The first recipe for this month's edition of the Barefoot Bloggers is Cheddar Corn Chowder, and it was selected by Jill of My Next Life. Jill picked a great recipe for us to try. I was in a hurry when I was making this soup last night. I'd gone to exercise class after work and when I got home I was cold, tired, and hungry. This soup came together very quickly and made a great meal for a chilly, rainy work night. I was so cold, tired, and hungry that I forgot to take a picture of the finished soup. I also was so cold, tired, and hungry that my knife skills were sloppy and I managed to slice my finger. But the soup was worth it. I did halve the ingredients, and still ended up with enough for two bowls each for dinner and three containers leftover to take for lunches. An after thought I had was that I should have added some instant potato flakes to thicken it up more. Go check out the recipe - it was easy and yummy.

Mailbox Monday - October 5

It has been a long time since I've posted a Mailbox Monday. I have had a lot of good things come into my house, and now I just need to find the time to read them all. If anyone has any suggestions of where I should start, let me know.

Mari from Bookworm With a View sent me a copy of Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch. I've been wanting to read this book ever since it came out.

For Book Club Girl's on air discussion with Francine Prose I got a copy of Goldengrove. Prose is a new to me author and I'm really savoring the book. I missed the online discussion and still need to listen to it.

Barbour Publishing sent me a copy of Menu for Romance by Kaye Dacus. I don't do a lot of reading in the Christian fiction genre, but this one sounds cute, so I"m looking forward to trying it.

Gayle at Every Day I Write the Book sent me a copy of Cost by Roxana Robinson that I need to get reading in time to discuss it.

My latest package was Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen. This ARC came from Library Thing Early Reviewer.

The biggest package to arrive at my house recently was a box from Hatchett books:

The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith

Kill for Me by Karen Rose

The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

Any Minute by Joyce Meyer

Julie and Juliaby Julie Powell

A Summer Affair by Erin Hiderbrand

When You Are Engulfed in flames by David Sedaris

Obama's Blackberry by Kasper Hauser

Books Read in September

September was a really light reading month for me. But since I've all ready read more books than I did all of last year I was due for a light month.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner. Rated 3.5. I think Weiner gets a bad rap for being chick lit and fluffy, but she isn't. This was a good book with some deep subject matters. It would make a good book club book because it's fairly quick and easy to read but still has some depth to it.

Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich. Rated 4. I read this for my face-to-face book club here at the library. My group was split between those who liked it and those who didn't. Maybe I enjoyed it more because it's set in N.D. fairly close to where I was raised and the characters were Germans like my prairie ancestors were.

Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. Rated 3. Loving Agatha Christie and Miss Marple.

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas. Rated 3.5. I always enjoy Dallas' books. Great character and good plots.

Obama's Blackberry by Kasper Hauser. Rated 3. I received this in a box of books Hatchett sent to me. A HUGE box of books :) This was a funny book and took me about an hour to read.

Goldengrove by Francine Prose. I haven't finished this book yet. Book Club Girl sent me a copy. I am savoring it. The writing is lovely. Right now it is reminding me of Local News by Miriam Gershow. Prose is a new author for me and I'm happy I've discovered her.

A Winter Short Track Race

I took a great series of pictures of Tim at a bike race this past winter. I took me awhile to decide how best to use them on a layout. And then I had to find the right papers. I got a hold of some CM Motor Grunge papers and stickers with gears. And the orange was the right color to make all the other dark, drab winter colors pop. The base is SU Brocade Blue. I also used SU Only Orange, Bashful Blue and Basic Black. I punched some circles to go with the gear theme. The only stamping in the title, and I used SU's Collage Alphabet in Basic Black ink. I really need some gear or bike wheel type of stamps. The journaling is done in the large black circle with a white gel pen; and it says - Sunday, Jan. 25 2009 Renaissance Park Single Speed class 42 degrees - brr.

Rustic Roosters and Eggplant Pizza

Last week I played around and made a few cards. I went to Splitcoast Stampers for some inspiration. I found card sketch challenge SC240 and color challenge CC230. The color challenge was to use Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Cameo Coral and Certainly Celery, but I substituted Sage Shadow. And this is what I came up with. I used the Rustic Rooster stamp set and stamped the rooster in Basic Brown and the script in Cameo Coral. For accenting I did a little paper piercing on the Sage strip at the bottom and then added a flower with a ribbon center. There are no greetings yet, I'll add one as needed.

And I have to tell you about the great pizza we made the other night. Tim has decided that he really likes eggplant, so I've been looking for eggplant recipes. I found one for pizza on Smitten Kitchen's blog. She grilled her home made pizza dough, we grilled the eggplant but used a pre-made store bought crust and baked it in the oven. It was yummy. The eggplant had a mushroom texture and the green olives ave lots of briney flavor and then it was covered in melty provolone. Go make one for yourself.

