Peaceful Reader

Weekend Cooking; The Geranium Farm Cookbook

2012-01-29T13:26:00.001-06:00

by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton & 10,000 Geranium Farmers

(2006) 136 pages

At our church Christmas Bazaar we have a beautiful book table with used books from our members. It is a wonderful way to share and recycle the books we have read all year. We are a well-read and well-fed congregation as recipe books take up an entire table.

This year a had this one in my stack and my intention was to give it to my mother as she is a true cookbook collector. I read through it one night though and fell in love with the uncomplicated recipes. I love to read through the vignettes interspersed throughout the book as well. I loved this quote from one

Baking Friday Afternoon

I could hardly believe my ears: Rosie requested that we bake a pie on Friday afternoon. Always say yes when your teenager wants to do something with you-anything this side of legality. It could be years before it happens again. (48) ~ Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

Words of wisdom there!

I've made these two recipes from this book so far-both excellent.

Curried Olive Spread

1 block of cream cheese, light or otherwise
1 cup pitted, chopped green salad olives (more or less to taste and you can use exotic olives if you prefer)
1 T. curry (more or less to taste)

Cube the cream cheese, then put cheese and olives in a food processor. Blend until mixture is slightly lumpy. Stir in curry. Can be served immediately, but sitting in the fridge for an hour or so allows the flavors to blend. Serve with crackers, celery sticks, or toasted bread squares.

My grandmother gave me this recipe when I entered the working world. She told me there would be many occasions where I would be expected to bring an appetizer to a dinner, and this one was quick, easy, and tasted delicious. After all, she mused, working women were busy and didn't have all day to create fabulous food...(108) ~ The Rev. Laurie Brock, Mobile, Alabama

Can't resist grandmother advice either! I served this dip with a loaf of my fresh homemade bread. The dip made enough for leftovers and I've been eating that as a snack with gluten-free crackers all week.

Corn Spoon Bread

1 cup (organic) milk
1 T. (unsalted) butter
1 cup cornmeal
1 can creamed corn
2 eggs, separated
1 T. (sea) salt
1 T (freshly ground) black pepper

Scald the milk in a saucepan. Melt the butter into the milk. Add the cornmeal and cook until thick. Stir in the creamed corn. Beat the egg yolks with the salt and pepper. Stir the yolks into the corn mixture. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the corn mixture. pour into a well-greased quart baking dish. Bake at 350* for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted int eh middle comes out clean. Serves 6-8
This is a favorite recipe of mine from my Indiana childhood. ~The Rev. Gerald W. Keucher, New York, NY (123)

I have a thing about creamed corn-a childhood food memory-so this appealed to me on that level. I made it for a church potluck and by the time I made it through the line it was gone, bowl scraped clean just as it should be at a potluck.

Link for Geranium Farm. This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Drop over and see what she is dishing about and many other food-related posts.

In other family news our new refrigerator has been ordered but is back-ordered. My hope is that it arrives somewhere in the vicinity of the first two weeks of Feb. Back order seems to happen with all appliance purchases now.
I'm reading Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz - beautifully written, taking many post-it's to mark my favorites.
I watched Burlesque last night and loved it-don't know why it took me a year. Cher and Christina Aguilera were wonderful. I watched Eat, Pray, Love also yesterday and while it dragged in spots was uplifting to me. Made me savor my own loves. So decadent to watch two movies in one day-it was a "free" day in a way.

emma and me by elizabeth flock + A Giveaway!!

2012-01-24T22:55:00.000-06:00

emma and me (2004)

elizabeth flock

292 pages

I don't even know where I picked this book up - it does have a second hand sticker on it- but one that I don't recognize so I can only presume the book has had a history before it fell into my waiting hands. I love it when a book finds you at just the right moment in your life.

The opening sentences slam you:

"The first time Richard hit me I saw stars in front of my eyes just like they do in cartoons. It was just a backhand, though-not like when I saw Tommy Bucksmith's dad wallop him so hard that when he hit the pavement his head actually bounced. I s'pose Richard didn't know about the flips I used to do with Daddy where you face each other and while you're holding on to your daddy's hands you climb up his legs to right above the knees and then push off, through the triangle that your arms make with his. It's super fun. I was just trying to show Richard how it works. Anyway, I learned then and there to stay clear of Richard." (9)

As a reader I was stunned and sad but pulled in by this little voice of eight-year-old Carrie. The abuse she suffers at the hands of her stepfather and her mother's neglect are juxtaposed around her original family story; one where happiness played an important role and her father was kind and playful. Flock twists the story from Toast, NC to a tiny mountain town where Carrie meets several unusual characters that see right through her family's struggles. I can't give you any more details so when you read it the story can unfold and surprise you.

I loved Flock's writing style and would enjoy reading more of her work. Carrie's voice will stick with me for a long time to come. Because this book has already been through several readers I want to keep it traveling along. I will send this book to one lucky reader leave me a comment about one striking childhood memory and I will pick one unique answer. Include your email and I will get the book to you quickly!

This book is on my TBR Pile Challenge and the first book I've read on my list. Lisa from Books Lists Life encouraged me to read it and it was a perfect book to start with- Thanks Lisa! I hope the rest of my choices thrill me as much as this one did!

*the book does have some pencil marking in it from a child's drawing hand-this amused me as the story is about a child, it is only on the first few pages and does not interrupt the story in any way but thought I should mention it in case you are one of those paperback book swap people who like pristine books.*

Creepy Bugs

2012-01-20T17:48:00.009-06:00

It's been over a week and my computer has been violently ill. It wouldn't let me get on our wireless and it was acting just plain loco! The frustration was high when my men were still surfing with their sleek Apples! Ugh.

Lucky I have a wonderful techie friend who's taken it home to restore it. He confirmed the buggy diagnosis. It seems to be going around as I got a quirky tweet from a friend who thought she'd been hacked-which is how it started for me right before Christmas.

When you haven't bloged for awhile it feels weird to come back-a little like calling an old friend after a long time. I miss Pinterest and Facebook but really miss my blogging friends!

Some life updates:

-Read emma and me by Elizabeth Flock and Sing Me Home by Jodi Piccoult.
-new refrigerator is backordered but at least ordered.
-today was an awesome SNOW DAY, allowing me to get holiday decorations put correctly back.
-cooked many wonderful meals that I'm anxious to post.

I'm typing on my son's IPad and hope to have my healthy computer back some time next week.
In the meantime have a peaceful day wherever you are!

This is all it takes for me.

2012-01-11T22:03:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago my husband and I decided we needed to amp up the idea of date night in our relationship. What with kid activities, his many plays and meetings and my school life we some times don't see each other much in a week. He sent me a text the other day and asked me out on a date and we went today for an early dinner at local sushi restaurant. We each had a salad, several sushi rolls and I had a glass of wine and he, a beer.

Because we like to be efficient we stopped pre-date at the running store downtown to pick up the sneakers he had ordered me for Christmas. After the date I had to stop at our local library to pick up a book for one of my student book clubs. My husband reminded me as we were going in that we had a time limit to get home to the kids.

Within 5 minutes in the library I was able to pick up this stack:

1. Fever; 1793-this is the book I needed for one of my students.
2. The Palace of Laughter by Jon Berkeley
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
5. The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule
6. The Parents We Mean To Be by Richard Weissbourd

Two, Three and Four were all very close to where I looked for Anderson, Laurie Halse and the last two just because I happened passed a display of parenting books. Wow. Just think if he'd given me 10 minutes.

All in all-two errands and a nice dinner made for a lovely night out and we were home by 6:30 with a pizza for the kids. Hope your day was blissful too.

Simply Monday

2012-01-09T22:05:00.002-06:00

We made chocolate chip cookies at our house tonight. Groovy Girl and I owed Teenage Boy a batch because he walked her and two friends over to the cemetery on Saturday at dusk. We live across from a cemetery and this is a favorite "challenge" activity when friends sleep over. He remembers doing this when he was in middle school with a group of his friends. To thank him for following through we made him the cookies. He's been eating them while he watches football and reads Inheritance, last in his favorite Eragon series..

I just made the recipe on the back of the Nestle package (yes, every once in awhile non-organic lands in my grocery cart-I don't know how?) because it was there and easy. I know I have several good recipes but I've never hit on one that was so amazing that I have to make that one ALL the time, they all seem to be pretty similar. Do you have a favorite chocolate chip recipe? If so, please share.

My kitchen's not clean but the cookies are done. Dinner was easy. My kids are happy. Groovy Girl and I had a serious conversation about an article in her Discovery Girls magazine. About bras. Ugh. She's worried because other girls in her class have started wearing them. Double ugh.

When I went up to get her headed toward sleep she was dancing wildly to one of her Taylor Swift CD's, lucky for her she was already in her pajamas with her teeth brushed. We read the last half of The Snow Queen by Amy Ehrlich and talked for a few minutes. She wanted to share one of Taylor's songs with me. It's a sweet song and it made us hug repeatedly. Listen to it; Never Grow Up, not an official video but still a good.

Hoping your Monday was peaceful and simple.

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

2012-01-08T22:34:00.000-06:00

Anne Ursu

2011

312 pages

I consumed this book.
I finished it last night and even though the story ends wonderfully I just wanted it to go on. Hazel is an astonishing girl heroine!

Things to know and love:

It took place in Minnesota.
It made me miss snow.
It is a retelling of the fairy tale The Snow Queen.
The two main characters, Jack and Hazel, are lovable.
The two symbolize the difficult journey of growing up.
The parents are odd and generally not helpful (typical).
Anne Ursu makes some wonderful references to other great literature.

I read this beautiful retelling of The Snow Queen by Amy Ehrlich and Susan Jeffers to Groovy Girl tonight just to compare with what took place in the book and it is pretty accurate. Ursu has lengthened it by adding many adventures to the forest but it only makes the story more enticing. I am extremely pleased I purchased a copy of this book as I love the front cover and it is worth rereading. I will also want Groovy Girl to read it in her own time. I rated it five stars on Good Reads. Thank you, Anne, for this beautiful tale.

Weekend Cooking; I love tofu and you can too!

2012-01-07T22:34:00.000-06:00

I love transforming this basic square of protein into delicious dishes. I fell in love with tofu soon after leaving college and exploring my own vegetarian choices after spending my college years eating mostly from the salad bar and well, mashed potatoes!

Tofu is so easy to cook and add to recipes but I run into many people, including vegetarians, who just don't like tofu. I generally think it is because they haven't experimented with it on a deeper level. Last week I made baked tofu with coconut rice and we ate it all up. If you've wanted to experiment with tofu give it a try.

This is what the tofu looks like after you cut it out of the plastic container and dice it into bite-sized squares. With other tofu recipes you often need to drain some of the water out of the tofu by wrapping it in a dish cloth and setting a plate on top. This recipe didn't request that but it is good to know that you should squeeze water out first before cooking, which will help the tofu take on flavor better.

Gather the tamari or soy sauce, organic ketchup and sesame oil together to create the sauce.

Happily drizzle it over all that tofu. Yum.

Stop to read the recipe again and have a sip of wine.

Start the coconut rice (recipe to follow)

Add the coconut milk after rice has had a chance to toast a bit with spices.

Sadly, once I plated this whole deal up and we sat to eat, we were all too busy eating to snap any final pictures. There are mixed feelings about soy but my motto is "moderation is the key" and it is fun to experiment with and will pick up flavor from what you cook it with. Groovy Girl's favorite tofu is stir fried with just honey and tamari sauce. I buy wheat-free, low-salt tamari from the bulk section of my organic store.

Both of these recipes are from Moosewood Restaurant; Cooking for Health.

Any Easy Baked Tofu

1 cake tofu, 16-oz firm

2 T. dark sesame oil

2 T. soy sauce

2 T. organic ketchup

Cut the tofu into bite-sized squares and place in an un-oiled baking dish large enough to hold a single layer. Stir together next 3 ingredients and drizzle over tofu squares. With a rubber spatula, gently turn to coat. In a 400* oven, bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, stirring once or twice until tofu is browned and firm. Serve hot or at room temperature. Serve over rice or noodles and add a sauce ( like Trader Joe's wonderful simmer sauces.)

Basic Brown Rice

1 cup rinsed organic brown rice

2 tsp olive oil

scant 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups water

In a saucepan or skillet on high heat, stir together the rice, oil, and salt for one minute, stirring constantly. Add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to very low, stir once and simmer covered until tender, about 45 minutes. If you like a softer rice add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more water.

Coconut Rice

Replace 1/2 the water with unsweetened coconut milk or dried, unsweetened coconut with the raw rice. For a golden hue, add ground tumeric (1/2 tsp)

The baked tofu did not get as crispy on the outside as I was expecting. The kids didn't seem to notice or care. The rice was mellow and yummy and I liked cooking it this way instead of in a big pot of water.

I served the rice and tofu separately as all three of my children are not big fans of "mixed" food and this way they could add as much or as little of the tofu as they wanted. I did add several shakes of curry powder to my husband and my plates of mixed rice and tofu to spice ours up.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking!

Happy Eating.

New Thinking

2012-01-06T23:11:00.001-06:00

I loved my week at school-it was short and easy-such a perfect way to end our holiday break. This week and into next I am reading Jan Brett and Karma Wilson books to 1st and kinder students. 2nd graders are learning about ABC books and we plan to make one some how-I haven't figured out the how-so if you know of a spectacular online (free) program that would create individual books with graphics let me know.

I did use this alphabet organizer from Read, Write, Think as a mini project and we did it together using the Promethean Board. It was a stretch getting them to think of one word for each letter that fit into their topic and it was a good way to begin but I want something I can import graphics into and make it into like an e-book for them. I don't need to print them out, too much paper waste but would like to share them using the board during parent night. Any ideas?

In my forever quest for learning I picked this book up from the library after Janssen raved about it on her blog, Everyday Reading.

Po Bronson's and Ashley Merryman's book, NurtureShock has literally shocked me of many of my previous thoughts on parenting and as an educator. Can Self Control Be Taught? is one chapter that I plan to use as a jumping off point to recharge the kinder experience in my library. This chapter discusses a pre-k program called Tools of the Mind; I'm fascinated with the idea of this play-based classroom where self-regulation is more important than trying to teach youngsters to read. By learning to regulate their social, emotional and cognitive behaviors students take charge of their own learning.

While I can't build this entire curriculum into my daily kindergarten classes I like the idea of pulling portions of it in and trying it. One section of the chapter (162) describes how students study a topic by playing it out in all aspects. The example given is that when you study fire stations they would then act out what they've learned about all aspects of a fire call from the family who makes the 911 call to the dispatcher who takes the call and on down the line. By playing out the scene to its fullest students learn to work their brain instead of getting distracted. At the end of this 45 minute play time the clean up song is played and students stop what they are doing and begin to clean up.

