Oh, Nuts.

Oh, my goodness, people. Last week I discovered the absolutely best recipe for candied nuts ever. It is easier than the honey-glazed versions I've posted before. It is less messy. It is delectable.  These nuts rival (and win over) the hot nuts carts that are everywhere in NYC in the winter. 

You'll Need:

• 3 cups raw nuts (pecans and walnuts work well)
• 1 egg white
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• cinnamon to taste (at least 1 tablespoon)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. 
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon and whisk together. 
3. In a large bowl, beat egg white until it is bubbly and the white is broken up. Add nuts to bowl and mix until nuts are evenly coated in egg white.
4. Mix in cinnamon sugar until nuts are evenly coated.
5. Spread onto a cookie sheet and bake at 20 minutes without stirring. 

Military Books for Your Military Relationship (Part 3)

Last week, I began my Military Books for Your Military Relationship series. If you haven't yet, check out Part 1 and Part 2. I'm continuing today with Part 3 and three more books for your consideration.  

I've been so stunned and excited with all of the enthusiasm for this series from everyone. It's gone viral on Pinterest, which is also really cool (and surprising)! To wrap everything up at the end of the series, I want to corral your favorite (or not-sofavorite) military relationship books. What books have helped you? Which ones were a waste of time? Which ones do you wish you would have read earlier? Which ones grate your nerves? Leave your thoughts in the comments.  I want to hear from you!  

And with that said, here are the last three books on my shelf!

Surviving Deployment: A Guide for Military Families

by Karen M. Pavlicin

If you are specifically going through or getting ready for deployment, you must read this book. Comprehensive and researched, it gives a very realistic portrayal of deployment from gearing-up to the homecoming. I really appreciated it's psychological bent-- having never gone through deployment, I didn't know what to expect. It details the stages of deployment. Knowing what most people do ahead of time really made it easy to try to avoid the same pitfalls. I truly attribute some of the relative ease we had with preparing to deployment to this book.

While They're At War: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront

by Kristin Henderson

After doing a rudimentary search for "deployment books" on Amazon, I came across this one. It chronicles a group of women who all have significant others deployed during the Iraq War. It's very vividly written, well-researched, and comprehensive, but it's not a reference book. If you're looking for a how-to, While They're At War is not it. However, it's an excellent, quality read, and I absolutely recommend it, especially if you're gearing up for a deployment. Every so often-- especially when I'm having a rough patch-- I think about the book and I don't feel alone or stupid for feeling the emotions I'm feeling.

Navy Spouse's Guide  
by Laura Hall Stavridis

As I write this post, I have all of my books stacked next to me. Looking at them now, I'm fairly certain I never cracked this one... if I did, it was only briefly. I will probably take a peek at it after John and I are settled and I truly am a Navy spouse, but until then, on the bookshelf it goes!

What would books do you recommend?

I Love Bloglovin' Link-Up

It's the I Love Bloglovin' Blog Hop! Link up your Bloglovin' account and discover a few new, amazing blogs! If you need a tutorial on how to import all of the blogs you follow via Google Reader (GFC) here is a helpful tutorial. Once you have all those blogs imported, you may want to organize them into categories using this tutorial.

Now, let's get the party started!

Have an image of yourself ready so we have your pretty face to look at!

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