News – Page 46

Gluten-Free Cranberry-Pecan Drops

December 22, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Pumpkin really likes these cookies, although my GF girl, not as much. She’s not crazy about dried fruit. This one was a variation on the original recipe that called for pineapple, which I didn’t think was very festive. They’re definitely yummy, but not quite as from-scratch as I’m accustomed to making. They use a gluten-free cake mix. I’m not as crazy about doing that because I can’t control the sugars. I typically replace all the sugar for honey (1/2 cup honey to 1 cup sugar) to avoid refined sugars. Every bit as yummy, and better for you. Cream butter and “sugar” as usual, but if you’re adding it later on, mix it in with the wet, not the dry ingredients. For brown sugar, add a small amount (1/2 to 1 teaspoon) of molasses to get the brown sugar flavor. This works just about every time. The only notable exception is cinnamon rolls, for which I use maple sugar.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup butter
1/8 cup plus 1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp. molasses
1 egg
1/2 tsp. dried lemon peel
1 pouch GF white cake mix
1/2 cup pecans
1-2 tbsp fruit juice (I used two)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the ricotta cheese, butter and honey.
Add the egg and dried lemon peel.
Add all the cake mix except 1/2 cup to the batter. Stir thoroughly.
Mix the remaining cake mix with the fruit and nuts. Stir into the batter.
Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets by the teaspoon full, two inches apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheeet while still hot.

Makes 5 1/2 dozen 1 1/2-inch cookies.

Is it too early in the day to eat one?

Holiday Break Reading Challenge, Day 5

December 20, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

I committed to participate in the Holiday Break Reading Challenge. Today is Day Five. Day One was goal-setting day. I committed to finish the items on my “currently reading” shelf on Goodreads. I’m halfway there.
As far as my participation in the blogging part of the challenge, however, my week has gone a little sideways, thanks to WordPress and my shoulder injury which gave me a little trouble this week.

However, I finally get to participate in a fun challenge. Here are the details:

Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/ The name that appears is your author name.
Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.
Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.
Use Picnik, or something similar to put it all together and create a synopsis to go with the book cover design.

Here is my resulting book cover design:

My husband had to help me with the boxing reference. For the benefit of those as clueless as myself about such things:

Clinch – in boxing . to engage in a clinch: The boxers clinched and were separated by the referee.

Synopsis:

Robert “RT” Jefferson wants to win so bad he can taste it–even more than the mixture of blood and sweat that runs down his face and stings swollen lips as he stares down his opponent.

But the championship fight is fixed when his younger brother Marcus is accused of a gang shooting. If RT doesn’t take a dive, the gang will give his brother up to the cops. Marcus says he was set up. Can RT and his girlfriend Angel clear his name before the fight?

Top Ten Reasons I Love my eReader

December 20, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

With Christmas just around the corner and an eReader on many Christmas lists, I’m joining the blog hop over at The Broke and the Bookish for Top Ten Tuesday to list the top ten reasons I love my eReader. I am a traditionalist in many ways. Probably, if it weren’t for our move to China, I would be less ready to jump on the eReader bandwagon. But now that I have, I see so many advantages to my eReader.

Although I’m an incredibly visceral person–I love the feel and smell of a book–once I’m lost in the story, it frankly doesn’t matter how I’m reading it. The words carry me away and I don’t notice the package the story is in, just the story itself. So here are the Top Ten reasons I love my eReader.

Space Conservation – The main reason we purchased our first eReader was so that we could pare down on what we’re shipping to China when we head back. I chose books for our curriculum that we could download via audiobook or find in ebook format. I even purchased a lot of homeschool curriculum in PDF format.
Convenience – The core of our curriculum this year is the Story of the World. I purchased the PDF version and moved it to my eReader. Now, when I do a lesson, we read the story, I print out any relevant activity sheets, but read comprehension questions and other instructions straight from the eReader.
Intimacy – I would have purchased things in PDF form anyway, and possibly ebook format as well, but I would have been forced to read them from our computer. Now, with our eReader, I still have the feeling of sitting down on the sofa with my children gathered around to read a book.
Cost-effectiveness – Admittedly, there is the initial outlay of funds on the eReader, but now that we’ve purchased two of them, there is a tremendous savings. Aside from the savings of purchasing curriculum in PDF form (which tends to be cheaper than paper-and-print versions), we can now purchase one copy of a book and have two children reading it at a time. Pumpkin and Sweetpea are both reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, each on a different eReader. We paid for the book once.
Novelty – This may wear off, but right now the idea of the eReader is making reading more attractive to my kids. And now that I’ve signed with Trestle Press, I’m realizing there is a world of story out there that doesn’t even exist in print! After my kids finish the Narnia series, I plan to have them read Mark Miller’s Emypirical Tales.
Ability to organize books for my kids – I’m able to set up shelves, one for each child. Even when they share a book, they can each have it on their own “shelf,” easy to find, and with their own individual bookmarks, so they never lose their place. In fact, even if they forget to mark their place, the eReader will open up to the place they left off. Wonderfully convenient, particularly if you’re prone to falling asleep while reading!
Adjustable print size – Occasionally, when I’m tired, I have difficulty reading smaller print. I can change the print size in a couple of strokes and make things easier to read.
Easy to read in bed – This might be minor to some, but when I’m reading a paper-and-print book in bed, I’m constantly moving around in the bed. If I’m reading on the right hand page, I lie on my left and vice versa. With an ebook, the page is always facing you, easy to read.
I like the e-ink. It really is easy on the eyes and makes reading so much easier to do compared to reading on an LED device.
Ease of finding new materials to read – The shop online feature on my eReader is wonderful. I just finished part two in a trilogy. I can switch over to the store and purchase part three and begin reading right away. (Granted, this feature can challenge the self-control of a bibliophile.)

If you’ve been considering an eReader for Christmas, but don’t know what to buy, here are some useful links:

Top ten ebook readers of 2012
How to choose the right eReader for your needs (considerations of storage, display preferences and connectivity, etc.)
the eReader Configurator – answer questions about your eReader needs and receive recommendations about which one to buy

Don’t forget today’s stop on the Virtual Book Tour. Rebecca of Mom’s Mustard Seeds writes a glowing and touching review of After the Snow Falls:

The Simplicity of the Season

December 19, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Today, while considering what to post as the gift I’m thankful for, this phrase dropped into my heart: the simplicity of the season.

Though often it seems it isn’t sophisticated enough for us–not high-tech enough, not frilly or dressed in a bow, the beauty of the message of Christmas truly is its simplicity: a baby, a manger, the lavishing of love.

As complicated as our lives seem to get, and as complicated as they probably were for the people involved in that first Christmas, when all the trappings we’re tempted to festoon it with are stripped away, we’re left with a very simple message: seeking a relationship with His creation that had been complicated by evil, God made a way and sent a gift meant for everyone to clear the way and make way for relationship once more.

My hope for you is that despite the busyness of the season, you can find moments to rest in that simplicity. And today, that’s what I’m thankful for.

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