Month: March 2011

Shanghai Girls & Friday Night Knitting Club

Post author By Suz
Post date March 31, 2011
1 Comment on Shanghai Girls & Friday Night Knitting Club

I finished these two books over a month ago. This post has been pending in “edit posts” since 3/9. So I guess that might clue you in to my thoughts on these. While I enjoyed both, I haven’t felt pulled to rush online to tell y’all!

Shanghai Girls by was our March book club book. It was a little slow for me to get into but once I set down to read it my I’ll-only-read-for-10-minutes-before-bed plea to Jason easily turned into 45 minutes flying by as I got all into their story growing up as Beautiful Girls in China. Once they venture to America {not giving away spoilers, its on the cover}, it slowed down for me as I kept waiting for great things to happen, especially to the main character Pearl. It was still interesting as I don’t know that much about the NW during that time for Chinese Americans. And just as I thought it was getting to a great, exciting, page-turning part, the book ended. Is there a part two on the way? No clue, but Shanghai Girls definitely left me wanting more.

As for Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jones…this book has been in my TBR pile for a while. I’d received it from paperbackswap at some point last year. After seeing some of my favorite bloggers knitting this year, I picked up this book. It was a quick read in a chic lit don’t have to really think a lot kind of way. That is a compliment from me. I read occasionally to make me think or see something differently. But usually I prefer reading as a fun, light escape from the daily routine. This book did just that.
While it did inspire me to take up knitting {well at least to look at the section in Michael’s before getting overwhelmed}, what the book really left me with was the thankful happiness that I have awesome, caring women in my life much like the ladies of the Friday Night Knitting Club. My college sorority sisters, my local Chi O alum ladies, my own book club women & more recently the great friendships that have taken off through blogging & twitter.

I’m currently dragging my way through Never Let Me Go slowly. I’ll do a review of it once I {hopefully} finish and after the book club’s discussion next week.

What I’m excited to read next: Matt Logelin & Ree Drummond’s new books are on their way to me from Amazon!

Tags books

Everything Else Food

Beano’s Sauces Review

A couple of weeks ago, I got in contact with Cara from Beano’s Brand on twitter then emails. She kindly let me pick out three of their sauces to try. Y’all I had a tough time choosing. Check out all they offer & see what you’d pick . I ended up getting Buffalo Sandwich Sauce, Southwest Sandwich Sauce & Original Submarine Dressing.

I plan to spice-up frozen chicken tenders, make Buffalo chicken sandwiches with the Buffalo sauce, or even using this Beano’s recipe for Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas. But I haven’t done any of those yet. I promise I’ll update with photos of those when we enjoy them.

The Southwest Sauce grabbed me first. We love spicy in our house {if you couldn’t already tell by other recipes I’ve posted & the Beano’s sauces I chose}. Although their website offers recipe suggestions, it was Sunday night & I was feeling spicy but lazy {anyone recognize that blue box in the background?}. So I chose to marinate our basic boneless skinless chicken breast in the Southwest sauce for around 30 minutes then top with a little more sauce before baking for 40 minutes. It was delicious! If we’d had leftovers {Jason was a member of the clean-plate club}, we both commented that leftover chicken would be great as a sandwich with a little more of the sauce.

The sweet & spicy flavor was great for chicken & I really want to trying the Beano’s recipe for Southwest Buffalo Chicken Salad Wrap.

Mondays are busy for me. I only have 45 minutes between work and my small group Bible study. This Monday I decided to through in Harris Teeter shopping trip {it was the next to last day of super doubles}. I really had no time to make dinner. Instead I purchased subs for us both, but chose to have them made pretty basic {meat, cheese, lettuce & tomato} so I could try out the Original Submarine Sauce. The sauce made the sandwich. Like from blah sub to holy-crap-this-is-awesome sub! The blurb online says in stays on your sub without soaking your bun. This was so true even after I’d loaded it up with the sauce. Don’t you love when a product is as good as they say?!

I ate half the sub Monday night then took the other half {& a small container of the sauce} with me to work for lunch Tuesday. My next grocery trip I plan to buy deli meats & bread so we can make our own yummy Beano’s’d up subs at home.

If these look yummy to you, check out their Facebook page. Or even better, find which stores near you sell Beano’s. I know I’ll keep an eye our next time I’m at Walmart, Food Lion or Lowes Food to pick up additional sauces. I’m hooked.

