This is my tribute to my Dad, who was my hero. I wrote this a year ago in 2012 and it pretty much says it all. I will never forget you Dad...Happy Dad's Day With Much Love and Gratitude! I have a feeling that you are still horseback gathering cows up in heaven...keep my horse saddled and Wild Bill's too...and give Mom a big hug from us.
The home of “For the Promptless” has moved from Rarasaur’s original site to one of her new sites. You can find new entries at Queen Creative. It’s a brave thing, moving sites, something I really should do and lack the fortitude to undertake. I suppose I will eventually be forced to so something about the overload on this site, like it or not. Meanwhile, I admire and applaud her efforts!
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Cooking, Food & Wine, Literature/Fiction (Adult)
Publication Date – June 4 2013
I knew absolutely nothing about this book or the series to which it belongs and so came to it with no expectations other than a mild distaste based entirely on the title. I realize that the world is ever-changing and ways of speaking are among the most changeable aspects of life. Still, I don’t like the word “bitch” applied to women. Especially not me. I’m not sure when it became a sign of approval or approbation, but I don’t care for it.
But I liked the book. Bad title, good book. I liked Clementine, our heroine. She’s stubborn, opinionated, overly quick to jump to conclusions. She independent to the point of almost self-destructive. She’s also smart, determined, talented, and willing to work day and night to achieve her goals.
Clementine Cooper, raised by vegan parents on an organic farm is a vegan chef at one of the city’s top restaurants. Fired due to a colleague’s jealousy and sabotage, she’s left with only a few choices. The debacle that got her dismissed makes it nearly impossible for her to get a job at a good vegan restaurant … which is where she deserves and wants to be. Really, what she wants — as do most chefs — is her own restaurant. She’s got her eye on a great space right across the street from the modest flat she shares with Sharon, her good friend and housemate.
Clementine is having one of those really bad patches. Not merely does she get fired — unfairly — but the place she has been dreaming of is unexpectedly occupied and about to become — gads — a steak house! The new owner is sexy, handsome, smart, funny and very rich. She’s instantly attracted to him, despite his being a more than an occasional jerk. Worse, he’s a billionaire carnivore. The money is difficult for her to deal with. This is a young woman who is not for sale, not on any level or any way. But all that meat? Ew.
As she finds her way from discredited, dismissed, and despairing to a successful entrepreneur on her own terms, she is also navigating the rocky shoals of a treacherous relationship with a guy who is both her equal and opposite. The author is surprisingly perceptive in her handling of relationships. Perceptive, sensitive, witty, and realistic, Kim Barnouin doesn’t use simplistic answers to solve difficult problems.
The book is a fast read. It moves along at a nice, brisk pace.
Since the book is seriously food-centric, I spent all 320 pages drooling. I wanted recipes. It’s not fair to talk about food, cooking, eating, restaurants, cakes and everything else delicious and healthful and not even throw me one single recipe!
I had fun with this. You will too.
The book is available in hardcover, Kindle, and as a download from Audible.com. A good summer read and a surprisingly well-written novel that presents a heroine with good family values, a sensible head on her shoulders, a fantastic work ethic and a backbone. She’s no fool for love or anything else and I wish her the very best of luck. But I still would like a different title and recipes.
The old man and his wife had been living in that old house for many years. The kids had moved away and were none too young themselves anymore. The grandchildren had children, almost grown children and long drives to visit each other were difficult. No one had much money to spend on plane fare and even if they had, there wasn’t much fun to be had at airports these days.
So the couple stayed home. That was okay. They were good together. Their marriage had come relatively late in life, after the child-bearing was done, though they’d known each other since … when was that? College I guess. more the 60 years ago. It didn’t feel so long ago, but the calendar didn’t lie.
Companions and friends.
Dan and Molly lived indoors more than they used to. They had a lot of property, but maintaining it had fallen by the wayside as back and knees and hips got increasingly creaky and painful. It was okay. The garden grew jungle-like, the flowers were a riot of colors even without tending. If the rain came, the flowers continued to grow. Even the weeds were pretty. Every year, they cleaned up as much of the fallen leaves from the towering oak trees as they could before their bodies started screaming “No!” Then they’d sit on the glider in the yard and smile at each other.
It wasn’t quite how they’d expected life to go. But they had each other. They could talk together, remember together and that was good. Special.
They had but one important wish, that somehow when the time came for them to go, that they could do it together.
Thus was their wish granted. Together, for all the seasons in companionable peace, in the shade of the tall oaks as they gradually became part of the land itself.
It’s late. The third week in April is very late for the first blooming of the forsythia. But oddly, the later flowers are right on time. The lilies are coming up beautifully and the back garden is full of tiger lilies.
The tulips are ready to pop. They are running perhaps a week late, but I think they’ll be up in another day, maybe two.
Life is bursting through the restraints of winter everywhere I look, from the ponds where the water fowl are building nests and mating, to the trees, just starting to form plump buds.
The trees are still naked but soon, very soon, they will be green with that special golden green of new leaves.
Welcome springtime. I’m waiting to see my first robin.
Not yet, but I think they are here. Hiding. But here. This is nesting time. We’ll see them very soon.
I've been very kindly nominated for the 'epically awesome award of epic awesomness' by Kim over at Tranquil Dreams, so a big thank you to her :D check out her blog if you haven't already, you won't regret it :D Also a nomination from Meera Darji, who also has a brilliant blog that you should definitely have a look at :D…
You’ve being exiled to a private island, and your captors will only supply you with five foods. What do you pick?
On my little island there’s a cottage.
I have a tiny kitchen, but well-organized for its size. I have some good black iron pots and pans, sturdy bright dishes in the cupboard. A small ice box keeps a few things cool if the weather is sultry and I get at least some electricity, perhaps from a small generator. I can only bring five foods. Well, I’m going to hope that the drinks are separately counted so I can can put the coffee and tea on different list, along with the sports drinks I need to keep from dying of a serious electrolyte imbalance. Hard to do the island thing when you have very specific, rigid dietary requirements. Diabetes is not island friendly. So I’m just counting on drug deliveries along with food stuffs! I wouldn’t last long otherwise, though if I had enough books to read, I’d go out smiling.
Since this is not a desert island, if the soil is at all fertile, there may be many ways to supplement a limited diet and the sea contains much that is good to eat, including kelp and other seaweed. Maybe there will be some coconuts or mangos to be found. A little fruit would be awfully welcome! I’d better also have a goodly stock of vitamins and minerals too! Wouldn’t want to get scurvy or something.
No sweets, no junk food. But I can live on these foods and remain healthy.
I’m assuming that condiments and spices come “free.” Sugar, salt (especially salt!), garlic, basil, cumin, ginger, peppermint. I shall have an herb garden. No one said I can’t grow a few things, right?
I wonder what I’ll do for cooking oil? Any coconuts on the island?
Every bit of space not otherwise occupied with a bed, a few comfy chairs, a table and a fireplace will have to be filled with books … although if I have access to the internet and can bring a Kindle, I will be in Heaven. I do hope the water is warm enough for swimming and the soil rich enough for growing. I might really like that island. Guest room anyone?
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