recipes

KN, p. 206 “Top Ten Fan Favorites – 2017”

 

Krav Maga class, Wichita Falls, Texas

More than ever, it seems as if readers and professional writers that follow the Notebook most enjoy learning about the nuts and bolts of crime as well as the crime fighters that take care of the bad guys. It was fun to see that two of our (always taste-tested) recipes made the list this year as well.

Here are the Top Ten Fan Favorites for 2017, listed in reverse order. Click on the links to re-read the articles (or enjoy them for the first time) and let us know in the comments whether your faves made the list.  Happy sleuthing, one and all.  🙂

10. “Sheila’s Chick Pea Dip” https://bit.ly/2k1v4lf created originally for last year’s Super Bowl party, it has become our family favorite as well as for many of you.

9. “The Blue Flu” https://pattiphillipsbooks.com/kerriansnotebook/vrnj my own bout with the flu caused me to write this one. The research behind this historically accurate piece was fascinating.

8. “An Garda, Irish National Police” https://bit.ly/2mhg6WL After the wildly successful series of articles about the Texas Rangers, it seemed that Kerrian followers wanted more information about law enforcement groups, even in other countries.

7. “Bodies on the Golf Course” https://bit.ly/2prGhKX  I keep saying that golf courses are lousy places to hide bodies, but the bad guys aren’t listening. 😉

6. “Training for An Garda, Irish National Police” https://bit.ly/2mLqAzz Rigorous and getting more so as the competition for a limited number of spots increases.

5. “Kerrian’s Mac & Cheese” https://bit.ly/2kXv0Vg Yummy. We guarantee it. Made and enjoyed by numerous followers.

4. “Is he/she a serial killer?” https://bit.ly/2lhXE1P I kept alllll the lights on while doing the research for this one.

3. “Deadly poisons in the house.” https://bit.ly/2l6cHZH Inspired by an accidental combining of cleaning products.

2. “Krav Maga, self-defense for the real world.” https://bit.ly/2wFwOnT A real-world way for people of all shapes, sizes, and ages to defend themselves.

And the most read new post of 2017?

1.   “200 ways to die an unnatural death.” https://bit.ly/2jmDIeE


Take a look at “Kerrian’s Notebook, Volume 2: Fun, facts, and a few dead bodies,” Download to your e-reader and enjoy!  🙂

Happy New Year, everyone!

 

 

 

KN, p. 206 “Top Ten Fan Favorites – 2017” Read More »

KN, p. 91 “Happy Thanksgiving from the Kerrians!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s easy to be thankful when life is going well. If there is plenty of love to warm your heart, your wallet has enough in it to pay the bills on time, everyone in the family is healthy on the same day, your home is warm and dry…then that’s a happy life to the average guy or gal.

Not everyone has an easy time of it. Some families go through a divorce, a spouse passes away, a family member loses a job, the bank wants to foreclose just at the time when you need a sound roof to sleep under more than ever – maybe a lengthy illness puts a strain on the pocketbook.

Recent hurricanes have left hundreds of people homeless. Wildfires and tornadoes across the country this past year ripped many families’ lives apart.

Sheila and I have friends who’ve lived through both extremes – one year all smiles and parties and new bikes – the next year a disaster because his company closed the local plant, a good-paying job was lost and all the savings went into caring for a really sick daughter who had Lymes Disease. They came close to losing the house, but the banker had other foreclosures ahead of theirs. They got lucky.

What was amazing to everyone who watched them go through the tough time, was that the family was still thankful. Yes, they were struggling, but if you asked them about their great attitude, they said that they had each other, they had caring friends who supported them with occasional dinners, they had help with the house repairs, had been incredibly fortunate up until the rough patch of a year, and they had their faith.

That’s kinda humbling. They never seemed bitter about a bum deal with the job, they were always hopeful about the daughter (she pulled through) and they clung to each other rather than fighting about what could not be controlled with their finances.

So, here’s what Sheila and I are thankful for:

1.     We have each other and that will never change.

2.     We have friends that would help if we asked and we would do the same for them.

3.     We have a solid house with enough space for family dinners and football parties.

4.     We have enough cash in our pockets to pay the bills on time and a little left over so that we can go out to dinner or even take a vacation.

5.     We can each have fun without the other – I play golf and Sheila plays tennis, but it’s great to know that at the end of the day, the other one will listen to the ‘war stories,’ share the best/funniest moments, but also be there for the lousy times.

6.     I am seriously thankful that Sheila is a great cook.  Seriously.

7.     We are really thankful that there are so many people who read Kerrian’s Notebook and like it. And come back to read it again and again. Ya make us smile, K.N. friends old and new, near and far, with your comments on the site and your great emails.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In case you didn’t guess, we’re having pie for dessert. There’s going to be a big crowd, so Sheila made my favorite chocolate cheesecake and that white sweet potato pie I love. A slice of each would be a very good way to finish the dinner. Along with a strong cup of coffee, of course.

Drop by if you get a chance. There’s some sweet tea (or coffee) waiting for you. If you get lucky, there might even be some pie.   🙂

 

*Photos and recipes by Patti Phillips

 

 

 

Save

KN, p. 91 “Happy Thanksgiving from the Kerrians!” Read More »

KN, p. 128 “Thanksgiving is a time to…”

 

Chestnut-Sausage Stuffing

 

Pumpkin Mookie

 

 

 

 

We love to celebrate Thanksgiving in the USA. We travel for hours by train, bus, car, and plane to spend the day with relatives and friends. We Skype, jam the phone lines and cell towers with calls to people we won’t get to see in person that day. We buy exotic foods we’ve never eaten before, and try out new recipes to dress up the green beans.

 

Food shopping becomes an event to be feared. Will the store have enough cranberries/pie crusts/sweet potatoes?  Will they have a big enough/small enough turkey? Did we leave anything off the list that we’ve been adding to for days? We load the grocery carts as if we’re stocking up for the entire neighborhood for a month and are willing to stand in line, even if at any other time, we would not have the patience to do so.

 

For some, Thanksgiving is a time to eat out and avoid the challenge of roasting the bird. For others, it’s the highlight of cooking for the year – who can forget Aunt Edith’s food extravaganza for fifty cousins and assorted strangers in 2009? I have no idea what some of that food was and I stuck to the stuff I recognized.

 

On Wednesday evening, Sheila and I will help our church deliver cooked turkeys and the trimmings to needy families in the area. The next day, the Kerrian household will celebrate Thanksgiving with a sit down dinner, including the chestnut-sausage stuffing and pumpkin mookies. There will be eight of us this year. Yup, just eight. All the kids are grown, with families of their own and obligations of their own with their own in-laws and we don’t try to gather the crowd that day. Then, on Friday and Saturday, we plan to make the rounds at houses of other branches of the family, eat leftover turkey, hug the new babies, and have a slice of pie.

 

Thanksgiving is a time to say thanks for:

  • Family
  • Friends
  • Good health
  • Enough food to eat
  • Enough money to pay the bills
  • Heat
  • The freedoms we enjoy
  • The fabulous Kerrian’s Notebook community that now stretches to four continents. We are so grateful to have been able to share the stories with you during the past seven years and hope to share more in the future.

 Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

 

 

*Photos and recipes by Patti Phillips

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KN, p. 128 “Thanksgiving is a time to…” Read More »

Scroll to Top