The World At My Fingertips and How It Has Changed How I Read Books

Recently I noticed something has changed in the way that I read books and I’m wondering if it’s changed for you as well or if it has and you just haven’t noticed it yet.

***Note - You Kindle people will laugh at this post as you've been doing what I'm going to talk about all along, but humor me ok?***

I notice it now that I am reading The Underground Girls of Kabul for my online book group, From Left to Write, but I believe it started with a book I read about two books ago called Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.

The story in the book Revolution is set mostly in Paris and in the book, (which is quite descriptive) the main character Andi Alpers visits many places in Paris that I have never seen, since I've never been to Paris!

The description the author gives of the places is very detailed but at one point Andi is in the Catacombs of Paris and she’s describing what she sees and I just can’t picture it, no matter how well it is described. Plus it's really making me curious to know exactly what she's seeing.

Since I was on my lunch hour at work when I read this portion and sitting in front of my computer I Google the Catacombs of Paris and found the official website Les Catacombes. I was mesmerized by the photos and suddenly I felt like I was right there, in the Catacombs with Andi!

Photo Credit - Wikipedia

There was even a photo to the Entrance to the Catacombs which Andi waits at and describes in the book.

Photo Credit - Wikipedia

Later on in the book Andi is out touring the city with her love interest in the book and they sit to eat and he pulls out a dish his mother made him for lunch called Bistilla, which is a Moroccan Chicken Dish. She mentions how it is her favorite dish and she used to eat it back in the states in New York and they made it with raisins and cinnamon. A dish with pastry and chicken and raisins and cinnamon caught my attention, so I Googled that as well and found a great picture and a recipe.

Photo Credit - SBS Food

I could go on and on naming things that I didn't know of in the book or was just interested in, like the history and paintings of various kings and queens she mentions in the book. It was just so much more fun and educational to look up all these things while I was reading! It helped me to be in the moment, in the book, with Andi! That is something that I had never experienced before!

So now I'm reading The Underground Girls of Kabul and first thing I did was search for Afghanistan to see where it was in relation to Iran and Iraq and to the United States. Have you heard the country western song by Alan Jackson called Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)? I've provided a youtube video so you can listen to the song, it's beautiful and it's the song Alan Jackson wrote in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Here is a portion of the lyrics that I've heard several times but never really thought of them:

"I'm just a singer of simple songs

I'm not a real political man.

I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can

tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran.

But I know Jesus and I talk to God

and I remember this from when I was young,

Faith, Hope and Love are some good things he gave us

and the greatest is Love."

I realized that I too don't know the difference between Iraq and Iran or where Afghanistan is, so I googled it! Now I had a frame of reference and while I was reading about the history of Afghanistan and some of the places the author mentions I was able to see it on the map. It was a whole new way of reading a book and opening my eyes up to the world!

Photo Credit - Google.com

I think of all the books I have read in the past where I really just used my imagination, which is also a great thing and I'm sure I will continue to do so when an author is speaking of something that can't be googled, but I missed out on so much in not being able to just have the world at my fingertips for all those books! Things will be changing now!

This post was inspired by The Underground Girls of Kabul, a book by journalist Jenny Nordberg, who discovers a secret Afghani practice where girls are dressed and raised as boys. Join From Left to Write on September 16th as we discuss The Underground Girls of Kabul. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes. 

 

Almonds Snacks - Versatile and Low Carb

It's Almond Season in Kern County! You can always tell because the air is filled with dust from the "shaking of the almond trees". They use these machines that grab hold of the trunk of the almond tree and shake it vigorously to knock the almonds to the ground. Here's a video of the process. It's really amazing to watch.




We are surrounded by Almond Orchards and I think they are so beautiful. I'll have to take pictures someday when they first bloom in the spring. These next two pictures were taken by a friend of mine that is a truck driver and he was waiting in the fields for his truck to be loaded and thought he would shoot these two pictures and I thought they were really good and he let me share them with you! Thanks Ruben!

