1984

After a LONG day of figuring out how to use an E-Book.
Haha, I guess I am pretty content with my paper pages.

Here goes nothing!

My friend, Kristyn, and I are doing what most people hate... We are reading the books those crazy schools require you to read when you should be tanning at the beach, or whatever kids do during the summers now. We found a list titled, "101 Books to Read Before You Die," and we are doing two a month. Tonight I start reading 1984. A book I have always wanted to read for no particular reason other than the simple fact that it was the year of my birth. Silly reason - YES! So, like I said before...

Here goes nothing!

101 Books to Read Before I die...

Hello World, Blogging about cooking has not been on my to-do list lately. I have been cooking, but nothing SPECTACULAR. I vow to get back into the groove, but with a kid to get ready for 2nd grade, a diva who keeps finding a way to cut her hair, and potty training the baby - there hasn't been a ton of time to experiment in the kitchen. I have been relying on my Ol' Faithfuls. I did receive a Cake Pop maker, and we have been enjoying Pancake Balls, Corn Dog Bites, Cheese Ball Bites, Muffin Balls and all that fun stuff. Kids (and the Hubbs and I) enjoy bite size foods! But this post is not about the kitchen - it's about my MISSION: MISSION BOOK BUCKET LIST...

Below is a list that has been made of the 101 Books they (whoever "THEY" are) suggest one should read. The plan is to tackle them at the pace of - 1 per TWO week period. I am not going to abandon my Vampires, the Fae, the New Jersey Police Department, Wares, Sidhe-Seers, Vampyres, Bounty Hunters, etc... so the book per 2 week period is in addition to the book I always carry in my bag. (Not purse, my husband claims I look like a BAG lady with my totes... Haha, I adore my totes!) So, here goes the list. I have read a few of these, but it has been a LONG time... so RE-reading is a must. I am hoping to get this fellow friend of mine to join me, in hopes that I can be able to vent about how terrible the book is, or how much I love it!!! We will see if she joins me. (Plus, then we can go out to eat every 2 weeks... YUM!) It will take about 4 years to get through the list - EKKK, that is a big commitment for someone who took a year to complete the 60 day photo challenge. HAHA Wish me luck! (Luck for completing, and luck for buying 100 additional books to the 5 or so I buy every 2 weeks...Do you think Michael will notice the additional packages? Haha, feel free to send me y'alls copies!!!! Save a nerd some money!!!)

1. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
3. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
4. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
5. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
6. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel G. Marquez
8. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
9. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
10. Atonement by Ian McEwan
11. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. Beloved by Toni Morrison
14. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
17. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
18. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
19. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
20. Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
21. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
23. The Crow Road by Iain Banks
24. Dracula by Bram Stoker
25. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
26. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
27. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
28. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
29. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
30. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
31. An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan
32. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
33. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
34. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
35. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
36. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
37. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
38. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
39. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
40. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
41. Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
42. Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
43. If This Is A Man by Primo Levi
44. What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe
45. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things* by Jon McGregor
46. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
47. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
48. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
49. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
50. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
51. In Patagonia* by Bruce Chatwin
52. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
53. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
54. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
55. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
56. *Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
57. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
58. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
59. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
60. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
61. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
62. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
63. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
64. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
65. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
66. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
67. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
68. New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
69. Northern Lights* by Philip Pullman
70. The Odyssey by Homer
71. The Outsider by Albert Camus
72. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
73. Possession by A.S. Byatt
74. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
75. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
76. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
77. The Reader by Bernard Schlink
78. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
79. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love* by Raymond Carver
80. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
81. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
82. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
83. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
84. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
85. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
86. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
87. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
88. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
89. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
90. Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
91. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
92. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
93. Touching the Void by Jow Simpson
94. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
95. Waterland by Graham Swift
96. The Unbearable Lightness of Being* by Milan Kindera
97. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
98. The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
99. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
100. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
101. A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Chicken Tortilla Enchilada Soup (#19)

I have been playing with recipes for Chicken Tortilla soup, and nothing is quite like the one Albertson's used to sell. YUM! And I stumbled across one that uses enchilada sauce. So, I tried it. (This house LOVES us some enchiladas.) The recipe is super simple. It took me 15 minutes to gather and toss and the ingredients into the CP and I was on my merry way to work. Got home 8 hours later and the kitchen SMELLED amazing!

I adore soup! (As does my daughter, but that is it. The boys do not care for soup, so they had chicken nuggets...LOL) I like the chicken tortilla soup recipes that lean more towards the clearer broth, but this recipe was thicker and way more filling.

1 pound of skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce

2 cups of chicken broth (low sodium)

1 cup of diced tomatoes (fresh from a WONDERFUL co-workers garden!)

1/4 cup of diced green chills

1/2 ounce (1/2 shot) of minced garlic

1/4 cup of diced onions

1 cup of frozen corn

2 teaspoons of chili powder

pinch of salt (which was NOT needed!!!)

