Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title (Choose a word and find ten books with that word in the title.)
My initial thought was to use the word girl but in the last few days I have read a couple of really good books which both had the word cafe in the title, so I am going with that!
The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith - This is book number 15 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series
The Cafe by the Bridge by Lily Malone - This is the second book in a trilogy set in in southern Western Australia.
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webb - I loved this book when I read it a few years ago (my review)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series
The Custard Tart Cafe by Isabella May - Just thinking about this book makes me want to eat a Portuguese Custard Tart! (my review)
The Enchanted Garden Cafe by Abigail Drake - This is the first book in a series set in Pittsburgh. (my review)
Finding Family at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - whoops. Had this recorded in my spreadsheet as Finding Family at the Cornish Cafe. It is, however, set in a cafe so I am keeping it! It is the second book in the lovely Cornish Cove series. (my review)
The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - This is the first book in the very popular Dream Harbor series.
The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer - I just read this last week and I loved it. I will be reviewing it in a couple of weeks.
The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods - Whoops this is a bakery not cafe but it was such a good read I am going to count it anyway!
I am also going to be sharing this post with Weekend Cooking which I host here!
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Water (This can be covers with water on them, books with bodies of water in them, titles with bodies of water in them, etc.)
I did a water themed TTT post a couple of years ago, but it turns out I have read ten more books with water related titles since them so there is no duplication.
Second Chances in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen - To be fair I could have had 7 books just from this series as the word Bay is in every title. (review)
Hopeful Hearts at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - With a bonus lighthouse playing a key role in the story. (review)
An Island in the Sun by Kate Frost - Islands are surrounded by water so they totally count. This one is set on the Portuguese island of Madeira. (review)
Far Across the Ocean by Suzie Hull - A part of this book was set in Madagascar which is quite an unusual setting. (review)
The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - Loved this book!
An Island Wedding by Jenny Colgan - This is set in the very far north of Scotland
The Custard Tart Cafe by the Sea by Isabella May - I promise you the words by the Sea are really on the cover! You just have to look closely! (review)
Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - This is set in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus
A Granite Springs Christmas by Maggie Christensen - Another big series by Maggie Christensen which is set in the fictional town of Granite Springs
The Lights of Sugarberry Cove by Heather Webber - I like a book with a touch of magical realism! (review)
Maybe I will have another set of watery books in a couple of years time.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is indie self published books. I feel a bit bad but as usual I am going off script and doing a different theme.
A couple of weeks I posted something and in the comments someone said they would have plenty of cafe books, and i do too. So here are ten books with the work cafe in the title.
The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith - This is book number 15 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.
The Cafe by the Bridge by Lily Malone - This is the second book in the Chalk Hill series which I really enjoyed. (Review)
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber - Another really enjoyable read (review)
The Snowy Mountain Cattleman by Alissa Callen - Fab! - Already looking forward to the next book in this series.
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran - Unexpected - The saying don't judge a book by it's cover applies here. The cover looks kind of light and cutesy but it has so many deep topics inside the cover.
I managed to finish two books last week. Yes too! I won't deny that I was under pressure for the second one as I was finishing it the morning that I was supposed to be posting about it, but that's okay right?
The other book I finished was The Custard Tart Cafe by Isabella May which I reviewed on Saturday. I had been told that I had to bake something to take to work on Thursday and this book provided the inspiration!
So if I finished two books, what have I started?
On audio I have started listening to Love Stories by Trent Dalton. He sat on a street corner in Brisbane during the pandemic and asked people to tell him their love stories. A lot of them are about romantic love, but a lot of them are not. Dalton has also narrated the audiobook which is always interesting.
I have also started reading The Snowy River Cattleman by Alissa Callen and I am very keen to read more. I loved the first book in this series when I read it last year!
I'm watching...
Another week of not watching much, although we did squeeze in a couple of episodes of Picard which I think we will catch up on this week.
