Favorite Five - Book Series

If you’re waiting for “favorite books” or “favorite authors”, don’t worry… I’ll get there eventually. Today, though, I want to focus on book series. I read so many series, this one is especially hard for me to narrow down! I’ll try to limit my runners up to just a few.

1. The Marcus Didius Falco novels by Lindsey Davis. – Based in Rome during the reign of Vespasian, I started this series when the first one came out about 20 years ago. The author intersperses plenty of humor with the action which makes the central characters all the more fun.

2. The China Bayles herbal mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert – Another series I began reading at their onset, these books not only provide a good mystery with well developed characters, but they also include lots of herbal lore and recipes. I tend to kill plants in real life, so I garden vicariously through these books. Each book has one particular herb which plays into the storyline.

3. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith – I bought the first one through QPBC and it sat on my shelf, unread, until several more had been published. Once I finally picked up the first one, I was hooked!! I haven’t seen the HBO series based on the books, but I’ve heard it’s very good.

4. Tales from Grace Chapel Inn published by Guideposts – This is one of those kinds of series you sign up for by mail and receive a new book approximately every six weeks. The first in the series explains the overall situation of how three sisters open a Bed & Breakfast together in a small town in Pennsylvania. The remaining books are “stand alone” stories that revolve around the sisters and the guests that visit their B&B. Written by a variety of authors, they are light, easy reading that I always enjoy. I haven’t received one in quite awhile, so I’m afraid I’ve reached the end of the series. I still have one on my shelf with a Christmas theme that I’ve saved for the upcoming holidays.

5. The Richard Jury novels by Martha Grimes – The main character of this series is an Inspector with New Scotland Yard. Although the author is American, I think she does an excellent job writing a British detective series. Each of the book titles is the name of a Pub found in the story.

Any of the runners up listed below could just as easily have been one of my top five picks.

Roma Sub Rosa (Gordianus the Finder) series by Steven Saylor, Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters, Adam Dalgliesh novels by P.D. James, Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, Kinsey Milhone (Alphabet) series by Sue Grafton, Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich, Matthew Shardlake mysteries by C.J. Sansom, Yada Yada Prayer Group novels by Neta Jackson, The Mitford series by Jan Karon.

There are more that I enjoy, but I had to stop somewhere!! With the exception of #4 on my list, I would recommend reading any of these series in the order in which they were written.

A book, a bazaar and a ballgame

It’s been a busy week, but not too busy to finish a book I started over the weekend. It’s fun to discover new authors through other folks’ blogs, especially when you get to have some interaction with the author! I followed a link from Pen and Paper over to Crime Fiction where I discovered the book Cut Short. I enjoy reading books in this genre and decided to give it a shot. I thought it was quite good and plan to continue with the series as she writes them. If you like P.D. James, Ruth Rendell or the sort… I bet you would enjoy this novel by Leigh Russell.

Whew! The Bazaar is over for another year. We had a fairly good crowd yesterday and I'm pretty sure we ended up making more money than we did last year! Our group takes a break now until January when we clean up the craft room and get started for the next year. I still need to tie up all the loose ends for this year, but that should be done by the first week of December.

Last night my husband and I attended our granddaughter’s final soccer game of the season. This is her second year to play (she’ll be 8 this month) and she’s actually quite good at it. None of our kids played soccer, so it’s been a new experience for us. I’ve always believed in good sportsmanship and last night I caught a little glimpse of what I don’t like about children’s athletics. The game was for the championship in their age division and there was a man there, I presume someone's grandpa, that I hadn’t noticed at any of the other games. He was quite vocal in his opinion of the kid refereeing the game. The league uses older kids to call the games and this particular young lady was a little tickier than most we’d had throughout the season. I don’t know if she was truly being fair or not, but hey… it’s just a ballgame! Despite what the man thought were unfair calls, our granddaughter’s team won.