I love this one, almost like the trees are swaying and dancing! Almond tree ballerinas!

Here's a picture of the almonds being loaded into trailers where they will be taken to a packing shed for processing. You can see that the whole process creates a ton of dust and with the drought that we are having the dirt is so fine and powdery and there is nothing to wet it down with so people really suffer with allergies during this time. Luckily not me!

So my co-worker gave me a bag of raw almonds that she got from a friend of her husband. I decided to try to make some type of snack with them. Almonds are one of the worlds healthiest foods and naturally low-carb so I eat a lot of them. Usually the roasted brand you can buy in the store, but I've never worked with raw almonds!

First I made a chocolate snack. I used the almonds raw. I melted in the microwave 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream for just about 30 seconds then I stirred it and microwaved it another 10 to 15 seconds. I then added 1/4 cup of granulated Splenda and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder and stirred and stirred until it was incorporated and glossy.

I had thought I would put the almonds in the chocolate and then spoon it into little paper cups but I got lazy and just pour the whole thing into a small cake pan lined with wax paper and placed it into the fridge to harden. Then I pulled it out after about a half hour and broke it into pieces. It's not very pretty, but it sure is good! I guess I would call this LOW CARB CHOCOLATE ALMOND BARK!

While the Low Carb Chocolate Almond Bark was hardening in the refrigerator I made a savory almond. The recipe I modeled my almonds after asked for Thyme, but I didn't have Thyme or time to go buy Thyme, hahaha, crack myself up.

So I looked to see what I had. I had Basil, Oregano and Italian Seasoning Mix. I figured Italian Seasoning would be great because it should have basil and oregano in it anyway and probably some thyme. Not sure what all is in there but I gave it a shot.

I read that it would be a good idea to blanch the almonds. I'd never blanched almonds but it seemed easy enough. Put raw almonds in a bowl then covered them with boiling water, covered the bowl and let sit for 1 minute, drain hot water and rinse with cold water, drain and place in a kitchen towel to finish draining and then peel each almond with your fingers.

Yeah well...that didn't work for me. As I tried to peel them they would fall apart, so I just left them with the skin on.

I then placed 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a hot pan and dropped in the almonds and sauteed them for about 10 minutes. They smelled wonderful!!! I took them off the heat and stirred in 2 tablespoons of the Italian Seasoning, sprinkled in some Kosher salt and ground some fresh black pepper on them and stirred and stirred until they were completed covered. Poured them out on a foil lined cookie sheet to cool. I stole a couple and they are yummy! I can't wait to eat them tomorrow! I thought these were much prettier though!

Now I'm going to package these up in containers and take them to the office so that Angelica and I can have healthy, yummy low-carbs snacks to nibble on when the mood strikes us. Oh...and I need to name this one, so I'm going to call it SAVORY ITALIAN ROASTED ALMONDS!


 

Birthday Goodies - Low Carb Style

I've been trying to post more often, ok…not really! What I've been doing is telling myself to try to post more often.

My sister and I use my blog oftentimes as a history of what we've done in the past and what day and where we went and what we did and what we served as food or what someone served us. But in the past year or so I haven’t been posting as I should and we’re losing track of our history.

So for my faithful readers, all two or three of you, some of these posts may be boring but they are bookmarks in time, so bear with me.

Last month my co-worker Angelica had a birthday. Angelica is not only my wonderful co-worker and friend, but she is my low-carb companion through and through. We help each other and share tips and tricks and encouragement.

During the time of my dad’s illness when I was spending every spare minute I had with dad in the hospital or at the nursing home, Angelica would fix an extra low-carb lunch to share with me every single day! I can never repay her kindness and thoughtfulness; she is a very special person.

For our birthdays, she and I try to make each other a special low-carb treat since we can’t do the traditional birthday cake and ice cream or donuts or cupcakes or whatever other things people do in normal non-low-carb offices.

We each put a lot of thought into what we are going to make for the other. For my birthday in July this year, Angelica spent the weeks before trying out different low-carb ice cream and cake recipes and she created this beauty! A low-carb Strawberry Shortcake with low-carb Vanilla Ice Cream. It was delicious!

