Book Review and Campbells Soup....

"Out of Control," by Mary Connealy

Rafe Kincaid controls everything in his life... until he meets Julia.


Julia Gilliland has always been interested in the natural world around her. She particularly enjoys studying the fossils and formations in the magnificent cave near her father's house. The cave seems plenty safe--until the day a mysterious intruder steals the rope she uses to climb out.


Rafe Kincaid is a man used to being in control--of himself, his brothers, and his family's ranch. The last thing he expects is to find a woman trapped in the cavern on his land--or to be forced to kiss her!


Rafe is more intrigued by Julia than any woman he's ever known. But when their developing relationship threatens a reconciliation with his brothers, will Rafe have to choose between his family and this new love that could heal his troubled heart and secure his happiness?


Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The author brought Julia's spunk and personality to life so well.  Rafe is the perfect "hero," despite having an unusual name and the way the story unfolded it kept you on your toes the whole time.  I am guessing there will be three books in this series as there are three brothers, and I looked up the author and the next in the series is coming out in February of 2012.

Stars out of 5: 5 great book well worth the read and can't wait until the next in the series is published.


"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

Now as it is boiling hot here, I of course fancy eating soup, just like in the middle of winter I crave salad.  I bought a couple of cans of Campbells condensed soup as it was on sale this week at Zehrs for $1.79 a can. Dh's favourite is Bean with Bacon, and mine is Scotch Broth.

One thing I love about the Campbells site is they have lots of good easy recipes to try.
If you buy canned soup what is your favourite flavour and brand?

Mcdonalds...."I'm Lovin' it,".......I think not!!

Have to say we have never set foot in McDonald's in an awful long time, infact I don't remember the last time we ate there.  A burger in McDonald's has the same effect on me as taking a packet of laxatives!!!  However in my magazines this month was a coupon for 50% off a salad.  So on Saturday night we decided to have a quick meal.

Dh ordered the Big Mac combo and I ordered the Caesar Salad, plus a $1 drink.  It still cost nearly $14.  It's quite expensive to eat at McDonald's now.  Mind you the place was packed, though we felt as though we were the oldest people in there.  Dh did not enjoy his meal, even though the fries were straight out of the fryer, and they were still tasteless things.

As I said to dh, we are past the McDonald stage as our kids have grown and we don't have grandkids yet.  Still I have to say I hope I don't become a regular even when we do have grandkids.......but I could be wrong there?

Do you like McDonald's?  By the way when I was writing this I had to look it up to see if it was McDonald's or MacDonald's as I had no idea!!!

Had a very lack lustre Saturday, just wasn't feeling great, my stomach is playing up, plus my allergies are really bad AGAIN.........dh made up for it by working up a storm in the basement and got more drywall installed.  We are getting the tiles on the floor installed next week, so need to finish up some stuff in there before then.

Have a super Sunday, off to church today haven't been in a while.........

Sunday am: Just spent a couple of hours catching up on everyone's blogs.  The only people I couldn't leave comments on were John D at Tok Tok Place and Flower Power because of the Blogger thing and there not being an anonymous option.  If I have missed leaving a comment on your blog, please let me know........

Now I wouldn't say no to this house or this cottage........

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/gimme-shelter/2011/08/03/house-of-the-week-hoggs-hollow-home/

Check out the photos, the kitchen in the pool house is a heck of a lot nicer than our kitchen.  Very lush gardens as well.  Mind you I wouldn't want to live downtown Toronto and for that price I could get a huge estate where we live.

Still it is decorated nicely, other than the art work in the foyer!

Then if you get tired of the city life I guess you could go and spend weekends at this "cottage," and yes they are calling it a cottage:

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/gimme-shelter/2011/07/29/cottage-of-the-week-georgian-bay-mansion/

The bloody boathouse if probably bigger than our house!!!

This is just the cutest wedding video you have to watch.

Book Review and other stuff

"The Colonel's Lady," by Laura Frantz

''Can love survive the secrets kept buried within a tormented heart?


Roxanna Rowan may be a genteel Virginia woman, but she is determined to brave the wilds of the untamed frontier to 'reach a remote Kentucky fort. Eager to reunite with her father, who serves under Colonel Cassius McLinn, Roxanna is devastated to find that her father has been killed on a campaign.


