Summer Reading

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to start reading all those books that had found their way into my TBR stack and then, over time, been slowly forgotten. Plus, I had an urge to read a few old standbys (I'm currently working on The Bride of Pendorric by Victoria Holt). I'm also spending four out of five weekday mornings at the pool while my boys participate in swim team (somewhat disguised as advanced swim lessons). Rather serendipitously, I've hit upon some great reads to pack up for poolside.


Having long ago read Julie Kenner's Carpe Demon (and greatly enjoyed it), I had California Demon on my shelf, whiling away the time until I felt the fast-paced pull of a witty, multi-tasking demon-hunting soccer mom. And while in book 2 of this series there is no mention of anyone actually playing soccer (or being on a soccer team), I greatly enjoyed this book too and have since gone searching for more. Demons are Forever and Deja Demon are currently on loan from the library, and a brand-new book, Demon Ex Machina (clever, clever) is due out in October!

If you've never read a Julie Kenner novel, I highly recommend it. As a writer she is fast, feisty, and fun. I've also read her Code-Breaking Trilogy. Having met her at both a book signing and a writers conference, I can comfortably say that in real-life she is sweet as can be.


I also just finished Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs--very much enjoyed it--and I am looking forward to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie--the one book I have splurged on in recent months. What are you reading??

A Cream Cheese Kinda Day

I have survived the great family get-together on the 4th of July and a visit from my sister's family over the subsequent week. And we have been crazy busy! We hit the beach, the Wildlife Animal Park, and we hit the snowcone stand three times! I rarely get a snowcone, preferring to dedicate those calories to a ice-cold can of Dr. Pepper, but it was so hot, and we were in line for so long, that I broke down. And I didn't mess around--I got a butterscotch snowcone drizzled in cream. Omigosh!--talk about yummy--and decadent! I may have to forego the Dr.P in weeks to come.

My husband and I have been discussing trying to rig some sort of contraption to shave our own ice. I'd like to try my hand at making my own snowcone syrups, like this uber-cool entrepreneur. What can I say...I'd love to have that adorable little trailer too!

If you happened to notice the title of this post, you may be wondering how any of this relates to cream cheese. You find out now:

I love cream cheese, could eat it on pretty much anything (okay, most things), but I think it really shines in (obviously) cheesecake, cream cheese frosting, and cream cheese danish--oh, how I love thee. My husband detests cream cheese and will not eat anything it's touched. (Rather unbelievably, his mother is still trying to sneak it in recipes after thirty-some-odd years).

My sister was here for her birthday, and she requested Butter Cheesecake as her birthday dessert, which, if you haven't had it, is basically a cake mix stirred up with a stick of butter, a couple of eggs and some pecans with a cream cheese/confectioners sugar concoction poured over the top of it. It's then baked till the edges are brown. So the two of us had been slowly working our way through this dessert since the beginning of the week. But I'd promised her a stop at the Kolache Bakery for some cream cheese topped kolaches. Yesterday, her last day with me, we finally picked them up, and as the lady was filling our bakery box, our eyes were caught by a huge cinnamon roll on the bottom rack of the glass case. Its characteristic swirl was hidden by a smear of something. Turns out it was cream cheese filling!! The bakery has started selling ginormous cinnamon rolls with their tops decked out in sweetened cream cheese. I nearly swooned on the spot. One shared look between us, and my sister and I agreed to toss one of those into the bag--to split. (I still haven't eaten my half, but I love knowing it's waiting for me...)