I sprayed the CP with a cooking spray and toss the chicken in, and then covered it with the remaining ingredients. Covered, and cooked on low for 6 to 8 hours. :-)

POST - CP

Pour into your bowl, top with Queso Blanco (or the cheese of your choice) and fried (or baked) tortilla strips and ENJOY!

I enjoyed this soup, and so did Alannah. She calls it "Momma's Special Soup!" Next time I will do without the salt, it was not needed at all. I made a pot and was able to eat from it for 2 dinners and a lunch. Looking for other variations to experiment with. Will keep you posted!

What Mexican dishes can you not live without? Mine is enchiladas! Tamales during the holidays. And I sure do miss a big ole serving of rolled tacos from Saritas! 

Parmesan Cream Cheese Sliders (#18)

Parmesan Cream Cheese Sliders - these are not made my in trusty Crockpot, but we LOVE these anyway! Perfect for quick dinner, of BIG lunches. We like them for football games and just about any occasion. The Hubby could get burgers 3 times a day!

1 pound Ground Beef

1/3 block of FF Cream Cheese

1/4 cup of Reduced Fat Parmesan Cheese

1/4 cup of Italian Bread Crumbs

OPTIONAL: Cheese for topping

Mix all the ingredients together, and divide into 16 portions. Shape these into sliders, and place on the grill. (We use our handy griddle, you can fry up, grill up, etc...) We like Sliders because they are bite size. Flip and cook the other side. When on side 2, add the cheese if you are making cheeseSliders. :-) You really don't need cheese with the cream cheese and Parmesan cheese. (My kiddos are CHEESE lovers, so we eat cheese on cheese!

Alannah my little mixer!!!

Malakai loves the recipes and preparing!

ME - flipping the Sliders!

Crook Sliders!

Kal'El likes Spoons! Haha

We will eat these on Hawaiian rolls, or cut-up hot dog buns... whatever we have on hand! Enjoy these tasty treats! And these are some pictures of my little chefs!

Stuffed Chicken Breast (#17)

I came across this recipe while watching the Today Show waiting for Janet Evanovich and Charlaine Harris to come on and tell me some good stuff to read this summer! :-)

I am going to prepare this for dinner for the family before I head off to work for a late night of RETAIL FUN!!! So, here's the how-to:

You will want to prepare the stuffing of your choice. I prefer the Kroger brand of original, but I am new to the stuffing game. (Back to the texture thing I struggle with, I like it dry - like a crouton, but am still working on the softer texture of prepared stuffing.) For this recipe, if you are using the boxed type, you will only need 1/2 of the box. ***I saw some suggestions of using Applesauce instead of water, adding onions and celery. Some of which I will experiment with the next time I make this. :-)

All the DRY ingredients

3-4 Chicken Breasts

Toothpicks

Butter

Cream of Chicken (2 cans)

Seasoning of your choice (I used Garlic, Basil and Salt)

I did not have toothpicks, so I used cooking string.

This is the browned stuffed
chicken in the CP, before
adding the Cream of
Chicken. :-) You could use bigger
pieces, the smaller pieces work
better for the kids.

Added the soup, salt, garlic and basil. Can't wait to see and TRY
the completed product!

You will want to split the skinless/boneless chicken breasts and fill with your prepared stuffing and roll up tight with a toothpick. You will brown the outside slightly in a buttered pan and then place in your Crockpot to cook. You will cover the stuffed chicken breasts with 2 cans of Cream of Chicken. (The recipes I found called for cream of celery, but I am not a fan of the flavor of cream of celery)

Cover for 5 hours on HIGH, and enjoy!!!

A little piece of chicken with sauce!

THE VERDICT:

This was amazing! The chicken was tender, and the stuffing inside was moist and to die for. I was fearful that the Cream of Chicken would be too much for a sauce, but everything flowed together. And since I used small pieces, some of the stuffing fell into the sauce, and the taste flowed with every bite. This is definitely one I will continue to make. Ingredients were cheap, and add some potatoes or rice and a veggie to it, and it will be complete.

Chicken will be the theme of the next couple of posts... so until, next time!!!

What I am reading...

Welcome to my bookshelf. (One of them, anyway...) I have entered the world of light, slightly paranormal at times, odd female lead who cannot decide who she loves series. And I would not trade it for the world!

1) Stephanie Plum series - So far Evanovich is up to #18, which #19 due out in November of this year. And if you add the 4 'In Between the Numbers,' you have 22! So, exciting. Took me about 6 weeks to complete, and now I am counting down until November. Stephanie Plum is a clumsy wannabe Bounty Hunter who blows up more cars then I will ever own in my life. She has a sexy cop and a sexy bounty hunter, a crazy granny, an ex-hooker of a best friend/sidekick, and it is just a serious LAUGH OUT LOUD type read. And this series brought on the next one...

2) Lizzy and Diesel series - also by Evanovich. Diesel is the main character in the 'In Between the Numbers' books and he is slightly paranormal, and so were the story lines. These have the same Stephanie Plum charm that allows me to escape from the craziness of the world for a little bit. I enjoy the Unmentionable touches of paranormal, and the sexy men. :-) (Getting to see a pattern, LOL...) Right now, there are only 2... but YUM!

