Showing posts with label germ warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label germ warfare. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Pandora's Succession - Russell Brooks, Author



Curried Chicken
(The dish that Parris and Fox ate at the Tea House in Tokyo)

3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
1 bulb of garlic, more if you desire
4 bay leaves
1 tsp. ground cloves
3 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. marjoram
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. yellow mustard seeds, ground
2-3 ounces curry powder (suite to your taste and color)
1 chicken bouillon cube (if you'd like to salt your curry)
2 potatoes
1 eggplant

Roti
4 cups flour
hot water
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp. salt

Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Add garlic and mix into chicken.  In a separate bowl mix all of the spices and curry powder together (but not the bay leaves)  Slowly add spice mixture into chicken/garlic while mixing by hand to ensure even coverage.  Set the mixed chicken aside while you prepare the Roti.

Roti
Boil water and let cool until you can handle it with your hands (you'll be kneading the Roti dough).  Mix 4 cups of flour with the salt and then add the hot water until it is moist but not sticky.  You want the consistency of a flat dough that will be rolled out using a wooden rolling pin.  Take a little more than half a stick of room temperature and add it to the flour and water mixture.  This will keep the dough form sticking to your hand and itself.  Use judgment for rolling consistency.  Flour flat surface and rolling pin and form dough into balls.  Roll balls out to flat and thin consistency, about 5-7 inches.  Heat up your frying pan to medium-high heat.  (This can be done using 2 pans to make it go faster)  Take a paper towel and use oil to rub onto pan before each roti that you cook.  The roti will form small brown spots on each side when done.  Do not overcook, it should never be stiff.  When done in the pan, put on a plate lined with paper towels and cover with a dish towel to keep it warm.  After the Roti is done, start making the curry (both can be done at the same time if you like.)

Curry
Pour just enough oil to cover the bottom of a large pot.  Place 4 big bay leaves into the pot and warm oil on medium for a few minutes (before the bay leaves turn brown).  Turn heat to high and add chicken.  Cook at high heat stirring every minute for 10 minutes, then turn to medium/medium low heat.  Use your judgment when cooking at high heat because you don't want the chicken to stick or burn.  If the pot is lacking any liquid form the high temperature, add small amounts of water or chicken stock.  As the chicken cooks longer, the juices are released.  5 minutes after turning the heat to medium/medium low, add the cubed potatoes and eggplant.  When potatoes are done, the curry is done.  Make sure the eggplant is dissolved into the curry.  You'll all finished!  Use the Roti to scoop up your meal.  No silverware required!

Pandora's Succession - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; A Book and A Dish

His partner stood beside the open briefcase.  "You couldn't have been more perfect."  He took the fluorescent-green vial and let it drop gently on the ground without breaking.  He then hit the alarm button.  The siren was heard for miles.  It was not too long after, that ten of the guards burst through the doorway with their assault rifles in position.  They fanned out to cover the inside of the dome.  "What's the emergency?" yelled the leader of the two scientists, and then he saw Cole's body with the dagger protruding from his stomach.  His assault rifle shot up immediately.  "Both of you, hands in the air.  Do it, now!"  Within seconds, they had encircled the two scientists.  "I repeat," yelled the leader to the two scientists.  "Put your hands up, or we will be forced to shoot you."  The two white-coats didn't obey him, but instead looked at each other and smiled.  "For The Promise?"  The partner already had the vial under the heel of his shoe.  As he slowly raised his hands along with the assailant, he breathed his last breath and crushed the vial.  It wasn't long before what felt like millions of microscopic teeth tearing away at the flesh, starting with his foot and then moving to the rest of his body. 

Ridley Fox was a former JTF2 operative who has since been recruited into the CIA. He has the job of his life and should he fail, the whole world, as we now know it, will be at risk from the deadly "Pandora."  At the time a group known as the "Arms of Ares" which is made up of former intelligence operatives, originating from the former Soviet Union, has Pandora and plans to sell it to the highest bidder... but Hexagon Pharmaceuticals has their own feelers out to acquire it for their own use. 

This book is designed for the need for action reader and believe me, it fulfills that need.  There is barely a page that is turned without fast, pack energy and suspense.  And the best part is that Fox has no idea who he can and can't trust.  Hexagon has its hands, or should I say mind, into many high places through its mind control cult making no one safe to deal with. 

When reading this book I found myself being like Fox... not believing anything anyone said nor did, except Fox and I was beginning to worry a bit about him.  This is a 'man's' book but some of us women who like a good action will love it too.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Tranquillity Initiative - Joan Meijer, Author



Stewed Chicken
(This was my favorite of my grandmother's
recipes and is well known in my family as "Gonny's Chicken.")


