Chicken-Peanut Soup

by Carol8 Comments
Chicken-Peanut Soup I found this recipe at Rachael Ray's site. I was a little nervous. To be honest I didn't think Amber (11) would like it. She eats soup, but pretty much just the standards - chicken noodle, tomato, potato and that's about it. I was surprised though. She actually ate some of it. The recipe makes four servings, so David took the leftovers to work the next day. Ingredients: One 32-ounce container chicken broth 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound) 2 red potatoes with skin, cut into small cubes 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 1 red or green chile, with seeds, finely chopped (I actually took the seeds out. I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy.) ½ green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped ½ cup chunky peanut butter (I used creamy because it's what we had and, while I like peanut butter, I'm not actually a...
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Meet the Quagga

by Carol12 Comments
One benefit of reading, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, is learning new things. This week I learned about an extinct animal, the quagga. Amber picked up a bunch of animal books at the library last week, one of which was The Quagga by Tamara Green, part of the Extinct Species Collection. I had never heard of this subspecies of zebra before, but apparently it lived in the grasslands of  southern Africa up until the late 1870s. I learned a lot from the book and from doing some quick research on-line. The quagga had stripes like a zebra on it's head and neck, but a little way down it's back, the stripes fade into a solid brown color. It was an herbivore, horselike in many ways, with slim hooved legs and good hearing. Quaggas could be trained and were used by farmers as guard dogs to protect their livestock. They were brought to England in the 1820s, where they were taught to...
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Friday’s Tale: The Gingerbread Man

by Carol14 Comments
"The Gingerbread Man" "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man." That's the phrase I associate with the story of the gingerbread man, but it wasn't even in the version I read for today's post. This version comes from the St. Nicholas Magazine, May 1875 and is one of the earliest known printed versions of the story. The story begins with an old man and an old woman who desperately want a child, as often happens in fairytales. (Thumbling, Momotaro) One day the woman was baking gingerbread and she cut one into the shape of a boy. As soon as she opened the oven door to see if it was baked, the Gingerbread Boy jumped out and ran away. The old couple couldn't catch him. We follow the Gingerbread Boy as he outruns farm workers, a cow and a pig, but then he meets a fox. I've run away from a little old woman, A little...
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The Dragon’s Eye by Dugald A. Steer

by Carol4 Comments
The Dragon's Eye by Dugald A. Steer, illustrated by Douglas Carrel (Suggested reading level: Grades 4-6) Amber (11) and I read this together over several evenings. Before I talk about the book itself, I need to give you a little background. Amber loves the Ology books, especially Dragonology, which is what the novel is based on, and she loves dragons. She has the Dragonology book, the field guide, two Dragonology games, a stuffed Frost Dragons. She is the target audience for this book. Twelve-year-old Daniel Cook and his sister Beatrice are sent by their absentee parents to spend the summer with Dr. Ernest Drake. Dr. Drake, it turns out, is a member of the Secret and Ancient Society of Dragonologists, along with the Cooks parents, and the premier dragonologist in England. The siblings are to spend their time with him learning about dragons. The summer starts out well, but soon the arrival of the evil dragonologist Ignatius Crook interrupts the plans and Dr....
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Winner!

by Carol4 Comments
Congratulations! Congratulations to the winner of a book of her choice (up to $25) from The Book Depository. Miss Bookiverse I've already e-mailed you. Just get back to me with you choice and I'll order for you. Thanks for all the entries! I'm planning on running the same giveaway for the Lucky Leprechaun Event which will run next month, March 17-20. In the meantime, for those of you in the US and Canada, there's still a few days to enter my giveaway for Cynthia Eden's books, Deadly Heat and Deadly Lies....
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The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

by Carol9 Comments
The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor "More ghosts," Elinor said. "It seems that we constantly manufacture them. We are factories of ghosts." (pg. 438, ARC) Jerusalem College in Cambridge in 1786 is full of secrets, privileges, abuses, power struggles, illicit sex. And a ghost. Sylvia Whichcote, who drowned in the garden pond, is said to haunt the garden and was seen by young Frank Olderhaw. Frank was subsequently committed to a home for the mentally unstable, but his mother wants him cured and returned to London. To this end, she hires John Holdsworth, a bookseller and widower who has fallen into financial ruin. John has written a book, The Anatomy of Ghosts, that explains his disbelief in ghosts, and so Lady Anne believes he is perfect for the task. When he arrives in Cambridge, Holdsworth realizes that to help Frank he must solve the mystery of Sylvia's death. In the process, he is drawn deeper in the Cambridge community, and encounters...
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