplies, and circumnavigating bureaucratic red tape to arrive at justice. The fact that the recently departed are prone to pay Siri the odd, unwanted nocturnal visit turns out to be an added bonus in his new line of work. But when the wife of a party leader turns up dead and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers start bobbing to the surface of a Laotian lake, all eyes turn to Siri. Faced with official cover-ups and an emerging international crisis, the doctor enlists old friends, village shamans, forest spirits, dream visits from the dead - and even the occasional bit of medical deduction - to solve the crimes.

Mailbox Monday

2010-04-26T08:30:00.001+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

Bitter Chocolate - Lesley Lokko
Laure, seventeen, beautiful and already abandoned twice in her young life. Once by the glamorous mother she can barely remember, a woman who brought shame on the St Lazare family name and fled to America; and then again by a handsome soldier who left her pregnant and alone, facing the wrath of her grandmother. Amelie, caught in a world where she's neither servant nor mistress, trapped between the St Lazare family she's always worked for and the simmering hostility of a country on the verge of meltdown. With a past she knows nothing about and no family of her own, she yearns to find a place that can be home. Melanie, the rock star's daughter who has everything money can buy except the love she craves. A daddy's girl caught in a whirl of damaging relationships, testing those closest to her. In one man she sees the chance to change her life for ever, but at what price? In a story that begins in the relentless heat of a Haitian summer and sweeps through the luxury of America's elite to the colourful chaos of East End London, BITTER CHOCOLATE is a glorious tale of the quest for love, marriage and finding a place to belong.

The bitch godess notebook - Martha O'Connor
Set in a small-town high school in Illinois in 1988, three misfit girls join forces with devastating consequences. Rennie, the stunningly attractive straight-A student, finds herself way out of her depth when she embarks on an affair with her married teacher. Cherry builds a shrine to Princess Diana in her bedroom while nursing her hippy mother through her coke-fuelled rages. Amy, who tears up her cheerleader's uniform while her drunken parents concentrate on presenting a facade of perfect family life to the outside world. Together the three girls form the Bitch Goddesses, a take-no-prisoners gang of fierce teenage rebellion. They swear to stick together, whatever life throws at them, until one night at Porter's Point when something so horrific happens it shatters their friendship forever. Fifteen years on, Rennie is a writer living in New York, struggling to keep her life on track and hiding an erotic obsession. In her Lake Superior show-home, a heavily pregnant Amy is certain that her husband is cheating on her and that she is jinxed by her past. Cherry, a model patient - obedient, co-operative, taking her medication on time - wakes in blind terror every night in an institution, dreaming of four red letters carved on human skin. The Bitch Goddesses may have grown up, but one way or another they must come to terms with a shared past...

Thirty-Three Teeth - Colin Cotterill
Against all his expectations, Dr Siri Paiboun has rather enjoyed his first five months in office. Now, as hot-season nights close in, Siri is spirited away from Laos' steamy capital on a Matter of National Security. Arriving in Luang Prabang, he's a busy man, examining carbonized corpses, dining with the deposed king, attending a shamans' conference and being rescued by the ghost of an elephant. Not that Siri's complaining...Luang Prabang is in mountains and a good fifteen degrees cooler. Meanwhile, back at Vientiane headquarters, it's hot. Bloody hot - savaged bodies are piling up in Siri's absence. Is it the missing black bear from the circus, or could it be a weretiger? Siri's trusty assistant Nurse Dtui goes snooping but, unlike her boss, the spirits aren't looking out for her...And just what creature, if any, has thirty-three teeth?

Where or when - Anita Shreve
When Charles Callahan chances on a newspaper photograph of Sian Richards, a woman he loved when they were both only thirteen, he is hardly in a position to do anything about it. He has been faithfully married for years and his Rhode Island real estate business has been hit hard by the recession. He is scrambling to stave off bankruptcy and save his house. But Charles cannot resist the hand of fate. He writes to Sian, now a poet living with a family of her own on a farm in upstate New York. Three decades after they last saw each other, the two lovers meet. Powerfully drawn together once again, Charles and Sian are forced to come to terms with the nature of erotic love and betrayal, moral quandaries in an age of shifting values, and the elusive nature of time. Struggling to reclaim what once they lost, they set in motion a passionate and tumultuous series of events that moves to a shocking conclusion.

The unbearable lightness of scones - Alexander McCall Smith
To the casual observer, the great enlightened city of Edinburgh, home of no-nonsense philosophers and cream teas, might appear immune to the rollercoaster of strong emotions. But at 44 Scotland Street, as Matthew and Elspeth embark on the risky enterprise of married love, the raffish portrait painter Angus Lordie has a premonition of disaster. And soon enough Irene Pollock is shocked to learn that her small son Bertie harbours a highly unsuitable ambition; the gloriously vain Bruce discovers a wrinkle and confronts rejection; and Angus finds himself facing the grave consequences of unbridled bliss, not to mention a large Glaswegian gangster bearing gifts ...

