Book Review- Middle grade

 Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson

Delacorte Press, 2012

   What happened after    Hattie Big Sky?     Hattie paid off her Uncle’s Debt and is ready to move on to her dream of being a journalist.  Her first step is taking a job as traveling wardrobe mistress, then she does land a job at a Big newspaper in San Francisco, but as a cleaner.   After much persistence, she lands a fact finder position. And finally, she gets to see her own name in the newspaper.  Charlie (her beau) throws a couple of wrenches into the story, along with some of the other people she meets.

This can be read as a sequel or on its own. 

Book Review- Adult

The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow

Sourcebooks Landmark, 2014

   The voices of Maria Romano and Caroline meadows are heard through this book. But it is not unlit the very end that we find out just how much their lives are connected.

    As Maria tells her story, she shares how her life took twists and turns, and how she came to be the head seamstress at the Royal Palace for the Prince of Wales.  

   Caroline discovers a quilt that belonged to her grandmother. The quilt pulls on her to discover who was behind the tiny stitches and the letter sewn inside the lining.

Past and present meet when all is unfolded at the end of the story.

Simple Supper! Macaroni and Meat

Macaroni and meat is an old recipe of my mothers that she still makes  and we all love to eat.  It was one of the first things I ever made when I was first married.   It is easy and economical!

 I made the other day , so today I can have some for lunch.  Along the way I took photos and thought that I had downloaded them to my computer  but for some reason it did not seem to work.

 Macaroni and Meat

1 & 1/2 cups macaroni
 1 lib ground beef or turkey
1 medium onion chopped
2 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
20 ounces tomato sauce
salt and pepper

  Start a large pot  of water and bring to boil. Add a little salt. Cook macaroni until almost done.
   In a large pan , saute  onion, celery, and garlic until soft.  Add in the  ground meat and brown . Drain if  you have a lot of fat.   Add salt and pepper, I also added a dash of worcester sauce  because I was using ground turkey- I don't if I am using beef ( don't ask me why I just do)
 Combine the  macaroni and the beef  and the tomato sauce in a large oven proof dish with a lid.
Bake for  30 minutes at 350 degrees.
If you made ahead, and refrigerate, you will need to heat up for a longer amount of time.

Review- One Bowl Baking/ Ruperti

  Yvonne Ruperti , who is a recipe developer, has some easy and simple recipes for you to try.  Each uses one bow, some of the recipe's can be done right in the pan you bake in( the sweet bar recipes. That's the ones I want to try first- Apple crisp mix in the pan is the first one on my list.

  The recipes are well organized into chapters: Muffins& scones, cookies, bar cookies, cupcakes, snack cakes, quick breads, party cakes, and upside down cakes.

  The introductory pages  has Yvonne's ideas on what she uses in her baking as far as ingredients and utensils. If you are into baking  and want some easy ways to get the goodies in your oven then One Bowl Baking  is for you.

Happy Groundhogs day!

  Well the snow piled up here and all over the Wayne  and sullivan county. We have about 12 inches of snow. Now the winds are picking up and we are heading towards below zero temps.
  The birds were by the suet all day today. The cardinals have been visiting often.  Luckily our neighbor down the road came and plowed the driveway for us. Bob just finished  around the car and the sidewalk.