We did happen to find The Kings Man which is the story of the establishment of the King's Man agency. We loved the first two movies. This one felt different, mainly because it was set during WWI, but I still really liked it!
Life
The highlight of last week was seeing Crowded House in concert! It was held at one of our outdoor venues here. The concert was amazing, with so many great songs to singalong to, but I am way too old and too fat to sit on the ground as there were no chairs allowed of any kind. Both of us paid the price as as we had very sore backs on Saturday!! You can watch a video of Something So Strong here! So good!
I am a little bit jealous of my son today as he has gone on an overseas holiday. He landed in LA a few hours ago as he is going to a wedding of one of the guys he became friends with when he was at college in Kansas playing basketball. We went to watch him play basketball and then dropped him off at the airport on the way home.
Our holiday plans for later in the year are starting to come together so it will be our turn soon hopefully.
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekend Cooking which doubles as a stop on the blog tour for The Custard Tart Cafe by the Sea by Isabella May.
Willow fell in love with delicious pastel de natas, Portuguese custard tarts, when she visited the Algarve with her parents as a teenager. From this humble first taste, Willow is about to open the doors on her own business which specialises in custard tarts, albeit ones of many different flavours. Its location is at the end of the iconic pier at Weston-Super-Mare on the British coast and decorated with some of the famous Portuguese style tiles. The challenge for Willow is to make the cafe a success year round, not just during the busy summer season when the tourists are attracted to the town.
The last thing that a new business needs is a troublemaker who is so incensed by the idea of someone playing with the traditional flavours of pastel de natas that he causes a scene in the cafe, and even worse starts a petition for her business to be closed down. For Willow, it doesn't matter that Tiago Willis is incredibly handsome, he is an instant enemy, and she, along with her friends and family are soon plotting ways to get back at him.
After the frantic stress associated with starting a business, Willow is convinced to leave her cafe in the capable hands of her staff and spend a week in Portugal with her closest girlfriends. And yet, fate is cruel at times. The last person she wants to see is Tiago and yet she keeps on bumping into him. And he keeps on wanting to explain why he is so passionate about the sanctity of the traditional recipe.
This novel is full of delicious sounding flavour combinations, and I am sure that I would struggle to decide between them all should I ever find myself in such a cafe. In fact I might have to resort the same method as Frank, the first customer ever in the cafe. "I'm a huge believer in the Countdown number game methodology when it comes to decision making. Give me two of the same from the top, a differnent from the middle, and three the same from the bottom." There are lots of current pop culture references throughout the book but this one did make me smile!
Of course, being a romance, somehow Willow and Tiago will work out their differences and see that they aren't enemies at all. Whilist Tiago was a bit of a dick at the beginning of the book, Willow was super stubborn at the end of the book, even when it was obvious that Tiago was doing everything he could to earn her forgiveness.
This was a fun book to read. Perfect for when you need something easy, which is exactly what I need right now when work is so busy.
I thought I would share just one passage about the history of pastel de nata from the book.
"Pastels de nata are ancient. Magically so in my opinion. They were first sold back in the 1830s in Lisbon but the pastries are believed to have been baked way before that. It's believed they came about by chance. Egg whites were actually mainly used to starch clothes in thos days but the monastery would often have an excess. The monks and nuns would use them up by baking them. That's why you'll find little hatches built into the walls of monasteries in many parts of the world. They made sweet pastries out of the leftover egg whites, and served, and sold them out of the hatches to passersby, to help with the upkeep of the monastery."
I know the monasteries-making-sweet-treats part of this tale and normally I would challenge thisl evel of mansplaining in a heartbeat, bt this evening I choose to keep quiet, sensing there is some alchemy to come.
"Knowing the great secret of the pastel de nata recipe, the nun on the run from Lisbon - the one just mentioned - decided she couldn't possibly take it to her grave. To cut a very long story short, my ancestors took her in when she fled to the south. They ran a small bakery back then - exactly where Grannie's is today. They mainly sold bread in those days, as other ingredients were thin on the ground, but the had a spare room and big hearts, so they gave the nun refuge when noone else could or would. As a mark of her gratitude, and because she belieed that religion kept too many useful secrets from the masses, she spilled thebeans and shared what we believe to be the original pastel de nata recipe with them.
