Daily Archives: November 10, 2013

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Weekend Cooking

wkendcookingThe is a meme hosted by BethFishReads found here.

I spent most of this weekend fighting off some stupid cold, ugh.  In between, I did manage to fit in a visit to Soonja’s, a local Korean restaurant where I had amazing Gobdol bibimbap, which is a Korean rice, veggie, and in my case chicken dish served sizzling in a stone bowl.   The high heat means that when you douse it with some soy sauce it caramelizes with the rice and is just amazing. Excellent restaurant to visit if you are ever in the Princeton, New Jersey area.  They also make amazing sushi.

I did spend a few minutes and threw together a chocolate rum cake with a recipe from Trisha Ashley found here.  It was super easy to throw together, baked beautifully but was just okay as far as rum cakes go.  I like that moist, dense effect for a rum cake and this was just more like a regular bundt cake.  It did make a nice treat with coffee for breakfast though.

Tonight, I’m just making a tray of roasted root veg and a stuffed pork loin. I cannot get enough of root vegetables this time of year.  Super easy to make, just cut them into uniform sizes, toss with olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper and some rosemary and roast in a hot oven until done.  I just butterflied the pork loin with a mixed dried fruit stuffing and then roasted for about an hour and a half. Pretty low key, quick dinner.

The benefit of all this roasting was the house warmed up nicely:)

In other foodie type news, I am going to a demonstration tomorrow night at Williams-Sonoma for deep frying Turkey.  I don’t think it is something I would do, but it will be interesting to see.  I am picturing a result that requires fire trucks, but I hope not!

 

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Sunday in Bed with… Ellery Adams Pies and Prejudice

d0728-sundaysinbedwithsmall A meme hosted by Midnight Book Girl found here.

I have had Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams on my cozy TBR list for quite a while.  I found a copy at my local independent book shop, Booktrader of Hamilton.

I really liked this book!  I read a lot of cozies and I will say many fall into the very light, fun read category.  This is fun and it is certainly cozy, no blood or gore here, but the writing has much more depth to it than the average cozy.  The use of metaphors and just the nature of the descriptive language goes far beyond the average cozy.  Excellent writing.  The main character, Ella Mae, is strong and independent as are the rest of her a family, a group of strong southern women.  The setting is well defined and enchanting. The mystery plot develops at a nice pace, not rushed but also it doesn’t drag.  The magical element is not overwhelming, just a touch a magic :), which is how I prefer it.

After reading this, I will definitely continue with this series and I will also read the other series by Ellery Adams, Books by the Bay.