HEA against all odds

HEA blurb: A dark haired, good looking (GQ level), Billionaire met a feisty Redhead  in front of the organic vegetables stand at a local farm market and BANG! They have a blond, chubby baby with blue eyes.

Q.Nr.1 - Do you know that RED HAIR occurs only on approximately in 1-2% of the human population?  So, between 70 and 140 million people around the world have red hair. Aaaand Northern European countries have a greater proportion of redheads than anywhere else in the world... 

Are you wondering why I'm ranting about RED HAIR? I'm gonna tell you.

I'm too lazy to go back and count them but believe me, I read a lot of books which heroines have STRAWBERRY BLOND, GINGER, RED, FLAMING hair.

So I wandered, is the redhead troublemaker - totally cliché - appeal or Julianne Moore sex appeal that induced so many authors to go for one of the rarest female combinations?

I've no answer. Today the engineer in me took over and I'm simply looking for numbers ;)

Q.Nr.2 - Do you know how many Billionaires are there in the world?

According to Forbes there are 1426 Billionaires (Men and women) and 2/3 live in Europe or U.S. Unfortunately Forbes didn't tell us how many are male, good looking exemplars under the age of 35. I had a look at some pictures and with an optimistic approximation I'd say we can count them on the fingers of one hand, Mark Zuckerberg included. AND, even if he is supersmart I won't define him a GQ model ;) (Mark, please! Don't get angry with me and shut down my FB page).

Poor David is a simple Millionaire

If you want  to know why authors are now writing about Billionaires and not Millionaires, well my only answer is INFLATION.

Q.Nr.3 - Do you know Gregor Mendel's peas tale? 

No? What were you doing when your Science teacher was explaining the basic principles of genetics? I'm not going to explain the principles of biologic  inheritance now (Wikipedia and Google are stuffed with data) I'm going to say that there are dominant and recessive traits in our DNA and is highly improbable that our dark Billionaire and sweet Redhead have a cherubin.

Conclusion: HEA exist! But it is more credible a story about

•  a dark firefighter/lawyer/engineer that mets 
• a dark blond (with highlights ;P) nurse/teacher/librarian and that 
• the HEA couple has a chubby toddler with chestnut, curly hair and chocolate eyes ;)

The right atmosphere for a book club night

Do you want to know why a book lover dreams to find the right book club?

Here 16 good reasons about being in a book club

Now, I found my secret dream team and a few weeks ago I had a very good time dissecting our first "book of the month" with the ladies. It was so good that I'm looking forward for round two.

I don't know my pals in person or what they do for a living. Ah. I don't even know where they live (All around the globe is the best way to locate us ;p).  But we have two things in common: we love reading and we love a particular book. And that particular book bounded us.

This afternoon I was reading a food magazine when one of the ladies posted an off topic (= not related to the book of the month) message and I started dreaming of a 'book-of-the-month + only-girls-night' party.

I  wish it would be my garden

The logistic rules against us and, unless we don't  find our Scotty (You know that guy with a red shirt? "Beam me up, Scotty!" sounds a bell?), we would only meet in the WWW ^_^

Next time we're going to discuss a paranormal mystery romance (With a *touch* of humor) and drink wine. Yep. Have you read the article above? No, then go!

One of the advantage of a book club is the wine tasting. The two things are indissolubly connected. Red (our group prefer red) wine and highly witty conversation is a combination as good as raspberry and chocolate. Orgasmicntastic :D

November Mystery Paranormal Menu

 Little Bruschetta with diced tomatoes and basil

Little Bruschetta with sautéed mushrooms 

Caciotta cheese with organic Acacia Honey

Parmigiano cheese with Pear Jam

Pecoriono cheese with Tropea Red Onions confiture

 ***

My Pumpkin soup

***

Santin's Chocolate Raspberry Ganache

[Recipe will follow soon ;)]

I hope one day someone will pick up a regency romance as 'book of the month'. I never read one and I'm dreaming to organize a tea party :-)

Kickass Muffin

The Boss was playing his guitar and my little one was bouncing his head with the rhythm of The River when I put those choco muffins with a raspberry-jam heart in the oven. Their fate was signed by the music, their name carved in stone: Kickass Muffins. What else?

Follow the recipe for my Regular Muffin and add 1/2 spoon of cocoa powder to the batter for the choco taste.

Breakfast experiments

A successful breakfast experiment is this Bio*-Raspberry-Jam Muffin. 

*Aka Organic

A classic muffin with a fruity, fresh, red heart.

Muffins (12 units)

250 gr Flour

100 gr Sugar

2 Eggs

250 ml Yogurt 

80 ml Peanut oil (Sunflower oil is good as well)

1 pkg backing powder

Raspberry Jam

In a big bowl mix all dried ingredients, in an other mix the remaining things. Mix the liquid with the dry ingredients and stir energetically but briefly the batter, divide it in 12 Muffin cups and add a teaspoon of Raspberry Jam on top of each cup. The Jam will be engulfed by the rising batter in the oven. Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes.

Green, White and Red in Friends without Benefits :D

I received an ARC of  Friends Without Benefits (Knitting in the City) from the author in exchange of a honest review and...

Friends Without Benefits can be read as a standalone, is a full length 120k word novel, and is book #2 in the Knitting in the City Series.
There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Finney: 1) She suffers from severe sarcastic syndrome, especially when she's unnerved, 2) No one unnerves her like Nico Manganiello, and 3) She knows how to knit.
Elizabeth Finney is almost always right about everything: the musical merits of boy bands are undervalued by society, “benefits” with human Ken dolls are better without friendship, and the sun has set on her once-in-a-lifetime chance for true love. But when Elizabeth’s plans for benefits without friendship are disarmed by the irritatingly charismatic and chauvinistic Nico Manganiello- her former nemesis- she finds herself struggling to maintain the electric fence around her heart while avoiding electrocution or, worse, falling in love.