3) Undead Series - my friend, Kristyn introduced me to these.  I LOVE THEM. Vampires! Betsy is a new vampire and God help the rest of the vampires, she is the Queen. LOL, and she hates to love the sexy vamp who has tricked her into so many things. There are 10 or 11, that took me about 3 weeks to finish. I love ALL the vampires. It is sexy and funny like Charlaine Harris' series. You can buy this Queen whose sister is the daughter of the Devil which a GREAT PAIR OF SHOES. If that tells you any of the insanity that is this series, by MaryJanice Davidson, I can assure you it is JUST the beginning. <3

4) Glory St. Clair series - This has 8 currently, with the 9th coming out soon. Glory and her band of vampire friends have been around a WHILE. She was turned by a sexy Scottish lad in 1604. They reside in Texas, and this series has vamp hunters, rock stars, shifters and OH SO MUCH more. I am 4 into this series, and cannot wait to finish. Gerry Bartlett is amazing when writing this series! Jerry (Glory's on again, off again boyfriend) is my favorite male lead! The best part of this series are the titles, Real Vampires Live Large, Real Vampires Don't Diet, Real Vampires Hate Their Thighs, Real Vampires Hate Skinny Jeans, etc... When Glory was changed, she was not petite, like many of her friends. So that just adds to the laughs.

Well, that is it for series at the moment. I am waiting to start the Fever series, by Karen Marie Moning. And I am very excited!!! I have also started another Evanovich Series, Barnaby and Hooker. I have just started the 1st one, so we will see. It is called, Metro Girl. Another good book I recommend is "Under the Covers and Between the Sheets!" It is a books about books, and has all these cool facts and books I have not read. And there is an author that was recommended to be, Amanda Hocking! Her trilogy is on my list to read this summer!

I am also going to venture and read the Percy Jackson series and the other ones. Just need to get all caught up with my multiple series at the moment. (Plus, my pastor spoke about the Five Love Languages - and WOW did it make sense, so I got my Lifeway coupon in the mail, and I will be getting that to read ASAP!) I love to hear what other people are reading too, and if you are not involved with the Goodreads APP, you should! My email is catherinescrook@gmail.com, and you can find ADD me that way. It tracks what you and others are reading. You can review or just rate! I LOVE IT!

Well, I think that was enough for now... Happy reading!!! It is always fun to get so lost in a book that you smile seeing a car pass that is driven by the lead male in the series. :-)

Sloppy Joes (#16)

WOW! It has been over a month since I have posted. :-( With work, potty training (with no luck yet) and reading more than I have in a while... I have neglected the creative meal planning. Now, I am still planning meals a month in advance, and spending $300 or less for a MONTH of meals for this family of five. (A skill that will be listed on my resume... LOL, as if anyone would NOT be impressed.) So, I am learning to balance a little more, at least that is what I would like to think. Last night, when I got home from work - I tossed a roast, potatoes and carrots in a Crockpot and then spent the evening watching movies with the Hubbs. (Rebound, with Catherine Zeta-Jones... EXCELLENT!) Then, when I got up this morning, Dinner for today was done. We spent the morning cleaning, and now the kids are playing... I am blogging, and I will have ample reading time today. :-) So, this is a meal that I have not shared yet, that my kids ADORE. I am not a Sloppy Joe fan, but the other 4 are... so on nights I close, this is the Hubby's go to meal. And the kids do not complain. In fact, I am sure they would eat it 3 nights a week, but that is NOT happening. (Once a week, yes. :-) Gives me a soup night, since I am the only soup eater...) So, here is the ingredients. (Now this is for 20 sloppy joes, which is what we do - Good next day lunch go to.)

3 pounds lean ground beef

1 large onion, chopped, about 1 cup

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1 (12 ounces) bottle prepared chili sauce

1 (6 ounces) can tomato paste

Sprinkle of Brown sugar, to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

So, I will brown the meat (on my Griddle, since I am anti STOVE/OVEN) and add that and all the other ingredients to the Crockpot, and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. THAT'S it. I know what you are thinking... the canned stuff is good, but this is better. (Well, I have heard.) My kids prefer this kind, and plus I KNOW veggies are making it into this way of Sloppy Joes. Anywho... I will try to be more consistent. I have 6 weeks left until my goal date for my goal weight, and I have 1.4 pounds a week to lose to meet it, and so I am being more cautious, which will lead to more posts. I am LOVING my CP still, but becoming more adventurous with my waffle iron and Griddle. So, expect more fun stuff!

We have also been experimenting with S'Mores thanks to my best friend, Beckie and her hubbs, TJ. I love the Reese's S'More the best. Second comes Butterfinger, and third is classic. Not to fond of the Milky Way version, even though I LOVE THE CANDY BAR. More experimenting to come. Until next time...Happy Eating!