Books 3 - Thunder of Heaven

At the end of 2011 I finished the book When Heaven Weeps by Ted Dekker. At the beginning of this year I finished the 3rd book in the series Thunder of Heaven. There is supposedly no order to these books and each one can stand on it's own, some of the characters are in the same books. So you could be going forward and backward in time with the stories if you read them out of order. Which I did. The second book is called Heavens Wager.

All of these books have a similar message that many of us have heard before. The message is for such a time as this. These books are based on a concept that something has happened long a go to set in motion events that would lead to this very moment for this very purpose to complete God's will.

Two friends lost their parents tragically when they were attacked by drug smugglers. Years later they were reunited in the same country, and realized they were brought together to do the right thing. This thing being to save our country.

This was a good book, for me a it was a little slow. I was able to complete this book because I actually listened to this one on Audio books. If I would have had to read the entire book I'm not sure I would have made it, but the story itself is a good one, and one to be enjoyed!

I would recommend adding this book to your reading list.

Cooks 4 - Buffalo Chicken Dip

How great is it that after a number of years of asking for people to make this for me I finally do it myself. I absolutely love this dip, but have never made it on my own. So here it is.

BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP

***obtained by allrecipes.com

***Submitted by: NUNPUNCH

Prep Time: 5 minutes    Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 (10 oz.) cans chuck chicken, drained

2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened

1 cup ranch dressing
3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red Hot)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 bunch of celery, cleaned and cut into 4 inch pieces
1 (8 oz) box chicken-flavored crackers

1. Heat chicken and hot sauce in a  skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on LOW setting until hot and bubbly.

2. Serve with celery and crackers

Thoughts and changes:

The things I did differently are: I left out the celery (it was just a snack and tortilla chips or crackers worked just fine), I bought club crackers instead of chicken flavored. For the shredded cheese I used what I had which was 3/4 c of habenero cheese, and 3/4 of taco flavored cheese. I would recommend cooking the mixture in a sauce pan instead of a skillet. The higher edges would be nice. If you were making this recipe for a party or a large group you would need to double or triple the recipe. I felt like prep time was a little longer than 5 minutes, but I wasn't really watching the clock.

Make sure to rinse off all dishes after use for easy cleaning. A small crock pot is sufficient for this recipe.

I honestly preferred the chicken dip with tortilla chips instead of  crackers.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Give it a try. There are lots of big football games coming up. Maybe you should try this for the conference championships tomorrow!

Happy cooking everyone.

Books 2 - Divergent

For Books 2 - I just finished Divergent by Veronica Roth. This was one of the best books I have read so far. Which means it adds up there with the Twilight Series, and the Hunger Games Series.

Very similar to Hunger Games but also stands on it's own. This book is about a society where you have to make a choice at the age 16 on what you are going to be when you grow up. What group are you going to choose to live with. Will you stay in your same faction and stick with your family, or will you switch and follow your own qualities.  In this book they make people become who they want them to be. Very interesting.

Once again, I struggle to talk about the book because I don't want to give away any of the books story or surprises. If you like to read, and like a little action try picking up a copy of Divergent.

Book two will be coming out in May and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Until then I guess I will have to fill my time reading other stories.

I greatly enjoyed this book, and have to admit that I read 487 pages in less than 5 days.

For more information about this author and her books you should check our her website. http://www.veronicarothbooks.com

I look forward to hearing from you if you have read this book, or once you read it.

Cooks 3 - Soft Oatmeal Cookies

SOFT OATMEAL COOKIES
*** Taken from allrecipes.com
*** Submitted byBITTERSWEET1

Prep time: 15 minutes  Cook time: 10 minutes  Servings: 24

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:
 1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs on at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large four dipped in sugar.

3. Bake for 8 or 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Thoughts and changes:

I have to admit I am a little surprised that I am submitting one more recipe which makes three for this month. It amazes me that I am keeping up with it. We will see what happens as the time progresses. 


Some changes I made to the recipe are I did not complete the parts up top that I struck out. There was no need for it. I was very thankful for my KitchenAid mixer this time, since the dough is quite think. I divided the dough into half. In one half I added crushed pecans and chocolate chips (I only had 1/4 c. so that is what I used on the chips) in the second half I also added pecans and then I added 1/4 c. butterscotch chips to the cookies.


