Friday, September 29, 2023
Sullivan Book Nook Restocked
New additions to the Sullivan Book Nook Little Free Library. If you see something you’d like to read, please come get it. I always appreciate book donations, but you don’t have to leave a book to take one. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Clean Slate for the Little Free Library
Got the Little Free Library emptied and cleaned this morning. The only two books I kept were the Good Morning America book club picks. The rest were donated to some other little free libraries in the area. I’ll be refilling mine with books tomorrow. If you have a preference for certain book genres and authors, please let me know so I can be on the lookout for them. Also, if you have any new adult or children’s fiction books you’d like to donate I would really appreciate it. Thank you!
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Recipe - Brown Sugar Baked Beans
- 1 yellow onion, finely diced
- 15.5 ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 15.5 ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 15.5 ounce can northern beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup dark brown brown sugar, unpacked
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
DIRECTIONS: Instant Pot Directions:
Add the ingredients to the insert and stir them together well.
Place the lid and lock. Set to Manual, High pressure, and set for 8 minutes.
Once finished, natural pressure for about 10-15 minutes, then quick release.
Stir before serving.
Slow Cooker Directions:
Add the ingredients to the slow cooker and stir them together well.
Cover and cook low 6 to 7 hours. Stir before serving.
Oven Directions: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a cast iron skillet add 2 teaspoons of canola oil and the onions. Cook them until translucent on medium heat, about 4-5 minutes. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cover tightly and bake for 45 minutes.
NUTRITION INFO: Serving: 2 /3 cup, Calories: 156 kcal, Carbohydrates: 30 g, Protein: 7.5 g, Fat: 1 g, Sodium: 382 mg, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 9 g
(Recipe and photo courtesy of Skinnytaste)
Monday, September 11, 2023
Review - The Last Carolina Girl
AUTHOR: Meagan Church
RATING: ★★★★
Summary (from Goodreads): A searing book club novel for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and The Girls in the Stilt House following one girl fighting for her family, her body, and her right to create a future all her own
Some folks will do anything to control the wild spirit of a Carolina girl...
For fourteen-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is as simple as it is free. Devoted to her lumberjack father and running through the wilds where the forest meets the shore, Leah’s country life is as natural as the Loblolly pines that rise to greet the Southern sky.
When an accident takes her father’s life, Leah is wrenched from her small community and cast into a family of strangers with a terrible secret. Separated from her only home, Leah is kept apart from the family and forced to act as a helpmate for the well-to-do household. When a moment of violence and prejudice thrusts Leah into the center of the state’s shameful darkness, she must fight for her own future against a world that doesn’t always value the wild spirit of a Carolina girl.
Set in 1935 against the very real backdrop of a recently formed state eugenics board, The Last Carolina Girl is a powerful and heart-wrenching story of fierce strength, forgotten history, autonomy, and the places and people we ultimately call home.
REVIEW: Such a great debut novel! I'd never heard of eugenics before discovering this book, so the shock and anger that radiated through me while reading Leah's story kept me turning the pages, and I finished this book within just a couple of days. Leah is such an admirable character, especially considering all she went through during her first fourteen years. I was glad she had her happy ending, but knowing how it could've been more fulfilling still breaks my heart. I can't imagine what the real survivors of this horrible atrocity in our nation's history went through while dealing with a loss of such magnitude. Meagan did a wonderful job with this story, and I can't wait to read more of of her work in the future. I would never have guessed this was the work of a debut author. The story flowed effortlessly, and the writing is beautiful and stirred so many of my emotions. I would definitely encourage everyone to read it.
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Recipe - Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup raw sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
- 2 tbsp virgin coconut oil, or canola
- 2 large egg whites
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- baking spray
- 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners and lightly spray liners with oil for easy removal.
In a medium bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking soda, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix pumpkin puree, oil, egg whites and vanilla; beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.
Add flour mixture to the wet mixture, then blend at low speed until combined; do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared muffin tin and bake on the center rack for 22 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let them cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
NUTRITION INFO: Serving: 2 mini muffins, Calories: 160 kcal, Carbohydrates: 27 g, Protein: 2 g, Fat: 5 g, Saturated Fat: 1 g, Sodium: 118 mg, Fiber: 2 g, Sugar: 18 g
(Recipe and photo courtesy of Skinnytaste)
Saturday, September 2, 2023
New Geocache in the Little Free Library
Friday peek inside the Sullivan Book Nook Little Free Library. We have a long holiday weekend ahead, so if you see something you’d like to read, please come get it. I always appreciate book donations, but you don’t have to leave a book to take one. Also, if you’re into geocaching, I’ve placed a cache inside the library.
Friday, September 1, 2023
Review - Expiration Dates
AUTHOR: Rebecca Serle
RATING: ★★★★
RELEASE DATE: March 5th, 2024
Summary (from Goodreads): Being single is like playing the lottery. There’s always the chance that with one piece of paper you could win it all.
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer comes the romance that will define a generation.
Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.
But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.
Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.
REVIEW: This was my first time reading Rebecca Serle’s work, and I truly loved it. The plot was intriguing and very different from anything I’ve read before, which kept me turning the pages and completing the book in only a couple of days. Daphne is a remarkable heroine with a medical condition, who overcomes many odds, and her circumstances reminded me so much of my oldest son, who is a Type 1 diabetic. (I caught myself ugly crying during parts of this story that hit really close to home.) Even though I predicted the ending halfway through the book, I was so happy it turned out the way I hoped it would. I would highly recommend Expiration Dates to everyone, and I can’t wait to read more of Rebecca’s work in the near future.
(DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this title from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.)
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