BB: Jam Thumbprint Cookies

2010-04-22T08:30:00.000+01:00

April second recipe was chosen for us by Cassandra from 'Foodie with little thyme'. I had high hopes after the last cookie recipe but alas my hopes were dashed... I didn't like them at all, they were chewy, heavy, sweet and I really didn't understand what the coconut was doing there

comments and substitutions:
1. As usual I reduced the amount of sugar - I only used brown sugar
2. I halved the recipe
3. I used lemon curd for half of the cookies

Ingredients

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
7 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
Raspberry and/or apricot jam

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla. Separately, sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Dump on a floured board and roll together into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. (If you have a scale they should each weigh 1 ounce.) Dip each ball into the egg wash and then roll it in coconut. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and press a light indentation into the top of each with your finger. Drop 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each indentation. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is a golden brown. Cool and serve.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-04-21T08:30:00.000+01:00

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: K

This week's book is Alexander McCall Smith's 'The Kalahari typing school for men'. I didn't intend to have two books from the same series two days in a row but it just happened... And I don't really mind, I rather like the series :)

Synopsis
Ex-CID. Ex-New York. Ex-cellent' reads the sign outside the Satisfaction Guarantee Detective Agency. Cephas Buthelezi certainly talks the talk, Precious discovers, but would he have the wherewithal to deal with her current case - a man who has been attacked by ostrich rustlers, and is eager to reassess his life? Meanwhile, there are difficulties at the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, where one of the apprentices has discovered the Lord, problems at home with the mysterious death of a hoopoe, and romantic complications when Mma Makutsi sets up a typing school for men ...

Teaser Tuesday

2010-04-20T08:30:00.001+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Alexander McCall Smith 'Tea Time for the Traditionally Built '

Oh it was clear enough, but there would be no point in spelling this out to Phuti because he simply would not see it

Mailbox Monday

2010-04-19T08:30:00.002+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

A death in Tuscany - Michele Giuttari
In the picturesque Tuscan hill town of Scandicci, the body of a girl is discovered. Scantily dressed, she is lying by the edge of the woods. The local police investigate the case - but after a week, they still haven't even identified her, let alone got to the bottom of how she died. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of Florence's elite Squadra Mobile, decides to step in. Because toxins were discovered in the girl's body, many assumed that she died of a self-inflicted drugs overdose. But Ferrara quickly realises that the truth is darker than that: he believes that the girl was murdered. And when he delves deeper, there are many aspects to the case that convince Ferrara that the girl's death is part of a sinister conspiracy - a conspiracy that has its roots in the very foundations of Tuscan society.

---------------------------------

The dead - Ingrid Black
Five years ago Ed Fagan, the serial killer known as the Night Hunter, disappeared. Since then nothing has been heard from him. But now a Dublin newspaper has received a letter claiming to be from Fagan with a chilling message: he’s going to kill again. The Dublin Metropolitan Police are inclined to dismiss the letter as a hoax, but when the body of prostitute Mary Lynch is found, they believe the murderer may well be Fagan. Saxon, a former FBI agent who was writing a book about Fagan when he disappeared, is certain that the killer is someone else. So while DCS Grace Fitzgerald and her team sniff at a cold trail, Saxon must somehow convince them to look beyond the obvious. But in a city of shadows and secrets, that’s never going to be easy – especially when the truth is so unexpected that even the most astute detective could be shocked into carelessness in the moment of discovery. And carelessness, in the presence of a killer, can be costly...

Tainted blood - Arnaldur Indridason
A man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat. There are no obvious clues apart from a cryptic note left on the body and a photograph of a young girl's grave. Detective Erlendur is forced to use all the forensic resources available to find any leads at all. Delving into the dead man's life he discovers that forty years ago he was accused of an appalling crime. Did his past come back to haunt him? Finally, Erlendur's search leads him to Iceland's Genetic Research Centre in order to find the disturbing answers to the mystery. This prizewinning international bestseller is the first in a new series of crime novels set in Iceland.

