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Who I Am with You, by Robin Lee Hatcher, 2018, Thomas Nelson (Harper Collins Christian Publishing)

WIN_20190608_13_10_11_ProA romance novel with a main character who is pregnant when she meets and falls in love with her new neighbour.  Set in rural America, this story is actually two alternating stories.  The main character has inherited her grandfather’s Bible from the 1930s, so the sub-plot is from his life. As she reads parts of his Bible that he has underlined and made notes on, she is guided into wisdom and values for her own life.

Themes in the novel include hope, faith and love.  Also stepping out  to reach for what you really want, in spite of fears and cautions.

In these themes it is is similar to the manuscript that I have been working on.  My novel also begins with a pregnant young woman, and is a romance with the themes of hope, faith and love, and the courage to step out and follow your heart.

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The Chance, by Karen Kingsbury, 2013, Howard Books (Simon & Schuster)

Have you read any of Karen Kingsbury’s books? They are published under the category of FICTION/Christian Romance. I ran into a list of her novels while researching publishers for the novel I have been working on. Then I found several of her books in our church library. I took out this one because it seemed to be the most similar to my own book.

The Chance refers to a chance that two childhood friends create for themselves to meet together on a certain date later in life. Their young friendship is suddenly ripped apart by the protagonist’s father moving her far away from her hometown. She loses touch with her best friend and also her mother, and ultimately with God. Her father’s military outlook on life and faith and obedience, while seemingly serving him well in his career, are counterproductive when it comes to his own family. The young girl, longing for some love in her life, falls for the wrong person and finds herself a single mom at the age of 19. While she succeeds in her own strength to make a way for herself and her daughter, deep in her heart she longs for her old friend and her mother. Her daughter comes into a childhood faith and begins to pray for her mother. One thing leads to another, and eventually relationships are restored and forgiveness takes place.

Similar themes in my own novel are around family issues and teenage pregnancy, as well as the power of prayer, plus the happiness and joy that can be found in spite of mistakes and failures, in fact even as a direct result of those mistakes and failures! All is not lost after all, despite how one may feel for a period of time.

A novel of hope, faith, forgiveness and love, dealing with out-of-wedlock pregnancy, anger, lost relationships and restoration.
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The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, 2003, Anchor Canada (Random House Canada)

A gripping historical fiction novel, revealing the history of Afghanistan from 1975, before the Shah was overthrown until 2002. The protagonist starts out as a young boy in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1975. His father, a wealthy and generous entrepreneur, is able to bless many others. They live in a lovely home with a garden large enough to also contain a small shack which houses their servant and his son, who are Pashtuns and Sunni Muslims. The Pashtun people are typically servants to the Hazara, Shi’a Muslims, considered a lower class, and openly discriminated against. In this case, however, there is a close personal tie between these two fathers and sons. It is not until near the end of the almost 400 page novel that the true nature of their relationship is revealed.

Kite running was an annual competition in Kabul in which young boys made and flew kites held by glazed strings. Competitors would cut down others’ kites with these glazed strings over the course of several hours until finally only one was left flying. Kite runners would run after that kite and whoever retrieved it where it came down would take it home and mount it on their wall. Sounds like an innocent game but it reveals the evil natures of some and the extreme faithfulness of the servant/friend of the protagonist.

Through this competition and other, increasingly more adult and horrific events over the years, the author skillfully brings out themes of human relationships and connections and human nature, including jealousy, power struggles, kindness, deep regret, redemption, and relationships with God. The changing political powers in Afghanistan cause living conditions for all to progressively worsen as evil and fear grips the country.

Ending up in America, the protagonist and his father are reduced to poverty, but by persistent hard work together they make their way. Life is not easy and America is not heaven. There is poverty of spirit until truth, regret, and life-threatening cleansing redemption occur.

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The Girl They Left Behind, by Roxanne Veletzos, 2018, Atria (Simon & Schuster)

So many striking personal histories have come out of World War II! This one, though fictional, is based on the young life of the author’s mother, and includes a few photos and a short account of her real story at the end of the novel.

The author grew up in Bucharest, Romania, where most of the story is based. The story begins in 1941 when the protagonist is not quite 4 years old. Jews are being rounded up and sent to death camps. Her parents make a run for it, but decide that in order for all three of them not to be caught and killed they will have to leave her somewhere with the hopes that kind people will take her in.

This does happen, and the author takes us through the ensuing growing-up years of the child’s life, happy and sad and scary, and the changing times Bucharest goes through politically and culturally.

