The Dinner by Herman Koch

Rating = 8 out of 10

Awesome!  Twisted, psychotic, evil, nail-biting, a real page-turner.

Started it on Tuesday night and finished it Friday morning.  Only reason I didn’t read it all in one sitting is because………well, I kinda have a kid and a husband and responsibilities and well, if I didn’t….

This book is reminiscent of Gone Girl in that it is fresh and unpredictable and thrilling and disturbing.  You will not be able to put it down.  You will be dying to and afraid to know what happens next…

Get. this. book. now. and. read. it.

 

 

 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT:

The husband, Paul, creeped me out right away.  He was cynical and angry and bitter and had a lot of violent thoughts.  Then you find out that he’s verbalized and even demonstrated some of these violent tendencies in front on his son and almost condoned them.  Therefore you are not overly surprised that the son is a freak, too.  It’s genetic, after all.

No, the surprise factor and the creep factor escalate when you find out the degree of psychosis in the supposedly only normal one, the Mom.  Yikes!  She gets off on how deranged her husband is and encourages the behavior in both her husband and her son.

CRAZY!!!

 

This dish is so buttery and herbalicious and moist and is the most excitement you’ve had with chicken breast in a long time!

Let the savory adventure begin!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees…

Pound out 2 to 3 pounds of chicken breasts, and cut them up into 2 x 1-inch strips.  Place them at the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Melt 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan over low heat.

In a small bowl combine 4 minced garlic cloves, 2 minced scallions, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley,

2 teaspoons freshly chopped dill,

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano,

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.  Add this mixture to the melted butter in the skillet and cook for 2 minutes.

Pour the mixture over the chicken pieces.

Bake for 10 minutes and then turn the chicken pieces over and bake for another 10 minutes. Turn chicken pieces and bake for another 10 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and put chicken under the broiler for 3-4 minutes till lightly browned.

Succulent!

Serves: 6

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!

 

I have tried about 100 different cobbler recipes.  And I have always found them lacking.  It’s too much of a biscuit topping, dry and crumbly, it’s too cakey, it’s too dense, it’s not flavorful enough…I’ve eaten them all!

This.  This is the one.  The one that wins.  Flakey, with a bit of a crust, yet moist and delicious.  Yum, yum!

Let the sweet adventure begin!

Start with 2 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced, plus 2 cups fresh blueberries in an 8 x 8 inch pan.

 

Combine 3/4 cup of white sugar,

1 cup all-purpose flour,

1 teaspoon baking powder,

and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together.

Add 1/2 cup whole milk and

4 tablespoons salted butter, melted, to the dry ingredients and combine together with spatula.

Pour over the fruit.

Spread with spatula,

for even coverage!

Next, in a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.

Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

Evenly pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over the entire surface of the pan.

Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for about 50 minutes, until golden brown

and bubbly!  Cool on wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite ice cream!

Servings: 8

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!

Oh, yum.

Homemade caramel corn.  Stupendous!

Who knew that it would be worthwhile to make it yourself?  And so quickly and easily?

I should have added peanuts and I would have been taken back to that time in 6th grade when we went on a field trip to the amusement park and I bought a box of Cracker Jacks with the money Mom gave me for lunch…

Let the sweet adventure begin!

To a popcorn popper, add 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and

a heaping 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels.  Heat over medium heat until you hear the popping.  Pull off the heat when it starts to slow…you don’t want overcooked popcorn, especially since it’s going into the oven, too!  This will yield about 7-8 cups of popcorn.

In a medium saucepan, mix together 1 stick of salted butter with 1/2 cup of light brown sugar,

with 1/8 cup light Karo corn syrup,

and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Whisk all ingredients together and boil for 1 minute.  Remove from stovetop.  Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda.  Stir and

pour over 7-8 cups of popcorn.  Spread on 2 greased cookie sheets and bake in preheated oven at 250 degrees, for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Fills a regular size chip/salad bowl.