Shanghai baby - Wei Hui
Most of the Chinese novels with which Westerners are familiar describe people living under an oppressive regime that has a stranglehold on every aspect of daily life. But in Wei Hui's engaging semi-autobiographical novel of a young middle-class woman's struggle with love, lust and her understanding of the world, the state is very much in the background - ironically, considering that the novel was banned in China for its frankness about modern life. The main plot is fairly simple. Coco, the heroine, is a college drop-out who dreams of becoming a writer. She lives with Tian Tian, an unemployed, impotent drug addict. Needing more than the gentle love Tian Tian can give her, Coco embarks on a torrid affair with a married German. Wei Hui writes openly about the heroine's sexual desires and love life, experimentation with drugs and fascination with Western culture - especially youth culture - and perfectly captures the high of being young, beautiful and hip. Wei Hui is clearly a talented writer, and some of the novel's poetic passages and the evocation of Shanghai as a vibrant city are beautifully done, although occasionally the quality of the writing flags, possibly the fault of the translation. This is a fresh, modern, female perspective from mainland China, and a fascinating expose of a culture in transition. --Kirkus UK

Cookie Carnival - Toasted Coconut and Orange Icebox Cookies

2010-04-15T08:30:00.001+01:00

The April recipe for the (which is hosted monthly by Tami at Tami's Kitchen table) was Toasted Coconut and Orange Icebox Cookies.

I was actually quite happy to see the recipe, I'm not a fan of the orange chocolate combo so I decided not to dip the cookies in chocolate - at least no in dark chocolate. The original plan was to dip them in white chocolate but I decided to eat it instead.

Comments & Substitutions

1. I only used half the sugar (and only brown sugar) - I also rolled the the dough in golden sugar
2. I used unsweetened coconut
3. I didn't dip them in chocolate.
4. It seem that no one thought about reading the recipe before publishing it - there are a couple of errors!

Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons packed orange zest
* 1/2 teaspoon table salt
* 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling cookies
* 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
* 1 large egg, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup toasted sweetened coconut
* 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F and arrange a rack in the middle.

Combine the flour, zest, and salt in a large bowl and whisk until evenly combined.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat together butter and sugars over high speed until light and airy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy and the mixture looks like wet sand, about 2 more minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until just combined.

Reduce the speed to medium and add the flour mixture and coconut and beat until just evenly combined. Lay 2 large pieces of plastic wrap on a clean work surface and put half of the dough along the center of each piece. Shape the dough into 2 logs measuring about 1 1/2-inches in diameter and 10-inches long. Roll logs up in the plastic and secure tightly. Refrigerate the logs for 1 hour or up to several weeks.

Cut the logs into 1/2-inch slices. Roll the cookies in sugar to coat and shake off excess. Arrange on a baking sheet, leaving 1/2-inch between the cookies. Bake until set and golden on the edges, about 15 to 18 minutes. Remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

When cookies are cool, melt the chocolate in a small pan over medium-low heat until smooth. Dip half of each cookie into the chocolate, scrape off excess, and set on a cooling rack. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to set up before serving.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-04-14T08:30:00.000+01:00

'On the face of it, you wouldn't think there was any connection between the murder of a dead man and the events that changes my perceptions about my life...'

For Kinsey Millhone, the investigation started with a surprise visit from an ex-colleague at California Fidelity - the company that had fired her nine months previously.

Fives hours later she was on a plane to Mexico, hot on the trial of a suicide who'd allegedly just come back to life. After a five year wait, Wendell Jaffe's widow had finally succeeded in having the real estate swindler declared dead, collecting half a million dollars for her pains. Now it looks like a 'pseudocide' - and Kinsey's ready to risk everything to get to the truth...

Teaser Tuesday

2010-04-13T08:30:00.000+01:00

I'd intended to ask Ranger to take me to the firing range, but since he was recovering from the gunshot wound I would have to lay the burden on Eddie Gazarra

Mailbox Monday

2010-04-12T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

The risk of darkness - Susan Hill
Simon Serrailer's story began in "The Various Haunts of Men" (about a serial killer against a background of alternative medicine) and continued with "The Pure in Heart" (about a kidnapped schoolboy against a background of the 'innocence' of children and the handicapped). Susan Hill is not afraid to tackle difficult issues, nor to face up to the realities of stress in a busy police station. Her third crime novel, "The Risk of Darkness", equally compulsive and convincing, follows up the child abduction and explores the crazy grief of a widowed husband, a derangement which turns to obsession and threats, violence and terror. Meanwhile, handsome, introverted Simon Serrailler, whose cool reserve has broken the hearts of several women, finds his own heart troubled by a feisty female priest with red hair..."The Risk of Darkness" is packed with action and adventure. Like "Various Haunts", it hinges on a terrific twist which comes as a complete surprise to the reader; and like "The Pure in Heart", it deals in depth with complex daily problems.

--------------------------

Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
Hailed as a masterpiece from the moment of its first publication, "Revolutionary Road" is the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright, beautiful, and talented couple whose empty suburban life is held together by the dream that greatness is only just round the corner. With heartbreaking compassion and clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their hopes and ideals, betraying in the end not only each other, but their own best selves.

