Literary Addicts Weekly Meme Favorite Book of 2013

Trying to pick my favorite book from 2013 is not easy. I read so many good books last year I think I am going to pick some of my favorites.

Here they are in no particular order

Seduced: Rose's Story (books 1-3): I found these books last year. The first book in the triology is a free ebook on amazon. But I am telling you after you finish the first book (Seduced by Innocence ) you will be headed back for the other two books. Check out the husbnd/wife team on Facebook for their other books Karpov Kinrade

Frost Burned: I love Patrica Briggs! All of her books are amazing. This is one of my favorite series. Its the 7th book in the Mercy Thompson series. I could barely put the book down to do anything. I cooked, cleaned and changed diapers while reading :) 

Demons are a Ghoul's Best Friend Victoria Laurie is an awesome author. I found here books a couple years ago and they are so good. If you need a laugh then you want to read this series. This is the 2nd book in her Ghost Hunting Mystery series. If you read this book be prepared to laugh and not be able to put this book down. Many times while reading it my husband would just look at me strange for laughing for no reason lol.

Alterant I got this audio book to listen to while we were making our 13 hour drive to our new home. I have heard of Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love (they wrote this series together) but had not read anything by them. I put in the 1st cd kinda skeptical but was glad I took a risk. I was sucked in and before I knew it I was done listening to the book and wishing I had bought more. This book is the 2nd in the Belador series and I would read the 1st book first because its slightly confusing if you don't. The 1st book is on my list for this year.

Absolute Power This is a book I found late last year by a newer author. I stumbled across this page when I was entering a giveaway and I had to like this authors page to get a entry. I am so glad I did because I found a new author that I love. I started reading this book and carried my kindle around with me so I could read it whenever I had free time. Check out Candice Terry page you might find some new books to read.

What are your favorite books from 2013? Did you find any new authors last year that you are looking forward to reading more from them this year?

The Retelling by Candice Terrry

So besides cooking my other favorite thing to do is read. By accident a year or so ago I joined my first author street team. It is fun and I get to promote authors that I love while they do what they love. I have since joined two more street teams and found two new authors that I now are among my favorites.

This author Candice Terry is a newer author who has only written a couple books. I have read both of them and I love them. She is so good at drawing you in and making you experience what the characters are going through. This is why I am excited to be able to be involved in the cover reveal for her latest book due out this spring. The book looks so amazing and I have already added it to my good reads to read shelf :). 

So check it out! Hope you find your new favorite author!

Book Genre-Adult Drama Romance
Expected Release Date- Spring 2014

Book Description:
Hell hath no fury like a southern woman scorned....

Krischa had her future all planned out- graduate high school, attend a great college and live a happily ever after life with her high school sweet heart, Josh. Though she never expected her plans to come crashing down after being betrayed by the one person she loved the most.

Heartbroken, she finds comfort in the tall, dark haired, blue eyed stranger that walks into the bar one night, filling her with lust.

Leaving her small town, family and heart ache Josh behind she realizes she may have made a grave mistake and married the devil himself.

Regret has filled Josh's heart for 10 years after hurting the only person he'd ever loved. With no word on where she is, he aches to see her face again. Though he knows Krischa belongs to another, he can't help the want to get her back. When his phone rings out of the blue one day and he hears her voice he knows he will run through hell to bring her home.

Love and revenge at it's finest.

Links:
facebook- https://www.facebook.com/AbsolutePowerSeries?ref=hl
amazon-http://www.amazon.com/Candice-Christine-Terry/e/B00DDXFAWY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Goodreads-https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6219828.Candice_Terry

Candice lives in Laurel, Mississippi with her husband and energetic toddler.When she's not chasing her son around or driving her PA crazy she runs her photography business or is stuck in front of her computer pounding out stories. She has published 2 short stories and one novel in 2013. She is currently working on a new novel, The Retelling due out Spring 2014. Also due out in 2014 is The Supreme Darkness and Heal My Heart.

