Let's chat and what I'm reading now #2

Hello! I'm a bit behind on the bloggity (as usual!) and I'm here trying to get the post done for tomorrow at the very last minute (of course!). Before I get into the post, I'd like to drop a little reminder that if you'd like to get a newsletter with each post as they go up, you can sign up here.

On today's bit of random, let's talk about dehydrating. Why? Because my Steve has gotten into dehydrating in a big way and he's been dehydrating lemons, oranges, limes, and most recently mandarins. More specifically mandarin skins. The skins are where you get all the flavor when you are doing things like making bitters and amari which is what he's been doing. It's currently mandarin season and I love the Imperial mandarins. I've bought a big bunch of them to eat and Steve has been saving the skins from the two I eat each day and then every few days he dehydrates them. He's got about half a big jar of them right now. I use the dehydrated orange and lemon rounds with the fruit still in them in my gin and tonics and they give a delicious flavor to the drink. Of course, when it comes to dehydrating, I leave it all to Steve to do and I reap the benefits. Dehydrated fruit is pretty expensive to buy do I'm happy to make my own, especially for cocktails. I like to dehydrate stuff when the fruit is in season. Currently, it's citrus season and the lemon and orange grove on our estate are bursting with fruit. The lemon trees are laden with ripe lemons. We've got plenty of dehydrated lemon but I'm thinking of getting some for cooking too. There's this chicken dish I like that uses like ten lemons. This is a good time for it.

On the reading front, I read Manu by Anna Hackett yesterday. It's the sixteenth book in the series and man, it's a long series. Each time I read a new book in the series (it's a completed series) I think, man, it's long and I wonder if I'm ever going to finish it. I love the stories. There's a certain formula that Ms Hackett follows which I enjoy and I love her heroes and heroines. They tend to be awesome people. And she never makes it particularly easy for them to get together because where's the fun in that. But it's not extreme or over the top difficult either. She just challenges them a little to make sure they really want each other. The series itself is interesting. Dinosaur-like aliens have invaded Earth and the entire premise of the series is based around the aliens trying to take over and kill all the humans or turn them into aliens, and the humans fighting back. They are a scrappy, rag tag bunch but they have grit and passion and tenacity so they fight back to survive and hopefully have a better life. It's quite post apocalyptic and you do get a bit of that dystopian feel with them scavenging for things and aside from necessities, things are scarce. There's even a character who specialises in an underground market for luxury items like skincare, makeup, perfume, and *ahem* adult toys. Who even knows where she gets them from. That's a continuing mystery. I love this series. It's not too bleak even though it's post-apocalyptic. There's a lot of hope and heart to the stories with the humans fighting back. Of course, it's sci-fi with the aliens and their alien technology, and it's set in the future on Earth, but it's still very relatable because the heroes and heroines are all human and fighting to survive. They find love and something worth fighting for along the way. I'm off to read Griff next. That's the next book in the series.

Manu (Hell Squad #16) by Anna Hackett

That's it for the first lot of my ramblings. I hope you had as much fun with it as I did putting this together. Tell me what you want to see more of on the bloggity. I'd love to accomodate you.


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