The reader gains insight into the realities of things that went on and ways that the war affected individuals. Throughout the story hope is prevalent and the author spares us from the most horrific depths of what humanity sank to in this war, yet alluding to some of the possible outcomes had her characters not been spared the fate of many.

Prayer, faith, and acts of compassion and bravery by individuals from several factions are what worked together to save this young girl time and again.

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Aged Nut-based Cheese, recipe and photos contributed by Monica Sturgess

Supplies:
  • high-speed blender
  • measuring cups and spoons
  • small glass bowl
  • cuisine mold rings: 4″ for camembert or brie, 3″ for bleu
  • plastic container with lid to hold the cheese
  • oven paper
  • bamboo or plastic mat with holes cut to fit plastic container (to aerate the cheese)
  • fridge
  • paper towels
Ingredients:
  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
  • 1 inch square of rind from cheese (brie or camembert etc.) or some mold from bleu
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1.5 teaspoons salt (to add 3 days later)
Starting the Cheese:
  1. First soak the cashews overnight or for at least 5 hours.
  2. Then drain and cover with boiling water for a minute or two to kill bacteria and drain again.
  3. Blend cashews with water, coconut oil and cheese rind or mold on high speed, scraping down the sides until mixture is smooth and thick. You may need to add a bit more water, watch not too much. This could take up to 10 minutes to get the right consistency.
  4. Transfer mix to glass bowl. Cover with cling film. Let sit at room temperature for one day to start fermentation.
  5. Refrigerate for about 4 hours to chill.
  6. Wrap mold ring with cling film so that the cheese mixture will not touch the ring itself. Place ring on top of bamboo or plastic mat, covered in oven paper. Press cashew mix into the mold using a spoon or piece of cling film. Cashew cheese mixture should be touched as little as possible.
  7. Place the mold holding the cheese on the mat and oven paper into the plastic container with lid and refrigerate at 52-56 degrees F or 11-13 degrees C. A wine fridge is ideal. A regular fridge is cooler, so takes longer to age.
Aging the Cheese:
  1. For the first few days wipe off any condensation from the inside of the box. On day 3 carefully remove the mold and sprinkle the salt on top, bottom and sides of cheese and change the oven paper.
  2. After that continue to wipe off condensation from box and flip the cheese every day to allow for maximum aeration. Mold should begin to form after 5-7 days. Try not to touch the cheese with your hands.
  3. Camembert and Brie type cheeses should be ready after about 3 weeks and will keep for a month in the fridge.
  4. For Bleu cheese, follow steps 1 & 2 above to start. After 2 weeks scramble the cheese and reform it in the mold. Then remove the mold and continue as in step 2 for 3 more weeks. Bleu cheese keeps for 2 months in the fridge.
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Beacon Drive-in

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Beacon Drive-in

An old-fashioned take-out restaurant situated across the road from Beacon Hill Park, we must go here for a milkshake whenever we visit Victoria!  The food and shakes are home-made style, with the tastiest of flavours!

Order your food at one window and pick it up at the other window and take it to a table on the patio.  Enjoy the sun, sheltered from cool breezes by a plexiglass wall.  If your dog is with you just sit at one of the tables on the other side of the plexiglass.  For drizzly days there is an awning that comes out over a heater above.

The menu includes such traditional Canadian staples as fish and chips, hot dogs, corn dogs, and all varieties of burgers.  I am told they have the best hamburgers in town!

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Blender Orange Loaf

Easy to make on a day when you are in a bit of a hurry, blender orange loaf doesn’t require mixing bowls and ‘elbow grease’ as my mother used to call it.

I have 2 recipes that can be made in a blender, the one turning out more like a Christmas fruit cake with a firm texture, and the other one is moister but a bit crumbly.  For flavour, colour, and moist texture that doesn’t crumble so easily I prefer the traditional recipe, but these are also very good!

Fruitcake-style Blender Orange Loaf

Put in blender:

  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup cooking oil
  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • 1 cup sugar

Blend until well mixed.

20190406_112925Add 1 cup flour and blend in.  Add a second cup of flour and pour in on top of it 1/2 teaspoon each of baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stirring them into the flour with a fork before blending.

 

Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender.  Lastly add 1 cup cranberries and 1 cup walnuts and pulse just until mixed in and chopped a little.  You can also use other fruits of your choice.  Pictured here I omitted the nuts and used dried currants in place of cranberries. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out dry.

