Wicked Appetite

I finished the book yesterday and although I'm sorry to say it, Janet Evanovich being one of my favourite authors and all, but I was really disappointed. I didn't laugh out loud even once, like I usually do reading her books.
I liked the between-the-numbers quite well before. I also liked Diesel and Carl in Plum books, but this one...
Firstly, the main character.... Lizzie?... was really boring. If I should describe her, the only thing I remember, would be that she made good cupcakes. She was not funny, not especially smart.... too sensible and average to be the protagonist at least in a Evanovich book. Throughout the book I was not once worried that something might happen to her - just didn't care.
There was one character though that I really liked - The Cat. She (he?) was great - mysterious and with attitude. Great pet for unmentionable series. But I really didn't see why Carl was dragged into this book at all. He had no role to fulfill. He only ate, went "eep" and gave finger on every second page. It grew tedious quite quickly.
I also liked Diesel better before. Here in this book he was pretty much just an average cute guy. Almost nothing left of his quircky humour and cool attitude. The chemistry between Diesel and Lizzie seemed to be very bland too. Maybe I just liked Diesel more with Stephanie, them both being sarcastic and quick-witted. There wasn't that kind of spark present in Wicked appetite.

I borrowed this book from a friend and I'm sad to say that that's the first Evanovich book (except the early romances) that I don't feel that I need to buy for myself for occasional re-reading . But I guess I will read the sequels in the future though... If nothing more then for Cat's sake.
And let's be honest, even mediocre evanovich is better than most of other authors' best books.

Cookie time

I had this overwhelming urge to bake some cookies yesterday. The thing is I don't like to eat the cookies very much... strange isn't it.
So I baked two kinds of cookies.
Firstly I wanted to make something with merengue. As the plain merengue cookies are too sweet I made some with cookie base and very sour jam:
mix well 100 g butter (room temperature) + 80 ml sugar
beat in 2 egg yolks (save the egg whites for merengue, preferably put them into fridge - they'll form better foam when cold)
add 1 cup  flour, 1 tablespoon of almond extract (or almond liqueur), pinch of salt and some grated lemon peel.
form a nice ball and put it into fridge for an hour or some more.

afterwards form thin round cookies. I got 26 pieces out of this dough. Scoop 1/2 teaspoons of jam onto each cookie, the sourer the better. I used plum jam - made of the plums from my own garden, with minimal sugar.

add 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice to the two egg whites and whip until a bit stiff. add slowly 80 g sugar, beating constantly. continue whipping until the foam does not fall out of the bowl when you tilt it almost upside down. I also added 2 tablespoons of coconut flakes - folded them in in the end, gently.
Divide the egg-white onto cookies.
Bake ~15 minutes in 175 C oven, until the tops are light beige. Let the cookies cool in the oven for a while. If you take them out too suddenly the merengue might fall down and it's not nice.

No pictures, sorry. My husband came home just when I took the cookies out of the oven and when I remembered that I might take some pictures the cookies were no more. But they really look nice and fluffy.

The other cookies were Madeleines. Very classical french butter cakes. Supposedly the favourites of Marcel Proust.  They were not so popular at my home though... Maybe because I don't have the special moulded baking pan and the cookies were too flat, not spongy as they supposed to be. But they were not bad either, the other ones were just better.
As you can find many-many madeleine recipes in internet (I used this one: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Butter-Cakes-Madeleines/Detail.aspx) I will not repeat any of them.

Yay!

2,5 days of vacation left and so many books to read. "The Last Dragonslayer" arrived today!! What a beautiful cover it has. And I'm convinced that the inside is great too. After all, it's Fforde.
I have to establish a priority list apparently.... for reading:
1. finish Beneath These Stones
2. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
3. Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich
4. Finish Mrs. Fry's Diary
5. Beasts in My Bed by Jaquie Durrell
6. How to Shoot A Amateur Naturalist by Gerald Durrel
7. Two more books by Ann Granger

And I appear to have at least one unfinished book in all my recently weared purses.
...
Still  don't feel like reading the millennium triology.

On the demand of devoted readers...

Pumpkin pie is a pointless cake, I must say. Not good, not particulary bad. Just plain boring. Thank god I'm not american and don't have to have it every year!
Carving a pumpkin is fun though.Tristan made Mike Wazowzky. Not intentionally, but art has no rules, right.