So trust me when I say that I was stressing over what I could do to top that. But Angelica has the most powerful sweet tooth in the world! She loves herself some sweets, especially chocolate. That’s why I give her so much credit for sticking to a low-carb lifestyle.

So I knew that what I wanted to make for her was something sweet and it had to be fabulous! I hunted all over the Internet world for a low-carb recipe for Truffles. I must have pinned at least 20 recipes to my Pinterest board for low-carb recipes which you really should visit, I have some great things pinned in there.

I finally found a recipe that looked simple enough that even I couldn't possibly mess it up, so I went for it! So glad I did too as they were a big hit with Angelica and it made me so happy to see her eyes light up when she saw what I had created for her. Ok, maybe created is too strong a word, so she could see what I copied from someone else, just for her!

Now how about that?? Aren't those beautiful? And so easy to make using the recipe I found over at Your Lighter Side. Kimber, the blog creator calls them Mascarpone Choconutty Bites, which is a totally acceptable name, but since I was making these as a gift I wanted to give it a fancy name, so I call them Low-Carb Truffles. You can head over to Your Lighter Side and get the RECIPE HERE.

I did everything exactly as Kimber has in her recipe. The only thing I did different, besides change the name, is once the truffle balls were dipped in the chocolate, while the chocolate was still not set I dipped two in diced walnuts, sprinkled another two with the shaved coconut. Then I made a low-carb faux graham cracker mixture using a bit of almond meal, cinnamon and Splenda and sprinkled two with that mixture. I left two naked with just the chocolate dip on them and then "BAM" as Emeril Lagasse would say, I "kicked it up a notch" and sprinkled two with bacon bits!!! BACON and Chocolate? Have I gone mad?

Nope...I'm a genius! Those were the ones we tried first. Just take a gander! The inside was chewy and gooey and deliciously coconutty. The outside was crunchy chocolate covering and then you had that salty little bit of bacon! They were fabulous!

My co-worker/friend/life saver was thrilled! Thanks Angelica for being such a great person. I am the luckiest person in the world to work alongside you every single day, day in and day out for years upon years!!! Happy Birthday again!

 

Chicken Fried Steak from The Pioneer Woman

I love Ree Drummond! If you haven't heard about her then I assume you live under a rock with no access to the Internet or to the Food Network!

Ree Drummond is THE PIONEER WOMAN! Ree Drummond started a little old blog several years ago called The Pioneer Woman Cooks! She took that little cooking blog from a small blog to a huge blog, one of the most popular to several cookbooks and her own show on the Food Network!

What I love about Ree is that she posts step by step photos of the process of each recipe, making it super simple to follow along. Today I decided to make her Chicken Fried Steak recipe. See...my mom she loves Chicken Fried Steak. There are very few things that my mom loves, very few. She is a very picky eater.

I noticed that whenever we eat at a restaurant she will order the Chicken Friend Steak, or the County Fried Steak or the Cowboy Steak, by any name it is simply a Chicken Fried Steak. A steak breaded and fried like you would do chicken (mom hates chicken by the way).

So I knew that someday I had to make mom homemade Chicken Fried Steak! Today was that day!

So I poured myself a glass of Wine because sometimes I like to cook with wine...sometimes I even add it to the food I'm cooking, today was not that day!

Then I followed her recipe, step by step! I salted and peppered the cubed steak which had already been tenderized. I beat eggs with milk. I seasoned the flour with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and then more black pepper, lots of black pepper!

Taking the steak I dipped it into the milky-egg mixture, then the seasoned flour then back into the egg and then back into the seasoned flour and then set them aside while I did all the rest. Then I added the oil to the pan, waited for it to become adequately hot and then added the steak. Cooked 7 minutes on each side and Voila!

Mom joined me in the kitchen by making the mashed potatoes. She makes the best mashed potatoes! I don't know what she does to them but everyone that has had them will tell you that they are the best!