 

Moist Blender Orange Loaf

This loaf turns out moister but a little crumblier than the one above.  First add to the blender:

  • 3/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup cooking oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest
  • 20190323_152655.jpgBlend until mixed well.  Add 3/4 cup sugar and blend in.  Add 1 1/2 cups oatmeal or whole wheat flour and blend in.  If you use the oatmeal the texture and flavour turns out a bit like coconut. Pour 1 1/2 cups white flour on top and stir 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt into it before blending.

Lastly add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or cranberries or dried currants and pulse briefly until mixed in.  Pour into loaf pan and sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes or until toothpick tests dry.

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Green Bean Soup with Ham Hock

The flavour of fresh green beans and herbs combined with smoked ham is superb!

20190329_174608                      This is old-fashioned home cooking at its finest, which takes time, so it’s a project for a day when you’ll be at home for a couple of hours.  It makes lots though, so pair it with crusty rolls for a light family meal when the kids are home or freeze some of it in quarts for another day.  It’s hearty and filling and you’ll definitely want a second helping!

Recipe:

Put the pork hock in a large soup pot with 2 quarts water.  Heat to boiling, then simmer for 1 1/2 hours.  Remove pork hock and allow to cool.

Meanwhile add to the broth:

  • 2 chopped medium-sized onions
  • 4 cups cut-up green beans
  • 3 cups cubed yellow-flesh potatoes
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley (cilantro really sparks up the flavour)
  • 4 sprigs chopped fresh summer savory or 1 teaspoon dried savory (or marjoram or thyme if you don’t have savory)
  • dash of pepper

Added salt is not necessary as the pork hock is already salty and the herbs, beans and pepper make the soup very flavourful.

Cut the meat off the bone in bite-size pieces and return it into the soup.  Cook for 20 more minutes or until the vegetables are done.

When serving pour a little table cream into the soup in your bowl.  Enjoy!

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Jake’s Pub, Cowichan Lake

Next to pretty Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island in Canada, this classy pub is a great place for a good substantial meal and a refreshing drink.  My husband and I went there for a sunny afternoon drive about an hour south of our hometown of Nanaimo.20190320_154047.jpg20190320_160143.jpgStarting with battered and seared shrimp as an appy, we then shared a smoked salmon wrap. 20190320_162033.jpg20190320_162757.jpgThe wrap came with our choice of a side, so we took the asian coleslaw.  I had a glass of Merridale cider on tap and we also had fresh pure ice water, so refreshing!

My favourite item was the pan-seared shrimp with aioli dipping sauce.  Sid found the sauce too hot.  His favourite was the crunchy asian coleslaw.

The wrap was okay, but had a rather doughy texture, as the salmon was as raw as sushi and the goat cheese turned out to be cream cheese.  It also contained yams which added an interesting touch to the flavour but were soft-textured too, and then there was the large doughy whole wheat tortilla wrapped around it all.

It was lovely sitting out on the covered deck overlooking the lake and listening to the 60s music.20190320_162105.jpg

The service was good, and the bill came to about $35 Canadian.

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Dining Reviews

We are not extravagant diners but we do enjoy eating out from time to time.  It’s fun to try new places to go for lunch or dinner or a drink and snack.  On this page I will write reviews of places we try.

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Orange Cranberry Loaf

A zesty slice to go with your coffee!  Mmm, yum-yum!

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Ingredients:

  • 2 organic oranges
  • 1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 2 teaspoons stevia (or sugar)

Method:

Set oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Beat butter, sugar and eggs in a large bowl.  Grate rind of one orange into the bowl and stir.  Squeeze the juice from that orange into a half cup measuring cup and add water to fill the measuring cup.  Add that into the batter as well and mix.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt and dried berries.   Add to the other bowl and stir just until moistened.  Turn into the loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes, testing with a toothpick to see if it’s done inside.

Meanwhile squeeze the juice out of the second orange and stir the stevia into it.  Poke holes it the top of the loaf while hot and pour this glaze over.  It soaks into the loaf and makes it moist and delicious!  Let the loaf cool at least 10 minutes before removing from pan.

This loaf can be wrapped in wax paper and stored in the fridge.  Great to make ahead of time when expecting houseguests!  Using stevia in the glaze keeps down the calories!

 

 

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SISTERCHICKS Down Under, by Robin Jones Gunn,2005, Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

This light (235 p.) read takes the protagonist on a life-changing trip from California which is her home to New Zealand and Australia and back.  What makes it life-changing is not so much the places themselves but, as she puts it, “It’s the people, it’s the people, it’s the people.”

