Archive for the ‘daily’ Category
For the past several years, I have not only set a reading goal for myself, but a challenge as well. The bulk of my reading is romance novels (that’s what I like). But the yearly challenge ensures that I read other types of books as well. Each year, I choose a book in one of the following categories: popular (in the past 2 years), non-fiction, sports, classic.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
First up was Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl as my popular choice for 2013. It’s rare that I have trouble describing a book or movie, but this seems to be one of those times. I don’t want to give anything away, so trying to explain what I liked about it is difficult for me. Overall, this book is crazy. I mean, it’s insane. It was very easy for me to see why this book was so popular. Gone Girl is unlike anything I’ve read in a really long time. I couldn’t stop reading it, because I had to know how it ended. It was full of a feeling of suspense that not a lot of authors can’t convey this successfully. Honestly, I wondered about the author’s mind that she could even come up with this bizarre story and its looney characters.
Read if you like: Mysteries, thrillers, suspense, and crazy folks.
The Art of Fielding was last year’s popular pick (it also doubled as the sports book).
So, you know how I love baking? Well, I’ve packed my schedule full of activities (social and volunteer), and I haven’t had time to relax and bake in what seems like forever. Whenever it’s been a long time since I’ve baked anything, I usually grab one of the spare box mixes I keep on hand and get to work. This time, I had a spare banana quick bread mix (the same one I used to make these muffins) and since I didn’t have milk (which muffin form requires) and I didn’t have a loaf pan (as I suspect my sister stole it), I decided to use my bundt cake pan. I knew from flipping through my baking cookbooks that bundt cakes often have some sort of frosting or such drizzled over them. I always have the following items on hand:
- Butter
- Flour
- Sugar
- Brown sugar (light and dark)
- Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
- Cream cheese
- Heavy cream (usually)
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
You would think it wouldn’t be hard to find something, but it kinda was. You know why? Because I don’t have milk. And do we know why I don’t have milk? Because I hate it and it expires so quickly. Well, I couldn’t make cream cheese frosting because I didn’t have time for it to soften and all the other recipes called for milk. Until I came across a brown butter frosting section to Joy the Baker’s Banana rum cake. I didn’t have rum, but that was the only ingredient I was missing. I cut down the portions since I wasn’t going to frost an entire cake and gave it a whirl.
I was terrified that I browned the butter wrong. I mean, what does it mean to wait until it’s “nutty in fragrance??” That has no meaning to me! However, I had no other options, so I went with it. Because I played around with the quantities, the frosting was looser than I wanted, but I used my slightly-maybe-just-a-tiny-bit-beyond-the-expiration-date heavy cream (IT WAS UNOPENED! AND STILL GOOD! Stop judging me.) and I got it to the perfect consistency.
Here’s the finished product:
It was quite tasty. Next time, I’ll make something from scratch. I’m thinking Joy’s cream cheese pound cake with whipped cream and berries… mmm.
Disclaimer: These photos have received the Instagram treatment.
Do you know how to get a bundt cake out of the pan without tearing it? I clearly don’t.
Ok. So we didn’t actually have a traditional conversation. But she replied to my tweet. That means we’re best friends now.
As I Cee It 