Book Sisters

If you'd like permission to view The Book Sisters Blog, email me! Ldanowski@cox.net
It's only open to friends and family to keep it safe. But Shannon and I are extremely proud of it and would like more people to visit. We have pictures from the past 8 months of book club meetings, book reviews, book lists for the 5th graders, fun websites, recipes, crafts. Anyway, please email me for an invite!

Summer is Here!

My girls are out for summer. So far we have been sleeping in, staying up late, going to movies, playing games, hanging out with friends, swimming....

Feta Stuffed Chicken

This is a recipe from Cooking Light. It's a great dish to impress guests. A nice meal to serve at a dinner party. It's relatively easy to put together and healthy enough to have any night of the week. Enjoy!


4 (4 oz) skinned, boned chicken breast halves


1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs


1/4 cup (1 oz) crumbled feta cheese with basil and tomato (note: I've used plain feta in this with good results)


Vegetable cooking spray


1 1/2 teaspoons margarine or butter, melted


3 cups torn spinach or baby spinach


1/2 cup chopped fresh basil


1 TBS balsamic vinegar1 tsp olive oil


1/8 tsp pepper


Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound with mallet or rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness. Dredge chicken in breadcrumbs. Spoon 1 tablespoon feta cheese onto each piece of chicken; fold chicken in half.Place folded breast halves in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Drizzle chicken with melted butter or margarine. Bake, uncovered at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until chicken is done.Combine spinach and basil in a bowl; drizzle with vinegar and oil. Sprinkle pepper over salad; toss well. Serve chicken over salad. Yield: 4 servings. Serving size 1 chicken breast half and 3/4 cup salad.Calories 207 Protein 29.6, Fat 6.2

Easy Oreo Truffles

These are decadent and super rich. I made these for a book club meeting and they were devoured. They weren't so easy to make as the title implies. But with patience they are possible to make in an afternoon.

Even though I don't like Oreos too much these were to die for....



Prep Time:
30 min
Total Time:
1 hr 30 min
Makes:
3-1/2 doz. or 42 servings, one truffle each
What You Need!
1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
2 pkg. (8 squares each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted


Make It!
MIX 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 (1-inch) balls.
DIP balls in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use.) Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.
REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Kraft Kitchens Tips
How to Easily Dip Truffles
To easily coat truffles with the melted chocolate, add truffles, in batches, to bowl of melted chocolate. Then use two forks to roll truffles in chocolate until evenly coated. Remove the truffles with forks and allow excess chocolate to drip back into bowl before placing truffles on prepared baking sheet.

Special Extra
Sprinkle truffles with colored sugar or sprinkles in addition to or in place of the cookie crumbs.

How to Soften Cream Cheese
Place completely unwrapped package of cream cheese in microwaveable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 10 sec. or just until softened. Add 15 sec. for each additional package of cream cheese.

Print Recipe

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was very long but sort of good. This was nearly 3 hours long! But it was interesting. I fell asleep during a few parts and had to rewind. It's not a "jumpy" action packed movie. It moves about slow and methodical and has the slow methodical music to match which made me drowsy. But Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are excellent in this. So I'd recommend it when you have the time to invest...

Things that bug me

I cannot stand this hair. Kate is fine and all but her haircut is really bad in my humble opinion. That heavy piece of hair swings in her face and she is always trying to tuck it back. It drives me insane!

Daisy's Surgery

Daisy had her spay surgery finally on Saturday. She went to a new vet and I was very pleased with the office so I'm going to plug them: http://roadrunneranimalhospital.com/ She got really good care and everyone in the office was super friendly.

Here's the advice I got:

Keep the E-collar on for a week, so I shelled out $12 for an e-collar, they put it on her before we left, it was off by the time we reached the car. She wiggled out of it even in a drunken state. We get home I try to put it on tighter, she gets it off within 2/4 of a second. Again... and again, no way is that thing staying on unless I get some super glue. So I give up.

Keep her isolated so she will rest, give her ice chips if she doesn't drink anything at first, then offer small amounts of water....

She comes into my bedroom where I plan on nursing her back to health, finds the bowl of water and literally drinks for about 15 minutes. Ok, so that isn't good.

She may be sleepy for the first day or two: Nope, that evening she's jumping up on my bed, playing with my feet. She's running, jumping everything she's not supposed to do. She's licking her incision. I give her pain meds (they are supposed to make her sleepy), nope they make her more hyper. It's like she's a kitty on steriods. She's super spaz.

So I give up and hope for the best. She's about 3 days past surgery. She is jumping up on stuff, licking her wound, running up and down the stairs like a crazy spaz. She is acting like she wasn't just cut open.

So far she seems ok, but did have a little fever last night, but it's gone today. Her incision looked red and weepy last night, but looks good today, clean and pink and not swollen. So hopefully she'll heal ok. It's pretty much impossible to keep her down unless I get some horse tranquilizers.