Cassa Fire, The White Stuff,

 Wonderful news today, The Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavenaugh's book, Cassa Fire has been translated into Turkish.

The Title translates to Shotgun Fire. Maybe Yildiz is their name for Cassa while Atesi seems to mean fire.

A real winter's day today (Tuesday) - it snowed for hours. Around 2 ish we ventured out to go to the store and grocery shop. Didn't go to the Mandarin as our friend didn't want to drive in the snow. We parked in the underground garage to get groceries and when we left were bombarded by noisy rain. Think it was on the point of becoming freezing rain - I'd rather have snow than that. Very dangerous driving. I learned something from a fellow bowler which I had never heard before. When we have snow days here and the kids don't come in to school, teachers are expected to turn up to the nearest school to where they live. It doesn't have to be their school. No show no pay I guess. Seems a tad odd to me, what on earth would they do all day?

Think today I will stay in and do a bit of cooking. Nothing to elaborate but... Not much reason to go out.

This looks pretty easy to do and it only has five ingredients. And, as it is Weight Watchers, it is obviously pretty healthy.

Weight Watcher's Deep-Dish Pizza Casserole

A recipe from the Weight Watchers 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook. Very easy to make, large

portions and only 6 points per serving

1 lb ground round
1 (15 ounce) canchunky Italian-style tomatoes
cooking spray (Pam)
1 (10 ounce) canrefrigerated pizza dough
6 oz shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Cook meat in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring until it crumbles. Drain, if necessary, and return to skillet. Add tomatoes, and cook until heated through.

3. While meat cooks, coat a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Unroll pizza crust dough, and press into bottom and halfway up sides of the baking dish. Top the pizza crust with meat mixture.

4. Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 12 minutes. Top with cheese, and bake 5 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Cool 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 6 servings. Each serving is 6 Weight Watcher's points.

5. Serve with a salad mixed field greens and a fat-free or low-fat vinaigrette.

Servings: 6

Have a great day
 

Promotion, Olympics, King George VI.

The Ninja Captain, Godfather of the blogging world, Alex J. Cavenaugh, requires a little help from the community. I confess I forgot and was reminded by reading someone else’s blog. He is being featured in a special promotion by Amazon as follows:
From February 4 – 10, CassaFire will be 99 cents at Amazon and my publisher’s site. This is the first time they have ever run a promotional special like this and have ads running at several sites, including BookBub. I’m the guinea pig, so hopefully the promotion rocks the house! 
It’s also featured today at Kindle Books and Tips.
I have all three of the books in this trilogy, in Kindle form, and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Alex has an original way of thinking and creates a great world out in space. He comes up with a very unexpected twist at the end. Sorry, don’t Tweet.

Watched a little bit of the skating at the winter Olympics on Thursday night. The Russian pair Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov were absolutely brilliant as usual and gave a beautiful performance. The Canadian pair Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford did an almost faultless skate as well, very impressive. Then there was Evgeni Plushenko who, at 32, is considered an old man in skating. He did an absolutely wonderful skate too and dominated the men’s singles and the opening ceremonies aren’t until tomorrow.

Thursday to me, also, reminded me of the death of King George VI some 62 years ago on February 6. If you were around at the time, it is one of those dates which stick in your mind. Together with a photo taken at the funeral which, they said at the time was somewhat unique with three queens at the graveside, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth. Quite a sight.

I’m in the mood for chocolate – for a change – so when I came across this one in Cooking.com, I had to share.

Chocolate Peanut Sweeties

Source: Taste of Home


5 Dozen

INGREDIENTS
1 cup peanut butter*
1/2 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
5 dozen miniature pretzel twists (about 3 cups)
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
In a mixing bowl, beat peanut butter and butter until smooth. Beat in confectioners' sugar until combined.
Shape into 1-in. balls; press one on each pretzel. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until peanut butter mixture is firm, about 1 hour.
In a microwave-safe bowl or heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and oil.
Dip the peanut butter ball into chocolate. Return to baking sheet, pretzel side down. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Store in the refrigerator.
*Please Note: Reduced-fat or generic-brand peanut butter is not recommended for use in this recipe.

