Friday 5ive- March 24, 2023

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. Welcome spring!

1)  While walking around doing my errands, I've seen this twice now- the Urban Arrow bike. They have a cargo version for deliveries and this one is called the Family. You can put three little ones in the front and ride around town. I'm not sure how practical it is for NYC, it seems the Cargo one would be helpful for delivery people, although it is rather large. The Family one would be great for the suburbs or for Batman, he could put Robin in front.

2)  I went home to Auburn last weekend and had a great time. I spent St. Patrick's Day with my family, and my sister made delicious Reuben sandwiches for dinner. This time I managed to make the family group photo! Next up, a lovely bridal shower for my dear friend and former neighbor's daughter. It was great to catch up with friends I haven't seen for awhile. The mother of the bride arranged for a Girls' Night out at a local restaurant and we had yummy Cosmopolitans, delicious pasta, and wonderful conversation. As we were leaving the restaurant, a gust of wind took one of the ladies' leftover bags out of her hand and it flew down the street where a gentleman coming out of the brewery next door promptly stepped on it to stop it. Watch out for flying lasagna!

I also got to meet my 8 month great-niece Abigail Mae. She has such a sweet disposition, smiling and laughing and enjoying all the commotion. It's wonderful to see the new generation of our family beginning.

3) I made a tasty new dessert from my new favorite cookbook- Key Lime Cheesecake "Cupcakes" from Marlene Koch's Eat What You Love. We really like Key Lime Pie from the Publix grocery store but it's got a lot of calories, and this is a tasty substitute and only 140 calories per cupcake. I froze half of them, I'll let you know how that works out.

Photo from marlenekoch.com

4) After reading and loving Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel Daisy Jones and the Six a few years back, I've been patiently awaiting the Amazon Prime Video miniseries. I watched the first six episodes and was entranced by it, and finished the last four episodes yesterday. Each actor looked exactly like the picture I had in my head of their characters! There are a few big differences from the novel, but it so well done. Riley Keough is perfect as Daisy and she and Sam Clavin (Billy Dunne) have a palable chemistry as they push-and-pull towards each other. My favorite character is Camila, Billy's wife, so beautifully played by Camila Marrone. If you're a fan of Fleetwood Mac from the 1970s, you'll want to watch this story of the rise and rapid fall of a rock and roll band. Rumor has it the actors may play a few gigs as Daisy Jones & the Six. (My review of the novel is here.)

5)  I read three historical novels this week. The first one is my Book of the Month selection this month, The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch. It was a reluctant selection for me and it took me about a quarter of the way through the book before I was hooked. Loesch tells her story in three important timelines in Russia's history- the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the siege of Leningrad during WWII and the Stalin purges that followed the war, and the Glasnost years of Gorbachev. Rosie lost her father and sister tragically in front of her own eyes as a young girl and moved to London with her mother and her mother's large collection of porcelain dolls. In Rosie's determination to find out what happened to her family, we get the story of Tonya, a woman who married a wealthy businessman but fell in love with a Bolshevik orator during the revolution. I found Tonya's story more interesting than Rosie's, and you got a real feel for life during those historic times in Russia, and there a few times the story took my breath away. I ended up reading it in just two sittings, I couldn't tear myself away. 

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Alka Joshi's first novel in her Jaipur series, The Henna Artist was wonderful and I finally got around to reading the second in the series, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. Set in India in 1969, it continues Lakshmi's story after she was run out of Jaipur by powerful people. She married Dr. Jay Kumar and works with him at the community health center and runs the Healing Garden in Shimla. She got her former assistant Malik a job as an intern working with a construction company that is building a huge cinema in Jaipur. When the cinema balcony collapses on opening night and people are killed and seriously injured Malik finds himself looking for answers as to what happened that puts him in the crosshairs of some wealthy and powerful people with big secrets.  I loved The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, once again Alka Joshi drew me into this world with her interesting characters in fascinating storylines. 

The third book in the trilogy, The Perfumist of Paris, picks up Lakshmi's sister Radha's story in Paris. Radha is now married to a Frenchman and the mother of two young daughters. She has a job as an assistant chemist in a perfumery, with hopes of creating a fragrance that will enable her to get a promotion. Radha's husband and mother-in-law don't understand her desire to work outside the home, and Radha also has to contend with male coworkers who want the promotion. So many women will relate to Radha's drive to be successful and have something of her own, and how she balances that with being a good mother to her daughters and dealing with cultural bias as well from people. I found that interesting in this time in Paris, and I also liked Radha's changing relationship with her mother-in-law. My full review publishes on March 26th. 