Come join Candice and her PA Angela on Candice’s Author Page to keep up with all things Candice!!

https://www.facebook.com/AbsolutePowerSeries?ref=hl

Breakfast Blueberry Biscuits!

So I found these in a Better Homes and Garden magazine and when my husband saw them he was adamant I make them. Now I am not a big blueberry fan but I really do like these Blueberry Cream Biscuits.

Its so easy just mix it all together. Fold it over a few times and shape it into a square. Then make cut marks so after it cooks you can pull them apart.

Smells and looks so good. While its baking you want to make the blueberry sauce for the top.

Look at how pretty this is. Love the color of blueberries. Its so easy to make and compliments the biscuits very well.

See!! Doesn't it just look so good! Don't drool on the computer :)

I love that you do not necessarily need fresh blueberries. I have made this recipe with fresh and frozen blueberries and it works the same. Check out Blueberry Cream Biscuits over at Better Home and Garden. Trust me give these a try they are good!

Is Magnesium Oil Really all its Cracked up to Be?

So ever since I started trying to cut out processed foods, I decided to start looking into making my own personal stuff. The first couple things I wanted to make was toothpaste and lotion. I hade made some salves but the coconut oil just left my hands to greasy and I did not like it. So while I was looking up non greasy lotions I came across a recipe for magnesium lotion.
I started reading about being magnesium deficient can cause nausea, headaches, non restful sleep, difficulty sleeping and so much more. That explained so much so I figured whats the harm in trying out the lotion. The first thing you need to do is buy magnesium flakes. You use the flakes and distilled water to make Magnesium Oil. You can always buy it if you want to but its more expensive.

This recipe gives you enough oil for at least 2 lotion recipes

So after you are done making the oil you can make the lotion. It takes maybe 20 minutes its so easy. The recipe for the Magnesium Lotion just takes Shea butter, avocado oil, beeswax and the oil. The recipe says to use a double strength mixture of magnesium oil but I didn't because I wasn't sure how I was going to like the lotion.

My lotion after it finished setting up. The recipe is unscented but I added 10 drops of chamomile oil to mine since I plan on using it before bed.

Well after using this for a few weeks I have to say I love it. I fall asleep faster and even if i do not get enough sleep, I usually feel fairly rested. Also magnesium helps rid your body of toxins and stregthen your immune system. Wasnt sure i believed this until everyone one in my house got a horrible stomach bug and I just felt a little blah but never got sick. For me thats enough to keep using it. There are so many benifits to using this lotion every night. It feels greasy at first but your going to bed anyway. I put it on every night onto my feet, legs, hands and arms. Its great to use during pregnancy to. Check out Modern Alternative Mama this blog has so many awesome recipes and tips.

Awesome Spinach Cheddar Chive Scones!

So I made this awesome scones a couple weeks ago and the were AMAZING!!! I mean they have cheese and are amazing with melted garlic butter on top. The only issue is that they have green flecks and not chocolate chips in them. So trying to convince my older 2 boys to eat them is not the easiest.

What am I talking about well Spinach Cheddar Chives Scones. I found them on Weelicious blog. I love that blog. I have found so many great meals and snacks there. So when I was looking for a snack that wasn't sweet my first stop was there.

They are easy to make. Get everything out and start by mixing all the dry ingredients together. Then cut in the butter until its crumbly and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix until just together, shape and cut into 9 squares and put it on a baking sheet in the oven.

 Look how yummy it looks. It tasted so good and is going to be added to my snack list.

Here it is with some melted butter with garlic added to it. Then spread onto the scone.

I recommend giving these Spinach Cheddar Chive Scones a try. If its to weird for you at least check out here website. Especially if you have kids. Weelicious is a great place to go and find kid friendly lunch and snack ideas.

Making Pasta when you run out of Tomato Sauce

So being Italian means one of my favorite foods is anything with pasta or chocolate :). So for my family whenever we want a quick easy meal we make spaghetti. Unfortunately for me I am out of spaghetti noodles and tomato sauce and there is so much snow I probably will not be able to go to the store soon. Some people would probably look for a tomato sauce less pasta recipe but to me spaghetti is not spaghetti is there is no sauce So I had to figure out what to do because my oldest wanted to have meatballs.