Since mashed potatoes are filled with Carbs, I decided I would make some yummy green beans instead, fried in bacon grease with some diced garlic and then just to be fancy I added some slivered almonds! Wine makes me so creative!

Sometimes you drive home and you think how exhausted you are but then you just pour yourself a glass of wine, invite Ree Drummond into your kitchen and magic just happens!

Trying to find the Jalapeno Margarita of My Dreams!

Several years ago in a restaurant in Old Town San Diego, I had a Jalapeno Margarita and fell in love!

In love with the sweet spiciness of the drink and the way it felt so sweet on the tongue while it was in your mouth but after you swallowed left the signature tingling of a fresh jalapeno. I loved the color of it and the way they rimmed the glass with lime then a jalapeno then salt so your lips were burning the whole time you drank it. Yum!!!

I know that seems crazy, but trust me, it's delicious!

So I decided today to try to make a margarita that I found on a website called Hispanic Kitchen. I love this website! They have the most delicious recipes and they are tried and true. If you are looking for a great place to find recipes for fabulous Hispanic foods then head over there and check out their website. Or if you are on Facebook you can find them there under Hispanic Kitchen.

So anyway, I've been wanting to try their "Some Like It Hot Cocktail".  Here's a photo of the drink from their website.

Photo Credit - Hispanic Kitchen 

Doesn't that look refreshing? The recipe cause me a little concern though, here is the recipe from their website:

The Jalapeno-Infused Agave Nectar threw me for a loop! Where does one find that? Luckily, I have the world at my finger tips and I googled and found that you create that by buying agave nectar, sort of a honey made from the agave plant and then infusing it with jalapenos.

So I diced up three jalapenos and steeped them in 10 ounces of simmering water...see! I used the whole jalapeno, membrane and seeds since that is where all the heat is and I wanted that heat!!! Oh...and a tip here, if you decide to make this, turn the vent on over your stove because as these are simmering they release something that makes you cough like crazy!

I found a bottle of Agave Nectar Friday night when my sister and I went out for Sister Night. Quick wrap up of that was we went to Denny's for their Nachos. If you have not had Denny's Nachos I suggest you go right away because they are delicious! Who would have thunk it right?

Here's the bottle I used, it was an amber agave. I was worried that wouldn't give the drink the right color, but you'll see...it worked just fine. This smells like molasses but tastes like honey, very weird, but I liked it!

So I pour the jalapeno water into the Agave Nectar in a plastic container and it was still a very dark brown color but just beautiful. So that my friends is how you infuse Jalapeno into Agave Nectar! Who knew! I dipped my finger into this...it's hot! And not just temperature hot...it's spicy hot!!!

Several months ago I had a friend that gave me two bottles of Tequila, so I made the first drinks using the Tres Generaciones tequila. Tres Generaciones means Three Generations and it's a very good tequila. Here's a picture of the first one I tried.

With the first drink I muddled the raspberries alone, then added the other ingredients to them in the shaker with some ice. It was very good but I felt it could have used a little more sweetness.

So with the 2nd drink, I used two more raspberries and I put them in the shaker with all the other ingredients except the ice and then muddled the tequila, raspberries, lime and jalapeno-infused agave nectar all together, then added ice and shook. I also rimmed the glass with a bit of lime, a bit of jalapeno and a bit of salt...made all the difference in the world, it was delicious!

I also used the other tequila which I definitely liked better, someday I shall have to take a shot of each and see which is better alone. This one is Xicote Tequila, I couldn't find a website for them.

Earlier in the day I placed some chicken breasts atop some chopped onion and red and green bell peppers and added some fajita seasoning and that should be ready any minute. I've had that delicious smell filling my house all afternoon and now I'm mellow and ready for some chicken fajitas and maybe a beer to go with them and then to relax the rest of the evening to prepare for this next week and then a 3-day weekend next week!!! Life is good! How was your Sunday?

   

Happy Birthday to my precious Son!

