Annual BBQ 2016

Wassup everyone? So during this week-end, I took the executive decision that I would do the 30 Day Blog Challenge during the week days LOL. So I'll try to blog everyday for 6 weeks instead of the whole month of August... because the upcoming week-ends are going to be busy and I need inspiration and frankly, a break also :) For everyone and everything, I think it'll be better that way :)

So this week-end was our annual BBQ. I think this is our 15th edition in 16 years. Not bad right? :) Everything went without a hitch - guess we've finally fallen into a good routine. This year went especially well and we finished cooking the food before sunset - which meant we weren't in the dark for cleanup and avoided the mosquitoes! Yay! And the weather held up!! We had a bout of rain in the morning that got me worried, but after that, we had really nice weather :) That's always a gamble since we set the BBQ date so early - usually months ahead.

Here are some pictures ;)

 Fun day overall :)

Other than that, I've been having a blast watching the Olympics!! Oh and I'm re-reading Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan. Don't know why I haven't re-read it for so long... but still love it!!

Catching up, annual BBQ and another signing event!

Alas, no review yet... but it's coming!! Soon hopefully LOL. There's just so many books I feel I should review, so choosing one is hard. Then, writing the actual review... but I figure once I've written one, it'll be like getting back on a bike, right? Right?!

Anyway, this is just another rambling post. What can I say, I like to share my life with you guys :P Although, there is some books stuff coming up later!!

First, Ames is back! Yep, she has a new blog! I was going to mention it in my last post, but forgot ^_^;; Bad, bad me... So click here to find her new digs (my sidebar link list has been updated). If you've missed her, make sure to let her know! Plus, she's written her own recap of our NYC trip, so you get to see it from a different POV! Almost like a romance novel :P

Otherwise, I've been busy settling back into a routine... which hasn't been easy for multiple reasons. I started work last Tuesday - Monday being a holiday. I was lucky, because both my boss and supervisor were on vacation, so I came back to a quiet environment... Except that I had stayed up till 1am to read Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews. Not my smartest decision ever... Let just say I was a little tired and really didn't want to be at work.

Then, early last week, two events got my adrenaline pumping. The first one was finding out there was a book signing event happening in Montreal!! Seriously, how did I not hear about it earlier? Have I been living under a rock?! Oh wait, I probably wasn't on the right social media. Ugh. Anyway, what matter is that I did not miss it - phew. So here are the details. The event is called "Romance Author & Reader Event" aka RARE and this year, it's taking place in Montreal on September 12!! It's organized by Amy Jennings, Adriane Leigh and Teri Maxwell. Honestly, I have no idea what, how and why... All I know is that Sarina Bowen is going and so, I must be there as well!! LOL. I've become a die-hard fan of Ms Bowen last year. While Ames and I never got around to post our Best and Favorite of 2014 recap, we did discuss it and Ms Bowen was my choice for best new-to-me author and best author for 2014. Heck, I had Ms Bowen for favorite NA book, m/m book, new-to-me series as well as two other categories. And my fangirl level has only gone up after reading Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy which was only a few days before finding out about this signing. Talk about timing!! So there you go, I'm going to RARE 2015! There's actually going to be quite a few authors:

Unfortunately, I have not read many of them ^_^; Besides Ms Bowen, I have read one book by Christina Lauren, Daisy Prescott and Jennifer Probst. I know Emma Chase has a new release coming out at the end of the month and that one, I was planning to give it a try :) Laura Kaye is an author Leslie has recommended to me on many occasions, so now would be a good time to listen to her. And I've been curious about Tiffany Snow. Any other authors you strongly recommend, that I should absolutely read before the signing? Let me know!! Because seriously, there are many authors and I know I won't have time to read everyone! I've also decided to volunteer for the event. I think it'll be interesting to live it from the other side, especially since I'm local :P So far, I've had a lot of fun hanging out on the FB page LOL.