--------------------------

Pitch Black - Alex Gray
When Chief Inspector Lorimer returns from his holiday on the island of Mull, he feels a welcome sense of calm. But it doesn't last long. Kelvin FC's new star midfielder is found brutally stabbed to death in his own home and, with his wife apprehended trying to leave the country, a seemingly straightforward new case begins. But the grisly murder of a referee after a Kelvin match throws light on some dark secrets at the ground. And when the latest signing to the club becomes the latest victim in a string of killings, Lorimer knows there's a serial killer on the loose - one that's only beginning to show his true colours. As lies emerge and tensions build, the players and managers live under the constant threat of becoming the next Kelvin fatality. Building to a dark and suspenseful climax, Pitch Black is Alex Gray's most powerful work to date.

-------------------------

One for the money - Janet Evanovich
Stephanie Plum is down on her luck. She's lost her job, her car's on the brink of repossession, and her apartment is fast becoming furniture-free. Enter Cousin Vinnie, a low-life who runs a bail-bond company. If Stephanie can bring in vice cop turned outlaw Joe Morelli, she stands to pick up $10,000. But tracking down a cop wanted for murder isn't easy . . . And when Benito Ramirez, a prize-fighter with more menace than mentality, wants to be her friend Stephanie soon knows what it's like to be pursued. Unfortunately the best person to protect her just happens to be on the run . . .

The Friday 56

2010-04-09T11:09:00.003+01:00

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of Tonya's blog.
* Post a link along with your post back to Tonya's blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

This week's book is Qiu Xiaolong 'The Mao Case'

'To help him I mean'

BB - Raisin Pecan Oatmeal cookies

2010-04-08T08:30:00.001+01:00

Hallelujah!!! Finally! An Ina dessert I liked!!!

April first recipe was chosen for us by Leslie from 'Lethally delicious'. I was a bit dubious because as a rule I'm not a big fan of Ina's desserts but I actually liked it.

comments and substitutions:
1. As usual I reduced the amount of sugar - I only used brown sugar
2. I halved the recipe
3. I increased the amount of cinnamon

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups pecans
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 1/2 cups raisins

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool. Chop very coarsely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the oats, raisins, and pecans and mix just until combined.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-04-07T08:30:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesday

2010-04-06T08:30:00.000+01:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Joanne Harris' first ever book' 'Evil Seed'

Rafe said nothing, but gave a faint moan, and turned his head away petulantly, like a sick child. 'Where do you live?' I took hold of his shoulder; it felt very cold beneath his thin shirt

Mailbox Monday

2010-04-05T08:30:00.000+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
When Dr Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons during an archaeological dig in southern France, she unearths a link with a horrific and brutal past. But it's not just the sight of the shattered bones that makes her uneasy; there's an overwhelming sense of evil in the tomb that Alice finds hard to shake off, even in the bright French sunshine. Puzzled by the words carved inside the chamber, Alice has an uneasy feeling that she has disturbed something which was meant to remain hidden... Eight hundred years ago, on the night before a brutal civil war ripped apart Languedoc, a book was entrusted to Alais, a young herbalist and healer. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the book contains, Alais knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret, at all costs. Skilfully blending the lives of two women divided by centuries but united by a common destiny, LABYRINTH is a powerful story steeped in the atmosphere and history of southern France.

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Miniature Feasts - Michael Harwood
A feast for the eye as much as the palate, Miniature Feasts celebrates the art of entertaining. Whether you are hosting a sophisticated cocktail party or Hogmanay Hootenanny there are simple and stylish recipes for all occasions. 'Sun-dried tomato and parmesan palmiers' are delicious pre-dinner canapés, while 'Beer battered oysters with a shot of bloody mary' will seduce after dark. Either a shot of 'Beetroot, cumin and ginger soup' or a few 'Mini sausages in a sweet and sticky glaze' would be a certain crowd pleaser. An acclaimed private chef, author Michael Harwood is passionate about good food and Miniature Feasts includes some of his sumptuous culinary secrets. This beautiful collection of simple but stunning party food will inspire readers to start sending out the invitations right away.

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The Mao Case - Qiu Xiaolong

Tucked away from the building sites of modern Shanghai are the beautiful mansions once owned by the smartest families in 1930s China. They have since been bought by rich businessmen and high-ranking members of the Communist Party. All except one.

The owner is an old painter. Each day he teaches his students, all beautiful girls in their twenties. Each night he holds a glittering party: swing jazz plays for his former neighbours, who dance, remember old times and forget for an evening the terrors that followed. But questions are being asked. How can he afford such a lifestyle? His paintings? Blackmail? A triad connection? Prostitution?

