A child abandoned. A life destroyed. Two hearts, unable to forgive... After a drunk driver leaves young Cassie Belanger an orphan, a cryptic letter, found among her mother's belongings sends her on a desperate journey in hopes of finding the man who fathered her but chose not to be her father. Driven by her anger, her bitterness and her desire to confront the man who abandoned her, Cassie meets Jack, a crusty old bachelor headed in the same direction. In his face Cassie begins to see what can happen to a heart that refuses to forgive. Will she forgive her father, or turn away from him and remain an orphan? Who is Jack, and how is his own shadowed past linked to her own? Will Cassie Belanger find the power that lies in forgiveness and the miracle of God's unwavering mercy? The answers lie... Just Past Oysterville.
I dreamed the first chapters of a thousand not-so-great American novels, between the blue sky and the green grass of left field, waiting those interminable little-league innings. And, while I was never carried off the field on my teammate's shoulders, and never trotted the bases for a homerun, I came away with something infinitely more valuable. The dreams and visions I put to paper now may not be the same as the Technicolor odysseys that filled my younger eyes, but the seed from which these words come once fell to ground, rooted and grew tall in left field. From psychotic chefs to world killing comets, from an asexual future society, to man-eating grizzlies, FOUR FROM LEFT FIELD is a collection of my more bizarre flights of fancy, none of which has anything to do with baseball.
La Caja China, the Cuban roasting box, has become the toast of foodwriters and celebrity gourmets, including Food Network's THROWDOWN Chef, Bobby Flay."La Caja China Cooking" takes you on a gastronomic tourof America, from Miami's classic Cuban dishes, to traditional Texas andCarolina BBQ, to the crisp, fresh flavors of the Pacific Northwest.Perkins includes grill-top favorites, amazing side dishes, and step-by-stepCaja China instructions for "in-the-box" crowd-pleasers like: True Texas Brisket Pacific Northwest Salmon Southern Roast Turkey Carolina Pork Ribs Memphis Whole Pickin' PigSo, fire up the coals, pick your favorite recipe, and dazzle your guestswith these simple, yet mouth-watering dishes. Wonderful things can happen when you think inside the box
La Caja China, the Cuban roasting box, has become the toast of food writers and celebrity gourmets, including Food Network's THROWDOWN Chef, Bobby Flay. In La Caja China Cooking: The Secret to Perfect Roasting, we took a gastronomic tour of America. With this new collection of recipes, your La Caja China becomes a magic carpet, allowing you to take your friends and family to the far corners of the world, and experience the delicious wonders waiting for you there In every culture and country that we researched in gathering this collection, we found people who enjoyed gathering together with loved ones, lighting a fire, cooking meat over it (or under it), and eating together. Not coincidentally, we think, these folks shared a common passion for life and laughter, as well. In La Caja China World, we invite your taste buds to join us on a globe-trotting adventure with dishes like: Grilled Tri-Tip & Chimichurri in Argentina Whole Roast Pig & Coconut Rice in Bali Roast lamb & Potatoes in Greece Beef Short Ribs & Scallion Salad in Korea Christmas Goose in Sweden If you're looking to roast, grill, bake, braise, smoke, or barbecue; whether you're cooking for a hungry crowd, or creating memories with your family - look no further than La Caja China World
Barbeque, B-B-Que, BBQ...It means many things to many people. To some it's a piece of equipment, to some it's an event, to other's it a method of cooking. To many it's a deeply personal part of their history and their home.It's smoking meat, low and slow, or suspended over hot coals, or turning on a spit. Like religion or politics, it's hotly debated, reverently approached, it can be divisive or uniting, and it's only true definition is what it means to the one defining it.My best definition? Barbecue is a gathering, a meal, a sharing of time, food and companionship all in one. Barbecue brings people together and makes them happy. Barbecue is about good food, good friends, but always, it's about a good time.La Caja China: Smoke is about BBQ, real BBQ, the various ways to make it in the Cuban-style roasting boxes, and the classic recipes that encompass BBQ from all over the United States.Let's have some fun.Let's make some smoke... Chef Perrylacajachinacooking.com
