Cookish: What's for dinner?

Chilaquiles are delicious, cheap, and easy. What more do you want? Note: I do not claim that these are in any way authentic. But, they are yummy.

Ingredients:

veg oil

1/4-1/3 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 can crushed tomatoes

1-2 chipoltle peppers

Oregano

1 bay leaf

salt

tortilla chips

eggs

cheese

sour cream

Chop the onion finely. Saute in oil til translucent. Use your microplane to grate the garlic. (You do have a microplane, right? Get one, you'll love it.) Add the tomatoes. Chop up the chipoltle and add to your tomatoes. Add a sprinkle of oregano, a bay leaf, and some salt. Don't add too much salt; you'll be adding the tortilla chips to this, which are pretty salty. Let simmer for a bit, then taste. Up the seasoning as needed.

Fry or scramble an egg or eggs, depending upon how many you are feeding. I recommend a fried egg, sunny-side up, if you like eggs that way. The runny yolk will mix with the sauce--delicious. Scrambled eggs are good, too.

Add several handfuls of chips to sauce, crushing slightly as you add them. Let the chips soak up the sauce and soften a bit, but don't let them disintegrate completely. Spoon up some chips & sauce into a bowl.

Serve with egg on top & cheese. Sour cream optional. Yum!

I'm really sorry I don't have a finishing shot on this one, because it looked delicious. But, again, my camera battery failed me.

Bookish: The Quiet Game

Another one from Greg Iles. This is more of his usual fare. Set in Natchez, MS (Iles's home turf), this follows lawyer Penn Cage, as he returns home after the death of his young wife, seeking some comfort for his distraught daughter. Life in Natchez isn't all sleepy and peaceful, though, and Penn must soon discover a way to extricate his father from a blackmail situation. On top of that, he soon finds himself drawn into a decades-old murder case that may or may not have civil rights ties. The famous white lawyer returning home to take up the case of a dead black man draws a lot of attention in Natchez, and not all of it is friendly. Soon, his life and his daughter's life are in danger and trying to get people to talk about what happened is like juicing an apple with your bare hands. As Penn digs deeper, he finds ties to a very powerful man in Natchez--one he'd like nothing more than to destroy.

Penn Cage is a recurring character for Iles, and this volume is a satisfying read. Some plot points scream "male author" (e.g. Penn's new, very young love interest, just months after his wife's death), but the book is quite good and not as disturbing as some of Iles's books.

Bookish: The Shack

You have probably heard of The Shack. Or maybe you have been living under a rock. Initially self-published, it spread like wildfire and became a New York Times bestseller.

So, here's the thing: I knew it was about God, but I thought it would be more allegorical, with a deeper God meaning. That's not it. The guy goes to a shack and literally meets God the Father ("Papa"), Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

It also reads like a self-published piece. Not enough editing, stilted dialogue, reactions that don't exactly ring true.

So, it just didn't speak to me. The fact that God is love and loves us is not a big, crazy revelation for me.

But the book has touched a lot of people. I just can't recommend it.

Cookish: Simple Supper

Ready for a simply declicious supper? You need lettuce, roasted potatoes, and eggs. Ready?



1. Roast some potatoes.

Ingredients
New Potatoes
Olive oil
Onion
Garlic or garlic powder/granulated garlic (because I was somehow without fresh garlic in the house--a true sin)
parsley
oregano
salt
pepper


Preheat oven to 425. Quarter your new potatoes and finely chop some onions. Toss in a bowl with olive oil, oregano, parsley, granulated garlic, salt and pepper. Be generous with the salt--potatoes need salt. Put on a rimmed cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes.


2. Soft boil an egg or eggs (depending upon how many you're serving. One egg per person.)


Bring water to a boil. Add the egg and simmer for about 4 minutes for a runny yolk. You want a runny yolk--trust me. Put eggs under cool running water and then peel egg(s). Here's a hint: use old eggs. Not rotten, people! Just older. It means there's more space between the egg and the shell, which means they are easier to peel.