Inspector Chen is asked to investigate discreetly what is going on behind the elegant façade. But, before he can get close to anyone, one of the girls is found murdered in the garden and another is terrified she will be next.

Chen’s quest for answers will take Chen to a strange businessman, triads, Chairman Mao himself and a terrible secret the Party will go to any length to conceal.

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Lady's maid - Margaret Forster
It is London in the year 1844, and a shy young woman has arrived to take up a new position in the grandeur of No. 50, Wimpole Street. Subtly and compellingly, "Lady's Maid" gives voice to Elizabeth Wilson's untold story, her complex relationship with her mistress, Elizabeth Barrett, and her dramatic role in the most famous elopement in history.

'Catastrophe' Chocolate cake

2010-04-01T11:03:00.002+01:00

As it is Passover I decided to make something for the holiday but as I can't abide the 'typical' cakes made with matzo meal or potato starch I went for a flourless chocolate cake. It has very few ingredients and it's relatively quick to make though you have to chill it before eating it.

I took the recipe from Carine Goren - an Israeli baker/chef. A word of warning for the American/UK palates: the cake doesn't contain any SUGAR - a crazy notion for you I know! So you might want to add some. I found it just right but if you make kids you might to add some sugar as well. It is quite rich!!!

Ingredients:
7 cold eggs
400 gr of dark chocolate
200 gr of butter
3 tbs pf chocolate liqueur (or any other)

Directions
1. Turn on the oven at 150C.At the bottom of the oven put a dish full of boiling water.
2. Beat the cold whole eggs for 8 minutes at high speed until you get a thick, pale and creamy mixture
3. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and the butter.
4. Mix a third of the egg mixture with the chocolate, add the liqueur and then the rest of the eggs. Mix until you get a smooth mixture.
5. Pour in spring form and put in the oven for 40 minutes. The cake should just start to crack at the top and not be totally firm.
6. Cool the cake completely, then put it in the fridge for 2 hours at least. You can serve it room temperature or cold.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-03-31T08:30:00.000+01:00

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: H

This week's book is Kate Atkinson's 'Human Croquet'

Synopsis:
Once it had been the great forest of Lythe - a vast and impenetrable thicket of green. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor, visited once by the great Gloriana herself. But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by streets of trees. The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all. But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpege and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-03-30T08:30:00.000+01:00

The next few weeks passed uneventfully. Rocky was as charming as ever, but I was careful to say to myself 'Italian girlfriend' or 'rather shallow sort of person' whenever I saw him, so that I might stop myself from thinking too well of him.

Mailbox Monday

2010-03-29T08:30:00.002+01:00

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

The house of God - Samuel Shem
Now a classic! The hilarious novel of the healing arts that reveals everything your doctor never wanted you to know. Six eager interns -- they saw themselves as modern saviors-to-be. They came from the top of their medical school class to the bottom of the hospital staff to serve a year in the time-honored tradition, racing to answer the flash of on-duty call lights and nubile nurses. But only the Fat Man --the Clam, all-knowing resident -- could sustain them in their struggle to survive, to stay sane, to love-and even to be doctors when their harrowing year was done.

Harm done - Ruth Rendell
Back in the familiar Sussex town of Kingsmarkham, Rendell's dogged sleuth Wexford is investigating the strange abductions of two young girls: Rachel, a bright middle-class student, and Lizzie, a mentally disabled 16-year-old living with her unsympathetic parents on a grim council estate. When both girls return home, apparently unharmed, Wexford is faced with a curious mystery: what really happened to them? As Wexford begins to uncover the disturbing truth, the dark psychological world that Rendell is so adroit at exploring suddenly comes into focus. And her gift for sharp but concise characterisation remains untouchable as in the case of a reluctant witness: " ''We don't talk about that sort of thing'. She very nearly but not quite tossed her head.

Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
Mildred Lathbury is one of those 'excellent women' who is often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sales, the garden fete spoilt by bad weather'. As such, she often gets herself embroiled in other people's lives - especially those of her glamorous new neighbours, the Napiers, whose marriage seems to be on the rocks. One cannot take sides in these matters, though it is tricky, especially as Mildred, teetering on the edge of spinsterhood, has a soft spot for dashing young Rockingham Napier. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest and most touching.

The Evil Seed - Joanne Harris
Something inside me remembers and will not forget...When Alice Farrell is drawn to Grantchester churchyard and reads the strange inscription on Rosemary Virginia Ashley's gravestone, she feels oddly disturbed. And when former boyfriend Joe returns to Cambridge with his new girlfriend Ginny, Alice is repelled by the ethereal, lavender-eyed beauty - and is certain of her evil. Then Alice finds an old diary in Ginny's room and reads the story of Daniel Holmes, who lived in Cambridge forty years earlier, and fell under the fatal spell of Rosemary Ashley. As the two stories intertwine, Alice's suspicions about Ginny increase - until the past meets present in a terrifying climax...

