Wednesday, August 31, 2016

It's too hot to do anything


HOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTT Upper 90s again today. It's hot.



 Last night I had the left over meatballs with tomato sauce but had it with sea kelp noodles.


And I had it again for lunch. Nummy! Just enough left over for lunch again tomorrow.

Tonight Steve has shooting and I have a Human Design class. Then I'll read and go to bed.

I'm finishing up reading AFTER YOU by Jojo Moyes, the sequel to ME BEFORE YOU, before I really get going on the new Louise Penny because I had just started it on Monday. It's a super quick read. 

Have a good day. Bye!



Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

New release day!


I love Kindles because you get new releases at about 11pm the night before release day.


And then after work I should have the hardbacks and the DVDs I'm waiting for: NCIS: Los Angeles season 7 and Arrow season 4.


About to start A GREAT RECKONING by Louise Penny 12th of 12 in series featuring Armand Gamache, Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, in the village of Three Pines, in southern Quebec, Canada.


When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must. And there he finds four young cadets in the Sûreté academy, and a dead professor. And, with the body, a copy of the old, odd map.Everywhere Gamache turns, he sees Amelia Choquet, one of the cadets. Tattooed and pierced. Guarded and angry. Amelia is more likely to be found on the other side of a police line-up. And yet she is in the academy. A protégée of the murdered professor. The focus of the investigation soon turns to Gamache himself and his mysterious relationship with Amelia, and his possible involvement in the crime. The frantic search for answers takes the investigators back to Three Pines and a stained glass window with its own horrific secrets. For both Amelia Choquet and Armand Gamache, the time has come for a great reckoning.

Published 2016, it has 400 pages.

So tonight I'm jumping on the computer to watch the extras from NCIS: LA first.  In particular, the episode commentary for my favorite episode of that season.


 Have a great day!


Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Monday, August 29, 2016

Leave me a lone, Monday!


I actually read a lot over the weekend. What the heck?


I finished the Susanna Gregory. Read a memoir-type scrapbook thing by Judi Dench. Re-read CHERRY AMES STUDENT NURSE by Helen Wells, published in 1943.

And I read A USEFUL WOMAN by Darcie Wilde. 1st of a series featuring Rosalind Thorne, a minor heiress in Regency London.


The daughter of a baronet and minor heiress, Rosalind Thorne was nearly ruined after her debtor father abandoned the family. To survive in the only world she knew, she began to manage the affairs of some of London society’s most influential women, who have come to rely on her wit and discretion.  So, when artistocratic wastrel Jasper Aimesworth is found dead in London’s most exclusive ballroom, Almack’s, Rosalind must use her skills and connections to uncover the killer from a list of suspects that includes Almack’s powerful patronesses and her former suitor Devon Winterbourne, now Lord Casselmaine. Torn between her old love and a growing attraction to a compelling Bow Street runner, Rosalind must not only unravel the mysteries surrounding Jasper’s death, but the mysteries of her own heart as well...
Published in 2016, it has 365 pages. I really really liked it and consumed it in one day.Can't wait for the next on in May.

On Saturday, I shopped at a couple different stores for produce and other items to help out on my food plan. I stopped by a tea shop and picked up some incredibly fantastic smelling tea called Evening in Missoula.



This tea contains chamomile, rose hips, raspberry leaf, papaya leaf, peppermint, spearmint, blackberry leaf, passion flower, red clover, star anise, wild cherry bark, lemon peel, wintergreen, vanilla, lavender, and stevia. And I picked up a french press rather than a tea ball in which to make it. 


I made oatmeal-less oatmeal for breakfast. Substituting cauliflower for oatmeal, from thehealthyfoodie.com. This is her recipe: 

Apple & Cinnamon N’Oatmeal

Apple & Cinnamon N’Oatmeal

INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. By far, my favorite way to rice cauliflower is in the food processor. Simply cut the cauliflower into very small florets, throw them in the bowl of the food processor without overcrowding it and pulse a few times until the cauliflower has the desired coarseness. 10 to 15 short pulses usually do the trick.
  2. A Ninja Prep Master works wonders for small quantities such as this, but you could also use a box grater if you wanted to.
  3. Once your cauliflower has been riced, add a cup of it to a medium saucepan, along with raisins and pecans.
  4. In a measuring cup, mix the the coconut milk, sweet apple cider, salt and spices and add that to the saucepan. Bring to low boil over medium heat and cook until cauliflower is tender and cooking liquid is almost completely absorbed, about 10 minutes or so.
  5. Remove from heat and pour the eggs in a steady stream while whisking constantly so they don't cook and curdle on you. Add flax seed and resume whisking until completely incorporated.
  6. Serve right away, garnished with more coconut milk and a few pieces of nuts.

And right away I made adjustments. I don't like raisins in oatmeal or nuts so I didn't do the pecans either.  I didn't have apple cider so I food processed a quarter of an apple. It wasn't sweet enough so I did the rest of the apple. Still not sweet enough so I pureed a banana -- that helped and added even more to the creaminess and thickening. Then I food processed some pitted dates and then it was very good.


I also made meatballs substituting cauliflower for the breadcrumbs/crackers in a meatloaf-type recipe. Turned out really well, too.

