Satisfying My Book Addiction

I finally broke down tonight and purchased some new reading material for myself.  Lately I've been on a purchasing spree for Piper.  She is already enrolled in two separate book clubs, both Dr. Seuss and Baby Einstein, so I figured it was high time I fed my own addiction instead of readying her bookcase for what I'm positive is a genetic obsession with the written word.

For those who do not know, I am a huge fan of Nikki Sixx.  Yep, I'm a rocker at heart who grew up listening to all kinds of music and Motely Crue has always been one of my favorite groups, with Nikki as my favorite member.  Back in the day I was enamored by his bad boy behavior and good looks.  I know some of you may be scratching your heads and trying to figure out where my attractions lay, but seriously I think he's the shiznit!  Now I have grown as an adult and am highly impressed with his new band Sixx A.M., his photography, and I've heard his writing is quite remarkable...yes, I have much more respect for him now that he's more than just a bad boy rocker, he's got substance and intelligence to boot.  Back in 2008 he wrote a book called The Heroin Diaries.  I've been wanting to read it for some time, so tonight I went on a search to find myself a copy.  It wasn't an easy task finding it in hardcover, still in decent condition, and without being outrageously expensive; but I finally did!  Once I had that book in the shopping bag, I just had to add a few others, as always.

Cannot wait to finally read this!

Next on the list was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  I love the classics but this is one I have yet to read.  I recently saw an excellent movie rendition of the novel and it reminded me that I had not yet remembered to grab an actual copy of the book.  Lucky for me, Barnes and Noble had a nice, brand new hardcover version in their bargain book section.  I especially love books at a discounted price!  I am as equally excited to get this as I am the Nikki Sixx book.

Got to love those Bronte sisters!

I recently read Alice Hoffman's new book The Dovekeepers.  It was the first book of hers I have ever read, and you may be familiar with her work as she wrote Practical Magic which was adapted into an uber awesome movie.  My  mom had a paperback copy of said book, but I just really hate dealing with paperbacks while trying to read in bed, which is where most of my reading occurs.  Since Alice Hoffman was fresh on my brain, and I thought The Dovekeepers was one of the most remarkable books I have read in some time (seriously go buy a copy), I decided to go ahead and pick up a hardcover copy of Practical Magic.  I was also intrigued with another of her books in the bargain books section at B&N called Seventh Heaven, so of course I had to go ahead and purchase this additional title as well.

Absolute must read!

Supposed to be even better than the movie!

Great reviews, intriguing story line!

As you can probably tell, my love of a good reading material extends throughout all genres.  I kind of jump all over the place with what I read and the genre of the moment is usually a reflection of my mood at the time that I end one book and look to begin another.  I am currently about halfway through Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides, and my god can that man write!  His words are like delicately spun silk.  I wish I had discovered his writing a bit sooner because he really is an astonishing writer.

It's like butter!

All this talk about books, I guess maybe I should start another blog entry label entitled The Book Nook or something of that nature...kind of like what I'm starting with the Food Fantasies section.  Who knows, I'm just beginning to branch out a bit more into various other areas in which I can share my thoughts via the almighty blog.  It's nice to not be held to just talking about my pregnancy, because I do have a life outside of growing this remarkable little girl inside me.  And as with my reading, I also like to touch upon different genres with my writing.  I'm hoping my readers will enjoy the change of pace once in awhile.  I have excellent taste in food and books, so recipes and book reviews just seem like a natural direction to take things.

Okay, well that's all I really had for this evening.  I got all excited about my new purchases and just had to share.  I seriously need a library added on to the house as there is no more room for books around here, but I love the old school turning the pages style of reading and don't feel I could ever go to electronic versions of books.  Maybe after the nursery is finished I can look into that, hahahahaha!

Until next time, good reads to you all!


Here comes the broken record part...feel free to follow Piper and I on a daily basis on Facebook.  Also, please take a moment if you would and vote for us on Top Baby Blogs by clicking the banner below.

Quality Time

I'm lying here in bed as I usually do around this time of night.  Lately I've been getting to bed quite early, usually by 9, but I don't ever actually go to sleep anywhere near that early of an hour.  I have spent most of my life as an insomniac, so staying up late is pretty typical of me.  Even when I was taking Ambien I still managed to make it to at least midnight every night.  But now that I am pregnant, I'm in bed sooner but up even later.  I am up later for a good reason, though, to spend quality time with my darling Piper.

This is what I'm preparing for, practice is good!

My typical knocked up with the feet up nightly routine is as follows:

9pm - Hit the bed to relax and prop my feet so my edema won't get out of control (that's my damn excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Cankles!  And one big ole nappy toe!
Don't judge me!

As you can see from the pic, I do have swollen feet. Not even the cat wants them around.  And please do ignore the nappy big toe with its old polish and toenail bruise in the process of healing.  It really isn't easy to get to the feet for proper grooming these days.

