C.’s Comments (group member since Apr 20, 2013)

C.’s comments from the Clean,Non Religious-Reads group.

Appetizers/Snacks/Dips
Just in time for the Super Bowl!

Bacon Wrapped Lil' Smokies
1 - 14 oz. package Lil' Smokies
1 lb. bacon, cut in thirds
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 325.
2.Wrap each smokie with a piece of bacon. Secure bacon in place with a toothpick.
3.Place smokies on a baking sheet lined with foil.
4.Sprinkle brown sugar over the smokies.
5.Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Freeze blueberries and vanilla Greek yogurt on cookie sheet for a healthy bark.

White Queso Dip
2 blocks of cream cheese
1/2 cup of chopped onions (can be frozen)
1/2 cup of mayo
1 (8 ounce) package of shredded monterrey jack cheese - about 2 cups
1 (8 ounce )package of shredded parmesan cheese - about 2 cups
1 small can diced green chilis

First, put the two blocks of cream cheese in a microwaveable bowl and zap them for 1 minute to soften.
Add your chopped onions. I believe the original recipe called for frozen, but I use whatever I have. If you're not a big "onion person" I would suggest the frozen ones.
Add your mayo
and the shredded parmesan cheese
Add the monterry jack cheese
Mix it all up well with a fork until it's blended
Spoon the mixture into a 9" pie pan.
Use the back of a spoon to spread it out evenly.
Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until the top is browning and bubbly.
Enjoy with tortilla chips or crackers!

Caramelized Maui Onion Dip- you'll never onion make dip from a little pouch again.
Sunset Magazine – June 2009
Make this at least an hour ahead of time to allow the flavors to develop.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 Maui onions (or other sweet onions) halved and thinly sliced (about 5 cups)
1 cup sour cream
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Heat the oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown, sticky and caramelized (about 20 minutes). If the pan starts to burn, reduce the heat to medium-low and add 1 tablespoon of water, stirring well. Transfer the onions to a small bowl and chill until cold (about 1 hour).

Reserve 1 tablespoon of the carmelized onions.

In a food processor, pulse the remaining onions that have been chilled,sour cream, buttermilk and salt until just combined. Transfer to a serving dish and top with the reserved onions. Chill for at least an hour before serving.
Garnish center with the dollop of reserved onions and serve.

Taco Bell Tribute: Nachos Bell Grande.To die for!
Tortilla chips
3/4 lb - 1 lb ground beef prepared with taco seasoning packet
refried beans
beef broth or water [to thin refried beans]
nacho cheese or salsa con queso
taco sauce
1 medium tomato, diced
1 green onion, sliced
light sour cream
shredded lettuce

Brown ground beef and prepare according to taco seasoning packet directions. Heat the refried beans in a small saucepan. Add a little broth or water to thin them to a "pourable" state. Heat cheese in the microwave.
Place shredded lettuce on a serving plate. Top with 1/2 of chips. Add desired amount of beef, cheese, beans, and taco sauce. Top with the rest of your chips. Repeat the beef, bean, cheese, taco sauce layer. Sprinkle with diced tomato. Top with sour cream and green onions.


Baked Sweet Onion Cheddar Dip
Ingredients:

•1 1/4 cups finely chopped yellow sweet onions (Maya, Vidalia, etc)
•1 garlic clove, minced
•1/4 cup mayonnaise (Best Foods, Hellmann's, or Vegenaise)
•1/4 cup plain yogurt or 1/4 cup sour cream
•1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
•Tabasco sauce, to taste
•1/8 teaspoon curry powder, to taste (optional, but oh so good!)
•1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
•1/8 teaspoon smoked spanish paprika or 1/8 teaspoon dried ancho chile powder or 1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
•1 tablespoon chopped green onion, for garnish

Instructions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.In a bowl, mix together the onions, garlic, mayonnaise, yogurt or sour cream, cheddar, and Tabasco (and curry powder, if using).
3.Spread into a lightly pan sprayed small-ish baking dish.
4.Top with Parmesan and sprinkle with paprika to taste. (Ground ancho chile powder can be substituted for the paprika, for a little more kick. I prefer the ancho.).
5.Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Garnish with chopped green onion (scallion).
6.Serve hot or warm with crackers, bread, or raw veggie dippers.
7.Makes about 6 servings.

Glad you liked them. :]

When In Rome is a good one with the gorgeous Josh Duhamel,and I just saw for the first time thanks to a library DVD~the sweet Christmas romance...Borrowed Hearts with Roma Downey, Eric McCormack, Hector Elizondo.

This is where we will post recipes, ask food-related questions,and whatever else food-related you all come up with.
Feel free to create a category folder to go inside this one,to keep things organized,such as "Casseroles/1-2 pot dishes","Breakfast/Brunch/Anytime",ect.you get the idea.