Also in September is a get-together with my American second-cousins. The one hosting is the one who got married a couple of years ago. Ever since her wedding, the six of us have kind of reconnected and so, we decided to get together :) She lives near Baltimore... and my sister and I debated driving or flying. In the end, because it'll be so short, we chose flying to save time. So it was finding a cheap flight with the right hours for the right price. Since 4 of us are flying in, we wanted to coordinate time and airport. So that was stressful and exciting all the same. And with me, planning a trip to the States and a book signing, it feels like I'm going on vacation all over again LOL.

Finally, this past Saturday, I once again hosted our annual BBQ. It was very laid-back this year... but it still got me stressed. No matter how many times we're having it, the fear of not having enough food is always there. Also, what should I buy, what should I not buy... and so on ^_^; And of course, we ended up having too much food as usual. I'm on my third day of eating BBQ leftovers and seriously, I cannot do it anymore!! LOL.

So that's what I've been up to :) What about you?

Ice cream and BBQ 2013

Warning, post full of pictures ahead! However, all safe for the workplace LOL.

So last week was kind of busy for me :) I had the annual BBQ to get ready for, which involved some planning and grocery shopping. It's not that it took that much time, but it disrupts the routine so it feels like it takes a lot of time... and also, it's time that I usually spend reading LOL. However, for some reasons, in addition to the BBQ, I was determined to make some ice cream ^_^; As you know, I've recently purchased Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer - probably the only cookbook I'll ever personally own LOL. I had previously made vanilla ice cream from her recipe and really liked the result and I know she has some very unusual recipes in her book, so decided it was a good book to invest in :) Anyway, I had a craving for pistachios and decided that the roasted pistachio ice cream was the way to go... However, you know me, I'm not the best or most experienced cook out there and my sister wasn't home ^_^; Big thank you to Christine for her help and answering all my pesky questions!

So what I particularly like about Jeni's ice cream recipe is that it doesn't require any eggs... so there's no chance for me to scramble the custard! Still, there were some nice challenges... For example, I almost burnt the pistachios while I was roasting them! ^_^; Luckily, my mom caught it in time LOL. Then, I had to grind the pistachio to make a paste... but what would the paste look like?

My pistachio paste mixed with cream cheese and salt. After that, I add in the boiled milk and cream. Already looking yummy!

However, the most crucial step is the ice cream churning. Having made vanilla ice cream successful, I was over-confident this time around that it would work... And yes, it didn't ^_^; Usually, when making ice cream, you have to cool down the liquid mixture before it can be churned. What Jeni suggests is pouring the mixture in a ziploc bag and then, submerge it in a ice water bath. In comparison to simply putting the mixture in the fridge, it cuts down the time by a lot! Anyway, at my house, ice is rare because the freezer is always full LOL. So previously, what I did was prepare a cold water bath, put the ziploc bag in and then, put it outside since it was winter LOL. Not an option this time around, but then, I thought luck was with me as we had ice! So I made a nice ice water bath and left it for 45 minutes and figured it'd be all right... but it wasn't ^_^; When I tried churning it, it never really took because the mixture wasn't cool enough. I should have kept adding ice to the water bath. Lesson learned. 

So I put back the mixture in the fridge and the ice cream bowl in the freezer and figured I'd try again the next day. However, just in case, the next day, I brought dry ice from the lab back home. The instruction says to freeze the ice cream bowl for 24 hours which I didn't do and also, later on, I realized that I didn't put the bowl deep enough in the freezer... Anyway, long story short, it wasn't completely frozen yet... so I added the dry ice and left it for 3 hours. I thought I was so smart!! Yeah, turns out, not that smart ^_^; What happened this time around is that the freezing bowl was too cold! So as soon as I poured in the mixture, it froze and became ice cream... which is good, but only the liquid that actually touched the frozen surface. So the middle  wasn't freezing ^_^; I tried waiting for it to warm up, but it wasn't happening either. In the end, I had to scoop out what was frozen and tilt the bowl to freeze the rest... Another lesson learned LOL. In the end though, I still managed to get ice cream!! Yay!!