So then I drove her and her daughters into Houston proper to drop her with her in-laws, and on the way back home, I swung by Crave Cupcakes, having already forgotten all about the cream cheese heaven awaiting me at home. Well Crave varies their selection based on the day of the week, and I've never been on Saturday before, so I was facing some new taste sensations. I bought a half-dozen cupcakes, three stand-bys: vanilla-vanilla (cupcake-frosting), chocolate-vanilla, and dark chocolate. And then I had them add a pumpkin (my husband loves pumpkin), a banana (my husband loves banana), and a dark chocolate-coconut (my husband HATES coconut). Delighted with my purchase, I headed back home. I'm halfway there when I realize that my purchases might--just possibl--be contaminated with cream-cheese. I quickly check the cupcake key I'd picked up. Yep, the pumpkin cupcake is topped with 'cinnamon cream cheese frosting'. And the banana cupcake is topped with 'sweet cream cheese frosting'. And even the dark-chocolate coconut cupcake is topped with 'coconut cream cheese frosting'--a double whammy! So what does all this mean? Out of half a dozen cupcakes, I get three, and my husband and sons each get one. Seems fair, right?

LONG LIVE CREAM CHEESE!

Imagine the possibilities...

Imagine if you had a bookcase/staircase like this one...




I think I would spend all my time sitting on the stairs...

Happy 4th to everyone! Go out and barbeque, picnic, and celebrate! And don't forget to slather on the sunblock!

~ Book Review Club ~ July

Here I am, back again, with another installment for Barrie Summy's Book Review Club. (Be sure to click the graphic to pop over to Barrie's blog for a list of the other intrepid reviewers and the books they've chosen to review this month.)

This month, I'm back to YA, with The Poison Apples by Lily Archer.


No pre-planning went into the reading of this book. I just happened to notice it in the library, with its Andy Warhol style cover and candy apple red page edging. And after reading the back cover blurb and the cover flap, it was simply too irresistible to pass up. I was not disappointed.

Quick summary: It would seem that Alice Bingley-Beckerman, Reena Paruchuri, and Molly Miller have absolutely nothing in common, other than the fact that they are recent enrollees of the expensive Eastern prep-school Putnam Mount McKinsey. Alice came from Brooklyn, the daughter of a famous writer, Reena came from sunny LA with her brother Pardeep, and Molly came on scholarship from a few towns over.

Very likely they never would have become friends. But they bonded over one very significant similarity: they all have stepmothers. Evil stepmothers. Alice's made her be the flowergirl in her father's wedding. Reena's is a buxom blond yoga instructor who wishes she was Indian and dresses the part, and Molly's is newly pregnant and wants her to give up her scholarship to come back home to help around the house.

The girls bond over the simple wrongness of the situation, with the story being alternately told in the first person narrative of each of the three girls.

This is from an 'Alice' chapter:

"We're the Poison Apples!" Reena declared. "We're a society of mistreated stepdaughters! And we're coming together to take revenge!"

Revenge.

The word sent shivers down my spine.

But I didn't know if they were bad shivers or good shivers.

"But it's the evil queen who gives the apple to Snow White," Molly pointed out. "Not the other way around."

"Okay, Miss English Lit," Reena said. "But think about symbolism. ... The apple represents our unlucky fates. It respresents our stepmothers' plots to ruin our lives. So we're reclaiming the apple. It's ours now."

The girls then proceeded to each take bites out of a Honey Crisp apple bought from a farm stand out on the highway in order to seal the deal. And so begin the plans for revenge...

What I loved about this book--besides the cover and the concept--was its quirkiness (Reena's stepmother wants a penguin, and so her father spends thousands getting her one and building an Artic-temp facility to keep it in and Molly's stepmother is, at one point, wearing a t-shirt that says, 'I'm not fat, I'm having ice cream's baby.') and the personal, sometimes angsty journey of these three strangers who gradually become friends. Plus, there is a bit of crushing on some very worthy boys, as there is in most YA books, and even the possibility of a sequel. This is a cleverly-penned novel that doesn't take itself too seriously, and there isn't a vampire in sight. Enjoy!

Austin Antics

Saw this on Eileen's blog...

