peach cobbler

Here it is almost fall (or actually fall, in some places that aren’t DC), and I’m showing you a summery peach recipe.  It’s a little cruel of me, I admit.  BUT.  If there still are any local peaches available in your neck of the woods, I can vouch for this recipe 100%.  And I can also assure you that it works like a charm with canned peaches.  In fact, I made this recipe twice last week, and it’s delicious no matter what kind of peaches you put in it.  YUM.

Peach Cobbler (modified from a Paula Deen recipe)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups peeled, sliced peaches

1 cup sugar, divided

1/4 cup water

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

Ground cinnamon, optional

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Put the butter in a 8”x8” baking dish and place in oven to melt.

Combine the peaches, 1/2 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Remove baking pan from oven, and pour flour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, and gently pour in half of the syrup (discard the rest). Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon, if using. Batter will rise to top during baking. 

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until cobbler at edge of pan is a very light brown. Let cool for at least 10 minutes, and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.  Yields 4 or 5 servings.

Do you want a definition for easy crowd pleaser?  This cobbler is IT.  I’d never made a cobbler before (all these baking firsts!), but I have a lovely blue casserole dish that a friend gave me for my birthday two years ago, and I’ve been looking for recipes to make in it.  And then this dessert was DELICIOUS and worth the (very little) effort.  So I’m pretty much set for life.   Just call before you come, and bring extra peaches.

Recommended for: using up the bounty of summer peaches, impressing everyone with your baking prowess, a scrumptious treat for the end of a summer feast, and a recipe that has simple ingredients and outrageous flavor.

Interested in other food-related posts?  Check out Beth Fish Reads’ Weekend Cooking.

retro friday – shadow magic

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted at Angieville that focuses on reviewing books from the past. These can be old favorites, under-the-radar treasures that deserve more attention, woefully out-of-print books, and so on. Everyone is welcome to participate!

Shadow Magic is the first of the Lyra books by Patricia C. Wrede, one of my auto-buy authors.  Wrede wrote Dealing with Dragons, Snow White and Rose Red, and the Mairelon the Magician books (all of which are on my favorites shelf).  I originally read Shadow Magic as part of the Shadows Over Lyra omnibus edition, which contained the first three books in the Lyra series.

In Alkyra, children's tales are told of a time long past when humankind shared the land with folk who had magic in their blood and bones: the small, fierce Wyrd of the forests; the proud Shee in their mountains citadel carved of ice-white rock; and the shimmering Neira of the dark sea. As a child, Alethia had shivered in delicious fright when the bards sang the lays of Alkyra's mythical past. But as a grown woman her nightmares come from the world of human reality: the spreading discontent in a land ruled by querulous noble families, and the soft rumors of war. As a daughter of one of Alkyra's leading families, she has no time now for children's tales. Until she learns that they are all true.

Alethia is a rather headstrong young noblewoman, unaware of much of the world beyond her father’s holdings in a peaceful city-state in Alkyra.  That changes when a merchant’s guard accompanies her brother home from a trading trip and tells of disturbing disappearances among the caravans.  These events, combined with rumors of an ancient and evil Shadow awakening across the mountains, form the backdrop for an adventure that will change Alethia and her land in ways she cannot imagine.

I remember going through Wrede’s backlist and positively devouring everything I found there.  I LOVED the Lyra series as a teen, and I hadn’t reread Shadow Magic until this summer, after I found that my library had an ebook copy available for download.  Unfortunately, I was not as enchanted with the book upon rediscovery as I was all those years ago.  BUT.  Shadow Magic still has many merits, one being a fast-moving plot, which contributed to my spending much too late a night finishing the story.

Another strong point of Shadow Magic is the world building.  World building is a Wrede specialty, and there is never any doubt in her books that the place is solid, realized, and that magic is a possibility.  While Alkyra is a traditional fantasy setting (swords, sorcery, dangerous forests, a la Tolkien), the execution is spot-on and the result interesting.

What lead to my rereading disappointment, then?  I don’t fault the book, I blame myself.  Since that first time I read Shadow Magic, I’ve read a LOT of fantasy, over many years.  I’ve read Robin McKinley, Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Patricia McKillip, Ursula K. LeGuin, Charles de Lint, and on the list goes.  I picked up Shadow Magic again and found that it was too similar to other books to stand out as amazing.  It contains what I recognize now as fantasy clichés.  Its ending is incredibly similar to that in The Blue Sword (a favorite of favorites).  I do not find Shadow Magic less worthy, I find it less original.  And while that is disappointing, it’s not world-ending.  I still plan to pick up the next few titles in the Lyra series, because they are, after all, Wrede books.

Recommended for: fans of traditional high fantasy (with the expected knife fights, feats of archery, and mysterious magic), and anyone who has read Patricia C. Wrede and wondered where she ‘started’ in writing.

pushing the limits giveaway

When I’m looking to shake up my reading life a little, I often check out the latest contemporary YA releases to see if there’s anything that looks fun.  I tend to prefer a standalone love story with a little bit of intrigue, along the lines of Graffiti Moon or Notes from the Blender.  That is why Katie McGarry’s debut novel Pushing the Limits is on my radar, and why I’m pleased to be able to offer a giveaway for this book, courtesy of Media Masters Publicity and Harlequin TEEN.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined.

Echo and Noah couldn’t be more different, but they find themselves united by a common goal: to sneak into their court-ordered social worker’s case files in order to learn the truth about themselves and their families. What they didn’t count on is falling in love -- and now Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Still not sure it it’s the book for you?  Watch the book trailer.  If you’d like to learn more about McGarry, you can also check out her website, twitter feed, and Facebook page.

And now… the giveaway!  If you’d like to enter, simply fill out the FORM.  One winner will receive a hardcover copy of Katie McGarry's Pushing the Limits.  Giveaway open to addresses in the US & Canada only, will end on September 21st at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be selected randomly and notified via email.  Good luck!

Fine print: Book offered and shipped by Media Masters Publicity & Harlequin TEEN.  I received no compensation for posting this giveaway.

book blogger appreciation week – read this book!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week is currently dominating my blog, and I am okay with that.  I’ve had a lot of fun talking about blogs I appreciate, participating in the interview swap, and writing an ode to book blogging.  Today’s topic is a little bit different – the idea is to talk up a book that needs more attention.

I can’t think of a more deserving title than Sean Griswold’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt – it is sweet, sincere, and has emotional depth that will surprise the reader (in a good way). I found it funny and adorable last summer, and then NO ONE commented on the review.  I was shocked.  What had I done/not done?   And then it occurred to me...it was probably the cover art (or i'm not good at explaining why contemporary YA = fun.) (i'll take that, i guess.).  Problem solved in paperback!

According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton Gritas needs a focus object – an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas-it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never really known him.

The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean Griswold…all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.

In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding young romance.

Recommended for: tweens and teens (nothing in this one will set off warning bells), fans of sports in lit, those who appreciate emotional complexity in their YA, and anyone in the mood for an innocent coming-of-age story with a romance perfectly defined by the word ‘delightful.’