Booking and Cooking--Leaving Time, The Collector, and my favorite comfort food

This weeks books were very good. Both 4 stars, and I couldn't choose between them which to review on my blog.

The first is Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time.

Jodi Picoult is a unique author in my experience. She is consistently inconsistent. What do I mean by that? She's kind of like the literary equivalent of Star Trek movies--every other one is amazing. I can't  continue the analogy and say that the others suck--they don't, but they are neither as engaging or captivating.

Fortunately for me, this is one of the good ones. The twist at the end really knocked me for a loop and while I started to wonder about something off in the middle, I was surprised.

Leaving time chronicles the adventures of thirteen year old Jenna Metcalf who has been searching for her mother, Alice. Along on her search is a washed-up psychic, Serenity Jones, and the cop who botched the case in the beginning, Virgil Stanhope. Woven throughout is Alice's obsession with elephants and how they live, love, and grieve.

I gave this book four stars.

I love Nora Roberts. I was anxiously awaiting this one's paperback release, but I found it in the library and couldn't resist. The Collector is about Lila Emerson who--Rear Window like--witnesses a murder from the apartment where she is house-sitting. The victim is the brother of Ashton Archer, artist from a wealthy family and when she meets with him sparks fly as they try to find why his brother was killed. Trailing them is the murderer.

This started slow, so slow that I was wondering if I should put it down and then we got a scene from the murder's POV and it started to gel.  I definitely recommend.


Cooking

It astounds me how often people think I don't like pasta or can't eat it when they hear I'm allergic to tomatoes. I love pasta. I eat tons.  Then people think, Oh, you like Macaroni and Cheese.  I do, but my favorite pasta sauce is one of my own creation.

I was living in England and my British Mum was making tomato sauce for pasta. She was caramelizing some onion and sautéing some garlic and realized that she didn't have canned (or fresh) tomatoes (Pronounced, of course, as to-mah-toes with the appropriate British Accent). She was going to throw it all out but I said I'd eat it and I did.

I added shredded cheese to it-and YUM!

I will make a picture post of it later. I suppose I am curious--what unusual things do you all eat?