richardderus takes 30 off the shelves in 2011

And here's my cool ticker thingie to prove I'm serious:

Yummy! Not to mention highly calorific! :-D

I was looking for a big ol' dollop of whipped cream as a slider, but they ain't got one.

Ah, well, gingerbread is good too.

I love punkin pie in a gingersnap crumb crust. *drool*

OOooh, sounds good! I've never had it done that way.

I started one year when I forgot to buy crust, and since I *loathe* making pie crust (never comes out right, my mother told me I had "hot hands" so it probably wouldn't...she was right, it never has) and *did* have a bag of ginger snaps, I thought "oh what the hell" and now it's my favorite!

So do you do it just the same as a graham cracker crust?

Yeup...one stick salted butter melted in pie plate, about 2 cups crushed crumbs, then play mudpies until the pie plate's covered. Bake a few minutes, then pour in filling, good to go. I tried it with unsalted butter once, and felt like something important was missing.

Thanks!

Yeah, it's important to have that little bit of salt to make sweet things taste right!

Thousands of years ago, I worked for Delacorte Books as a production manager. My boss gave me a really interesting clue about opposites: "Black makes white...a black dot on a plain white piece of paper has meaning that the paper alone doesn't. Just like salt makes sweet and sweet makes sour."

Yin and Yang!

Mmm...gingerbread and pie - I'll definitely be checking in here often! Are you planning on serving coffee as well?

Coffee's perking. I only have whole milk, sorry, but I can't abide creamers or actual cream. Since I got to rest yesterday, AND I got a gift cookbook, I've made "elegant pumpkin-pecan bread" for us, too.

Gingerbread Man + Pumpkin Pie does NOT equal serious.

Serious?! *delicate shiver* Who said anything about...that?

Why has no one responded to/picked up on "hot hands"?

Of course, it is a real phenomena, and results in less-than-perfect crust. My mother was the same. I mean, her pie crust was the same for the same reason.

Errrgggg....

I'm the same as well. Can't make a pie crust to save my life! I get by with crumb crusts whenever I can. Is there any of the delicious sounding pumpkin-pecan bread left - or did the dog eat it all?

Pupster left most of a loaf...but I had spares. Even The Divine Miss, not at all a dessert fancier, likes this recipe. I smeared some with butter for brekkers this morning.

Yeesh, what a day, off to bed, night all!

I made a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving that had a gingersnap crust inside a regular crust (I bought a frozen although sometimes I use the pre-made crusts from the dairy section at the market). I think it had some confectionary sugar and some cinnamon in the crust too. I like it that way.

>20 dudes22: That sounds quite tasty. Don't know why I've never heard of that before!

Re: #16. See Post #1.
And here's my cool ticker thingie to prove I'm serious

Your cool ticker thingie is SO not serious.

Richard darling, I love the idea of this group, but I have VOWED not to join any challenges this year ---just going to relax, read and enjoy all my LT friends. I may lurk a bit here, but find it too confusing to my poor addled brain to track all your different threads. Please pardon me if I don't pop in too often. It doesn't mean you're not a lovable person.

>22 tloeffler: Is too!

>23 tututhefirst: *miff*

Hope to do better reading book off my shelves. Would have to stay away from LT and the Library. ;-p

Hey Richard!

Did you accomplish your goal last year?

Yes, in fact, I did! That's why I upped it this year.

Well cool beans. How encouraging!!

Review: 1 of thirty

Title: THE DEATH OF ACHILLES

Author: BORIS AKUNIN

Rating: 3.75* of five

A nice thing about series mysteries is the continuity of characters among the volumes. One grows accustomed to their faces and one expects they'll be back, if not the next time you read one of the series, then soon enough.

Bah! Humbug! sayeth Boris, happily killing off and abandoning people through the multi-year festival that is this entertaining and readable series. (Andrew Bromfield, the translator, deserves many kudos for producing such readable and thoroughly enjoyable translations.) This book's title is the clue to who dies this time, but I won't spoil it for the as-yet-uninitiated. I will, however, point them in the direction of The Winter Queen and encourage them not to shilly-shally, but start reading soon.

If you need a synopsis of the story, they're all over the place, but I say get goin' and make reading this your March Spring treat.

Hi Richard. I have read the Winter Queen and enjoyed it. You are reminding me of this great series, and one I need to carry on with. I have a bad habit of reading the first book in a series and then taking a long, long time to get back to the next book.

I have the opposite problem! I *inhale* books in a series, as many as I can find at a time. Both ways make you forget to keep up with developments afterwards. Bad habits, bad habits....

I'm hearing you Richard. I too have a tendency to tear through a series I like (sorta like the proverbial #*$ flowing through a goose?) and then forget to keep up with what's new. The problem develops when an author takes an inordinate amount of time to come out with the next one---how dare s/he take 3 years to write carefully and edit and research? and then I've lost the thread and have to go back and re-read at least the last one.

I just got this week an ARC of Jean Auel's latest monster Land of the Painted Caves. I loved the first couple in this series, but it's been 20 odd years for lord's sake!!! How am I supposed to remember what happened..... and do I still care? It will be very interesting to see if my interest is still grabbed, or if my life adventures over the past 20 years have changed my perceptions....stay tuned.

It has been said that Auel writes at the speed of a glacier...

Seems quite appropriate, eh?

30 and 31 - Glad to see the favorable mention of The Winter Queen. A week or two ago I found it hiding behind a row of books in the bookcase and I couldn't remember a thing about it.