Month: August 2016

Media Monday: BOSCH

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Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books are gritty, compelling, and darn good reads. I was unsure how the Bosch character would translate to the screen so I took my time tuning into the Amazon series.

BoschI’m pleasantly surprised. We just finished binge-watching Season 1. Titus Welliver is pretty darn good at conveying Bosch’s weary and worn take on life, while keeping him human. He’s a father, struggling to relate to his daughter. He’s a cop, focused on finding evil and putting it away. He’s a man having a really bad year.

The series captured the mood of the books. The story arc of Season 1 is dark and grisly and not for the squeamish. The mysteries are layered with complex characters playing pivotal roles in the solutions. But the solutions didn’t come out of left field. The groundwork was laid very well.

I have a busy week and weekend so it’ll be a couple of weeks before we dive into Season 2, but dive in we will.

Food Talk Friday: Comfort Food

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Thinking and writing about Chicken Divan last week got me thinking about other comfort foods and what makes them so comforting.

In my humble opinion, it comes down to two factors.

  • Something creamy and starchy, or
  • Something cheesy and sticky

For the cook, easy preparation is another important factor.

Besides Chicken Divan, our other family go-to comfort food is:

Abbie’s Chicken and Rice

one-dish-chicken-rice-bake-large-24702

Named for the friend who first introduced it to us. I’ve since learned it’s a staple on Campbell’s soup cans and on their website. I have no idea if our version is the same as Campbell’s. I’m including a picture from Campbell’s though and it looks pretty similar. I make a big batch of it because we love the leftovers.

2 cups uncooked long grain rice

3 cans of Campbell’s Cream of … soups (I usually use one Cream of Mushroom, one Cream of Chicken and one Cream of Celery. But I’ve used two of one and one of another in all combinations and it always tastes great. I’ve also heard some people add a packet of dry onion soup mix. I’m sure that’s yummy too.)

Combine the soups and the rice, pour into the bottom of a greased 9×13 casserole dish.

Lay raw chicken breasts and or thighs on top.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper or your favorite chicken seasoning. Sometimes I sprinkle on some Pappy’s or other seasonings. Whatever strikes my fancy from the pantry. Lemon Pepper. Montreal Steak Seasoning. Madame Pele’s Heat. Sea salt. Fresh ground pepper. Really. Whatever.

Cover with foil.

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes to an hour. It can cook faster, but the slower and lower, the creamier the rice turns out.

This one is always a winner, especially on a winter evening after a hard day. Because sometimes we need a little comfort food.

 

 

 

Woe! It’s Wednesday

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Summer is still here for another six weeks.

So why does it feel like it’s almost over? Each day seems to go by more quickly than the one before.

I know part of the reason is that many schools have already started classes or are about to.

summer-photographer-pier-adventureDidn’t summer break used to be nearly three months long? It’s down to less than two months for most kids now.

I know the argument for having year-round school: students retain more when they don’t take a break. And we’re no longer an agrarian society with family farms that need all hands on the plow for the summer growing and harvest season.

But something about having that summer break just seems to fit with our natural God-given biological rhythms. We stay up later. We get up earlier (well, some people do).

Each year we plan to take a grandchild on some sort of trip or adventure. We — okay I, really want to take them to Southern California to visit some of the places we used to take their parents. The Space Museum. Griffith Park Observatory. Gene Autry Museum. A Dodger game. The beach.

The most we managed this year was a long weekend and a visit to the Fossil Discovery Center.  We did get to go swimming a few times and watched some movies.

But I’m writing on next year’s calendar right now to plan some summer trips.

Book Talk Tuesday: An Elegant Facade

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An Elegant Facade by Kristi Ann Hunter.

I’m going to have to stop saying I don’t really read Historical much. I’m reading more of it and loving it!

elegant facadeI absolutely adored this book.

At the beginning, I wondered how the author was going to get her hero and heroine to their happily ever after, since they were so different. But she skillfully showed their growth until I (and they) knew they were perfect together.
Lady Georgina has a secret and in an attempt to keep it to herself has hatched a plan to marry well. Very well.

Unfortunately, there are only a few dukes and earls suitable. And the first two had to go and fall in love with someone else. Lady Georgina is getting desperate.
Colin McCrae is a businessman, fully aware that he is considered far beneath the peers in society, but perfectly acceptable to do business with while making them money. He’s drawn into his friends’ family drama and is thrown together with the spoiled and bratty Lady Georgina. Or so he thinks of her. Until he begins to see the young woman behind the desperate hunt for a husband.
Reading the first book in the Hawthorne House series would be helpful but not required to enjoy this one. I can hardly wait to see who’s next up in the series.
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I received a free copy of this book from Baker House, in return for a honest review. I honestly loved this book!

I was privileged to be in the room when Kristi Ann Hunter won a RITA® award from Romance Writers of America® for her first novel in this series, A Noble Masquerade. It may have been the first but I predict it won’t be the last.

Media Monday:Night at the Museum trilogy

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We recently visited the Madera County Fossil Discovery Center. We took our grand-daughters to see the pre-historic fossils on display there. It’s a fun place to spend a few hours, giving kids the opportunity to dig up “fossils” and learn about the animals who inhabited the area in ages past.

Since we’d never visited it, Stud Muffin and I weren’t clear on what exactly was on display there and we erroneously prepared the girls to see dinosaur bones. The center has skeletons of Columbian Mammoths, Saber-toothed cats, horses, sloths, and camels, all from pre-historic times, but no dinosaurs.

NATMThe night before our visit we decided to watch Night at the Museum. Both girls both enjoyed the movie, but the five-year-old loved it. When we told her that there was another movie (and another!) she had to watch them, too.

So I was able to watch all three movies in as many nights, giving me the unusual (for me) opportunity to see an entire series close enough to judge them together as one work.

Each movie is able to stand alone. There’s not much backstory in the sequels to slow down the stories and they launch pretty quickly.

The first movie is undoubtedly the best. The second movie, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was good, too. The weakest of the trilogy is the third, Secret of the Tomb, but arguably funnier with the addition of Rebel Wilson as a night guard at the British Museum. It felt rushed, like it was thrown together to capitalize on the popularity of the first two.

We shared the first movie with another family member a few days later and she did not enjoy it all. She found it too “slap stick.” While there is some physical humor (and the slapstick quotient goes up in the next two movies), it’s not overly distracting. Kids love it.