Not many books I’ve read are in first person, but this one is.  The effect seemed to make me wonder whether I could actually identify with her or not.  She is a light-hearted and compassionate middle-aged woman.  She has accompanied her husband who is working on a project in New Zealand, and initially she feels very bored until she meets another woman who is a widow and they have all kinds of fun together.

They inspire and teach and encourage each other, the whole while letting loose like a couple of kids and lightening up life for themselves and others.  It is an ideal healthy friendship of the type I do enjoy with several of my own female friends.

I also enjoyed learning bits about New Zealand and Australia.  Maybe I’ll get to go there someday too!

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Silk, by Linda Chaikin, Bethany House Publishers, 1993

Set in the late 1700s, this novel centres around a teenage girl named Coral, of English descent who was born in India.  Her parents own a large silk plantation and export the silk to other countries including their homeland where the silk is made into beautiful fashions.

The story is full of intriguing characters and plots, starting with a young Indian woman from a low caste who converts to Christianity but dies during childbirth.  Coral, with her parents’ permission, adopts the baby.  She is warned against the adoption by Jace, a young soldier who knew the baby’s father.  The baby’s father is mysteriously killed either by insurgents or possibly by his own relatives as an honour killing.  Later the young boy is kidnapped and seems to have been killed, but Coral receives secret information that he may actually be alive.  She is determined to find out.

Jace buys a ship and sails to China and Spain and England.  Coral goes to England where she lives with her grandmother for a few years.  She becomes friends with some Christian dissenters who have broken off from the very traditional Anglican church.  They are the rebels of the day, writing and singing hymns together as a congregation, which the traditional church frowned on.

I enjoyed learning about life and expectations in that era and in those countries.  This is book one in a series.  My curiosity is piqued as to what will happen next.  Will Coral find her adopted son?  Will the mysteries concerning several of the characters be solved?  Will Coral and her mother be healed of the tropical fever that they suffer from?  Although the book is complete on its own, I hope I someday find a copy of book two.

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Roasted Roots

Roasted RootsHere in our cold Canadian winters roasted root vegetables are part of a hearty locally-grown meal to provide warmth and lasting energy to body and soul.  Shown here along with some Mennonite farmer sausage and frozen green peas are my roasted potatoes and a medley of roasted turnip, carrot and apple.  A bit of herbs and spice makes it nice, and adds extra nutritional benefits as well!  Smells so yummy too!

Root and Apple Medley

  • 1/2 small turnip
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 apple
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • dashes of allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon

Chop roots and apple into small pieces.  Stir brown sugar and spices into melted butter in an oven-proof bowl and add roots and apple, stirring to coat.  Roast at 400 degrees F. for 40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes.

Tasty Roasted Taters

  •  One large Russet potatoe
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • spicy pepper medley to taste

Peel and cut potatoe into cubes.  Mix olive oil, lemon juice and spicy pepper medley in bottom of a bowl and put the potatoe cubes in, stirring to coat.  Then lay out the coated potatoe cubes on a baking tray and roast at 400 degrees F. for 40 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.

The ‘spicy pepper medley’ I have contains black pepper, onion, red bell peppers and garlic.  I shook in lots of it, but you could use other herbs or spices too, as you like.

The spices and herbs in these recipes make them aromatic and flavourful without the use of salt, which you may be avoiding if you have high blood pressure.

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Sid’s Crepes

My husband loves to make (and eat!) these crepes.  He can eat lots of them but I have to limit myself to a few as they are more filling than they seem!  The batter can be mixed the night before so all you have to do in the morning is pour it.  They are very nice, and low carb too, however high fat content because of the cream.  Some experts these days say that’s good.  We heard a local Nanaimo chiropracter, Dr. Stefani, give a talk recently on Health Over 55, and he recommended eating lots of fat and doing lots of excercise.  They seemed to give Sid the energy he needed for shoveling the driveway today anyway!

Ingredients:

  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup 18% cream
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • jam or other filling

Method:

Preheat a non-stick frying pan to medium-low.

Whisk the eggs and then gradually add in the cream and flour alternately while continuing to whisk.  Whisk in the melted butter and vanilla.

Pour one crepe at a time onto the frying pan and flip it when the bottom is done.

Spread with your favourite jam or other filling.  Cinnamon & sugar is also nice, or fresh strawberries, or whatever you might like to try.

Mmm, so nice for a special treat!  They go down easy, but make you feel full for hours! Pictured is my share; Sid eats twice as many!