The dogs of Riga - Henning Mankell
Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea, to Riga in Latvia, where he is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies. Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues, only Wallander's obstinate desire to see that justice is done brings the truth to light.

BB - Caesar Club Sandwich

2010-03-25T08:30:00.000Z

March second recipe was chosen for us by Karen from 'Shortbread'. I can't say I was overly excited by it - i mean a sandwich can hardly called cooking... It wasn't bad but I'd never think about following a recipe for a sandwich! I followed it mostly, the only thing I changed was using vegetarian 'chicken' and not using pancetta.

Ingredients

2 split (1 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces thinly sliced pancetta
1 large garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste
1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
1 large ciabatta bread
2 ounces baby arugula, washed and spun dry
12 sun-dried tomatoes, in oil
2 to 3 ounces Parmesan, shaved

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan skin side up. Rub the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through. Cool slightly, discard the skin and bones, and slice the meat thickly. Set aside.

Meanwhile, place the pancetta on another sheet pan in a single layer. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to drain on paper towels.

Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until minced. Add the anchovy paste, mustard, lemon juice, and mayonnaise and process again to make a smooth dressing. (Refrigerate the Caesar dressing if not using it immediately.)

Slice the ciabatta in half horizontally and separate the top from the bottom. Toast the bread in the oven, cut side up, for 5 to 7 minutes; cool slightly. Spread the cut sides of each piece with the Caesar dressing. Place half the arugula on the bottom piece of bread and then layer in order: the sun-dried tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, crispy pancetta, and sliced chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and finish with another layer of arugula. Place the top slice of ciabatta on top and cut in thirds crosswise. Serve at room temperature.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-03-24T10:28:00.002Z

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: G

This week's book is Stieg Larsson's 'The girl who played with fire'. I know that I used this book in a couple of memes already and I have more than enough G books BUT this is a nostalgic piece as the first A-Z Wednesday i ever posted was 'the girl with the dragon tattoo'. Don't worry though, you won't see the third one here as I have it in French

Synopsis:
Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander's innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. Yet Salander is more avenging angel than helpless victim. She may be an expert at staying out of sight - but she has ways of tracking down her most elusive enemies.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-03-23T09:58:00.002Z

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Matt Beaumont's 'e'

I must say - I finished reading it a few days ago and it was hilarious!

Debbi, feel free to e me back. Boss loves me - didn't actually say 'sorry' but came close (read attached e - shows you what I've got to deal with).

Mailbox Monday

2010-03-22T08:30:00.000Z

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

The death of Vishnu - Manil Suri
Vishnu, the odd-job man in a Bombay apartment block, lies dying on the staircase landing. Around him the lives of the apartment dwellers unfold - the warring housewives on the first floor, the lovesick teenagers on the second, and the widower, alone and quietly grieving at the top of the building. In a fevered state Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and comedy becomes tragedy as his life draws to a close.

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Crime Beat - Michael Connelly

Time and time again we make the connection between Connelly the crime reporter and Connelly the novelist: 'On the day I arrived in Los Angeles I sat in the newspaper editor's office being interviewed for a job on the crime beat. The day before there had been a bank heist in which the thieves had gone into the city's labyrinthine storm water tunnel system to get beneath the bank before tunnelling upward.' Years later that story would become THE BLACK ECHO. 'One morning an editor called me and told me to swing by a murder scene on my way to the office. The murder was on Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills. I went as instructed and got the story. I also got the place where I would put the home of the fictional detective [Harry Bosch] I had secretly begun writing about ...'

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e. - Matt Beaumont

An unforgettable first novel, an author to shout about, a campaign to ensure that everyone knows this is the funniest, sharpest read of the year. Consisting entirely of staff emails, e spends a fortnight in the company of Miller Shanks, an advertising agency that scales dizzying peaks of incompetence. Among the cast are a CEO with an MBA from the Joseph Stalin School of Management, a Creative Director who is a genius, if only in his own head, designers and copywriters driven by breasts, beer or Bach Flower Remedies, and secretaries who drip honey and spit blood. The novel is a tapestry of insincerity, backstabbing and bare-arsed bitchiness: that is to say, everyday office politics. Oh yes, and there is some work to be done too -- the quest for advertising's Eldorado, the Coca-Cola account. e is sleazy, scurrilous and scabrously funny. It also contains a first-class joke about the Pope and sound advice on the maintenance of industrial carpet tiles.