I decided to just use rigatoni noodles because that was the first box I grabbed out of the cabinet. Put the water on to boil while I started on the meatballs and figuring out the sauce.

My oldest loves cooking with me. I let hims cook the noodles (while I am watching and standing right next to him).
Next I mixed up the meatballs. I put 1lb of ground beef, bread crumbs, 1 egg, asiago cheese, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Mixed it all up and then used my small scoop to get meatballs in uniform size. Then dropped them into a mini cupcake pan that had been greased. Put the pan in the oven at 350 for around 20-25 mins. I have a gas oven so things cook faster than using other ovens.

After I put the meatballs in the oven I decided to look online and see if I could use tomato paste to make tomato sauce. I figured it was concentrated tomato it should work. After I looked at a bunch of different sites I decided to give it a go. I took 2 cans of tomato paste and emptied them into a sauce pan. Next I added 3 cans of water and turned the burner on medium.

After the paste and water were mixed I added some salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning. I saw that some sites recommended that you add a pinch of sugar to overcome the tartness. You should really go by taste when it comes to the sauce. Marjoram, oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper are all good seasonings are all good to add. Then just let it simmer for about 20 mins until nice and saucy.

Then add everything to a bowl and top with tons of cheese and sauce.

Try not to burn your mouth while eating it up. Also good luck saving leftovers especially if you are a pasta eating family :)

Cabin Fever!

So This whole week has just been one snow after another! We are at over a foot of snow and we are supposed to get 3-6 more inches today. My van got stuck in the driveway yesterday. I was able to get it out of the road but when my husband got home he had to re park my car so he cold park his. And he never laughed at me getting stuck. That is love there lol.
It is windy and snowing out right now. I am sitting at the counter watching it snow right nor. All I see is white.

From the front of my house. One good thing is the snow covers all the dirt on my van :)

The snow is almost up to my deck. I cant walk on my deck unless I want snow up my pant legs.

It does look pretty though. I wish we all could go play in it.

I do think that being stuck inside this house is giving us all cabin fever and making me forget things. I placed my order to get milk and other things from the farm but apparently it got lost somewhere in the internet. So I get my boys dressed yesterday and leave to head to the drop point (about 50 mins away). I get there and they don't have my order! Thankfully they had a few half gallons for me to buy and gave me a discount. But now no farm heavy cream, eggs, yogurt or milk for 2 weeks :(

This is all I was able to get (except my van getting stuck). Hopefully next week will be better. It does mean now tomorrow I have to hope I can get out of the house to go to the store. The hubby has training next week so it is going to mix everything up.

Ugh....Snow!

So while I love snow, I have had my fill of winter. On Tuesday we got 9 inches of snow here and were snowed into our house. My van does not have good tires so when we try to leave (our house has two steep hills one on each side) my van just slides backwards. Its annoying.

So today our boys were supposed to go to the doctors to get their flu shots when we wake up to see at least 2 more inches of snow on the ground. 2 MORE INCHES!!! So now we had to cancel the appoints and reschedule. Which frustrates me because its an hour away and who likes getting 4 kids ready at 8 am to drive an hour to get shots.

It doesn't help that today I am so tired. My 2 year old decided at 1 am to wake up and not go back to bed until 3:47. Which at that time when I got him into my bed my 7 month old decided he didn't want to sleep anymore and wanted to play with mommy and crawl around. So around 5 I finally got to go to sleep.

Today was a watching Netflix day. Had hot dogs and bratwurst with homemade buns for lunch. Then for dinner we had homemade muffins from the freezer and popcorn. Might not be the best but some days you just need a rest day.

This was from the front of our house on tuesday. I think after this we got 3-6 more inches. Its pretty but a pain.

One of Those Cooking Days!