The idea of buddy reading is shared next-which I know our school does-but I don't know about at the kindergarten level. It says kids partner up and share their books by talking through the book's pictures. When my 4 classes of kindergarten classes rotate through next week I'm going to demonstrate buddy reading and let them do it all around the library. I need to make ears and lips for this though as the listening child holds a set of ears and the reader holds a pair of lips. I think I will make them on large Popsicle sticks form Hobby Lobby. Even though I'm not a fan of nonfiction I've loved reading this book; it takes me to a higher place (of thinking).

Important message from Ruby, the young Feminist.

2012-01-05T22:24:00.000-06:00

Watch this fun yet informative video of Ruby discussing feminism with Amy Poehler! I can't wait to share this with Groovy Girl, who should definitely be a guest on Smart Girls at the Party. She'd have a few great things to say about women's rights. She's been working on a biography project about Amelia Earhart and considers Eleanor Roosevelt one of her heroes.

Happy Deep Thinking...

I'm committed; 2012 TBR Pile Challenge

2012-01-04T08:11:00.020-06:00

Sometimes Groovy Girl and I do story time in my room instead of hers. This happens when her room gets messy what with Barbie and American Girl parties all the time and her complete and utter pleasure in a play-filled room-except when it's story time. Then she wants to lay with me in my clean room (yes, I have book stacks), in my big bed, with my warm blankie turned to high. I know you're thinking-a heating blanket-how eco-friendly is that?? I love my electric blanket and it lets me keep our gas heat at a low, low temp. Each of us have them.

I digress. After Groovy Girl and I finished reading and as she was falling asleep in my bed (yes, I know she's nine and probably should be in her own bed but very soon she's going to be a teen and not want to read with me AT ALL so I let her snuggle) while I was quietly reading Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursa, which is such a good book but after she fell asleep I disengaged myself (from her and the book) and perched beside my bed where 3 tall stacks of books live and I made a list; a list of 14 books that have been sitting in a stack for over a year, waiting to be read by me (or anyone, I'm sure) and I'm using them to join Adam at Roof Beam Reader in his TBR Pile Challenge. I could do this challenge probably 10 more times and still have another stack. If you have stacks like I have stacks perhaps you should take the challenge like me.

Here's my list.

1. Abarat by Clive Barker
2. While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky
3. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
4. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
5. Flying Changes by Sara Gruen
6. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
7. Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers
8. Losing Charlotte by Heather Clay
9. Joy School by Elizabeth Berg
10. Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller
11. Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock
12. I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson

Two Honorable Mentions:

1. Twilight by Stephanie Perkins (I had to brush some cobwebs off this one)
2. Flavor of the Week by Tucker Shaw

I can think of a story for just about every one of these books; like that my stepdaughter told me #1 was her favorite book and that was like 5 years ago, or that #6 has an inscription from my stepmother in 2009 and that I asked my mom to buy #10 for me at the book store like 3 years ago. So I've dusted them off, put them all in a "new" pile and plan to work my way through. Thank you Allen! I'm committed!

The History of Love; A Novel by Nicole Krauss

2012-01-03T11:57:00.000-06:00

(2005)

My stepdaughter, Kaylee, read this book earlier in the year and passed it off to me to read. I picked it up right before Christmas break because she was coming and I didn't want to NOT have read it before her return. I had no expectations as I hadn't heard of Krauss or the title on any blogs before. I have had several comments from other bloggers that this is a book they read pre-blogging. I'm glad I went into it fresh and was rewarded with amazing storytelling. I love fiction that is able to take two seemingly different tales and weave them together like a fine Persian rug.

The History of Love begins with Leo Gursky and his lamentable life. He's a mixed character with such depth; he's unhappy but happy to be alive every day. He does things like drop change in line at the grocery store so the people around him are forced to really see him. He volunteers to model for a nude art class. He does not want days to go past where he is invisible. He is a character I fell in love with by his sheer will to BE.

The other half of the story is told by fourteen-year-old Alma Singer who is attempting to solve the mystery of her family. Her father died when she was seven, her mother has been sad ever since and her brother thinks he's been touched by God. Alma's name comes from a book, The History of Love, which her father gave her mother years before and Alma endeavors to find out more about the book and the author, which might help her understand her own life or at least how to make her mother happy again.

I thoroughly enjoyed both parts of this multifaceted story and at times couldn't put the book down. I plan to read more Nicole Krauss books as well as her writer husband, Jonathon Safran Foer. Kaylee has a class at Oberlin that Foer teaches which is why she'd picked the book up in the first place.

Have you read any books by this power writing couple? If not, I highly recommend this one...

After finishing it I hugged it and then reopened it to reread the opening lines again. I'm a little sad that stepdaughter is taking it away with her tomorrow.

Here are the opening lines:

"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, Leo Gursky is survived by an apartment full of shit. I'm surprised I haven't been buried alive. The place isn't big. I have to struggle to keep a path clear between bed and toilet, toilet and kitchen table, kitchen table and front door. If I want to get from the toilet to the front door, impossible, I have to go by way of the kitchen table. I like to imagine the bed as home plate, the toilet as first, the kitchen table as second, the front door as third; should the doorbell ring while I am lying in bed I have to round the toilet and the kitchen table in order to arrive at the door." (1)

I love her creative use of sentence structure and her imagery. I can so easily visualize Leo's cramped NY apartment. Thank you Ms. Krauss for creating and sharing Alma's and Leo's stories.

2011 Reading Stats, Goals and Favorites

2012-01-02T13:04:00.000-06:00

I've had such a great holiday hanging with children and husband this past week and today husband went back to work and stepdaughter is driving back to Chicago. It's quiet-making it a perfect time to write up my accomplishments for the past year. I've had fun popping around and reading everyone else's finished goals. Now it is my turn.

The biggest news for me was actually making the 100 mark of books-making this goal was a huge accomplishment as last year I only made it to 86. This challenge was hosted by Amy at My Overstuffed Bookshelf. She hosts again but this time she's changed it up to 150 books and at that I have to bow out. I struggled with 100, reading my last book on December 31st so I'll search for another or just use my Goodreads account to make my own. I don't know what other challenges I'm going to take on but I did find this intriguing one on Roof Beam Reader; a TBR Pile Challenge-which is one that will fulfill my desire to get more organized and you only pick 12 books to finish. I can do that.

In 2011 I read:

Elementary/Middle Grade Fiction: 48
Young Adult Fiction: 16
Adult Fiction: 23
Non-fiction: 13
Cookbooks: 8

Women Authors: 61
Male Authors: 18

Where I got them from:

Library: 54
Own/Borrowed: 39
ARC's: 4

15 were for my 3 book clubs
15 were historical fiction
26 were fantasty/science fiction

My favorites by age level:
(links are to my reviews)

Adult Fiction:

Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
A History of Love by Nicole Krauss (review soon)

Young Adult Fiction:

I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Elementary/Middle School:
(this is a much harder catergory; I read many of these for work and love them, making this longer.)

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Milo; Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze by Alan Silberberg
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpoole
The Shadows/Spellbound by Jacqueline West
Little Klein by Anna Ylvisaker
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (review soon)
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
A Drowned Maiden's Tale by Laura Amy Schlitz (loved The Night Fairy last year)
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (review soon)

Many of these were new authors to me and I especially appreciated discovering Jennifer Donnelly, Anna Ylvisaker and Nicole Krauss. I enjoyed the fantasy worlds of Kristin Cashore and Jacqueline West. I'm so happy I've finally read both of Selznick's masterpieces!

I read massive amounts of Jennifer L. Holm for a class and adore her characters, even reading my first Babymouse! What a fantastic year of reading I've had; click here or the tab at the top to see my full list.

What books do we have in common? What books did you love this year? What book did I love that you hated?

As I read over my full list a few titles kept pouting and poking their heads up at me so I leave these titles as honorable mentions because they are worth mentioning...

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
The Kneebone Boy By Ellen Potter
The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas

Weekend Cooking; New Year's Day Brunch recipe

2012-01-01T11:35:00.000-06:00

photo courtesy of whatwhatwhat.com

This is what is cooking at my house right now!

I was a whirlwind yesterday; trying to get everything done. My goal was to begin the new year with a clean house and with the help of my new vacuum cleaner I accomplished that. I made three trips to various grocery stores to pick up items I needed. After shopping together husband and I made a light lunch for all five of us and then I set to the task of pretty much spending the rest of the day in the kitchen. I wanted to make the breakfast casserole that my mother-in-law created once before in my kitchen. My thought was to have something pre-made and extra yummy so I could properly relax today. After I finished making that I moved on to making dinner; my "family-famous" eggplant lasagna and two loaves of bread.

I got almost everything done on my list yesterday. I finished my 100 books in time; spending the whole morning immersed in Selznick's Wonderstruck. I'm excited because last year I didn't make it and really it seemed like such an attainable goal. It's not unless you really read all the time or count picture books, which I choose not to. I also didn't get my weekend cooking post completed yesterday like I'd planned but hey, I did what I could and feeding the family is pretty high up on the to-do list.

Here is the breakfast recipe we will be eating in about 30 minutes, if I can get the teenagers up...

Cinnamon Apple Baked French Toast Casserole

1 loaf French or Italian bread
8 farm fresh eggs
1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 1/2 cups milk
1 T. real vanilla
6-8 Apples, peeled, cored and sliced (McIntosh or Cortland, preferred)
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 T. butter
Maple syrup (warmed) for serving

Slice bread into 1 1/2-inch slices. Place the bread tightly together in a greased 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish. In a bowl beat together the eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, milk and vanilla. Pour half of egg mixture over bread slices. Place sliced apples over bread to cover and pour remaining egg mixture over the top. Mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkle over top of dish. Dot casserole with butter slices. Cover and refrigerate over night.
In the morning remove foil or pan cover. Bake at 350* for 1 hour. Place a cookie sheet under glass dish as casserole may overflow a little. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into big squares and serve with maple syrup.
Yum!

Later today we're having black-eyed peas, salsa and spinach over brown rice for dinner. How many others participate in this tradition?

This post is connected to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme-drop by and check out all the food-related posts gathered there.

Happy New Year. Happy Reading.

Book bag synopsis

2011-12-30T08:25:00.000-06:00

I brought home a book bag filled with a few titles from my school library that I wanted to read over break. Most of them are from a Scholastic order from the beginning of the year and haven't received much student attention. I thought I could book talk them in the new year and it would give me my last few titles to reach the 100 mark for books read in 2011. Here's what I've read over break so far:

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie (2004) by Jordan Sonnenblick;
Steven Alper is a middle school student who loves playing the drums and is annoyed by his little brother, Jeffrey. When the family discovers Jeffrey has cancer things get a little crazy. Jeffrey suffers through the physical aspects of cancer and Jeffrey wades through how it must feel to be the child left at home, the healthy but ignored child. Sonnenblick portrays both sides really well and has the middle school lingo down pat-he sounds like he never left middle school really...a bonus for him. I can't wait to read his other two titles on my pile; Notes from the Midnight Driver and Zen and the Art of Faking It.

Ways to Live Forever (2008) by Sally Nicholls;
This is the story of Sam McQueen, an eleven-year-old in the last stages of leukemia and the story is presented to us through his eyes through an assignment his at-home-teacher gives him and his friend, Felix. My favorite aspect of this tale is that Sam is a list maker. He has a few things he'd like to get accomplished before he leaves this earth and once he figures out he can do more than just dream about doing them he does! He learns an important lesson about how one looks at a problem to solve. The author is English and the story is filled with references like torches, sledging and Mum's and duffle coats-it makes the story interesting but will make it more difficult for one of my students to comprehend.

Radiance (2010) by Alyson Noel;
Wow; three in a row! Riley dies in a car accident before the book basically opens-wham. She's trying to figure out where to get in the happy field of flowers; to follow her sister, Ever, back to the Earth plane or across the bridge where her parents and dog have happily gone. She's an interesting character with very defined thoughts about the world around her as she learns to live where she is and take on an assignment back on Earth. She meets Bodhi; a nerdy but cute angel in desperate need of a victory and she's able to save a few lost souls along her journey, which is just what she needs to do to rise to the next level. The next level of what though is a question she can't help asking! I'm anxious to read the next one, Shimmer, as well as Noel's other series, The Immortals. This is a fast read-one day-starting early, early this morning when I couldn't sleep.

The Daughters (2010) by Joanna Philbin;
This is a hot series in my library right now so I had to remove it from circulation and hide it for my holiday break-wielding my power as the librarian with supreme force over the hold shelf! This one gave me a break from all the death and dying of my previous choices and was a perfect light read. I wouldn't label it fluff though as Philbin tackles the personalities of three famous daughters trying to be themselves! I thoroughly enjoyed their struggles and thought she had a lot to say about real beauty and celebrity worship. I plan to read the next few in this series as soon as I can snatch them back from student readers.

Up Next:

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

What are you reading into the new year?

Holly Jolly

2011-12-28T16:32:00.000-06:00

Loads of game playing. These have all been played or attempted over the holiday.

Lots of eating.

Christmas afternoon-opening family gifts.

We've even redeemed a gift card already! Groovy Girl felt so grown up, getting her hair cut at my favorite Aveda salon.

We've snuggled up for movies and watched two episodes of Downton Abbey and several

episodes of Arthur.

Oh, the joy of everyone together!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T21:32:00.001-06:00

We had a cozy day hanging out today. Even though we hoped to be all done with our shopping we still had a few things to finish up. My husband and I went out to look at a local appliance store which turned out to be closed so we continued on to get guinea pig food and a few other last minute gifts. While we were driving around with NPR on the radio David Sedaris read to us from his Santaland Diaries.

So there we are driving around, concerned with our day but laughing our troubles away as Sedaris' recounts his brief (and hysterical) stint as an elf at Macy's. I can't get it to load on my computer for some reason or I'd have it here for you to listen to but the link is here if get the chance to listen. It was just what we needed. And right before that we heard Neil Gaiman on Wait, Wait don't tell me. Love public radio!

Why, you ask, were we searching out an appliance store on Christmas Eve day? I know your curious...
The beautiful Sub-Zero that came with our old house died a sad and pitiful death two days ago. Now if it was a snowy Christmas we could use the outdoors to store our holiday groceries but that is not the case here-it has been balmy! No snow. Luckily our friend, Jason, saved us by bringing over his garage fridge and we are using that for the next month or so until we can research the best refrigerator for our galley kitchen. Thank you Jason!!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday however you celebrate-celebrate in style!
Merry Christmas to all!

Anne Ylvisaker and The Book Club

2011-12-20T21:03:00.001-06:00

Author Anne Ylvisaker

I was the host of our book club last night and we had a a fantastic time. Through a round of chance encounters (one of our members worked with Anne's husband in Cedar Rapids a few years back) and after I'd read and loved Little Klein we cooked up a plan to read a few of her books and see if she would skype with us. We're so happy she agreed.

Ylvisaker grew up in Minnesota; in the St. Paul area, her father was a minister and she spent time in Iowa as an adult as well. All three of her fiction books take place in these Midwest settings. She had a lot of good stories to tell; some about her family and some about her writing process. I particularly loved this one...her writing group at one time gathered words and shared them with each other; using them to write with that week. She could pick them out of Little Klein and demonstrated how they raised the story up. She also shared many of the personal family stories that have became part of her books.