On August 19, 1985 I had one of the roughest days of my life. I had this little human being trying to exit my body butt first! My son James tried to come into the world folded up like a little taco with one leg on either side of his ears!

I remember the doctor feeling around down there and telling me, “Oh it’s going to be any minute, I feel her little head”. Back in those days we didn't just automatically find out if it was going to be a boy or a girl, so I had no clue.

An hour later the same doctor was telling me the same thing, to just hang in there the baby’s head is in position.

Another hour later, same thing…

After several hours of this the doctor finally realized that the baby was in some distress according to the fetal monitor strapped to my tummy and she ordered an X-ray to be done right away. You can't imagine how painful it was to go through contractions with a little human struggling to get out of you and you have to hold still for an X-ray? But I did it, with hardly any thought for myself, my baby was in distress and that was all I cared about.

After the doctor reviewed the X-ray she came into the room where I was still in painful labor with my mom on one side and my husband on the other. She explained that the little stinker was trying to make her entrance into this world butt first! She said the only thing we could do at this point was a C-section.

My husband was very much against my being put under; he felt that I wouldn't wake up again so he asked her for another option. Dr. Admiral, I will never forget her name, Dr. Admiral told my husband that he did have one other option, “We can just sit here and do nothing and you can watch your wife and your baby die!”

I told him, “Shut up and let her do what she has to do, I trust her!” And they wheeled me off into surgery.

At that time they didn't allow spouses to come into the surgery room, I was alone, but I didn't feel alone because I had someone else with me, that same little human being that was trying to split me in two was with me and I've never been alone since!

All I can remember is they strapped down my arms and they strapped down my legs and I just wanted to curl into a little ball from the pain but I couldn't…I was strapped down, then the blessed Anesthesiologist put me under and I felt nothing after that.

I woke up while I was being wheeled down the hall to the recovery room, the vision of my husband hovering over me and exclaiming, “Alice, it’s a boy, a beautiful little boy with blue eyes!” I just said, “That’s nice, leave me alone now.”

Afterwards I was in so much pain that the last thing in the world I wanted was to get up out of bed and take care of this baby, but the nurse brought him to me and told me I had to take care of him. I told her, “no thank you, take him away, I’m not going to get up, I hurt!” She said, “Oh honey…you’ll get up” and she walked out and left him there in his crib by my bed.

She knew what a mother’s love was. She knew that I would not let my baby cry. She knew I would get my ass out of bed come hell or high water to take care of my baby…she knew! And I did, and I fell in love with that sweet little boy, my son.

My Son - my come into the world butt first...son!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

 

On The Road Again! Historic Tehachapi! And Brains on the Tunnel!

This week we did Sister Night early, on Tuesday. We had a good reason and we did something a little different.

My sister Lisa happened to have a doctors appointment in Bakersfield. Since she was already in town it made sense to meet up for dinner. I happened to have a rental car courtesy of General Motors since they were fixing some recalls on my car. We figured, we're already both in Bakersfield and we have a rental car, why not head to the beach for dinner?

The reason we didn't go to the beach is that it's a couple hours away, so we thought we would head the opposite way and that's how we ended up in the beautiful historic City of Tehachapi.

I've been through Tehachapi dozens of times as that's the way we usually head when we visit Arizona or on the way to Las Vegas, but I had never actually stopped and visited. Glad that we did because we really had a good time and it's a beautiful little community.

Tehachapi is 35 miles East South East of Bakersfield. The drive up is beautiful. You barely get out of Bakersfield before you start climbing and pretty soon you are surrounded by beautiful rolling hills. The only sad thing was how dried out the hills were. I normally have always headed that way in the spring or autumn and was used to see rolling green hills, so this was quite a change. But even with the hills dry and yellow, it didn't take away from the natural beauty!

Lisa tried to capture some of the beauty as we drove along as you can see in this collage. The photo on the top right shows the rolling hills somewhat but it is hard to capture the depth of the mountains, especially in a moving car.

