This Weekend and Leftover Pumpkins

This weekend I cut up and cleaned the pumpkins we had left over from Halloween. To get my money’s worth; I decided to try some new recipes. Friday, I made pumpkin lasagna. It was delicious. Saturday - pumpkin soup. Since it was made in a crock pot, I had all day to let it simmer. Yummy! And Sunday, it was penne with creamy pumpkin sauce. Even with those recipes, I still have puréed pumpkin left over. Into the freezer it goes.

Pumpkin Lasagna recipe, click here.

Crock Pot Cream of Pumpkin Soup recipe, click here.

Penne with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce recipe, click here.

Yes, we also baked and salted the seeds! Next year, I am going to attempt to make pumpkin wine!

Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker

Book Description
Level 26: Dark Origins features Steve Dark, the ultimate crime scene tactician on the tail of a killer so brutal law enforcement has invented a new classification of evil to account for him. Dark Origins can be read on the beach or on an airplane without any digital access . . . but where the traditional story ends, a deeper level of immersion is available at www.level26.com, exclusively to readers of the book. About every twenty pages, you will have the option of logging in to experience a digital cyber-bridge—a three-minute motion picture scene with A-list actors you might’ve seen in blockbuster films and award winning TV shows. Before your eyes, the characters will spring to life, crime scene details will explode off the screen, and the Web site might even ask for a phone number—where the killer can reach you directly. You might call it CSI with an edge.

My thoughts
“Level 26: Dark Origins” is a concept novel, where you can log onto the internet to catch glimpses of what is happening in the story. I choose to read my books and not interact with the internet. As a book, it was an interesting (if not grotesque) story. It is graphic and violent and one can easily be turned off. The book was written by a filmmaker and not a novelist so details were almost non-existent.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Product Description
In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

My thoughts
In “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” Mary lives in an isolated village protected by a wall from the forest which is filled with zombies. The village is protected by the Guardians and governed by the Sisterhood. This is all that Mary knows and she longs to see the ocean (a story her mother told her all her life). When the village is overrun by the zombies, Mary, her brother and others take off to try and find a new life for themselves. Carrie Ryan had written an intense story of teenage angst in this world of post-apocalyptic zombies. It was an uncomplicated read and the story was compelling.

How to Lower Your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food by Chef Alain Braux

Book Description
The secret to living... truly living and not just existing starts with us. We are what we eat....if we want optimum health, body and mind. It is a choice. Despite the steady growth of healthcare professions, we, as a society continue to become more ill due to over processed and bioengineered foods yet the answer is so simple. So basic. The answers are in this book. Chef Alain Braux will not only guide you how to achieve a healthy mind and body but his delicious and nutritious recipes can also help heal the body with joyous food. His book will lead to lower cholesterol, renewed energy and vitality that you thought you lost! If you buy one book on how nutrition and good food can change your life, this is it! - Kim Stanford. Co-Author of Gluten Freedom Chef Alain Braux is a French certified chef and a nutritherapist - a nutritionist that helps his clients with assorted food allergies live a normal life through healing foods recommendations.

My thoughts
For someone who needs to lower his cholesterol, I found Chef Alain Braux’s “How to Lower Your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food” quite useful, informative and entertaining. He interjects a lot of advice and humor in this guide that is also filled with recipes. While reading his book, I had pen in hand to jot down what food stuff I needed to buy on my next shopping trip. I look forward to preparing some oh his recipes!

I Am Not A Cop! By Richard Belzer

Product Description
When Richard Belzer meets Rudy Markovich, nyc medical examiner, for dinner in Brighton Beach, he has little reason to expect anything more than a friendly bull session. But in the next twenty-four hours Belzer finds himself in the middle of a vicious street brawl, splashed across the tabloid headlines as an out-of-control celeb, and fearing for the life of his good pal Rudy -- who police assume is sleeping at the bottom of the East River.

As Belzer finds himself increasingly required to call upon the resources he taps to portray Detective Munch on nbc, he maintains his sense of humor and carries us along on a rollicking ride through the underworld of New York City. With Rudy kidnapped, or worse, it falls to The Belz to track him down and solve the riddle to the vanishing act.
The lives of Detective Munch and Richard Belzer collide and mesh in I Am Not a Cop! as one of America's great comics and TV cops brings all of his talents to bear in book form and provides a triumph of the mystery genre.

My thoughts
Richard Belzer portrays himself in his novel “I Am Not A Cop” which I thought was a fascinating device. He writes well (there was some witty parts) and it felt like I was there in between film shoots (he plays a cop on TV) watching him try to solve a case he shouldn’t have been mingling in. Other than that, it was okay. No real mystery, just a fun read.

Triangle of Deception by Haggai Carmon

Book Description
How do you penetrate the world’s most secretive and tightly-knit terrorist organization? How do you manipulate its leaders and major supporters to unwittingly serve your goals?

