Falling for New Releases

      For the month of October, I decided to try and read only things that were newly released this year. I think I ended up reading maybe one or two that were released last year in 2020. I also read a couple that have not been released yet. They are galley copies. Since I attend several online Library Journal webinars with authors, I have access to read some early copies of books. It is a little perk of being a librarian. So, let's get started. The first book I want to share with you is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. This book came out in February of 2021. I know there are other books about the dust bowl and the Great Depression, but this book will stick with you long after reading it. It really is amazing how that generation made it through that time in history. Kristin Hannah does a good job with description and feeling. She develops her characters so well that you miss them once you finish the book. Like so many historical fiction books, I learned so much about this time in our history that I did not know. When a fiction book makes me do my own research, it is very compelling. I started listening to this book on the audiobook version and it disappeared on me before I could finish it. I immediately found the hard copy at the library so that I could finish it. This one is very much worth the read. 

     The Invisible Life of Addie Larue  by V.E. Schwab was released in October of 2020. It has been on my TBR (to be read) list for over a year and I decided to give it a try. It was not a disappointment. I love when an author has a unique idea for a book and goes with it. So many books are similar and just varied by location or characters. This is kind of a play on the Devil and Daniel Webster, but it has a very unique twist. It is very engaging and one that you will not want to put down. I have to admit that I had a difficult time getting into it at first, but I found myself worrying about Addie when I wasn't reading the book. The audiobook version of this one is very well done. 

     The next book was a nonfiction book and it is NOT a new release. It originally came out in June of 2006 but there is an updated version that came out in May 2020, Jesus Rode a Donkey: Why Republicans Don't Have the Corner on Christ  by Linda Seger. I have not read the updated version, however I ordered it after reading this version. I have been struggling with my beliefs over the last two years. I am a Christian and believe in God, but I struggle with being told that I can't be one political party if I am a Christian. This book has been comforting to me. There are some political topics in it from 2006, that really didn't  help how I am feeling now, but I passed the newer version on to my Mom and I will probably reread some of it with the newest updates. If you are struggling with how divided the world is today on various topics, this book may be helpful for you. 

     The next book I want to share is not a new release either. Virgin River  by Robyn Carr came out in March of 2007 but I have never read it. I have heard that the series on Netflix is pretty good, so I thought I would try it. It is about a young nurse practitioner from New York who wishes to get away from the rat race of the busy city hospital and get a fresh start in a rural, picturesque town after her husband is killed in the big city. However, the small town life is not what she thought it was. This is a cute drama with a touch of romance. The quirky characters make it a fun read.  

     The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb is another book that has not come out yet. It is a galley copy that I downloaded and read before it is released in February of 2022. This is a story of Ray, a black classical musician whose family heirloom violin is stolen right before he competes in a national violin competition in Russia. It addresses the struggles and the prejudice he faces being a young black male in the world of classical music. This is the author's first book and I thought he did a very nice job with the topic. The beginning is a little slow, but once you find out about his grandfather's violin and it gets stolen, the story picks up. I found myself cheering for Ray towards the end of the novel. 

     The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland is a young adult novel that was released in September 2021. I got to be on a webinar with the author and decided I needed to read it once it came out. It is a cute story about a young girl who is a senior in high school and she has dated the same boy all through high school. Her plan is to move in with him in an apartment once they graduate. However, he throws her a curve ball and says they need a break the summer after they graduate to make sure they are making the right choice. Her family decides to help her see she deserves so much better than Paul. Part of the story is a group chat with her crazy family made up of a mix of characters. Jasmine is a Korean adoptee and her family is a mix of Italian and Asian. They are overprotective and and love her, but sometimes they but in just a little too much. This story is a mix of The Bachelorette and  To All the Boys I've Loved Before. You don't want to miss this one. 

