What's a Cook To Do When You Have Apples, Lots of Apples!

 I asked the hubs to get me 3 Honey Crisp Apples from the store and he brought home three bags of apples. One bag of Honey Crisp, one bag of Golden Delicious and one bag of Gala apples. 

Here is the Apple Crisp Recipe I tried

An old picture with some lovely fall foliage! 

Because I follow many Cozy Mystery writers on social media, I found this podcast All Things Cozy.  The Cozy lifestyle is my jam. In the most recent episode, I listened to one of the hosts talked about Yankee Candle called warm and cozy.  It's supposed to smell like a bonfire in the fall.  I had Kohl's cash, and I decided today was a good day to order that candle- so hopefully I'll get a notice from Kohl's and be able to pick that candle up and see if it lives up to its name! 

I double-checked my order and sadly, it seems that I am going to have to wait until next week to get my candle.  That's not cozy! 

I've been working on living my best Spooky Season life this week.  I've painted pumpkins and I made my scarecrow for the front porch. A week from Saturday is Halloween!  I hope you and yours have been enjoying some Autumnal Fun! 

It rained all night last night, so I'm waiting to put out my scarecrow until this weekend. It will be sheltered, but I want to avoid having a soggy wet blob on our front porch! 

What I'm Up To This Week -Halloween Talk!

 

My favorite kinds of ravioli are back at Aldi! Yum! If you haven't tried these yet, go get some.  Pumpkin and Sage as well as Butternut Squash.  Trader Joe's has an Autumn Alfredo which is great with these or you can just use a little melted or browned butter. Delicious for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Thus far October weather has been very kind to those of us in Illinois. I am hoping this trend continues as it makes running outside so enjoyable. Based on my personal experience, I think people are really throwing themselves into decorating for Halloween this year and I am here for it! 

One of my goals this week is to make a lifesized scarecrow for our front porch.  My delay is really just a matter of stuffing. I think I can use old clothes in lieu of hay or straw. If I hold out making the scarecrow until I go find and purchase hay, I'm not going to get it done. 

Middle son has procured a temp job working for a drugstore chain, fortunately, they take mask-wearing very seriously--as a store with a pharmacy should. Note to self, remind said child to get his flu shot ASAP. 

What am I reading right now?  I'm finishing Emerald Blaze today and then I will have to wait for Ilona Andrews to write the third book in this trilogy! 

Then for the upcoming week, I'm reading witchy books--starting with One Dark and Stormy Knight: A Cozy Witch Mystery 

#FraterfestRAT !

Chauffeur Duty This Week!

 As the only person in our household who doesn't have gainful employment and/or is attending school as a full-time student, I'm on chauffeur and maid duty.  

I don't mind at all, soon enough I'll find another job and won't be able to be the full-time housewife I am at present. 

For this week I have driving to do every day except today to get people to school or work. I went through the kitchen cabinets and found ingredients to prep overnight oats that are appropriately flavored for fall.  

I will also add some almond milk to the ingredients below.  

I might also add in a few walnuts because I have an open bag of walnuts that need to be used up in the next month or so. 

I finished reading another book but I'm not putting a review here because I thought the book was okay. My review was three stars. Three stars on good reads means "I like it".  Now if you are looking for a book, I highly recommend Death Overdue! 

FIVE STARS!

Great first book in a series. I love the setting, both the town and the fact that there is a  haunted library! I enjoyed meeting Carrie Singelton our protagonist. I like that she has been in the world living life and then comes back 'home' She's relateable and has an interesting past. I really liked that overall Carrie didn't put herself in a bunch of dangerous situations where the murderer on the loose could try and kill her. She was more cautious than often the main characters are in a cozy and I appreciated that facet of the book. 

We are reading this book for the Cozy Mystery Book Club this month join us on youtube the last Tuesday of the month! You have plenty of time to read this one and join us! 

Watching Fall Cooking and A Nice Afternoon Mystery!