It was one of the best book club experiences we've had and it had nothing to do with the delicious food or the wine. It was the lively conversation we had with her and the discussion we had after we hung up the camera.
I'm a huge fan of hers and hope you will take time to read any of her fiction books for fun.

I read Dear Papa recently (2002) a wonderful elementary/middle grade fiction that shares the letters Isabelle writes to her deceased father and other family members as she deals with her grief and her mother's eventual remarriage. The book is filled with daily joys and disappointments...just like real life. It takes place in Minnesota around the second World War.
Here's a snippet:

"Dear Papa, Jan. 1, 1944 It's a brand-new year. I have made some resolutions: Help the first time Mama asks. Hang up my clothes before bed. Go to church with a willing heart. Keep our family together. Your daughter,Isabelle, nine and a half today" (15)

I also read her latest book, The Luck of the Buttons (2011) about a young Iowa girl, Tugs Buttons, who is cursed with an unlucky family. Tugs changes her stars as she wins a three-legged race, an essay contest and a raffle all at the 4th of July celebration. She suffers some hard times but in the end she is able to show her family sometimes you got to make your own luck happen. Tugs is another positive young heroine!
Another snippet to share:

"Tugs shrugged into yesterday's clothes, which still lay in a heap on the floor, slipped past Granny, who was writing a letter at the kitchen table, and collected five pennies from her mother on her way out the door. Wednesday mornings were Granddaddy Ike's checkers mornings. and in the summer, Tugs was in charge of walking him from his house to Al and Irene's Luncheonette..."(60)

We found out she has two more books in the works about this Button family and the next one up is Button Down, featuring Tugs' cousin, Ned. Read my review of Little Klein here, which features an adorable boy and a dog combo that will make you smile to the heavens.

There was a grand moment for me when Ylvisaker recognized the "Peaceful Reader" name and asked if we were not on twitter together...I was over-the-moon-thrilled!

Thank you to Anne for taking time out of her busy schedule (her children had just returned home for the holidays) to talk with our group and to all authors who make themselves available to us, their adoring readers.
Thank you to my book club friends for willingly taking this leap of faith with me and Kay!
(now I'm thinking why didn't I ask her for a preview copy of Button Down...silly me)
Enjoy.

You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

2011-12-17T22:51:00.002-06:00

We have a busy weekend. My husband's play is up and this scene is one of my favorites. So free and happy, celebrating the joy of Christmas. Groovy Girl has been Woodstock in two of the four shows and we have family in town enjoying the play.

I did finish two books today; The History of Love by Nicole Krauss-what a beautiful story-I could have started all over again and Lucky Cap by Patrick Jennings, which has been Groovy Girl's story time book but her late nights with rehearsals have delayed our reading so this morning we cuddled in the big bed and finished the last 8 pages. Love those mornings. Then I got up and grocery shopped and cleaned house. My book club meets here Monday night and we are skyping author Anne Ylvisaker, the author of Little Klein, Dear Papa and The Luck of the Buttons. I'm very excited about this event...I just need to make it through this weekend's performances.

Have a very love-filled weekend.

I did something revolutionary this week!

2011-12-14T19:35:00.000-06:00

(photo courtesy of Chez Us)

Don't you get tired of buying cans, boxes, jars or cubes of veggie, beef or chicken stock? On my ongoing quest to bring less "stuff" into my house, especially the kitchen, I started to re-evaluate my constant need for stock. While searching through my favorite crock pot book, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson I ran across an easy recipe for stock and thought I should give it a try.

Maybe some people do this all the time but it was a revelation for me-how ding dang easy it was to make and how great it made my house smell. It made enough for me to use for the next two weeks with some to freeze.

Give it a try-here's the recipe. I no longer have to worry about purchasing too salty or expensive boxes of organic stock. Thank heavens. I also set up my mise en place for this recipe which made me feel extremely cooking cool.

Light and Easy Vegetable Stock

A 5 1/2-to 6-quart cooker is best.

8 to 10 hours cook time

Low setting

Makes 8 cups

1 T. olive oil

2 medium-size yellow onions, quartered

2 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 celery rib, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 or 3 garlic cloves, left unpeeled and crushed

Peels from 2 large well-scrubbed potatoes (I actually used the whole well scrubbed pots)

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley leaves

1 large bay leaf

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

8 cups water

2 tsp tamari or other soy sauce (might be nice to make sure it is wheat-free)

1 tsp salt (I kind of thought this was unnecessary and didn't add it)

1. Drizzle the oil in the bottom of a the slow cooker. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, potato, parsley, bay leaf, and peppercorns, pour in the water, and add the tamari. Cover and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours.

2. Allow the stock to cool slightly, then strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a pot or bowl, pressing the vegetables against the sieve to release all the juices. Store the cooled stock in tightly sealed containers where it will keep for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

As I came down the stairs that morning there was a delicious smell filling the house. Now I'm ready to make the several soup recipes from Moosewood that I was interested in as well as the No Hurry Vegetable Curry on my menu for this week.

How 'bout you? Do you make your own or buy the box, cube, jar or can of stock? Do you have a favorite stock recipe?

Porcelain Unicorn; directed by Keegan Wilcox-Grand Prize Winner of Tell It Your Way Competition

2011-12-12T21:40:00.000-06:00

My mother sent me this and I love it. It is emotional and startling to me every time I watch so thought to share it out to you.

Moosewood Restaurant; Cooking for Health

2011-12-11T21:44:00.000-06:00

I've spent my weekend joyfully running from store to store picking up items for my Secret Santa school family. I had to hunt down school uniform outfits (not easy since it is not beginning of school, I guess-who would know they would NOT stock all year). I bought the two-year old a wee baby that cries-my groovy girl said "can I just play with it for one night?" I must have picked a good baby. It warms my heart to shop for someone in need and I love participating in this program every year. It always makes me sad when under the mom's wish list are things like this; any cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, toilet tissue, dish soap. So I got them all for her and a box of chocolates just because she deserves it.

In between shopping and Groovy Girl's skating lesson I've been nourishing my food soul with Moosewood's latest cookbook.

Packed full of goodness this one has me scribbling down ingredients and recipes. It also made me drop a HUGE hint to handsome husband that it was on my Christmas list. He is pretty health conscious and is always excited about me cooking him food so it is a win-win situation for him. With fantastic intro information the book begins with Organics, Eating Locally, Nutritional Analysis, and a wonderful chart showing pesticide levels for non-organic fruits and vegetables. Did you know peaches rank the highest?

As a runner my husband was most interested in "The Glycemic Index; Bad Carb, Good Carb, Fast Carb, Slow Carb section. Recipes include a wide variety of choices from vegan to gluten-free and food allergies are discussed as Moosewood as a restaurant now caters to many food choices beyond just vegetarianism. I was impressed with the amount of tofu recipes and the wide variety of grains they've chosen.

While I haven't cooked anything from the book yet I will leave you with a sample list of what could become some new favorite recipes:

Scattered Sushi Salad

Ginger Tofu Soup (the veggie's equivalent to chicken noodle soup)

Latin Corn Soup

Sweet Potato, Apple, and Chipotle Soup

Chunky Guacamole Sandwich

Curried Red Lentil Burgers

Spinach-Tofu Burgers

An Easy Baked Tofu (all my years of cooking with tofu-never have I baked it:(I've already bought the tofu for this one)

Quinoa and Collard Leaf Dolmas

North-South Chili

Oaxacan Green Mole Stew

Tunisian Chickpea Stew

See the list goes on and on and I haven't even read through the dessert (Fig and Pecan Baked Apples, anyone?) section. There is a two-page spread made for busy nights here: "Fourteen Ways to Embellish Brown Rice." Each one of these beg to be tried in my kitchen.

Don't you want it on your Christmas list too??

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted at Beth Fish Reads. Check out all the food-related posts over there.

Beautiful Holidays

2011-12-09T23:06:00.000-06:00

(Nephew with Groovy Girl)

I've recently been holiday bashing because I had to go buy new lights. Our old wonderful blue lights that have circled our house for a mere four years started to fade to a pale yellow and then blah to nothing. Went to Target to replace those lights and brought a name brand kinda light. Name brand is the key word and I was disgusted as I was only buying one set of lights to cover a large-ish bush in our front yard. (we made a new plan to cover some of the greenery out front instead of the house...it's cold here now, you know.) Truthfully I didn't expect to cover the whole ding dang bush but I did think I would cover more than one fourth of it. Seriously. You buy a box of lights that shows an entire big bush covered and you expect certain things. Don't.

(Teenage Boy, College friend, Handsome Husband

walking over T.giving break)

Wow. The light buying business totally sucked the Christmas spirit right out of me for a couple of days. That was it though. I'm done with the rant. This is just my public service announcement, for you. Don't go buy Christmas lights and expect them to cover what you want. I do remember my parents with this huge long rope of multicolored lights for our large tree. It does not exist anymore. They now measure what would be half or a fourth of a tree or a bush and give you that amount in the box so you are forced to buy two to four more boxes of lights to decorate said tree or bush. Ugh. I'm done.

(My sweet brother)

To remind me of happier holiday moments I went back to my Thanksgiving photos. Viola. I feel better.
p.s. I had to wait a week to write this post so it would not be full of true holiday anger. This is my tamed down version of today's greed and commercialism. The photos = true bliss.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

2011-12-07T20:54:00.000-06:00

It begins:

The town of Blackwell, Massachusetts, changed it's name in 1786. It had been called Bearsville when it was first founded in 1750, but it quickly became apparent that a name such as that did little to encourage new settlers. True, there were nearly as many black bears in the woods then as there were pine trees, but there were also more eel in the river than there were ferns sprouting on the banks. You could stick your hand into the murky green shallows and catch half a dozen of the creatures without using bait. If you ventured in waist-high you'd be surrounded in moments. Yet no one considered calling the village Eelsville...(1)

and so begins the reader's journey into this small village in the woods. The bears, the eels and the weather all play into the theme of man vs. nature. The book is filled with short, connected stories about the town's inhabitants; some of the events are linked and some are not but they all take place in Blackwell and they all demonstrate how small towns emerged all across this nation.

Hallie and William Brady lead the first expedition out of Boston with several other adventurous families and Hallie quickly becomes their champion. William turns out to be a worthless salesman. Each story goes forth often reminding us of a previous story by some note or wisp of gossip about the crazy town founders.

I found each story delightful-Hoffman's writing is vivid and descriptive and each character human. There is a magically element with mermaids,, a garden graveyard, and one or two ghosts creeping about the riverbanks but nothing every small town doesn't already have!

Alice Hoffman makes it on to my favorite author list! We read this for our November book club choice and it was not everyone's favorite but other's put it up there with Stockett's The Help. Happy Reading!

Other thoughts:

The Halifax Reader
Just Joywriting
Smallgood Hearth

Weekend Cooking; Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef and other menu ideas

2011-12-03T14:32:00.002-06:00

I browsed the new nonfiction shelves of my local library and came up with two cookbooks and two parenting books in under two minutes. I had to quickly walk away after that because I go on these binges and bring armloads of nonfiction home only to let it sit and sit and sit until I return it two days late.

This time one recipe stuck out like a yummy thumb just waiting to be cooked. I had a beautiful small pie pumpkin from the last farmer's market and I didn't know what to do with it; no one here really likes pumpkin pie. So I thought what the hey, I'm sure they'll love pumpkin soup. Ha.

I've enjoyed reading Gluten-Free Girl's blog a few times on my recent quest to explore and understand celiac disease so her name popped out at me as my neck twisted sideways at the new cookbook spines. I would own this book if I were to indeed become gluten-free just for the stories splattered among the recipes. I've enjoyed understanding more about Shauna's journey and their sweet love story.
How can you resist headings like; Grocery Shopping as Foreplay and Honey, remember to eat.

Many of the recipes are too complicated for me or include ingredients unavailable to me in my sleepy small town but there is much more to this cookbook than just recipes. In a small section at the front Daniel explains the importance of "mise en place"-a perfect three paragraph summary of my cooking life. He describes Shauna in the beginning like this "she'd put a hot pan on the burner and then start chopping her onions with the oil getting hot in the pan. She'd run from the stove to the refrigerator while a dish was simmering, always a bit frantic." (14) That's me-most of the time. I do not set up ingredients first. I want to be that organized and now I can name it; mise en place. Daniel gently reminds the reader that is why the ingredients list tells us what to do; chop, dice, cups, tsps so it can be there ready! I feel enlightened.

If you are gluten-free this book would make a great holiday gift to yourself!

I made pumpkin muffins last night while I put the finishing touches on the soup and on Wednesday afternoon I had a brownie craving and made a pan of them just like my mother used to. I thought her recipe was magic when I was growing up. She admitted to me just a few years ago that she peeled that recipe from the back of the Hershey chocolate can. How deflating. I've cleaned it up a bit and made it my own.

Click for recipes:

Pumpkin Soup
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Judy's Chocolate Brownies
Butternut Couscous (tonight's menu with salmon from the co-op)

p.s. my kids disliked the soup but loved the muffins even though I told them (after the fact) that the muffins also had pumpkin in them. They didn't care. It's all about the dark chocolate! My husband, with a more discernible palate, had several bowls of soup and then, three muffins.

I discovered a new foodie blog this week while searching for the above butternut and Israeli couscous recipe. Meet Peter and Keith at Feast. I scrolled through a few recipes and they all look wonderful. I hope they keep going.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking. Click over to Beth Fish Reads for more food-related posts. Happy eating!

November Reading Recap and a few mini-reviews!

2011-12-01T07:35:00.000-06:00

Teenage Boy exclaimed the other day: "This year is going by so fast!" and I agree. December is just around the corner. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving spent in Deephaven, MN with my younger brother and his family. The weather was gorgeous and the food was spectacular! My brother has emerged as quite an eclectic chef and we had a non-traditional meal with King Salmon as the main course. The salmon was caught in Lake Superior this past summer by my 9-year-old nephew! A truly amazing feat and he was all smiles as we ooh'ed and aaah'ed over his tasty fish.

My reading in November was quirky:

Bright Young Things by Anna Godberson (my shelf): Ugh. So wanted this to be as good as The Luxe series. It was not.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman (library): This deserves a much longer review but suffice it to say I loved Hoffman's writing and will search for more of her prose.

Spellbound (The 2nd book of Elsewhere) by Jacqueline West (library): I loved this little series-perfectly creepy with a strong young female heroine. I reviewed it here.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own making by Catherynne M. Valente (library): I waxed poetically about this book here after just a few chapters. The book stayed consistently superb. The vocabulary alone puts it in a category all its own. I had to look words up. Such a treat. The author's website offers a preview of the book. Go on click and check it out!

Organizing the Disorganized Child by Martin L. Kutscher and Marcella Moran (new purchase): Trying to help my Groovy Girl out a little here-this is filled with many great tools like this clock.