Have a great day

Reading, Rain, and Road Works. Bolt.

I have just finished reading Snake Skin by C.J. Lyons, a Lucy Guardino FBI thriller, and absolutely loved it. I have no idea who recommended it to me, but I cannot recommend it highly enough to those of you who like thrillers. I am just bought the second one, Blood Stained, for my Kindle. I’m not sure why I haven’t been writing about what I have been reading lately, some of the stuff has been a bit mediocre, but some have been excellent. Two that come to mind are Cassa Star and Cassa Fire by Alex J. Cavanaugh both of which are sci fi and set in a space world of the future, right up my street. I am now waiting for the third in the series with anticipation.

Hey, how about that, its been raining. We are supposed to get about a foot of rain before its all over, cannot but hope. Had my annual visit to the optometrist yesterday morning and we discussed the drought and then the Olympics. He ended up saying that if you poured enough money into your athletes you could virtually buy yourself gold medals. Guess Canada hasn’t been spending enough, we only have one. He said the UK had poured a lot of money into their athletes in the last 9 years since they won the bid to host the Games. They have certainly accumulated a few golds. 24 last time I looked.

Driving to the optometrists we got lost, yes really, there are road works on the street leading directly to them and the detour signs are not very good at all, then we tried to go ways we knew although obviously we didn’t know them as well as we thought. We got there about 1 minute to the appointment. There is a joke in Canada that we have 7 months winter and 5 months road works, certainly seems to be true at the moment. Yesterday morning was a right fiasco for us; not only that, we knew about the roads and could have started off a different way, but neither of us remembered. Don’t go that way very often.

Finally managed to see film of Usain Bolt winning the 200 metre. The Jamaicans must be very proud that all three medals were won by Jamaicans. Bolt doesn’t seem to worry about records, when he knows he is winning, he slows down.

These crêpes appealed to me when I saw them, I am trying to eat a bit more healthily at the moment.

Summer Vegetable Crêpes

From EatingWell: July/August 2008

Crêpes aren't just for dessert—they make a quick and savory weeknight dinner. Here they're filled with ricotta cheese, green beans, zucchini and corn and topped with a chive-cream sauce. Don't skip the step of placing a piece of parchment or wax paper under each crêpe as you fill it—without it, the crêpes are tricky to roll. Serve with: A tossed salad.

4 servings Ingredients

• 1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives, divided, plus more for garnish
• 3 tablespoons low-fat milk
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped zucchini
• 1 1/4 cups chopped green beans
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels, (from 1 large ear; see Tip)
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 4 9-inch “ready-to-use” crêpes, (see Tip)

Preparation

1. Stir sour cream, 1/4 cup chives, milk, lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl until combined. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini, green beans and corn and cook, stirring, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to low; stir in ricotta, Monterey Jack, the remaining 1/4 cup chives, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook, stirring gently, until the cheese is melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. To roll crêpes, place one on a piece of parchment or wax paper (or leave it on the piece of plastic separating the crêpes in the package). Spoon one-fourth of the vegetable-cheese mixture (about 3/4 cup) down the center of the crêpe. Use the paper (or plastic) to help you gently roll the crêpe around the filling. Place the crêpe seam-side down on a dinner plate. Repeat with the remaining crêpes and filling. Serve each crêpe topped with 2 tablespoons of the reserved sauce and more chives, if desired.

Nutrition

Per serving :302 Calories; 17 g Fat; 8 g Sat; 6 g Mono; 46 mg Cholesterol; 25 g Carbohydrates; 15 g Protein; 3 g Fiber; 687 mg Sodium; 485 mg Potassium

1 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 vegetable, 1 1/2 medium-fat meat, 1 fat

Tips & Notes

• Tips: To remove kernels, stand a cob on its stem end in a bowl and slice them off with a sharp, thin-bladed knife.
• “Ready-to-use” crêpes are fast and convenient. Look for them in the produce section of the market or near refrigerated tortillas.

Have a great day