Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld

From the mad genius who gave us Uglies and Pretties, we now have... Leviathan.

I'll be honest, I grabbed it purely based on the fact that it was by Scott. I had no idea what to expect. The first couple of pages really threw me for a loop de loop. First off it was written for a younger audience than U&P's. I really enjoy middle readers, I just was not prepared. And then it was so far removed from the U&P world. Oh it was still SciFi, but oh so different. Part steam punk (Heather, did your ears just perk?) Part historical fiction (mostly fiction) Part action adventure. It was ALL fun. Telling the story of Alek, the son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand a (a real person) and his wife who are assassinated, so he and his party escape into the night. Also about Deryn who dresses up as a boy to join the British air force.

Set in an alternate world in which Charles Darwin discovered biotechnology. The British Empire was built on the backs of strange, fabricated beasties. Living airships! Fighting kraken! Message lizards! Called by others Darwinists, the Brits use these beasties for everything. On the other end of Europe are the Clankers. Germans, Austrians, etc who are the opposites of Darwinists and extreme skilled machinists. Walking tanks, flying zeppelin's, etc. And at the beginning of the war these two worlds collide. It was just pure imagination and fun.

I can not do this book credit with out mentioning the illustrations. Keith Thompson provided an addition to this story that not only helped me understand the crazy inventions of either side with detail, but they were just so beautiful I just couldn't stop staring at them. Would make cool artwork to add to my library.

The MET

I have a group of about 6 girlfriends I mingle with regularly, so when Christmas comes around I start getting ulcers about what to get them. how much to spend. what what what! Then I had a flash of idea. Why not go to a really nice restaurant and have a grand girls night out. Spend our dineros on a really nice social activity/bonding moment instead 6 different trinkets. Luckily my girlies thought my idea was brilliant. We also decided to put it off till after the holidays because organizing 7 very busy girls schedules over the holidays was basically impossible. So Last night we gussied up in our best duds.... for most of us that meant old bridesmaids dresses..... I wore heals for longer than 30 minutes for the first time. We felt fancy. I even got valet parking, I am so posh. And then we descended upon the Metropolitan in downtown SLC.

It was super fancy... when you think PF Changes is our usual fancy... they had cloth hand towels in the bathroom...whoo eee...then we heard the music...wha? Pink? Bruce Springsteen? Backstreet Boys...so random. We had a good giggle. As others started to arrive we felt slightly over dressed, but didn't care much. Probably the jeans the others were wearing cost double what our dresses cost... they were probably mostly Sundance folks and couldn't figure out why these women were taking pictures of their food. Again we didn't care much.

We started with a 'taste' of butternut squash soup. Yep they called it a taste. I was worried it would come out in a spoon, for just one sip. but it was actually a decent sized small bowl of deliciousness soup. Not to sweet not to savory, but just perfect.

Then since I was on a ritzy fritzy roll, I went for the million dollar special. Ok it wasn't a million dollars, but compared to my budget it could have been. It was a Bison Rib Eye Oscar style. Wha?? I'd never even heard that before. It was topped with this crab from heaven and a bearnaise sauce that made me want to cry with joy. and then to make it all happy some asparagus. YEA ME!

We could not end the night w/o a dessert. We'd heard accolades about the molten lava cake, but after the crush of finding out it wasn't on the menu that night, we went for Assorted Mousse Selection. There was a Strawberry mousse, a Chocolate Orange mousse, a Blueberry mousse, and a Gingerbread mousse. Molten Lava Cake was soon forgotten. They were so good, so light and so good. I would taste the chocolate-orange and say 'that is my favorite' then I'd taste the gingerbread and say ... 'that is my favorite' it was hard to say.

But the crown of the entire piece for me was the gingerbread confetti. they were so adorable!

I doubt any food network critic will be asking me anytime soon, but it was awesome. We really had a great night. Just don't go if you are in a hurry. It was a 3 hour dinner.

Weeks of good food!!