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan (my shelf): I don't love it as much as The Lightning Thief but it is a good adventure with mixed race siblings. I love learning about ancient Egypt. I've had this on my shelf since it was first published-glad to be finally crossing it off my list. The same nephew that was responsible for bringing in the salmon was a little disgusted with me-he's read ALL of Riordan's books-some more than once! He was all like "well, have your read The Son of Neptune??" Ahh, not yet.

What have you been reading??
Happy December.

Three Unique Picture Books You'll Enjoy!

2011-11-29T22:08:00.003-06:00

In between chapter books Groovy Girl and I have had the chance to explore three very cool books. She is fascinated with Russia and chose to do a report on the country for school. She brought this book home from her school library:

Russian Girl; Life in an Old Russian Town (1994) by Russ Kendall. Meet 9-year-old Olga Surikovain in this nonfiction picture book and share a little of what her day is like. Her family lives in the small town of Suzdal-150 miles east of Moscow. The photos are lovely and Groovy Girl poured over them, trying to fully understand Olga's life. Even though this title is "older" the information is worthwhile and shares a time in Russia's history. My paternal grandfather came from a small town on the Russian/Polish border and I love to see my girl explore these interesting roots. The back of the book includes two recipes, an alphabet of Russian letters,and a good list of Russian words and names.

Running with the Horses (2009) by Alison Lester. This is a fictionalized version of an event that occurred during WWII; the rescue of the Lipizzaner stallions from the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Nina, a fictional young girl, works with her father, the stable master. The academy has closed and the war comes closer every day. Eventually her father and another stable hand, Karl, decide to take the horses across the border to her deceased mother's parent's farm. The story is beautifully told and the illustrations are a gorgeous mix of pencil drawings and what look like photographs but may actually be paintings.

An Edible Alphabet; 26 Reasons to Love the Farm (2011) by Carol Watterson and Michela Sorrentino. I LOVE this book. Every page stands for something I believe in with all my heart. It is a kid-friendly manifest of why we need to be eating locally from farms and our own backyards. It has snippets of healthy information swirled into beautiful illustrations. I've already ordered it for my school library collection. On a personal note I have an organic kid's book on my computer with this same title-no kidding. Guess I better get busy and finish it before some else writes the book.

happy reading!

Weekend Cooking Love

2011-11-19T20:34:00.000-06:00

I live a rich life although I am far from wealthy and I've recently realized how much joy I get from participating in Weekend Cooking, the one meme I participate in all week. Sometimes on busy weeks it is the ONLY post I make. Like this week. I've had many inspirations for posts but no spare time.

I love the community of Weekend Cooking~I love trying out their recipes, I love reading their cookbook recommendations, their inspirations and menu plans. I've learned a lot about cooking and baking and I've had fun experimenting with recipes I might not have tried otherwise. It's like going to church for me. I can find God everywhere in my life but the community of people I have a church is support network for me. I feel that way about weekend cooking and blogging in general because it makes my life richer. I like being part of a community of readers and eaters.

We had a church Christmas bazaar today and I made 6 loaves of bread and 12 peppermint whoopie pies. Yum. I've made the bread many times but the whoopie pies was a new attempt. I know, risky, right to try something new for an event but seriously I can't have 12 whoopie pies sitting around my house-I would eat them. This way I got to share one with my family-yes, we split it three ways (Groovy Girl was at a sleep over and thus was excluded from the tasting). I got the recipe from So Sweet! a cookbook from Sur La Table I discovered from a Bermuda Onion's Weekend Cooking post. Of course. I bought the cookbook as a Christmas present for Groovy Girl. It's been tucked away for a few weeks and luckily she was at that sleepover so she didn't notice me using it last night. This compact cookbook is adorable with delectable pies, doughnuts, cookies, and cupcakes.

Here's the recipe.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
makes about 20 pies (It only made 12 for me; maybe I made the cookie part two big.)

Cake Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 425* F and position an oven rack in the center. Lay 1 nonstick silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment each baking sheet.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
3. Combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl. (Or leave it in the measuring cup like I did)
4. Cream the butter with the shortening in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on low speed until completely mixed. Scrape the sides of the bowl well with a rubber spatula. Add the brown sugar and continue mixing on high speed for about 3 minutes until mixture is light brown and fluffy. Add the egg and mix. Scrape the sides of the bowl again.
5. Turn the mixer on low and begin adding the flour mixture and buttermilk in two alternating batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
6. Scoop the batter into tablespoon-sized balls using a spring-loaded cookie scoop or a spoon and place about 2 inches apart on the prepared pan. Bake the cakes one sheet at a time for 8 minutes, until cakes are puffed. Transfer to a cooking rack and let cool completely.

Peppermint Filling

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup marshmallow creme
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 T. peppermint schnapps
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies

1. Place the butter and vegetable shortening in a medium mixing bowl of a stand mixer, and beat on low speed with a paddle attachment. Add the marshmallow cream and increase the speed to medium. Beat for 3 minutes.
2. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating on medium speed for an additional 3 minutes.
3. Add the peppermint schnapps, beating on low speed for 1 minute. Pipe the filling between two cakes as directed.
4. Place the crushed peppermint candies on a plate. After assembling the pies, gently roll the edges along the crushed candies to coat. Store as directed.

The array of whoopie pie flavors is spectacular. Key lime, bananas foster, Kahlua and cream, black forest...Wow. I would like to play with the filling to leave out the shortening which is a fake almost plastic flavor for me and I could taste it. I think if I added more butter and marshmallow cream it could even it out.

Thank you to Candace at Beth Fish Reads for linking together all our food-related posts.

In other cooking news I have an 11 pound locally raised turkey soaking in brine in my grandmother's extra large crock. We are celebrating T.giving tomorrow as a family. I've also spent the week trying to go gluten-free. It makes me stop and read the labels even more than I used to and I'm becoming educated on gluten and wheat. I'm gaining empathy for people who really have to avoid these two ingredients.

Weekend Cooking; Happy the weekend is over (did I say that?!) with recipe

2011-11-13T19:23:00.001-06:00

Little Women; The Musical was the play this
weekend but keep reading for what I cooked...

It's been a busy week with a full rehearsal schedule and opening night was Friday. I went to all three shows as I don't know when I'll have the pleasure to watch Teenage Boy on stage; he is an excellent actor but dislikes being in plays.

I cooked this week. I think the zucchini pizza from last Sunday night kick started me off creatively and the rest of the week followed through.

I made this potato soup from Lynn's Cooking Adventures-I found it using the scientific method of googling "creamy potato soup" and then picking the 1 of 5 recipes that matched what I was dreaming of eating. How many of you use this simple technique to find a recipe?

Someone at school left two Real Simple magazines in the lounge and I paged through one of them while waiting for my lunch to heat in the microwave. I found this Broccoli-Quinoa Pilaf recipe-I did not make the cod but used it two days in a row for my lunch. Heidi at 101 Cookbooks has lots of recipes listed for this power grain. It is one of the grains I purchase from the bulk section of my local organic store, making it always available in my pantry.

I have more chickens and a turkey coming from Tim, my local farmer/meat man so I decided to make one of the last chickens from my freezer. While I made this recipe I pondered just how I came to cook meat in my kitchen, which for years, had been vegetarian-but that's a whole 'nother post. I wanted to make a BBQ chicken from homemade sauce someone gave me when I found this recipe instead as I paged through Not Your Mother's Casseroles by Faith Durand and found Pot Chicken and Potatoes Baked in Cinnamon-Saffron Milk. Her recipe is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.

To finish the weekend off we had a potluck at church today and I wanted to bring a side dish-this one is from Durand's casserole book. The pan was cleaned out before I made it through the food line-I was toward the end after cleaning up the nursery-other people told me it was good though. One grandmother even said it was her grandson's favorite dish. A success at the church potluck does not always happen for me!!

I had to hunt down the chef's of two dishes that I loved (one of the great things about a potluck-trying new dishes)-one was a heavenly caramel brownie dessert served in a trifle bowl and the other was a 3-squash bake, this one was made by a friend and she shared some of the leftovers with me (hello, Monday lunch!) but the guy who made that amazing caramel dish did not share the leftover layer at the bottom. I'm just sure he took that dish home and licked it clean! I've asked for both recipes and will pass them on as I get them.

Luscious Oven Creamed Corn
(110)
casserole dish: 9 x 13-in baking dish
bake time: 45 minutes

2 T. unsalted butter
1 small onion, diced
4 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels (about 26 ozs), thawed
1 tsp salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 T. all-purpose (unbleached) flour
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
1/2 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350. (I never do this step at the beginning to save energy unless I'm baking) Lightly grease the baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or butter.
2. In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. When it foams, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the corn and cook just until the corn is hot. Stir in the sugar, salt, and pepper.
3. Stir in the milk and cream and bring to a simmer. Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chives and cornmeal. Spread in the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Casserole at this point could be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
4. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Click on all the recipe titles to find their links. Happy cooking!
This post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads. Click her link to find many delicious food-related posts.

Sufficiently Creepy; The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West

2011-11-08T17:56:00.001-06:00

One day at work our lovely library volunteer was reading behind the desk. If I didn't have to teach classes I'd be doing the same thing. She had a book checked out from the public library from their "Just Arrived" shelf and she was fascinated. It was elementary fiction and one that I hadn't heard of at that time. It was The Shadows, the first book in West's new series.

Synopsis:

Olive and her parents move into a creepy old house on Linden Street. The house has some history as the previous elderly owner died while living there and all the household stuff stayed right there. Olive, a curiuos girl, finds a pair of old fashioned glasses that help her enter the oil paintings stuck to the wall all around the house. She meets the people in the paintings, she meets three cats who belonged to the previous owners and life gets downright creepy as she tries to solve one little boy's mysterious existence inside a painting of Linden Street. As per adventure stories her parents are busy with their own lives, leaving Olive plenty of free time to explore.

It begins like this:

Mrs. McMartin was definitely dead. It had taken some time for the neighbors to grow suspicious, since no one ever went in or came out of the old stone house on Linden Street anyway. However, there were several notable clues that things in the McMartin house were not as they should have been. (1)

Great first sentence. Perfect hook for young readers.

The second book in the series, Spellbound, has Olive drifting around the house aimlessly, trying to think of ways to rescue Morton, the trapped young boy. She meets another young boy, Rutherford, who is visiting his grandmother right down the street. He gets her thinking about a spellbook-a grimoire-as he puts it. Olive now has a purpose as she tries to find a way to release Morton and she thinks the spellbook might be the answer.

A little further on:

There was another reason Olive didn't tell anybody about the cats or the paintings or the McMartins. She always put this reason second, even in her own head, but the truth was that her secrets would be a lot less fun if she shared them with anyone. Sure, a candy bar tasted good if you ate one half and let your dad have the other, but it was much, much nicer to eat the whole candy bar by yourself. (5)

Perfect thoughts for an eleven-year-old girl to have. There is so much mystery and excitement in both these books. I hope West is hard at work on the third-I think we've only touched the surface of this new amazing Elsewhere!

Wonderully illustrated by Poly Bernatene. I've easily been able to read these and book talk them as we have them in our library collection now. It's wonderful to have someone here helping me everyday who likes to read and shares that with me and students.

Find Jacqueline West at her great website.

Other reviews:
Kimberly at Cool Kids Read
Jennifer at Jean Little Library

*Not to be read late at night or by yourself*

Weekend Cooking; Shaking things up with a new pizza recipe

2011-11-06T21:14:00.000-06:00

(Our zucchini pizza straight out of the oven)

My husband has been very tied up this week both at work and directing a high school production of Little Women; The Musical. He was called in to save the play when the directer originally hired for the position up and quit. She deserted right after she'd picked the play and cast it! Then zip, gone! Our son is a student at the school and they've asked handsome husband to direct before but it's never worked out. This time he said yes.

What does all that have to do with my cooking week? Our schedule has been off. He and my son, who he sweet talked into playing an old man, have been busy with rehearsals making this week an easy cooking week, filled with leftovers and warmed up pasta. I did make patty melts one night with some brat burgers I found at Hansen's, my around-the-corner dairy/local food selling utopia. Last night we had a classic go-to comfort food dinner of refried bean burritos adding in roasted cubed eggplant to spice it up.

Earlier in the week I'd clicked on one of Janssen's posts at Everyday Reading to see her menu line-up and found a recipe for zucchini pizza she shared from Perry's Plate. I love making pizza and find it far superior to any pie purchased over the counter. Yes, I am a pizza snob, even shredding my own mozzarella. I have two round stones, a great pizza wheel and a recipe for dough from an old Rodale cookbook that I've used for years.

After reading the zucchini recipe I knew I had to try it. It is my new favorite! My husband and I ate all of it-I saved out one square to share with my amazing library volunteer. She and I love trading recipes and this will be good for her to try. My kids hated it though so it is not necessarily kid-friendly. Luckily the dough makes two pies and the second one I just tossed sauce and cheese on top and they ate it and smiled big pizza-smiles. What they did love though was smell of the kitchen during the pie-making and baking process! What a great tradition to pass on.

Enjoy!

Other baking news:

Perry's Plate (at the Tasty Kitchen) has a gluten-free apple, ginger, and spice scones which uses almond flour. I'm going to make these soon just to experiment with gluten-free.

I signed up to bake whoopie pies for our church bazaar-something Christmas-y. Maybe a peppermint/chocolate combo.

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Click there for many more food-related posts.

Lists and Life-Crossing off my to-do list

2011-11-04T23:23:00.002-05:00

(Not an exact image of me)

I have a mental picture of myself, the librarian, juggling a variety of tasks every day. I wish I could draw so I could make that image appear on paper-it must be so cool to make that happen. I got so much accomplished at work in the last two days. I love it when I can cross off all the way down the list-items that have been hanging over my head for a week, maybe two.

1. ~~Mandatory Training~~-took all of it in one day-the day before the deadline!
2. ~~Extra Pay form for Intensive After School teaching filled in and handed to principal~~
3. ~~Three Little Pig versions to Pre-K~~
4. ~~Next to Love review~~ (seriously attempted to write it all week long...)-at home project
5. ~~November lesson plans-~~fun ones-better to entertain me as well as students
6. ~~Book Fair financials called in to Scholastic and money handed to Sandy, our school secretary~~
7. ~~Book Fair new books cataloged, bar coded and out on the shelves for new week's classes~~

I know, whew! It feels great even though I know my list come Monday will be long again but for this weekend I can focus on my house which needs a deep clean, go to lunch with a friend, read and do some minor tweaking to lesson plans for next week. Oh, and I must remember to skype with my brother tomorrow night-add that to the list. See how easily it grows!

I finished the second of the Books of Elsewhere, Spellbound, and will write a review soon of both books. I hope your weekend is peaceful whether you have a to-do list or not. Peace.

War is not the answer; Ellen Feldman's Next to Love

2011-11-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

Next to Love; A Novel

Ellen Feldman

2011

289 pages

I read 2 adult fiction books in October-rare for me. Both were outstanding! Next to Love focuses on three young women, all childhood friends, and the men in their lives during World War II and after. Each woman's story captivated me. Grace, Babe, and Millie experience the beginning of the war through the departure of the men they love and the end of the war with what they are left with and, as a reader, we are privvy to what direction their lives take, and how they get on with the business of living.