Cooking for the Bazaar

Tomorrow we will have the annual Holiday Bazaar at our church. Sponsored by our “Wednesday Worker” craft group, we offer all sorts of handmade crafts and holiday decorations, a big spread of baked goods and preserved items, lots of jewelry, and a huge selection of “Trash & Treasure”. In addition, we serve a breakfast of muffins, cinnamon rolls, coffee cake, etc. One of the items I provide for the breakfast is this pear cake:

Pear Bundt Cake
1 can (15-1/4 ounces) pears in light syrup
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) white cake mix
2 egg whites
1 egg
2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar

Drain pears, reserving the syrup; chop pears. Place pears and syrup in a mixing bowl; add dry cake mix, egg whites and egg. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on high for 4 minutes.
Coat a 10-in. fluted tube pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with flour. Add batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Yield: 16 servings.

I always make a few things for the bake sale area including my Van Gogh cake and bags of these crackers:

Seasoned Oyster Crackers
16-20 oz. plain oyster crackers
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Original Buttermilk Recipe salad dressing mix
¼ tsp. lemon pepper
½ to 1 tsp. dill weed
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¾ to 1 cup vegetable or canola oil

Spread crackers into a jelly roll pan. Combine remaining ingredients and drizzle over crackers, stirring to coat well. Place in a warm oven (lowest setting) for 15-20 minutes, stirring once halfway through.

This year I also tried a new recipe. Of course mine don’t look like the picture in the magazine, but they still taste okay. Not the best, but good enough to sell. From a recipe submitted to Simple & Delicious magazine by Rebecca Clark of Warrior, AL., they're called Oatmeal Surprise Cookies.

1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 ¾ cups quick-cooking oats
1 ½ cups chocolate-covered raisins

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Combine the flour, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in oats and raisins.

Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake at 350º for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 3 dozen.

Here's hoping for a successful day!!

Favorite Five – Ice Cream Flavors

Ice Cream is not something for which I have a great weakness. I do love DQ Blizzards, but since our Dairy Queen closed, they’re no longer a temptation.

I have to be in the right mood for ice cream. When I am, these are my favorite flavors:

1. Vanilla

2. Pralines and Cream

3. Mint Chocolate Chip

4. Coconut Almond Fudge

5. Orange Sherbet

Blogger

Blogger has been acting a little strangely for me the past few days.

When I read blogs, I normally go to my dashboard first and look for updates from those I follow. I’ll link off from there if something catches my eye or otherwise interests me. While talking with my brother this week, he mentioned an entry he had made on his blog. I checked later and there were three entries that had not appeared in the updates on my dashboard. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I had updates for four entries from another person’s blog, but some of those entries were as much as a week old. I had already read them since I get e-mail notifications of new entries for that blog, but thinking back, I can’t remember if they showed up in my updates at the time they originally posted. Hmmm.

How do y’all read blogs? Do you use the dashboard and depend on updates from those you follow? If you do this, do you click on the entry or the entire blog? Do you just go to individual blogs and read all the entries down to where you last read one? Do you think you ever miss entries this way? Do you care?! (sorry…I got carried away…)

Just curious.

The Organic God

Having a close relationship with God is important to me. I’ve considered myself a Christian all my life (brief testimony), but it wasn’t until about ten years ago that I started hungering for a more intimate relationship with God. I’ve used various devotional guides throughout my lifetime, and still make that a part of my daily quiet time, but it wasn’t until I tackled my first in-depth Bible study that I finally touched on that personal relationship I was looking for.

Most of the studies I’ve done have been by Beth Moore. I think I’ve completed all her workbooks, my most recent being the Psalms of Ascent. She never fails to make me ask questions, dig deeper, study harder and ultimately draw closer to God.

Even though my daily devotions are vital, I can always tell when I need that extra boost that only comes from a group study. So…. when my church recently offered a 6-week course by Margaret Feinberg entitled The Organic God *, I jumped at the opportunity. The book, paired with the corresponding workbook and videos from our group sessions, made for a delightful and thought provoking study, different from any I've done in the past.

Just what I needed!



