Glazed Murder: A Donut Shop Mystery by Jessica Beck

After her divorce from Max, Suzanne Hart buys a donut shop and renames it Donut Heart.  All is going well and she is developing a loyal core of customers, when early one morning she watches as a body is dumped in front of her shop.  It's one of those loyal customers and she is left wondering if she will be the next victim.

Suzanne is determined to find out who killed her friend, before the killer finds her.

This was a fun holiday read.  One thing I have never made is a donut.  I admit to being kind of afraid of huge pots of almost boiling oil.  It was interesting to learn a bit about the process involved first in making donuts and then to running the shop.  There are eleven yummy sounding recipes included in the book, most of them for donuts.  I am looking forward to trying the recipe for the baked donuts.

There were two things that bugged me about the story.  Suzanne claims that the victim Patrick Blaine is her friend, but we don't learn anything other than he was a customer of hers.  The other is that she jumps right into investigating his death almost without any pushing or threat to her.  I wish we had learned more about their friendship, such as they played cards together, or that they discussed books whenever  Patrick was in the shop.  A few menacing phone or text messages or even the passing of a bit of time before she started investigating would have made more sense to me, but Suzanne didn't wait at all.  She just finished her shift and started asking questions.

From that point, the story got better.  We were introduced to her friends and to the busy body in the shop next door.  I like the owner of Re-Newed, she would be fun to have tea with.  

Author Jessica Beck has introduced us to an interesting set of characters.  I do look forward to reading more about them in her upcoming books: Fatally Frosted and Sinister Sprinkles.

Thanks to Meagan of Snippets & Yarns from Turtle Bottom for sending me this fun book.

Also reviewed at:

This and That. Here and There. Now, Sometimes, Then.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.  You are invited to add a link to your food related post.

Foodie's Reading Challenge is hosted by Margot of Joyfully Retired.  You are invited to join the challenge by reading food related materials in the form of: cookbooks, novels, memoirs/biographies, and non-fiction.  Visit the site for full details.  Challenge starts January 2011 and continues throughout the year.

Visit my New Blog

Along with my sister, I have started a new blog. Send a Postcard a Week.  Don't worry, I will continue to do this one as well. 

The premise to for both of us to send out at least one postcard each week.  I could be to a family member, friend, or even a stranger.   Regardless of who we send to, it is bound to brighten their day. 

You are invited to join us in our adventure and send out your own postcards and let us know.  You can join our blog, or you can leave details in the comments.

Hope that you will visit us a Send a Postcard a Week.  Leave a comment and tell us who you would send a postcard to.

Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

 Gemmy Fairley had been working as a ship hand when he became ill and feverish.  His shipmates put him adrift on a raft rather than risk the health of the whole crew.  Fortunately for Gemmy, the raft washed ashore on a desolate area of Australia.  He was found by aborigines who he lived with for the next sixteen years. 

One day while wondering with them, he spied some white men, whom he later sought out.  A family in the new community took him in and tried to help him re-integrate into English style daily life.  He had lost much of his earlier language skills and found it difficult to communicate.

What was happening with Gemmy was similar to what was happening with the English colonists.  Both were out of their element and trying to fit their old lives into their current location.  Gemmy had never had a 'good' nor 'safe' life and he didn't have the skills of how to live in a proper family.  The colonists were trying to recreate an English pastoral life in a totally foreign environment that was often hostile to their attempts.

I most enjoyed reading of Gemmy's life and his attempts to fit in anywhere.  He didn't find a safe place in England, not on the ship and even with the aborigines he was always an outsider.  He wasn't either a white fellow or a black fellow, he was something else.  I think perhaps that he was a lot of what was needed to for the transplanted English to survive in Australia, but that the whites refused to even consider the possibility.

Winner the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 1996

Winner the Los Angeles Times Award for Fiction 1994

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 1993

This is my 19th novel for the Read, Remember, Recommend Fiction Challenge hosted by Bibliobabe. 

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future by George Beard and Harold Hutchins aka Dav Pilkey

This is the latest book by Dav Pilkey, known for his Captain Underpants books.