Failed attempt to churn ice cream... and freezing by dry ice LOL.

End result was actually pretty good! I love the smoothness of the ice cream :) However, I do think it was slightly too salty. Still, I'm definitively going to make it again and I do think it was worth the mess... LOL.

Now, onto the BBQ! The fun thing about it being an annual event is that each year, it feels like it's getting easier and easier to plan. You know what everyone likes and expects :) The only difference this year was that instead of it being a whole day event, it was only dinner...

Three essential persons during the BBQ:

My co-worker and good friend S., the grill master! My friend E., our crazy watermelon cutter! Look at the maniac smile LOL. And my sister, the dessert queen (don't think you can see it, but the smoke coming out from the bowl is from the dry ice:P).

However, the BBQ would not be as good if it wasn't for my friend V who prepared homemade sausages again this year! It was especially awesome of her considering that she's been under the weather for the past two weeks :( And LOL, yes, we are a gang of carnivores!

In addition to sausages, pork brochettes and chicken wings, we had some salad :) It was strawberry, mango and spinach salad with balsamic dressing and it was sooooo good! I also made guacamole and we had some dip for carrots and peppers :) And of course, the fish meat balls :)

And for dessert, aside from the watermelon, my sister made macaron ice cream sandwiches! She made two batches of macaron shells, regular and chocolate :P Since the purpose was for ice cream sandwiches, she followed the recipe in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home instead doing the one she's used to. I think it was a good decision because these macarons were three inches in diameter which made for nice ice cream sandwiches :) And she also made mini ones with the left-over batter. We used my roasted pistachio ice cream and she also made a batch of green tea ice cream as well :) As you can imagine, it was a success :P Next year though, we'll make the ice cream beforehand... just to be sure :P

And this was BBQ 2013! LOL, need to re-energize for next year! :P

Week-End's Minis XXI: About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

For a second week in a row, I did not buy books! Yay! Actually, LOL, I'm not sure if it's such a good thing or not. I mean, obviously good for my wallet and TBR pile, but what about my mental state and happiness? LOL. I guess we'll find out soon ^_^;

Anyway, since there's no Hauling Sunday post, I decided to catch up and go with a Week-End's Minis post :) I truly wanted to post this yesterday, but it was the annual BBQ! And I spent Thursday and Friday evenings grocery shopping and prepping for the BBQ. As usual, we had chicken wings and fish meat balls :) However, this year, we also had homemade sausages!! And my sister was in a baking mood, so we got green tea macarons and a Alaska Bomb cake!!

 BBQ and homemade sausages. I LOLed when I opened the box. My friend had told me the sausages were fat, she forgot to tell me they were short!

Green tea macarons! So yummy!!

Alaska bomb: raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, sponge cake and meringue

Hope you liked the pictures :) And the review!!

About Last Night by Ruthie Knox
published by Random House Publishing in June 2012

Cath Talarico knows a mistake when she makes it, and God knows she’s made her share. So many, in fact, that this Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed never to go . . . in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her.

Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and miserable in his family’s banking empire. But beneath his pinstripes is an artist and bohemian struggling to break free and lose control. Mary Catherine—even her name turns him on—with her tattoos, her secrets, and her gamine, sex-starved body, unleashes all kinds of fantasies.

When blue blood mixes with bad blood, can a couple that is definitely wrong for each other ever be perfectly right? And with a little luck and a lot of love, can they make last night last a lifetime?

Genre: Category romance, contemporary romance
Series: none

What do you need to know? Cath Talarico was a daddy's girl and when her father passed away, she rebelled and got wild - very wild - and ultimately led to some very bad decisions. When her mother passed away from cancer, Cath decided to straighten up and be good. She moved to London to start over, taking a job in a museum... And she mainly has spent the last couple of years observing people. The one that has caught her attention is a man who often takes the same train with her whom she nicknamed City. Polished and successful, he's also very punctual and a gentleman. However, she never planned to start an affair with him! But he's very tenacious and she can't seem to shake him off... and very quickly, she's not sure she wants to.