Have a safe, healthy week.

Friday 5ive- December 16, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. Can you believe that Christmas is next week? The older I get, the faster time flies.

1) I finished my final virtual bike ride of the year through the Conqueror Challenge app. You set your own goal for this one, and I set a goal of 2700 miles for 2022. It's very satisfying to log my progress and it keeps me on track riding every day on my Peloton bike. I already signed up for my first ride of 2023- 1968 miles on the Appalachian Trail. This one will take awhile.

 2) When I was in high school, I worked at the Fingerlakes Cinema 4 in the Fingerlakes Mall in Auburn NY. One of my many tasks was to make the popcorn, and we used a flavoring salt called Flavacol. I was online somewhere (maybe The Today Show website?) and I saw that Flavacol was listed as a great gift under $25. I immediately ordered one, and then I had to order a popcorn maker to make the popcorn to use the Flavacol. I hope it tastes as good as I remember. 

3) In our continuing quest to eat healthier I made a recipe from Marlene Koch's Eat What You Love- Restaurant Favorites. I made her Burrito Bowl with Cilantro-Lime Fiesta Rice. It was delicious! I used the leftover shredded pork I made in the slow cooker the day before, and we both decided that this recipe was definitely going into the rotation. My husband isn't a cilantro fan, so I left that out, but it was still very tasty. He even brought the leftovers to work for lunch. I have two of Marlene's other books- Eat What You Love Everyday and Eat More of What You Love Every Day- and I use them frequently, but Restaurant Favorites looks like it has more recipes I we would enjoy. I highly recommend. 

4) Like the rest of the world, I watched the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan. It gave you an eye-opening look at how awful the tabloid culture is in England. The lengths the paparazzi go to get a photo or destroy someone's mental health in the name of greed is disgraceful. I'm not sure why anyone would put themselves through that, and after seeing his mother Diana literally hounded to her death by them, it's no wonder that Harry took his family away from that poisonous atmosphere. 

5) Things are busy at work and Christmas stuff, but I did manage to read my Book of the Month selection, Matthew Quick's novel We Are the Light. It tells the story of the aftermath of a tragedy at a deadly shooting at a movie theater in a small town that left 18 people dead. The narrator Lucas is writing letters to his therapist describing how he is handling the loss of his wife in the shooting by a young man he counseled in school. He sees his wife in the form of an angel who visits him every night, and when a young man puts up his tent in the Lucas' backyard, Lucas decides he must help this young man, and his wife tells Lucas that this young man is the way forward. It can be a tough story to read, with a lot of sadness, but the town wants to come together to heal and how they do that is beautiful. 

Stay safe and healthy everyone and have a very happy holiday season. See you in 2023.

Cookbooks from Book Expo

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Each year at Book Expo I look to see if there are any cookbooks that I would like to pick up. In years past I have been introduced to wonderful cookbooks like Marlene Koch's Eat What You Love series of healthier cookbooks. (I've made her Steak Diane and French Onion Chicken several times. Her website is here.)

I also found The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook by Eric Akis, which is perfect for when I pick up a $4.99 rotisserie chicken at Costco. You know that Open-faced Hot Chicken Sandwiches With Onion Gravy will be on the menu for dinner for dinner that night.

This year I only picked up two cookbooks- The Peach Truck Cookbook, which has "100 recipes for all things peach". I do like peaches, but I didn't know anything about Jessica and Stephen Rose or their Nashville peach truck, featuring Pearson Farm peaches from Georgia. Next time I'm in Nashville, I'll be sure to look them up.

Glancing through the book, I'd like to try The Grilled Cheeserie's Shaved Peach Melt from another food truck in Nashville, Proscuitto, Burrata and Pan-Roasted Peach Salad and Bourbon Peach Bread Pudding. It's a gorgeous book, with beautiful photos and lots of great information for anyone visiting Nashville. Their website is here.

The other book I found was Taste of Home 201 Recipes You'll Make Forever. Taste of Home usually has a presence at the Book Expo, and this year's book is perfect for someone who has limited space for cookbooks and likes to make simple, crowd-pleasing, traditional dishes. All of the recipes are submitted by readers, and they are time-tested winners.

