The Fault In Our Stars ~ John Green

Before reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, you'll need two things:
1. A large chunk of time, because once you start reading, you will want to keep reading.
2. A box of Kleenex, because, well, it's sad.

This is a story about kids with cancer. Hazel is 16 and losing her fight with thyroid cancer, although a new experimental drug has bought her a little more time. Augustus, around the same age, is a cancer survivor, having lost his leg because of a tumor, but nothing more.

They meet in a cancer support group, feel a strong connection, and somehow fall in love, in spite of knowing they can have no real future together.

I really like the way Mr. Green develops his characters in this book. Even though they are teenagers, their actions are often far from the typical teenage portrayal. They are respectful of others and have strong relationships with their parents. Their conversations are witty and intelligent. I quickly became attached to Hazel and Augustus and (kind of a spoiler ahead, but not really) was rather devastated when about half way through the book I realized where the plot was headed.

This book is a witty, sad, honest, and insightful portrayal of how cancer affects people. It will make you laugh. It will make you think. It will make you cry. Even though the target audience is young people, I think can be enjoyed by all ages.

Not to be missed. 5 stars.

Fudgy Ice Cream Cake? Yes, please.

I went home for a visit over Father's Day weekend. My mom, dad, and I had a nice time together.

On Sunday, mom and I grilled steaks for dad, and also served potato salad, corn on the cob, bread, and a fudgy ice cream cake.

I got the recipe out of the June issue of Everyday Food magazine. It is delicious and simple to make, combining layers of ice cream, graham crackers, fudge, and then topped with sweetened whipped cream.

It was 100+ degrees the afternoon we served it, and you can see from the picture that the cake started to melt quickly. But it was still good. I kind of wish I had a piece right now on this sweltering afternoon.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for serving
• Salt
• 3 pints vanilla ice cream
• 18 graham crackers
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
• Unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

1. Lightly coat an 8-inch square cake pan with cooking spray; line pan with plastic wrap, leaving a 6-inch overhang on two sides. Freeze pan at least 10 minutes. In a medium pot, combine corn syrup, 1/4 cup cream, butter, granulated sugar, cocoa, and pinch of salt; bring to a boil, whisking, over medium-high. Remove from heat and let fudge sauce cool. Meanwhile, remove 1 pint ice cream from freezer and let soften, about 15 minutes.
2. Evenly press softened ice cream into pan. Top with a single layer of graham crackers, breaking to fit. Drizzle with 1/4 cup fudge sauce and freeze 15 minutes. Repeat twice, omitting sauce on final layer. Wrap in plastic and freeze until firm, 8 hours (or up to 3 days). Cover and refrigerate remaining fudge sauce.
3. To serve, invert pan and run under tepid water to loosen cake. Invert onto a platter and remove plastic. Microwave fudge sauce in 30-second increments until pourable. Pour over cake and freeze to solidify, 5 minutes. In a large bowl, using a mixer, whip 1 1/2 cups cream and confectioners' sugar on high until stiff peaks form, 3 to 5 minutes. Dollop cake with whipped cream and dust with cocoa. Serve immediately.

Black-Pepper Biscuits

In the June issue of Martha Stewart Living, there is a recipe for Black-Pepper Biscuits. I thought adding pepper to biscuits was a splendid idea, so the last time I made biscuits, I gave it a try. 

I didn't use the recipe from the magazine, but used my old, standby biscuit recipe instead. The extra bite the pepper gives the biscuits is really nice.
 
Here is a simple recipe for biscuits - the one I use all the time. I find rolling out biscuits to be tedious, so I almost always just drop them on the baking sheet. This recipe will makes 9 nice sized drop biscuits.

Biscuits
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk

Combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening. Stir in the milk until just mixed. Roll out and cut the biscuits or drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-13 minutes.

*Add about 3/4 tsp or more of freshly ground black-pepper (the coarser the better) to turn these into black-pepper biscuits.

I just happened to have some lemon curd in the fridge when I made the biscuits, so I served it with them. What a delicious combination.

Lemon curd is simple to make and so yummy. Here is the recipe I used, taken from The Gourmet Cookbook. It makes a lot (about 3 cups), so you will probably only want to make half.

Lemon Curd
1 Tbsp + 2 tsp lemon zest
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
pinch of salt
1 3/4 sticks butter, cut into tablespoons

Whisk zest, juice, sugar, eggs, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Add butter and cook over medium low heat, whisking constantly, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubbles appear on surface, about 10 minutes. Immediately strain then cool to room temperature. Keep refrigerated. Will keep for one week.