Review: The Sexy Vegan Cookbook by Brian L. Patton

The Sexy Vegan Cookbook: Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude by Brian L. Patton
Published March 15, 2012; New World Library
Paperback, 256 pages
Objective rating: 4/5

Patton shares over 100 vegan recipes in The Sexy Vegan Cookbook, which covers the basics of cooking, from slicing vegetables to finding the right type of tofu to recreating favorites without meat or dairy.  Brian gives recipes from cocktails to breakfast sandwiches to desserts. There are appetizers and nachos, pizza and tuna-like sandwiches as well as salads, pasta, and main dishes. (publisher)

Here is a stand alone recipe that you can make without prior preparation of vegan foods. Sounds pretty delicious to me!

Curried Fried Tofu Salad
One 14-ounce block of extra firm tofu, drained
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons curry powder
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour (or another flour, like garbanzo, rice, etc.)
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
1/2 head red leaf lettuce, roughly chopped or torn
1/2 medium cucumber, thinly sliced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 medium beet, grated
1 medium carrot, grated

Dressing:
1 small Thai chili, minced (you can use less depending on how hot the peppers ae=re)
1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
3 tablespoons extra-virgin oil
1/4 teaspoon agave nectar

Slice the tofu crosswise into six 1/2-inch-thick rectangles. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Spread the curry powder, flour, and salt and pepper on a shallow plate, stir to combine, and dredge both sides of the tofu slices in the seasoning. When the olive oil is just barely starting to smoke, carefully place the slices in the frying pan. Let them fry on one side for 3 to 4 minutes, until browned. Then flip and brown on the other side, 3 to 4 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the lettuce, cucumber, scallion, beet, and carrot, and toss with the dressingl Pile the salad on a plate and place the fried tofu on top in an artful fashion.

Makes 2 entrees or 4 appetizers

Comments:Some vegan recipes in the book require special ingredients, so the book gives you recipes for making seasonings and sauces and foods to save for use in more complex recipes. For instance, the book gives recipes for My Balls (pretend meatballs) and Pretend Italian Sausage, Pretend Breakfast Sausage Patties, Pretend Canadian Bacon and Pretend Chipotle Sausages, Mexican Chorizo (all vegan and no meat) so you can use them in more complex dishes such as vegan Jambalaya, Spaghetti and Balls, and Lasagna Fauxlognese.

Though the start up of cooking vegan may be time consuming at the beginning, I would recommend the cookbook to anyone who is serious about going vegan or using some vegan dishes in  their diet.

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy of the cookbook.

Book Review: The Expats by Chris Pavone

Title: The Expats: A Novel by Chris Pavone

Publisher: Crown Publishing; March 6, 2012
Genre: suspense
Objective rating: 4/5

She knew why she was picking a fight: because she was furious, because the FBI and Interpol were for some reason in her business, because she'd once made a horrible decision that would haunt her forever, and because the one person in the world she'd trusted without reservation was lying to her.

Perhaps his lie was about something benign. And maybe his lying had nothing to do with her anger. (ch. 16)

About the book: Kate Moore quit her job but didn't tell her husband Dexter the real reason why. She had also kept her real job a secret from him for 15 years. When they move to Luxembourg for Dexter's new job with a private bank, Kate has to reinvent herself as a stay at home wife and mom, a job she finds more and more tedious as time goes on.

When another expatriate American couple, Julia and Bill, make their acquaintance and insist on becoming their friends, Kate becomes suspicious of their motives and begins her own investigation of them. She then begins to wonder about her husband Dexter, begins to spy on him, go through his papers, find out new things about him. She feels nothing may be what they seem on the surface. Maybe Dexter has secrets, just as she herself has had for many years.

This is really a story about the two American couples, expatriates, how their relationship develops, how their past seems to catch up with them, how their secrets are gradually revealed to show what and who they really are.

Comments: I can't say more in detail without giving away the plot and spoiling the book for readers. The novel reads like a spy novel but is also a novel about secrets people live with, hiding them even from their loved ones. The book held my interest throughout, although the ending was a little long, the plot unfolding slowly in dialogue, although in a very realistic way.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the European cities that Kate and Dexter and their children visit, the old world atmosphere, the dank weather in winter, and more. I recommend the book for lovers of Europe and lovers of suspense.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Teaser: American Sniper, An Autobiography by Chris Kyle

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB and asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"Something else happened to me that spring that had an enormous impact not just on my military career, but on my life.

I fell in love.

I don't know if you believe in love at first sight; I don't think I did before the night in April of 2001 when I saw Tara..." (p. 40)

Title: American Sniper: the Autobiography of the Most Lethat Sniper in U.S. Military History
Author: Navy Seal Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice
Publisher: William Morrow, January 3. 2012
Genre: autobiography

Publisher's description: From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

Comments: This reads like a novel of suspense but it's for real. I can hardly believe that it's published and can't wait to start reading in earnest.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Book Review: Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini

Sonoma Rose: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini
Published by Dutton Adult, February 21, 2012
Genre: historical fiction

The romance of Lars and Rosa as young lovers in southern California during the era of Prohibition unfolds gradually in the course of the book. We discover why Rose marries another man instead of Lars, and what about her husband John makes her escape from him years later with her children to Berkeley and the Sonoma Valley in northern California.