Honestly I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Yeah, yeah. I'm yelling and I'm not ashamed to tell you that it is one of those teenager hysterical cry. One of those I had reserved for Bono, Larry, Adam and The Edge 25 years ago ;) But this time it's all for NICOOOOO! (Sorry, I can't truly stop).

He's my brand new literary crush!

I know, in the past I wrote that there couldn't be anyone better, more irresistible, sexier than Quinn riding his Triumph, but Penny found one of my weaknesses... I'm a cook-food-feticist! So how was I supposed to resist this:

"Before me was the sight of Nico, shirtless and in black boxer briefs, making apple fritters. He was standing at the kitchen table spooning apple goo into a waiting dough shell. Flour speckled his chest and stomach. I noted his stomach was pooch free."  You wrote it Penny! "Watching a shirtless Nico Manganiello bake was something that belonged in Playgirl magazine"

And you know what? I love Lizzybella too! I like strong, witty, sarcastic female characters. She's that and even more!

Cherry on top: the Epilogue. I'm not a crying person, but I had moisture in my eyes when I read the last page :-)

A couple of important things you've to know directly from Penny's notes:

Two characters in this book are diagnosed with a pediatric rare disease. For the last eight years my (day) job has been focused on biomedical research; specifically, research into the (accurate) diagnosis and treatment of pediatric rare diseases. I felt it appropriate that a percentage of the profits of this book go pediatric rare diseases foundations which are dedicated to helping the children (and their families) of this underserved and underfunded population. Therefore, at least 10% of the profits from every ebook sold will go to one of these foundations.
Every month for the next year (October 2014 – October 2015) I will be highlighting a different rare disease research foundation on my blog. http://reidromance.blogspot.com/ Proceeds for that month will be sent to the highlighted research foundation.
If you’re interested in learning more about rare diseases research and the collaborative efforts currently afoot, here are some great resources:
http://rarediseasesnetwork.epi.usf.edu/ (clinical research network with sites all over the world, studies focused on rare diseases)

http://www.rarediseases.org/
http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/

And now RUN to buy it! If you still didn't have it, don't wait a second more!

Oh Helen Fielding, what have you done?

I think that yesterday the news about how Helen Fielding had killed off Mr Darcy (TheGuardian)  was the most gossiped on Twitter, Facebook, telephone, and so on... I even discussed about it with my husband right this morning (Sipping my coffee during our breakfast). 

I mean, no politics, no bad economy, no wars and no dead people. This morning I had  the impending desire to vent my disappointment at one of the most cruel thing an author can do to an affectionate reader: kill the good guy :O

R.I.P. Mr Darcy

She's not the first one and not the last one to kill an universally acknowledged hero (I'm sure that when he punched Daniel defending Bridget all the female population dedicated to chick-lit and chick-flick -me included- swooned ;P) but every time I've to ask (Better said, cry out) the author "WHY? PERCHE'?"

Was it really necessary? Didn't you find a better way to create havoc in our heroine's life?

I imagine Mrs Fielding answering "Probably yes, dear." She would sip Earl Grey tea in a porcelain cup before adding, "But would I obtain the same resonance introducing a young, beautiful, unscrupulous new assistant in Mark's office? No, indeed. Bridget maybe would be suffering enough, but you readers? No way. You need an earthquake to come back to me."

Because...

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about" (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)

So, here we are my friends, mourning the death of our beloved Mr Darcy even before we've opened the book. Grief and pain will be fading soon and we'll hurry buying the book to know how did it happened and how Bridget had managed to survive the shock.

And don't worry, we'll survive. Like we did when J. K. Rowling killed Albus Dumbledore, or J. Weiner gave Peter an heart attack. It will pass, eventually.

And, please, leave a comment epitaph below for your stronger literary loss :-)

Daniela's Zwetschgenkuche aka German Plums Cake

One of my fond memories of living in Germany involved September in Stuttgart, when the hills slowly turned yellow, orange and red, the first pumpkins appeared on the farmer's market kiosks, and the bakeries took out of their ovens fragrant, juicy Zwetschgenkuche aka Plums cake. 

I love this sheet cake and Daniela's version is my favorite. Here her delicious recipe:

Ingredients:

Batter

4 eggs

1 & 1/2 cup sugar

4 cups All purpose Flour

4 teaspoons Backing powder

1 cup vegetable Oil (I prefer peanuts Oil)

1 cup milk (Kids version) or sweet sparkling wine!

Streusel

1 cup Sugar

1 cup all purpose Fluor

1 cup Butter

1 kg  Elongated Purple Plums - Cleaned and helved 

(More or less this quantity, but it depends how big they are. Consider you've to cover completely the pan surface).

www.michiganplum.com

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Butter and flour a large pan, or prepare a bake paper rectangle (Mine is 32cm x 24cm = 12.5 inch x 9.5inch).

 Put all the ingredients in a stand alone mixer and whisk all together for a couple of minutes.

Prepare the Streusel combining all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Alternately, you can mash the ingredients together in a bowl using a fork, or just mix everything together with your fingers (I do this way ;P).

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and evenly arrange the halved plums on top of the batter, flesh side facing up. Sprinkle with the Streusel and bake for 45 min. - 1 hour.