I'm going to try Aunt Frances' Lemonade, a recipe from Debbie Reinhart who said that her aunt always had a pitcher of this in her refrigerator.  It consists of mixing the juice of four lemons, four limes, four oranges, three quarts of water and 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar, and garnishing with lemon, lime and orange slices over ice. It sounds so refreshing.

The Chicken Gyros, Toasted Reubens and Hearty Pasta Fajioli will all get a tryout in my kitchen very soon. This cookbook is good for all skill levels, and most of the recipes are made with fresh ingredients. Taste of Home's website is here for more information on their multitude of cookbooks.

After reading through these books, I feel like I should get moving in the kitchen. Until next week!

Weekend Cooking- Healthier Recipes from Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

One of goals for 2018 is to eat healthier, so with that in mind, I pulled out my Marlene Koch books, Eat What You Love and Eat More of What You Love to look for some new recipes.

It's been colder, so I turned to the soup section. One for Chicken Pot Pie Soup caught my eye. I'm trying to get more vegetables in our diet, and soup is a good way to do (hide) that.

I made a big pot of soup and although I made the soup more for my husband, I absolutely loved it! I ate it for dinner one night, had leftovers for lunch the next day, and then dinner again. We had a side salad (with Koch's Green Goddess salad dressing) and I had a banana that was getting soft so I made a banana bread to go with dinner too.

It was so creamy and flavorful, you would never guess that it was low fat. The recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Soup is on Marlene Koch's website here.

print recipe

Green Goddess Dressing

by Marlene Koch January-27-2018

Marlene Koch's Green Goddess Dressing from her Eat More of What You Love cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1/3 cup 1% milk
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 tablespoon white wine or cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients in blender and blend briefly just until smooth.

Details

Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 1 cup

 I'll keep you posted on our journey to eat healthier and my quest to find more lowfat soup recipes. Let me know in comments if you have any great recipes.

Weekend Cooking- Three Recipes From Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

A few years back I picked up Marlene Koch's Eat What You Love Everyday. The cookbook is filled with simple recipes that cut fat, sugar and calories but not the taste. I pulled out the book and her followup, Eat More of What You Love, to make a healthy dinner this week.

We've been eating a lot of takeout lately, so I wanted to eat something a little healthier. My husband loves chicken fried steak, and Marlene has a Chicken Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy that looked like it would fit the bill in Eat More of What You Love.

In her Menus section of the book, she paired this with Sour Cream and Onion Smashed Potatoes in her Sunday Dinner Southern-Style menu, and I found a 10 Minute Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie for dessert in her first book. I added roasted asparagus and we had ourselves a delicious meal.

Koch uses ingredients you would generally have on hand, like onion and garlic powder, and since I had buttermilk in the frig, the chicken dish would be a good way to use it up. I only had to buy corn flakes for the breading and fat-free half-and-half for the cream gravy.

Chicken Chicken Fried Steak from the book- mine didn't look as pretty

Cauliflower is mixed with the potatoes, and even though I had never made cauliflower mashed potatoes, we eat them at restaurants and love them. This dish turned out fabulous, and we ate the leftovers the next night.

Although the Peanut Butter Pie is easy to make, it takes more than 10 minutes to make as it has to freeze for two hours. But it was worth the wait; we ate the leftovers on that all week with no complaints!

My husband loved the meal, the chicken was crispy and juicy, and even though the kitchen looked a little disheveled, this meal was a definite keeper. I know that Koch has a new cookbook out and I will be looking for it, as well as pulling more great, light recipes from the two I already have.

Peanut Butter Pie from the book

10 Minute Peanut Butter Pie
3 cups light, no-sugar-added vanilla ice cream, slightly softened (I used Edy's)
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 chocolate or Oreo pre-made pie crust
1 tablespoon sugar-fee chocolate ice cream topping
1/3 cup roughly crushed pretzels
1 cup light whipped topping (optional)

Directions: I a medium bowl, combine ice cream and peanut butter until well mixed. Spoon mixture into the crust and smooth the top. Drizzle the filling with ice cream topping, and sprinkle pretzels over the top.

Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving. Let pie sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before cutting and garnish with whipped topping if desired.

Weekend Cooking- Eat What You Love Everyday by Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food. 