     Another audiobook that I really enjoyed came out last June in 2020. If I Were You by Lynn Austin is a historical fiction about two girls in England during World War II. Audrey is practically a royal with servants and a fancy house. The other girl, Eve, is the daughter of one of the servants. She becomes a scullery maid and she and Audrey become friends. Audrey, even though she has lots of money and privilege, she has a difficult time making friends. Eve is carefree and makes friends very easily. They both end up serving during the war. Their on again, off again friendship makes them both realize how much they need each other when they both need it the most. It is a wonderful story about friendship. 

     Made from Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse by Kent Taylor came out in September of 2021. This was a very readable nonfiction. My husband and I enjoy Texas Roadhouse and we always comment on how crowded it is every time we go. There is ALWAYS a wait for a table. Then I realized that they do not advertise. How are they so successful? How did Mr. Taylor make it such a success? His methods were non conventional and he was told "no" many times. But, he never gave up on his dream. It is a very inspirational entrepreneurial biography. 

      What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris was another galley book. It will come out February 2022. This is a coming of age book about a young black girl who loses her dad to a drug overdose. Her mom has a difficult time with his death and KB and  her sister go to live with their grandfather over the summer. Her mom and her grandfather have been estranged and there is a lot of tension between them. During that summer, KB learns a lot about life as she and her teenage sister, Nia go through some growing pains and learn about racism, boys, and relationships. 

  The last book I wish to share is The Moonlight Child by Karen McQuestion. It is an audiobook that came out last year, September of 2020. This is a mystery about a young girl in the foster system that ages out and her advocate asks her mother to give her a place to stay and get on her feet since she just turned eighteen and aged out of the system. While Sharon,the advocates mother, is outside one night watching an eclipse, she notices a small girl washing dishes in the window in the house next door. She didn't think the Flemings had a young daughter. Who is this girl? Then, Nicki comes to live with her and notices a light in the basement window next door. Who is this child and why are the Flemings denying that she is there? Sharon and Nicki take on this mystery and try to solve it in their own way. This was an interesting story and it was great to see the development of Nicki and Sharon's relationship as a family, one that Nicki has never had before. 

     Along with the cooler temperatures comes the season of celebrating which involves lots of eating in America. Fall is probably the worst time to try and watch your weight or to diet. I have been blessed, or cursed, with a sweet tooth that will not go away. My Papaw Carman always loved sweets and my Papaw Lockard always had Little Debbie Cakes or cookies in his house. Once Autumn made it's appearance, along came all of the pumpkin spice followers. I have always loved pumpkin and I tend to eat it year around. My sister was craving a pumpkin pie, so I broke down and made a pumpkin pie for our sister's craft night. Neither one of our husbands are really crazy about pumpkin, so I made a pie so we could split it and she could take half home, so neither one of us would eat a WHOLE pie ourselves. 😋    

This is a new recipe I tried last year and it has become my favorite pumpkin pie recipe. Extra Smooth Pumpkin Pie is exactly that. The secret to it's smoothness is a little bit of cream cheese. It doesn't really have a cheesecake flavor, it is just a really smooth pumpkin pie. 

 

Then, apples start coming into season. We can buy apples at any time of the year here in the United States, but they really seem to be flavorful during the fall. A former colleague gave me a bag of apples from her brother's orchard. I had to find a recipe to encompass that wonderful apple, cinnamon or caramel goodness. The first recipe I made was apple hand pies or kind of like homemade apple pop tarts. 

These were really simple. You just cook your apples with cinnamon and sugar and then you use pie crust. Roll out the pie crust real thin and fill with your apple goodness then crimp, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar then bake. They are best hot right out of the oven. They remind me of the fried apple pies my Mamaw Carman used to make when I was a kid. It was a similar idea, but you make a dough, roll out small circles, then put in your filling and then fry them in a cast iron skillet on the stove. My Papaw Carman thought they were the best. He even dropped one in my grandmother's dish water one time and rescued it. I guess that gives new meaning to the 5 second rule. I tell ya the man had a sweet tooth.  The other apple dessert I made was Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars. These were delicious!! I made my first homemade salted caramel. Mine turned out a little thin and not as rich in color, but it tasted wonderful. I guess I will just have to try again 😉 My favorite part about these bars, besides the caramel, is the shortbread crust. I love anything that is shortbread, one of my favorite cookies. 