Beano’s Brand did supply us with the sauce but that did not sway my review. The way to this girl’s heart might be her stomach, but these opinions are honest & all mine.

Tags chicken, product review

Everything Else Travel

Random Monday

After seeing B, Sara & Mel {my sorority big sis & brand new blogger} all post their maps last week, I was inspired to make my own. Can you tell when my family did our cross country RV trip (in ’06) we went across the top of the country?! Where have you been? Go here to make your own map.

Also I can’t miss this opportunity for a shout out to the VCU Rams! So proud to be from the Richmond area during this NCAA tourney {& the sister to a VCU alum}! Can’t wait to cheer them on against Butler next Saturday! I love a good upset don’t y’all?!

photo from Wikipedia

Also just one GFC follower away from my first giveaway to thank y’all for being awesome!

Tags travel

Family/Travel Food

Family Saturday Night

After the SPCA Dog Walk, Mom & I ran a few errands. We stopped at Costco for last few ingredients for that nights dinner. We also picked up lunch for four of us for $8 {can’t beat that right?!}.

My parents had offered to host my brother’s future in laws & family to dinner last Saturday. There was a total of 12 of us. So after errands we rushed home to prepare. Mom had made a shrimp & crab pasta casserole the night before {it was awesome! I will be sure to post the recipe when she sends it to me}. We put together a salad with greens, strawberries, mandarin oranges, & mushrooms. We snapped the asparagus so it was ready to throw in the oven while the casserole was baking.

Mom had planned some great appetizers too. We made her famous meatballs {Jason had almost half of them!}. I also put together a recipe she’d told me about last time I was there since she know I love hummus. Crazy enough I saw it posted on one of the cooking blogs I follow this week. {I don’t remember which one but she called it her friend’s famous recipe!} I think her copy of the ripped-off-the-back-of-hummus-container recipe called it 5-Layer Greek Dip.
Ingredients
1 pkg hummus (we used larger size of roasted red pepper)
1 pkg crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c chopped tomatoes {we used quartered cherry}
1/4 c chopped cucumbers
2 T chopped kalamata olives {we omitted because we forgot to buy!}
Spread hummus on the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Cover with the remaining ingredients. We refrigerated for a couple hours then served with pita chips.

Top photo taken in the frig 🙂

Beth’s brother Chris’ wife Emily is quite the cook. Like I’m in awe of cook. She brought a veggie pizza & a made from scratch lavender blueberry pie {see what I mean!}. Since my Dad’s birthday was Tuesday, we had also picked up a Cotco cake for dessert.

Emily & Chris have two awesome children. Marley is 4 and Miles is 2. They were so well behaved even though Miles wasn’t feeling so hot. Mom was a little worried what we’d do to entertain two young children in their not-childproofed-house. She decorated for Easter last Friday & got excited when she found Easter eggs. Y’all, while the guys played pool & watched basketball in the basement, Emily, Mom, Beth, Janie, Marley, Miles & I hid & found eggs for probably two hours!

Marley is quite the ham. Emily has a DSLR, so she’s used to being photographed & loved it while I pulled out mine. I’d show her a photo I’d taken, & she’d say “ok. another one”. {She’s a much more willing model than Moekitty & Jason!}

With upcoming wedding events this summer & fall, it was so nice to have a low key night to get to know everyone better! Can’t wait to hang out with the fam & my brother’s soon-to-be family again soon!

After everyone left the four of us were all smiles over how much fun we had together. Also how cool & bright was the moon that night?!

Tags appetizers, family

Photography

Three Months In

Twelve weeks in to Project 365 and this has been a good one! I took a photo everyday but one!

Day 78 Saturday I took a lot of photos between the dog walk & family dinner. I decided to make Nick the bird my p365 since New Years I had such a hard time taking his photo.

Day 79 Sunday we traveled back home then loafed around that evening. Moekitty had all four of his paws on my foot so I quickly grabbed the DSLR before he could rearrange.

Day 80 Monday I went from work, home to eat Saturday night dinner leftovers, then to small group & never took a photo.

Day 81 While I was checking the mail Tuesday I realized our azaleas were about to pop & our day lilies are really growing!

Day 82 The only photos I took Wednesday were Ovidrel related. Here’s another post-shot photo.

Day 83 After battling the bloat all day, I was really ready for a girls night at Red Room with college friends {we were celebrating that Nicole found our she’s having a GIRL!} This half-price pomegranate sangria helped too.