"The Home Chef: Transforming the American Kitchen" was your overview of the basic concepts and tips for taking your cooking to the next level, but let's face it, you can only fit so much information into one book. Each Home Chef Guidebook delves more deeply into the professional quality recipes and techniques of specific cooking styles and cuisines. This one is all about BACON. Bacon is the candy-apple red hotrod of the food world. We want it, but we also fear it a little, which makes us want it even more... Each year in the U.S. more than 1.7 billion lbs. of bacon are consumed - equivalent to the weight of 8 1/2 Nimitz class aircraft carriers. 65% of Americans would support bacon as their "national food" and more than half of us claim that we would rather have bacon than sex. Bacon is kinda a big deal. Let's learn about bacon, the types of bacon out there, the best techniques for cooking it, and the most delicious recipes available for God's most perfect meat. Welcome, Home Chefs Chef Perry www.chefperryperkins.com The Home Chef: Transforming the American Kitchen The Home Chef's Guide to Frugal Fine Cooking Bacon A Home Chef's Guide
frugal adjective 1. economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: Synonyms: thrifty, provident, careful, prudent, penny-wise fine cooking noun the preparation of gourmet food, high-class cuisine Frugal, and fine cooking...are they mutually exclusive terms? Not at all The irony of the modern day restaurant menu, is that many, many of the meals that we now consider "fine cooking", those dishes served in minuscule portions for outrageous prices in "high-end" restaurants, began their evolution as frugal cooking. Creations of the poor working class, or slaves, tossed aside by the wealthy as unworthy of their table, elevated with those ingredients that could be grown in one's backyard, or picked along the roadside for free, and which, by necessity, and through long generations of trial, error, imagination, and perfecting, achieved a quality and flavor far surpassing the "fillets and chops" of the manor house. Spices required for the preservation of foods in a pre-refrigeration societies, by those who couldn't afford to let a single scrap go to waste, have become the iconic flavors that people travel the world to find. Ask the best "cooks" of the modern era, what the most important ingredient in their food is, and you'll get the same answer over, and over... Love. Food cooked for family, for those we love, with care and concern, will always trump expensive ingredients and fancy presentation. And it has ever been so. A culinary fact of history, that is oft forgotten, but still greatly effects our modern dining society, is that these "gourmet" dishes of yore were, when we look at the cultural significance behind them, little more than the "drive through" foods of those bygone days. Quick and easy, for certain, but typically monotone, single-note fare whose value lay more in being easily digestible, than in gastronomic appeal. They are popular now, all these centuries later, for little more reason than that they have always been "what the rich folk ate." So, I invite you, my fellow peasants (and everyone else) to take back the culinary history of our people, to join me in exploring the best foods ever to be born of necessity. Dishes where simple technique takes precedent over price, recipes created from imagination, and served with love, are transformed into their finest selves. Food that is ever so much more pleasant to the palate...and the pocketbook. SAMPLE RECIPE (As seen on AM Northwest) Pasta Fajioli (pasta va-zool) 1 lb chicken meat, cooked and chopped 36 oz chicken stock 28 ounces fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained (or freshly roasted*) 15 oz tomato sauce 1 large onions, chopped 2 Tbs olive oil 4 celery ribs, diced 2 medium carrots, sliced 2 cups beans (cannellini, kidney beans, etc, ) rinsed and drained 2 tsp minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 tsp coarse black pepper 8 ounces uncooked pasta (medium shells, macaroni, etc.) 4 teaspoons minced fresh parsley In a saute pan, heat oil over medium low, and saute onions, celery, and carrots until just beginning to soften. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat, and transfer to a stock pot. Add broth, sauce, beans, oregano, and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Add pasta, parsley; simmer, covered, 10-14 minutes or until pasta is tender. Stir in chicken meat, and serve with crusty, warm bread. Yield: 10-12 servings
Delicious recipes to make amazing meals and memories for the Holidays BE THANKFUL This is what it's about peeps...not the turkey, not the pies, and (believe it or not) not about being the perfect host. Find a quiet spot to sit for 20-30 minutes, before you start cooking Thursday morning, and reflect on what you have to be thankful for, write these things down, and WHY you're thankful for them. Keep that thought firmly in place as you ride into battle.The secret to being a great host or hostess (and keeping your sanity) is to not sweat the small stuff. day. If the yams burn, toss 'em out, turn on a fan, and enjoy all the rest of the great food. If the turkey burns, have a number handy to order take-out Laugh Remember, Thanksgiving isn't about the turkey in the oven, it's about all the turkeys around the table.
