Catch up, lots to do! (book review and recipe)

OK, so I am way behind on what has been going on in my life. First off, I did something Saturday that I have never done before. I went to the Opera. One of our movie theaters here shows a live broadcast from the Met in New York. We saw Lucia di Lammermoor. It was wonderful. You can read more about it all here. I didn't know if I would like the opera...turns out I do. :)

Now, for my book review...

I am still putting Pride and Prejudice on hold as I still have books on hold at the library. But, my neighbor told me I could borrow her copy whenever I was ready to finish it. Thanks Sue! So, I just finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. It is the final installment in the Twilight series. Here goes (SPOILER):

Breaking Dawn
By Stephanie Meyer
I really enjoyed this book, I think that it was my favorite of the 4. She really wrote it well and was EXTREMELY descriptive. I was very glad that she made Bella be strong as a vampire since she was SO not strong as a human. In fact, her character really irritated me throughout the whole series, she was very unselfaware. I will say that this book I was able to connect with her a bit more. She gets pregnant, and no matter what anyone tells her, she is determined to keep the vampire baby, even if it kills her which she knows it probably will. I think this is how people that WANT to be mothers feel. You just want that baby no matter what the consequences to you are going to be. She loved her baby and that was all there was to it. I knew that the connection with Jacob the werewolf was going to be. It had to happen. He hadn't "imprinted" on Bella as they say so there had to be a reason that relationship was so strong. Of course he was going to "imprint" on her daughter, it was very predictable. Again, thoughout the book she was strong and I liked that. It made up for her weakness in the other books. If you haven't read this series, I suggest it. Yeah, it is about vampires and werewolves, but it is a good read. I really want to see the movie Twilight to see how it compares to the book.

Now I am reading The Friday Night Knitting Club: Knit Two by Kate Jacobs. I read the first one last year and it was SO good. So, of course I had to read the sequel. I also have Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich in the waiting. I love her, she is SO funny! Then, I have nothing else on hold and WILL read P&P.

Finally, I forgot about recipe Monday. So, I am going to post two today. We had Recipe Club here this morning with Death By Chocolate. Only one other person showed up, so here are our recipes:

GERMAN'S (R) Sweet Chocolate Pie
Prep: 15 mintues plus freezing

1 pkg. (4 lz.) BAKER'S GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate
1/3 c. milk, divided
4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
2 T. sugar
1 tub Cool Whip
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust

Microwave chocolate and 2 T of the milk in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 2 minutes or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
Add cream cheese, sugar, and remainig milk. Beat with wire whisk until well blended. Refrigerate about 10 minutes to cool. Gently stir in whipped topping until well blended. Spoon into crust. Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Garnsih as desired. Let pie stand at room temperature or in refrigerator about 15 minues before serving for easier cutting. Makes 8 servings.
**Weight Watchers--6 pounts for 1/8 of pie**

Striped Snack Mix
1 box Rice Chex
1/2 bag pretzels
jar of peanuts
large package of M&M's
1 pound white chocolate bark
1 pound chocolate bark

Mix chex, pretzels, peanuts, and M&M's. Melt white chocolate according to package. Poor over snack mix and stir until coated. Poor out onto wax paper in one layer to let dry. Melt chocolate bark according to package. Using spoon or fork, drizzle over snack mix in stripes. When completely dry, break up and store in airtight container. Enjoy!

Hope everyone is doing well. Take care!
Love,
Theresa

Book Review

OK, so I had to take a little break on Pride and Prejudice for just a little bit for 2 reasons. One, I have to read every word at least twice. Now I pride myself on being a fast reader and I can usually comprehend pretty well what I read, but this book is just about KILLING me. If I hadn't made a promise to myself to read it, I would SO stop! But, onward ho! The second reason is that I had 2 books come in that I had put on hold at the library, Cross Country by James Patterson and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. I have to get them both back to the library before P&P has to be back, so I had to take a little bit to read it. So, I finished Cross Country so here is my review:

Cross Country
Author: James Patterson
This might be a bit of a spoiler so if you haven't read it and plan to, then you MIGHT want to skip it. Anyway, the book was pretty good. Eric and I are big fans of the Alex Cross series. This one was typical Cross fashion. I did figure out who the bad guy was before the end of the book though. This book was a little more political than his usually are, sending Alex Cross to Nigeria, Africa to chase a killer. There was a lot of portrayal of the horror in Darfur. I have to admit that I really haven't paid too much attention to what has been going on over there. As bad as I felt for those people, it has been difficult for me to listen to it all, but this book really opened my eyes. I know that it is a fiction book, but I am going to guess that it is pretty spot on with what is happening over there. Like I said, the ending was fairly obvious, well, except for the last couple of pages. But, on the whole, good read. If you haven't read any of the Alex Cross series, I highly suggest them. Patterson writes really well.

I am still working on Breaking Dawn right now, so I will let you know what I think of it (and the entire series) when I finish. It is going pretty quickly.

I am currently retyping what I had typed on my own novel. I am so frustrated. I had quite a bit typed up, and I tried to put the disk in and it won't pull it up. So, I am retyping. Thank the LORD mom made me learn how to type, I would be a bit screwed if she hadn't!

I worked out a TON today. I went to Body Pump Class and then did my second installment of the Couch to 5K program. So, I burned off a lot of calories and worked up a good sweat. I feel really good though, although my legs are a little weak. Feels good!

All for today,
Love,
Theresa

New Recipe Monday!

Here is the recipe for this week...it was GREAT!

White Chicken Chili
(taken from allrecipies.com)
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
3 (15 ounce) cans white beans 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly cook and stir the onion until tender. Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about 3 minutes. Mix in the chicken broth, chicken and white beans. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the mixture from heat. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Serve warm.

Changes I made: I used 3 CANS of cooked chicken, only because I didn't have any chicken breasts thawed. I used 2 cans of green chilis instead of one of each of jalapenos and one of green chilies. I also mashed up another can of white beans and threw that in. Oh, DON"T drain the beans...this one I figured out the hard way!

No dessert recipe today, go fix yourself some fresh fruit! :)