Grace, already married with a daughter, is mad at her husband, Charlie:

Talk to me, she wants to throw open the window and shout. Tell me. Are you afraid? Are you secretly thrilled, a little boy with a stick playing at being a soldier, a man going off on a great adventure, leaving us behind, breaking my heart? No, that isn't fair. He is not enjoying this either. (27)

Babe and Claude are a mismatched pair who meet accidentally at the Carnegie library . Claude checks out books for her in an act of kindness, demonstrating his rebellious nature to her early on:

Three years later, they began going together. By then he was teaching at the high school, and she was selling ribbons at Diamond's. His mother, sensing a rebellious nature as well as an inferior bloodline, was brokenhearted; his father merely disapproved. The town was full of nice girls from good families. Why did their son have to get mixed up with one whose father worked in the hat factory and who had to work herself? (20)

Millie and Pete are newlyweds, adjusting to life, when he enlists. His last night in town they've had cocktails and dinner with their friends all at Grace and Charlie's home. Later, Pete sleeps while Millie lies awake worrying.

She looks at the clock. It is four-thirty. She gets out of bed and goes down the hall to the bathroom. By the time she comes back, he is awake. And she is bathed and dressed and wearing a big perfectly lipsticked smile. Nobody likes a gloomy Gertie. (37)

Millie, Babe, and Grace have very different journeys to travel throughout the story yet each leads to the same conclusion-war is a miserable way to solve conflict. Feldman's story takes the reader deep into how WWII affected the lives of these women but on a greater whole how men and women were torn apart. Marriages and families were destroyed. The children of soldiers were forever changed because their father came back and struggled or didn't come back at all. I don't know if the author is a peace activist but she makes the point very clear: War is not the answer.

Think of the soldiers of today and what they've seen and what they've been ordered to do in the name of freedom. Fighting against any enemy causes irreparable damage to a person's psyche, making it extremely traumatic to re-enter civilian life. I hope many read this book and take it's message to heart. It is simply an excellent historical fiction. I plan to read more by Ellen Feldman. -click to check out her website.

Other reviews:
Charlotte's Web of Books
Diane at Bookchickdi
Alyce from At Home with Books

Weekend Cooking; Road Trip to peace.

2011-10-30T10:38:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I had melted Brie, fresh bread and apple slices.

There was chaos getting to that peaceful spot though.

Groovy Girl began the day sad causing waves of tears and snappy answers from her. It took us a bit to convince her she could take charge of her own mood. She did and we went off to skating a bit late but still there. After her skating lesson, Husband and I had a planned road trip with friends and I was excited to go. A few days earlier husband found out about a peace walk and wanted to participate. Of course, the timing of the event squeezed it right in between skating and our intended road trip, which makes handsome husband think "oh, great we can make it!" Ugh. Love peace, Hate rushing.

I often walk laps around the arena while Groovy skates and I needed a shower and I had less than 30 minutes to get ready for the walk and the road trip. Could I have planned more the night before? Yes. Did I? No. In my rush I spent 3-4 precious minutes trying to get new milk from Hansen's into the refrigerator cramming it between various water bottles. I should have taken water bottles out but instead somehow managed to spill the small pitcher of margaritas I'd made the night before. I cried as the mason jar spilled it's contents all over the kitchen rug. Now I had to stop and wipe it all up. What a waste. It wasn't the loss of the drink (well a little bit) but I dislike rushing and the affects of rushing. I did make it up to take my shower and even though I was sad about spilled "milk" I knew it wasn't the cause but I still managed to have another mini-meltdown as I was driving back down the highway previously traveled for skating.

Meltdown's are rarely about what started it and I knew I was nervous about leaving my children for the day and for my husband cramming something more into our day. I sobbed to my handsome and understanding husband-he said "Ill listen as we go..." He did listen yet my feelings still hadn't resolved as we arrived at the gathering spot. While praying for a peace I realized these things:

1. My children are old enough to be on their own together but it was my first time leaving them for the day without my mom or someone else to consult. They would have to take care of chores, and lunch and dinner on their own. They survived.

2. My husband and I have walked, prayed, rallied for peace from Arkansas, D.C. and Iowa. Of course he would want to walk this walk. The walks purpose is to highlight a Dr. King park we hope to have built in our church neighborhood.

Even though my tears and my brain fought it; the walk healed me and reminded me of what I know to be true. My life is good and we need more peace in our communities both locally and worldly. I left my grumpy bugs behind.

Our road trip with friends to the Amana Colonies was fantastic. We went to Fireside Winery for a tasting, shopped, (I bought pecan maple syrup at the General Store) and root beer here and enjoyed the company of our friends and the fantastic autumnal weather. At both winery and Millstream we were able to sit on the patio with just sweaters. We had a delicious family-style dinner at The Ronneburg Restaurant, which included sides of sauerkraut, German potato salad, beets, coleslaw and dark rye bread. My grandmother would have loved it! The meal was good but the Brie on the patio was my favorite part of the day. Sunshine, a light white wine and laughter made me forgot all about my meltdown.

The margarita recipe:

12 oz can frozen limeade
12 ounces of tequila
12 ounces of water
8 ounces of triple sec (2/3 can)
1 can domestic beer
Ice and Limes as desired

Use the frozen limeade can to measure ingredients. Mix well in a gallon pitcher. If you would like to blend them; don't add the water and blend. Either way serve in a small glass, with limes and salt. Perfect.

Fall is not margarita weather here but our school published a new cookbook (our second one) and my school friend, Stephanie, had this brag-worthy mix. We toasted together on Friday night while we watched the Cardinals win the World Series. Yeah!!!

This crazy long post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

Just a minute...

2011-10-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

After completing all my chores for the day for work and home and the list is long-I feel like Santa with a list curling out for miles-I have just a few minutes to write. Breathe.

The Secret Lives of Princesses by Philippe Lechermeier and illustrated by Rebecca Dautremer is a joyful tongue-in-cheek look at princess behavior. There's Princess Molly Coddle who's a real handful and Princess Claire Voyant who sees far into the future. Each page is a full spread of information if not about a princess then about a princess's garden, friends, forest (where many a princess has hidden) and a guide to determine true princess behavior. Groovy Girl and I poured over each illustration and the corresponding notes. I'm glad I was there to explain a few words and why it made each character funny or interesting. Eco Princess was one of our favorites:

The court of the Eco Princess is made up of amazing subjects: snakes, zebras, tigers, cheetahs, and panthers. She is at home in all parts of nature-jungles, savannahs, rainforests...She ties up her beautiful hair with vines from trees. It is a very elegant look. Birds nest in her gorgeous hair and whisper secrets to her of princesses of long ago. She spends her evenings chatting in her tree palace with her closest confidantes and animal protectors. She will only accept a prince who is not afraid of heights, lightning or beetles. (48)

After we'd read most of the book Groovy Girl came up with her own, Princess Miss Alainy; one who does a little of this and a little of that as in miscellaneous. I thought she was pretty clever. This book would make a excellent holiday gift for every princess who is extraordinary!

(Princess of the Sands)

The 1st daughter reviews it at There's A Book.
The Secret Lives of Princesses website.

(Princess Quartermoon)

(Princess For-A-Day)

Weekend Cooking; Buttermilk Coffee Cake from La Jolla, CA

2011-10-22T12:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm not really there but one of my favorite cookbooks is Southern California Cooking from The Cottage by Jane and Michael Stern and Laura Wolfe and it makes me feel like I'm there. I whipped up this breakfast cake for overnight guests from a visiting church choir. I adore this cookbook and I remember purchasing it because of all the great breakfast recipes and I think it was the first cookbook I sat down and read like a book. It has great stories about how the restaurant was purchased by the Wolfe's mixed with surfing and restaurant memories. I have several starred recipes with penciled in notes about when I made each and how it turned out.

The cookbook is divided into 10 typical sections (breakfast, breakfast breads, soups, salads, sandwiches, dressings and sauces, sides, dinner, and desserts) but the recipes that fill each are extraordinarily yummy!
We love breakfast at our house and I could easily make every single recipe from the two breakfast sections. Everything from Country French Toast, Breakfast Chiliquiles, 3 different eggs bene's, to Laura's Meatloaf Hash which uses leftover meatloaf. I've not made that one but now that I have several sources for good, local beef it could happen.

The sandwich section is my second favorite part of this book with recipes like the B.L.A.T (we love avocado here too), the Eggplant Panini, and the Brie, Avocado and Sun-Dried Tomato Melt. Yum! Who's ready for lunch??

Here is the Buttermilk Coffee Cake recipe:

A great cake to serve in the morning or anytime during the day. Buttermilk Coffee Cake has been a staple at the Cottage since the beginning. We offer bites of it to customers waiting for a table when the place is packed on weekend mornings. (I love these little notes for their ability to place me right there, waiting for a table.)

1 cup canola oil
3 1/3 cups flour (unbleached)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 tsp. baking powder (aluminum-free)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I had pecans so I used them)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13 x 9-in pan. In a large mixing bowl combine the oil, flour, sugars, cinnamon, and ginger. the mixture should be crumbly. Set aside 1 1/3 cups of this batter. To the remaining batter add the egg, buttermilk, baking powder, soda and salt. Mix well. Pour the batter into the baking pan. To the reserved batter add the nuts and spread topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 25 minutes or until cake springs back to the touch. Makes 12 pieces of (warm, crumbly) cake. (52)

Weekend Cooking is hosted at Beth Fish Reads-click there to find many more food-related posts.
Some day I hope to take a food journey to La Jolla so I can sit at the cottage and enjoy the casual ambiance.I might even have a Sam Smith Organic Lager listed on their drink menu. Click here to see The Cottage website.

Happy Cooking!

This is why I read; Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel

2011-10-20T09:49:00.000-05:00

Stiltsville

Susanna Daniel

2010

306 pages

This book spoke to me as a woman who loves being part of a family. Stiltsville refers to a community off the coast of Florida with small cottages built on stilts in the surrounding water. It tells the story of Frances who as a young woman finds her true love during a chance meeting at his family's stiltsville cabin. It happens like that in just a moment, in an odd location, and in a blink of an eye you meet the person you will spend the rest of your life, for better or worse. Through their courtship, marriage and the birth of their daughter, Margo, you see what family and friends brings to your life. I laughed and cried at several memorable moments that had to do with Margo's adolescences and as Frances and Dennis struggle with the confines of marriage.

Margo is mature physically for a fourth grade student and at a school conference her teacher suggests to Frances and her husband, Dennis, that Margo might feel more comfortable skipping fifth grade and jumping right to sixth. Her parents go along with this idea and Margo finds herself in the midst of sixth grade serious drama, teasing and bullying. She is invited to a popular girl's sleepover where she leaves half way through the party because the girls have set her up in a most embarrassing way (mooning a group of boys) and laughing at her afterwards. The incident was well-written and made me feel for poor Margo and her parents as they try to figure out how to help her through this new year.

I found this book filled with poignant moments like this that mirror my own life in some way. I worry about my youngest daughter who is innocent and lacks the ability to see through the mean girls in her own fourth grade class. I also loved the college Margo as she ventures forth to find her own path leaving her parents to explore their empty nest, which just leaves room for more worrying. I loved the story of Stiltsville, Frances and Dennis, his parents and his sister, Bette, their set of friends, and Margo all make for a memorable story; one that I keep thinking about many days after finishing.

My handsome husband competed in his 11th marathon this past weekend and I was there to cheer him on. I read and finished this book while I waited for him at various stops along the race route. It was cold outside and I openly cried as I finished the last two chapters.

A quote:

This time she cried almost without sound. We'd made a mistake in pushing her ahead-of this I was certain. I'd let pride influence me. Shamefully, though, I felt a little grateful for the mistake, because my daughter needed me, and I knew she wouldn't need me in the same way for much longer. Still , I couldn't shake the image o Margo sitting in Mrs. Madansky's class, raising her hand again and again. (134)

There is a moment in the book where Dennis and Frances are talking about Margo and Peter, Margo's new husband and Frances realizes that anything Dennis says to Margo seems to be understood but if Frances brings delicate subjects up somehow it is seen as her being critical of her daughter. As I reader I noticed this throughout their relationship and it definitely reflects experiences my husband and I have had with our own daughters. Somehow fathers have leeway with what they can express to their daughters that mothers are left out of entirely.

I'm sure this must be commonly true but I hadn't really been able to express it. I have more fond memories of my father and do think of my mom as being more critical. I hope this is not always the case and don't want my own children to walk away from our home with the same feelings. Hmmm. What do you think? Are mothers destined to thought of in this way? Luckily it does not damage forever as Margo and Frances stay connected throughout the book.

Key Biscayne; Stiltsville

Another review:

Seaside Book Corner

and

Susanna Daniel's website

Weekend Cooking; Whipping up something yummy with Groovy Girl

2011-10-15T07:37:00.002-05:00

[photo credit]

Did you know October is National Cookie Month? I didn't until we visited the library a few days ago and they had a table display of kid's cookbooks laid out (just for us, I'm sure) and we picked just a few!

Kitchen for Kids; 100 amazing recipes your children can make

Jennifer Low

176 pages including index/glossary

We didn't make cookies but we did read through the whole book cuddled together in our comfy chair. Wednesday night after she thumbed through it again she found a recipe she really wanted to make and said in her sweetest voice: "We have all the ingredients! It will be so simple." I'd already made a pan of our favorite eggplant lasagna for dinner and wasn't looking forward to more time not relaxing after dinner but after I perused the recipe I agreed. I couldn't resist her or the recipe. Could you have resisted?

Gooshy S'More Cakes
[makes 4 ramekin cakes]

Cakes:
4 large marshmallows
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour [spoon in, level]
1/3 cup whole wheat flour [spoon in, level]
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Chocolate Goosh:
1/4 cup water
2 T. packed brown sugar
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Pop the marshmallows into the freezer.
2 Preheat the oven to 350*
3. To make the cake, melt the butter in a bowl at 50 % power in the microwave (about 1 minute). Use a whisk to stir in the sugars. Cool slightly. Stir in rest of ingredients for the cakes (so not the Goosh) until smooth. Spoon into four ramekins or baking cups, filling 2/3 full. Put a cold marshmallow in the middle of the cake.
4. To make the Goosh, put the ingredients in a cup and heat at 50% power in the microwave, until hot. Stir smooth. Pour over the marshmallows and cake batter.
5. Put the ramekins or cups on a baking sheet. Bake 23 minutes or until puffed, the chocolate is bubbling and the marshmallows melt into top crusts. Cool until warm. Don't unmold.

Eat it right up! You could lick your bowl but you might get your nose stuck in the ramekin! I would have taken my own photo of them but I couldn't find my camera fast enough and then... they were gone.

The cookbook is well-designed with lots of photographs to ooh and aaah over. 6 sections are divided into 1. breakfast, lunch and dinner
2. breads and crackers
3.cookies
4. cakes
5. pies, pastries and squares
6. candies, confections and cool treats.