When I'm not reading or watching a movie on DVD,I love being with family/friends.
After that it has to be playing a computer game.
I am a gamer from waaay back to the first Pong game! Then it was the Atari with Space Invaders through all the console game systems until the Nintendo 64.By then the controllers had changed so much and become so complicated,plus the games were so costly and by the time you were just getting a few, your system became obsolete,because a 'new model' came out,so my late hubby said 'that's it' and I changed to computer with CHEAPER mouse-run games,and never looked back! Played the first Sims for years and years. These days I mostly play games from download sites like Gamehouse.

The new diversion though for my son,granddaughter and I is playing the new board game edition of CLUE. We love the new and added features.

I just love Pinterest,and I have found so many of these on there.Some that I have heard before,and several new to me.

Here are some that I enjoy~

Everyone comes with baggage.

Find someone who loves you enough
to help you unpack.


If someone wants to be a part of your life,they'll
make an effort to be in it. So
Don't bother reserving a space in your heart for
someone who doesn't make an effort to stay.


Let the wife
make the husband
glad to come home,
and let him
make her
sorry to see
him leave.
[Martin Luther]


If you're not careful,
the newspapers
will have you hating
the people who are
being oppressed,
and loving the people
who are doing
the oppressing!
[Malcolm X]


"When you say
'yes' to others,
make sure you
are not saying
'no' to yourself".
[Paulo Coelho]


Be the person
your dog thinks
you are.


If you want your
children to turn out
well,spend twice
as much time with
them,and half as
much money.
[Abigail Van Buren]


Children sometimes
misquote things you
said.Except when it
comes to things you
shouldn't have said.In
that case they quote you
perfectly word for word!

Technology
is a useful servant
but a dangerous master.



A really good book
doesn't need a
bookmark because
you'll never put it
down long enough to
forget the page you were on.

Hi R.L.,yes I'm really thankful for any sites that help to give readers a heads up to the content in books.I hope CompassBookRatings and thefussylibrarian that Loren[thanks Loren!]mentioned,will be useful.

Annette wrote: "Christine wrote: "I have another 'pet peeve' how about when there is a dumb misunderstanding between the couple that could be solved with simple communication but the author drags it out the entire..."

Yep,mad,that's exactly how I feel!

I have another 'pet peeve' how about when there is a dumb misunderstanding between the couple that could be solved with simple communication but the author drags it out the entire book until the very end,and then with little explanation or effort they are suddenly 'over it' and go on to their HEA!

Before then, I have usually lost all respect for both of them and am past caring, or even wanting to see them get together! :[

Yes when I praised "Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand" in my Amazon review for being clean yet free of all the god-talk of Christian Romance, she said that was because she was writing for Signet Publishing then,and she said her books by them and Cedar Fort should suit me,but said her newer ones by Harlequin are racier!

Tadiana,I have not read any of her books.

Thanks for mentioning the heroine's change and the author's LDS tie.

I have read several by LDS authors including Carla Kelly,and Marcia Lynn McClure that do not prosytize,so I do understand that some LDS authors don't seem to be as bad for that. :]

Thank you for the mention of "Smart Move" by Melanie Jacobson .It sounds really cute and so does her "Not My Type, A Single Girl's Guide to Doing it All Wrong" which I saw when I went to Amazon to check out your suggestion.

Loren wrote: "Isn't that why honeymoons evolved? Something about appeasing the bride that was forced into marriage?"

I hadn't ever heard that,I'm curious why anyone would think that a honeymoon would 'appease' a bride? Seems like the last thing she would want is to be forced to spend time alone with this stranger,lol!

However, I do love mail-order bride/husband or marriage of convenience stories.My introduction to'clean' romance was the film 'Love Comes Softly' by Michael Landon based on[but much more fun]the book by Janette Oke.

I saw that it was based on a book which I then borrowed from my library,and was then hooked on clean romance!I had read a few of the trashy romances before, but found them totally ridiculous/laughable and/or vulgar.

My favorites are Medical~ Coma,The Hot Zone,The Demon In The Freezer,Historical~The DaVinci Code,Angels & Demons,The Essene Conspiracy,and Government Conspiracy~ Angels Don't Play This HAARP,Haarp: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy (Mind-Control Conspiracy),Weather Warfare: The Military's Plan to Draft Mother Nature,Chemtrails Confirmed,Black Helicopters Over America: Strikeforce for the New World Order,Black Helicopters II : The End Game Strategy,Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola: Nature, Accident,or Intentional?

Thanks Tadiana,Yes it was destroying the wonderful forums at Amazon,until they finally put a stop to it,so I do not want to see the same thing happen here at goodreads.