 The highs are in the low 70s with sweater weather at night and I am ready to try all the fall recipes--and at the same time, I'm not really in the mood to cook. What is a person to do?  

Watch fall-themed cooking shows!  Food Network has a streaming service and I had a deal for one free year of the service so here I am binging the best Food Network has to offer in Autumn programming. 

One episode of The Kitchen is start-to-finish recipes I would actually want to make.  The link is here for the video and below is the description of the episode: 

"The Kitchen celebrates Fall with the two stars of the season: squash and pumpkins! Katie Lee makes her sticky-sweet Grilled Pumpkin BBQ-Glazed Pork Chops and Sunny Anderson whips up her Quick Wild Rice and Sausage Stuffed Mini Butternut Squash. Jeff Mauro makes a creamy Cacio e Pepe e Zucca pasta, and Katie puts her spin on squash with Spaghetti Squash Crust Pizza. Baker Renato Poliafito brings some pumped up Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and Geoffrey Zakarian spices things up with his Maple Chai Spiced Pepitas."

I really need to stop watching TV on an empty stomach. I am hungry but I don't want to get up and go downstairs to cook! Ha!

Here is a review of a book I recently won in a giveway- 

FOUR STARS

I enjoyed this novella. The story made for a nice afternoon escape. I found the gothic nature of the murder interesting and I found the main character interesting as she was much more introverted than your typical cozy mystery protagonist. I have mixed feelings about her aunt. I hope that in future installments Viv makes a local friend and finds a way to be able to use her computer skills legally to help people since that seems to be something she excels at and likes to do.

The backdrop of a town immersed in the Victorian age, with all the tech and conveniences of modern 2000s life is interesting. I am looking forward to grabbing a PSL or a golden Tumeric latte and reading the next book in the series as it is themed for Fall!

This is a good read to have on your phone or tablet to read when you are waiting at an appointment or if you take public transportation to and from work.

You can see my goodreads reviews here

The thing about blogging is...

The thing about blogging is that it would be cool if lots of people read my blog; however, in order for that to happen, you have to invest a ton of time and some money to try and make that happen.  It's a bummer but that is the way of writing really, anyone who writes doesn't write with a guarantee that anyone will ever read their writings.  Even Stephen King doesn't know that whatever he is writing today will ever reach the masses --sure it's fairly likely in his case, but no guarantees. 

Today we are driving down to the University of Illinois to Ms. A in the marching band competition.  She said she would like us to be there, but she doesn't want us to try to talk to her or make contact while we are there because she needs to concentrate on her performance.  I admire her dedication and was also a little annoyed, as is to be expected when dealing with teenagers. If it was up to me we'd stay home and watch the live stream, but when youngest child asks us to be there, well we are going to be there even though we are going to have to drive over two hours to watch an 8-minute performance and drive back.  I'm really not complaining, much.   

Deadly Brew, from the Dewberry Farm Series. And the answer to the Question , What is a Dewberry?

Deadly Brew by Karen MacInerney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book through my kindle unlimited subscription, I chose it because I was looking for Seasonal Cozy Mysteries and this takes place around Halloween. It's book 3, so ideally I would prefer to read the series in order, but I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize it was third in the series. About 3/4 of the way through this mystery, I started listening to the Audio Version of Book 1 (Killer Jam). I'll be finishing that and reviewing it very soon.

I enjoyed this book, it was fairly easy to surmise who the killer was, but the why took longer, which is fine with me. I enjoy both the mystery and the why's when I read Cozy Mysteries. I will be catching up with this series by mid November and then I'll be looking forward to book 4 (Mistletoe Murder) to be out December 11th---a Christmas Themed book! (I like those holiday reads and I'm not going to apologize for it.)

