And the Winner is....

Last Saturday  (the  Saturday before last, actually.  The  2nd)  I joined in a monthly meme hosted by Michelle at  Because Reading is Better than Real Life.

I choose 3 books from my TBR list and YOU voted!

I was supposed to write a post letting you know which one won on Saturday the  9th.

Buuutttt.......I didn't.  I was out of town visiting family in Washington State.  I took my laptop and had every intention of writing up a short post, but then, I don't know, life happened.

So... here is my late post.

  I asked you to help me pick a book to read from these three:

And....

I HAD A TIE!

So I asked my Facebook friends!

And....

I HAD ANOTHER TIE!

The tie was between "The Dog Stars" and "Inside the O'Briens"

So, once again I asked the Handyman. (sigh)

He said:  Dog Stars? What are Dog stars?  I guess you should read Dog Stars!

I said:  But is that what you pick?

He said:  Well, I wouldn't pick it, I would pick the O'Briens.

So, I'm still not sure sure what I'm supposed to read.

The O'Briens?

Yes.

The O'Briens.

I'll be back on the 30th and let you know how I liked it.

Tuesday Intros

 

Today is Tuesday--- which means I'll be joining up with Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea and her First Chapter, First Paragraph

Tuesday Intros, 

Where,  bloggers post the first paragraph of a book they are thinking of reading --- and get everyone's opinion to see if it grabbed them from the beginning or not.

Click here to join the fun!

 

 

My paragraph:

 

Of all my many murders, committed for love and for better reasons, the first was the most important.

Already this project proves more difficult than I had ever imagined.  Autobiographies depend upon the truth; but I have been lying for such a very long, lonesome time.

 

What do you think?

Keep reading or not?

 

 

The Book?

 

 

Friday Friend Recipe #98 - Crostini with Blue Cheese Spread and Olive Tapenade

 

 

 

Recipe number 98

Come with me as I continue to countdown my Friday Friend Cookbook
What is it, you may ask?

In a nutshell...
About 15 years ago, 50 of my closest friends and family, who had been on an e-mail forum with me, sent in recipes in different categories and we compiled a cookbook.
I decided to count those down!
Why?
Because the one night I was looking thru the cookbook and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog"
The Handyman--who thinks he knows me better than I know myself, said,  "you'll never EVER do that."
Well,  maybe I will!  Maybe I'll show him!

Which brings me to recipe #98Meghan's Crostini with Blue Cheese and Olive Tapenade

 

 

Before I go much further, let me say, I was probably supposed to  blend/mix/smash the pine nuts in the tapenade much finer that I did.  Because it looks like I did it not at all.

BUT---it tasted SOOOO  GOOD!!

 

 

Straight from the cookbook itself!!

( because I'm too lazy to type it all out today)

 

 

 

I made these for a small dinner party I was having, As I said above, they were so, so, SO good!  We kept eating it and eating it and pretty much ruined our appetite for dinner.

Even tho we (Friday Friends) put together this cookbook 15 years ago, I had never made this recipe before---and if  I  hadn't have made  this challenge with my husband, I most likely would have never made 90% of these recipes.  I would have just shelved this cookbook with my others and 'loved' it from afar, but now I am finding hidden gems and this---this tapenade is one of them! 

And now for my FF Story!!

I'm lucky to have such great sisters-in-law, Meghan is one of my favorites--you can see all her recipes here.

It's getting harder  and harder to tell a story about my family and friends without compromising their integrity --I know them so well, but when  put on the spot it's getting tough.  I guess I only remember the reckless behavior, but then how interesting a story would it be if I wrote: she made a good chicken picatta and listened to jazz music? 

While  this is only Meghan's 5th recipe, so far, in the countdown, there is only so much I can tell without taking the 5th amendment.  

She must live a reckless life! At least 5% of it anyway---she really does make a mean chicken picatta!

 

Here is her story:

 

It takes place on my 25th wedding anniversary.

Almost 13 years ago.

 

Meghan and her husband Mike, the Handyman's babiest of baby brothers ( The Handyman then lots of sisters and then 3 boys at the end)

 

Below in the photo are Meghan and LeAnne, one of the many sisters in the middle.

I envision Meghan telling LeAnne, "I am the best cook in the family"

I envision this, because--well, it's the truth. I can vouch for that.

She has her own small dinner at home catering business, and I envy that so much.  ( not enough to do anything about it of course--although,  it might be fun for me to cook for your dinner party!!)

Anyway...Meghan is a good cook.

 

Because this was my 25th wedding anniversary, and we live in a small Nevada town (Nevada's bars are open 24hours), and only my family was there until the wee small hours, Meghan ended up dancing on the bar.

 

Okay,  so all of my family danced on the bar!!

Wait!  It's the Handyman's family.

His brother, his sister, etc etc etc

 

except for Willie. Willie is in the middle in the blue shirt... Willie just loves the bar and rarely leaves.

We (the Handyman and I) see him around town sometimes, and he'll still tell us, even 12 years later, that was one of the best nights of his life.

Willie WAS having a great time!!

 

I just couldn't get the picture to fit, so I had to cut myself out of this one!!