Blueberry Cake

It's really a coffee cake, and it's supposed to be apple. But I'm calling it blueberry cake. My friend Melissa posted the recipe on her blog, From Laptop to Stovetop. You must check out her blog, she cooks and bakes the most fabulous things. She found the recipe for Aunt DeeDee's Apple Coffee Cake at All Recipes. Since I can't follow a recipe, I used a can of blueberry pie filling instead of apple; I added some vanilla to the cake batter; I didn't have walnuts so I used slivered almonds; and I didn't do the icing. This is an absolutely wonderful cake and you all must go make one. I'm going to have to share with my co-workers because it make a 13x9 pan of yumminess.

The only problem I had making the cake was that my hand mixer broke. Tim even took it apart to fix it. But fifteen dollar hand mixers are not meant to be fixed. I bought the hand mixer when I was between stand mixers. And now I have my beautiful red Kitchen Aid so I can live without the hand mixer.

Mailbox Monday August 17

I'm really excited about the books that came in my mailbox last week. For several years I've been reading books for the Aspen Gold Readers Choice Awards sponsored by the Heart of Denver Romance Writers. The two books I am reading this year are Windswept by Ann Macela and A Daughter's Promise by Christine Clemetson. The scores are due sometime in September, so these books will be on the top of my reading pile.

Mailbox Monday Aug. 10

One way to make Monday a happy day is to look at all the new books that showed up in my mailbox last week. Marcia at the Printed Page hosts this weekly event. Click over to her blog and see what other found in their mailbox.

Harlequin Romance sent me several copies of The Italian's Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham. One copy is for me to keep and the others are for me to give away. We'll have a copy happy library patrons.

And Random House sent me an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts. Beautiful cover, I can't wait to read it.

Thank you Random House and Harlequin.

First Day of Kindergarten

My oldest niece will be starting 4th grade in a few weeks. It seems like it was just yesterday when she started Kindergarten. My sister-in-law even saved her bus card for me to include on the layout. The base of the page, and the red flowered piece is SU Cutie Pie pattern paper, the scalloped layer is Certainly Celery and last is a So Saffron layer. the pictures on matted on Rose Red. The accent flowers are a mixture of SU and CM with various brads and buttons. The title is SU On Board chipboard that I inked with Rose Red craft ink and a metal edge tag with So Saffron center.

July Reads

I read 14 books in July - a pretty good reading month. Everything I read was fiction, one was juvenile. I was disappointed by several of the books - maybe I just need to quit reading cooking and knitting books. If you disagree with my thoughts on any of these books, leave me a nice message and tell my why.

The Local News by Miriam Gershow. Rating 3. This book came to me from Gayle at Every Day I Write the Book for the June book club discussion - which I obviously missed. We get to see Lydia's point of view during the aftermath of her older brother's disappearance. I thought it was interesting to hear from a younger sister who wasn't all that sad that her older, more popular, bully of a brother was missing. But the characters lacked something, they weren't very interesting.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Princeby JK Rowling. I re-read this one before we went to see the movie.

Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran. Rating 3. Three Iranian women open a restaurant in a small Irish town. I felt like some of the quirky local characters got dropped halfway through the book. The plot and character weren't very original, and I didn't like the main love interest.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich. Rating 4. Very funny and lots of blowing up cars. And Ranger - my favorite.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil. Rating 3. Not very original The characters were nice. though neither the yarn shop of the knitting group were named after the title of the book, which I thought was odd.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Rating 4. This is a juvenile book. Lovely little book. The copy I read had beautiful Illustrations. It reminded me of the Velveteen Rabbit. But this is the story of a china rabbit who passes from owner to owner and who learns what love is.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova. Rating 4.5. A fabulous book. Told from Alice's point of view as she descends into early onset Alzheimer's Disease. It was so realistic. And there are so many layers to the story.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. Rating 3. This was for my face-to-face book club who liked it more than I did. We had a great discussion. I just think there are better books out there about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. The author never gives the main characters names and so I felt a lack of connection to them.

Summer Houseby Nancy Thayer. Rating 3.5. A light book good for summer. The characters were enjoyable. I kept waiting for something big to happen but everything ended graciously.

God's Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. Rating 4. Very funny. The Greek gods now live in London instead of Olympus. They are bored and play mean tricks on each other to keep themselves amused. two innocent mortals get caught up in one of their tricks and they end up saving the world - but Alice has to die first.

Divorce Party by Laura Dave. Rating 4. This book came from Mari at Bookworm With a View. I really enjoyed this small book. It comes off as a light book, but there are lots of good underlying themes. Maggie meets her future in-laws for the first time at their divorce party, and learns a lot about her future husband.