Barbeque, REAL barbeque, is more than a cooking style, it's a lifestyle choice. It's a consuming passion that we never perfect, but only improve upon. BBQ is NOT the same as Grilling (we'll cover THAT is the next guidebook );) Low and show, indirect heat, and clean smoke...that's the mantra of the pit master.
How does one not lose themselves after losing someone they love? How does one become more efficient and effective after a tragedy? What does it truly take to succeed despite terrible odds? Tragedy affects us all during the course of our lives, but unfortunately most of us struggle with responding well to those tragic moments; in a healthy, knowledgeable, & productive way. This book RISE(ING) FROM THE ASHES: TURNING TRAGEDY INTO TRIUMPH provides solutions, tools, & best practices that address these problems head on. This book walks the reader through a roller coaster type journey full of positive and negative emotions, hurtful situations, & painful circumstances. Only to end in a place where your decisions are driven by more faith than fear more often; and you have truly Risen From The Ashes because you Turned Your Tragedy Into Triumph
A Professional Learning Community is undeniably one of the most effective processes out there for improving student achievement, as well a school’s overarching culture and climate. With such widespread notoriety, though, there has been a dilution of the true essence of the term. Understanding of what a Professional Learning Community is varies from one district to another, from one school to another, even from one educator to another. It’s about time for a resurrection. Reviving Professional Learning Communities does exactly that through the lens of a simple framework called, the 4S Approach. This new development helps practitioners build thriving learning communities through: (1) recognition and validation of each staff member’s unique points of view, (2) natural conflict that accompanies the assorted viewpoints, (3) healthy teamwork, and (4) effective systems. Sprinkled throughout the book are also 32 practical, high-leverage strategies that are easy to understand and simple to put into practice right away. This book will most certainly help answer the perennial question: How do we achieve a genuine Professional Learning Community?
A Professional Learning Community is undeniably one of the most effective processes out there for improving student achievement, as well a school’s overarching culture and climate. With such widespread notoriety, though, there has been a dilution of the true essence of the term. Understanding of what a Professional Learning Community is varies from one district to another, from one school to another, even from one educator to another. It’s about time for a resurrection. Reviving Professional Learning Communities does exactly that through the lens of a simple framework called, the 4S Approach. This new development helps practitioners build thriving learning communities through: (1) recognition and validation of each staff member’s unique points of view, (2) natural conflict that accompanies the assorted viewpoints, (3) healthy teamwork, and (4) effective systems. Sprinkled throughout the book are also 32 practical, high-leverage strategies that are easy to understand and simple to put into practice right away. This book will most certainly help answer the perennial question: How do we achieve a genuine Professional Learning Community?
These are tough times for schools. With the current accountability measures and economic instability, schools are finding it hard to keep up. They are being flipped upside-down, bent out of shape, and stretched to the limit. Although everyone is taking a real beating, it has also sparked a stirring opportunity for the simple-yet profound-leadership model called foundational leadership. Strong Schools, Strong Leaders was written for everyday practitioners aiming to create staffs capable of making their schools sparkle amidst the chaos. Not only does this book describe four essential foundational practices of the foundational leader, it also provides the reader with the specific processes to move each of them from theory to practice.