9pm-11pm - Usually I use this as laptop time.  I crack out on Facebook, catch up on the shitty ass news of the world which really has become no fun at all to read.  Why can't there be a friggin' happy news channel?  Would it be so damned difficult to try and get people to smile once in a while?  Why all the pessimism?  I know people are out there that are doing wonderful things and bettering themselves and the planet, are helping others and having a good time doing so.  So why not share their stories once in awhile?  You say no one would read the happy stuff?  I call bullshit!  Okay, had to get that off my chest, thanks for letting me vent.  Anyway, I also use this time to catch up on other blog readings, check emails, ponder the universe, etc, etc, etc.  It's just basically lazy me time.  Sometimes I also play the one type of computer game I'm addicted to.  I love those hidden object adventure games.   Don't ask me why, but I'm totally hooked!

11pm-1am - This is when I typically get to reading.  I love a good book and almost never turn out the lights without at least getting a few chapters under my belt.  I'm currently reading Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides.  I recently saw the movie again and my mom had a copy of the book.  Let me tell you, that man has a way with words!  His writing is so lyrical and smooth.  I think he's going to be one of my new favorites.  I'm really surprised I have never read any of his stuff before now.  Better late than never, I suppose.

1am-2am - This is now Piper time, and the best time of my day.  This is what I was referring to as quality time.  I often don't do anything at this time but concentrate on her.  She gets all wound up at this hour and I like to just lie here and feel or watch her wiggle around.  I sometimes read her some Dr. Seuss, other times I just simply enjoy her presence.  I will admit that sometimes I do continue to read for awhile, but eventually I shut off the lights, wrap my arms around my growing belly, and just think about our future life together.  Once in awhile this will backfire and I'll start letting the typical new mom doubts creep in.  Things such as will she love me? Will I be a good mother? What if she hates me? What if I can't handle being a mom?

What if I panic?

In other words, all the stupid crap that I don't actually have to worry about comes out.  Of course, I always get my head back up out of my ass before it starts crowding her in there and refocus on how awesome I am and how I'm going to be the best mother in the universe!  I say always follow asinine doubts with bouts of overzealous big-headedness.  It's the only way to balance it all out.

2am - I'm usually asleep or on the verge at this point.  Sometimes I'll go to sleep a bit earlier if I'm really exhausted, and on the bad nights I might be tossing and turning till close to 4!  Oh how I dislike when the old insomnia takes hold.  I hope Piper's love of the wee a.m. hours isn't a sign she inherited my insomnia.  But if she did, I guess we'll turn it into even more quality time together.

So there you go, my typical lazy evening routine since pregnancy.  It fluctuates here and there, but usually not by a whole lot.  For instance, I usually do not write this late.  I'm actually thinking this may be a good change to the routine I can continue from here on out.  Couldn't hurt as it seems being productive would be better than scouring the crappy news world!  I could always save that for while I'm at work and needing some time to kill.  Now that I think about it, crappy news world would probably make work seem oh so much better.  The whole "things could be worse" type of motivation.  Yeah, not a half bad idea.

Right now it has just turned 11:22pm.  I'm off my usual routine which feels kind of nice and just hanging out in bed until Piper wakes up.  That reminds me that I failed to mention my constant interruptions from my routine with regular potty breaks.  I really should start a graph that documents exactly how many times a day I actually have to pee now. I bet it's close to 40 or so.  Hell, I usually now get up at least six times during sleeping hours to waddle to the toilet.  That's a whiz an hour considering I get about six hours of sleep a night.  Totally ridiculous!  And I pee less during sleeping hours than any other time of day.  I so want to go see The Hobbit while it is still on theaters, but think I'd miss half the movie with my constant bathroom breaks.  Oh well, just a small price to pay to the Piper!

I'm always in the red zone now!

Now that you are all sufficiently in the know about the amazingly exciting life I now lead at night, I will bid you adieu.  In other words, it's potty time!  I think I'll read Piper One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish tonight.  It's one of our favorites and it's a good night for reading stories.

Look!  A baby fish!

She is going to be addicted to all things Seuss after she is born.  I enrolled her in the Dr. Seuss Book Club and will probably stick with it until she has the entire collection.  Nothing wrong with giving her the gift of words at an early age.  It runs in the family and is a tradition I plan on upholding.

I'll let you all to your own slumbers now. I wish you all a very good night, may you sleep wonderfully, wake up refreshed, and have a kick ass Friday tomorrow (or today, depending on where you live).  And if you're out doing a TGIF thing later on, have a shot of tequila for me as it's been way too long since Jose and I had a meaningful conversation, hehehehehe.

No this is not recent!

Till next time, as always, feel free to follow Piper and I on a daily basis on Facebook.  Also, please take a moment if you would and vote for us on Top Baby Blogs by clicking the banner below.

It's High Time for Pie

Mom's Uber Delicious Cream Cheese Cherry Pie

It's to die for, I promise!