"Honestly? So those tarts from earlier derive from the real deal recipe?
There were a number of references to other Portuguese foods that had my mouth watering, so I might see if I can find any recipes for those, but for this week, I was inspired to make these custard tarts for morning tea at work, and they went down a treat.
Double Vanilla Portuguese Custard Tarts
Custard
6 large egg yolks 1 cup + 1 tbsp (130g) caster sugar 1/3 cup (50g) cornflour Pinch salt 300ml thickened cream 300ml milk 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Pastry
2 vanilla bean pods 1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar 3 tsp ground cinnamon 3 sheets (24 cm x 24 cm) store bought frozen puff pastry, partially thawed 50g butter, melted
For the custard
Whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and a pinch of salt in a bowl to combine, then whisk in cream, milk, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste. Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat (5 minutes). Whisk continuously on medium-high until thick and smooth (5-10 minutes). Transfer custard to a bowl, cover with cling wrap and chill until cool (1-2 hours).
For the pastry
Preheat oven to 210°C (fan forced). Using a sharp knife, split vanilla bean pods length ways and scrape seeds out with tip of knife. Mix vanilla seeds, sugar and cinnamon until combined. Sprinkle one third of mixture evenly over one pastry sheet. Cover with another pastry sheet and sprinkle with another third of mixture. Repeat with remaining pastry and mixture sheet. Cover pastry with baking paper and press together using a rolling pin. Remove paper and roll pastry together into a log. Using a sharp knife, cut log into 18 even pieces.
Lightly grease 18 x muffin holes (of 2 x muffin tins) with melted butter (this helps the pastry shells stay flaky and crisp).Roll pastry pieces out to 10cm circles on a lightly floured bench. Gently press pastry into muffin tin holes. Remove custard from fridge. Fill muffin holes with 1 ½ - 2 tablespoons of custard.
Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is crisp and flaky and custard is golden. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
And what would Tiago make of my tarts? Welll, I am thinking that they are inspired by rather than actual Portuguese custart tarts, so he might not have loved them (especially at the beginning of the book), but they do taste delicious. One of my co-workers said it was the best custard tart she had tasted which is high praise.
They are definitely worth making the effort to cook, even if the pastry part is a little fiddly!
Thanks to Rachels Random Resources for a copy of the book for review purposes
Rating 3.5/5
Weekly meals
Saturday -
Sunday - Roast chicken and vegies
Monday - Beef, Mushroom and broccolini
Tuesday - Beef stroganoff
Wednesday - Chicken parma, mash and beans
Thursday - Takeaway
Friday - Out for dinner
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Books On Your Autumn TBR.
The Christmas Party by Karen Swan - This was actually due back at the library yesterday but I am hoping that I can get through it in a couple of sittings over the next couple of days.
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews - This is the current Cook the Books choice. It also fits the theme for my book club meeting next week. The theme is red.
Snowy Mountains Cattleman by Alissa Callen - I loved the first book in this series so I am looking forward to this one.
The Vet's Country Holiday by Lily Malone - I loved this author's previous trilogy so I am looking forward to this one.
Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett - I am reading this for March Magics.
A Marriage of Lions by Elizabeth Chadwick - It's been far too long since I read an EC book. It's time!
10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak - After loving The Island of Missing Trees recently I am now planning to read more of her books.
The Custard Tart Cafe by Isabella May - I am reading this for an upcoming blog tour.
Champagne for Breakfast by Maggie Christensen - Having read all of the Granite Springs books, I am not working my way through her other backlist books.
The Tricky Art of Forgiveness by Meredith Jaffe - The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah was one of my favourite reads of last year so I am very excited to read this.
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