Stuffed and baked peaches.....

Each week, a friend and I lunch together. One week at her house and one at mine. We both have fun trying out recipes on each other. I decided to create this dessert and wanted to note it in my blog as it turned out really well. My stuffed and baked peaches...

I crushed about 8 speculoos (Belgian version of our Dutch windmill cookies) cookies in a bowl then sprinkled a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder over the large cookie crumbs.

Rub in two knobs of butter with fingers. You want a large crumble look. 

I had a jar of whole peaches but you can use halves as well. Fresh peaches would work too but you may need to bake them longer. Stuff the hole of the peach well with the crumble filling. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle over some honey. Bake in an 180C/375F oven for about 25 minutes. 

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and chocolate mocca beans or chocolate flakes. 

Note: I had so much filling that I was able to make 12 peaches total. You can make the filling and keep in a jar in the fridge to use as you need it. 

Eet smakelijk!

Heidi

Molly's Millions

I would loved to have given this book 4 stars out of 5 but an irritation of something in it brought it down a notch for me. Instead it is 3 stars for me. 

The florist Molly Bailey runs out of her floral shop to buy a lottery ticket at the end of the day. She wins 4.2 million pounds. Molly's family is miserly and she keeps it a secret running off on an adventure to give away money to others to make them happy. Tom MacKenzie gets hold of the story from the start and decides to pack up his car and follow her. What he did not bargain for was the arrival of his daughter Flora on his doorstep the very morning he was to leave. She tags along and makes a great sidekick for him on his chase. 

The story is fun and predictable. It is all that chic lit is supposed to be but I became irritated by some remarks about Americans by Tom. I felt the remarks did not add to the story in the least. It was almost as if the author (who I have contacted by email previously after reading another book and found her such a nice lady) was putting forth her own thoughts just for the sake of them. I was amazed as I found them inappropriate. It is my own opinion and many may read this and not think twice about it but I come from a background where some things need not be said in life.

Happy reading!
Heidi

The Holiday Home

This is the second time I have read a book written by someone I see regularly on a TV program. I know of Fern Britton though hosting Ready, Steady, Cook many years ago and more recently through her fabulous new show The Great Allotment Challenge. So I was unsure about her being an author until reading The Holiday Home. I will be reading her other books now knowing what a fun book she writes. 

This book combined a beautiful Georgian house on the coast of Cornwall, a less than perfect family, two sisters who to spite their sibling rivalry obviously love each other, the characters of the Cornwall village and a number of surprises thrown in to stir things all up. A recipe for a good summer read!


Happy reading!
Heidi

The Tattered Quilt

This book follows The Half Stitched Quilt Club. I loved it and was not sure how Wanda E. Brunstetter would be able to follow up that amusing story. The story continues following yet another of Emma's quilt classes. These six students are once again so different from each other and most unimaginable as beginning quilters. Some have come to Emma's class through connections to those in her previous class. There is Jan's bossy busybody neighbor Selma, Carmen who is Paul's sister-in-law coming as a reporter to get a story on the Amish, Terry who works with Jan as a roofer, Blaine who is Stan's fishing buddy, Anna who is a young Amish girl who was signed up by her mother to learn quilting although she is uninterested and Cheryl who decides to take the class when she brings her 85 year old grandmother's quilt to Emma to repair.

The story will pull you in Wanda E. Brunstetter's magical way to draw you to the side of each character. You cannot help but feel that you are there watching the quilt classes with each unique person who not only learns to do patchwork but also piece their lives into something more than when they started.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Amish fiction or quilt fiction. It will make you smile and even has another surprising twist in the end.

Happy reading!
Heidi

A nice soak, summer reads and ice cream.....

This is a book review with a twist. Do you have a favorite place to read a book? I do...well more than one place really but this one gives me total relaxation. I have a Kindle that I read from but still have a good library full of real books as I love to read in the bathtub where I just finished my latest book yesterday...

My summer reads selection is on my windowsill ...

There is nothing like soaking for a long time in a bubble bath while enjoying a good book...

