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The next day, I ask him what his favorite food is in the middle of Battle Brief…
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
“Chocolate cake. Stop being weird.”If you’ve been around bookstagram, you know that Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros basically broke the internet. I was so excited to get my hands on a copy, but…it didn’t live up to the hype for me. Some of the relationships felt underdeveloped and I didn’t feel as invested in some of the characters because of it. However, the dragons and the relationships between dragon and rider were amazing. I’m glad I stuck with the book because the ending was phenomenal! Though I struggled to get through the first book, I will definitely be reading the second in hopes that it follows the ending of book one!
Fourth Wing is a romance fantasy (romantasy) featuring a deadly military school, dragons, and some angsty love.
I knew I had to make chocolate cake when Xaden confessed it was his favorite. (I really liked Xaden and his storyline and it was one that felt better developed!) I added cinnamon, allspice, and cayenne to my favorite chocolate cake recipe to add a spicy element because, fire breathing dragons. And because…Xaden.
I filled the cake and crumb coated it with chocolate ganache.
And then I used palette knives plus chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream to decorate the cake with individual scales. This cake was phenomenal.
For the buttercream, I used my favorite Italian Meringue Buttercream recipe from Erin McDowell. And added some melted chocolate.
Xaden says his favorite food is chocolate cake and I’d like to think he’d be very happy with this particular chocolate cake. What’s your favorite food?
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Anytime someone claims they hate turkey, I can’t help but think…you haven’t had the right turkey. I will admit that turkey takes a lot of work to make it good! But, my gosh, all that effort can really pay off for a delicious holiday turkey. I’ve been making this turkey every Thanksgiving for several years and it is a crowd pleaser! It’s flavorful, moist, and just delicious.
It gets brined and a butter-herb rub. It takes a few days to prepare. But that’s why we only do it once a year!
This recipe is a combination of Alton Brown’s Good Eats Roast Turkey and Anne Burrell’s Brined Herb-Crusted Turkey with Apple Cider Gravy.
Brined and Herb Butter Thanksgiving Turkey
Ingredients:
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen turkey
For the brine:
1 cup of kosher salt
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
1 gallon (16 cups) of vegetable broth or stock
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons of allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons of chopped candied ginger
1 gallon of heavily iced water
For the herb crust:
1 bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves finely chopped
1 bunch of fresh sage, leaves finely chopped
3 sticks butter, room temperature
kosher salt
For the gravy:
1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 large or 2 small carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
4 cloves garlic, smashed
5 bay leaves
1 bunch thyme
kosher salt
1 quart (4 cups) of chicken stock, divided
Directions:
- 2 to 3 days before roasting:
- Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
- [MONDAY NIGHT] Combine the vegetable broth, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature and refrigerate.
- Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat:
- [TUESDAY MORNING] Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
- [WEDNESDAY NIGHT] Remove the bird from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the brine.
- To prepare the turkey for cooking: Remove the turkey from the brine the night before roasting and pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels.
- Combine the rosemary, sage, and butter for the herb crust in a small bowl. Season to taste, with kosher salt. Work the butter under the skin of the turkey and massage it into the breasts and the legs. Massage the butter on the outside of the skin as well. Tie the legs together over the breast so they will protect it during cooking and help keep it moist and juicy.
- Gravy prep: Put the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme in a roasting pan and season with salt. Arrange the turkey on top of the veggies and refrigerate overnight UNCOVERED! Yes, that’s right, uncovered. This will help the skin dry out and become really brown and crispy. Make sure there is no raw food near the turkey in the refrigerator. After refrigerating overnight, the turkey is ready to go in the oven.
- [THURSDAY–THE DAY!] Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
- Put 2 cups chicken stock in the bottom of the roasting pan. Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 475 degrees F for 35 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest. loosely covered with foil or a large mixing for 30 minutes before carving. Follow the temperature, though, and not the time! You don’t want to end up with an undercooked turkey after all this effort.