You can see where the emphasis is; kid-friendly sweets. Low also provides an interesting section on organizing the kitchen for your child, tools and measuring instructions.

We liked the Paddy Thai Noodles from the first section, the big soft pretzels from the second section, alphabet cookies from the third section and candy marbles from the last section. Most recipes don't include as much microwaving as the s'mores cakes, which is good because I'm a little weird about using the microwave too cook. Many recipes in the book are done in smaller sizes or kid-sized. This is definitely one book you will want to read the recipe through before making something just to make sure you will have enough. I'm pretty sure we'll make a few more recipes before we return it to the library.

Jennifer Low's website.

Weekend Cooking is hosted at Beth Fish Reads. Stop over there and find many other food-related posts.

How To Buy A Love Of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson

2011-10-13T20:58:00.002-05:00

I can't imagine not having a book in my hand for most of my life. Even in my wild 20's I read during parties and in my 30's I read between waitressing and bartending shifts. I've never wavered in my love for books and all they hold so it was interesting to have my handsome husband give me this book for a birthday gift.

Synopsis:

When Carley Wells is asked by her H.S. English teacher what her favorite book is, she answers: "Never met one I liked." Her parents are both horrified when the English teacher passes this information to them and so begins her parents quest to bring literature to Carley. Because they have a ton of money her parents decide to hire a writer who will help Carley create a work of fiction. Through the hired author and Carley's eyes we see this incredible life of money, boredom, parental error and self-loathing.

My Thoughts:

Carley is an overweight young woman who is in love with her best friend Hunter. Hunter suffers from major depression and chooses to drown his feelings in Vicodin and alcohol. Hunter and Carley have a somewhat toxic friendship as they rely on each other, trying to hide their own negative feelings.

The parents of each of these teenagers is a terrible parental example. Hunter's mother has a thing for Jackie O and spends more time watching clips of Jackie's tour of the White House than she does listening to her son. Carley's mom wants her to be thin and reminds her of it every day. Carley's dad had a few good qualities until its revealed that he's having an affair. They seem to think throwing money at each problem is the best solution. It doesn't work. Carley's character grows throughout the story and this makes the journey very worthwhile. Does she get a love of reading? You'll have to read the book to find out.

A sample:

Carley's father had bought her Choose Your Own Adventures when she was a kid, mazelike books that begin with you waking up places like the planet Zantor and having to make choices like whether to trust a family of six-headed purple Zantorians who tell you to follow them home to safety before sundown when the planet's carnivorous plants will wake up. Only problem is that the Zantorians, with their six mouths of fangs, are a little vague about what they themselves eat. If you take the Zantorians up on their offer to "have you over for dinner," turn to page four. If you decide to take your chances tiptoeing through the snapping tulips, turn to page ten. The only thing Carley ever liked about them was working backward from the end, taking the forks in reverse to figure out how to end up on a spaceship bound for home. (39)

Here is Tanya Egan Gibson's website and her twitter link.
I am interested to see what her next book might be like.

p.s. I read this book way back in August-one of these cold Fall days my reviews will catch up with what I'm reading now.

Weekend Cooking; Weekly Menu

2011-10-09T08:55:00.001-05:00

Tomato Pie

Oh so many recipes to share! This week my menu planning for has been very exciting. We ate leftovers (garbanzo pesto soup) from last week's guest menu two days out of the week. Then I made a Sweet Potato Soup inspired by this post at one of my favorite new blogs, Sweet Mama Jane's. On Thursday night I made this amazing Tomato Pie that I discovered on Janssen's Everyday Reading and she via Perry's Plate. This pie was delicious and because I didn't think my kids would really enjoy the combination of flavors I made them something else and served the pie just to my husband and I, date style, after he got home from a late meeting. He loved it and I shared a piece with my co-worker, Janice, and she asked for the recipe. This pie was quite perfect as it was but I could imagine it with sprinkles of local bacon under the cheesy/mayo topping. The pie had a BLT quality and this got my mind thinking about bacon.

It is a virtual cornucopia of recipe sharing out there. It is so easy to pick and plan when there are such a wide variety of recipes around! I find much of my inspiration on the internet, googling ingredients to find a recipe or from blog posts but I've also turned inward toward my own cookbook collection to new and favorite recipes. Friday night, with a little extra time on my hands, I used the last of Janice's cherry tomato bounty, which she shared with me, to make Giada's Cheeca Sauce and tossed it with spiral pasta. Shocking was the fact that Groovy Girl hated it. She said the orange cherry tomatoes taste funny to her. Seriously.

I found this Potato Pancake with Cinnamon Apples in a Tyler Florence book from my own cookbook shelf and I plan to make it this coming week. I love apple season.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads-pop over and see many other food related posts.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

2011-10-06T21:02:00.000-05:00

My friend Tina and I strolled through the library one afternoon on lunch break and I came home with an arm full of books. Anna and the French Kiss was one of them. Tina always reads the newest stuff and often picks up brand new books that the library has ordered for her. She's on the cutting edge of book-newness!
I, on the other hand, am always a little behind! It is a good thing I have her to lead me a long like a blind person.

Synopsis:

Anna's wealthy writer dad decides she needs to experience a year abroad her senior year. Anna is happy with the life she's already living in Atlanta with a great mom, a little brother, a wonderful best friend and her job at the movie theater with Toph, her might-be crush. Her divorced parents get her set up at The School of America where she meets her next door dorm neighbor, Meredith who in turn introduces her to the rest of her friends. `Etienne is one of them and he makes Anna a blushing and bumbling idiot for most of the book. They get all their signals mixed and confusion occurs.

My thoughts:

I loved all the characters and the Parisian setting was beautiful. I did so want to shake both `Etienne and Anna at different times. Good golly: `Etienne has a girlfriend for more than half the book-obviously it's not working out-but really you can tell he is totally smitten with Anna. She, on the other hand, keeps throwing this almost crush with Toph in `Etienne's face every chance she gets. Once they finally begin to connect it is a bit of magic though.

Stephanie Perkins has a gift for a teen chatter, which makes it easy to read. I'm very interested in her follow-up books, Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After. I understand these are companion books but I would really like to know what happens to Anna and `Etienne once they are ever so close to each other in California. Of course, Anna and the California Kiss lacks a bit of romance! If your behind the times like me don't leave this book behind.

It begins:

Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amelie and Moulin Rouge. The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, although I have no idea what the function of either actually is. Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, and a lot of kings named Louis. I'm not sure what they did either, but I think it has something to do with the French Revolution, which has something to do with Bastille Day. (3)

I know a little bit more about France than this but an interesting starting point for Anna...

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship of Her Own Making

2011-10-04T22:31:00.000-05:00

Official Website: Fairylandbook.com

Groovy Girl, Handsome Husband and I stopped for a ~~quick~~ library visit on Sunday. We found a few books and had fun wandering together. Groovy Girl and I had finished up the sixth Sisters Grimm the night before and she was anxiously scanning the Buckley section for the seventh. It was gone (gasp!) and the nice librarian at the desk put a hold on it for her.

In the meantime I scanned the new elementary fiction section for something inspiring and The Girl Who Circumnavigated... popped out at me on the shelf. Literally I think it moved a few inches out to attract me. My friend V and I had recently skyped with our three kids to talk books and this was one we discussed. She hasn't been able to get it from the Little Rock Library and here it was popping off the shelf for me. I tucked it under my arm and hummed just a little.

Mind you, I haven't finished it so this is not a review per se but Groovy Girl and I have read 4 chapters the last three nights and I'm in love with the writing. It reminds me of one of my favorite books, Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth. The main character's name is September. She has conversations with the Green Wind, Latitude and Longitude, two witches named Goodbye and Hello and rides on the back of a flying leopard. And if that isn't cool enough the language is thrillingly descriptive and beautiful.

It was difficult to choose just one but here is a sample:

The Leopard of Little Breezes yawned up and farther off from the rooftops of Omaha, Nebraska, to which September did not even wave good-bye. One ought not to judge her: All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. but, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.) Some small ones are terrible and fey, Utterly Heartless. Some are dear and sweet and Hardly Heartless at all. September stood very generally in the middle on the day the Green Wind took her, Somewhat Heartless, and Somewhat Grown. And so September did not wave good-bye to her house or her mother's factory, puffing white smoke far below her. (4)

and this from what we just finished with tonight...

The full moon shone jubilantly as September strode up over the dunes and into the interior of Fairyland with her belly full of witch-cake. She smelled the sweet, wheat-sugar of sea grass and listened to distant owls call after mice. And then she suddenly remembered, like a crack of lightning in her mind, check your pockets. She laid her sceptre in the grass and dug into the pocket of her green smoking jacket. [given to her by the Green Wind] September pulled out a small crystal ball, glittering in the moonlight. A single perfectly green leaf hung suspended in it, swaying back and forth gently, as if blown by a faraway wind. (38)

It is hard for me not to read ahead after I tuck her in...
Sweet Dreams.

Girl Power picture books

2011-10-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

Groovy Girl read all these picture books the first two days we had the bag home from the library. Me, well, it has taken me over two weeks to read all of them and I had to renew them once in order to write about a few of them.

1. The Queen of France by Tim Wadham, ill. by Kady Macdonald Denton (2011); Rose wakes up and "feels royal" so she plays dress up and goes to look for her mother dressed regally. Using her imagination her parents play along as Rose changes from the queen to Rose and back again. A seemingly simple tale of love and acceptance, Rose demonstrates one can be a girl with many sides. Denton draws Rose with a Ramona-like haircut in amazing watercolor illustrations. Click here for an interview with Tim Wadham. Hooray for first time author Wadham, a fellow librarian, with this picture book.

2. Not All Princesses Dress In Pink by the mother/daughter writers Jane Yolen & Heidi E.Y. Stemple; ill. by Anne-Sophie Languestin (2010); Similar message in this one with quirky digital illustrations. Each page shares how princesses can play soccer, baseball, wrestle with a dog, dance in the rain, break their nails while planting a garden of pumpkins (of course), and my favorite, escape a stony tower using all their cool girl power, using a ladder like monkey bars. I like Denton's illustrations better but the message of this one is equally strong: whatever you choose to be you can still wear your sparkly crown!

Happy Sunday and wear your crown with pride!

Weekend Cooking; Oatmeal Apple Scones for our guest

2011-10-01T12:08:00.000-05:00

It's not a happy thing to look back on my week, blog-wise and know that my last post was my cooking post from last weekend-especially when I have many finished books waiting for review. We did have a busy week plus we had a guest this week-my husband's cousin came from Colorado via the train and we had a great time catching up. My husband drove the two-hours to pick him up from the train station and I got inspired and made scones for the next morning. This recipe was incredible easy, fairly healthy and they tasted good. I can't find my camera or I would share a photo of the finished scones.

Oatmeal Apple Scone Drops
(makes 12 scones)

1 cup uncooked old-fashioned cooking oats
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 medium, organic tart apple, unpeeled, cored, finely chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 egg, slightly beaten

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine oats, flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl; stir until well mixed. Cut in butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in remaining ingredients until well mixed.
Drop batter by 1/2 cupfulls, 2 inches apart, onto lightly greased baking sheets. Slightly flatten each mound.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick trick comes out clean. Remove to wire cooling rack.
Can add drizzle of powdered sugar (3/4 cup with 2-3 T of water) if desired over warm scones. Serve warm.

Drizzle would make them pretty but I chose not to add it and they were wonderful. I would add it though if I were to make them for a party or brunch. I did not have golden raisins in my pantry so I substituted dried cranberries, which totally worked. I would try other substitutions next time like slivered almonds with the apples sounds good. I always use milk mixed with a little vinegar to make my buttermilk. I just cook so infrequently with buttermilk that this easy substitution works great for me.

They turned out like a breakfast cookie, with a more casual free form shape, compared to another scone recipe I make that requires rolling the dough and cutting into neat large triangles. Everyone liked them and even though our cousin is health-conscience and is trying to stay away from sugar, he had one because, as he put it...he knew I baked them with love in honor of his visit. I didn't have the same willpower; I ate three the first day.

Happy cooking!

Weekend Cooking is sponsored by Beth Fish Reads. Click on her link to see my cooking related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Pesto and a canoe trip

2011-09-25T18:23:00.001-05:00

I had an amazing day yesterday and wished I could have posted about it last night but I was too exhausted to type. I got up early to mix up some bread dough for my family. I'd made 10 loaves on Thursday and Friday for the market and my children are always a little unhappy as that bread bakes and they know it is not for them. Now we have two loaves for the week.

While I had the flour out I made a pan of Butterscotch Brownies-this is an old recipe that I love and you make it on the stove and then bake it-super easy. While the brownies were in the oven and the dough was rising I helped Groovy Girl get ready for her figure skating lesson at 9. I dropped her at the arena and headed back home to make several batches of pesto for my freezer. Don't worry my husband picked her up after lessons were over!

My mom and I worked together, using the recipe from Everyday Italian by Giada DeLaurentis, and made five batches of pesto using fresh basil from her garden and the little I had left from my own. The temperature is beginning to dip down at night and rather than have the basil freeze in the garden I want it to freeze in my Sub-Zero.

Here is Giada's pesto recipe (72):

2 cups [packed] fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
About 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a blender (I use the food processor), pulse the basil, nuts, garlic, salt and pepper until finely chopped. With the blender still running, gradually add enough olive oil to form a smooth and thick consistency. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl and stir in the cheese. Season the pesto with more salt and pepper, if it needs it. The pesto can be made up to 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

**If you are going to freeze your pesto for the long winter months as I did then skip the cheese step and don't add as much olive oil. Later when you grab it out of the freezer to use it you will add in the cheese and a little olive oil to your pasta. Good Parmesan does not freeze well in the pesto.

Giada has a note following the recipe that shares her secret of using pasta water to help blend the pesto so it doesn't glob up your pasta. The trick is in saving a little of the pasta water back when draining your pasta. I generally just take a large measuring cup and scoop out about a cup before I drain the pasta and before I add the pasta back to the pot I put the pesto in the pan to soften it up and then add small amounts of water as I mix the pasta into the pesto. Viola; fabulous dinner! My mom bought these handy little Tupperware freezer containers that stack perfectly. Pine nuts are ridiculously expensive right now but we did use pine nuts for these batches. I have a spinach pesto I want to try from the same cookbook and I'm going to substitute walnuts for pine nuts, just to give it a try.

I am so happy to have this accomplished as I did not can pickles or make salsa this year. When the snow starts to fly I will be ecstatic to pull out this freshly frozen treat, reminding me of the Spring to come.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads. Pop over and see what she and other's are cooking up!

Now for the canoe trip:

The pesto making was the easy part of the day though as our afternoon was with a group of church friends paddling down a local river. I expected to lazily float but the river was low and we ran into every snag and sandbar in the river. We canoed for 4 hours and Teenage Boy made me paddle the whole way! My shoulders are tired-truthfully every part of me is tired! Once we landed at our destination I realized [hate it when the light bulb clicks on and it is BAD news] that I'd left the keys to the car parked by our landing in the vehicle parked where we'd put in the canoes!! Uh No. [I was just finishing up Anna and the French Kiss, can you blame me!?]