After letting the cookies cool they were sweet and soft. It was fairly simple and enjoyable snack. Couple hints. I stuck to the 10 minute timing and the cookies stiffened up as they cooled. Make sure to move them to the cooling rack for further cooling. I have come to realize that if I am going to make more cookies I need another cooling rack. :)


Enjoy!


:) When you have tried the recipe leave a note and tell me what you thought of it, or the changes you made. 

Books 1 - Blackberry Summer

I'm so excited to be writing my first Books blog for my year long goal of 20 books in 2012. I'm also very excited that I am on target with this blogging idea that I have given lots of thought to over the last few months of 2011.

My first book is Blackberry Summer by RaeAnne Thayne, 376 pages.

This is a nice relaxing novel about a divorced mother of two, who after being faced with a number of challenges realized that she needed a wake up call and received just that.  She has to heal from physical wounds of a car accident and the emotional wounds of a divorce. While the new Sheriff in town is creating another stir of emotions that she must face. The Sheriff himself has a few demons of his own to conquer.

This was a nice little read, quick and entertaining. It was a change of pace than what I normally read. I nice little Romance novel never does a heart wrong. If you would like a nice little read, try reading Blackberry Summer.

Cooks 2 - BBQ Pulled Pork

Ingredients:
4 lbs Pork Butt Roast
BBQ Sauce
Can of beef broth

Place pork roast in the crockpot and cook on low for 10-12 hours. (Mine cooked longer than this but 10 to 12 hours should be fine). Take roast out of crock pot and shred with two forks. Add BBQ sauce and serve.

My thoughts:

This was one of the easiest things I have done in my life. I put the roast in the night before and then left it cook until dinner time the next day. I pulled the roast out and shredded the pork with a fork. Separating the fat. It was so flavorful and delicious that I decided to just leave the BBQ sauce out. We added small amounts to our sandwiches.

This was a very quick and easy meal to create. It took me less 10 minutes to shred the pork. It just fell apart with the the fork. Great new recipe! This is great for those busy nights when there just doesn't seem to be enough time.

On a side note, I actually put a completely frozen pork roast in the crock pot and cooked it on low for a number of hours. It was perfect. You could change your times by having a thawed roast, or cooking on high. Plan for 8 -10 hours of cook time.

Cooks 1 - Chicken Rice Casserole

So here we go. The first cooks entry. Let me say last night was such a joy sitting in the kitchen chatting with my honey and making a delicious meal for the two of us. Nothing is better than cooking a nice meal for someone who truly appreciates the effort. It was such a nice event.

Recipe tried: CHICKEN RICE CASSEROLE
** Recipe obtained by allrecipes.com -- submitted by Linda Durnil
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4 (way more)


Ingredients
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
2 cups cooked rice
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 (8 oz) can sliced water chestnuts
1 (4.5 oz) jar sliced mushrooms
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup crushed saltines
1 tbsp butter or margarine


Directions:
In a bowl, combine first 10 ingredients. Transfer to a greased 2- 2 1/2 qt baking dish. Combine the cracker crumbs and butter; sprinkle over the top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly.

My changes and thoughts:
I did not add the celery but will next time. I added 1 cup of frozen broccoli pieces instead. I used cream of mushroom soup, and 5 oz can of water chestnuts (I didn't know if I liked these), I used a normal 7 oz. can of mushroom pieces, and I doubled the saltine crumbs mixture. I also used Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise (because it is what I already had).

After eating this very tasty meal, Andy informed me that I could add it to the cookbook and it rated right up there with my baked spaghetti (which is his absolute favorite meal I cook!). This meal was very tasty, and left you full but not feeling tired or over stuffed. It was suggested that the water chestnuts could be chopped up or quartered to mix the textures better. For the two of us this recipe could have easily been cut in half. There were A LOT of left overs.

If you omitted the chicken this would be a great side dish for another meal, such as steak or pork chops. It just had a really great flavor!

Also for those of you that don't like a lot of clean up, this pan cleaned up very nicely. I let it soak for a little while in some water and it was practically spotless. This is definitely a recipe that my home will be using more often. This was a great way to start the cooks and books challenge!

Up coming recipes!

Spaghetti with Broccoli and Mushrooms
BBQ Pulled Pork