MJ Monday: MJ’s Meals–Sloppy Joes & Sweet Potato Fries

November 4, 2019October 19, 20191 Comment

This is a simple meal my family always enjoyed.

Preheat oven, then bake frozen sweet potato fries per the package instructions.

While that happens, make the Sloppy Joes:

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup ketchup
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Brown the ground beef and onion over medium heat. (If you want you can add green bell pepper and/or chopped celery at this stage, but I don’t know why you’d want to).
When the pink is gone from the meat and the veggies are tender, drain.
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Serve on a roll of your choice, along with the sweet potato fries.

MJ’s Musings: SEP-Heaven Texas

July 4, 2019June 30, 20192 Comments

I really like this book. I love how the heroine is the only one who can see through the hero’s BS–and calls him on it. The hero is a lot deeper than many romance heroes. He is a genuinely good soul all the time. Even at the black moment in the story, and events turn ugly, his innate goodness shines.

Some of the town folk and athletes are stereotypical, but I think the author does that to enhance the qualities of the hero.

The reason the book is so low on my list is because of the secondary plot/romance between the hero’s mother and the bad-boy who’d loved her from afar in their youth. I’ve read this book numerous times , and while that plotline is not as creepy-icky as it seemed the first time I read the book, and is really handled quite well, I still find it creepy-icky. In this reader’s opinion, there’s a scene that occurs in a dark closet that should have remained in the dark closet and not on the page.

Overall: 4 stars.

MJ’s Musings: SEP-This Heart of Mine

April 4, 2019March 6, 2019

Of all Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars books, This Heart of Mine is my favorite. She takes the sister of the heroine of It Had to be You (Molly Sommerville) and pairs her with the hero’s nemesis from Nobody’s Baby But Mine (Kevin Tucker). SEP admits she finagled their ages a bit to make the story work. She is forgiven because Molly and Kevin are a great couple.

Molly writes children’s books and is colorful and sparkly. Kevin is an immature jock who learns there’s more to life than football. There are rough moments when the author gets into some uncomfortable topics–example: sexual harassment isn’t always male to female. There are two parts that make me cry every time I read the book.

Sometimes I dislike SEP’s secondary romance plots. I’m undecided about the ones in this book. I do like that the older woman is sticking up for herself after years of marriage in which her desires were ignored. No one is going to push her around now. I found the young couple annoying, but they had to be in order to grow.

SEP intersperses excerpts from the heroine’s book throughout the novel, which I found enchanting. It was as if Molly couldn’t handle her emotions herself, so had to give them to her characters in order to acknowledge them. And like the older woman who doesn’t let anyone push her around, Molly, too, grows a backbone at the end of the book.

Kevin has to face his past–both at the hated church camp he’s inherited and his roots.

Molly and Kevin are layered and nuanced; they both grow in maturity.

Over all, I give this book five stars.

MJ Monday-Meals: Mojito Salad

March 4, 2019January 28, 2019

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day–an all-green fruit salad. Day Job had a pot luck with green food last year for St. Patrick’s Day. I try to eat healthy when I can, so I surfed the net until I found something simple and healthy.

Now, normally, I’m not a melon fan. Water melon in small amounts sums up my usual participation. This recipe called for honeydew, and I was pleasantly surprised.

1 Honeydew Melon, balled
green seedless grapes, stemmed
5 kiwi, peeled and sliced
2 Granny Smith Apples
2 Anjou Pears
2 limes
1 bunch mint.

Mix the melon, kiwi, and grapes together the night before.

Squeeze the juice of two limes into a glass jar or bowl. Add the finely chopped mint and let marinate overnight.

The next day, cut up the pears and apples (do NOT peel them) and add to the other fruit, then drizzle the lime-mint mixture over it all and mix well.

Easy, healthy, and green.

Note: the acid in the lime juice prevents the apple and pear from turning brown, so the salad will last for a couple of days.

It’s wonderfully cooling, and would be great to bring to a summer picnic, too.

MJ Monday-Meals: Meatloaf and Roasted Butternut Squash

February 4, 2019December 24, 2018

One of my favorite wintertime meals is meatloaf with roasted butternut squash. I’m very lucky in that my supermarket sells cut and peeled butternut squash. If they didn’t I’d probably never eat it.

Preheat oven to 375F

Add a package of the precut squash to a baking dish, along with a chopped red onion. Drizzle with seasoned basting oil (another goody from my supermarket).