It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life…

I enjoyed a reasonably quiet week after enduring the chaos of the school holidays, the younger three kids are back at school while the oldest is studying for her final exams later this week and next. Still between Scouts which this week includes a cultural night on Thursday for which we need to contribute a main and dessert to share, and an overnight camp this weekend, the start of basketball season for Aleah, and an increased training schedule for Simariah in preparation for her gym teams participation in the Gymnaestrada in Adelaide next month, quiet doesn’t last long!

One of the meals my kids and I will be cooking for Thursday night are these tasty and easy Chicken and Cheese Balls so I thought I would share the recipe.

Chicken and Cheese Balls

Ingredients

• 1 kg (2lbs) of minced (ground) chicken
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 cup tomato (ketchup) sauce
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 3 beaten eggs
• 2 1/2 cups of breadcrumbs
• 2 tsp of Italian herbs
• 1 chicken stock cube (crumbled)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 12 cubes cheese

Method

• Heat oven to 190C (350F). Line baking trays with non stick baking paper or foil sprayed with non stick spray
• In a large bowl mix breadcrumbs, onion, sauce, garlic, herbs, eggs, stick cube and S&P
• Use your hands to mix in minced (ground) chicken.
• Form a ball with the mixture and push cheese cube into center and fold over so it is in the center of the ball. Repeat till all the mixture is used. *If you are making these for a family meal then make the balls about the size of a child’s fist – you should get about 12-14 patties **If you are making them for a party then make the balls cocktail size, you should get about 30
• Place on trays and flatten slightly
• Bake for 20 – 25 mins, or until meat is no longer pink,  turning after 10 mins
• Serve with potato wedges and salad or on a bun

Yum!

What I Read Last Week

No Place Like Home by Caroline Overington

Nobody But Him by Victoria Purman

Resist by Sarah Crossan

How to Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman

Walking on Trampolines by Frances Whiting

Confessions of a Wild Child: Lucky-The Early Years by Jackie Collins

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Unbreakable {Legion #1} by Kami Garcia ★★★

Review: No Place Like Home by Caroline Overington ★★★★

Review: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ★★★★

AWW Feature & Giveaway: Victoria Purman and Nobody But Him

Review: Nobody But Him by Victoria Purman ★★★★

Review: Declan’s Cross {A Sharpe & Donavon Novel #3} by Carla Neggars ★★★

Review: Resist {Breathe #2} by Sarah Crossan ★★★

What I Am Reading Today

20 of the world’s most popular crime and thriller writers come together, each contributing a chapter before passing on the baton, creating a brilliant thriller with ingenious twists and turns. Perry Christo is a PI with a past. A one-time NYPD homicide cop, his career was ruined when a cops-on-the-take scandal ripped through the department. Though innocent, Perry had no way to prove it, and when he lost his job it was the last nail in the coffin of a strained marriage – his wife left him and took their young daughter with her. In order to drown his anger and grief, Perry throws himself into mindless work as a private investigator for petty crimes. But one day, a call from an Upper East Side matron, Julia Drusilla, throws his world upside down. Julia needs Perry to track down her stunningly beautiful yet hopelessly aimless daughter, Angelina, who has disappeared. Her 21st birthday is around the corner and she is set to inherit her grandfather’s considerable wealth. But as Perry digs deeper into the case, into one suspect after another, he discovers that Angelina may have more to her story than anyone may have realized, and that the person who has threatened her life is now coming after him.

 

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

5th January 1800. Alma Whittaker is born into a perfect Philadelphia winter. Her father, Henry Whittaker, is a bold and charismatic botanical explorer whose vast fortune belies his lowly beginnings as a vagrant in Sir Joseph Banks’ Kew Gardens and as a deck hand on Captain Cook’s HMS Resolution. Alma’s mother, a strict woman from an esteemed Dutch family, is conversant in five living languages (and two dead ones). An independent girl with a thirst for knowledge, it is not long before Alma comes into her own within the world of botany. But as Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she comes to love draws her in the opposite direction. The Signature of All Things is a big novel, about a big century. It soars across the globe from London to Tasmania, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam. Peopled with extraordinary characters – missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses and the quite mad – most of all it has an unforgettable heroine in Alma Whittaker, a woman of the Enlightened Age who stands defiantly on the cusp of the modern.

Sami Macbeth is not a master criminal. He’s not even a minor one. He’s not a jewel thief. He’s not a safe-cracker. He’s not an expert in explosives. Sami plays guitar and wants to be a rock god but keeps getting side-tracked by unforeseen circumstances. Fifty-four hours ago Sami was released from prison. Thirty-six hours ago he slept with the woman of his dreams at the Savoy. An hour ago his train blew up. Now he’s carrying a rucksack through London’s West End and has turned himself into the most wanted terrorist in the country. Fast, funny, hip and violent, Bombproof is a non-stop adventure full of unforgettable characters and a heart-warming hero–Sami Macbeth–a man with the uncanny ability to turn a desperate situation into a hopeless one.

By 1848 famine has ravaged Ireland, and London remains undecided about what to do. A shortage of female labour in Australia offers a kind of solution and so, over the following two years, more than 4000 Irish girls are shipped across vast oceans to an unimaginable world in the new colony. On Sunday 28 October 1849, one of these ships, the Thomas Arbuthnot, sets sail from Plymouth with a cargo of girls under the care of Surgeon-superintendent Charles Strutt. Not the Same Sky tells the story of Honora, Julia, Bridget and Anne. It observes them on the voyage, examining their relationship of trust with Charles Strutt, and follows them from Sydney as they become women of Australia, negotiating their new lives as best they can. A stark, poetic intensity gives these young women historical importance and human presence in an elegant and subtle novel suffused with humour.

‘Me and Ben had been mates since we was boys and if it come to it I knew I would have to be on his side.’ Bobby Blue is caught between loyalty to his only friend, Ben Tobin, and his boss, Daniel Collins, the new Constable at Mount Hay. ‘Ben was not a big man but he was strong and quick as a snake. He had his own breed of pony that was just like him, stocky and reliable on their feet.’ Bobby understands the people and the ways of Mount Hay; Collins studies the country as an archaeologist might, bringing his coastal values to the hinterland. Bobby says, ‘I do not think Daniel would have understood Ben in a million years.’ Increasingly bewildered and goaded to action by his wife, Constable Collins takes up his shotgun and his Webley pistol to deal with Ben. Bobby’s love for Collins’ wilful young daughter Irie is exposed, leading to tragic consequences for them all.

In this always sensible and mildly profane etiquette manual for the modern age Celia Rivenbark addresses real-life quandaries ranging from how to deal with braggy playground moms to wondering if you can have sex in your aunt’s bed on vacation to correctly grieving the dearly departed (hint: it doesn’t include tattoos or truck decals).  Rude Bitches Make Me Tired will provide answers to all your mannerly questions as Celia discusses the social conundrums of our day and age, including: Navigating the agonies of check splitting (“Who had the gorgonzola crumbles and should we really care?”) The baffling aspects of airline travel (such as “Recline Monster” and other animals) The art of the visit (always leave them wanting more . . . much more) Gym and locker etiquette (hint: no one wants to talk to you while you’re buck naked) Office manners (“Loud talkers, cake hawkers, and Britney Sue’s unfortunate cyst”) And much more! Good manners have never been so wickedly funny!

While you are here…

Congratulate the Winner of  Outback Dreams by Rachael Johns Julie S

Enter to Win Nobody But Him by Victoria Purman

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be along to visit you shortly!