The Last Templar: The Review

Book number four is completed. Not bad for six weeks into the reading challenge. The Last Templar is Raymond Khoury's first novel. I choose this book because I was intrigued by the subject of the Knight Templars when I read The Davinci Code. It takes place in present day New York, but it does have flashbacks to the late 1200's and the fall of the Templars. Tess, an archaeologist, and Reilly, an FBI agent, begin their journey after and violent robbery of Vatican treasures at the Met. I'm not going to say much more because I don't want to give away any secrets. I will say I was a little disappointed by the ending. I was expecting more and it got to a point where it was no longer believable. It was still a good read and I would try another one of his books. As I was searching for a picture on Amazon, I discovered the movie is coming out on DVD on May 5. I'll add it to my Netflix. I'm not expecting much from it though. I learned that lesson when I watched The Davinci Code.

My next book choice is from a well known author I have never read: False Memory by Dean Koontz. My friend recommended this book and I read the first chapter. It seems intriguing. It will be the longest book I have read thus far, but I still think it will go by pretty fast.

Milk

CAUTION: Contains spoilers, but it was based on a true story, so how much of a spoiler can this post really be.

Last night I watched the movie Milk. It's about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to public office. It takes place in San Francisco during the 1970's. As gay men began flooding into the Castro, Harvey decided they needed someone in office to represent the issues important to all minority groups, not just the homosexuals. After many years of trying to win the election, he finally succeeds; unfortunately a short time into his term, he is assassinated by a fellow county supervisor, Dan White (which is the trial that coined the phrase "The Twinkie Defense").

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. Sean Penn did a fantastic job portraying Harvey. To recreate the atmosphere of the 1970's in San Francisco, a lot of old real life footage was used. I loved all of the real news reports, interviews, and home movies that were used. While I watched the movie, it got me thinking. Even though this all happened in the 70's, it is still so relevant almost 40 years later. It makes me sad that we are still fighting for basic civil rights. Milk was fighting a repeal of the law stating that one could not discriminate due to a person's sexual orientation and in this recent election, we are still fighting the same thing. it angers me to know there are still these ignorant bigots out there who think it's okay to take away someones basic human rights. Anita Bryant, was villain in this movie. The things she said were just appalling! She was trying to get people fired from teaching if they were gay or supported gay rights. Her reasoning was that gay teachers would use their position to "recruit" children into a gay lifestyle. What???? How can someone with this type of thinking seriously think this is okay? And you wonder why I don't want anything to do with religion. I know there will always be people out there who believe these type of thoughts are okay, but I can always hope that just maybe one day, they will see how discriminatory they are being.

Hooray For Veggies!

Spring has sprung and Jim and I finally got to plant our garden. It's something we look forward to every year. Saturday we went to Sierra Nursery to get our plants. We love this place because they have the best selection of tomatoes and peppers. In addition to plants, they also have all types of rocks and landscaping material. Last year we rocked a large section of our backyard for less then $500 dollars and that included delivery. I highly recommend checking it out if you can. After the nursery, we made a quick stop at Lowes to get the rest of the soil. We used a mixture of garden soil, steer manure, existing dirt, and Amend. We did this last year and it seemed to work well. Jim also will feed the plants every week or two with Liquid Miracle Grow. He swears by it!

While I worked on the other side of the garden, Jim went to work on the planter boxes. Jim and his step dad made them a few years ago and they have held up very well. This is the third year we have been using them. Here you can see Jim working hard at mixing his soil concoction.

This year we got six pepper plants, five tomatoes, two cucumbers, onions, and corn. Normally we get a zucchini or two but we decided against it this year. We always seem to have problems with them. The plants start out great, we get four or five fruits, and then for no reason they die. I think it is a pollination issue. Last year we tried pollinating them ourselves by using q-tips, but that just got to be a pain. So this year we stuck with the plants we knew worked. The only new things we are trying are corn and onions.

In addition to the planter boxes, we have two sections of land on the other side of the lawn that we use for the cucumbers, tomato overflow and whatever else we want.

Here is a list of the type of plants we got

Tomatoes: Early Girl, Abraham Lincoln, Fantastic, Black Cherry, and Snow White

Cucumbers: Lemon and Diva

Peppers: Early Jalapeno, Jimmy Nardello, Giant Aconcagua, Cherry Bomb, Tabasco, & Serrano

Corn: Silver Queen Onions: Sweet Walla Walla

I have high hopes for this years crop. If everything produces, I will have all the ingredients I need to make my favorite salsa all summer long. Oh an I almost forgot, we also got two types of lettuce: Giant Red and Jericho. So here's to gardens everywhere!