- Gravy: (Here are Anne’s instructions, but I usually just follow this recipe from Alton) Strain all the veggies over a bowl to separate them from the stock/mixture. Discard the veggies. Skim off the fat and add it to the roast pan. This is the fat for the roux. Put the roasting pan over 2 burners and over a low heat and whisk in the flour. Cook until the mixture looks like wet sand, about 4 to 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the remaining chicken stock plus an additional 1 cup of chicken broth. Cook until the mixture has thickened and reached a gravy consistency.
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She pulls the zipper open, grabs a silver square and unwraps it, eats it, and another, and another–
Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane
This one is for eating my chocolate–
This one is for stealing my boy–
This one is for ruining my–
Tears and sobbing start their procession but Chrissy won’t have it. She wills herself stoic, demands calm and comfort via this act of personal chocolate revolution.Barnett is coming home for a visit and not, as his mother hopes, to take over the farm. And he has news – he’s getting married. Chrissy knows her son is gay, but she’s spent the last decade plus in denial. With his impending nuptials, Chrissy is forced to confront her feelings about her son’s relationship and her soon-to-be son-in-law.
Big Gay Wedding is a sweet and very funny rom com about family expectations, finding your own path, and reconciliation. I highly recommend it if you’re in the mood for a light and funny read that will pack a thoughtful punch.
In December 2019 (yes, right before the world shut down), I visited Belgium. I sampled, purchased, and basically bathed in all the chocolates. I was so amazed at the different styles from the different chocolatiers! I was so inspired and returned home wanting to learn how to make chocolates.
Fast forward to reading the funny, endearing, family drama, rom com Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane. I was thrilled that the chocolate scene was so pivotal and so hilarious and knew I had to make some chocolate bars. There’s also this whole bit on the farm with mushrooms and I knew I had to pull in the mushrooms somehow.
Turns out, there’s a mushroom intended for desserts! Have you heard of candy cap mushrooms? There’s apparently a popular ice cream flavor at Disneyland you can get that’s made with candy cap mushrooms. And the mushrooms smell just like maple syrup which was mind-blowing!
I filled my dark chocolate bars with a mushroom infused caramel. While the chocolate was quite good, I could have done with the mushroom aftertaste!
I used this chocolate mold for the bars and the design was so pretty!
For the painted design on the chocolate bars, I used my baking brushes and colored cocoa butter. The lighter shade is Roxy & Rich cocoa butter in tiffany blue. The darker shade is Roxy & Rich in night blue.
Check out my Instagram reel for Big Gay Wedding.
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There’s this tender scene in Red, White and Royal Blue where Alex escapes DC for a bit and goes back home to Texas to visit his dad. It’s quiet. It’s a break from his normal life. And it’s a time for Alex to reflect on his relationship with Henry while spending time with his family. Alex prepares ribs in the kitchen while his dad prepares etole then the family and Henry sit down at the table together.
They eat later that evening, big piles of elotes, pork tamales with salsa verde, a clay pot of frijoles charros, ribs. Henry gamely piles his plate with some of each and eyeballs it as if waiting for it to reveal its secrets to him, and Alex realizes Henry has never eaten barbecue with his hands before.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston
Alex demonstrates and watches with poorly concealed glee as Henry gingerly picks up a rib with his fingertips and considers his approach, cheering as Henry dives in face-first and rips a hunk of meat off with his teeth.
Red, White & Royal Blue is a rom com about Alex, First Son of the United States, who falls for his sworn enemy Henry, the Prince of England. Alex doesn’t want to create any drama for his mother who is running for re-election, while Henry is firmly in the closet. Because they’re an ocean away from each other, a lot of their relationship takes place over the most tender, sweet, romantic emails.
I recommend RWRB if you enjoy a romance with quippy dialogue, slow-build, enemies to lovers, and just sheer adorableness.
To recreate the Texas meal, I followed this ribs recipe. I don’t particularly like ribs, but this recipe was pretty good. Brice, who does like ribs, loved the recipe.
Don’t tell anyone, but the tamales are from Costco.
The frijoles charros were delicious and I’ll definitely be making the dish again. It was like a thinner chilli. For staging, I used these adorable clay bowls. They’d be excellent for a dinner party with a soup appetizer!
I added a splash of the fresh salsa verde to my bowl of frijoles charros and it was excellent.