One chicken, whole (remove the skin if you want, it will taste less sinful)
1 can black olives if they're small 2 if they're big
2 jars green olives with pimento (without juice or it will be too salty)
1 large chopped onion
10 cloves of garlic whole but peeled
1 8-oz can stewed tomatoes
25 sliced mushrooms
2 green peppers chopped
1 cup water or chicken broth
2 bay leaf
2 t. dried parsley, oregano, and basil
allow everyone to salt and pepper to taste

Put in large pot. Cover.  Cook all ingredients simultaneously over low heat for 2 hours or until chicken is falling off the bone.

My grandmother taught me to cook with a pinch of this and a dash of that. She also taught me lots of whatever's in the icebox cooking. There are never any true amounts in this recipe - It's kind of a refrigerator delight. If you have carrots or other root vegetables throw them in. You can add potatoes or sweet potatoes to the mix. If you don't like peppers don't throw them in. The stewing in the vegetables is what makes this marvelous - and using different vegetables if you have them adds to the flavor. The one I wrote at the top is my personal favorite.

If you want a thicker gravy take the chicken out of the pot. Melt 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in one tablespoon of cold water, add to broth in the pot and stir over medium low heat until the gravy thickens

Serve with Quinoa or rice and salad. If you eat potatoes it goes really well with mashed potatoes.

Depending on the size of the chicken it serves 4-6 people.

The Tranquillity Initiative – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat and Think With Your Taste Buds

According to his records in the administration office, the young man, dressed in the color-coded coveralls of a porter, was a civilian who had been recruited by an independent contracting company from the Philippines.  In reality, he had been raised in the suburbs of Astrakhan and had traveled to the Philippines to live with a distant cousin in hops that he would be recruited to work in the American action.  Because he was wall-eyed, and darker than most of their local recruits, he appeared unintelligent to the Americans.  They never looked at him twice.  In the far corner of the Quonset hut, near the exit reserved for garbage collection, the young man unobtrusively removed the two red, white and blue Tranquillity bombs from a regulation canvas shoulder bag.  It was a familiar bag, one that he – like the other native workers – used for picking up garbage around the base.  Quickly and skillfully, he transferred the flag-colored bombs to the ragged native carrying case in which he stored a warm jacket and his lunch.  It was a tight fit getting them in, but he managed.  Stealing from the U.S. Air Force was a well-organized activity at this base.  The young man and his friends had been taking bits and pieces of armament for months.  To date, he had been most proud of the small surface-to-air missile he had managed to spirit off the base.  He had believed that a theft of such gigantic proportions would probably remain the high water mark of his life.  He had not counted on the portability of Tranquillity.

When it appears that the war with Astrakham had no end, a group of men inside the high loops of the US Government took it upon themselves to re-up the Tranquillity Bomb.  They all agreed that this would be the best way to end the war as well as show others that the US would prevail no matter what.  The group had no doubts as to the destruction that would be inflicted upon Astrakham if the Tranquillity Bomb was used.  This particular bomb was designed to silently disburse the deadly disease known as Anthrax.  The one thing the group didn’t count on was theft of two of these deadly bombs.

The bombs looked like bowling pins and decorated in red, white and blue were easily smuggled out of the country and into New York City by a group of young people posing as bowlers that carried their own balls as well as their own ‘lucky’ pins wherever they went to compete.  What they didn’t expect was to find the real threat of the bombs.  This came when one was opened in the attempt of removing the explosives, which were non-existing.  When they realized their mistake, it was too late.  Their fate and deaths were sealed.  The only thing left to do now was to take revenge on the US by dropping the 2nd bomb from one of New York’s highest buildings.  This will be payback for the destruction inflicted upon Astrakham.

Senator Richland Powell and CDC doctor Cassandra Williams find themselves in a race for not just their own lives but the lives of millions as they attempt to find who has the second bomb.  In a city the size of New York, their chances are slim.  Powell feels there is a connection between the Anthrax in Astrakham and that in New York but can’t quite prove it.  Cassandra feels the connection too, especially since it was her own grandfather who invited the Tranquillity Bomb.  His interest in Anthrax flowed down to Cassandra as well as her own father, making them two of the most renown experts in the field.  With that, Cassandra knew the two cases were connected.  She just had to prove it and find the other bomb before time runs out and the terrorists have a chance to seek their revenge. 

This book will scare the heck out of you because it’s possible.  It will scare the heck out of you because it’s typical.  It will scare the heck out of you because if it happened the people of the US would most likely receive no warning.  This book has the making of a great movie!  It’s simply so real that you find yourself actually seeing the events as being possible. I really enjoyed this book.

 
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