Showing posts with label teenagers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teenagers. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

One Rainy Summer - B. J. Robinson, Author

 

Squirrel, Rabbit, Shrimp, Sausage, Chicken Jambalaya
From the Kitchen of B. J. Robinson.
One rabbit or four to six squirrels
Two cups long-grain white rice
One onion
Two bay leaves
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt to taste or salt substitute
½ tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
½ tsp. Kitchen Bouquet
Tony Chachere's to taste
1 clove garlic
1 bell pepper
One large pot
Brown or sauté meat in a small amount of oil. Wash rice and add two cups with four cups of water. Dice onion and garlic and add. Add other seasonings to taste. Add others or delete ones you may not like. This is a catch-all recipe for a one-pot meal and types of meat may be substituted. You can combine smoked sausage and chicken or use only smoke sausage or only chicken. Sausage and shrimp or shrimp only is delicious. I think you could use this recipe with most any meat and be happy with the outcome. The recipe is flexible and adds variety to meals with meat of choice. You may also add a small amount of barbecue sauce or tomato sauce if you like it. Basically any seasoning you like may be used for seasoning to taste.
When my four children were young, I cooked many huge pots of jambalaya. It's so easy cooking everything in one pot. Cover with a lid and let simmer until all the water cooks out of the rice. I usually cook it on medium for a few minutes and when most of the water has cooked out, I turn the burner to two and finally to off and let the last small amount of water cook out while the burner is turned off. I have to be honest. I am a cook who doesn't really measure when I cook jambalaya. I use a sprinkle of that and a pinch of this, but I tried to estimate for your benefit. You can use boneless skinless chicken, but I used a whole fryer when I cooked it with chicken. Have fun. Be creative. Make it your own recipe. Surprise your famly with a new one-pot meal that is quick and easy to prepare. I cooked it on the stovetop, but you could probably use a crock pot or an oven casserole with some experimenting. I use long-grain white rice, but you could substitute brown rice. Now, I'm hungry for some good ole Louisiana jambalaya.
 
One Rainy Summer – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish

Quietly, I dragged a chair over the soft beige carpet, took my seat, and pulled aside the curtain. Granny stood at the bottom of the ladder with a man a full head taller, and the two of them headed for the woods on the side of the house. He held her hand, pulled her along after him, and focused a flashlight on the wooded trail that led to the canal. Granny, don’t you know you’re too old to be sneaking out windows and climbing ladders? What in the world’s going on? Granny was a grown woman. Why was she sneaking around with this mystery man? What was going on? Why was my honest, respectful, Bible-reading granny slipping out her bedroom window in the middle of the night like some teenager breaking curfew? I was determined to find out, so I jumped back into my bed and grabbed the heavy volume of Walden. No time to waste. Something was going on, and I knew this book and Granny’s journals held the answer. I made up my mind that this was one puzzle I’d stick with and solve.

After her father's death, Hope and her mother went to live with her Granny in the beautiful Sunshine State of Florida. She loved it. Her best friend Matthew lived next door and the two of them spent hours in the woods, swamp and along the canals and lake. So when she spotted Granny sneaking out one night she knew it would be her job, with Matthew’s help, to find out the secrets that Granny had been keeping. Her first clue was found inside her Granny’s volume of Walden where she had hidden a picture of herself and a handsome man from earlier years and written notations within the margins of the pages. Her biggest clue came when she and Matthew were out searching for the man Granny had slipped out with. After finding him she discovered him to be the same man in the picture hidden in the book. So, who is he and why must they slip around to see each other. Who are they hiding from?

Hope ends up opening up more doors than she ever expected when she learns the true identity of Granny’s special friend Sandy. She also finds that the person Granny is apparently hiding Sandy from is Hope’s own mother. Now she has to find out why.

One Rainy Summer is a book of true love and God’s way of making everything turn out just the way it was supposed to. If you don’t believe in ‘things happening for a reason’ this book just might make you believe. The trust in God that Hope, Matthew, Granny and Sandy have for bringing happiness and love to everyone is written in a beautiful way. And as the story unfolded I couldn’t help but feel the love of the characters as well as the love God bestowed on each of them. A truly beautiful book.
B. J. Robinson makes her home in the Sunshine State, Florida, where she lives with her husband and pets. She's blessed with children and grandchildren, and Jesus is her best friend. Visit BJ Robinson at http://barbarajrobinson.blogspot.com and check out her available books through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo, and Christianbooks.com.
 
 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Bad Choices - Fran Lewis, Author

 
Devil's Food Cookies
(A Fran Lewis Favorite)
 
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
 
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, butter and water (batter will be thick). Fold in chocolate chips.  Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 10-13 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Yield: 28 cookies.
 
