Saturday Morning Pancakes...Yum!!!

These are my pancakes...with fresh blueberries.  I am not a good pancake maker naturally.  But my husband loves them and I love him so I am finally perfecting my pancake making.  I googled to find the world's best pancake recipe and this is the recipe that has come up.  I have made it twice and my husband is fully prepared to buy me the world if I continue to make them.  I can only thank  Jason Kottke.  I don't know him at all but he posted this recipe for all the world to see.  Clicking on this link will get you to his amazingly simply and totally awesome recipe. 

Thank you, Jason...you are a hero in our household!!!

Happy Saturday!!!

Do you have a favorite week end breakfast?  I would love to hear about it!!!

This Is Certainly A Witchy Woman...

Summary…From GoodReads…

What if your mother-in-law turned out to be an evil, cold-blooded witch . . . literally?

Ever since fabulously wealthy Malcolm Doran walked into her life and swept her off her feet, fledgling architect Jane Boyle has been living a fairy tale. When he proposes with a stunning diamond to seal the deal, Jane can't believe her incredible luck and decides to leave her Paris-based job to make a new start with Malcolm in New York.

But when Malcolm introduces Jane to the esteemed Doran clan, one of Manhattan's most feared and revered families, Jane's fairy tale takes a darker turn. Soon everything she thought she knew about the world—and herself—is upended. Now Jane must struggle with newfound magical abilities and the threat of those who will stop at nothing to get them.

My thoughts…

This book was a fast paced and intense reading experience for me. I can also say it was a bit of a nail biter. It was a totally captivating magical story. It had everything…a Prince Charming who is not who we are led to believe he is, lots of magic, and lots of witches…some evil and some not so evil. Jane falls in love with Malcolm, is swept off of her feet and moves to New York with Malcolm. They live with Malcolm’s parents and Jane has to learn to live with the strangeness of the Doran family. Malcolm’s mother is quite demanding and fierce and Jane struggles to maintain her uniqueness as she is overwhelmed by the mysteries of Malcolm’s strange family. While struggling to find her own way in her new city, Jane discovers that she has witchlike powers of her own. She has always felt different…lights go off and on when she is in a room, computers sizzle and appliances sort of freak out around her but she has been shielded from the truth about herself by an overprotective grandmother. The build up to Jane and Malcolm’s wedding and their plan to break free of his family is extremely delicious. Jane joins a coven of witches and begins to fully develop her powers. This places her in danger and only Jane can save herself. As I said earlier…the last quarter of this book was an extreme nail biter for me. I couldn’t move until I raced through to the ending.

I loved this book. It was fresh and new and different and exciting. I hope to read more from this first time author.



Only Ten Shopping Days Left Until Valentine's Day!!!

I love bracelets and my new love this season is jewelry by a designer named Chan Luu.

This is what she is about...

"Originally from Vietnam, Chan Luu moved to Los Angeles and established her design career. Chan Luu's trademark is her artistic skill in combining unusual forms with beautiful colors to create truly striking pieces which set the trend in fashion jewelry. "

These bracelets are for sale at Nordstrom's and I even found some at Beauty.com but this site...Regencies...seems to have a tremendously wide and varied selection.  I want one...I want one...I really really want one!!!  Actually I want two...

Don't you think they are just beautiful?



My Total Fascination With Making This Pizza...

Have I ever mentioned that my mom...was a bread baker?  She totally hated making cookies and cupcakes and brownies unless she had to...for our parties at school or birthdays.  But my mom loved making bread and pizza and rolls.  My sister Paula and I were discussing this the other day.  My mom had a huge silvery bowl and my grandmother's bread board and she would make the most amazing breads and pizza.  She made a smallish roll that we loved and called "lip buns"!!!  They looked liked baked lips to us.  She would line these up on a pan and they would rise to perfection.  We loved them.  She would make a thick chewy doughy pizza that I crave to this day.  So when I saw this pizza on Serious Eats...I had to try it.  It is totally made in a Kitchen Aid mixer.  You put everything in the mixer and it kneads and twists and turns and makes this dough.  The author of this recipe says it is the cooked potato in the dough that makes the dough so good.  Once it is mixed and kneaded you simply plop it into your pan and it sits for 2 hours and is done...you pat it a bit and put toppings on it and it is yummy!!!  I made one on Sunday with just fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce and another one yesterday with caramelized onions, Kalamata olives and goat cheese.  Both were fantastic.  It is a fun recipe to make and no bother at all...literally I used my mixer and a cookie sheet ( jelly roll pan ) and a measuring cup or two.

And of course it felt as though my mom was right there cheering me on...I think I am ready to make her lip buns soon...my mom is my inspiration.

Notice those airy holes in the dough...this looks just like the pizza I grew up with...

Short and sweet... Review Of...The Fates Will Find Their Way

The premise of this book…the heart of this book is the disappearance of Nora Lindell. An ordinary neighborhood, a Halloween Party and Nora is never seen or heard from again.

The most amazing aspect of this book is that we do not find out what happens to Nora.

The story unfolds from the eyes of an unknown narrator. This narrator is one of the neighborhood boys and the entire telling of this story is from the view of this boy who seems to be telling the story from a “we” perspective. This narrator speaks for all of the boys in the neighborhood as they are boys and as they grow into men…men with wives, babies and families of their own.

There are many and varied theories about what happened to Nora Lindell and all of them are believable. I wanted to believe all of them except for the one with the saddest outcome. Each concept was presented in an orderly believable manner. I was caught up in each idea…I found myself saying to myself…”Yes, I can see that happening or of course, of course…that is what happened”. But again we never truly know.

Hannah Pittard has written a truly beautiful and mesmerizing book. I was caught up in adolescent anxiety and school and parties with neighbors and college and aging and pretty much life in general. The realization for the narrator that this is what life is…being young and then being old and all the life stuff in between. It truly is a lovely lovely book.



I Am Reading As Fast As I Can!!!

These lovely books were in my mail this week.

Kath Russell sent me her coming of age book...Deed So...I am getting ready to read it soon.

In spite of not needing one more book in my life...I Kindled these...I just could not resist them.

I feel as though I have been reading tons of YA Fantasy...which is still a relatively new genre for me.  I really never read it before a year and a half ago and now I cannot get enough of it.  But now I feel as though my reading is a bit lopsided.  Am I reading way too much fantasy...the answer remains to be seen.  But if I am not reading fantasy then I am reading adult dysfunction or spine chilling mysteries.  I hate memoirs, I hate historical fiction, I hate science fiction...I need fantasy...seriously.  Or serious dysfunction...seriously.  I blame Twilight and Harry Potter and The Lord Of The Rings...seriously.  And I blame all of the series in YA Fantasy...there is not a YA author out there who can end a story with one book...everything I read is a trilogy or a multi trilogy!!!  Look at the Morganville vampires...whew!!!  Perhaps it isn't my fault after all.

When I buy a top that I love I buy it in more than one color so now that I think of it series reading suits my personality perfectly.  My other weird quirky flaw is that I can truly only read one book at a time.  I hate audio books...ick.

So...

Where is your reading taking you lately?

Do you try to diversify?