Sing a novel of Colorado Review

SING: A Novel of Colorado is a historical fiction book about singing your praises to God even when you are tangled up in loss and are so weak that even things of this world look bleak and frustrating. How far can you run away from the truth?  This story focuses on prodigals who are chasing after their dreams.  Will they keep chasing or will they stop running away and turn back home to be with their families?

This is book 2 of The Homeward Trilogy by Best-Selling Author, Lisa T. Bergren. I have not read the first book, Breathe. I didn't have any problem jumping in and reading the 2nd book. I usually like to start a series from the beginning but as part of this book review I didn't have a chance to do that.  Book 3, Claim is suppose to come out sometime this summer. 

This novel focuses on the St. Clair family at the end of the 19th Century.  The author beautifully and accurately describes life out on the sea, on the farm, in the big city and small town life all in this one book. Three siblings are living totally different lives.  The siblings are not all living their life pleasing to God.  They are all traveling on a different journey. The author's "award-winning prose is a strong voice showcasing God's mercy and grace in the lives of defiant believers, and her characters and their trials will be remembered long after the final pages" quoted by The B & B Media Group, Inc. 

I'm looking forward in purchasing book 1, Breathe and then Claim when it is released!  I'm very eager to read what is to come of this family.

Have you read these books?  Have you ever read books written by Janette Oke? I would definitely say that this book is in the same genre and Jeanette Oke.

This book was sent to me to review by The B & B Media Group, Inc. The words expressed here are of my own tasty opinions and words.

Right on the Walls Review and Giveaway

Go check out this giveaway by Mom vs. the Boys  

I'm LOVING the clock decals! VERY stylish way to put a clock on the wall!

What do you think? Do you have any of these?

Pico De Gallo time!

  
Pico De Gallo (Click for a printable version)

Ingredients

6 roma tomatoes, chopped or food processed
4-5 springs cilantro, chopped
1 c. onion, chopped
2 tsp lemon
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c. jicama, chopped (optional)

1 tsp salt

2 tsp Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning

Directions

Mix together and enjoy with chips and a margarita! 

If you hand chop you will have a more coarse sauce.

Sex and the City 2 Movie Soundtrack Review

I'm loving the MUSIC on the new Sex and the City 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack!  It was released on May 25th and the film in now in theaters. I love music that calls you to SING ALONG! That is exactly what I'm doing with this CD! I'm rocking with it right now on my shiny red iPod.  There are 18 tracks.  A few of my favorites are "Love is Your Color", "Rapture", "I Am Woman" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)."

 

The soundtrack features a brand-new duet "Love is Your Color" by Grammy and Academy Award^® winner Jennifer Hudson, along with global superstar, multi-platinum recording artist and three-time Grammy Award nominee Leona Lewis. Click here to go to the soundtrack website: Sex and the City 2.

 

Here are the tracks:

Tracklisting
1. Alicia Keys “Rapture”
2. Dido “Everything to Lose”
3. Cee Lo “Language of Love”
4. Erykah Badu “Window Seat”
5. Natacha Atlas “Kidda”
6. Michael McGregor “Euphrates Dream”
7. Liza Minnelli “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
8. Ricki-Lee "Can't Touch It"
9. Alicia Keys "Emire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down"
10. Jennifer Hudson and Leona Lewis "Love Is Your Color"
11. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim  Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon “I Am Woman”
12. Sex and the City Men’s Choir “If Ever I Would Leave You”
13. Sex and the City Men’s Choir “Sunrise, Sunset”
14. Sex and the City Men’s Choir “Till There Was You”
15.  Shayna Steele, Jordan Ballard, Kamilah Marshall “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”
16.  Liza Minnelli with Billy Stritch “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye”
17.  Cyndi Lauper “True Colors”
18.  Aaron Zigman “Divas and Dunes”

 

 

The soundtrack also features the stars of

Sex and the City 2, Sarah Jessica Parker,

Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, performing the Helen Reddy classic “I Am Woman.”

 

Check out the Soundtrack on Facebook.

Are you ready to purchase this sing along CD? Click to order on Amazon! 

 

Enter to Win a call from Sarah Jessica Parker: http://bit.ly/O2OSJPcall
Thanks to One2One Network for providing a review copy of the soundtrack in exchange for me to write a blog post. The opinions expressed here are all of my own tasty words and opinions.