Bad Choices – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish
 
Enter the peer – that person who is somehow inexplicably like them; a person who makes them feel comfortable; one who makes them feel like they fit, like they belong; someone – and get this – who when they look at they seem able to see themselves and most importantly what they consider to be their true selves. Therefore, a peer serves as a defining mirror; a living mirror, a person who describes them – defines who they are by being it, living it, in front of them. It must be who they are (they rationalize) because it is they (the Peer Group) with whom they fit best…people with whom they feel most comfortable…a group of people and especially one friend in particular (a BFF) with whom they can relax and act naturally around. They watch these living mirrors and learn all about themselves. If the mirrors change then so do they. If it (the Peer Group) accepts them then they accept themse.ves If, however, it rejects them then they first begin to try harder to please the mirror, mirror on the wall, mimicking its instructive reflection. Or, perhaps, they may come to find that there are other mirrors – other Peer Groups -, which are better suited to help them discover the mystery of “who am I?”
 
Through Author Fran Lewis’ Bertha books I’ve found that this woman has such a strong care for young people, how they feel about themselves and what becomes of them. In her book Bad Choices she walks us through, of all places, a cemetery as some of the faces behind the stones tell us about the Bad Choices they made that put them where they will be forever. Each case gives the teenager’s point of view about life, what helped develop this view and what they did that brought a true end to your view.
 
In each case, you the reader can make up your mind as to who is really responsible for the deaths of these young people who never reached the joys of adulthood. Is it the parent’s fault? The pressure applied by their peers? Or could it just be a kid that’s mixed up and really needs medical attention? How as a parent can this be prevented? How do you recognize when there’s a problem? Through Bad Choices you’re given the clues to the puzzle as well as ways to help prevent the puzzle from coming apart. And this all starts from conception! Yes, the very beginning of life! My own kids are grown but I see some of these problems already hitting my own grandchildren. I think this is a book I’ll be sending on to their parents to see if it might help before it’s too late.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Misguided Sensitivity - Philip Nork, Author


"Nana's Caramel Cookies"
(A Phil Favorite)

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (1/2 pound)
1 egg
1/2 tsp.vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tarter
1/2 to 1 cup of broken pecans

Mix all ingredients and form into several long rolls. Put in refrigerator until cold.

Slice and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Phil Nork
author of Misguided Sensitivity, Legends of the Lake, and You're Never Alone
And coming soon Life Is a Balance ... It's Not Only About You.
Real life fiction for real life people
(Some readers love stories about werewolves, shape-shifters or science fiction ... things that may never happen to them. I write about situations that CAN happen to you and maybe already have...or at least they're ones you can relate to.)

Misguided Sensitivity – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish

In the 1960’s the typical family consisted of a stay-at-home mother, a working father, and some kids.  As you grew up you were exposed to an equal amount of boy things and girl things.  In my world that never happened.  We three kids were raised by a divorced mother and her side of the family.  For reasons I did not know, my father deserted the family when I turned eight.  He was also on his own journey of self-discovery; it just took him longer than the average man to realize it.  He left us kids with a mother who had no skills and no money.  Mom could have just given up and slipped into a world of denial.  Instead, she decided to learn a trade, get a job, and she tried to give the three of us a decent childhood.  In my eight-year-old eyes, she was a hero.  Especially between the ages of eight and fifteen my mom was my voice of reason.  I idolized her, I respected her, and I hoped to one day marry someone just like her.  Between her and her side of the family we were taken care of, loved, and given the nurturing we needed to hopefully become normal, productive adults.  And yet my life took a bad turn after my dad left us.

After his father left, Phil stepped into a state of depression spending most his time alone and in his room.  The only person he allowed to bring him out of his shell was his great grandmother whom he called Nana.  When she died, Phil stepped even deeper into himself.  He became angry with God but also thought that perhaps God was punishing him for some unknown reason.  His Nana had taught him many lessons during their time together but the one that started his journey into life was when she told him ‘you will meet many people throughout your life and if you want them to remember you, you must always be a little different, you must be sincere, and you must make them feel special, especially the girls.’  This lesson became the beginning of many more that Phil would start adding to his list. 

Through these lessons and the people who taught him, Phil took on three distinct lives.  He became Disco Phil who gave the girls whatever they wanted.  At the Burger Shack he became a leader who listened to and offered advice to the girls who needed it.  And at school he was just another face in the crowd.  But what will happen if either of these lives come together?  Phil is not only a good listener that makes the girls feel special but he is also a good learner with some of the girls being the teachers. 

Back in the 1960/70s one in every ten teenagers were affected by divorce.  Most keep their feelings and pain to themselves and release it through drugs, alcohol and sometimes even sex.  As I read Misguided Sensitivity I was able to see how many of the girls took the route of sex as their way of forgetting and feeling as if someone did care and love them.  I believe most boys turned more to alcohol and drugs.  Phil was one of the sensitive kids who released his anger through compassion, attention and understanding for others.  It takes him from the back rows of the drive-ins to the motel rooms of older women.   Is he really hurting anyone?  Is he really helping them?  Is he being used by those he tries to help?  Or is he just hurting himself?  These are the questions that jump around in your mind as you read Misguided Sensitivity

In my opinion, Misguided Sensitivity is a book that should be read by all young men and even a few women. 

 
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