Soft-boiled eggs are not the easiest thing to peel, so I offer an alternative to soft-boiled egg: a poached egg. Just as good. Just remember the runny yolk. Trust me on this.


3. Make a salad. Toss some simple greens (I use just green-leaf lettuce, but romaine or bibb lettuce would be good too) with some white wine vinegar, a little olive oil, and some salt. Keep it simple.


Put it all together now:


Salad in a bowl. A few roasty-toasty potatoes on top. Egg on top of that. Break egg with fork and yolk spills out....mix it all around. Yum.


I apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera battery has betrayed me. I hope to have the situation remedied soon.

Bookish for Kids: Escape Under the Forever Sky

Escape Under The Forever Sky is a story of an American girl living in Africa with her ambassador mother. Lucy has friends and likes where she lives but she deaires freedom. Her mother is very worried about her safety, and thus puts serious restrictions on where she can go and what she can do. Of course Lucy decides to rebel against this, but she quickly learns her lesson the hard way when she is kidnapped. She decides she must escape from her kidnappers and find her way home, even though she is far from the city and does not know exactly where they have taken her. Her adventure as she escapes is exciting, though I thought it was over a bit too quickly. Of course, this is written for a young audience and perhaps the author was anticipating short attention spans. Not bad, overall.

PS-I liked the cover on the ARC better than the final cover. Just FYI.

Cookish: What's for dinner?

Tasty Broccoli Quiche

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, minced (you can use more if you like)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or your choice)
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Parmesean cheese



If you buy pie dough not already in the pan, place it in a pie plate and crimp the edges.Aww, it's pretty. Preheat your oven to 350. Chop up your onions, garlic, and broccoli. Saute in the butter til tender. Meanwhile, mix up the eggs, milk, salt, black pepper, and melted butter.Add the sauteed veggies to the pie crust and sprinkle the cheddar on top.
Pour on the egg mixture and sprinkle some parmesean on top, just for good measure. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the center is set and the top is golden and delicious.


Eat it up. Yum!

Bookish movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The 6th Harry Potter book is one of my favorites, so I was really looking forward to this movie. I made two mistakes:

1. I re-read the book right before going to see the movie. This makes all of the changes and discrepancies all the more obvious, and I knew I was going to regret it, but I couldn't help myself.

2. My hopes were too high. For some reason, I was thinking the movie would be very true to the book, even though none of the movies really have been since Chris Columbus left the project.

So, the special effects were great; there were a number of laughs; the girl playing Lavender was spot-on. It was an enjoyable movie. The kids are really growing up, and it's very cute to see.

Problems: Changes. The beginning was different--I could get over that. There's lots of little plot changes, too that I could look past, even though I do think the way Ginny and Harry get together in the book is infinitely better than in the movie. Then, they insert a scene at The Burrow that has no basis in the books. It was a big scene, too, and just seemed out of place and weird. I might have been able to get over that, but then they left out the big battle at the end! WTH! So, the invented Burrow scene took its place? That just does not work and was the biggest disappointment to me. I liked the movie more until that happened and since it is right at the end of the movie, it pretty well spoiled it.

They also left out major important plot points that are necessary for the 7th book, so I am not sure how they are going to work that out. The battle is pretty freaking important. Fenrir Greyback? Completely unexplained. Fleur and Bill? Wait, who? Percy? Not even a mention. Kreacher being inherited by Harry? Nope. There's a new Minister of Magic? No hint of that in the movie. Voldemort's parents? No flashback. The other objects that might be Horcruxes? No clue. Some of that probably could have been left out, but all of it? Yikes. I'm not sure how much sense the movie will make to those who haven't read the book. Probably most of the meaning will come through, but some things will seem very abrupt, I think.

So, I am SOOO glad they are splitting the 7th book into 2 movies because they have so much to fit in. The movie was good, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much better. Seeing it at the opening showing (yes, I went at midnight and still got up for work in the morning) added to the atmosphere and was quite fun.

I will go see it again on IMAX, and being a little further removed from reading the book might make it more enjoyable.