Apple Crunch Bread

Since the last recipe I posted got a pretty good feedback I figured I'd put another one up here. This one I found on allrecipes.com. It's a pretty cool site. If you don't have enough ingredients to make the full recipe you can type in how much you want to make based on what you have and it will calculate the new amounts for you. I made a recipe for eight serving which makes one loaf of bread.(Although, I think it was supposed to make two and I just ate too much batter! It was delicious!)

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

1 1/2 cup chopped and peeled apples

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees and grease your loaf pan.

2.  Mix flour, baking soda, salt, walnuts, and apples in a large bowl. Whisk oil, sugar, eggs, and cinnamon together in a small bowl; add to flour mixture and mix until just moistened. Evenly divide mixture between prepared loaf pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 90 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Bethany House Review #3

 Love and mystery in the Colorado Mountains. This is the backdrop of Kristen Heitzmann's novel The Breath of Dawn. Quinn Reilly testified against a religious cult leader and landed him a four year sentence in prison. She has taken on an anonymous existence as a transient e-bay dealer and has made herself a new home in a small mountain town in Colorado. There she meets Morgan Spencer a genius business millionaire who is also running from a past with his small daughter. The two of them start off on a business deal but soon become more acquainted as they clear out the remains of an old mental asylum. As their relationship grows Quinn finds out the man she helped to put in prison four years earlier is out and he wants revenge.

I could not put this book down and was literally up until six in the morning so I could finish the entire book in a day. From Morgan and Quinn's whirlwind relationship to the religious sociopath and the haunted asylum there was more than enough plot to keep me entirely intrigued for the entire novel. Once again, Bethany House, thank you for sending me yet another wonderful free novel from your collection!

Cinnamon Bread Pudding

I know the majority of the books I post about are novels or fiction but I got this new cookbook for Christmas from my boyfriend's mom and I've just started some of the recipes. (I think this was possibly her way of telling me to become more domestic ;-) ) The book itself was somewhat of a surprise, The Joy of Vegan Baking the Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets compiled by Colleen Patrick-Gourdeau.I am a vegetarian so I guess the word "vegan" caught her eye and she thought of me. However, I have always thought vegan recipes were a little over the top. I mean no milk or eggs? But then I realized I can substitute some of the vegan stuff with my "normal" ingredients. So, here's one of my favorites so far:

Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
6 slices of day old bread
2 Tbs of butter
1/2 cup of raisins (optional)
1 ripe banana
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
1.4 cup of packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Break bread into small pieces and add into a 9 inch pan
3. Drizzle the melted butter over the bread and sprinkle the raisins
4. In medium sized bowl mash the banana and add the milk, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed
5. Pour over the bread and lightly push down with fork until the bread is covered and soaked up the mixture
6. Bake for 45 minutes or until the bread is very tender

Soo simple and delicious!! Happy baking :)

New Blog to check out.

I also just wanted to share a new blog a friend of mine just started. She's looking for new ideas for entries. So, just click below and connect with her!

Peace,Love, and Dogs

 

Extremely Long and Incredibly Slow

For my local book club we read Jonathon Safron Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. At the next meeting we then watched the movie. Obviously, from my entry's title I was not at all impressed by the book or the movie. It took me almost three months to finally finish the book and it was all I could to stay awake during the movie. I finally had to pull my phone out and check out my E-mail just to keep my eyes open! I am not at all sure what the raving about the book or the movie was about. I suppose a boy's multi-year journey throughout New York City to reconnect with the memory of his father, lost in 9/11 could have been a touching story if it had any type of plot to follow. Other than his search there was zero plot, barely any dialogue and a whole lot of misfitting anecdotes and disconnected thoughts. Any Psyche major would love to read this book but that's the best critique I can give. Sorry, Mr. Foer.

Bethany House Publishing Review #2 Against the Tide

I have received yet another free copy of a breathtaking and suspenseful novel from Bethany House Publishing. 

Against the Tide by Elizabeth Camden had a somewhat slow start. However, in taking the time to describe the main character's history and personality the author created a very sympathetic character whom you want to succeed against any odds. Lydia grows up to be a very hard working and moral filled woman who has put her whole life into building a secure livelihood and creating a safe haven in a home for herself. Any young woman trying to carve out a niche for herself in this world would root for Miss Lydia Pallas as she becomes entrenched in the world of opium deals and kidnapping scandals. She puts herself in grave danger to go to war against against the valueless underworld of the black market of early 20th century Boston.

The love interest, a mysterious man nicknamed "Bane" must also overcome his own demons in his history with this world underground drug deals. Through a budding relation with Miss Lydia Pallas he learns he can find forgiveness for his sins and also earn the right to love.

 This was a very compelling albeit slow starting novel. Once I got into the story and learned about the characters I did not want to put the book down until I finished the last page.

Bethany House Review - Unending Devotion

This is my first official review for Bethany House Publishing. They sent me my free copy of Unending Devotion and I have put my review on here. My reviews can also be found on Amazon. 

Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund is the story of a young girl acting as the apprentice to an elderly photographer who travels throughout the lumber camps of 1880s Michigan. She is looking for her estranged sister who ran off to a depraved life of saloon girls and gambling in the northern backwoods. This book is a fictional portrayal of true life events of the hundreds of girls that were lured and trapped into prostitution and the good people who fought to save their lives.

From the very beginning I could not put the book down the main character, Lily was a very sympathetic picture that the reader just has to root for. The picture the author painted of the poor pathetic girls Lily risks her life to save draws sympathy from any reader. In addition, the modest love story added just the right amount of romance to not detract from the moral undertone of the story. I definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for an enthralling historical fiction novel.

You can also watch the book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OssvMSaSeQ4&list=UUOTCh77FT1ZAyg-Mrj97HWw&index=1&feature=plcp