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Angels flight - Michael Connelly
Harry Bosch finds himself yet again in charge of a case that no one else will touch. This time his job is to nail the killer of hot shot black lawyer Howard Elias. Elias has been found murdered on the eve of going to court on behalf of Michael Harris, a man the LAPD believes guilty of the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl. Elias had let it be known that the aim of his civil case was not only to reveal the real killer but to target and bring down the racist cops who beat up his client during a violent interrogation. Now it's all down to Bosch - and he's got to take a long, hard look at some of his colleagues in a police department that is rife with suspicion and hatred.

The Friday 56

2010-03-19T08:30:00.001Z

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.

Cookie Carnival - Hershey's Walnut Mint Bars (sort of)

2010-03-18T08:30:00.003Z

The March recipe for the (which is hosted monthly by Tami at Tami's Kitchen table) was Hershey's Walnut mint Bars.

My heart sank a little when I saw the recipe - no I'm lying my heart plummeted all the way down to my feet - there was absolutely no way I was going to make this! There were so many wrong things with the recipe:

1. Hershey's doesn't qualify as chocolate
2. I find the combo of chocolate and mint foul - even more than the citrus-chocolate combo.
3. I don't do margarine

Then I started thinking - I could change this to suit my needs, sure the end result would probably not look like the original recipe but who cares.

Comments and substitutions:
1. I didn't add sugar to the base or cocoa - I just used chocolate wafers
2. I forgot the walnuts
3. Sweetened condensed milk is sweet as hell so I reduced the amount by half and added more cream cheese
4. I used butter instead of margarine
5. I couldn't be bothered with the drizzle
6. Basically it ended up being like a flat cheesecake

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick)plus 2 tablespoons margarine, divided
1-1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 45 wafers, crushed)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract OR 1 tablespoon green creme de menthe
Green food color(optional)
CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE(recipe follows)

Direction
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Melt 1/2 cup margarine in medium saucepan; stir in crumbs, walnuts, sugar and cocoa. Press firmly on bottom of ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Beat cream cheese, remaining 2 tablespoons margarine and cornstarch in small bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk then egg, peppermint extract and food color, if desired. Pour evenly into prepared pan.

3. Bake 25 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Drizzle CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE over top. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator. 24 to 36 bars. bars.

CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE: Melt 1 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips with 1-1/2 teaspoons shortening (do not use butter, margarine or oil).

A-Z Wednesday

2010-03-17T08:30:00.000Z

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: F

This week's book is 'Find Me' (Shark Music in the US) by Carol O'connell - the last of the Kathy Mallory series.

Synopsis:
A mutilated body is found lying on the ground in Chicago, a dead hand pointing down Adams Street, also known as Route 66, a road of many names. And now of many deaths. A silent caravan of cars, dozens of them, drives down the road, each passenger bearing a photograph, but none of them the same. They are the parents of missing children, some recently disappeared, some gone a decade or more - all brought together by the word that children-s gravesites are being discovered along the Mother Road.Detective Sergeant Kathy Mallory drives with them. The child she seeks, though, is not like the others. It is herself - the feral child adopted off the streets, her father unknown, her mother dead, their past a mystery. During the next few extraordinary days, Mallory will find herself hunting a killer like none she has come across before, and uncovering the secrets that have haunted her all her life.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-03-16T08:30:00.002Z

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser is from Koji Suzuki's 'Spiral'

Ando knew quite well that he hadn't worn a sunny expression once all year. He tried to imagine, objectively, how he must look from Mai's perspective.

Mailbox Monday

2010-03-15T08:30:00.000Z

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Here's what came through my door this week:

The girl who played with fire - Stieg Larsson
Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander's innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. Yet Salander is more avenging angel than helpless victim. She may be an expert at staying out of sight - but she has ways of tracking down her most elusive enemies.

Long Lost - Harlan Coben

Myron is summoned to Paris at the behest of an old lover, Terese. She is in unspecified trouble and needs his help. When he gets there, he discovers that her husband has been murdered and she is the main suspect. The interesting thing is that more than one blood-type has been discovered at the scene - and the other blood can only be attributed to his daughter. But she died 10 years before. As Myron and Terese try to find out exactly what's going on, they uncover more and more questions. Did the daughter really die? Did Terese's husband have a further child with someone else? But when the truth is something no one expected...

The Friday 56

2010-03-12T08:30:00.002Z

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.

She was soaked through and bleeding badly from a gash below her kneecap

BB - Individual 'meat' loaves

2010-03-11T08:30:00.000Z

March first recipe was chosen for us by Tonya from 'What's on my plate'. It's the first time since I started participating that there are two meat recipes in a row. What can I say - I wasn't really looking for it. The minced Quorn - which is what I use for recipes that call for ground (minced) meat is decent but it doesn't really have the same properties as meat as it's drier so it's not the best for burgers, meatballs or meatloves. I decided to try it nevertheless.