          To continue on with the pumpkin spice theme, I made a batch of my Mom's Two Week Refrigerator Bran Muffins. They are the best!! I know you are thinking...What? Bran muffins? Yes, they are so moist and tasty. You can mix a batch and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks and bake off of it . However, mine rarely lasts that long. For this batch of muffins, I added pumpkin and some pumpkin spice. They were delicious. I then sprinkled some pumpkin seeds on top before baking them. I love the crunch. You can add many types of fruit or flavors to these muffins, but pumpkin is my favorite add in. I also add in flax seed for extra nutritional value. 

     The last fall recipe I wish to share is a cookie recipe. I am a true cookie monster. I love a cookie of any kind and will most times choose cookies over other sweets. Something about being able to just pick it up and take a bite. While my husband and I were on one of our weekend trips, we stopped by a Panera Bread restaurant. I always get one of their iced shortbread cookies when I am there. They were out and offered me a kitchen sink cookie. I thought that sounded interesting, so I thought I would try it. First off, it was a BIG cookie. It had sea salt sprinkled on top. Once I took a bite, I was hooked. It had pretzel pieces, caramel, chocolate, and I am not sure what else. So, I did what I always do when I find something I eat out and really like it, I try to find a copycat recipe online. I found one and it makes a delicious cookie. Then, I did what I always do again, I made the recipe my own by  adding other ingredients. Since it was near Halloween, I call them Trick-or treat cookies. I used the recipe but I also added chopped up Reese cups, toffee chips, and m&m's. I think you could chop up any left over Halloween candy you might have and it would work as well. I made a double batch and sent some to work with my husband and took some to work myself. They were a bit hit. 

     My last pumpkin recipe, I promise, is a pumpkin latte recipe. The one I found on Pinterest was a Weight Watchers recipe, which is even better. I like this recipe because it not only has the spice, but it actually has pumpkin in it as well. It makes a delicious drink and if you are a pumpkin aficionado like me, you have to try it. 

 

This summer girl is trying to make the best of this chilly weather. It does not help my waist line which is why I have to stay active and keep walking and working out, but it gets me through these chilly days. Until I can get my toes in the sand again, I will make it work. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you are taking time to enjoy  a good book and the taste of the season. Check back next month as I talk about my favorite gene, historical fiction. 

Happy Fall!!!

 

 

In Search of Homemade Nanner Puddin'

     It all started when I was planning for Thanksgiving of 2019. I was assigned to bring banana pudding, or nanner puddin' as it is affectionately called in my home, to our Thanksgiving meal at my Mom & Dad's house. I could do the instant kind of pudding or the boxed pudding mix, but I did not grow up with that kind of pudding when I was young. Yes, my mom maybe fixed instant pudding cups when we were little as a snack or treat. She put it in those little Tupperware cups that were multicolored with clear plastic lids that would stack on top of each other. But if she made a pudding for dessert it was always cooked, homemade pudding.
     So, I went where I always go to look for copycat recipes, new creations, what to do with leftovers, or a recipe that someone talked about at lunch one day at work...Pinterest. All of the Pinterest recipes for banana pudding were the no cook, Eagle brand milk, yummy banana pudding, but not homemade pudding recipes. I then went to Google and searched. I really couldn't find anything similar to what I grew up with. Then I got to thinking, what is going to happen when all of the old recipes that I grew up on are gone?! My Mamaw Carman rarely wrote any recipes down. I do have a few that she wrote down in an old yellow spiral notebook. They are treasures to me. I also have many of my Mom's recipes in a recipe album she made me when I graduated from college. I still text her and email her from time to time asking about things she cooked when I was growing up.
     I collect recipe books as well. I have all kinds of church recipe books, which by the way have the best recipes! I have senior citizens center cookbooks, family cookbooks, and homemakers clubs' cookbooks. They are my favorite to collect, because of the family history that usually goes into each recipe.  They have the old time recipes in them that are becoming extinct as we speak. So, I start looking through some of my grandmother's handwritten recipes and I find one for Butterscotch Pie. Well, that was one of my Mamaw's specialties. I knew if I substituted the brown sugar for white sugar, it would be vanilla pudding. So, that is what I did. I ended up having to double the recipe to make a whole banana pudding since this recipe is for a pie.