I have been at B&Qs celebrating the arrival of beautiful G for a couple of weeks and and you know there is always lots of good food to be had at their place. We should have been showing you some of the yummy things we have been creating.... but we didn't. So to repent on my final night here we took some pics and are going to share the yummy Chipotle Meatballs meal we had tonight. We made it with ground turkey and loved the special surprise flavor of bacon. It is baked so you don't have to worry about turning the meatballs while they are cooking. They were really complemented well with mashed sweet potatoes. B added low fat cream cheese to the potatoes so they were especially scrupdilliocious!

Here are the pics and recipe....... enjoy!!

Chipotle Meatballs Recipe

(from Everyday Mexican - by Rick Bayless)

INGREDIENTS

• 3 slices bacon in 1-inch pieces
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• Salt
• 1 ¼ pounds ground pork ( we used turkey)
• 1/2 cup (loosely packed) coarsely chopped mint leaves, more for garnish - not sure if Brooke put these in... but I didn't notice the flavor of them, if she did)
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted), drained of all but ¼ cup juice
• 1 or 2 canned chipotle chilies in adobo, stemmed, seeded and sauce reserved - didn't use this much.... use to you like of HOTNESS
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• About 1½ cups beef or chicken broth (we didn't add any -- it was a fine consistency).

METHOD

1 Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a food processor, combine bacon and 1 garlic clove. Process until finely chopped. Add eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Pulse several times to combine thoroughly, then add pork and mint. (We did not add the meat. We hand mixed it because the texture if weird if the turkey is processed like that) Pulse a few more times until well combined but not a paste. Remove meat from processor.

2 With wet hands, form meat into about 16 plum-size balls ( we did a bazillion walnut sized) and space them out in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

3 While meatballs bake, combine tomatoes, ¼ cup tomato juice, chipotles, 1 to 2 tablespoons chipotle sauce, oregano, remaining garlic cloves (cut in half) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

4 When meatballs are ready, spoon off rendered fat from baking dish, then pour tomato mixture on top, covering meatballs evenly. Bake until sauce has thickened somewhat, 15 to 20 minutes.

5 Heat broth in a small saucepan. Divide meatballs among four dinner plates, leaving sauce behind. Stir enough broth into sauce to give it a spoonable consistency. Taste and season with salt, if necessary. Spoon sauce over meatballs, decorate with extra mint leaves, if you wish, and serve.

Serves four....... if you are really a big eatter....6 for smaller eaters

Undaunted

Oh yeah I read it. and I loved it. I'm now desperate to go down south and see where the all these things took lace. There is so much about our pioneer history that is so amazing and inspiring. I know I know this is a fictional book, and no I don't believe the Steeds are real places. But no one can deny that Elder Lund uses as much truth as he can. In this book he actually lists at the end of each chapter what is real and what is embellished. One thing I'd never thought thought about before is that Lake Powell didn't even exist back then. When we go south it is Lake Side Resorts, camping, four wheeling, 4x4 fun. But how to survive there with no air conditioning, no McD's on the corner... just fascinating and more than a little inspiring (oh kay i admit I got choked up more than once) As Jans Nielson said, they had stickity tootie. One of my favorite quotes (and yes Bishop Nielson is a real person, and these are real quotes, and yes it is the same Jans Nielson from the Fire and the Covenant) "Even when there is no way to go, you must go."

Christmas Delectiables

So over the Christmas festivus's I tried out a few new recipies.

First were my Buñuelos (cheese fritters) These are a Colombian Christmas dosh, and are traditionally served with natilla. I'm not sure how we felt about the natilla, it was actually very tasty, but we didn't get how it went with the Buñuelos . But the Buñuelos them selves were a HUGE HIT.

Buñuelos -

200g Feta or Paneer Cheese

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tsp caster sugar (we used regular sugar)

1 large egg

Blend cheese and egg to form a smooth paste. add sugar and cornstarch and mix until well blended.

Roll into little balls and deep fry. Make sure the oil is not too hot.