Also, I’d never tried etoles before this meal. I’ve always wanted to, but just never got around to it! I can now say that etoles live up to all the hype and will be on regular rotation in our home.
Also, because I can’t help myself, I made jaffa cakes for Prince Henry. They were his go-to stress eating food and I couldn’t leave him with a rack of ribs when, like me, he has a sweet tooth.
Check out my Instagram Reel for Red, White & Royal Blue!
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Last year, Darcy went from ecstatic about starting school to…not wanting to talk about it. Books were an amazing vehicle to talk about how we can have lots of feelings at once (excited and nervous), as well as to talk about what school is like and what she could expect. She eventually shared her concerns and it was so helpful to be able to talk through her fears before she started school.
This year, she’s just excited to get back to all of her friends and can’t wait to start. The two of us made homemade peanut butter and almond butter. I used the same method for each nut butter and added a bit of honey to each for a little sweetness.
Then we made some freezer jam. I made two batches–raspberry and mixed berry. I just substituted the strawberries. And I heated the berries and sugar over the stove until boiling and allowed to simmer for five minutes. Then I added the Certo. The stove step isn’t in the original recipe, but I get nervous that the jam won’t properly set.
The nut butters and jelly made for delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to pack up in her favorite bentgo. For extra fun, we like to use these sandwich stamps.
We’ve rounded up several favorite picture books that are great for showing what school is like, as well as for talking about feelings and how to process them.
Did we miss any? What are some of your favorite back-to-school books?
The Pigeon Has to Go to School by Mo Willems – the pigeon is scared to go to school…until he realizes all the great stuff he’ll get to do at school.
ABCs of Kindness by Patricia Hegarty, ill by Summer Macon. I hope everyone is kind to my children when they go to school. And I hope that they’re kind to all their classmates. This sweet boardbook is a great vehicle for finding different ways to be kind.
If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff, ill by Felicia Bond. Discover a typical day at school with Mouse and his friend.
Simon Seahorse Into the Kelp Forest by Cora Reef, ill by Jake McDonald. While this beginner chapter book isn’t about starting school, so many of the books in this series show a typical day at school for Simon and his friends. Into the Kelp Forest is about Simon and his best friend who are determined to have the best presentation in their class.
I Am (Not) Scared by Anna Kang, ill by Christopher Weyant. Two friends must face their fears together. This book is a great vehicle for discussing kids fears and worries. We love the entire series.
Time for School, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, ill by Jill McElmurry. I have yet to meet a Little Blue Truck book that I didn’t love. Little Blue Truck has to get his friend Piggy to school on time!
Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes. Wemberly worries about everything, including starting school. But on her first day of school, she discovers she’s not the only student who felt worried.
The Crayons Go Back to School by Drew Daywalt, ill by Oliver Jeffers. The Crayons are heading back for a new year!
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, ill by Rafael Lopez. A beautiful story of a girl who starts a new school year feeling like she doesn’t fit in. But she discovers that she does have similarities with others in her class. A story of celebrating our similarities and our differences. This has been a favorite of ours for years. You can hear it read by Julie Andrews here!
Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival. Ruby finds a worry. And it keeps growing and growing and growing. It follows her everywhere but nobody else seems to notice it. Then Ruby discovers that talking about her worry makes it shrink! This entire series by Tom Percival is excellent.
David Goes to School by David Shannon. David has lots of energy and gets up to plenty of mischief at school.
KINDergarten: Where Kindness Matters Every Day by Vera Ahiyya, ill by Joey Chou. Leo is nervous for Kindergarten and isn’t sure how he can make friends. With the help of his teacher and classmates, Leo discovers that he’s got a lot of kindness in him. I cannot recommend this book enough for kids starting Kindergarten!
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It’s time for a July round-up! For this month, I reviewed Beach Ready by Emily Henry and made six flavors of donuts!
And don’t forget the every charming The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune with scrumptious (mini!) cherry pies.
Then there were the peanut butter cracker sandwiches for Drowning by T.J. Newman.
I made coconut granola for Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center.
And for Yellowface by R.F. Kuang I made 12 flavors of cupcakes! I’m tired just thinking about it!