* "Organic means natural, pure, no additives. Margaret Feinberg wants us to know the God revealed in the Christian Bible without prejudice or corruption. In the course of 10 creative and engaging chapters, she introduces us to the character of God….Feinberg is a gifted storyteller and spiritual teacher. She has a knack for leading us to an 'aha' insight or a reflective 'hmmm.'" — The Dallas Morning News

Favorite Five – Words

Words are an important part of our everyday life. Reading, speaking, listening… we all use them. Etymology is important to some folks and there are several “daily word” sites, such as the one I subscribe to, which provide this along with pronunciation, meaning and an example of usage.

I like words. You may not think you do, but surely there are a few you like better than others. I’ll tell you mine if you’ll tell me yours…. and please, keep it “G-rated”.

1. Vacuum - Hands down, this is my all-time favorite word. I love the sound of it and especially like spelling it aloud! There’s something about those “u”s.

2. Ominous – I remember learning this word not in spelling, but as a vocabulary word from a story in school. It was used in reference to “ominous clouds” before a storm and I’ve used it in weather discussions ever since.

3. Business - When I learned to type in High School (on an Underwood manual), I liked the way this word seemed to flow from my fingers. Why this particular word I don’t know, but it always just “felt” right.

4. Ombudsman – A fascinating word! I rarely see or hear it, but when I do it jumps out at me. Mainly, I think, because it’s such an awkward word that doesn’t flow from the lips easily. (interesting note: When I checked its spelling in my dictionary, I discovered it’s on the same page as “ominous”.) (additional note: Yes, I tend to use a real dictionary more than “spell-check”.)

5. Viaduct – This is not a word most small children know. However, due to having one over our community’s train yard near the downtown, I would venture to say most kids in our area are familiar with the word. When I was little, it was a known fact that if you didn’t hold your breath the entire time you drove over it, a murderer would come to your house that night and chop off your head while you slept!

To Kill A Mockingbird

There are a number of books that I feel like I should have read at some point in my life. You know the ones I’m talking about… the classic you somehow missed out on in school, the Pulitzer Prize winner, the novel the critics raved about. Some of them I still have hopes of reading someday. Others are actually sitting in my TBR pile, just waiting for the right time. Then again, some you really don’t care anything about, no matter how "important" others might think they are.

A good friend, who happens to be a retired English teacher, and I were discussing some of these books over the summer. She was surprised to find out I had never read To Kill A Mockingbird (by Harper Lee) or seen the movie version (starring Gregory Peck).

When my birthday rolled around in September, she gave me a copy of the book. I read it last week and really enjoyed it! In fact, I can’t imagine why I hadn’t read it before. I may have to insist my husband put the movie in his queue at Netflix soon, while the book is still fresh in my mind.

Ocean Dimensions

After taking a couple of months off from “puzzling”, I recently completed the final puzzle in the Visual Dimensions 3D Motion Puzzle series. Jungle Dimensions and Outer Dimensions are featured in entries on this blog. I worked Floral Dimensions when I still used 360.

It’s disappointing how poorly they photograph. Being “motion puzzles”, they really need to be seen in person and viewed from several angles to be appreciated. I think this one took the poorest picture of them all.

Next up is a Jan Van Haasteren puzzle. They don’t photograph well, either, but for other reasons. They’re a lot of fun to work, though!

I Like Pie

I found this recipe in my Great American Brand Name Recipes Cookbook. I substituted a cup of peach pie filling for the applesauce and it became Peach Chess Pie.
Delicious!

Apple Chess Pie

1 (9-inch) unbaked pastry shell
4 eggs
1 (14-ounce) can EAGLE® Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1 cup applesauce
½ cup margarine or butter, melted
¼ cup REALEMON® Lemon Juice from Concentrate
2 tablespoons cornmeal

Preheat oven to 425º. Bake pastry shell 8 minutes; remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350º. In large mixer bowl, beat eggs. Add remaining ingredients except pastry shell; mix well. Pour into prepared pastry shell. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool. Serve warm or chilled. Refrigerate leftovers