National Corn Day with Gooseberry Patch Recipe

Grilled Sweet Corn with Lime-Chive Butter, from Coming Home with Gooseberry Patch cookbook

8 ears sweet corn in husks

Garnish: Lime-Chive Butter

Gently pull back corn husks and remove corn silk; press husks back into place. Soak corn in ice water for 30 minutes; drain well. Grill over medium to medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until husks are charred and corn is tender. Serve with Lime-Chive Butter. Makes 8 servings.

Lime-Chive Butter

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/3 c. fresh chives, finely chopped

2 t. lime juice

1 t. lime zest

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. paprika

1/8 t. cayenne pepper

Blend together all ingredients; chill. Makes about 2/3 cup. 

This recipe was shared today on the Gooseberry Patch Facebook Page.  I love lime and butter! This corn would be great with grilled chicken, fresh fruit salad topped with cream and a bottle of Corona!

Go to their Facebook page to find more yummy recipes!

Click the cookbook to check out more about this book and get 3 more recipes. The book is YUMMY!

Use your Slow Cooker year-round

 

5 Tips for Using Your Slow Cooker: A Friendly Year-Round Appliance
by Phyllis Pellman Good,
Author of Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook: Revised & Updated: 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes

1. What to buy

• A good standard size for a household of four is a 4-quart slow cooker. If you often cook for more, or you like to prepare sizable roasts, turkey breasts, or chicken legs and thighs, you'll want a 6-quart cooker.
  
  For parties or buffets a 1½ to 2-quart size works well for dips and snacks.

• Cookers which allow you to program "On," the length of the cooking time, and "Off," are convenient. If your model doesn't include that feature, you might want to get a digital appliance timer, which gives you that option. Make sure the timer is adequate for the electrical flow that your cooker demands.
• A baking insert, a cooking rack, a temperature probe, and an insulated carrying tote are all useful additions offered with some models. Or you can buy some of them separately by going to the manufacturers' websites.

2. Learn to know your slow cooker 

• Some newer slow cookers cook at a very high temperature. You can check the temperature of your slow cooker this way:

1. Place 2 quarts of water in your slow cooker.
2. Cover. Heat on Low 8 hours.
3. Lift the lid. Immediately check the water temp with an accurate thermometer.
4. The temperature of the water should be 185°F. If the temperature is higher, foods may overcook and you should reduce the overall cooking time. If the temperature is lower, your foods will probably not reach a safe temperature quickly enough, and the cooker should be discarded.

3. Maximizing what a slow cooker does best 

• Slow cookers tend to work best when they're ⅔ full. You many need to increase the cooking time if you've exceeded that amount, or reduce it if you've put in less than that.
• Cut the hard veggies going into your cooker into chunks of about equal size. In other words, make your potato and carrot pieces about the same size. Then they'll be done cooking at nearly the same time. Softer veggies, like bell peppers and zucchini, cook faster, so they don't need to be cut as small. But again, keep them similar in size to each other so they finish together.
• Because raw vegetables are notoriously tough customers in a slow cooker, layer them over the bottom and around the sides of the cooker, as much as possible. That puts them in more direct contact with the heat.
• There are consequences to lifting the lid on your slow cooker while it's cooking. To compensate for the lost heat, you should plan to add 15-20 minutes of cooking time for each time the lid was lifted off.
On the other hand, moisture gathers in a slow cooker as it works. To allow that to cook off, or to thicken the cooking juices, take the lid off during the last half hour of cooking time.
• Use only the amount of liquid called for in a recipe. In contrast to an oven or a stovetop, a slow cooker tends to draw juices out of food and then harbor it.
Of course, if you sense that the food in your cooker is drying out, or browning excessively before it finishes cooking, you may want to add ½ cup of warm liquid to the cooker.
• Important variables to remember that don't show up in recipes:
• The fuller your slow cooker, the longer it will take its contents to cook.
• The more densely packed the cooker's contents are, the longer they will take to cook.
• The larger the chunks of meat or vegetables, the more time they will need to cook.