Penniless and out of options, Roxanna is forced to remain at the fort. As she spends more and more time with the fiery Colonel McLinn, the fort is abuzz with intrigue and innuendo. Can Roxanna truly know who the colonel is--and what he's done?


Immerse yourself in this powerful story of love, faith, and forgiveness set in the tumultuous world of the frontier in 1779."

Have to say this story is pretty typical boy meets girl, fall in love, but of course there are ups and downs in between hands.  Not a bad book, but one that didn't really test your mind.  There was a mystery involved one I think isn't too hard to solve.  I wasn't sitting on the edge of my chair wondering what was going to happen next, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading it.

Stars out of 5: A solid 4, and easy book to read on a wet day.  If you like a bit of history as well this book is for you.


"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.



Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

It rained most of the day on Wednesday and you know what it made a lovely change just to hang about the house all day.  Did manage to get another 4 jars of jam made so have enough to last us another year, so this will be the third year I haven't had to buy any jam.

Coming to the end of Raspberry season....

I picked more raspberries last night, but due to some rain we have had they are past their best.  Still hoping to get a couple more batches of jam made though for us for the year.  We were lucky though as all in all it has been a good crop this year, which was a blessing with us having the wedding jam to make.  Got another handful of blueberries picked and am thinking about looking for some more blueberry plants to plant.

It seems to be one of those mornings where it is dull and damp and humid, so other than making the jam not too sure what I should start on from my to-do list.  Got four books yesterday to review so I may make a start on one of those.   I got two big yellow zucchini given on Monday so may make this sausage risotto for supper, as it's a while since we have had that.

Work was busy yesterday and I was as stiff as a board from sitting in the one position at my desk for a long period of time.  Still accomplished a couple of things so that was good.  One thing for sure the traffic on the roads is a lot less, there must be a lot of people on vacation at the moment.

Enjoy your Wednesday everyone what ever you are doing.

Food, food, food

Did some cooking on Monday morning.  However it was stinking hot, so I used a couple of packet mixes I had been given.  If you shop at a store that sells PC brand or is part of the Loblaws chain of stores, look out for these Gingerbread Cookies on clearance.  I added a bit more water to the mix and chopped up candied ginger to make ginger cookies and sprinkled the tops with sugar.

Also got the scone mixture given and it was pretty good also.

I also made the Raspberry and Blueberry Muffins and they were really good.  Well worth making.

Good Deal, allergies and other bits and bobs

There is a good deal going on at Sobey's (Ontario, not sure about the rest of the provinces?) when you buy $20 of the following products, you can send in for a $20 Sobey's gift card, page 9 from the flyer.

valid with purchase of any combination of the following participating products in one transaction for a total of $20 or more (before taxes) at participating Sobeys stores: Gatorade Perform® and G2 Perform™ Beverages, all Aquafina® bottled water and Aquafina Plus+ Vitamins™ vitamin enhanced waters*, Lipton® Iced Tea (excluding Brisk®) 12 x 355 mL and Dole Sparklers® 12 x 355 mL beverages. Participating products must be purchased between July 29th, 2011 and August 11th, 2011 and must be purchased in the same transaction to be eligible for the Gift Card offer.

I also took part in the Shopper's Drug Mart promotion on Saturday, when you spend $75 you got a $20 Petro Canada Gas Card.  That paid for half of filling my gas tanks for the lawn tractor.

On Sunday I got a lot of the grass cut.  Still have around a third of the field to do, hoping to get that done tonight.  However when I got back in around 8pm, I was ready to pull off my nose, so popped a couple Benadryll pills.  For those of you with allergies, should I continue with the pills until I stop cutting the grass, or should I just take them after I come in from cutting the grass.  I feel fine this morning, just tired, as the Benadryll makes me tired.

We were also hanging drywall (plasterboard) yesterday so that too was a dusty job, so maybe that contributed as well?

Got company coming for lunch today, so need to get going as I have a few things to prepare.  Nothing exciting, just a quiche, some scones, some muffins and a raspberry sour cream pie for dessert from this recipe.