Evidently this past January, a posse of somewhat talented goofballs in Austin hacked into the computers controlling roadside traffic signs to display their own zombie warning messages. Click on the link to see pictures. In my opinion, this falls into the category of 'Slightly Amusing but Not Worth Nearly the Effort it Must Have Required." Sort of like this.

My favorite part of the article:
"No zombies were actually sighted. The most obvious problem seemed to be rubber-necking drivers slowing down to photograph the fright-fest warnings."

The Keyhole View

That little snip of pineapple geranium in the picture from my last post is still thriving on my kitchen counter in a tumbler of water. I'm kind of hoping it hangs on, maybe sprouts a few roots, so I can plant it in my backyard and grow a pretty, aromatic plant of my very own. The tomatoes still linger and my mom encouraged me to try a simple tomato sandwich. I did last night, on sour dough bread, with a smear of that new olive oil mayo--very yummy.

I spent the week co-running the 'Snack Shack' at our church's vacation bible school, whipping up snacks for some 175 kids. I will be glad to be through with that. Other things of interest in my life...I just finished reading the book I will be rave-reviewing for Barrie Summy's Book Review Club next week. It's weird how one book a month seems to float to the top just in time for its review. It's...perfect. And, I made my coconut cream pie--it's chilling in the fridge right now and it looks *yummy*. A picture is forthcoming...

Meanwhile, it's been thundering for the past half hour, the house has darkened, and just a moment ago I heard a few sprinkles hitting the kitchen skylight. If it rains, it will be the first time that's happened in the entire month of June. We need a break from the unrelenting temperatures and sheer brightness. An afternoon thunderstorm sounds simply divine.

Lately my Internet meandering has led me to various wedding, photography, and party planning sites, and I am AMAZED at all the possibilities for weddings these days. When my husband and I got engaged, we lived in Austin, but (and I'm not sure why) we decided to have the wedding in Houston. As I think of it now, it doesn't even really make sense to me. And that's about right--I was barely involved in my own wedding planning. I was out of town, and my MIL handled a lot of it. And then our reception site burned down and it didn't even phase me. We got it all done and on a tiny little budget, but I don't remember the ceremony or the reception having any kind of personality.

That's had me thinking that I wish I had a chance to plan my own wedding again. But that's not gonna happen, so I started thinking that I could plan a really fun party or picnic or get-together. But that's not really my thing. And then I realized I'd really just rather be invited to one of those really cool parties and keep on with my blog surfing. And so we've come full circle.

Veggie Tale

Friday night I hopped in the car with every intention of going peach picking with a friend of mine. We'd planned on taking the kids, but not knowing what to expect at this orchard, we decided to go it alone the first time. Well we got sorta lost but we made it. Turns out the peaches were gone--over. The guy told me this, and I think my eyes bugged out. OVER?? I've barely had a good peach yet (they were California), and here they're already over? Evidently they started mid-May. Who knew.

So no peaches and no blackberry picking Friday night, and the cantalopes weren't ready yet. That left vegetables.

My friend was thrilled; me, not so much. Now I personally love vegetables, but I'm the only one in my family. So basically, once I get the coveted fresh veggies, I'm not so sure what to do with them. How many vine-ripened tomatoes can I actually eat??? I don't have a spaghetti sauce recipe, and I've never made my own sauce (guess what--my family's favorite is Ragu Traditional). Then there's the bell peppers, the jalepenos, the tomatillos and yellow summer squash. While I loved seeing all those beautiful vegetables growing in carefully tended rows, I barely came home with any of them. Although, admittedly, the ones I did bring home have been delicious--tasting warmly of summer.

The pick-your-own herb garden was a lovely stop as well. The usual suspects were available, as well as some plants I'd never seen, cooked with, or even heard of...there was a whole section of the garden for scented geraniums: pineapple, passion fruit, and chocolate mint. There was lemon grass and bay leaves, spearment, and cilantro.

A bit of my haul...


And we enjoyed it all at twilight on a beautiful, breezy Texas evening, kid-free.
Simply lovely.