City's real name is Nev Chamberlain and he works in the family banking's empire. He feels trapped because of his older brother and mother, who wants to pull the strings as if he was a marionette. Unfortunately, Nev has worked too hard in the business to start over in another company or to chase after his dream of being a painter.

Why this book? I had my doubts about getting About Last Night because I did not really enjoy Ms Knox' debut, Ride with Me. Ultimately, Kristie's review convinced me - plus, I love a good opposites attract romance :)

What did I like? I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed About Last Night, because I had definite reservation coming in. However, Nev just won me over :) I loved his character! Such a gentleman, but at the same time, he was not a pushover :) He didn't let Cath drive him away; instead, he went after what he wanted, her :) I also loved how patient he was and how he drew Cath to him. I also have to say, the chemistry between Cath and Nev was very good :) I did think the attraction between Cath and Nev happened a bit too quickly; however, in the end, it worked because of their chemistry and the fact that the two have been eyeing each other on the train for a while. And I enjoy the romance thanks to Nev's tenacity.

By the way, I don't think About Last Night was such an "opposites attract" romance as Cath and Nev weren't so different. Yes, their family backgrounds were opposite, but personality-wise, not so much. Both had reasons not to live freely, kind of hiding their true nature... and on a lot of subjects, they were on the same wavelengths. Truly, I just feel "opposites attract" was not really the theme Ms Knox was going for, but that's what marketing picked up. I don't really care though because I really enjoyed the book :) And most of it has to do with Ms Knox' development of the characters. She did a great job because Cath and Nev were both interesting and fully fleshed. Although I have to say, I did not enjoy Cath as much as Nev.

What didn't work? I really  had only one issue with About Last Night and that was Nev's idea to pretend he had elope with Cath to his family. I have to give credit to  Ms Knox because she didn't go about it the usual way and in the end, it was not the focus of the book - yay! However, it simply was really a bad idea and plot device for About Last Night and also, very unnecessary. I mean, since it was not the book main plot device, it also made the story very predictable. Ugh. Had it not been for it, About Last Night would have been an A for me.

My Grade? B+. Really enjoyed the book and will be giving Ms Knox another go in the future :)

Hauling Sunday LIV

It's Sunday - a very, very wet Sunday ^_^; I was hoping we'd be unaffected by Irene, but no such luck. Although I know some of you are having it worst than me, so I'm not complaining too hard. I hope everyone of you are okay and there's not too much damage!! Here, we lost power a couple of times for a few minutes only. Phew. Also lucky that I had my BBQ yesterday! Which by the way, was a success :)

Really had a nice time. The weather was good and we had enough food :) Just spent the whole day talking and eating :)

Most of the week has been spent preparing the BBQ and also work (booo!). I didn't have time to go to the bookstore... but no problem, as it's so easy to buy books without stepping in a bookstore nowadays :) I ordered them online on Sunday and they arrived on Friday, just in time for this post really LOL.

So here are the two additions to my library:

Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones - Well, you can read my review of First Grave on the Right here. I'm really looking forward to reading it. Just love Charley :)

Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep - Ms Estep has become one of my auto-buy authors. This is her foray in the YA world and I'm looking forward to it :)

And that's it for me :) Seriously, I'm really proud of myself this month LOL. I really haven't bought that much books, but then again... might be more because of the release schedule than my will LOL.

