Born to Die by Lisa Jackson

I think I have only read one book by Lisa Jackson before.  Her books all sound good, so I would love to read more of them now that I have read two and liked two.

Dr. Kacey Lambert is the starring character in Born to Die.  When women who happen to look just like her start dying, she starts worrying that she may be next!  Kacey soon discovers some of the women had a link to the man she just started seeing - rugged Trace O'Halleran.  Soon Kacey, Trace and Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are all working - both together and independently - to find out why a killer is targeting lookalikes of Kacey.

I think I have read one of the "to Die" series before.  I don't remember it but since the detectives weren't prominently featured in the book, I didn't feel like I was missing anything.  I am going to be digging through my TBR pile now to see if I have any more books in this series to read!

Progress toward:

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge - 6/50

100+ Books In a Year - 6/100

Cakedy Review

I was really excited when I was given the chance to review Cakedy - Minnesota's Candy Bar.  I requested to try the Peanutter and Choco Chocatus flavors.

While the bars aren't too big, I wanted more opinions than just my own so I split each bar 3 ways.

I take way too many blurry pics...this is the Peanutter flavor.

One really neat thing about the Cakedy bars is how dense the cake is on the inside.  It is almost brownie-like!  We all noticed it tasted a bit off....and when I looked up the flavor online...it has butterscotch chips in it!  Once we knew that, my mom really liked it and my friend Danny and I thought it was okay.

The Choco Chocatus flavor was amazing to me!  My dad also really liked it!  My mom didn't love it because it wasn't milk chocolate.  The slight mint flavor makes it really awesome and it was just decadent.  Yum!

These chocolate-covered cake candy bars were great and I am so glad I got to try them out!  And you can try them out to!

Cakedy is offering one of my lucky readers a chance to win a Cakedy two-pack like I won.  Please enter via the Rafflecopter widget below.  Blog comments will only count if you also fill out the Rafflecopter widget.

Slater's 50/50: Burgers by Design

A fellow blogger reviews Slater's 50/50: Burgers by Design once on their blog and I just knew I had to try it!  I mentioned it to my aunt on Xmas and she told me to let her know when we went and she and my cousin would meet us...yay!  We invited my grandparents to go which was cool because they hadn't seen each other in almost 10 years!

Slater's has make your own burgers with everything imaginable, but they also have pre-designed combinations.  We did a combination of both!

My mom got "The Ballpark" which is a beef patty, chili, cheese sauce, onions and 1000 island dressing.  She took off the top bun and polished the rest off!

I ordered the "Peanut Butter and Jellousy" which is a beef patty, bacon, peanut butter, and jelly.  Oddly enough, the bacon was the ingredient whose flavor was lost.  But....this was delicious!  I am so glad I gave this unique combination of flavors a try :)

My nana made her own burger with a beef patty, teriyaki sauce, pineapple and cheese.  She loved it but brought a lot home!

I think myy cousin, Erik, ordered "The Old Timey" which is a beef patty, American cheese, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and 1000 island dressing.  He made the mistake of ordering the 2/3 lb burger while we all got the 1/3 lb burger.  He had at least half left!

My Auntie Marilyn ordered their signature burger, "The 50/50".  The patty is half crumbled bacon and half beef.  It comes with a sunny side up egg, avocado mash, and then she substituted in cheddar cheese and regular mayo.  So unique!

Their burgers all come with pickles, but nothing else.  So the six of us shared two appetizer combination plates.  We had regular fries with bacon infused ketchup, sweet potato fries with pumpkin sauce, and deep fried artichoke hearts with sage mayo.  The sides were all delicious and we actually had leftovers!

Deep fried artichoke hearts are my favorite and I almost always order them when I see them!

Everyone who tried the bacon infused ketchup loved it, but unfortunately I don't like ketchup so I didn't try it.

Have you ever been to a restaurant like this with such unique food items or combinations?  What did you think?

Moo's Chinese Restaurant

While visiting my grandparents, we always try to visit new restaurants.  We tried to go to an Italian restaurant in Torrance, but they basically held all of their tables for reservations so we couldn't get in.  We ended up going to Moo's Chinese Restaurant in the same strip mall and it was a great choice!

The menu had tons of options.  We ended up ordering sizzling rice soup, sweet & sour fish, chicken chow mein and chicken with cashews.  It was all so good and really reasonably priced!

The soup was crammed with meat, veggies and rice!

The fish was piled high.  The menu listing was for whole fish, but thankfully they were nice and filleted it for us.

The cashew chicken came with broccoli...it was like my two favorite dishes combined!

I don't do chow mein but everyone else seemed to like it.

If you ever find yourself in Torrance wanting Chinese food, Moo's would be a great place to try!

Treachery in Death by JD Robb

J.D. Robb / Nora Roberts is one of about five of my all-time favorite authors!  I love the books she writes under both names - they couldn't be more different!  Robb's "In Death" series revolve around Lieutenant Eve Dallas and take place around the year 2060.  I love reading about Dallas and her futuristic world.

Treachery in Death is all about a dirty cop....ooooh!  Dallas' partner, Detective Delia Peabody is taking a shower after a workout when she hears two cops start arguing about someone being murdered.  She brings everything she learns to Dallas and they go from there.  This book totally had my interest from the very beginning through the last page.

Whether or not you have ever read one of the "In Death" books, you should check this one out.  It's easy to pick up these books from any point in the series and quickly figure out who everyone is.  This book is different because you know who the bad cop is - you aren't spending the whole book wondering who did it.  This time you are wondering...how will they prove it?

Progress toward:

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge - 5/50

100+ Books In a Year - 5/100

Mort's Delicatessen

My mom and I were driving to visit my grandparents last weekend when we got hungry for lunch.  We tried to go to Chipotle since neither of us have ever been there, but we accidentally drove right by the freeway exit to go there.  My mom decided to get off at Reseda and just look for somewhere else to eat.  So we got off the freeway and the first place I saw was Mort's Delicatessen - perfect!  What is better than a deli?

The place was packed!  They were turning over tables so quickly.  We sat down, promptly ordered our food, and it came a few minutes later.  What service!

My mom's chicken noodle soup that she loved.

My club sandwich that was delicious!  It came dry though which was weird, I asked for ranch for my fries and ended up using it on my sandwich also.

My mom's corned beef sandwich plus both of our pickles HAHA

The food and service here were both great!  We will definitely visit Mort's Deli again if we find ourselves hungry in Tarzana :)

Nails Inc Manicure

I love trying new things on my nails!  I saw something mentioning magnetic nail polish somewhere, and I just had to have it.

I bought two different colors.  Teal and purple.  Above is the bottle of the teal polish.  You paint a first coat on all of your nails.  You do your second coat one nail at a time, using the magnet immediately after the second coat goes on.  If you let the polish dry for even 15 seconds it doesn't really work.

Below is the purple on my nails.

I love how it ripples black onto your nails.  So cool!  I can't wait to try out the teal :)

Have you heard of the polish?  If so, have you tried it?  If not, would you?