Eat What You Love Everyday by Marlene Koch
Published by Running Press ISBN 978-0-7624-5163-0
Hardcover, $26.50, 349 pages

A few years ago at the Book Expo, I met Marlene Koch, author of the cookbook Eat More of What You Love. She created recipes for some of our favorite dishes and lightened them up without losing any of the flavor. Her recipe for Steak Diane is one my family enjoys a great deal.

Koch was at BEA again this year, promoting her new book, Eat What You Love Everyday, and once again it looks like a winner. It has 200 new recipes, all lower in sugar, fat and calories.

Marlene Koch at BEA

Following the introduction, there are short sections on Everyday Healthy Eating Tips (like 'Cook everyday'), Everyday Ingredients (where she discusses things like agave nectar and buttermilk), Everyday Meal Planning ( I liked 'Set aside time each week to look for new recipes', and Pinterest is a good resource for this), and Everyday With Diabetes.

There are fourteen chapters, with standard ones like Breakfast and Brunch, Everyday Soups and Sandwiches and some different ones such as Cook It Fast or Slow: Pressure and Slow Cooker Favorites, and even one with Menus for Every Day, Every Occasion, and Everyone, which puts together recipes from the book into various meals.

I found several recipes I'm going to try include:

• Savory Southern Biscuits
• Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Southern Style Grilled Cheese (with pimento!)
• Antipasto Pasta Salad
• Fabulous French Onion Chicken

The first one I'm going to make is
Breakfast-Style Egg Salad Sandwich
Ingredients:
2 large hard-boiled eggs
1 green onion, chopped, white separated from green
1 1/2 teaspoons light mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons plain nonfat Greek yogurt
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 slice light white or wheat bread
1 1/2 teaspoons real bacon bits (like Hormel)
Directions:
1. Peel eggs, cut them in half, remove yolk from one of the eggs, and discard it. Using the coarse shred on a box grater, grate the egg and egg white into a small bowl (you can mash the eggs with a fork, but the grater makes for a much creamier egg salad). Add the white part of the onion, mayonnaise, yogurt and salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

2. Toast bread and spread the egg salad on the warm toast, sprinkle the bacon bits on top, and garnish with the green part of the onion.

One of the best things about these books is that Koch uses ingredients that every kitchen has readily on hand. If you are looking to lighten things up, you can;t go wrong with Eat What You Love Everyday.

Marlene Koch's website can be found here.

rating 4 of 5

Weekend Cooking- Eat More of What You Love by Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Eat More of What You Love by Marlene Koch
Published by Running Press ISBN 978-0-7624-4589-9
Hardcover, $27

I'm always the optimist when it comes to trying recipes that claim to be lower in fat and tasty too. Yet too many times I have tried them, only to be disappointed.

So it was with some trepidation that I tried a recipe from Marlene Koch's new cookbook Eat More of What You Love, which I got at BEA. I was looking for a new entree, and I came across Steak Diane in the book. It looked simple, and the accompanying photo made my mouth water.

The result was delicious! Topping filets with sliced mushrooms and diced shallots and then a sauce made of nonfat half-and-half, cornstarch, beef broth, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce made for a lowfat but tangy and tasty dish. And it was only 265 calories per serving.

When my family raved about the meal, I looked for more entrees to try. Chicken Cordon Bleu is another favorite, and I have a recipe that I use frequently. Marlene's recipe had only 250 calories per serving, and again uses Dijon mustard and nonfat half-and-half, along with some chicken bouillon for the sauce.

You also spread the chicken breast with dijon mustard before adding the ham and Swiss cheese and rolling in flour, egg then panko crumbs. Everyone loved the chicken and this recipe will replace the older, full-fat one.

There are 200 recipes in the book, and at the bottom of the page is all the nutritional information, including food exchanges and Weight Watcher Plus Point Comparisons, which makes this book a great resource for anyone using a weight loss plan.

I can't wait to try more recipes from this book, from breakfast baked goods to sandwiches to desserts; there are so many variations on things my family already enjoys that I know they will love it.

Marlene Koch has a website with tips and free recipes, including this one for Root Beer Barbequed Chicken that is up next on my list. The cover of the book is gorgeous, and although there aren't photos for a lot of the recipes, what ones are there are lovely.

Don't think of this book as a diet cookbook; think of it as cookbook filled with new, healthier variations  of your favorite foods. Your recipes will thank you for the makeover and your family will thank you for the tasty meals.

rating 5 of 5