Comments & substitutions
1. I used Quorn instead of meat
2. I had to 'cook' the Quorn with the onions for a bit as it comes frozen.
3. I only used a third of recipe as I don't have an army to feed
4. I put the result in a ramekin as I wasn't sure the shape would hold.
5. I must say I didn't find it terribly flavorsome - I did take into account that fake meat has less taste than the real thing so I tripled the seasoning but still... I added some tabasco, scallions and some garlic to add taste.
6. Will I do it again? Not sure

Ingredients

1 tablespoon good olive oil
3 cups chopped yellow onions (3 onions)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup canned chicken stock or broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 1/2 pounds ground chuck (81 percent lean)
1/2 cup plain dry bread crumbs (recommended: Progresso)
2 extra-large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup ketchup (recommended: Heinz)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan. Add the onions, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not brown. Off the heat, add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and tomato paste. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, combine the ground chuck, onion mixture, bread crumbs, and eggs, and mix lightly with a fork. Don't mash or the meatloaf will be dense. Divide the mixture into 6 (10 to 11-ounce) portions and shape each portion into a small loaf on a sheet pan. Spread about a tablespoon of ketchup on the top of each portion. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the internal temperature is 155 to 160 degrees F and the meat loaves are cooked through. Serve hot.

A-Z Wednesday

2010-03-10T08:30:00.000Z

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: E

This week's book is 'Emotionally Weird' by Kate Atkinson. This was the first of Atkinson's book I ever read, by the end of it I was hooked and I went on to read every single book she written so far - no bad surprises yet!

Synopsis:
On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?

Tzipi in Brussels

2010-03-09T16:00:00.000Z

I invited Tzipi to join me on my trip to Brussels - she was very excited about the prospect of taking a train under the Channel.

First we had a journey on the Tube (subway), fortunately the carriage was relatively empty so Tzipi had a seat all for herself.

St Pancas, the station from which the Eurostar leaves, is a really nice station. The roof is amazing and there are wooden floors. There is also a Cafe Nero and it's probably the only place in England where you can get wi-fi for free. Since we had some time before boarding the train, we went for coffee and biscotti (Tzipi went for a muffin).

As departure time loomed, Tzipi was more and more excited! She made me take at least 10 pictures of her standing next to the train!

On Friday we just hung out with family, and on Saturday we went out to town to do some window shopping. in one of the shops Tzipi met this Teddy, they started chatting and I think she has a bit on crush on him.

We went to a party on Saturday night and on Sunday Tzpi beggesd me to take her chocolate shopping! We checked at least 5 stores and in each she had to sample the merchandise... Obviously by the time we went home she wasn't feeling so hot.

And now we're back in the UK. Today I send Tzipi to her next host - Junie. Enjoy your time in Scotland!!!

The Friday 56

2010-03-05T08:30:00.001Z

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends.

Perhaps it was a different guest

I have a guest

2010-03-04T08:30:00.001Z

I have a very special guest staying with me this week - it's Tzipi the world traveling flutterbutt.

She was created by the very talented Sharona from Raisinlike. Tzipi started her journey with Heather and the meerkats and on Tuesday she arrived to my humble abode.

Unfortunately due to previous commitments, I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend with her. She's very cool about though, she spent the whole of yesterday reading and today she just played around with the my gemstone supplies.

To reward her for being such a good sport, I'm going to take her with me to Brussels this weekend. She's already very excited about the Eurostar journey (the first time she's getting to travel outside an envelop!) and I'm sure she'll love the chocolates even more!

A-Z Wednesday

2010-03-03T08:30:00.000Z

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday hosted by Vicki from Reading At The Beach
To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link (Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments. If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: D

This week's book is Linda Fairstein's 'Death Dance'. I rather enjoy her protagonist, Alex Cooper even though she seem to have a bit too much money and get into scrapes much more often than a DA should...

Synopsis:
Once again Linda Fairstein uses her experience as Manhattan's leading DA to create a tantalyzing web of intrigue, betrayal and murder. Teaming up with longtime friends and colleagues, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex Cooper investigates the disappearance of a world-famous dancer, who has vanished from the Metropolitan Opera House. Drawn behind the scenes of New York's theatrical community, the team is haunted by ghosts of the dramatic old theatres - and from their own pasts. At the same time, Alex and Mercer are trying to collar a doctor who's been using his extensive knowledge of and access to drugs to overpower women before assualting them. A spell-binding thriller combining the unique history of New York with fresh insight into the latest forensic techniques.

Teaser Tuesday

2010-03-02T08:30:00.000Z

A sharp knock at the door was immediately followed by Phil Richmond holding a small package. 'I've got it,' he said, an excited light in his eyes.