My favorite bake? This was such a hard decision but one particular cupcake that I made for Yellowface won by a hair — the dulce de leche filled cupcake with chocolate hazelnut cream cheese frosting.
My favorite read for the month of July was The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. I cannot recommend this book enough with all of its whimsical charm.
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While I’m up, I order a box of a dozen cupcakes from Baked & Wired, one of every flavor they have on sale that day. When it arrives, I sit down on my floor with a fork and eat until it tastes good.
from Yellowface by R.F. KuangYellowface by R.F. Kuang is not a comfort read, but it lived up to all the hype including its pick as Reese’s Book Club July pick. It’s more of a lose-all-hope-in-humanity kind of read.
After her quasi-friend and best-selling author Athenu Liu dies, June Hayward steals her manuscript and passes it off as her own. The novel is a chilling satire of racism, white privilege, cancel culture, and social media bullying. None of the characters will give you warm fuzzies, least of all the protagonist and unreliable narrator, June Hayward.
I had to recreate the dozen cupcakes that June orders from Baked & Wired (a bakery in Washington, D.C.) to celebrate the sale of her book and then has to eat alone. Because she had nobody to celebrate with. The book says that June orders a dozen–one of every flavor. Which isn’t possible because the bakery has more than 12 flavors. But I chose 11 of Baked & Wired flavors plus I created a pandan cupcake for the pandan pancake scene.
For the chocolate cupcakes, I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe. A quarter of my chocolate cake recipe makes 6 cupcakes.
For the cupcakes with a vanilla base, I used Chelsweets vanilla cake recipe. I halfed the recipe and then divided it to make the separate cupcake flavors.
For the buttercream, I used my favorite Italian Meringue buttercream recipe from Erin McDowell and then added flavor.
For the pandan cupcake, I used my favorite cream cheese frosting (I use honey instead of golden syrup and I skip the lemon extract). For the tesita cupcake, I added a spoonful of nutella to about a cup of cream cheese frosting.
vanilla vanilla vanilla cake base with vanilla buttercream coconut vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, topped with toasted coconut tesita vanilla cake with chocolate hazelnut cream cheese frosting and dulce de leche filling pandan vanilla cake (1/2 teaspoon of pandan added to the cake batter) with cream cheese frosting vanilla satin vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream (added some melted chocolate to the Italian Meringue buttercream) dirty chai vanilla cake (1/2 teaspoon of chai spice added to the batter), flavored the Italian Meringue buttercream with 1/2 teaspoon of postum since I don’t drink coffee and added a dot of ganache strawberry vanilla cake (fresh chopped strawberries added to the batter) with Italian Meringue buttercream flavored with ground up freeze dried strawberries Razmanian vanilla cake (lemon zest and a touch of lemon juice added to the batter) with Italian Meringue buttercream flavored with lemon zest, and a fresh raspberry filling (subbed raspberries in this quick jam recipe) Smurfette vanilla cake (lemon zest and a touch of lemon juice plus fresh blueberries added to the batter) with Italian Meringue buttercream flavored with lemon zest almond orangesicle vanilla cake (1 teaspoon of almond flour and 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract added to vanilla batter) with Italian Meringue buttercream flavored with orange zest, garnished with toasted almonds doom cupcake chocolate cake with Italian Meringue buttercream flavored with melted chocolate Karen’s birthday cupcake chocolate cake with vanilla Italian Meringue buttercream. Making these cupcakes was a project. While they were all delicious, my very favorite was the tesita. I cannot wait to make a full cake from those flavors. It was divine.
Which flavor of cupcake would you choose to assuage your guilt?
Check out my Instagram reel for Yellowface!
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I was issued flour, dehydrated milk, a bag of homemade granola, and hot chocolate. Packs full, we practiced putting them on. You can’t just hoist a pack that heavy straight up to your back from the ground.
Happiness for Beginners by Katherine CenterHappiness for Beginners by Katherine Center was such a fun and delightful read. The book is a rom-com about Helen who after her divorce needs to find herself. She decides on an intense survival backpacking trip. Along for the ride is her younger brother’s best friend.