Have a good one



Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Friday, August 26, 2016

Warp speed, helmsman ... that's the weekend ahead.



TGIF. Almost there. And then like magic, it's the weekend.


I don't have many plans for the next couple days. The usual.


Hanging with the boys, laundry, napping, vacuuming, computering. I hope to finish the Gregory book because of the new stuff coming.


Actually, Tuesday the 30th is like Christmas! Along with the two books I mentioned, I also have coming two DVDs being released, last seasons of NCIS: Los Angeles and Arrow. 



That's about it. So have a lovely weekend, folks.



Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Thankgoodness tomorrow is Friday 'cause this is going to take forever


Day 30.


I did it. No sugar, no grains, no dairy, no legumes. I added no caffeine.






It was actually really easy, went by rather quickly, and felt good. You know what?


I'm not going to stop. Aiming for 50 but really?


It's just feeling really natural right now. And I found some great recipes I'd like to try so I won't be so dependent on Paleo on the Go.

Tonight we have Battlebots on TV. I have to get groceries after work. I'm 63% done with the Susanna Gregory which is nice for itself but next week we have new Louise Penney and Charles Todd and the week after that, I believe, is a new JD Robb and Anne Perry. And two weeks after that is a new Karin Slaughter, a Will Trent book at last!

Have a great day!


Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Getting through the week .....


Gah! I keep forgetting I have a Human Design class tonight at 6:30.


Every time I remember, I jump in surprise. Oh yeah, that!

Steve has shooting tonight. I think I'll treat myself to CJ's for dinner.



Otherwise, nothing on TV, I'll probably read for a bit. I'm making good headway in the Susanna Gregory.



See ya! Have a good day!



Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Unnecessary obstacle .... he's got it.


Hmmmm. What to talk about today. I really don't have anything. Last night was uneventful. There is a fire somewhere that is bringing a lot of smoke in the area and driving my eyes crazy.


Walked the dogs. Coda is better, I think, being back on his meds. Work. Not as stressful at the moment. Feed dogs. Feed Steve. Read. Go to bed. Do it all over again.


Or just nothing happening.


So have a great, uneventful day.



Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Monday, August 22, 2016

Monday strikes again


Here we are back again.


I finished reading the Michael Jecks book. I started and finished MURDER IN CHINATOWN by Victoria Thompson. 9th of 19 in series featuring Sarah Brandt, a midwife, and Detective Sergeant Malloy in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City.

Sarah Brandt has made her uneasy way to Chinatown to deliver a baby. There she meets a group of Irish women who, completely alone at Ellis Island, married Chinese men in the same predicament. But even as a new century dawns, New Yorkers still cling to their own kind, scorning children of mixed races.When the new mother's half-Chinese, half-Irish niece goes missing, Sarah knows that alerting the police will accomplish nothing, and seeks the one person she can turn to-Detective Sergeant Malloy.And when the missing girl is found dead in a Chinatown alley, Sarah and Malloy have ample suspects in her murder-from both sides of Canal Street.

Published in 2007, it has 320 pages. 

And, after a long hiatus from it, I got back to MURDER ON HIGH HOLBORN by Susanna Gregory. 9th of 11 in series featuring Thomas Chaloner, intelligencer to the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancelor, during the Restoration in 1660s London.

In 1665 England faces war with the Dutch and the capital is awash with rumors of conspiracy and sedition. These are more frenetic than normal because of the recent sinking in the Thames of one of the largest ships in the navy, a disastrous tragedy that could very well have been caused by sabotage. As an experienced investigator, Thomas Chaloner knows that there are very few grains of truth in the shifting sands of the rumor-mill, but the loss of such an important warship and the murder of Paul Ferine, a Groom of the Robes, in a brothel favored by the elite of the Palace of White Hall makes him scent a whiff of genuine treason. As well as investigating the murder, Chaloner is charged with tracking down the leaders of a fanatical sect known as the Fifth Monarchists. He suspects his masters are not particularly concerned by their amateur antics, and that the order for him to infiltrate the group is intended to distract him from uncovering some unsavory facts about Ferine and his courtly associates. Then, as he comes to know more about the Fifth Monarchists and their meetings on High Holborn, he discovers a puzzling number of connections—to both Ferine's murder and those involved with the defense of the realm. Connections that he must disentangle before it is too late to save the country.
 Published in 2014, it has 448 pages. 

 I'm on Day 27 of food detox.


Back in November, for my birthday Steve gifted me with a sizable gift card from Amazon. I was in the midst of another eating healthy fling and decided to spend it all and then some on a Kitchen Aid mixer and attachments, the food processor and spiralizer. 


I never even got it out of the box because of ... things too numerous to go into. I set it up this weekend and gave it a whirl with (as it happens to be pictured here) a zucchini. So in paleo land, zucckini like this is a noodle replacement and I had it like noodles with butter. It was not bad at all and rather easy to use and clean. I will be using it quite frequently now I have a feeling. We had it walleye I broiled. Steve had his fish with a Parmesan coating and I had mine plain. It was nummy!


Otherwise, I did the usual chores and napped and so forth. I wanted to accomplish more but I will be happy with what I did get done.

Have a good day!



Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster