Book Talks 2025 -- David Jones

 I  saw an Facebook post about Kimberly Library was having another author, a local author. The book looked interesting and I thought it was true crime. I was excited to check him out.

David Jones was from Phoenix, joined the Air Force, and since his wife was from the U.P. ended up in WI after he retired from the military. He joined the area police forces and eventually retired. After he retired, he decided to write books all set in and around the Fox Valley. His first series, Guardians of Rockport, is a dystopia series set in Sherwood. I am not interested in dystopia. but being set in the Fox Valley, I am intrigued enough maybe one day I will check it out. However, he also wrote crime fiction books, The first one is No Perfect Crime.

David spoke about his background, his secretive military career, and his police service. He was an amazing speaker. I could have listened him for hours. He had many stories to tell. 

I did buy No Perfect Crime. It is really weird reading a book set pretty much in your backyard. It is surreal when the characters visit local places, like JD's, just like we do. 

As David says, it is high-quality fiction but it is a fun quick read. It's not going to win any awards but not cozy mystery either. I definitely can't wait to read book 2. 

You never know what you are going to discover when you go  hear a local author. This was definitely another winner. Who knows what author I will discover next. 

Book Talks 2025: Lynda Drews

 Even though my reading time has been drastically cut along with time to do fun library events, I still try to make time for them as I can. When I saw Kimberly Library was having an author talk and it was a scandalous subject, I decided I better rearrange my schedule. 

Lynda Drews was talking about her latest book, The Maid and the Socialite. It is set in Green Bay in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Being a local author and set in the area really made me want to check it out. 

The Maid and the Socialite: The Brave Women Behind Green Bay's Scandalous Manahan Trials is about two women who have been abused in various ways by Dr. Manahan. One is his maid and the other is second wife. In a time where women didn't even have the right to vote, let alone a voice against powerful men, these two went against the man who had lawyers and doctors in his pocket. 

Lynda Drews talked more about her research and how she decided to write the book versus the book itself. She lives in an old house in the Astor District of Green Bay where many of the wealthy elite used to live. She discovered that a Manahan lived in her house and decided to write about them as they were a prominent Green Bay family.  However through her research she discovered a very dark and sinister past that she had to uncover. 

I immediately put the book on my audio book TBR. I can't wait to hear the story. If I didn't have to get back to work, I would have bought a copy. 

Lynda also leads walking tours of the Astor District neighborhood talking about the book and the places featured in the book. They cost $18 and usually sell out fast. I am trying to find one that fits my schedule and I might go check it out.

If you like true crime books, I would check out The Maid and the Socialite. 

Cooking Adventures: Pastelillos

 Kimberly Library was having a Puerto Rican cooking class. Always one up for a new food experience, I signed up and Danielle joined me. 

Goly and Eve are the owners of Goly and Eve's Puerto Rican Kitchen. They run a food truck in Green Bay and had a small restaurant in Kimberly. They are working to re-open the restaurant. Having the food truck in Green Bay has been very successful. I did not even know such a place or food truck existed. It is definitely needed and most welcomed addition to the community. Everything is homemade.

Goly and Even taught us to make Pastelillos -- Puerto Rican Empanadas. They are big hit on the food truck. 

We were given all the necessary ingredients -- Pastelillos dough, chicken or beef, and shredded cheese.

They were super simple to make.. Fill half of the dough with chicken or beef and top with cheese. Fold in half.

Then you can either press with a fork to seal or braid it. 

I opted to make a beef and a chicken one as well as a braided one and a forked one.

We then took our creations home to bake. You could deep fry, pan fried, air fry, or even bake them. If you weren't going to have them right away freeze them and cook them frozen.

I saved mine for lunch during the week.

They both were very good. I preferred the chicken to the beef but I would totally eat either one of them. 

I would love to find the food truck or even try the restaurant when it opens again. They are supposed to have some great desserts. 

Around the World Chocolate Tasting

 Looking at the various library calendars, I saw that Kimberly was having a Chocolate Around the World Tasting. That sounds like an event for me. I confirmed that the hubby was busy and no one else wanted to go. I signed up first thing in the morning when registration opened. I think I surprised them that I wanted to sign up as soon as the library open.

The event was from 6-7. We were given the chance to taste 8 different chocolates from around the world plus learned some history of the chocolate in that country. Tracy, the librarian, went to World Market and brought a variety of chocolates. 

We were told use all of our senses to taste, smell, look, and touch to taste the chocolate. We actually had a crash course in tasting chocolate from Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate. 

Our chocolates

Japan -- Meltybend: A chocolate truffle coated in a thin layer of cocoa powder. Definitely smooth and creamy. This was my favorite chocolate. 4.5 stars.

Mexico -- Mazapn de la Rosa: A Peanut confection similar to the English Almond Variation. It was very crumbly, kind of Peanut butter like, very sweet. This was my least favorite. 2 stars.

Germany -- Mazipan Niederegger Lubeck: Kissed by the sun, the almonds have a sweet nutty flavor. It was smooth and soft. Sweet but not too sweet. A solid 3 stars

US -- Macadamias Hawaiian Host -- Creamy, nutty, milk, and honey dusted in powdered sugar. I thought it had a coffee undertone. I didn't taste the honey. It was sweet and crunchy. Another solid 3 stars

Iceland -- Traditional Icelandic Chocolate Noi Sinius -- Bitter, cocoa, and vanilla. It was only 58% but it was hard. It was not dark enough for me. 3.5 stars

Belgium -- Lait Caramel Sale (Cote De' Or) -- Rich Smooth Milk Chocolate bar with delicious salted caramel chips. It needs to be at least 35% cacao to be Belgium Chocolate. Definitely smelling the caramel. I thought it was too crunchy and sweet. 2.5 stars.

United Kingdom -- Willie Cacao Cuban Bar (Lime Ginger) -- It is made in small batches that takes several weeks to make a single bar. It was dark and the lime and ginger made for an interesting flavor. Very tasty in my book. I was in the minority on this one. 4 stars

France -- Terry's Original Chocolate Orange Bar -- Definitely smell the orange. It was like a chocolate orange in bar form. Their motto: Tap it, Unwrap it, Enjoy it. Too much orange for me. 2.5 stars.

It was definitely a fun and tasty experience. I will have to explore the more international chocolate bars when I'm at World Market next. I usually go for the darker the better but some of these were intriguing enough to see what else World Market has. 

It was a perfect Galentine's Day or even Valentine's Day activity put on by the library. I will definitely keep my eye out for more library fun.

6967. Take a cookie decorating class

I always wanted to learn how to decorate cookies using royal icing. Royal icing scares me to make. I also didn't want to buy all the ingredients and not have it turn out. When Kimberly library was offering a cookie decorating class for adults, I jumped at the opportunity to sign up.  This was free versus the $60 my online book group wanted to charge me to do it virtually.

The class was being taught by a local cookie decorator and assisted by a teen who took a summer school course on cookie decorating. She provided all the materials -- pre-baked the cookies, pre-made the royal icing and put it in piping bags for us, and gave us all the other tools we would need.

Our instructor first demonstrated on how to ice each type of cookie individually. First you trace the outline of the cookie. This helps keep the icing on the cookie. This can be challenging to drip and drop along a cookie but it does not need to be perfect. This should be done with a really skinny tip on your piping bag. Too big of an opening will cause a mess.

After the cookie is outline, then you fill it in. It's actually pretty simple to do. The hardest part I think would be making the royal icing and making sure you don't cut too big of a tip on the icing bags.

The last step is to add the details. To make the flowers on the flip flops, you make a circle with the royal icing and then pull out lines to make petals. As it dries it will sink in.

To make the waves, we just drew a tiny line and then using a paintbrush, pulled down the icing until it looked like waves. For the sand we just added some extra tan icing and dabbed it to make it look like sand. 

For the most part these basic techniques are just that.. basic. They are not that hard to complete and the cookies look really good. I'm sure they are more advanced techniques but I'm happy with the basic. If anyone would make royal icing for me I would totally decorate cookies like this the future especially if the royal icing doesn't get crunchy like this one. It stayed soft even the next day. It actually tasted good.

It was a fun 90 minutes decorating cookies. I hope they do it again because it is easy and fun. No need to stress about it. No need for it to look perfect if all you are doing is eating them.

Author Talk -- Kate Albus

 Kimberly and Neenah libraries were each hosting an author and of course I wanted to check it out. However, when I saw that it was a middle grade book, I wasn't too sure about it anymore. When I did the resin paperweight, the librarian said adults were enjoying the book too. I downloaded A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus on audiobook hoping to finish before the event.

Kimberly's event worked out better in my schedule. I got to the library and realized most of the adults there were teachers. There weren't a lot of people so I couldn't blend it too much. At least I didn't have anyone next to me.

Kate Albus is from Maryland so not a local author. I assumed she was a local author as many authors we get are local. It was her first time to Wisconsin and was impressed by the giant lake she fly over to get into Milwaukee. After the event she was going to get cheese curds. A true Wisconsin experience.

A Place to Hang the Moon is set in WWII Britain when children were being transported out of London into the country to keep the safe from the air raids, also known as Project Pied Piper. The children in the book were orphans sent to a village to try to find a new family without telling their billeting family their were looking for a new home. It is interesting story and the second book I have heard recently about Project Pied Piper. 

Kate talked about how stories are all around us and where she finds her stories. A Place to Hang the Moon came from a line in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It is interesting how a line, a phrase, or even a picture can spark an idea for a story because you want to learn more.

Kate was an amazing speaker and very interesting to listen to. I could have listen for hours and she probably had many stories to tell. Because I have a fairly strict no new books unless unread and autographed, I did not stick around to buy her book and meet. If her new book was published, I would have gotten that. I kind of feel bad but I only have so much room for books. 

If you get a chance read A Place to Hang the Moon. It is a quick read and quite fascinating to see what the kids went through. 

7532. Create a paperweight

April is National Poetry Month. I am not a huge poetry fan. I do like Haikus but serious poetry not so much. When I saw that Kimberly Library was having a resin poetry paperweight making event, I hemmed and hawed about going. I kept seeing the event on Facebook and decided I might as well try makig a paperweight even though resin scares me.

The first part of the event was a local poet, Kirsten Hopfensperger, explaining how she got into writing poetry and reading several of her poems.

After that we worked on our poems. We were told to pick 3 words from a pile of words and try to make a phrase. Then we needed to add a 4th and 5th word. Exchange words and rearrange until something made sense. I really wanted something sports themed but couldn't make anything work. I ended up with "Forever to dream & believe".

Once we had our words and accessories, flowers and items to go in our paperweight, they would pour the resin into our mold for us. It is very interesting compound to work with if you are not careful. It can overheat very quickly if done incorrectly. This why the librarian and her mom handled the resin. I'm so I glad I wasn't going to be responsible for any chemical reactions at the library.

After the resin was poured in the mold, we had to blow on it to remove most of the air bubbles. Then we could places our words and accessories into the resin remembering everything is backwards. Since the words were double sided, you had to make sure you didn't accidentally place the word the way or your phrase backwards. Heavier objects sank to the bottom of the mold so they would be at the top of the paperweight. Lighter objections tended to start towards the top so they would be at the bottom. However if you added the glitter pieces and they stuck to the paper flowers, the flowers would then sink. 

We had to leave our paperweights at the library for 3 days to dry. I was very happy at the way mine turned out. 

Okay so resin this way was not as scary as I thought it would be. I would never do a resin project myself but if the library wanted to do it again, I would sign up. Even my poetry wasn't bad.