Working in a joint CIA/Mossad sting operation, Dan Gordon chose the path of deception – a triangle of deception.

In this fourth installment in the Dan Gordon intelligence thriller series, Dan is on the hunt for the source of funding to terrorist group Hezbollah. He infiltrates the Lebanese network in the Paraguayan terrorist hub, Ciudad del Este, through a Lebanese expat in Sierra Leone, only to realize the operation is even more far-reaching than he has been told. A chase for false documents turns a Shakespearean drama of double identities and uncertain loyalties into a web of lies.

Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, Dan lands in a grim Romanian jail. Was it a security leak that got him in trouble? Why was he told to abandon top-secret CIA documents in a hotel room in Turkey? Was Dan made a sacrificial lamb for the CIA to make their plan look credible? Has he stumbled on a much bigger plot, one with the potential to unlock Al Qaeda’s machinations in the Americas? And how will he extricate himself from his stickiest situation yet?

My thoughts
Dan Gordon is back in Haggai Carmon’s “Triangle of Deception” and what a thriller it is. Gordon is both a member of the CIA and Israeli Mossed. While trying to trace the money trail linked to a terrorist group, one of Gordon’s contacts is murdered and he is blamed. Things become more complicated as the tale develops. With Carom’s background, his character portrayals ore right on and I felt I was reading not a novel but a true story (it could happen it today’s society). Dan Gordon is not a super hero, but a flesh and blood man who sacrifices and suffers much to protect his country.

The Gate House by Nelson DeMille Book Giveaway

Thanks to Valerie at the Hachette Book Group, I am hosting a giveaway for THE GATE HOUSE by Nelson DeMille. Three winners will be picked at random on Monday, November 30th and notified the following day.

Contest Rules:

Open to U.S. and Canada residents only.
No Post Office boxes
Must leave a comment with your e-mail address.
Followers and Subscribers will get additional entries.

Book Description
When John Sutter's aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, ten years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. Taking up temporary residence in the gatehouse of Stanhope Hall, John finds himself living only a quarter of a mile from Susan who has also returned to Long Island. But Susan isn't the only person from John's past who has reemerged: Though Frank Bellarosa, infamous Mafia don and Susan's ex-lover, is long dead, his son, Anthony, is alive and well, and intent on two missions: Drawing John back into the violent world of the Bellarosa family, and exacting revenge on his father's murderer--Susan Sutter. At the same time, John and Susan's mutual attraction resurfaces and old passions begin to reignite, and John finds himself pulled deeper into a familiar web of seduction and betrayal. In THE GATE HOUSE, acclaimed author Nelson Demille brings us back to that fabled spot on the North Shore -- a place where past, present, and future collides with often unexpected results.

Winners

The winners of the last day of my Birthday Week Book Giveaway are:

Renee G - Woman Into Wolf
Sheila Deeth - Chasing Demons
Kaye - Jesse's Girl

Congratualtion to all the winners this past week!

Dust by Susan Berliner

Book Description
While unloading groceries in her Rock Haven condo, Karen McKay notices a strange swirl of red, green, and blue dust. The swirl follows her inside, lifts a porcelain ballerina from her wall unit, twirls it in the air, and throws it to the floor, shattering it into pieces. The following evening, Karen hears her neighbor's dog barking loudly. Upon investigation, she finds her neighbor, Marion, at the bottom of the stairs?dead. At the top of the stairs, a colorful whirlpool of dust circles ominously. Now the feisty librarian must consider the unthinkable: Could the dust be responsible for her neighbor's death and, if so, would it kill again? Karen turns to her ex-husband, Jerry, for help and together they bravely confront the mysterious dust. But will their daring actions cost them their lives?

My thoughts
“Dust” by Susan Berliner is an entertaining story of a sinister dust whirl wreaking havoc (and a few deaths) in a small community This colorful dust storm (shades of green, blue and red particles) likes to hurt unsuspecting individuals, and nobody believes Karen McKay when she points out this fact. It is up to her to try and stop the dust from harming more of her neighbors. This novel is a fast paced and pleasurable read.

Birthday Week Carousel Book Giveaway – Last Day!

It’s my birthday and to make room for new books I am giving away nine books in seven days. This is the last day!

All three books listed today are up for grabs!

Contest Rules:

U.S. Residents Only.

One comment per book – You must leave a comment with the title of the book you want plus your email address. If you are interested in all three books listed that day, you must leave three separate comments.

Winners chosen will be listed on my blog the following day (along with the book they won) but will not be notified until the end of the week in case they have won more than one book.

All books are gently used and you can read more about them on Amazon.

Thanks and have fun!

Day Seven books:
Chasing Demons by R.L. Geerdes
Woman into Wolf by Alysse Aallyn
Jesse’s Girl by Gary Morgenstein

Day Six Winner:
SandyM204 - Gambling for Good Mail by Evelyn Cole