Oh, before I forget, I have updated my Review Archives :) Been neglecting that part of the blog... but then again, have not reviewed that much. Hopefully, that changes :)

Annual BBQ: 8th edition (yes, again)

If you've been wondering why I've been so quiet on blogland since last week... well I only have 3 letters for you:

B. B. Q.

Yes, it's that time of the year, my annual B.B.Q. with friends. See here for previous years' editions... So I thought this year was our 9th edition, but turns out I'm mistaken (as my sister gleefully pointed out :P). I'm one year ahead and this is truly only our 8th edition. Still, not bad, not bad for a bunch of kids that met during college :D

For me, the BBQ started last Friday with grocery shopping. Luckily for me, one of my friends was free so she helped me out. Only problem is that this year, we were going to be less... like only 6 ^_^; I had the grocery list from last year that I smartly put up on my blog... but that list was for 10. See the difference? Every year we do a BBQ and every year (okay, so I missed last year) I do the grocery shopping... and it's always the same thing: "How much should I buy? What did we do last year?... OMG, I don't remember!!" My motto?

More is better than not enough!

So I buy accordingly to it and it works... I always have more ^_^; Let just say, sometimes, too much more. All I know is that each year, I need to buy chicken wings, fish meat balls, corn and watermelon. That is the constant... that is what people love to eat... The rest, well I have to figure out...

After 5 different grocery stores/market, here is my BBQ grocery list for 6 persons + 2 little sisters:

- 24 chicken wings
- 1 pack of chicken thighs, no bones
- 3kg of fish meat balls
- 1 dozen of corn on cob
- 10 sausages (5 italian/5 honey and garlic)
- pasta salad (pesto and cherry tomatoes)
- 1 big bag of carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 cauliflower, cherry tomatoes and 2 red peppers
- 500g of spinach dip
- 1 bag of tostitos, 1 bag of regular chips, 1 bag of sweet chili chips
- guacamole
- salsa
- watermelon
- 2L of coca cola, 2L of fresca lemonade, 2L of regular lemonade
- hot dog sausages + buns

**Note to Nath: Buy more chicken wings, less fish meat balls (although this year, it balanced out). Maybe more corn too and less hot dogs.

Funny story about the fish meat balls... We went on Friday evening to buy them at the Chinese grocery store; however, they were sold out. Seriously?!?! I kind of panic at that moment, because a BBQ with fish meat balls? Not going to work ^_^; So I decided I'd buy some on Sunday morning - I'd go early... anyway, I was heading in that direction since I had to pick up my friend who helped me with grocery shopping (see, I might do the grocery shopping and marinate the meat... Only problem is that there's never enough space in my fridge to put all the stuff!!! so I had to borrow her fridge... and unfortunately, her car was down). So I got to the grocery store at 10.15am on Sunday (they open at 10am)... went to the meat section and the butchers were preparing the stands. They sell different kind of meat balls: fish (not fried yet), shrimp, beef, etc. The butcher was opening the bags and putting them in container for display. I asked for the fried fish meat balls... and turns out that he hadn't open that bag yet, so he looked at me and showed the bag. I asked for half the bag... and he asked, why don't you take it all? Hmmm... I really wanted only half the bag, but I didn't know how to say NO. Yes, I know, I'm a real pushover ^_^; So I ended up with 3kg of fried fish meat balls... If you're wondering, yes it is a lot!! and it's freaking expensive too!! 1kg of fish meat balls is 13.99$ ^_^; Ah well.

Saturday, I spent the day cleaning my room. With all the books I've bought recently, let say that it's a bit dangerous to walk in my room ^_^; Books everywhere... which quite frankly, that's the way I like it LOL :) What I don't like is the dust ^_^; and my room, I have no idea why, gets dusty really fast... and then, well let say my room's been a mess ever since I came back from Kristie's. So it really needed a deep cleaning. Took me the whole day on Saturday to put books and stuff away!! I had to wake up really early on Sunday to vacuum ^_^;

Then, on Sunday, it was finally BBQ day :) We got really lucky because the weather was gorgeous!! Sunny with some clouds, not too hot and not too humid... and it didn't rain!! Yay!! After picking up my friend and her little sister and stopping at the market to buy corn, I got home at 11.15am... BBQ was supposed to start at 11am, but then, as usual, everyone was late. We started putting the stuff out (table, chairs on the patio, putting the food out, cut the vegetables for the dip) and preparing some food (pasta salad, guacamole, boiling the sausages...). Then at 12.30pm, we started the BBQ... since it's charcoal, it means it'll take about 20-30 minutes for it to be ready (and that's because we now have a cool techniques... The first few years? It took us an hour or more!!). So at 1pm, everyone was there and we were officially ready to start :D