Lisa also took photos of one of the mountain tunnels which is part of the Historic Tehachapi Loop. Per Wikipedia, The Tehachapi Loop is a 0.73-mile (1.17 km) long 'spiral', or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad line through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert. Seeing a daily average of almost 40 trains, the line is one of the busiest single-track mainlines in the world.

The reason I put a close up of the tunnel in the picture is because many years ago, when my son Jim was about 5 years old or so, we traveled to Arizona for a funeral. My brother Fred was driving and my son Jim was driving Fred crazy with questions and just generally chatting away without really saying anything. So Fred pointed out the dark spot at the top of the bridge and asked Jim if he knew what that was and why it was there? Jim had no clue. Fred told him that back in the day hobo's and bank robbers would ride on the top of the trains and that sometimes it was nighttime and they didn't realize the tunnel was coming up and the hobo's and bank robbers would clobber their heads on the top of the tunnels and that mark was the dried blood and brains left from their heads busting against the concrete!

I know the story is gory and scary and totally made up, but it got Jim to staring out the window and trying to see the bloody spot on the remaining tunnels. That kept him entertained for a couple of miles. Hey! When you're travelling with a boy as active and curious as my son was, you do what you have to do to keep him entertained!

Lisa and I finally got into Tehachapi and we spent a good half hour just driving around up and down their main street and turning into side streets when we would see something interesting. Tehachapi was about 10 degrees cooler than Bakersfield. It was 81 degrees and there was a nice breeze and the air....Oh my Goodness...the air was so clean and fresh compared to Bakersfield air! We loved it.

Most of the stores on the main street were closed, and we've made plans to return on a Saturday to walk around and take our mom to a cute little Mexican restaurant we went to. But we may just go to another cute little restaurant called The Apple Shed. Tehachapi is known for their Apple Festival and I have always wanted to go.

After a nice dinner we headed home and we felt like we'd had a weekend getaway. Sometimes just a change of scenery helps!

 

National Tequila Day has come and gone...but the memories linger!! Sister Night Margaritas!

Bet you didn't know that last week on Thursday it was National Tequila Day? Well it was. Did it pass you by?

Luckily, thanks to all those sweet people on Facebook, I was reminded all day long! I never realized so many of my friends love Tequila the same way I do! Maybe that's why they're my friends? So I immediately got my sister Lisa on that Tequila bandwagon and we planned to get together after work to celebrate.

A little history on me and my sister Lisa. When her son Sean was in high school, he played football. So every Friday found us two sisters sitting in the bleachers either sweating up a storm or wrapped in blankets freezing to death watch Sean play football! Through thick and thin, we were there.

After football season ended during Sean's Senior year we felt a little displaced and out of touch with each other. So we said "Why does this have to end?"  Thus was born the tradition of "Sister Night". A night during the week when we get together to just catch up on our lives, to joke, to cry, to share memories, but mainly a night devoted to "sister love"!

Sean has now graduated college, he's completed the police academy, he's a dad...and my sister and I continue to get together one night a week for Sister Night!

Well National Tequila Day fell on our sister night, so we hit one of our favorite watering holes for Happy Hour! And, we got Happy! With these little beauties! On the left, a Watermelon Margarita for my sister Lisa and on the right, a Raspberry Margarita for me! Don't you love the colors? Tell me your mouth is not watering right now!

Since it was a special holiday, we threw caution to the wind and decided to order some of their delicious appetizers. An order of Chicken Taquitos with Guacamole and Sour Cream, and an order of their Chorizo-Bean Dip with Flour Chips. Plus Chips and Salsa? We were in Tequila Heaven!

Our poor little waitress kept coming by wanting to know how the Chorizo-Bean Dip was since she had recommended it and we had to keep sending her away as we were busy taking Selfies!

Love the way we match our drinks, like we dressed for the occasion! We did eventually put down our phones to dig in to our appetizers and they were delicious! The Margaritas were super yummy and our little waitress tried to talk us into having another, but with age comes wisdom and we know when we've had enough.

Another Successful Sister Night for the history books!