School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Brawermeister. rating 3. Lillian runs a cooking school in her restaurant. Food is the answer to all the problems her students bring with them. Nicely written, interesting characters, but the plot did not feel original.

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond. Rating 4. The story focuses on Abby, who lost her fiance's young daughter one day at the beach. She blames herself for looking away for an instant, but she believes she can search her memory for the key piece of information and the little girl will be found. I thought the ending was a little unrealistic, but the author does such a good job that the reader believes too.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. Rating 4. A group of young mothers meet in the 60's. They all read and discussing books is what brings them together. We watch as they grow into modern women who can think for themselves and take care of themselves and begin to see themselves as separate from their husbands but still have good marriages.

Just Like Mom and Dad

My parents came down to visit us in March. Tim took a few pictures of me with each of them. It's funny, if I'm with my Mom everyone thinks I look like her, but if I'm with my Dad everyone thinks I look like him. So that's how I came up with the title for this page. And I think the quote is perfect: "The greatest gift is a portion of thyself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson. The base is SU's Baja Breeze, and I also used SU's River Rock and a unknown dark brown card stock. The patterned paper is Wall Street's Metropolitan collection. I used K & Company paper ribbon and labels for accents. I also used my Big Shot and the Top Note die for the title and journaling boxes and a Sizzlet for the paisleys.

Mailbox Monday August 3, 2009

Almost done catching up with old posts - food, scrapbooking, and now books. I made a couple new scrapbook pages this week and I have a list of the books I read in July to post later this week.

Mari at Bookworm With A View sent me a few books awhile back that I want to tell you about.

Divorce Party by by Laura Dave. I read this book this past week so I'll write a short blurb about it when I list the books I read in July.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. This book is for an online discussion on Wednesday, August 19th. I started the book this weekend and am really looking forward to the discussion. Click over the Mari's blog to follow the discussion.

I've been requesting fewer free books from bloggers so I can spend some time reading the great books I've all ready received. But I do have a few new titles coming in, and I'll share those when they make it into my mailbox. It looks like I'll also be doing some judging for several romance writers contests, so I'll have lots of books to be reading this fall.

And this is the time of the year that I start picking the books my book club will read next year. If you have any suggestions for book club books, be sure to leave me a comment. I've read lots of good things this year so I'm sure my group will end up with a great list.

Wild About You

My friend Darcy and her husband recently had a baby boy. A bunch of us put together a scrapbook for her. This is the layout that I contributed. The base is Stampin' Up's Pumpkin Pie and the coordinating colors are So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, and Old Olive. The patterned stripe along the left side is also SU. I used the stamp set Wild About You. I made some patterned paper with the animals from the set - the alligator in Old Olive, the elephant in Tempting Turquoise, the lion in Pumpkin Pie and the giraffe in So Saffron. I also cut out some of the animals and used them for accents. I used the notebook edge punch along the top of the journaling box. And the title was stamped with Best Friends alphabet. I loved how this layout turned out and I hope that Darcy can use it.

BB: Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad

My mother emailed me to remind me that it's been awhile since I posted anything. So I'll try and get caught up on some posts.

The Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad was one of the Barefoot Blogger recipes from last month. Cat, of Delta Whisky selected the recipe. I served the salad with an Italian beef sandwich. Truthfully, we weren't crazy about the salad. We liked all the elements, but somehow all together it didn't do anything for us. I wonder if it would have been better warm. The second recipe for the month was a Peach and Blueberry Crumble, chosen by Aggie's Kitchen. Neither of us eat peaches, so we skipped this recipe. I am looking forward to trying this month's recipes.

Books Read in June

Before the month gets much further gone I wanted to share what I read in June. There are some good things on my list.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. Rated 4. The beginning of this one is a little confusing as all of the male cousins are introduced. The plot was good and kept me guessing as to which of the cousins Kitty would pick.

At Bertrams Hotel by Agatha Christie. Rated 4. My very first Agatha Christie, and I loved it. It's a really good story with wonderful characters. It's more of a character and setting kind of book than a mystery.

Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Rated 4. This was for the Picador Twitter book club that I wasn't able to participate in because we were in the car for one of our trips to KY. I'm disappointed that I missed the discussion because this is one heck of a book. The story is narrated by an unnamed neighborhood boy as he and his friends try and figure out why the five neighbor girls all commit suicide.

The Other by David Guterson. Rated 4. Tim and I listened to this on audio on one of our trips to KY. It was read by Mark Bramhall. We both enjoyed the book very much. In fact, Tim has commented on it several weeks later. Guterson writes a wonderful sense of place. This book reminded me of Bridge of Sighs with it's themes of male friendship, reminiscing on the past and how the past affects our lives.