It was fun, we all sat around the BBQ, chatted and ate. After eating, we lounged around, went to laze on the grass. Just a very, very relaxing day. We also played a little on the Wii. Then, we started the BBQ again for the second round of eating :)

The BBQ actually ended quite early this year. By 8pm, I poured water onto the charcoal... What I love about my friends (besides the fact that they're all awesome people, etc.) is that they always help me out with the cleaning at the end :) They do the dishes, sweep the floor, put away things, etc. I've seen my sister hosting events at our house... and she always ends up doing the dishes while the others are having so much fun... and at the end, it's a mess. However, my friends always help out, especially since most events are hosted at my house. Anyway, by 10pm, everyone was gone.

Kind of sad that the BBQ ended so early this year... but at the same time, I was glad, because I was really tired and my feet hurt sooo much!! It was painful to be standing up ^_^; I was also really, really tired. To tell the truth, this year, I was feeling like doing the BBQ... I don't know why... I guess it's because everyone is so busy with work and we're at a stage where we're kind of all going into different directions. I have a friend who just started a new job and it's a very good job... Another one just bought a condo and will be moving out later this year. Another is planning a second trip this year... So yeah, things are changing and I feel that it is changing our friendship... and I don't like changes. Still, I'm glad we had a BBQ and it was fun :D I'm actually planning to perhaps do a second one later this summer... but we'll see :)

Anyway, here are some more pictures. Enjoy! :D

**For those who are curious: I'm the one who wears a purple shirt in the first picture. In the second pic, the one with the orange shirt, that's my sister. The guy in the third picture is my friend/co-worker :) His girlfriend is the one who is sitting next to me in the first picture.

Annul BBQ, 8th edition, over

First, since I've still got about 45 minutes...

HAPPY CANADA's DAY
to my fellow Canadian romance bloggers and whoever want to celebrate :)

So how was everyone's day? My long week-end is coming to an end (boo!) and the BBQ's been over for a couple of hours now... Everything went really well. I didn't over-buy too much food and I have to admit this is one of the most enjoyable BBQ I've hosted in the 8 editions. Everything was pretty good this year... the weather was very nice, quite sunny and not too humid. We had some cloudy moments which were really appreciated. We were only 10 this time and it felt like a pretty intimate group. It was nice to have time to sit down and chat with the others and to actually enjoy the food! My only complaint is that not everyone arrived on time... but that's pretty minor.

Note to myself... reminder BBQ grocery shopping list for 10 ppl:

- 5kg of chicken wings
- 10-15 pork chops
- 10-15 European sausages
- 10-15 hot dogs
- one bag of shrimps (2kg)
- 2-3 lbs of fish balls
- 4 2L lemonade
- 2L of soft drinks
- ice tea
- 1 or 2L of other kind of juices
- 1 dozen corn
- 1 big bag of carrots, 1 broccoli, 1 cauliflower
- 1-1.5L of dips
- desserts: rice crispies squares, watermelon and sweet soup

*don't go overboard with chips, salsa and etc.
** honey

Sorry guys to post this up. It's because I usually tend to buy wayyyy too much food and this year, it was good quantities of everything... so I have to write it down somewhere so I can remember for the next year.

Like I said, everything was great this year. We played a bit of Wii... but mostly spent our time talking to each other and just hanging out, enjoying the food.

For those who wonder, I did finish cleaning my room!! Look at the result:

*My friends were quite surprised to see my room this clean, LOL :) Especially some that helped me out in the process ^_^;

Okie... time for me to go to sleep... Have to work tomorrow (boo!)... I'll have my list of reads for the month of June up tomorrow... and I haven't forgotten the people for my books away!! I'll try to email everyone tomorrow!