Once Upon a Bowl of Oatmeal (paperback cover)

Annie Douglass Lima’s latest writing project is very different from anything else she’s written. It’s a cookbook! But those who know how much she loves fantasy might not be surprised that this cookbook ended up with a fantasy theme. Many of the recipes have names inspired by fairy tales or fantasy stories, and she loves the hints of fantasy in the two covers designed by the awesome Savannah Jezowski

 

Why two different covers? The paperback version of the cookbook is an unusual shape due to the unusual recipe format (more information about that below), so it couldn’t share a cover with the ebook.

Once Upon a Bowl of Oatmeal (ebook cover)

Some people might be surprised, though, that the whole book is focused on oatmeal. After all, isn’t oatmeal that boring goop that nobody really eats if there’s anything else available? 

NOT ANYMORE! In this book, you’ll find recipes for delectable dishes like creamy mango coconut spice oatmeal, cinnamon almond oatmeal, blueberry cream cheese oatmeal, and (Annie’s personal favorite:) caramel banana oatmeal with peanut butter. (Okay, so that one is a little closer to the dessert end of the spectrum than the porridge end!) 

 

Take a look at the book blurb Continue reading “Once Upon A Bowl of Oatmeal – say WHAT?!”

A few weeks ago, there tended to be a theme at my house. This isn’t something we planned for, and really I never noticed it until recently as I thought back on it. The theme was:

 

SALSA

 

Why was this the theme for the week? Let me explain.

First of all, on a Wednesday night, the local library hosted free salsa dancing lessons. For someone who has been wanting to do dance lessons for a long time, this was the time to jump on the opportunity. Not only did I get my dance lessons, but they were free, and the type of dance was fun! The best part of it all was that my husband, who wants nothing to do with dancing, was more than willing to appease me. He joined in on the fun, and I would say he was glad to have had the opportunity to learn something new and do something different. For the record, I would do salsa dancing again. I would also try any other dance lessons.

Second of all, we had a lot of tomatoes from our garden that needed to be used up. We have never made homemade salsa before so we had to learn fast. We searched for a recipe that looked good and even doctored it up a bit. After trying it, there are things I would change. It turned out way too watery. Probably because we chopped those tomatoes up to smithereens. Regardless, there are things I’d omit or change all together.

These two things don’t seem worthy of calling “salsa” a theme. But here’s why I would say it was. These were two things we do not typically do. They were new. They were different. They both happened within like two day’s time. It stood out. When something stands out, I can easily see it become a theme. Plus, when the root word of both things is the same, it’s obviously a theme, lol!

Have you had themes you’ve noticed show up in your days, weeks, months, or maybe even years? Were they intentional or by total coincidence?

By the way, do you have any good salsa recipes I should try?