Beach Trip by Cathy Horton. Rated 3. A story of women's friendships and trying to reconnect after many years. My favorite character was Lola.

Not Becomming My Mother by Ruth Reichl. Rated 5. This is a short memoir. Reichle is saying a thank you to her mother.

Seducing and Angel by Mary Balogh. Rated 4. Historical romance.

Laws of Harmony by Judith Ryan Hendricks. Rated 3. The characters and setting were good, but I felt the author was overdoing Sunny's relationship with her mother and the death of her younger sister.

Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. Rated 4. Good stories and characters. We got to meet a few new characters and revisit several former characters. The story is still fresh.

Souvenir by Therese Fowler. Rated 2.5. Fowler is going to be the author for our annual Friends of the Library Author Dinner later this year. I'm looking forward to reading her second novel.

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie. Rated 4. Another great Miss Marple mystery.

And one DNF: The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. I love Wally Lamb and had been looking forward to his newest book. We started listen to it on audio on one of our trips to KY. We didn't get it all listened to so I started reading when we got home. It just got tedious, so I quit reading.

Mailbox Monday: July 6

This is actually several weeks of Mailbox Monday's all rolled together.

Mari from Bookworm With a View has sent me several books over the last month or so.

For the Summer Reading Series discussion on July 14th, I have a copy of All We Ever Wanted by Janelle Brown.

The MMBC book for August 19th is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick.

And then, I have a copy of Divorce Party by Laura Dave

So thank you Mari, I look forward to some great reading and discussion.

Random House Publishers sent me an ARC of Huge by James W. Fuerst. Thank you Random House.

Everything Austen

I'm taking the Everything Austen Challenge hosted by Stephanie at Stephanies Written Word. I might have to call mine the Everything Pride and Prejudice. It's my favorite book, so the six books I'm reading for this challenge all have to do with P&P.

Here's my Everything Austen/Everything Pride and Prejudice reading plan for the next 6 months:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Darcys and the Bingleys: a Tale of Two Gentlemen's Marriages to Two Most Devoted Sisters by Marsha Altman

Two Shall Become One: Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy by Sharon Lathan

Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberly by Linda Berdoll

Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster

The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston

Father's Day

Father's Day was several weeks ago. We were in Kentucky for Tim's sister's funeral. I had to quick make my cards before we left so I could get them in the mail to my Dad and brothers. It certainly wasn't a very happy Father's Day for Tim, but he got a card too.

Sorry the picture is terrible - it was a quick shot so I could get them in the mail. The base is a kraft cardstock that Tim brought home for me, as is the green and blue cardstocks. The Very Vanilla that I stamped the tree on and the Basic Black are both Stampin' Up cardstocks. The tree stamp is stamped in Basic Black ink, from SU's Lovely as a Tree set, and the greeting is from one of the retired All Year Cheer sets. I added a few black rads to give it some texture.

BB: Curried Couscous

Last night's dinner was perfect for summer. I had some salmon patties in the freezer that I pulled out and reheated. And we tried a new recipe - the Barefoot Contessa's Curried Couscous. It's one of this month's recipes for the Barefoot Bloggers and Ellyn of Recipe Collector and Tester picked it. I left out the raisins, substituted white onion for the red and forgot the parsley. Tim and I were both surprised by the mild flavor. We don't use a lot of curry, but I think this recipe has made us not afraid of it. I was very happy with the results and glad we tried it. We have started eating a lot of couscous, and it's perfect for summer because it doesn't heat up the house to make it and can be flavored so many ways.

Books Read in May

Yes, I know, it's the second week in June, but I wanted to share with you what I read last month. By the end of May I had read 45 books. Last year it was early September by the time I'd read 45 books. So I am on a roll this year. My guess is that I'm doing less scrapbooking and card making. You'll see I read a lot of romance and memoirs in May.

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci. Memoir. Rating 3.5

Desperately Seeking A Duke, The Duke Next Door, and Duke Most Wanted by Celeste Bradley. Romance.

Some Like it Wild by Teresa Medeiros. Romance. Rating 3. Fun story. Follows Some Like it Wicked.

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. Fiction. Rating 4. Great characters. The book was a little long. had a great discussion with my book club.

Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal by Lily Koppel. Memoir. Rating 4.

We Are All Fine Here by Mary Guterson. Fiction. Rating 3. It's a small book which reads quickly. And, of course, everything isn't fine.

To Beguile a Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt. Romance. Rating 3.5. Number three in the Legend of the Four Soldiers series after To Taste Temptation, and To Seduce a Sinner. Next will be To Desire a Devil.

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan. Memoir. Rating 4.

Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer. Classic Romance. Rating 4. Fresh characters and plot. Still a classic.