And Meghan is hidden by Leslie, my other sister-in-law, but you get the picture, right? 

 

Meghan:

mom

wife

bar dancer

book reader

and Crostini with Blue Cheese Spread and Olive Tapenade maker extraordinaire!

 

That's the Friday Friend story of the week!

(or month as the case may be, because I'm slow at this)

 

I'm going to link up  with Weekend Cooking  at Beth Fish Reads.

 

 

 

What Should I Read Next

A monthly meme hosted by Michelle at  Because Reading is Better than Real Life.

Michelle says:

We sit for hours looking through our TBR lists wondering when we will ever get to that one book we were dying to read when we added it 3 months ago or maybe even a year. As our piles get bigger we realize there is just not enough time in a day to read all the books that we wanted to read. So I had a great idea, pick 3 books from my TBR Pile and have you all pick which one I should read next. This is a monthly MEME and you are more than welcome to join me.

There are of course some rules, but if you want to join in go here to check them all out.

Okay people....help me out here!  I need a book to read and I need your help in choosing which one.

Below are three I want to read, but..... my decision making skills when I'm not at work are nil.

All you have to do is  just make a comment in on which one you choose for me and I'll let you know next Saturday what I'm reading next....the majority wins!

What's it all about?

Loop me in, odd one.

The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love, and Stormy is dead, gone forever from this world. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature.

Through two New York Times bestselling novels Odd Thomas has established himself as one of the most beloved and unique fictional heroes of our time. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning—but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself.

St. Bartholomew’s Abbey sits in majestic solitude amid the wild peaks of California’s high Sierra, a haven for children otherwise abandoned, and a sanctuary for those seeking insight. Odd Thomas has come here to learn to live fully again, and among the eccentric monks, their other guests, and the nuns and young students of the attached convent school, he has begun to find his way. The silent spirits of the dead who visited him in his earlier life are mercifully absent, save for the bell-ringing Brother Constantine and Odd’s steady companion, the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

But trouble has a way of finding Odd Thomas, and it slinks back onto his path in the form of the sinister bodachs he has met previously, the black shades who herald death and disaster, and who come late one December night to hover above the abbey’s most precious charges. For Odd is about to face an enemy who eclipses any he has yet encountered, as he embarks on a journey of mystery, wonder, and sheer suspense that surpasses all that has come before.  

What's it all about?

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

Praised for writing that “explores the resilience of the human spirit” (The San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core.

What's it all about?

Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley.

But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by

West Metro Mommy Reads!

 

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post to West Metro Mommy Reads!   Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

 

 

Last night our friends threw a "Wine Pairing with Girl Scout Cookies" tasting.

It was THE BEST!!

So much fun!  And so unique.

They had wine thru-out their home...in two bedrooms as well as the dining and living rooms.

We wandered, we sipped and we ate Girl Scout Cookies.

 

I thought today I'd share a few pictures of the Wine and Cookies.

 

**for the record, I don't know if I could have a wine tasting in my bedroom. 

Sure come in if you want, but I'd probably have an errant sock on the loose or something worse!**

They had a flyer/paper/list of what wines they paired with what cookie.

YOU really should steal this  wine pairing party idea---think of how cool you'd be!

 

 

Our hosts Tom and Kay!

Thanks so much.

We had a great time!!

 

 

Book Blogger Hop

 

Book Blogger Hop is hosted each week by

Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

 

This week's question is:

 

Have you ever ventured out of your comfort zone in terms of reading a genre you have never read? If so, did you get hooked on that new genre?

 

My answer:

Well....let me tell you....I read pretty much everything.

But if I had to choose, Sci-Fi and Fantasy are my most least read, but when I do read them I LOVE the stories.  They're just not my 'go to' kind of book.

 

Right now my guilty pleasure are Romance Novels.

I hadn't read them for 25 years, but  lately .... there have been a lot of them.

They're fun, fast and really good.

 

 

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week.  It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile!

It's Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date.

Last week I was so excited about the 5 books I had going on, but if you remember, I mentioned that I had no idea how that had happened.

I said this last week:

I'm reading 5 books this week--all at the same time.

I have never read this many at one time before!

I don't even know how this has happened!

Different rooms, different times of the day--that kind of thing, I guess.  

But I hope to finish them all this week.

Well, it so happens that--

I cannot do 5 books at one time!!!

2 yes, but 5 really confused my reading mojo.

All I did was pick up one read a few pages, put it down, pick up another one, read a few pages--you get the picture.

I can't concentrate enough on one to really start to enjoy it.

I'm going to pick one and just stick with it thru to the end!!

So...nothing finished this week.

But last night my son and his kids arrived for spring break, and I sat down with my grandkids and they each chose a book for me to read to them this week.  It's my favorite thing to do!  

My books are a bit dated, but timeless stories.

This week I will be reading AND finishing these two:

They would also like me to read "Little Women" to them.  I love Little Women, and these two 6, almost 7 year olds, are advanced listeners, so I might give it a try.  I'm not sure yet.  Although this is a Penguin Junior Edition, so it's not the full 500 pages, which is a plus for reading aloud novels in a week!

And that's my reading for the week!

What are  you reading?