So I woke up today just knowing that I did not want to cook. I have been spending everyday, all day (or what feels like all day) cooking or planning meals. Its gotten to the point where when my 7 month old is looking for me he crawls to the kitchen and sits and waits for me.

Anyway, Thankfully for lunch we had pizza crust frozen so I just had to top pizzas and bake. But for dinner I wanted breakfast. Well I decided to make these blender pancakes I have made many times before that everyone loves.
Well they sucked. I could not get the wheat berries to blend so I ended up with crunch pancakes. I mean like crunchier than crunchy peanut butter crunchy. I don't think I have ever used that word in a sentence so many times. They looked pretty though and I was able to flip them and they stayed a circle lol.

Oh well I put them in the freezer because my kids love frozen pancakes for breakfast. They will not let me warm them up either. They either eat frozen breakfast foods or oatmeal! Nothing else and if you warm them up out of habit or tiredness they melt down and you have to put them back in the freezer and get them a different frozen on. Kids can be strange sometimes.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better but all the boys are getting flu shots so I don't know......

Taco Chicken & Peppers with Zesty Lime Rice

So Yesterday for lunch I wanted to do some sort of burrito that used up some of my shredded chicken from making chicken broth. I have been obsessed with cooking from the Pioneer Woman Holiday Cookbook which is where I got the idea. It is seriously awesome.
So I start making the tortillas and realize that I have to let them sit for an hour before cooking them. It was 11:40 and I was starving. So I decided that they were just going to be used for dinner and moved on to figure out lunch.
So i had already put the rice on because the long gran rice takes about 20 mins to cook and I hate crunchy rice lol. I found the recipe in The Pioneer Woman's newest cookbook. The Zesty Lime Rice is so easy to make. I love that it is cooked in chicken broth, even though i used 3/4 chicken broth & 1/4 vegatable broth because I didn't thaw enough chicken broth. I really need to find out if chicken broth is able to be canned. It would save so much time.

Anyway for the chicken I just decided to look what I had in the fridge and throw things together.

So I grabbed a couple peppers I had in the fridge and cut them up. Then chopped 4 cloves of garlic.

Put some olive oil in the pan and started heating it up.

Threw the peppers and garlic in the pan to start cooking.

After a few minutes I added 2 cups of shredded chicken, that thankfully I remembered to thaw from the freezer :).

Then I added 1/4 cup of water and 3 TBSP of homemade Taco Seasoning. Now two things: 1) I would recommend a bigger pan than I used. If not you will be fishing peppers out from under the pan. 2) You might need to add more water or olive oil if it needs for liquid. Depends on your stove, preference and seasoning you use.

Looks so yummy all mixed up.

I remembered that I had some cilantro in the fridge so I chopped some up and added it at the end. Probably should have added more but was not sure how it would taste.

Then like I do with most of my food I added cheese. I shredded and put about a cup of Colby Jack on top, but really however much you like. Then let it melt some or don't its good either way.

When everything is heated scoop it onto your plate with some of the Zesty Lime Rice and eat a helping ( or two). My husband put salsa on top of his because he likes his a little spicier. Tasted good even though i didn't make the tortillas.  

Sometimes Life Catches Up With You

So I have been wanting to keep up on my blog for what feels like forever. The problem is that sometimes I do not get any free time. Four boys and a husband keep you pretty busy lol. This last year has been such a whirlwind.
So 2013 for me held getting used to having my husband back after a year long deployment. We found out we were having our 4th boy. We started talking about looking into transferring for a promotion. Then in June we welcomed our 4th baby boy and a week after he was born we found out that we would be moving to West Virginia for my husbands job. And that we had until October to sell our house, buy a new house and move almost 900 miles with 4 kids under 5.
To say I was stressed is an understatement. In August we did our house hunting trip and in October we moved from Missouri to Maryland. We stayed in a hotel for almost 40 days before we FINALLY got our house lol. Then we had to deal with movers breaking things and the house not being finished. I can honestly say that I am glad its 2014.

For now we are trying to get used to West Virginia. The snow, the extremely hilly roads, being in the middle of no where and mothering 4 active little boys.