     So, I got to thinking...what if I start a blog sharing all of the old time recipes from when I was a kid. Not sure if anyone is interested and I really haven't searched out the internet for bloggers that may already do this. I figure in different parts of the country the recipes would all vary a little bit anyway so here I am, starting a blog about old time cooking. I am also hoping if this blog gets popular, others will share their old recipes as well. What better way to bring the old time recipes and cooking to the new way of searching for recipes. Also, what better time to start this blog than during the quarantine of the Corona-19 virus of 2020. After all, I am hoping for a captive audience and what better audience than one who is on lock-down at home, surfing the web, looking for something to occupy their minds.  

   Since I am a librarian, I have to talk a little bit about books. When it comes to comfort food, like a fresh warm nanner puddin', what is more comforting than a cozy mystery. You know the ones I am talking about. They have fun characters, usually a really mean bad guy that everyone loves to hate and the main character is a curious character that either solves crimes by profession or on the side as a hobby. The book I am currently reading is The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams. The main character is a former librarian who suffered an accident that left her with severe burn scars and she left for the country to open a small book store, for a new beginning. She befriends some other women in the town, one being the local baker at The Gingerbread house, and together they try to solve a murder that takes place in the sleepy little town. I read a variety of books, but nothing is like a cozy mystery that involves a character that knows her books and another that is good at baking. 

*book cover from Amazon.com

     Thank you for taking time to read my first blog entry. I hope you have discovered a new(old) recipe to add to your repertoire of desserts.  And hey, why not make a homemade banana pudding while you are at it. Banana pudding is my Dad's very favorite. Mom usually makes one for him on his birthday in April. Enjoy!

Homemade Banana Pudding

2 cups sugar

1 cup white all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

5 cups milk(whole milk makes the best pudding)

4 egg yolks

3 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. vanilla

3-4 medium sized bananas-lemon juice to preserve the bananas 

graham crackers or vanilla wafers- whichever you choose or a combination of both

Mix your sugar, flour and salt with a whisk until well blended. Add the milk and cook over low heat. Use a whisk to blend the dry ingredients with the milk. I do not use a double boiler, but if you are easily distracted from the stove, you should use one to keep from scalding the milk. Cook until it starts to thicken a little. If it starts to bubble, then turn the heat to low. Then you need to temper your egg yolks. So, take a ladle and put one scoop of the pudding mixture into a bowl. Mix your four egg yolks and then add the yolks to the bowl. Mix well then add this back to your mixture on the stove. If you just drop your egg yolks into the pudding mixture on the stove, you will cook the yolk whole. Mix well and keep stirring until the pudding begins to thicken. You want it fairly thick. It will thicken more when it cools, so don't cook it too long. Depending on your stove, usually about 15-20 minutes total cooking time. Remove it from the heat and add your butter and vanilla and mix well. Now you are ready to layer your bananas, cookies/crackers and pudding. Just start with cookies in the bottom of your dish, add sliced bananas (i drizzle just a little bit of lemon juice on the sliced bananas before adding them to the pudding. Helps with keeping them from turning brown so quickly), then pour about 1/3 to 1/2 of your pudding. How many layers is up to you. If you like lots of bananas Try a deeper smaller around dish to layer your pudding in. It also looks great in a trifle bowl. Always finish off the layers with pudding on top. You can decorate the bowl with vanilla wafers around the edges if you like or graham crackers. I also like a little sprinkle of cinnamon on top. When you serve it, you can serve it with cool whip.

*I used Archway Chessmen cookies  for my pudding. Any kind of shortbread or butter cookie will do.