Natilla -

2 cups whole milk

1/4 cup cream

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 heaped tsp golden syrup (i used molasses)

1 stick cinnamon

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 T butter

Place 1 cup of milk, and the sugar, syrup, cinnamon stick and salt in a pot and simmer over low heat till the sugar and syrup have dissolved completely. do not boil. In separate bowl, stir remaining cup of milk and cornstarch until completely dissolved. stir into the sugar mixture on stove. Raise temp slightly and stir continuously to 'cook' the cornstarch. Add cream then raise the heat again to medium, continuously stir and scrape the bottom of the pot until the mixture has thickened. Remove pot from heat and add butter. mix well and remove Cinnamon stick. pour the mixture into a mould or serving dish. sprinkle with cinnamon.

Next I made some Indian Pudding. This is something I discovered while watching the Food Network, on a show called "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" where all the cooks and show hosts talk about their favorite foods.. I know evil show.

It is a very old recipe, but still delicious of course.

Ingredients
6 cups of milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup molasses
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 cup golden raisins (optional)
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Directions
1 Scald the milk and butter in a large double boiler. Or heat the milk and butter for 5 or 6 minutes on high heat in the microwave, until it is boiling, then transfer it to a pot on the stove. Keep hot on medium heat. Preheat oven to 250°F. In a separate bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, and salt; stir in molasses. Thin the mixture with about 1/2 cup of scalded milk, a few tablespoons at a time, then gradually add the mixture back to the large pot of scalded milk. Cook, stirring until thickened. Temper the eggs by slowly adding a half cup of the hot milk cornmeal mixture to the beaten eggs, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture back in with the hot milk cornmeal mixture, stir to combine. Stir in the sugar and spices, until smooth. At this point, if the mixture is clumpy, you can run it through a blender to smooth it out. Stir in the raisins (optional). Pour into a 2 1/2 quart shallow casserole dish. Bake for 2 hours at 250°F. Allow the pudding to cool about an hour to be at its best. It should be reheated to warm temperature if it has been chilled. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Then on Boxing Day I made an Egg Florentine Casserole, and Monkey Muffins. I got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman blog. check it out... YUM!

Monkey Muffins

Sugarhouse BBQ

My friend Andrea, seen above on the left, when she found out I had never really enjoyed a good BBQ Establishment, she was agahst and insisted that we visit one of her favorite joints, the Sugarhouse BBQ. Located in ... Sugarhouse. (right around 21st and 7th.) It was a dog on blast. Our waiter, Currey? Was awesome, he was from Kentucky, claimed to be a true southerner. Kept giving us the two thumbs up and making sure we were doing great.

Me and Split the Sugarhouse special which included cornbread and honey butter of course. Two sides. We got the Cucumber Salad (eh) and the Greek roasted potatoes... Y.U.M!! Then came the pulled pork. oh deliciousness. and then we got the Brisket. I, for one, have never had brisket before. I'd heard Wolowitz talk about it several times (Big Bang Theory) but never had partaken. Well I can tell you one thing, it wont be my last. It was super yummy. We tried all the sauces. the BBQ was excellent, the Vinaigrette not to shabby, the Mustard was yummy! and the hot sauce, yuck! This coming from a hot sauce lover.

Over all a super duper experience, we will definitely be going back to try something new.

Stephanies world famous, in Bearverton soon to be in Salt lake, Molasses Crinkles with a twist

When I lived in PDX, Stephanie's Molasses Crinkles were always in high demand. I decided to make them for Christmas this year, but thought they might taste well with a slight twist... Cream Cheese Filling.

¾ c. butter or shortening 1 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg ¼ c. molasses

Mix well, then add dry ingredients & mix thoroughly.

2 ¼ c. flour 1 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon ¼ tsp. salt

Roll into balls. Dip tops in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350° for approximately 8-10 minutes. Store in airtight container to keep fresh.

And now for the guest star..

1 pkg of Cream Cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

mix together well, and voi la...

then you make a yummie sandwich and all your dreams come true.