There are a few reasons why I am enjoying this series. First, Lucy our protagonist is in her 30s and a former Houston reporter. She has lived some life before we met her and I find that to be a big plus. Second, the mystery takes center stage, i.e. we don't get a subplot where Lucy is filled with angst over a man. Third, I enjoy the small farm setting, Lucy and her friends are environmentally conscious; it's not an overt message of caring for the environment and being responsible, but it is there, interwoven into the books' adventures.

My only issue with the series is that I don't feel that the writer has provided enough description of what the characters look like- I don't know if this is because I began on book 3, or I'm reading too fast and missing it or if the writer has done this on purpose.

All in all, it's a good Cozy Mystery series, especially enjoyable for me is Lucy learning how to homestead at her family farm. Here you can see the first book in this series: Killer Jam

View all my reviews

 Now what is a Dewberry? Have you heard of Deweberries before? I had not. Turns out they are very similar to blackberries and grow throughout the Northern Hemisphere. One type is know as Texas Dewberry and that is found in ...wait for it... Texas (and some of Louisiana). They ripen before blackberries so that is a plus for anyone who loves berries. You can find out more here

Review and Recipes

All the Little Liars by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found that the voice of Aurora Teagarden was much more the voice of Charlaine Harris a 60-something than that of a 30-something librarian. For example, what 37 year old woman in 2016 uses the word trousers to describe pants. C'mon! This book takes place just a few weeks after the last one, which is disjointing. (esp. since the previous book was set in the early 2000s)  So just a few weeks ago Aurora finds her SIL dead and now it is Christmas, she is pregnant, married and not only is her step brother missing but there are other kids missing AND dead teenagers. It seems like a bit much, and yet there is plenty of time for the author to give paragraphs of space to the discussion of  Aurora preparing the most bland food ever eaten.

Lastly during the book Aurora does three stupid things and hides 2 crucial details from police that prolong the mystery and are so reckless it's hard to fathom. I almost through the book across the room a couple of times due to the lack of critical thinking by Aurora and her husband.


View all my reviews

A common thread in all Charlaine Harris books is uneccessary discussion of what food the protagonist is preparing.  If the food sounded good, that would be forgiving, but her main characters are bad cooks.   Just the most boring food. It's depressing.  If I was her editor, I'd put big red slashes through all food talk!

To combat bad food writing I thought I would share a couple fun Halloween themed recipes:

Pumpkin Soup with Herbed Pumpkin Seeds (Tastefully Simple) 

ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. 1 tsp. Avocado Oil or olive oil, divided

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• 2 Tbsp. Onion Onion Seasoning 

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• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 (15 oz.) cans 100% pure pumpkin
• 13-14 oz. can coconut milk
• ½ cup roasted and salted shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• Sour cream (optional)

directions

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add Onion Onion™ Seasoning; sautè 30 seconds.

Stir in broth; bring to a simmer. Add pumpkin and 1 Tbsp. Rustic Herb Seasoning; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in coconut milk; continue simmering 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine pumpkin seeds and remaining 1 tsp. oil in small bowl. Add remaining 1 Tbsp. Rustic Herb Seasoning and Parmesan cheese. Toss to coat.

Ladle soup into bowls or shot or cordial glasses. Sprinkle with herbed pumpkin seeds.

Tips:

• To decorate the glasses, add sour cream to a resealable plastic bag. Cut off a bag corner. Pipe slightly wavy ring around the inside of each glass. Using a wooden skewer, push the sour cream down to make elongated lines. Pour soup into glasses.
• Serve soup in Jack Be Little or other small pumpkins. To prepare pumpkins, cut top ½ inch off each pumpkin; scrape out seeds. Place on a baking sheet with rim. Add ½ cup water to baking sheet; cover pumpkins with foil. Bake 20 minutes or until soft enough to scoop out pumpkin flesh. Remove from oven and cool; gently scoop out flesh, leaving a ¼-inch shell.

And here is a recipe from All Recipes that sounds like a fantastic Chili!
Pumpkin Turkey Chili !