From Dav's website:

In this all new graphic novel, George Beard and Harold Hutchins present the sensational saga of two silly caveboys names Ook and Gluk (Ook rhymes with "kook", and Gluk rhymes with "Truck").

Ook and Gluk have a pretty awesome life growing up together in Caveland, Ohio, in 500,001 BC - even though they're always getting in trouble with their evil leader, Big Chief Goppernopper.

But Ook and Gluk's groovy lives take a turn for the terrible when an evil corporation from the future invades their quiet, prehistoric town.  When Ook, Gluk, and their little dinosaur pal, Lily, are pulled through a time portal to the year 2222 AD, they discover that the world of the future is even worse than the devastated one they came from.  Fortunately, they find a friend in Master Wong, a martial arts instructor who trains them in the ways of kung fu, so that they may one day return home and make things right again.  But when their time of destiny arrives, will they have what it takes to defeat kill robots, mecha dinosaurs, and time-traveling terrorists?

I gave a copy of this to my nine year old nephew for Christmas.  I did not read the book, so can't comment on the contents, story nor writing style.  I can tell you that he loves the book.  He dropped the toy I also gave him and commenced to read the book.  He wandered around the room, book in hand, and would stop at any adult or sibling and say "Here, look at this," and then insist we do as told.  This went on till he finished the book and then started again.  Yes, he ignored new toys in favour of a book.  I think that is all the review needed.

I won this book in a contest hosted by Mel at He Followed Me Home.....Can I keep Him?  and sponsored by Scholastic Canada.

You can read Mel and her son Jake's review here.

Merry Christmas From Books and Quilts

Prizes in my Mailbox

What a pleasure it was to go to my mailbox the other day and find two parcels.  Not items I had ordered as gifts, but prizes I had won.  Wow.  Without even opening them, they made my day. 

First photo shows the wonderful gift I received from Meagan.  I had won a contest on her blog Snippets & Yarns from Turtle Bottom.   She had made her son some neat fabric luggage tags and she was offering to make one for one of her readers.  I was quite surprised to learn I had won.  The luggage tag was specifically made to match the tote bags I made to carry my fencing equipment.   Knowing that I am always reading and reviewing recipes, Meagan included a book, Glazed Murder: A Donut Shop Mystery  by Jessica Beck.   This is going to be a wonderful holiday read.  There is also a luscious piece of orange quilt cotton.  I will definitely be including that in my orange version of the Dear Jane Quilt.

While I was ambling along through numerous blogs one day I came across a link to Pocket Posh Books, a brand of Andrews McMeel Publishing.  These are an assortment of pocket size ( 4 x 6 inch) books with gorgeous covers. My prize included three sudoku books, a crossword puzzle book and a jumble crossword book.  Did I tell you that they are gorgeous?  These are definitely gift quality books.  I have seen them locally in shops and will be purchasing more of them.  I would feel bad keeping all these to myself,  and will be adding them to a few Christmas stockings.  Oh it will be sad to let go of them, but I know the future recipients will enjoy them.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ever since my niece arrived here in June she has asked me about a Red Velvet Cake.  I had not tried one and all I knew about it was that it was red.  I was then determined to make this cake for her birthday.  By chance I happened to notice that it was the feature cake on the cover of the 2010 Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking issue.

Before starting to mix the batter I learned that by using buttermilk and vinegar along with a bit of cocoa, that a chemical reaction occurs between these ingredients to give the natural red colour.  Additional red food colour is used to intensify the colour.

First photo shows the basic batter.  Second photo shows mixing in the red colouring.  You mix the red food colour and the bit of cocoa powder together into a paste and then add it to the batter.  Somehow that keeps the cocoa in suspension while baking resulting in a more even colour.

You can see that ever so slightly the cake is a wee bit browner near the outer edge.

The cake is then topped with a very decadent cream cheese frosting.  Notice the very cute princess candles that are topped with silver stars.

Finally, the triple layer Red Velvet birthday cake.

Compare the final two photos, and you will notice that the slices of cake are almost identical.

For a recipe for Red Velvet Swirl Brownies visit Fizzy Thoughts.