With all the bumps along the road and no toilet paper, Helen learns that happiness isn’t about getting what she wants. It’s about finding the good in everyday, even the difficult situations.
I had to make the homemade granola that Helen packs in her bag–one of the few things she’s allowed. I used this recipe from Minimalist Baker. I skipped the coconut sugar and used dried cherries instead of blueberries since they’re what I had on hand. It’s super yummy, delicious, and easy to throw together!
What would you absolutely HAVE to pack on a survival trip? I feel like I couldn’t survive without my skincare routine!
Check out the Instagram reel I created along with Shannon from The Reel Bookery for Happiness for Beginners!
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“These aren’t cheese,” Maia said, looking down at the plastic-wrapped snack.
Drowning by T.J. NewmanDrowning by T.J. Newman was a gripping, edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting thriller. A flight takes off from Honolulu and mere minutes later is forced to ditch (land in the water). And then the plane sinks with several passengers trapped inside. The plane lands precariously at the edge of a sea cliff and now it’s a race against time before the passenger’s oxygen runs out.
I loved this novel so so much. It read like a disaster movie and I couldn’t put the book down. Everytime I thought a situation was as bad as it could get in this thriller, something else went wrong. Even something as innocent as not-cheese-actually-peanut-butter crackers became an emergency which is why I baked homemade buttery crackers with a peanut butter filling. That’s all I’ll say, though! If you want to know what happens with those crackers, you’ll just have to pick up the book yourself.
While it’s a gripping and exciting story, it was also held up by an amazing cast of characters, a family looking for a second-chance, and all the rescuers desperately trying to save them.
I recommend it if you love a good thriller or disaster story with characters you’ll love, a family fighting for a second chance, and high-stakes rescue efforts.
In honor of the many emergencies, I made homemade ritz cracker peanut butter sandwiches. To be honest, they were very dry with the peanut butter. But the actual crackers were very good and my children devoured them.
In the scene I included all of the items I thought the nine-year-old girl, Shannon, would have on her flight. Darcy loves this owala water bottle we got her recently. And her Amazon Fire tablet cause kids need entertainment on flights! (Honestly, I don’t love the Amazon Fire tablets, but when they go on sale, the price can’t be beat and our kids don’t need anything fancy at this point). And Darcy’s headphones. Bingley has the same set and they’re great. They even come with a splitter so the kids can watch the same thing together.
I really hope this book gets made into a movie because it would translate so well. Plus, I love a good disaster movie! What’s your favorite disaster movie?
Check out my Instagram reel for Drowning!
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“And what if the treasure was the friendship we solidified along the way?” Arthur asked.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Lucy pulled a face. “That’s the worst treasure in the world. They already were my friends. I want rubies.”
Theodore perked up and chirped a question.
“No,” Thalia said through a mouthful of potato salad. Bits of egg and mustard dotted her beard. “No rubies.”
His wings dropped.
“But there is pie,” Zoe said. “Baked especially for you.”The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune is a tender, whimsical, slightly dystopian fantasy. The story follows Linus Baker who works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Linus’s life is predictable. He’s good at his job, he likes his pajamas and records, he has his cat. Then Linus is sent to an orphanage on an island with a very unique group of children.
I adored this book and cannot recommend it enough. I now need to go read everything written by TJ Klune. The characters are charming, funny, and endearing. Linus, entrenched in his dull life doesn’t seem like a likely main character, but ends up bringing so much love and growth to the story.
I had to make pies for the pie the kids eat when they’re on their adventure on the island. And I had to make the pies cherry for Arthur’s favorite flavor. I used Erin McDowell’s all-butter pie crust recipe. And I used Sally’s Baking Recipes’s cherry pie filling. I used frozen, whole sweet cherries and I simmered my mixture on the stove for about 10 minutes. Chill the mixture before adding it to the pie crusts. This can, of course, be done the day before! I baked up the pies in these adorable mini tart pans.
I would love to go visit Linus and Arthur’s island on the sea. It sounds like pure magic. What’s the place you daydream of going?
Check out my Instagram reel for The House in the Cerulean Sea!
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