Stupid Story, As We Know It,

So about a week ago we decorated for Christmas. Fine. But I have placemats which I use for Christmas time. They are dark green with gold poinsettias. I could not find them. Not only that, but I have extra place mats of the ones I use every day. Because of their tendency to curl, the Christmas ones that is, I have, for years, store them under the mattress on Matt's bed but because of a) bed bugs and b) new carpet in his bedroom, they were not there. So where on earth were they. I think I searched every nook and cranny in this apartment and in our storage area, but no luck. Finally, Saturday afternoon, I realised there was a plastic storage box in the computer room which I hadn't checked, and yes, they were there. I can't believe it took that long to figure out where they were. I did throw out a lot of stuff during the bed bug phase earlier this year, but I really didn't think I had thrown these out.

There is one heck of a storm crossing the United States at the moment (Sunday) although from what I can see, it is not expected to visit our neck of the woods. On the TV they were talking snowfalls of 30 inches in some areas, yuk.

A friend of mine, Carrie Butler, is releasing her new book today, It is called As We Know It and I had the privilege of proofing it for her a while back. It is a very unusual story and and excellent read. I have always been nervous about earthquakes and this is the background of Carrie's story. At the moment only Amazon seems to have a paperback.

About the Book: Deep beneath the ocean, stretching hundreds of miles alongside the Pacific Northwest coastline, lies the Cascadia subduction zone—a fault on the verge of unleashing a catastrophic earthquake, thirty times more powerful than the San Andreas. Unfortunately, like most tourists, Elena Cordova is oblivious.

She’s got her own pent-up stress to deal with, a humiliating breakup that’s driven her to end her tenure as a human doormat once and for all. So, when a pickpocket makes off with the last remnant of her relationship, she takes action—only to get trapped with him when disaster strikes.

Now, if either one hopes to survive, they’ll have to get past their initial impressions and work together . . . because in fifteen minutes, half the town will be underwater.

Ebooks:

• Amazon Kindle (US)
• Barnes & Noble
  
• iTunes
• Google Play
• Kobo
• Smashwords

Note: Amazon links also available in UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL, JP, BR, CA, MX, AU, and IN.

About Carrie: Carrie Butler is an award-winning author and the owner of Forward Authority full-service studio—not to mention an inbound-certified marketer with a penchant for superhero socks and Firefly. Time away from her desk is spent playing with her rescue pup, yelling at the TV during hockey season, and indulging in target-based recreation. Otherwise, you’re likely to find her glued to her chair, discovering new ways to share her daydreams...


Here's an interesting recipe from England. What to do with all the leftovers after Christmas. Of course not everyone will have all these ingredients but it would be a case of mix and match I guess.

Christmas Dinner Pie

This mouth-watering Christmas dinner pie has to be one of the best ways to use up your leftover

Christmas food. It's the perfect Boxing Day treat, serving around 6 people and taking just 1 hr to prepare and cook. This delicious pie is layered with leftover turkey, ham, stuffing as well as veggies too like carrots, Brussels sprouts and red cabbage. The shortcrust pastry pie keeps all of the flavours and juices neatly tucked inside ready for the big reveal. This recipe uses a genius time saving cheat of readymade shortcrust pastry but if you prefer making your own go for it! Serve with plenty of gravy and watch this meaty pie disappear in seconds.

500 g is 17.6 oz
200 g is 7.06 oz

500 g shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
200 g braised red cabbage
200 g sage and onion stuffing
200 g baked ham
200 g roasted carrots
200 g cranberry sauce
200 g cooked turkey
handful Brussels Sprouts, halved
200 g sausagemeat stuffing
gravy, to serve

1. Lightly grease the base and outside of an up-turned 18cm round cake tin, line the outside of the base with baking parchment and cover the sides and edges with tin foil. Heat the oven to 200C, gas 6.

2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a rough 32cm circle. Place over the outside of the lined cake tin, fold the pastry around the sides to line the sides tightly and trim. Brush with egg wash and chill for 30 mins, then bake for 20 mins, keeping it upturned.

3. Collect and roll out the pastry trimmings into a 20cm circle and chill for 30 mins.

4. Once the pastry has cooled, carefully remove the cake tin, plug any holes with any extra pastry and begin to fill the pie. Spoon in the braised red cabbage, stuffing, ham, carrots, cranberry sauce, turkey, sprouts, sausage stuffing and top with the pastry lid.

5. Brush with egg wash, cut a cross in the centre of the lid and bake for a further 20 mins. Slice and serve warm with gravy.

Servings: 6

Tips
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Reheat thoroughly before serving again.

Source: GoodtoKnow

Have a great day