Incredible.

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make your lunch.  Make your hubby’s lunch.  Make your kids’ lunches.

What?

I don’t need the extra work at the end of a long day!

I know, you’re right!  It is so much simpler to send your kids into school with money for hot lunch or for you or your hubby to “eat out” (read: fast food or grocery store salad bar) than to take the time the night before to stuff those brown paper bags.

But here’s a list of good reasons why:

• It costs at least $2000 a year per person to not make your lunch!
• You don’t govern the portion size.
• The food will be far less nutritious than if you put the meal together.
• Your family could run into issues if they have food allergies. (read: coleslaw made with peanut oil)
• Your family is more likely to eat all of the lunch you make them, including the fruits and veggies, than if they get it from hot lunch.  Most likely, they will only eat the pizza or the mac-n-cheese in the cafeteria, throwing away the healthy items on the tray or not picking them up at all.  Whereas your lunches are personal and therefore, they will feel bad throwing anything out. (I know from experience when I was a kid…I brought food I didn’t eat home rather than throw it out!)
• And lastly, you can keep things personal and make your loved ones feel special by adding a little note once in a while to brighten their days…

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

I just don’t get it!

What am I missing?  I have read thousands of books in my life and this one did nothing for me.  How could 500 pages of boring win a Nobel Prize?!

I finished this book and breathed a sigh of relief and thought to myself, what a huge waste of my time.

I guess that’s not entirely true.  The waste of time part.  Reading isn’t a waste of time.  You always learn something;  whether that be a bit more of a certain culture, society, time period, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, etc.

But, halfway through this book, at about 240 pages, I was wondering when this would end and whether or not anything worth reading about would ever turn this book around.

So, this attitude towards the book begs the question, “What didn’t I get?”.   Because this book is a Nobel Prize Winner, considered one of the classics, on hundreds of must-read lists, part of Oprah’s Book Club selections, and received accolades from the New York Times Book Review deeming it a “masterpiece of the art of fiction”.

Maybe it’s me?  But I would say don’t bother.  If you haven’t been assigned this book in high school or college English, then don’t bother to read it.

In a nutshell:  It’s a story about a mythical town in the Caribbean and this one family within it who struggles with insanity, incest, the solitude of humanity, and humankind’s comedies and tragedies.  (And apparently it takes you through Colombian history through the eyes of this crazy, doomed family.  Perhaps this is why the book is difficult to appreciate because it’s a context thing, where if you don’t have knowledge about Colombian history, it’ll be over your head. ) But it takes the author 500 pages to say what I just did in a sentence and that one sentence I just wrote is more interesting than the thousands that comprise this book!  A convoluted plot, nothing suspenseful, and so many characters with the same names…

This book was loooong, booooooring, and the only thing I underlined in the entire thing is that “the secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude”.

And there you go…

next book please!

 

Just letting you know!

and here are a few great places to get your fix if you are a bit stressed…

Birds’ Nests

Party Cookies

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Apple Bar Delight

Butterscotch Brownies

Double Chocolate Brownies

 

 

This fish is bursting with flavor, easy to make and takes about 5 minutes of prep and 10 minutes to cook.  The tri-fecta in regards to the most appealing recipes available for a weekend or weeknight meal!

Let the savory adventure begin!

Start with 2 tablespoons white wine in a small bowl,

and then add 4 teaspoons soy sauce,

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil,

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro,

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger,

and 2 small garlic cloves, minced.

Here I am using 1 pound of a fresh cod fillet, but haddock, tilapia, or halibut would work just as well!  Salt and pepper both sides of the fillet.

Cover in the sauce.

Broil on high for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillet.

Top with freshly chopped cilantro and spoon some of the sauce from the pan over the top.  Sticking with the Asian theme, I’ve paired it with some sautéed bok choy.  Delicious!

Also perfect to have the Chinese Cucumber Salad along with this meal…

Servings: 2

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!