Rosa finds a new life with Lars, away from her abusive husband John. The part her family heirloom quilts play in her determination is a small but important part of what Sonoma Rose is about. Rosa's  story is intertwined with the history of Sonoma Valley and the vineyards that existed during Prohibition, when making and selling alcohol and wine were illegal. This is a well told story; I especially enjoyed the history of California wine growers and the problems they faced, including dealing with Prohibition inspectors before the ban on alcohol was repealed in 1933.

This novel is the 18th in the Elm Creek Quilts Series. Rose first appears in a previous book in the series, and Sonoma Rose continues her story.

JENNIFER CHIAVERINI is the author of the bestselling Elm Creek Quilt series. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit her website, Elm Creek Quilts Online.

For more reviews, visit the tour schedule. Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Dutton for an ARC of this book.

Sunday Salon: I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Welcome to the Sunday Salon.

I have seen so many of Sophie Kinsella's books on the blogs that I snapped up her latest book, I've Got Your Number, from the New Releases shelves on a visit to the library. A lucky find. It had me laughing out loud and chuckling in turns in the first few chapters. What a great sense of humor this author has!

My comments: It's a clever situation in the plot - Poppy Wyatt, a physiotherapist, loses her heirloom emerald and diamond engagement ring while showing it off to her friends at a benefit tea. There are distractions and a fire alarm when guests scatter and Poppy loses sight of her ring.

Things get worse later on when a cyclist rides by and snatches her cell phone out of her hands. Poppy spots a discarded cell phone in a rubbish bin and latches on to it in her life saving attempt to find her ring before her fiance's parents arrive in town. The phone works, but Poppy soon finds out it belongs to some one's personal assistant, who obviously ditched it on her way out of one job to another.

Sam Roxton wants his assistant's phone back but Poppy persuades him to let her use it until she finds her ring. He agrees when she promises to forward him all his new messages, which his personal assistant used to handle on this phone. What happens later is amusing - Poppy reads the email, sends email, replies to email, and gets herself involved in Sam's personal life as well as his company's politics.

A hilarious and entertaining romance, I want to read more of Sophie Kinsella's books! Have you read this author?

Cozy mysteries on my TBR list this month are
Scones and Bones: a Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs
Due or Die: A Library Lover's Mystery by Jenn McKiknlay
A Cookie Before Dying: A Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery by Virginia Lowell

and

Being Lara by Lola Jaye - an ARC was sent to me by the publisher; its release date is March 13, 2012.

Book description: With her dark complexion and kinky hair, so unlike her fair-skinned parents, Lara knew she was different. At eight she finally learned the word "adopted." Twenty-two years later, a stranger arrives as she blows out the candles on her thirtieth birthday cake—a woman in a blue-and-black head tie who also claims the title "Lara’s mother."

Lara, always in control, now finds her life slipping free of the stranglehold she's had on it. Unexpected, dangerously unfamiliar emotions are turning Lara's life upside down, pulling her between Nigeria and London, forcing her to confront the truth about her past. But if she's brave enough to embrace the lives of her two mothers, she may discover once and for all what it truly means to be Lara. (amazon)

Read any of these books as yet?

Library Finds: Two New Releases

I found two books in the New Releases section of the library today! There was no plan to borrow books, just to browse, but I couldn't resist these.

Murder at the Lanterne Rouge: An Aimee Leduc Investigation set in Paris by Cara Black

Book Description:
Private investigator Aimée Leduc is happy her business partner René has found a girlfriend. Aimée’s instincts tell her Meizi, the supposed love of René’s life, isn’t trustworthy. Meizi disappears during a Chinatown dinner to take a phone call and never returns to the restaurant. Minutes later, the body of a young man, a science prodigy and volunteer at the Musée, is found shrink-wrapped in an alleyway—with Meizi’s photo in his wallet.

I've Got Your Number: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella

Book description:

Poppy Wyatt is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. She lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill and her phone is stolen. She spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Perfect! Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

*
Find any good books at your library recently?

Book Review: The Probability of Murder by Ada Madison

The Probability of Murder: a Professor Sophie Knowles Mystery
Author: Ada Madison
Published March 6, 2012; Berkley paperback

"The shiny padlock on Charlotte's bag called to me. I kept thinking about it, as if it were a logic puzzle I hadn't been able to solve.

Not my business.

On the other hand, Charlotte was gone forever and her bag was in my possession." (ch. 4)

Comments: For anyone who likes math puzzles, logic problems and brain teasers, this is the cozy mystery to read. The novel is peppered with them, as the main character Sophie Knowles, professor of math at a small Massachusetts college, does puzzles in her spare time or to while away the hours. That is, when she is not solving crimes. In this novel, Sophie tries to find out why her good friend, librarian Charlotte Crocker, was killed by being made to fall from a high library ladder. Also, Charlotte had left a duffle bag in Sophie's office, which contains an important clue to the mystery.

I liked the character Sophie and her friend Ariana, found the plot interesting, but think the book slowed down in the second half. There was too much detail, for instance, on Sophie's boyfriend Bruce and his mountain climbing accident in New Hampshire, and a few too many conversations with Ariana and detective Virgil. The ending was a surprise, however, and one I could not have expected, the mark of a good mystery.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.