4. Debunking the myths

• Slow cookers are a handy year-round appliance. They don't heat up a kitchen in warm weather. They allow you to escape to the pool or lake or lawn or gardens -- so why not let them work for you when it's hot outdoors. A slow cooker fixes dinner while you're at your child's soccer game, too.
So don't limit its usefulness. Remember the dozens of recipes-beyond-beef-stew in this collection! One more thing -- a slow cooker provides a wonderful alternative if your oven is full -- no matter the season.

• You can overdo food in a slow cooker. If you're tempted to stretch a recipe's 6-hour stated cooking time to 8 or 10 hours, you may be disappointed in your dinner. Yes, these cookers work their magic using slow, moist heat. Yes, many dishes cook a long time. But these outfits have their limits.
For example, chicken can overcook in a slow cooker. Especially boneless, skinless breasts. But legs and thighs aren't immune either. Once they go past the falling-off-the-bone stage, they are prone to move on to deeply dry. Cooked pasta and sour cream do best if added late in the cooking process, ideally 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time if the cooker is on high; 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time if it's on low.

5. Safety 

• A working slow cooker gets hot on the outside -- and I mean the outer electrical unit as well as the inner vessel. Make sure that curious and unsuspecting children or adults don't grab hold of either part. Use oven mitts when lifting any part of a hot cooker.

• To prevent a slow cooker from bubbling over, either when its sitting still on a counter, or when its traveling to a carry-in dinner, fill the cooker only ⅔ full.
If you're going to exceed that limit, pull out your second slow cooker (what -- you have only one?!) and divide the contents between them.

The above is an excerpt from the book Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook: Revised & Updated: 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes by Phyllis Pellman Good. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.
Reprinted from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. © by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2010 Phyllis Pellman Good, author of Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook: Revised & Updated: 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes

Author Bio
Phyllis Pellman Good is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have sold nearly 10 million copies.

Good's cookbooks have also appeared on the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. She is the author of Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly: Healthy, Low-Fat Recipes for Your Slow Cooker; Fix-It and Forget-It 5-Ingredient Favorites: Comforting Slow- Cooker Recipes; Fix-It and Forget-It Recipes for Entertaining: Slow-Cooker Favorites for all the Year Round, and Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook: Slow-Cooker Favorites to Include Everyone (with the American Diabetes Association), all in the series.

She and her husband, Merle, live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Stay tuned for more post with featured recipes.

For more information about Phyllis Pellman Good, visit www.Fix-ItandForget-Itcom and www.facebook.com/fixitandforgetit.

Thanks FSBAssociates for providing the article.

The Happy Stepmother-Stay sane and Thrive

Stay Sane, Empower Yourself and Thrive in Your New Family

By Rachelle Katz, Ed.D., LMFT
Published by Harlequin
May 2010; $15.95US/$18.95CAN; 978-0-373-89225-9
If you're frustrated by having all the responsibilities of motherhood, with none of the recognition or reward, or worried that stepfamily issues are driving a wedge between you and your husband, then you're not alone -- and you can do something about it.

You found the love of your life, and you vowed to have, to hold and to stepmother. You always thought that in time you'd grow to be the perfect, loving family. So why does it seem that the harder you try, the more unappreciated you feel?

As a stepmother, therapist and founder of the popular Web site stepsforstepmothers.com, Dr. Rachelle Katz knows all too well how challenging stepmotherhood can be. Based on thousands of in-depth interviews and the latest research, she's created a powerful program to help you:

• Alleviate stress and take care of yourself
• Bond with your new family
• Set and enforce clear boundaries
• Get the respect you deserve
• Strengthen your relationship
• Read The Happy Stepmother's Top 10 Tips for more information on the book!  

Author Bio
Rachelle Katz, Ed.D, LMFT, writes from a place of both personal experience -- she's been a stepmother for nineteen years -- and professional expertise. A psychotherapist with twenty-five years of experience in private practice, since 2004 she has empowered thousands of women through her Web site,www.stepsforstepmothers.com.
Reviews
"If 'Happy Stepmother' sounds like an oxymoron, you need this book. Rich with insight, encouragement and hope, The Happy Stepmother is an important addition to the self-help and step-parenting literature."
--Wednesday Martin, Ph.D., author of Stepmonster

Thanks to FSBAssociates for providing the article for me to post on my blog.