The Book That Made Me Realize I Was Going to Love Books and Reading

Do you know that this year marks the 50th Anniversary of a book that my children loved when they were little? Well I say a book they loved, but actually, I don't believe they ever read the book, they only saw the movie. The book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

Do you know this book? Have you read it? Or maybe you have only seen the movie? The one starring Gene Wilder in the role of Willie Wonka or maybe the one with Johnny Depp in the role?

Most people probably only know this book because of the movie, which is a bit sad because the book is so much better! All books are so much better! You never hear someone read the book and then watch the movie and say "the movie was better"! Nope, you always heard them coming out of the theater and saying ''that was disappointing, the book was so much better!"

Which is why I am glad that I never got to see movies as a kid. We always lived out on the ranches my dad worked at and usually they were always 20 or so miles from the nearest towns, making it crazy to go just to see a movie! So I read books instead. Tons of books! I devoured them like they were M&M's!

Great Expectations, Little Women, Little Men, Charlotte's Webb, Alice in Wonderland, The Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Wizard of Oz, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Heidi, Swiss Family Robinson, Black Beauty, I could go on and on!

But my very favorite, the one I still remember to this day, the book that made me realize I was going to love books and reading forever was The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney.

As I remember, this was the cover of the book I had. The Five Little Peppers had such great adventures and they were so kind to each other and they always did things together and even though they were poor they were happy. I would read it over and over again.

I didn't realize it but this was not the only book written about the Five Little Peppers. After this one there were 11 more books about the Peppers, 12 all total. Sad to say I only knew about this one. I'm think I need to keep an eye out at my favorite used book store to see if I can find the rest of them.

I hope that parents continue to read to their children and that they let their children see them reading. My mom read a lot, and we followed her lead. Turn off the TV and hand your child a book and just let them spend some quiet time getting lost in a another world, another time. Nurture a love of reading and books. Maybe go out and buy the 50th Anniversary copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and read it with them!

What book was your favorite as a child, or which book do you remember reading most?

This post was inspired by the classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To celebrate, Penguin Young Readers Group, in partnership with Dylan’s Candy Bar, the world-famous candy emporium, and First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides books for children from low-income families, is launching a year-long international celebration.

Head over to From Left to Write to learn how you and your child can have a chance to win the Golden Ticket Sweepstakes where the grand prize is a magical trip to New York City plus much more! For every entry submitted, Penguin Young Readers Group will make a donation to First Book. Then, join From Left to Write on July 24 as we discuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As a book club member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

 

One New Thing a Week and I'm Already Behind! Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake and a Birthday Girl!

So on June 29th I did my first post of my new plan to cook and post one new low-carb dish each week instead of eating the same old thing every day. Here is the link to the post and if you want to see my yummy Jalapeno Deviled Eggs it would be well worth the visit, they were fabulous!

Well...here it is July 17th and I believe 2 weeks have gone by and I didn't post anything new! I'm really not very good at this planning stuff I think.

But today I'm going to share something pretty special. I was blown away by it. Check it out!

Does that not just jump right out at you and say "EAT ME!"

Now before you all start applauding and telling me how wonderful and creative a low-carb cook I am, let me tell you that this is not my creation. Nope, this delectable dessert wonder is the creation of my co-worker and dear friend Angelica.

Every year for each other's birthday we try to create a Low-Carb dessert or meal as a surprise for the other one, and this year she made this Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake. The cake is made with almond flour and the vanilla ice cream is also home-made. Not sure with what ingredients because my mouth was too full of ice cream to ask!!!

My birthday will be this Sunday and I'm taking the day off from work tomorrow for a road trip with my sister Lisa. Our plan is to go SOUTH and see what we find. I love not having a plan and just going! My dad used to love to do that as well, that must be where I get it from!

So here I am...not bad for 30 right? Hahaha, yeah right. Well not bad for 56 if I do say so myself!

Thank you Angelica for the great Birthday treats, my Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake and my Sugar-free Iced Vanilla Coffee from Starbucks, you're a doll!