I whispered this new bit of information to Teenage Boy and he was ANNOYED. Thankfully, everyone else, including my husband, was a bit more understanding. Luckily we quickly rounded up someone to get us back to point B so we could get keys and canoe trailer. The coolest part of the day was when a friend pointed out a young eagle in a tall, bare tree. We floated right under it. It was a glorious sight.

Have a peaceful week!

Friday Features; Kindness

2011-09-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

This week in the library our focus was on kindness. We do have Character Counts! at our school but I really wanted to get at the idea of each of us making another person feel special. The world would be a better place if we could all make that happen.

I read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and David Messing to each class except kindergarten (they had Eric Carle). Even the 5th graders listened and it opened up a good discussion of what each of us could do to fill someone else's bucket. A first grade student said that the bucket is like your heart! Ah, thank you [big teacher smile] He understood the message.

With that book I read one of my all-time favorite picture books, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow. The message and the illustrations come together into one outstanding tale of being true to yourself. We conversed about bucket fillers in this book (Grandma and Molly Lou) but also that Ronald Durkin learns to be less of a bully and more of a bucket filler by the end. I found this great Molly Lou video by Spoken Arts.

I also read Todd Parr's It's Okay to be Different and Carrie Weston's The New Bear at School. I read Todd Parr all the time to kids but Weston's book was a new read aloud and perfectly transmitted my kindness message. Stay tuned for more as I look forward to more kindness next week.

Do you have book favorites that share this message? Any book suggestions would be much appreciated!

I also finished off a beginning of the year order and sent it off to my secretary just because Jana at Milk and Cookies; Comfort Reading waxed poetically about getting her first school order of books for the year. I had to jump on the bandwagon!

Happy Friday!

One More Birthday Post; The Special Handmade Gift

2011-09-20T21:14:00.001-05:00

One day I was bopping around the blog world-and happened upon this post, Mama Made A Dress, by Lisa at Books. List. Life. Have you ever been to Books. Lists. Life.? If not, do stop over she writes about her adorable kids, her books, and her craftiness! Love reading about her life. When I looked at the special pinafore dress she made for the Princess-I left a comment expressing the thought that my Groovy Girl would look great in a bigger size dress and well, as things happen in the blogging world, a conversation started up and a deal was made and a dress created and sent to my Iowa address.

It arrived months ago but I had to wait until September to present it to her. Lisa sent it in a lovely handmade drawstring bag so it was already "wrapped" and ready at her birthday breakfast. She choose to open it that morning and heavens...she loved it. Also Lisa shows a great close-up picture of the pinafore dress in this post as well as a bunch of other sewing items.

P.S. If you look closely to the above photo you can see chocolate near the pocket...Groovy Girl alias Messy Tessy wore the dress for the cake eating portion of her birthday night because she was trying it on for her godmother and viola...it now has cake stain on it. I'm going to have to wash it!

Thank you, Thank you, Lisa! She loves it very much.
Here is the link to her Etsy shop so you can get one too!

Weekend Cooking; An Easy Green Product to Love

2011-09-18T18:45:00.001-05:00

Every Saturday morning this summer my husband has been getting up at the crack of dawn to load up his van and goods from our kitchen to sell at our local farmer's market. He is steadfast and hardworking. We aren't farmers though and the only reason he chose to do this is to do something with his church youth group-it was a way to earn money for their mission trip to W. VA. Half way through the summer they had enough so each teen could go on the trip and their original fee was waived. The market kept going though and now the earnings are just getting the youth group fun back in the green.

Handsome husband, Groovy Girl and youth group + customer

My husband learned last Spring how to grow a variety of different sprouts and those have sold well at the market. I started making about 4-5 loaves of my Simple Pot Bread every week and they usually all sold. When I first started experimenting with making multiple loaves I didn't like wasting the saran wrap the recipe called for to cover the rising bread. I tried using parchment paper and some rubber bands (FAIL-the rubber bands kept snapping off) and ended up in the grocery aisle searching for a solution.

I found a funny looking product by Cover Mate; Stretch to Fit Food Covers. They look like clear plastic shower caps!! They work perfectly to cover bowls of dough, allowing it to rise and then I can use it again and again and again! I dislike throwing things away and I love it when I find a positive solution.

Weekend Cooking is sponsored by Beth Fish Reads. Click to her link to find many more food-related posts. She has a chicken wing recipe that my husband would love-maybe I should make it for him for all those early Saturday mornings he left me snoozing while he tip-toed out and to the market!

Have a peaceful week!

A Whirlwind Celebration

2011-09-14T19:58:00.000-05:00

The birthday week started off with a matching sleep outfit for Groovy Girl and her matching A.G. doll. She was so excited about this gift she put her pajamas on at 6:30 in the evening!! Who would know that was the trick for an early bedtime!

Her actual birthday morning started with homemade waffles, warm maple syrup and fresh whipped cream! Don't bother looking at the messy kitchen table--it's an active week with no time for clearing off the table. To the right you can see the magical bonsai tree my handsome husband gave me for my August birthday. I'm happy to say the bonsai is doing well. I haven't killed it off yet.

Here she is on her way to her afternoon piano lessons on her birthday-I just like the outfit and her smile shows she's had a fabulous day. Sharing Matt's Cookies at school with her classmates was one highlight for her! She is a girl on the go! This weekend she goes back to ice skating class and she wants to try a new gymnastics studio.

When I look at my big 9-year-old what I really see is this baby girl. She came into this world as a 3-lb fairy doll, barely filling out her preemie wardrobe and now she is the whirlwind above. Life truly is a blessing.

Weekend Cooking; Chocolate Birthday Cake

2011-09-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

Groovy Girl's birthday is just around the corner and tomorrow I will be making her a cake and decorating it too, Last year I made the same chocolate cake but with white frosting because she wanted to decorate it herself and there she is up above with her decorated cake-turning 8. This year our little cake lover is going to stick with a more subdued chocolate frosting and a little less decoration-they result will still be delicious and creative.

I've made this chocolate cake for her three years in a row and it is from my Baking Illustrated; The Practical Kitchen Companion for the Home Baker from the America's Test Kitchen people. I LOVE this book because it provides me with all kinds of tips, tricks and the reasons why they work.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake (360-361)
(serves 12)

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
12 T. unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup nonalkalized cocoa, such as Hershey's, sifted
2 tsp instant expresso or coffee powder
1 cup plus 2 T milk

1 recipe (to follow) Rich Chocolate Cream Frosting

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease two 8-inch round cake pans and cover the pan bottoms with rounds of parchment and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Beat the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar, beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and instant espresso powder in a medium bowl. Combine the milk and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer at the lowest speed, add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the milk mixture; mix until incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process twice more. When the batter appears blended, stop the and scrape the sides with a spatula. Return the mixer to low speed; beat until the batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. With a rubber spatula, spread the batter to the pan sides and smooth the tops. Bake the cakes until they feel firm in the center when lightly pressed and a toothpick comes out clean, 23-30 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack; cool for 10 mins. Run a knife around the perimeter of each pan, invert the cakes onto the racks, and peel off the paper liners. reinvert the cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting.
5. Assembly and frost the cake according to illustrations on page 144-when you turn to pg 144 you are given detailed directions on anchoring the cake with frosting, frosting in between the layers and how to get a smooth top. Mine never looks like their's even though I follow the directions but it still tastes wonderful. Frost and slice.

Frosting:

16 ozs. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; pour over the chocolate. Add the corn syrup and let stand 3 minutes. Whisk gently until smooth; stir in vanilla. Refrigerate 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until the mixture reaches a spreadable consistency. This frosting does not keep well, so it should be served within a day.

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads-click on over to other wonderful food-related posts.

Laura Amy Schlitz's A Drowned Maiden's Hair; A Melodrama

2011-09-09T15:57:00.000-05:00

I've been back to work a week and haven't had a chance to blog all week. I'm tired every night and have just enough energy to work with Groovy Girl on homework and get something scraped together for dinner. I did manage to read this entire charming book one night as a lay awake with insomnia, the night before my return to school. I loved The Night Fairy by Schlitz and pulled this one off my library shelf and dragged it home in my summer library box. I love how I grab them out at the ninth hour, just as I'm returning to school to read. I'm happy I got this one finished though-it will be easy to talk students into reading this just creepy enough chapter book.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair;

A Melodrama

Laura Amy Schlitz

2006

While this takes place in 1909 I don't think I would categorize it as historical fiction-it truly is a melodrama!

Synopsis:

Maud Flynn is living at the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans and hates it! She has trouble with authority and dislikes the horrible living conditions. Lucky for her two nice elderly women come looking to adopt an 8-year-old but pick 11-year-old Maud instead. At first, Maud is thrilled to be pampered and living in the almost lap of luxury with the three Hawthorne sisters. There is one catch though and that is she must remain hidden; a secret adopted child, never venturing outside and tiptoeing to her third floor room when visitors come calling. Eventually her favorite sister, Hyacinth, informs her of the family "business" and why she must remain hidden until they can put her to work as a "dead" child in a seance!

My thoughts:

This book is a lot of fun. The premise of the Hawthorne sisters holding seances to convince wealthy clients of their dead relatives desires is definite trickery but when they bring Maud in to play a young girl who drowned it becomes too much to bear. Maud, as an orphan, craves human love and the idea that the sisters only have concern for her when she serves their purpose becomes unbearable. Maud, choosing not to stay completely hidden (her independent streak shines), meets the grieving mother of the drowned girl, which makes Maud even more contrite as she tries to fight her inner desire for love and the yucky feeling tricking someone brings to her. It's a twisted tale and you will cheer for Maud as she learns to make some difficult decisions on her own. I had another ending in mind that involved her brother but I was quite happy with how Schlitz chose to finish Maud's tale.

Read another review at Becky's Book Reviews.

Library Loot; A Quiet Trip to my Local

2011-09-04T23:32:00.000-05:00

I ventured out yesterday with a small list of errands to do. I was on my own as Groovy Girl hadn't even started cleaning her room she lost out on "getting to run errands" with me! One of my errands was to our local dairy for popcorn-yes, popcorn- and bleu cheese and she would have been able to get some farm fresh ice cream had she finished (or even started) cleaning her room. My errands were run solo and my library trip was quiet as I browsed the shelves. Sorry G.G.

Here's what I found in the midst of all the beautiful library shelves:

1. Dirtall Pete by Eileen Brennen

2. Not All Princesses Dress In Pink by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple

3. Mudkin by Stephen Gammell

4. Hogg, Hogg, & Hog by Margie Palatini

5. Follow the Line To School by Laura Ljungkvist

6. A Garden for Pig by Kathryn K. Thurman

7. The Queen of France by Tim Wadham

8. An Amber Cat by Hilary McKay

9. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin

10. A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

11. The Sisters Grimm Number 6 by Michael Buckley

The first seven were from the new picture book shelf-a must stop for both Groovy Girl and I. She opened the bag and read all the picture books right after I returned yesterday.

Numbers 8 and 9 are picks for a fantasy class I am taking through Fresno Pacific. I'm excited about the class but I was a lot disappointed that the syllabus included with my course materials was filled with old (classics) and no new fantasy when there are so many.

Groovy Girl and I finished up number 5 of The Sisters Grimm on Saturday morning and she was desperate to get the next one. This series really has a hold on my little princess girl!

I also found a very helpful young male librarian in the YA section who special ordered Crossed by Allie Condie for me!
Library Loot is hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair.

Weekend Cooking;The yumminess that is Bread Pudding w/ Whiskey Sauce

2011-09-03T19:13:00.000-05:00

Teenage Son wrapped in new quilt made by
amazingly talented mother-in-law!

This is one of my husband's favorite desserts and so I whipped it up to celebrate our anniversary. I like bread pudding but the pull for me is the sauce! This recipe is from an old Vegetarian Times (Feb, 2009) and its been written in my favorite recipes book ever since.

(Image from VT)

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

3 large eggs

2 egg whites

1 cup skim milk

3/4 cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

5 cups cubed day old whole wheat bread, cut or torn into 1/2 in-cubes

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Whisk together first 7 ingredients. Fold in cubed bread, raisins and cranberries. Let stand 5 minutes for bread to absorb custard. Set oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9-in square baking pan with spray and spread bread mixture into pan. Bake 35-40 minutes until no egg mixture is bubbling up.

Whiskey Sauce:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup whiskey

Add water and brown sugar to small saucepan. Bring to a boil on med-high and let boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add whiskey. Boil 2 more minutes and then transfer to small pitcher. Let cool just a bit and serve warm over individual bowls of bread pudding. Add flavored whipped cream to top of bowl.

This is such an easy recipe for the delicious "ooohs" and "aahhhs" you will get when you serve it!

Weekend Cooking is a regular meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads-click to her link to find many more food-related posts and recipes.

Happy Cooking!!

August Update-13 books!

2011-09-02T15:53:00.001-05:00

I've read a bunch of wonderful books in August! I had minor surgery to remove a cyst and have spent a lot of time resting and reading! Look at all the fun stuff I read this month! Links are for my reviews. Some toward the end of the list are still waiting for their own review and some I probably won't review at all.

1. Where She Went by Gayle Forman - RF- I liked If I Stay better yet it was interesting hearing his voice. These two could win cutest musical couple award!

2. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly -HF- Top Author of the Month! I loved depressed teen Andi mixed with Alex's fight to save the prince during the French Revolution. It was, well, revolutionary!

3. The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter -Modern Fantasy-The Hardscrabble kids are tough and show us just how kids feel about being ostracized.

4. Gemma by Meg Tilly - RF- Wow. Brutally honest abusive/pedophile story. Made me want to hold my children very close. Tilly has this creepy guy written just right.

5. In The Green Kitchen by Alice Waters -Cookbook-Simple start-off recipes to help you accomplish bigger tasks. I loved the pantry list. I showed it to my mother while she was visiting and loved it when she laughed and said..."Oh, I bought this for you! Can you wait until Christmas to get it?" So typical. And yes, I can wait.

6. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly -HF-It's 1906 and this is Mattie's coming-of-age story where she figures it all out after her mother dies. Luckily, she takes the road less traveled.

7. Countdown by Deborah Wiles - HF-It's the 60's and everyone is worried about the Russian's and Cuba, students learn how to duck and cover to stay safe and Franny figures out why her Uncle Otts is so important.

8. How To Buy a Love Of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson -RF-Drunken, super rich children figure out they do have something to say at the last minute. Carley-I grew to like and Hunter-made me want to go to AA.

9. The Penderwicks; A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall- RF- Sweet, summer tale with a charming cottage and lots of room to play. Mrs. Tipton figured out her parenting skills at the last second-thankfully! I'm interested in the rest of this series.

