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Thursday, August 31, 2017

Now Booking WOW! Women On Writing Book Blog Tour for "Free Will Odyssey" by Larry Kilham

Now scheduling blog stops for another great WOW! Women On Writing book blog tour - check out these details and mark your calendars!

Date: October 30th through December 1st 2017
Location: WOW! Women on Writing Blog and Beyond!!! 
Book Title: Free Will Odyssey
Author: Larry Kilham

Details
Print Length: 158 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: FutureBooks.info (August 27, 2017)
Publication Date: August 27, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B07566LDCQ


I am working on putting together this WOW! Women on Writing book blog tour! The tour will begin October 30th with a giveaway and author interview on the WOW! Blog (the Muffin), and run for a month. If you would be interested in reading and reviewing Free Will Odyssey by Larry Kilham, please email: crystal@wow-womenonwriting.com as soon as possible!


Include in the email:

* Confirmation that you've purchased your completely free Kindle copy of  Free Will Odyssey (click on this link to find it easily: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Will-Odyssey-Larry-Kilham-ebook/dp/B07566LDCQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504231564&sr=1-1&keywords=free+will+odyssey?tag=wowwomenonwri-20   )

*The name and url for your blog, or a note letting me know you'd like me to post your review on this blog

*A date you would prefer as your first choice, as well as a 2nd choice - this will be the date your review will be posted to your blog/this blog and social media.

Including posting to a blog, it would be fabulous if you could post your review on Amazon/Goodreads as well as your own social media. This is greatly appreciated although not mandatory to participate in a book blog tour.

As soon as all the dates have been filled and a calendar has been put together, I'll email a media kit to everyone involved in the tour. This kit will include the authors head shot and bio as well the book cover and official summary and buy links for you to use. This email will also include the calendar for the tour and should be able to answer most (if not all) the questions you may have concerning tour participation.

If you are an interview only blogger, please email with your interview questions as well as the dates preferred.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this and all matters.

A select number of guest posts will be available soon - if you prefer a guest post instead of a review, please email as soon as possible to choose a date and get in line for a guest post.


About the Book: 
Peter Tesla, a prodigious young inventor, develops an electronic device to enhance the user’s free will. A major application is drug detoxification. Peter’s star client is the U.S. president. Along the way, Peter is tried for the mysterious death of a girlfriend and struggles with the machinations of a secretive industrialist.

About the Author:
Larry Kilham has traveled extensively overseas for over twenty years. He worked in several large international companies and started and sold two high-tech ventures. He received a B.S. in engineering from the University of Colorado and an M.S. in management from MIT. Larry has written books about creativity and invention, artificial intelligence and digital media, travel overseas, and three novels with an AI theme. His book website is www.larrykilham.net and he looks forward to hearing from readers at lkilham@gmail.com.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Now Booking - WOW! Women On Writing Book Blog Tour for Farewell, Aleppo by Claudette E. Sutton

Now scheduling blog stops for another great WOW! Women On Writing book blog tour - check out these details and mark your calendars!

Date: October 23rd through November 23rd 2017
Location: WOW! Women on Writing Blog and Beyond!!! 
Book Title: Farewell, Aleppo: My Father, My People and Their Long Journey Home 
Author: Claudette E.  Sutton

Details
Paperback: 180 pages
Publisher: Terra Nova Books (October 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1938288408
ISBN-13: 978-1938288401






I am working on putting together this WOW! Women on Writing book blog tour! The tour will begin October 23rd with a giveaway and author interview on the WOW! Blog (the Muffin), and run for a month. If you would be interested in reading and reviewing Farewell Aleppo by Claudette E. Sutton, please email: crystal@wow-womenonwriting.com as soon as possible!


Include in the email:

* Your email address if you'd like a digital copy or your physical address if you'd like a hard copy mailed (limited number of hard copies available - act soon)

*The name and url for your blog, or a note letting me know you'd like me to post your review on this blog

*A date you would prefer as your first choice, as well as a 2nd choice - this will be the date your review will be posted to your blog/this blog and social media.

Including posting to a blog, it would be fabulous if you could post your review on Amazon/Goodreads as well as your own social media. This is greatly appreciated although not mandatory to participate in a book blog tour.

As soon as all the dates have been filled and a calendar has been put together, I'll email a media kit to everyone involved in the tour. This kit will include the authors head shot and bio as well the book cover and official summary and buy links for you to use. This email will also include the calendar for the tour and should be able to answer most (if not all) the questions you may have concerning tour participation.

If you are an interview only blogger, please email with your interview questions as well as the dates preferred.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this and all matters.

A select number of guest posts will be available soon - if you prefer a guest post instead of a review, please email as soon as possible to choose a date and get in line for a guest post.


About the Book:
The Jews of Aleppo, Syria, had been part of the city’s fabric for more than two thousand years, in good times and bad, through conquerors and kings. But in the middle years of the twentieth century, all that changed. To Selim Sutton, a merchant with centuries of roots in the Syrian soil, the dangers of rising anti-Semitism made clear that his family must find a new home. With several young children and no prospect of securing visas to the United States, he devised a savvy plan for getting his family out: “exporting” his sons.