Okay, I know it took me longer than a day to get to this recipe, but I ran into some logistic issues with maintaining a cooking page.  As you know, I'm technically still a newbie at this blog thing, and so still learning the ropes.  I did not realize that "pages" offered through my particular blog hosting site of choice were static...aka cannot contain multiple posts.  So, I've been scratching my head trying to figure out how to go about the desire to maintain a recipe page while not being able to separate each entry.  So far, I'm still working on that issue.  But while I'm figuring out the trials and errors of logistics, I figured I'd better go ahead and get this recipe out!  It's too delicious to keep secret, so here it is.  I hope it is worth the extra wait for most of you.

What you'll need...aka Ingredients!

For the crust:

1 cup Corn Flake crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

For the filling:

8 ounces cream cheese softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup real lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:

1 can cherry pie filling, chilled

Now for the fun part, making the pie!

First off, you'll definitely need a pie pan of some sort.  Doesn't matter what kind, but round is usually a good shape for a pie.  Also, you will need to go ahead and place the can of pie filling into the fridge to chill.  It's better to get it over with lest you forget later.  After you've got that taken care of, you can move on to the ingredients.

If you can still find Corn Flake crumbs in a box in your neck of the woods, consider yourself lucky.  This past holiday season we had to, for the first time ever, make the crust from scratch.  If you have to purchase a box of actual Corn Flakes and crush them in a blender yourself (or whack the crap out of them with a hammer, it's great for relieving tension)...

...then plan on a big box of flakes because you'd be surprised how small they get after a good pounding!  Also, you may want to add just a tad bit more butter if making your own crumbs.  They tend to be a bit drier than those right out of the box.

Once the Corn Flake crumbs are good and submissive, pour in the melted butter and sugar.  You can do this while in the pie pan as my mom does, or be like me and mix it all in a medium bowl and then transfer.  Once the ingredients for the crust are well mixed, spread and press evenly along the bottom and sides of the pie pan.  Remember this is a homemade pie, so don't get all stressed if your crust is not up to Martha Stewart's standards.  I prefer mine to look loved rather than Top Cheffed.

Now that your crust is ready, time to make the filling.  Now about this cream cheese, you do not want to cut any corners here.  Sure you may be watching your waistline, and if so maybe you shouldn't be eating pie.  No seriously, I jest.  However, light or fat free cream cheese will not do at all in this pie.  We tried it one year and the filling just never set right.  So make sure you get the full flavored stuff or suffer the consequences of a runny pie...blech!

Take your full flavored cream cheese and beat it on low with either a hand or stand mixer, your choice, until nice and smooth.  Slowly blend in the sweetened condensed milk.  Once that is mixed in nicely, then add in the lemon juice and vanilla extract at the same time.  This is important for some reason.  I'm no expert on the science behind food blending, but for some reason the filling is a hell of a lot better when the last two ingredients are blended in at the same time.  You'll just have to trust me on this one.

After all the delicious innards are blended, then plop them into the crust trying to make it all as evenly spread as possible.  See, wasn't that easy?  Now Just pop the pan into the fridge and chill for 24 hours.  I know, no one likes to wait for pie, but delayed gratification can be very rewarding.  Since you worked so hard on getting everything together, not you can lick the bowl.  Don't lie, you know you want to!  And don't share either, you did all the work so should get all the delicious rewards.  I say this now knowing that my mother always let us kids fight over the bowl licking in the end.  So if you must, just for fun, let the Hunger Games battle for bowl licking begin!

Now go to bed.  The night will pass quicker that way and that will make your wait time before eating your pie more doable.  Upon waking, go check the pie.  If you have little ones around or a spouse, you may find mysterious fingerprints in the filling at this point.  No fret, the topping will mask that later on.  And if there are no fingerprints? Go ahead and swipe yourself a taste.  You can always blame it on someone else later!

After your 24 hours of purgatory are up, open up your can of cherries and top your pie as evenly as possible.  Once this is done, it's time to dig in!  Yep, you're ready to finally enjoy your uber delicious creation.

If you feel adventurous and/or experimental, go ahead and divulge into some tweaks to the tastiness.  We have tried several different fruit toppings.  Our second favorite, discovered this past Thanksgiving, is peaches.  Also, even though I've never personally tired it, you can take a chance with a graham cracker crust.  I've been such a fan of the Corn Flake crust that I have yet to venture into new crust territory.  I know some relatives who have, and they seem to enjoy the change just fine.

I'm glad I finally got around to sharing this recipe again.  It is the number one must have item at all of our holiday gatherings and has been since I was just wee one.  I plan on continuing the tradition with my daughter, and I'll probably even let her lick the bowl!  I hope you enjoy the pie and get lots of praise from your loved ones regarding your fabulous creation.  Feel free to tell them you created the recipe all on your own, it won't hurt my feelings.  :-)

Till next time, as always, feel free to follow Piper and I on a daily basis on Facebook.  Also, please take a moment if you would and vote for us on Top Baby Blogs by clicking the banner below.