It's Monday! What are you Reading?

It's Monday, What are you reading, is hosted  by Sheila of Book Journey

The meme that we use to share what we read this past week and what our plans are for the upcoming week.  It’s a great way to see what others are reading and add to your own To Be Read list. :D  You never know where that next great read may come from!

It's been  a very fast week, and I didn't get as much reading in as I had hoped. (I never do)

But right now I'm in the middle of two great books

One an audio and one not.

The first one, The Martian, by Andy Weir, got 5 stars from all of my Goodreads friends who have read it.

I am about 1/4 of the way thru it and am loving it.

This is an audio version.

The 2nd one, The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult  received 5 and 4 stars from my friends on Goodreads who have read it.

I am loving it too.

And these are two vastly different reads.

I am enjoying both of them very much.

Last week I finished these two:

Termination Dust by Sue Henry

Yes Please, by Amy Poehler

as well as

gave some great recipes and fun stories from my Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown

Mexican Rice

Chicken BBQ Pizza

(I read that cookbook all the time, so I figure it counts, right?)

Friday Friend Recipe #45: Mexican Rice

Friday Friend Recipe #45:  Mexican Rice

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook:   I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county).  At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 15 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions,  exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts,  had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND,  we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

Which brings me to this... recipe #45

Cherrie Lou Who's

Mexican Rice

It was a good rice. (IF you take off the cilantro says the Handyman)
I made it as a  side to some Chili Verde.
Cherrie and her husband host  a  Cynco de Mayo party every year and she makes a big feast -- this rice is always included.

Mexican Rice

Cherrie Lou Who

Auburn, WA

2 cups long grain rice
3 & 3/4 cup water  
2 T. olive oil
1 8oz can corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chunky salsa
dash hot pepper sauce

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Put rice in to brown, stirring often. Go for the light, golden look (darker makes it bitter).
Put rice, water, salsa and hot sauce into large saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover tightly and reduce heat to low.
Simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
Quickly add drained corn and chopped pepper (just on top of rice), cover and simmer for 5 minutes more. 
Remove from heat and stir together. 
Put in casserole dish and keep warm in oven until ready to eat.

And now, I will introduce you to Cherrie Lou Who!
She's making her debut appearance on the blog, as I am cooking up her first recipe from the book.
Cherrie is my sister-in-law.
One of my favorite ones!
I have 7.
Her real name is not  Cherrie Lou Who, it is Cheryl Louise.  I just call her Cherrie Lou Who or Loohoo.
I'm not sure why.
It just fits.

I do not have any sisters, but I am very lucky to have some sisters-in-law who are like sisters to me.
I love them a lot!
And, it has occurred to me  that some of the funnest things I've ever done have been with Cherrie Lou Who.  We walked in the Breast Cancer 3day/60mile walk, we've been to Vegas, tons of family stuff AND  I floated down the Yakima River with her.
( The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in south central and eastern Washington state, named for the indigenous Yakama people. The length of the river from headwaters to mouth is 214 miles (344 km), with an average drop of 9.85 feet per   mile )

Floating is so much fun!
Even tho we grew up in the dry, arid southeast part of  Washington State, there is a LOT of water.
It's a mystery as to why
(actually, there is a scientific reason, something with words like basalt anticlines and glacial floods, blah blah blah) 

The Handyman and his siblings grew up floating the river.
They spent many a lazy weekend afternoon on innertubes, homemade rafts, and small boats just soaking in the sun and water.

Cherrie Lou Who is in this picture below!

 

Somewhere.

Here is a better photo of her (she's in the middle), with her older brother, Rich aka The Handyman, her sister Eva, and then her sister LeAnne and me on the end.

She has a sign STONE so that people can see where her camp site is. People that are meeting up to join in a river float.

Cherrie Lou Who and her husband Mike are famous for their river float camping weekends.

And by famous, I mean that all their family and friends love to come join them on one of the few weekends they float the river over each summer.

 

The floats are about  5 or so hours long, and then a quick 30 minute ride back to camp, where we have bbq steak and baked potatoes (over a camp fire)

All the rafts are tied together and people bring squirt guns and beach balls and things to pass the time on the float.
If you come upon another group of floaters it is customary to have a squirt gun fight with the.
You might think we are too old for this sort of fun?
How old is too old?
(but this was 10 years ago)

I don't know that the Handyman would do 'this' today:
(here he is contemplating his move)

JUMPING OFF THE STUPID CLIFF!!

They stop and get out and jump off this stupid cliff!! 

 CRAZY!!!