In December 1940, he told the two oldest, Meïr and Saleh, that arrangements had been made for their transit to Shanghai, where they would work in an uncle’s export business. China, he hoped, would provide a short-term safe harbor and a steppingstone to America.



But the world intervened for the young men, now renamed Mike and Sal by their Uncle Joe. Sal became ill with tuberculosis soon after arriving and was sent back to Aleppo alone. And the war that soon would engulf every inhabited land loomed closer each day. Joe, Syrian-born but a naturalized American citizen, barely escaped on the last ship to sail for the U.S. before Pearl Harbor was bombed and the Japanese seized Shanghai.



Mike was alone, a teen-ager in an occupied city, across the world from his family, with only his mettle to rely on as he strived to survive personally and economically in the face of increasing deprivation. Farewell, Aleppo is the story―told by Mike's daughter―of the journey that would ultimately take him from the insular Jewish community of Aleppo to the solitary task of building a new life in America.



It is both her father’s tale that journalist Claudette Sutton describes and also the harrowing experiences of the family members he left behind in Syria, forced to smuggle themselves out of the country after it closed its borders to Jewish emigration. The picture Sutton paints is both a poignant narrative of individual lives and the broader canvas of a people’s survival over millennia, in their native land and far away, through the strength of their faith and their communities. Multiple threads come richly together as she observes their world from inside and outside the fold, shares an important and nearly forgotten epoch of Jewish history, and explores universal questions of identity, family, and culture.


About the Author:
Family has always been a major focus of Claudette Sutton's writing. She is the editor and publisher of Tumbleweeds, an award-winning quarterly newspaper for families, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has appeared in local and national publications and online. Her new memoir, "FAREWELL, ALEPPO: My Father, My People, and Their Long Journey Home," the story of her father and the close-knit community of Syrian Jews that her family came from, is an extension of that interest. In part a labor of love, the book is as well as a tribute to Aleppo, Syria's intriguing Jewish community whose history extends back thousands of years, but which has now left Syria and relocated around the world. Claudette and her husband live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and have one son.

Back to School Breakfast Solutions

The air is getting crisp and the mornings call for a sweater. The beginning of the school year is upon most of us, and leisurely mornings will no longer be enjoyed during the week. Here are some back to school breakfast solutions that will hopefully simplify your mornings and bring a smile to the entire family!

Most of these recipes can be enjoyed fresh as well as being frozen in individual servings to be heated up and enjoyed for tweens, teens, and adults!

This post was the idea of a friend who called me this morning asking for breakfast ideas for her two adorable boys - so I apologize for the lack of photos. I'm usually much more prepared for posting...but school starts here in less than a week. I promise I'll add some photos to this post - or if you try the recipes and have photos of your own, please feel free to share them and I'll add them to the post (you can email them to me at: crystaljotto@gmail.com )

Healthier Muffins (or bread)
Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat (unbleached) flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon (I'll be honest, the more the merrier with cinnamon in this house)
3 farm fresh eggs
1 cup applesauce (home made is best and leave it chunky for added moisture)
3 teaspoons vanilla (don't scrimp on vanilla and use the real deal if it's available)
1 1/4 cups agave nectar (or honey - but if using honey you may have to use a bit more)

Options:
2 cups grated zucchini (if you have picky eaters you may want to process the zucchini so it is not detected)
OR
2 cups dried cranberries and a bit of orange zest
OR
2 cups fresh blueberries
OR
2 cups dried blueberries
OR
2 cups raisins
OR
1 cup strawberries with 1 cup rhubarb
OR
2 cups strawberries
OR
2 cups dried cherries

More Options:
Chocolate Chips - use your discretion...I say you can never have too much chocolate (especially dark) so throw in the entire bag if you'd like!
OR
walnuts
OR
pecans

truth is...the options never end!


Instructions:
I wish I could tell you that it matters which ingredients you put in first, last, or in the middle...but I honestly do most of my baking with small children so we are just happy to get all the ingredients in the bowl and not on one another...(side note - when telling a 6 year old to find something hard to crack the egg on - you may want to specify that although you often tell your six year old how hard-headed he is...his head is not what you had in mind).

We toss all the ingredients in the bowl and mix with a vengeance until everything looks just right! Then we have a conversation about what type of pan we are going to use - this particular recipe can be divided into a muffin pan for cupcakes, into a bread pan, or into a cake pan...you do what works for you and adjust the baking time accordingly.

Set the oven to 325 and bake for approximately 40-60 minutes for a cake (less for cupcakes, more for bread).

After fully cooled - you can wrap muffins individually, cut bread or cake into single serving portions and then you can freeze them. I like to make muffins for myself or a friend who is having a baby. The single portions are easy to take out at bedtime and by breakfast you're ready to grab and go!

Enjoy!!!



Breakfast Burritos
The toughest part of this recipe is deciding what to include in your burritos.
Ingredient options:
Soft tortillas (spinach, tomato basil, wheat, etc...)
scrambled eggs
diced onions
diced peppers
diced tomatoes
pieces of bacon
fully cooked ground sausage
salsa
shredded cheddar cheese
hot sauce
mushrooms
black olives
ham
shredded swiss cheese
etc...

