Hot Bunny Buns
Plus a short book review of Lovers at the Museum by Isabel Allende
There comes a time that your children have grown up and left the house. As an empty-nester parent, you then make up reasons to see your children. Such was this weekend. We don’t celebrate Easter, maybe other than buying some chocolate bunnies, but I decided to host an Easter dinner party (to see the family) to take food photos for my website.
Well. I had a dinner party, and I saw people. But the entire day was one Murphy’s accident after another. I sometimes wonder if other people experience said events like I do, or am I the lucky one that gets a day full of (relatively minor) issues?
The power went out on Saturday morning around 2:00, and it did not come back on until 11:00. If you’ve hosted a dinner party before, you would know that you need lots of time to prepare the food. More time than you think you will need. Take however long you think you need and then double it. That’s how much time you need. Maybe even triple.
The day before (Friday), I decided not to go food shopping. That was a big Whoops!!! It wouldn’t have been bad, except the power went out. Why not go food shopping while the power was out, do you ask? Well, the side effect of living in the middle of farmlands is … you don’t know if your power will come back on. We were debating having to cancel, folks.
Because we were behind, we never got to dye Easter eggs.
The Husband and I read online that you need about 10 to 15 minutes per pound for ham, which I dislike but it’s Easter so I served it anyway. Well, that article must have been AI-spewed sh*t because that’s nowhere close to what we needed. So everyone arrived around 5:00, and the ham wasn’t done until closer to 6:30. Whoops!!!
Speaking of arrivals, my sister-in-law requested mashed potatoes, but then she wasn’t there. I think we’ll forgive her. Since her grandson was born that night. Haha! We have lots of leftover mashed potatoes, which make great mashed potato pancakes. Just sayin’ …
But the other potato side that I made, my absolutely terrible for you potato salad, ran out. It’s absolutely terrible for you, so of course, everyone likes it.
I made these gorgeous hot cross buns, but the timer on my microwave is so soft that I cannot hear it. So I didn’t hear it. And then forgot about the hot cross buns. For forty minutes. Whoops!!!
I also made some pina colada cupcakes, but then air fried the coconut flakes … too long. They were smokin’ coconuts. And then learned after-the-fact that one brother-in-law disliked coconut. Whoops!!!
The peas turned out okay. They were from a can, and I microwaved them. Everyone enjoyed them.
Because we were behind, I never got to take any photos! Everyone was hungry by the time dinner was served, we ate all the food. Haha! Joke’s on me!!!
The moral of this story is to cancel a dinner party if you lose power before you are supposed to cook.
The Promos
This newsletter, I have three promos for you to enjoy!
The Book of Turns by Edita A. Petrick.
From the Amazon page:
For two-years now, reports have been hitting media of increasingly strange events. Rivers altered courses. Campsites shifted locations. Limbs lost in war re-attached themselves to war veterans’ bodies. Tabloids thrive on such headlines. The problem is, that the headlines aren’t coming from the tabloids. They’re from the regular press. […]
Vernon Saunders is en route to Europe, tracking down vacationing Carter and Stella. Their long-planned holiday is going to be cut short—no arguments. Because suddenly it is very clear to those who run the country just what’s at stake, and that the fantasy game everyone indulged for two years, can turn deadly at any moment.
The Edge by Jim McGhee. I think this is a sample. It’s free for anyone who signs up to the author’s mailing list!
From the promo page:
DI Barney Mains blames himself for the grotesque murder of a top banker in France. […] And when a duplicate murder is reported 1000 miles away in Barney’s home town in Scotland, the guilt drives him ever closer to the edge. […] But then death comes closer to home. He is left with no choice but to face his demons, before a shocking confrontation which will change everything...
Hash Browns and Homicide by Kate McSpade. This one is also free for signing up to the author’s mailing list!
From the promo page:
Piper Sandstone, a newly promoted detective on the Chicago police force, is dressed to kill. […] And bad things are about to go down. When three dirty cops are suspected of a crime, Piper finds herself going undercover to get intel to put them behind bars. [… This is] the prequel to the Savory Mystery Series, is a fun cozy mystery that will keep you turning pages late into the night as Piper races to prove herself and outsmart the bad guys. Includes Recipes!
A Short Book Review of “Lovers at the Museum” by Isabel Allende
2/5 stars.
I received this book free from Amazon Prime First Reads as a bonus short story. I’ve been continually disappointed with the First Reads books. For those of you who are not aware, these books are Amazon’s imprinted books. You get an agent (as you normally would for books that are not self-published), and your agent sells your book to one of Amazon’s many different publishing names.
To be eligible for the First Reads, I think (but I don’t know) that you likely need to either (a) be already a NYT bestseller; or (b) published a ton of books on Amazon with a good track record. You do get a book for free, and, every once in a while, the book is good. So I’m not knocking any First Reads book. Just like every other book, some stink and some are good. Personally, I’d be thrilled to be a First Reads author.
This book goes into the former (the stink). I guess I’m just not the ideal reader for a magical realism genre because it made little-to-no sense to me. Basically we have two people who met, then f’ed like hot bunnies all over the museum. The story has two redeeming qualities: (1) it is short; and (2) some of the sentences are very nicely written. My bottom line here is that the author basically wanted to write her own fantasy, and I’m not talking the fantasy genre here.
Happenings
I’m debating about sending out a once-per-month newsletter, so let me know how feel about this. I’m currently in the throws of writing A Travesty of Justice, about attorney Emily Dell. Which has taken lots of time (less time to write newsletters). Also, the website has become a beastly beast.
For those interested only in a very short weekly post announcing new recipes, I have a medium newsletter. Sometimes it’s a bit more sporadic than weekly, but it definitely comes out more frequently than this newsletter.
Here are the recipes that I cooked for my hot bunny buns dinner party. :)
Carrot Cake (which turned out fine, although I did smoosh it a bit)
Peas (but not carrots)
Mashed Potatoes
My Terrible For You Potato Salad
What I didn’t get to:
Colored Easter Eggs
Have a wonderful Easter, everyone!!! I hope your Easter dinner goes without any hitch (or power outage).
Also, I will leave you with a picture of my little bunny buns.