Here was my moral dilemma:
If a train comes while you are floating --- and it is on the bridge, you have to 'flash' it. 
I couldn't decide if I was a traditionalist or a scaredy cat/prim/ proper person.
Lucky for me, there was no train!

This was supposed to be about Cherrie Lou Who and I have no good rafting/float pictures of her, so here is she and I at a nieces graduation about 10 years ago.
I haven't aged a bit!!
Neither has she.

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

This weekend she reviews a cookbook that I covet! 
Darn it!  I don't need another cookbook.
Why oh why does she do this to me?
~grins~

I am also linking up with 
Cook it Up!  A Cookbook Challenge
I am sad to hear this is her last Cookbook Challenge.
But she says she is coming up with another linky.  I'm looking forward to seeing what that might be!

Yes Please

from Goodreads:

In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book is full of words to live by

from me:

Amy Poehler is brilliant.

I loved this book.

I notice tho, that it got mixed reviews.

I'm not sure why.

I listened to the audio and loved her narration of it.

She's funny.

She's good at being funny.

It's a little bit uncomfortable -- it's very honest in parts.

It was sad in parts.

It made me laugh.

I gave it 4 stars.

Cookbook Countdown #74 -- Crab Pasta Salad and Cookbook Wednesday

Welcome!

Cookbook Countdown #74

 --  In my own personal Cookbook Countdown!

A very slow countdown it is -- 

If you want to see All of my 74 cookbooks, just click on this link.

It was  pretty, sunny day in the middle of February and I was chopping vegetables for this seafood pasta salad and this just looked....inviting...to me.

It's the little things in life....

This is my  74th cookbook!

Recipes and Memories

"A Taste of  Yesterday for Today"

the Romeo Monday Club

A few years ago -- 10 or so --  there was a cooking magazine called Hometown Cooking.

It might have  been published by Better Homes and Gardens

(I don't really have time to look into it--sorry) but it is not being published anymore, or at least not in the format I had subscribed to it when it first came out.

The magazine featured cookbooks from different clubs, organizations, churches, around the country and then gave information on how to order that cookbook. 

I ended up ordering a couple of them... and this is one of them!

And I decided to make this Crab Pasta Salad and some cookies 

(you can see how many sticky notes I have in this cookbook  that I want to try! )

  and invite my friends to come for lunch.

I have no pictures of my friends but I do have a picture of my granddaughter, Emerson, who joined  us for crab salad.

Although hers, I had to heat up in the microwave.  The thought of cold noodles didn't appeal to her. 

Neither did having her picture taken.

(she is wearing stuff from the dress up box.   The felt hat was mine when I was a little girl.  I must have been stylin' as you can tell )

Back to my Crab Pasta Salad

YUM!!

Yum!

YUM!

This cookbook did not disappoint!  It's definitely a keeper, but then, I guess if you are featured in a Better Homes and Gardens publication, it's a given.

It was the perfect  lunch to serve for friends.

Pasta salad

fruit

rolls

Seafood Pasta Salad

1/2 cup salad dressing (I used miracle whip)

1/4 cup zesty Italian dressing

 2 T. grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups cooked corkscrew noodles

1 1/2 cups imitation crab-meat

1 cup broccoli flowerettes, partially cooked

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped tomato

1/4 cup green onion slices

Combine salad dressings and set aside. Cook noodles until desired consistency and run under cold water.  When cool combine with crab-meat, broccoli, green pepper, tomatoes and green onions. 

Mix with dressing and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

The second thing I made from this cookbook, were these cookies titled:

BEST EVER COOKIES.

I just had to try the best EVER cookies.

And they were good.

A sugar cookies.

Great with coffee or milk.

And a book, of course.

 I must confess --- and this might creep some people out--- I eat a bit of raw cookie dough myself and this is one of the best cookie doughs ever!

Who doesn't eat unbaked cookie dough? right?

Seriously?   There are those of you out there who don't?

Never mind then.

Best Ever Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup oil

3/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup powdered sugar

5 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp almond extract

Mix ingredients together, roll dough into 1/2 to 3/4 inch balls. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass that has been greased and dipped in sugar.

Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.

I am happy to join Louise over at Months of Incredible Celebrations today and  link up with

COOKBOOK WEDNESDAYS.

She does such a great job of  keeping us informed of what's happenin' in the food world.

Food History world.

I love, Love, LOVE her nostalgic look back at food trends, food preparations and recipes.