Instructions;
I cook the eggs (and meat if necessary) then combine all desired ingredients in a large skillet. When I make this recipe I go big...like 2 dozen eggs at a time...

While that mixture cools, I lay out as many soft tortillas as will fit on my workspace.
Scoop egg mixture into the tortillas - I find that 1C of egg mix per tortilla works best
And now for the tricky part (not really)
-fold the burrito in half
-fold in the sides
-roll until burrito-fied

Repeat until you've used all your tortillas and egg mixture

Place wrapped burritos on a cookie sheet for freezing (if your freezer has a particular odor, then cover the sheet with saran wrap)

Freeze over night

Individually wrap your burritos in saran wrap and then place into a large freezer storage bag and label (I save the yummy ones for myself and the kiddos get the boring ham n cheese or whatever they've chosen).

Pull out of the freezer and remove from saran wrap before heating

wrap in paper towel and heat 1-2 minutes in the microwave

ENJOY!!!



Apple or Pear French Toast Bake
6C bread torn into pieces (approximately 1 loaf)
1 dozen eggs
2 cups milk
¾ cup honey or sugar
2 TB vanilla
½ cup brown sugar
1t cinnamon
¼t salt
1 stick of butter cut into small pieces

Options: 4 C sliced apples or pears (slice like you are baking a pie - peelings are optional)

Instructions:

Line a greased 9x13 baking dish with the bread

Place fruit over the top of the bread

Whisk together other ingredients. Pour evenly over bread and fruit mixture

Cover your pan with Saran Wrap and refrigerate overnight or if you are in a rush, just let it sit until it gets soggy

Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until top is golden brown - add some powdered sugar if desired

You can absolutely eat this right out of the pan (after it cools a bit), or you can freeze the entire pan to be heated up later, OR cut into single servings, freeze in small sealed containers and then just microwave 2 or so minutes when you need a sweet breakfast treat!

Pancakes
We all have our favorite pancake recipe - so I won't tell you exactly what to do or not to do, but I will tell you that you can freeze a few pancakes in a freezer bag and the kiddos can grab them and heat them up in the microwave for 45 seconds and make their own breakfast if you want to sleep in every now and then!

Omelet in a Pan
6C bread torn into pieces (approximately 1 loaf)
1 dozen eggs
2 cups milk
1 C shredded cheese (cheddar is our favorite, but any flavor will do)
¼t salt
1 stick of butter cut into small pieces

Options: 4 C total of any or all of the following -
diced onions
diced peppers
diced tomatoes
pieces of bacon
fully cooked ground sausage
salsa
mushrooms
black olives
ham

etc...

Instructions:

Line a greased 9x13 baking dish with the bread

Mix your optional items in with the bread

Whisk together other ingredients. Pour evenly over bread and veggies

Cover your pan with Saran Wrap and refrigerate overnight or if you are in a rush, just let it sit until it gets soggy

Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until top is golden brown and cheese is bubbly - add some more cheese just show your love for dairy farmers!

You can absolutely eat this right out of the pan (after it cools a bit), or you can freeze the entire pan to be heated up later, OR cut into single servings, freeze in small sealed containers and then just microwave 2 or so minutes when you need a savory breakfast treat!

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Beer Bread Recipe - Save Money Today!

I like saving money even more than I dislike going shopping. Here's a recipe that will save you a trip to the store and it will save you money too. Make this delicious beer bread at home with simple ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. I'm not naming names either, but I think this recipe may be even better than that expensive box you can purchase at those home parties...wink wink...you be the judge!

Ingredients:

2 3/4C flour
1 1/2 t salt
2 T baking powder
1/2C granulated sugar
12 oz beer
2 1/2T melted butter

***if you prefer, you can use 3C self rising flour and omit the salt and baking powder listed above


Preheat oven to 350F

Mix dry ingredients well (flour, salt, baking powder and sugar) by hand or using a mixer

Add beer and mix until combined, but don't over mix (ie: mixing by hand is sufficient and if using a stand mixer, don't walk away - it doesn't take long)

Spoon mixture into greased bread pan (or a fancy pan if you are entertaining)

Bake at 350F for 55 minutes - - - enjoy a glass of wine, cup of tea, or mug of coffee during this part!

Brush melted butter on top of the loaf

Bake an additional 5-10 minutes until it looks tan and delicious

Allow to cool on a wire rack

Serve and watch everyone enjoy - - - tell them it took hours if you wish!


Today's recipe brought to you by yours truly, but here's my bio in case you are curious!

Crystal is a council secretary and musician at her church,
birth mother, babywearing cloth diapering
mama (aka crunchy mama), business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Publicist with Dream of Things Publishing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, four young children (Carmen 10, Andre 9, Breccan 3, Delphine 2, and baby Eudora due this fall), two dogs, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, and over 230 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal riding unicorns, taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books, baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all sorts of other stuff here, and at WOW!Women on Writing  - -  Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade!