Pride and Prejudice challenge #5

Caroline Bingley by Jennifer Becton

Caroline Bingley has been sent away from her brother and his friends due to her interference in Mr Bingley's courtship of Miss Bennet, and her disapproval of Mr Darcy's betrothal to Miss Elizabeth.

The entire trip to her mother's home, she alternates between despondency over her removal from society, and plotting her return by circumventing an apology to Miss Elizabeth. She feels that the heir to the local barony would serve her well...marriage to aristocracy, money, and high society, thus elevating herself from her tradesman roots.

But things suddenly go awry, and she finally realizes she needs to follow her heart.

Caroline had a very strong tendency to judge a book by its cover. It was all about impressions made - both the impression made by another person on her, or her impression on other people- and elevation in society. She was horrified by her pedestrian background, and would do whatever it took to rise in society. It got a little annoying, but I think she was supposed to be annoying, until she finally saw how she was acting and realized the need for change.

A good read. 4/5 stars

Pride and prejudice challenge #4

Maria Lucas by Jennifer Becton

This was a short story continuing Maria's romance from her sister's book. While the description says there are spoilers if you read it first, there are very few not already in the description on amazon. Charlotte's husband is not named, so it could be anyone.

The story is very short. It took me about 20 minutes to read. While it gave us a little more insight into Mr. Card, it seemed a bit superficial. Maria sees he has gained some muscle, and suddenly she is overcome with attraction for him. Her feelings are engaged when she hears why he has been absent from home so much. Nice story, might have been fleshed out a bit more. 3/5 stars

Pride and Prejudice entry #3

This is a little later than I had intended to post. I had a whole lot of stuff come crashing down in February, so my reading challenges suffered. Fortunately, I had previously read some P&P books, and just needed to refresh myself so I can catch up on my postings...even tho I was only planning on doing 5-8 at the most, I think I may end up doing more :) I keep finding more books to read!

This on is "Charlotte Collins" by Jennifer Becton

Mr. Collins goes to his just reward, and Charlotte is left with her small income. She settles into a life of being the widow of Mr. Collins. Her sister Maria visits and convinces Charlotte to enter society more fully to enable Maria to do so as well. Two gentlemen of similar age to Charlotte are met, and reputations precede them. However, reputations are not all they appear.

Charlotte had a strong belief in the proper way to do things in society, which she is trying hard to impress on Maria, with little success!. This is discussed repeatedly. Is this behavior proper? It was almost too much, and tended to drag the middle of the story down. Finally, she gives up propriety and chooses to follow her heart instead. 3.5 out of 5 stars

Chilaquiles for dinner

Tonight Cupcake and I made chilaquiles for dinner. I have made them in the past, but it has been a while. They are quick, relatively inexpensive, and tasty. They remind me of chicken enchiladas, without all the work of rolling enchiladas.

I don't remember where I found the recipe I made in the past. My inspiration for tonight was from Rick Bayless' chilaquiles for a crowd. Obviously, I was not feeding a crowd, so I modified it. I also made mine red rather than green, based on Cupcake's choice.

Chilaquiles

2 10oz cans enchilada sauce (we use mild)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon oregano, crushed
2 cooked chicken breasts, diced (we used left over rotisserie)
1 15oz bag corn tortilla chips
cheese (cheddar for red sauce, jack for green sauce) and sour cream for garnish

Bring enchilada sauce, chicken broth and oregano to a simmer in a large pot. Stir in chicken, and turn off heat. Quickly stir in all the chips, making sure they are all covered. Place lid on pot and let sit 4 or 5 minutes. Serve into bowls and top with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Harvest in April

Even tho I haven't finished turning over the grass in my garden plot, I had my first harvest of the season today.

There is a perennial and herb garden at my community garden. In this garden are two giant rhubarb plants. One is starting to flower, which our coordinator has never seen rhubarb do. While one of the gardeners doesn't think we should let it go to seed, we are considering letting it flower just to see what they look like, then cutting them off before they seed. Anyway, the other rhubarb was crying out to have some stalks harvested. So I did. I plucked seven fat stalks off, with the intention of bringing them home, cutting them all up and freezing them.