People go to forums to share common interests and to get suggestions for resources for those books,movies ect,of particular genres, not to have someone pushing their product that too often isn't even close to being the genre being discussed!

Even if it IS the same category,it will then already be be included and found when a category search is done,and it ususally just has the opposite result when I see a book being self-promoted.

GoodReads is all about sharing books, including those that you've written. I have no problem with authors making posts to promote their books, but I would like to set up a few guidelines.

1. If you want to promote your book(s), or those by an author other than yourself....you must be involved in the community. If you join solely to promote any book(s) and do not enter discussions, you are spamming!

As of 12/29/13, if a self-promotion topic is posted, and the author has not participated in any discussion, or has posted only the most cursory of comments[and less than 10 posts, and has read and 'reviewed' less than 50 books], his/her topic will be deleted!

If the author repeatedly posts self-promotion outside of the proper folder the group creator or any future moderator reserves the right to remove members who post spam comments without warning.

It is simply rude to join just to try to sell books and not respect the community's rules by ignoring them OR the community's members by spamming them with book promotion and reviews. This will not be tolerated.

2. All self-promotion topics MUST be posted in the 'Meet Our Authors' folder, regardless if it is your own or some one else's book.ONLY 'AFTER' meeting the requirements. From today on, all self-promotion topics posted outside of the Self-Promotion folder will be deleted.

3. Please create only one topic for each book you are promoting. In other words, if you've already made a post about one particular book, and you'd like to post a review or the like, post that as a reply to your topic. Don't make a new topic.

4. I would ask that authors who do participate in our group discussions don't use large signature blocks promoting their books, on the bottom of each post. It's still advertising.
Clarification: I will allow a single line or bookcover. I'm not going to police everything. But when the signature lines are full paragraphs, often times larger and longer than the thread comment, then it becomes too much.

I hope to enjoy reading about your books and blogs in this newly created folder for you. :]

My thanks to ஐ Briansgirl (Book Sale Queen)ஐ: creator of the Cozy Mysteries Group for allowing me to use her perfectly chosen words to create this folder for the members here at Clean,Non Religious,Reads.

Your books & blogs go here~Meet Our Authors,their books and blogs

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Actually Jim you have not upset me at all.I just don't agree with you about vulgar talk not being an excellent gauge of character,because in my life experience it has been,many times over.

Also my husband and I did not know filthy-mouthed GIs such as depicted in these disgusting/trashy modern war films.I always found GIs to be really sweet and fun gentlemen.That's why both my older sister and I fell for and married GIs. :]

My hubby and brothers-in-law all finished their miltary time by 1969,maybe that was before the dope-head/trash-talking generation became the norm of so much of society and the military personnel today?

Society most certainly does change.When I was a kid,and we went to town,my dad left the car keys in the ignition and didn't even lock the doors. I don't think anyone did,not even our house doors,but it was perfectly safe!A person would have to be an idiot or crazy to do that today.

I do agree totally that war was glamorized and the men made into heroes in those older war films,and definitely did not show much at all of the true horror of war. I have no doubt that the war-mongers in Washington would have never allowed films to truly depict those horrors and what war does to each individual.

But I do not believe that adding excessive profanity honestly portrays our service personnel either,and if it does,if they have become that filthy mouthed,then shame on them!

I blame many,many parents,and especially those who were war veterans themselves for not telling their children that recruiters just spew BS,and if they are smart they will never enlist[unless it is to fight here on our own homeland],like my hubby told our son,and why he and both B-I-L only served their 4 years and got out!

Jim wrote:"Oliver Stone who produced and directed "Platoon" actually served in an Army infantry rifle company in Vietnam and was wounded. Now that is a producer who has earned my respect."

WARNING READERS,THE FOLLOWING LINK HAS REALLY DISGUSTING,FILTHY examples from this movie............................................................................................................................................................

content-advisory~http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091763/p...

We had no desire to watch such filth!
No injury,not even his death would cause me to respect Stone for this film!!!!!

I have to say that I have tremendous respect for John Wayne,and all the actors/producers who refrained from sounding like crass trash in those great,decent films,before the ammoral dopers took over film making in Hollywood.

I don't care for John Wayne myself,except in The Longest Day and comedies,but are you saying that no combat veterans are the 5-star reviewers of movies such as The Longest Day,Where Eagles Dare,Guns Of Navarone,Twelve O'Clock High,The Bridge on the River Kwai,The Great Escape,A Bridge Too Far,ect? I'm sure that I have read reviews from many combat veterans who love those films! In fact my dad was a WWII veteran[he was in the navy then,before he got switched to AF,with no say in the matter]and he loved them.