Sweet Treats For Your OWN Sweet Heart

During this week of Valentine’s Day, I invite you all to treat yourselves.  Undoubtedly, we all could use a sweet treat of some kind.  It’s the stuff we all live for.  The good stuff!  I urge you to peruse the following bits of information and suggestions, and plan yourself a Valentine’s treat  J

I have assembled some suggestions based on a few of my own interests with the help of the fantastic materials available at our library.  Below you will find exciting books to read and movies to watch, fun and educational things to make, and a delicious recipe to try.  

Enjoy!

For the Eyes

Here, you will find some book and movie titles.  These titles are stories that involve some variation of love.  Mostly the romantic kind, but occasionally the friendship kind.  So, whether you are in the “mood for love”, or just in the mood to read about a sweet friendship; there will be something for you on the list (I hope!)  I have selected titles from a couple of genres for you to choose from J

Books

TEEN (but very enjoyable for adults as well):

The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer (romantic)

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series  by Ann Brashares  (friendship)

Any books by Sarah Dessen (romance and friendship)

INSPIRATIONAL

The Mitford Series by Jan Karon  (romance and friendship)

ROMANCE

Books by:

Debbie McComber, Catherine Coulter, Janet Evanovich, or Jude Deveraux

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

GENERAL FICTON

Any novel written by Nicolas Sparks (romance and friendship)

Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts (romance and friendship)

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (friendship)

Movies

Books that are now movies:

The Twilight Series (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn)

Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood  (Sandra Bullock)

Doctor Zhivago  (Julie Christie)

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (America Fererra, Alexis Bledel)

Bridget Jones’s Diary  (Renee Zellweger)

The Time Traveler’s Wife (Rachel McAdams)

Marley & Me (Jennifer Aniston)

Just Movies:

Say Anything (John Cusack)

Sabrina  (Audrey Hepburn)

Because I Said So  (Mandy Moore, Diane Keaton)

Guess Who (Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher)

Mama Mia  (Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep)

Fun To Do

In conjunction with last week’s post, I am including a list of books on papercrafting.  These books are full of really creative and fun ways to decorate with papers.  They also show you how to make things like cards, mobiles, jewelry holders, paper flowers, and lampshades.  Have fun!!

Decorating With Papercraft by Clare Youngs

Sew Easy Papercrafts by Rebekah Meier

Big Book of Papercrafts by Vivienne Bolton

New Papercrafts by Marie Browning

Gift Wrapping & Greeting Cards by Lydia Darbyshire

A Sweet  (and heart healthy) Snack

Pear Crumble

Ingredients

Topping:

1 ½ C. old-fashioned rolled oats                 1/3 C. whole-wheat flour

½ C. chopped walnuts                                   ½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ C. packed brown sugar                             5 Tbsp. canola oil

Filling:

3 ½ lbs. ripe, but firm Anjou pears, peeled and cut into ½ in. pieces

½ C. pure maple syrup

½ C. raisins

2 Tbsp. All purpose flour

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. minced crystalized ginger

Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.     To prepare the topping: Combine oats, walnuts, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Drizzle with oil and stir until evenly moist.

3.     To prepare filling: Combine pears, maple syrup, raisins, flour, lemon juice, and ginger in a large bowl and mix well.  Transfer the mixture to a 9x13 in baking dish.  Sprinkle the topping over the pears.

4.     Bake the crumble until the pears are tender and the topping is golden, 45-50 min.  Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Makes 14 servings. 

 Until Next Week,

  Your Library Blog Maven