A Little Front Yard Make Over

I've been wanting to tackle my front yard for some time. Eventually we are going to do a complete re-do by ripping out the lawn and doing a whole water wise landscape. For right now I am just going to settle for a yard that doesn't look like a jungle. This morning I finally got to it. I trimmed all the over grown bushes, dug up the plants I no longer wanted, and mowed the lawn. It's nothing special, but I think a major improvement. What do you think?

Before:

After:

Tamale Time

Last week my mom and I went to a tamale making class and had a great time. I always had this impression that tamale making took a long time and was a very difficult process. This is merely a myth. Tamales are actually quite simple, they just take a long time to steam. I'll start with the simple recipe:

Makes 5 dozen tamales

5 lbs prepared masa (this should be purchased the day you plan to make the tamales)

5 lbs of cooked meat (place meat in a crock pot and cook over night until the meat shreds easily)

1 bag of corn husks

Sauce

20 dried red California chilies

4 cloves garlic

3 tsp flour
salt to taste

To prepare the corn husks, soak overnight in a water to clean and soften the husks.

To prepare the sauce, remove the seeds from the chilies and then soak in water for about 5 minutes. After soaking, place chilies in a blender with water. Blend until no large chucks of chilies are seen. Add garlic, salt and flour. Put mixture in a sauce pan and simmer on a low heat for 10-15 minutes. Make sure you are stirring while it is simmering. Once the sauce is done cooking, add it to the shredded meat and mix. If you have any sauce left over, it can be frozen and used as enchilada sauce.

To make the tamales, take a corn husk and spread masa in it (see photo)

Put a scoop of meat on top of the masa. Fold in the sides of the corn husk and then fold up the bottom:

Once you have your tamales made, they need to be steamed for about an hour to cook them. Take a large pot and place a veggie steamer basket at the bottom. Add water to the pot until it is just barley touching the bottom of the steamer basket. Place the tamales in the basket with the open ends facing upward. Be sure to keep and eye on the water level as you're steaming. It is a good idea to keep a kettle of boiling water going so you can add water to the pot without changing the cooking temperature.

Once they are steamed you can eat them or freeze them for another time.

Now you are done and you can fan yourself for all the hard work!

The Blood Artists: A Review

This is the third book I've finished for the reading challenge. It was a scientific thriller about a deadly virus that starts in Africa, and mysteriously moves to America in small controlled outbreaks. It is set in Atlanta, about five years in the future, at the center for disease control. The main characters, Stephen and Peter, once friends and now enemies, must work together to find the source of the infection and try and stop it. With the help of Melanie, one of the only known survivors of the virus, it is a race against time.

Over all I enjoyed the book very much. The writing itself wasn't fantastic, but the storyline was original and it kept me wanting to read more. It was a quick read and your interest is grabbed right at the beginning. I classify this as a good airplane book and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a different type of thriller. This is Chuck Hogan's second book. I'm thinking of reading his debut novel, The Standoff, down the road. We will see. So many books, so little time!

On to book number four! My next selection is The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury. I picked this one because I was intrigued by the subject matter while reading The Davinci Code. I'm anticipating another fast read. Happy reading!

The Witch of Cologne: A Review

I finally finished book number 2 of my Spring Reading Challenge. It was fantastic! I'm sorry that it has come to an end. This book was originally chosen entirely because of its cover. When I picked it out I didn't even read the inside to see what it was about. It did take me awhile to read because there was a lot going on with names, places, etc. The author also had a huge vocabulary and used a lot of ethnic terms, so I was always flipping back and forth between the glossary and the cast of characters. The book is a historical novel set in Germany during the late 1600's. The main character, Ruth, is a Jewish midwife who goes on trial for heresy. When a Detlef von Tennen, canon and cousin to the archbishop, suspects that something other than religion is driving the prosecution, Detlef is determined to ensure that justice is done. After he joins the investigation, he finds that he is falling for Ruth. Overall this is a love story set during a not so great period of history. The writing just flows along, and even the subject matter that is hard to stomach doesn't seem so bad. Jim kept calling the book "Rochelle, Rochelle an erotic tale of a girl from Milan to Minsk," after he saw the author had a book of erotic tales published before this one. There are some romantic moments but I wouldn't call it an erotic tale be any means. All in all I give it 2 enthusiastic thumbs up! She has another book called Soul that I want to read too.

My next book is under the category of: A Scientific Thriller

It's called The Blood Artists, by Chuck Hogan. I'm not sure how I stumbled across this book at the library. I'm guessing the title stood out to me. So far I'm enjoying it. I think it will be a fast read and I like the fact I understand the medical terminology that comes up. It makes me feel smart, if only for a moment.