This is from Louise herself:

For those of you who are new to Cookbook Wednesday, the “rules” are simple. Prepare a cookbook post on your blog or site and link it up (at this website). The linky is self explanatory but if you need assistance, just give me a yell. It would be nice if you include the Cookbook Wednesday Logo on your blog and link back to Months of Edible Celebrations but, it isn’t necessary. If you run out of cookbooks to share or just want to change it up a bit, cooking magazines, cookbook reviews and most anything cooking related is fine. We LOVE cookbooks no matter how they are texted. Thank you all again for joining in on the Cookbook Wednesday fun. Be sure and visit the cookbooks linked. Not only will you discover new cookbooks, you will encourage others to share:) Louise:)

She is kind and helpful and nice if you need help linking up or anything.

I think you should!  Link  up that is.

It's fun!

Friday Friend Recipe #44: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Friday Friend Recipe #44:  BBQ Chicken pizza

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook:   I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county).  At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 15 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions,  exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts,  had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND,  we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

Which brings me to this... recipe #44

Barb's 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

About 10 days ago, I sent Barb a text and gave her the choice of two of her recipes in the FF cookbook, for me to make.

She said they were both good and 'which one was I going to make'?

I told her she'd have to be surprised!

SURPRISE BARB!!

I made the BBQ Chicken pizza.

It was very good.

The consensus around the table was  -- that it was very  good.

5 people around the table.

5 people said "this is good"

I accidentally bought square pizza crusts and it STILL tasted good.

Barbecued Chicken Pizza

Barbara Brown

Buckeye, AZ

1 lb boned/skinned chicken breasts

1/4 cup BBQ sauce

salt/pepper

8-10 slices bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 10inch baked pizza crusts (like Boboli)

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup diced green chilies

shredded jack cheese

1/2 tsp hot chili flakes

Tear cooked chicken into bite-sized chunks.  Mix with bbq sauce.  Cook bacon.  Spread each pizza crust with  4oz cream cheese.  Spoon chicken in sauce, evenly over crusts. Top with the rest of the ingredients.

Bake at  400F for about  20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Cut and serve.

And now --- on to Barb.

As you know, she very kindly typed up all the recipes in the FF cookbook.

If not for her, I probably wouldn't be doing these blog posts, this countdown.

(because there wouldn't be a cookbook to count down from)

Barb and the Handyman, who said I would never do this. (I'm showing him alright!)

To see all of Barbara's previous recipes

CLICK HERE.

It seems like you can take the girl out of Mexico, but you can't take Mexico out of the girl!

Barb is always on the extreme left.

In the photos, not necessarily her political views.

That could be my fact about her this time.

Barb is not political.

As well as:

She would be the definition of  'live and let live'.

She's a very positive person and laughs All The TIME! 

She makes us laugh.

Laughing is good for the soul = Barb is good for the soul.

Seen here below with the Handyman and I and FF Mitzi (click here for her recipes) and her husband Larry.

At our FF Weekend at Wallowa Lake.

We were having a traveling cocktail party.

The five of us hosted the 1st stop.

I have no idea who these people  are.

Except for Barb on the left.

I really don't.

Hmmmmm....

Barb managed a JCPenney store for many years ( a few of them) (so did the Handyman, that's how we met) and some of her old JCPenney manager friends (women only, I guess) take a yearly vacation.

And that's what they are doing here at the Mariachi Bar!

Vacationing!

This is my best guess.

Termination Dust

From Goodreads:

The virgin landscape along the Yukon River has hardly changed since the gold rush began in 1897. Frostbiting winds slice the rugged terrain, and, like a shroud, the first dusting of snow covers the low hills. Braving thick snow on the Top of the World Highway--where one slip could mean a fall down thousands a cold-blooded killer. His only witness is Jim Hampton, a rugged canoeist whose vacation has abruptly ended. And Jensen's only clue is an 1898 journal--detailing an eerily similar murder--that Hampton discovered on the killer's path

From Me:

This is the 2nd in the series by Sue Henry (the first was Murder on the Iditarod Trail) 

One of the reasons I read series mysteries is because of the sense of place. 

I love that feeling of 'being there' and getting to know the setting.  You can really feel the author's love for where the story is set and I appreciate  that so much--the love of place.  It makes me love it a little bit even tho I've usually never been there, to where the story takes place.

  I truly feel this in Arnold's books-- her love and sense of place.

I also love the character development that a series gives to it's characters, but sometimes you have to be really committed to the whole series to see that play out.

 I  enjoyed getting to know  the main characters Alex Jenson and Jessie Arnold in both books,  this one was just okay. It moved a bit slow for me.

I'm going to give this book 3 stars.

And then say I probably won't read any more in the series.  I just can't play catch up right now.  

So many books, so little time....

**also I can't really make sense out of the Goodreads description.  I think they missed a couple of sentences.  I just copied and pasted that -- but??