A tasty way to prepare chicken by marinating the meat in onions, garlic, beef broth and balsamic vinegar. This dish is typically grilled, cut into tender bite-sized pieces of chicken. This is certainly a family favourite!
Chicken and marinade can be prepared ahead of time and frozen. I use this when going out to a cabin for the week, permitting me to quickly get a meal going with minimal effort.
It’s always nice to have some options! A friend has cleaned up the prototype cover that I made for the Grand. Essentially, she applied her experience and skill to create a more refined cover.
However, she also created an alternate cover. This variant is far simpler and would realistically scale better at different resolutions. Alas, it seems that I am a bit biased, since I made the prototype.
So what do you think? Which is better? Detailed or Outlined? Feel free to post any recommendations on potential changes that could make this cover really pop!
I make sure to keep these ingredients readily available to make this recipe. It takes no time at all to pull this meal together which makes a good 6 to 8 portions. While Beef Stroganoff is not French Canadian in origin, it is nonetheless a family favourite!
A soft sugary fudge which is also an easy to make dessert. Prepare in less than fifteen minutes, let cool and it’s ready to serve. Goes well with a glass of milk!
I got a few copies of The Portrait in the mail from CreateSpace the other day, but could not inspect the package due to a business trip. This is the first time since my arrival that I’ve been able to get a good look at them and I believe they came out well!
As previously mentioned, this edition is in black and white which significantly reduced the prices. The images turned out well and are clear, additionally the four pages that were flagged as having unusual characters came out as they did in the preview… flawless. So yes, I am rather happy how they turned out!
I have been to Saint Jonh’s, Newfoundland several times in the last decade. While sites like Signal Hill are iconic, I had seen them before and wanted to venture out beyond the periphery of the city. So, I rented a car and ventured out in areas that would be harder to reach on foot when time is limited.
I took a series of shots that I feel provide a certain amount of inspiration. Since it’s currently Iceberg season, I also took a shot of a few notable specimens that I came across. For those curious, yes there is still snow and it’s nearly May!
It always surprises me how much detail the human eye can capture. I look at a scene, seeing an object in the distance with something in the foreground and pull out my camera. Looking through the viewfinder, I play between the various zoom settings only to find that I cannot replicate what I see.
Typically the frame is too tight, or I cannot seem to get just the right perspective. Fortunately, a couple of years back I discovered a handy program called AutoStich. I take a series of burst shots of a location and have AutoStich make it into a whole image. It can take a while, especially when you are dealing with hundreds of shots but it can really generate beautiful images.
This time around, I had an opportunity to try it out near Saint Jonh’s, Newfoundland. Here are the shots and I hope they serve well for inspiration!
None of these images were modified, hence why there are missing sectors. Still I think they are lovely.
There are many variants of tourtière and this one is the most iconic version. Filled with ground beef and pork, covered in crust and baked in the oven, this dish is often enjoyed with hunter sauce or ketchup.
For an added kick, add some grated cheddar cheese before the top layer of crust is added. Stuffed crust tourtière? Yes!
Its been a good week for the Portait! A work which was released a little over a year ago.
On Smashwords the novel broke two-hundred (200) downloads, a definitive sign that even after a year listed the novel still generates some interest. In itself this is impressive, given that I spend very little time trying to advertise the work.
In other news, with the help of Moran Media the design got a makeover and its design was accepted by CreateSpace. Hence the Portrait is now available in print!
Unlike the Portrait of a Woman, this version is available in black and white. This change radically drops the book’s price; previous versions sold for close to 30$ USD whereas this one sells for under 7$ USD.
Additional distribution centres were not selected, since that would increase the base price of the book. I suppose if there were ever a demand to open up those channels I may consider it. Until then, better to make it affordable!
Bartender Wanted is a historical mystery written by Maureen Anne Jennings; not to be confused with Maureen Jennings the author of the Murdoch Mysteries which launched a popular Canadian show with the same name. This story takes place in the 1980’s New York city, bringing me back to my childhood.
The story itself centres on the staff at My World, a restaurant and bar in Manhattan. Bartender Wanted revolves around Rose Leary, a recently divorced author and former restaurant owner who now tends the bar to make ends meet in between novels. A series of murders ensues and she finds herself in the middle of mystery, bringing her into contact with some of the bar’s patrons, employees and the owners.
Overall, I found this novel to be a quick and pleasant read, although I do not see myself picking up any other books from the series. Maureen Anne Jennings is very careful to work within the limited technology of the day, and brings into focus certain sociopolitical elements that the reader may not have been aware of. The author also does an excellent job of speaking for the protagonist and you get a taste of her thoughts and motivations.
However, I found her interactions with some of the characters to be less than believable. The one exception was her interactions with Jimmy, one of the waiters, although that aspect seems to fizzle out towards the end of the book. This novel also left me with few surprises, there were no cliff hangers or mystery in it for me. I was simply left wondering when Rose would figure it out and how all the loose ends would be tied up.
Overall the story failed to captivate me or keep me hooked until the end. This was not an adrenaline pumped roller coaster ride, instead it was more of a pleasant drive through the country. There was plenty of room for one’s imagination to grow, but little opportunity to get the pulse racing. A shame really, since the ratings on Goodreads really got me thinking I’d be consuming the whole series!