My latest book was Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements. This was the first thing I have read from this author. It is a perfect summer read...light, romantic with drama along the way and full of ice cream. Good thing I was in the bath reading this or I might have reached out for ice cream each time I read a chapter. *grins*

Anna and Imogen are sisters who unexpectly inherit their grandmother's business when she passes away suddenly. Vivien has had an ice cream shop in Brighton for ages. While it used to be a major attraction on the seafront, times have seen this ice cream parlour fall into disrepair. Vivien had been a major force in the lives of Anna and Imo so they decide to forge ahead and revive the shop into an improved retro version of what their grandmother started while bringing it upmarket with innovative ice creams, sorbets and granitas. Anna even goes to Italy to learn from the masters of ice cream. But there are many hurtles to get over when starting up and the sisters need to tap into their fighting spirit to battle on in spite of problems. 

The characters in the book are really wonderful. They are, as in real life, like a mixed box of chocolates that make up a family. Vivien is at the helm and is larger than life. Even though she passes away at the beginning of the story, her spirit is in the ice cream parlour and watching over her granddaughters throughout the book. She helps them to stay focused on the business and find a way to make it work. We meet the entire family when Vivien dies, as we meet Tom and Jan who are the sisters' parents and Uncle Martin and Aunt Francoise. Tom dives into a depression after loosing his mother. He is too busy dealing with his own lost feelings to help his daughter's. But from the beginning, he and Jan show faith in Anna and Imo. 

The sisters are very different from each other in personality. Anna has a steady job and a relationship. She just bought her first home. She has a hobby of loving good food. Imogen however is a restless type. She is in Thailand when her grandmother dies. When she has a dream, she goes after it. Her dream could not be further from ice cream but her love of her family brings her home and keeps her there to help the shop get back on its feet. 

This book is one that makes you cheer to the two sisters. You want them to succeed and life to be good for them. Life is not always black and white and people do impulsive things but it can all come together if you try hard. To me, this was a bit of the theme behind this story. I really enjoyed it. 

Happy reading!

Heidi

Falling to Pieces

Falling to Pieces is the first in the quilt shop murder mysteries and my first book by Vannetta Chapman. I already just downloaded the second book to my tablet since I really enjoyed this one.

Callie moves to Shipshewana after her aunt passes away. She intends to sort out her aunt's things and sell her quilt shop, then move on. She meets three Amish women on the first day in the quilt shop. Deborah, one of the woman, convinces her to auction their quilts for them on eBay. Little does Callie know that this will seem to start something ending in murder. Or so it seems. But both Callie and Deborah want to get to the bottom of the truth even putting themselves in the firing line.
I enjoyed the rawness of Callie in this book. She is a widow who is in search of something in life but does not seem sure what. She comes to Shipshewana to simply tie up all life's loose ends for that moment. But a truth in a quilter's life is when you are least searching for the right fabric, you find it. So is the reality of life for Callie too it seems. Her contact with the Amish and Deborah in particular effect her with their warmth. I am looking forward to seeing if the next in this series continues as well as the first book. 

Happy reading!
Heidi

What Would Jane Austen Do?

What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown really deserves 3,5 out of 5 stars. I would like to have given it 4 stars but found two parts a bit inappropriate for the Jane Austen theme. More about that in a moment...

Eleanor arrives in England for a JA conference. When she gets to the hotel, she finds her room has been cancelled instead of rebooked to a single room after the break up of her relationship. The only room left is in the haunted old tower of the hotel. Haunted supposedly by the ghosts of two sisters who used to live in the old manor house during Regency times. Eleanor doesn't believe in ghosts so she accepts the room. But soon she discovers that the ghosts are very real and she agrees to help them change their destiny by going back in time. They even agree to arrange for her to meet Jane Austen herself. Eleanor will agree to anything to get some sleep. 

She awakens to find she really has travelled back in time. She is introduced as the sisters widowed cousin from The Colonies who has come to visit during a house party. 

This book is great fun. Eleanor has to fumble her way through the customs of the time and does it with surprising ease. She is constantly asking herself "What would Jane Austen do?" which gets her through some situations. The book is a humorous and fun referral to many of the stereotypes of JA books. It pulls you in like a JA book where you find yourself wondering if Anne and Captain Wentworth, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy or Emma and Mr. Knightley will really get together in the end. I enjoyed Eleanor as a heroine who fumbles her way through history.

So why only three stars, you ask?

Unfortunately, there were two scenes in the book which I found went off from being very JA to being (especially chapter 15) simply pornographic. I was really sorry these were put in the book as it brought the book down for me and did nothing to add to the rest of the atmosphere which was spot on. Still, the book was great fun and I would recommend it to any Jane fans out there...well, maybe with skipping a few pages during the two scenes between Eleanor and Lord Shermont.

Happy reading!
Heidi