So I did just that. But I remembered that last year I made a rhubarb relish/chutney/sauce to go with pork chops. But I couldn't find the recipe (haha...didn't try looking here...wonder if it is here?). So I looked for a new one. Pinterest to the rescue! The recipe, from marthastewart.com, was for four. I am solo tonight as Cupcake is at her dads. So I kind of halved the recipe and cooked one chop (I sprinkled some ground coriander on my chop as another recipe did). My only gripe is that the recipe called for "2 large stalks of rhubarb." Most rhubarb at the store is half the size of the ones I picked. Wish the recipe included a measurement rather than a quantity. Moving on. The recipe has shallots, garlic, ginger, fresh thyme (also from the herb garden), red wine, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and chicken stock. And rhubarb, of course. It was yum. Some other recipes mentioned their sauce would be good with sharp cheese or goat cheese. So I made mashed potatoes with goat cheese, and sprinkled some goat cheese on the chop. Mmmmmmmm.....

Pork Chops with Rhubarb Compote
(From marthastewart.com)

4 boneless pork loin chops (1-inch-thick)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
4 teaspoons olive oil
2 shallots, halved and thinly sliced (I finely chopped mine)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme leaves
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 large stalks rhubarb, diced in 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup Brown Chicken Stock (I used regular)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Pat pork chops dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat; add pork chops and cook, turning once, until nicely browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to oven and roast until just cooked through, about 8 minutes. Transfer pork chops to a plate and keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in a medium skillet. Add shallots, garlic, ginger, and thyme and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until softened, about 1 minute. Add wine and cook until reduced by half; add balsamic, maple syrup, chicken stock, and rhubarb. Cook until rhubarb has softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Add butter and swirl until melted and well combined; season with salt and pepper.

4. Divide pork chops evenly between 4 plates and top with compote; serve immediately.

Regency reading challenge entry 3

An Affair of Honor by Candice Hern

About a man who, after a curricle accident, thinks he has visions of a red haired angel. In actuality, it is Meg, a beautiful young woman who, as a gangly debutante, had a miserable season in London six years ago. Viscount Sedgewick, the one man who had shown her kindness and danced with her - twice! - was now laying in a heap near her family's country home. They take him in and nurse him back to health. But while he is recovering, they develop feelings for each other. But as a known rake, Sedge is not expected to offer for Meg, although her Gram is ever hopeful. There is then a Big Misunderstanding, as well as Sedge's sudden accident prone existence to worry about, before everyone has a HEA.

This book was a fun read. The misunderstanding is amusing in its origins. However, the reason for Sedge's accidents seems a bit obvious early on. My Kindle copy had some typos in it (I only noticed them in the last third of the book) that became distracting. But over all, I would recommend it. 4/5 stars

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So, Cupcake and I have church tomorrow so we are having St. Patrick's Day dinner a day early. I told her the options, and she chose Beef and Guinness Stew and Colcannon. So we ran to the store this morning and got what we needed. And here it is:

Beef and Guinness Stew
1.5 lb beef chuck (I got a steak, as roasts are twice as big, and way more than two if us need), cut into 1 inch chunks
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound baby carrots
Salt, pepper and dry thyme
1 bottle Guinness
2 teaspoons vegetable base (no extra liquid)
Dry instant potatoes

Layer beef, onions and carrots in 2.5qt crock pot, seasoning with salt and pepper after beef layer. Sprinkle thyme over the top, then pour the Guinness in. Then swirl the vegetable base paste into the Guinness. Cover, turn on high and cook 4-6 hours (or low for 8-10).

Turn cooker off, and sprinkle in enough potato flakes to thicken as you desire.


Colcannon
1 bunch kale, pulled off stems and torn into small pieces
1 stick butter (I used Kerrygold garlic and chive butter)
1.5 cups potato flakes
Water and milk

Melt butter in a pot and add kale. Cover and cook until tender.

In a large bowl, mix potato flakes and enough water to make very dry potatoes. Add kale and butter from pot. Stir, then add about 1/2 cup milk (more or less to taste). Then add enough water to make potatoes desired texture. Season with salt and pepper.

It is good and warm on this cold, drizzly St. Patrick's Eve. Enjoy!