10. True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglass -RF- too-young-party-girl falls off the face of the earth and lands in Indiana. She's startled to find real characters in the Midwest. Never too off for me-too much nap dropping.

11. The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas -Fantasy-Lovely magical tale about Oliver Twist-ish character who saves the magic and helps Nevery. I plan to read more of this series and was excited to see Prineas is an Iowa writer!

12. Matched by Allie Condie-Dystopian-Cassia has two loves on her post-warming world matched card and she must find a way to deal with her feelings for the unsanctioned Ky. This was a fast read and kept me reading even though I hated this overly organized world.

13.. The Love Season by Elin Hildenbrand - RF -Love the Nantucket setting, and the culinary experience of listening to Margo put together food-ohhhh! Did not enjoy Cade and his family or Miles. Loved Action's character-could she have a spin-off book!

I am sad to say goodbye to summer. I always am. I'm a summer girl. I like to be warm. I like going to the pool. I like margaritas. Fall has it's good points though and I've already made an Autumn dish and I especially like going into an Indian Summer September like we seem to be. My girl's birthday comes up in September also!

Hope everyone has a blissful Labor Day Weekend. I will be celebrating my anniversary all weekend-we were married in Galena, IL and had all kinds of activities from golf outings to wine tastings for our guests to participate in. I'm sure we'll find some fun this weekend even if I'm still healing.

The very unique Hardscrabble family in The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter

2011-08-31T14:58:00.000-05:00

Oh, I am having so much fun reading this week, getting books off my to-read shelf that have languished too long. I thought this one was going to be all copycat Lemony Snickett(poor, poor orphan children) and while it does have some similarities, the Hardscrabble family is very unique.

"There were three of them. Otto was the oldest, and the oddest. Then there was Lucia, who wished something interesting would happen. Last of all was Max, who always thought he knew better. They lived in a small town in England called Little Tunks." (1)

It is written in a very meta-fictive style in that as the reader you are talked to in a certain, knowing way. Their father has to go out of town on a supposed business trip and sends the children off to London, to an aunt's house. Once they arrive they find only the cat sitter who made the mistake of pretending to understand what their dad said when he called to make arrangements.

Their aunt is truly on holiday and the cat sitter won't let them stay (she doesn't know them after all!) so they spend one scary night in London and then head off to their Great- Aunt's house near the sea. It's quite a journey and once they arrive their Great-Aunt is not what they expect at all. They have a small castle to explore and they find themselves pulled into the mysterious kneebone boy fiasco, which really all leads to what the Hardscrabble children really need; answers to what happened to their mother.

I found this book to be wonderfully quirky and I could think of a whole list of students to recommend it to because you need a unique mind to enjoy the Hardscrabble's as characters as well as their unique journey.
I found it so refreshing when the children find out (although Otto remembers) that their mother has been dealing with her own mental health and that that is where the father goes every time he sets off for a trip.

Ellen Potter breathes an unusual life into Otto, Lucia, and Max, creating this story and I wouldn't mind hearing more about their adventures. Take note of the cover above and realize you will find yourself returning to it throughout the story, checking on details about the children-like Otto's scarf, wrapped so tightly around his neck, as though he is continually cold. Details. Explore Potter's website

Countdown by Deborah Wiles

2011-08-30T16:27:00.000-05:00

Countdown

Deborah Wiles

2010

This heavy book has been sitting on my desk looking at me for about 6 months. I stuck it in my summer box, brought it home, read a bunch of other stuff and it still kept looking at me. If I'd peeked inside I would have noticed the little typed line..."for the peacemakers," which would have piqued my interest. That and the fact that it's about the 60's-the early years-should have captured me as well and once I did crack the cover I enjoyed every page-the story plus the memorabilia. 1962-the year I was born and Kennedy and Khrushchev battle it out through many conversations, each one not wanting to back down.

"The price of a gallon of gas rose to 31 cents today."

And the opening sentence: "I am eleven years old, and I am invisible."-not because she's in some deep depression but because Mrs. Rodriquez hasn't called on her to read-aloud in Social Studies. Remember when those of us that were good readers loved round robin reading-we were thrilled to be called on and Franny is the same, she is mad and feels like she is being punished by her teacher. She dangles herself out into the aisle, hoping Mrs. Rodriquez will realize her mistake.

Franny is a strong young female heroine trying to make sense of a world where her family struggles seem as large and confusing as the world struggles with Cuba, nuclear missiles and the idea that she has to be ready to duck and cover to save herself. You should know this book will make you smarter-it has a lot of history in it-and it will make you understand why peace is so important.

Each of Franny's family member brings something to this story but much of the action stems from Uncle Otts, a veteran, suffering from shell-shock. He can't seem to separate reality from his war experiences especially as the U.S. seems bent on stirring up trouble with Russia and Cuba. Things keep flashing back for him and I found this story line interesting as we still struggle with this as soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

I read around a bit on Deborah Wiles' website and she's led and interesting life. I look forward to others in this three part series.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

2011-08-29T13:20:00.000-05:00

I'm an even bigger fan of Donnelly's now that I've read this book. I read Revolution (a newer book) first and then heard from many people about the fantastic-ness of A Northern Light, which prompted me to check it out from the library. I finished it last night and sighed and smiled.

It's 1906 and Mattie Gokey is the oldest daughter in a family of four other girls. Their mother has died recently leaving them all with fresh sadness. Mattie's been the one in charge of chores, taking care of her siblings while her father runs the farm. Mattie loves words, making her standout as a student when she is able to attend, and she looks up a new word in the dictionary every day. She has two best friends; Weaver, an African American young man who is set on going to Columbia to be a lawyer, and Millie, who left school last year to get married and gives birth to twins.

Mattie has dreams to attend Barnard College and received a scholarship to attend-she just needs money to ride the train, a place to stay and books. When the family mule dies her father needs help financially and agrees to let Mattie work at one of the local hotels. A whole new world opens up to Mattie as she discovers the wealthy lives of the people staying at the hotel and the mystery of a young lady who hands her a stack of letters.

I just can't tell you any more. You should read all about the mystery yourself. This book has much to say about the beginning of the women's movement and what it was like for women, like Mattie's teacher, Miss Wilcox, who chose a life of their own. We take it for granted now; like it's always been that way, even though it's only about three generations ago that things began to change. This book blends a love of words with mysteries about her teacher, the young woman at the hotel as well as Mattie's own dilemma as she sorts out what her own path will be.

Mattie is a wonderful heroine who doesn't disappoint us in her choices and uses what she comes to understand from her work at the hotel, through her friend, Millie, and her own mother's decisions as well as her relationship with Royal Loomis and everything he has to offer. This one deserves to be pulled out of the stacks and read.

Awarded in 2004 the ALA's Michael L. Printz's Award for Excellence Honor Book-the list. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson took the prize and understandably so.
Jennifer Donnelly's website

Other thoughts:
Best Books I Have Not Read
Emily at Las Risas
Erin Reads

Nonfiction Photojournals about Familes

2011-08-28T12:44:00.000-05:00

Another piece of homework required for my recent class was a text set of books we might use to present a topic to students. I wanted to do something startlingly different and picked non-traditional families with a focus on same sex, single dad, foster and multi-generational families.
I found three fantastic books that should be a part of anyone's collection:

1. My Family by Sheila Kinkade with photographs by Elaine Little (2006) This book is a project by SHAKTI for Children dedicated to teaching children to value diversity. Presenting families from around the globe with all we have in common; eating, living, learning and growing together as one human family. This book makes the point that we are all one. Told through beautiful photographs and easy text this is a great book to explore with students and their families.

2. Families by Susan Kuklin (2006) This book highlights 15 families of various diverse backgrounds and how their family is special. Several culturally mixed families are included and in their interviews,which are always the children, Osamu says " We're a fun-loving, culturally mixed up family. Mixed is more fun," after he and his brother have relayed how much they enjoy being a part of both cultures of Japanese and American. In an another interview Eloise ends hers by saying "We both love each other. That's the most important thing in the whole, entire world." Eloise was adopted from China by a single mom and feels 100 % American. Each story makes you feel a little more connected and realize that Eloise is right-families are made up of love and that is the most important ingredient.

3. Our Grandparent's; A Global Album by Maya Ajmera, Sheila Kinkade and Cynthia Pon with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. (2010) This book shares the special relationship of grandparents in all cultures. The special bond is explored and emphasizes what you can learn from this relationship. Grandparents hold the key to where your family has been and how your parent was as a child. This book is pure celebration of the joy between grandparents and grandbabies.

My mom was just here while I recovered from minor surgery and I'm happy to say she took great care in celebrating with her two grandchildren by cooking with them and getting them to help around the house. Stuff they won't do for me, she had them up and moving! Go Grandma!! Celebrate your family!

Jennifer L. Holm did my homework!

2011-08-24T17:12:00.000-05:00

Maryland Newsline image-and article

Well, not really but she made it easy. When asked, as part of my UNI Children's Literature class this summer, to pick an author out of a list of many interesting authors I picked her. Even though she's been on my radar I haven't read anything of hers and it was time.

Jennifer had what sounds like an idyllic childhood. Her father was a pediatric doctor and her mother was a nurse. She had four sporty brothers and she did her best to keep up with them. She read voraciously even, as one neighbor noted, she raked the yard. It seems that she easily carried her passions into her desire to write. Each of her young female characters are gutsy and refuse to be pigeon-holed into the idea of women in their time period.

1. Our Only May Amelia (1999) It isn't easy being a pioneer in the state of Washington in 1899, but it's particularly hard when you are the only girl ever born in the new settlement. With seven older brothers and a love of adventure, May Amelia Jackson just can't seem to abide her family's insistence that she behave like a Proper Young Lady. Not when there's fishing to be done, sheep to be herded, and real live murderers to be captured! May is sure she could manage better if only there were at least one other girl living along the banks of the Nasel River. An now that Mama's going to have a baby, maybe there's hope...(from author website)
This is a quick read filled with fun adventures.Getting to know her brothers, neighbors and relatives was part of the joy of this story. May Amelia is a character I will remember. This book was transformed into a play by the Seattle Children's Theatre-would love to have seen it.

2. Turtle In Paradise (2010) Life isn't like the movies, and eleven-year-old Turtle is no Shirley Temple. She's smart and tough and seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it's 1935, and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. So when Turtle's mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn't like kids, Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off to Key West, Florida, to stay with relatives she's never met.
Florida's like nothing Turtle has ever seen. It's hot and strange, full of wild green peeping out between houses, ragtag boy cousins, and secret treasure. Before she knows what's happened, Turtle finds herself coming out of the shell she has spent her life building, and as she does, her world opens up in the most unexpected ways. (from author website)
While Turtle is another very high-spirited character compared to May Amelia she is very different and world-wise. I loved the beach setting and the very unique Key West culture and language. Her boy cousins and their baby business was hysterical!

3. Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf (2007) Ginny has ten items on her big to-do list for 7th grade. None of them, however, include turning her hair pink. Or getting sent to detention for throwing frogs in class. Or losing the lead role in the ballet recital to her ex-best friend. Or the thousand other things that can go wrong between September and June. But it looks like it is shaping up to be that kind of a year. (from author's website)
See this is how you know an author is multi-talented...dropping into a whole new genre and doing it well! This is part realistic fiction, part journal and a great peek at middle school. Ginny is brave and bold and can clearly state that her dad died and she's looking for a new one. This book is filled with fun notes between Ginny and her mom, movie receipts, drug store necessities, homework assignments and all this great middle grade angst.

Babymouse (2005 and beyond) This is a pink comic book (not just for girls though) about a funny little girl mouse who's in elementary school. I'd like to read the whole set but haven't yet; the one I read (Heartbreaker) is about going to the Valentine's Day dance. Babymouse can't find anyone to take her even though her best friend is available. I have Groovy Girl hooked on these now. This series, to me, defined Jennifer L. Holm as an above average creative force; the mouse put me over the moon!

Jennifer lives in Northern California with her husband and two children, Millie and Will. She loved Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series and now I have this on my radar to read.

Babymouse has her own website-must introduce my students to this!

Summer Projects

2011-08-16T18:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've survived the school meetings and have had the opportunity to work in my library and that is the best part. I've created a new schedule and checked out some books to a few teachers. I'm working on some lessons plans; long range and the next week or two. Things are coming together.

At home I had two summer projects that I wanted to accomplish:

1.Bring less packaging home by buying in bulk using my own containers

2. Menu Planning so I'm not crazy during the week.

The packaging project has gone quite well and I now have half a shelf in my pantry dedicated to my bulk buying. I planned on practice menu planning this summer but I never got to it!! We DID eat over the summer but it was just fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants-eating. We ate a lot of food from the farmer's market over the summer and I did a lot of food-related posts for Weekend Cooking but the actually writing out of a plan did not happen. Sooooo.... Beginning of the school year is the perfect time to do this.

I've copied off the cute little menu plans from The Sister's Cafe and I'm reusing a pink binder of Groovy Girl's. She's into lime green now and so the pink binder has been tossed out of her room and into my recycling hands.

This week's plan:

Monday: Pasta with red sauce (prepared by husband because I had Good Spirits Book Club)
Tuesday: ~~Mushroom Soup~~ from She Likes Bento. Take out Pizza purchased by husband because I'm not feeling well and am slacking on the sofa.
Wednesday: Mushroom Soup-I have all the ingredients and it begs to be made.
Thursday: Tofu Stir Fry with garden produce
Friday: White Beans with Garlic and Herbs (from In The Green Kitchen; Alice Waters)
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Roast Chicken with garden potatoes

My plan is to only try two new recipes during the week. The tofu stir fry is an easy recipe for me that I improvise all the time. Just like lesson planning helps me to stay organized at work so to should this menu planning for my after school time.

How is your week shaping up?

School Days

2011-08-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

I have to wake up in the morning and go to a meeting for several hours-a meeting where I will listen to many administrators talk, talk, talk about how we are all doing an amazing job. We ARE doing an amazing job (most of us). Only to go back to our teaching jobs and be treated like we don't really do an amazing job because of the lengthy checks and balances systems that has been put in place. It's downright creepy, is what it is.

I love working with students-the bonus of my job while I'm in school Summer is a huge draw as well. Administration, guidelines, (extensive) lesson planning, meetings, meetings, meetings all bring me down. We are all on some list or another which says we are not successful and we can never get ourselves off the list because we have the same students who struggle through school. It is a never-ending cycle.

I'm pumped to go back, really I am. It is just a bleak scene in my district right now and I am having a difficult time getting pumped up for this ding-dang meeting in the morning!!

Is everybody else ready to head back to school? Do you have your school supplies purchased?

Weekend Cooking; Mouth-watering Vegan Chocolate Pudding

2011-08-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

My stepdaughter, Kaylee, has been here all week and anytime she is here I step up my cooking. This week I tried three new recipes; one from my Sept. Vegetarian Times and two from Alice Waters' In the Green Kitchen. All were delicious but the most adored recipe was a Vegan Chocolate Pudding from VT. It was completely unfair to pit this mouth-watering chocolate recipe against two other very good choices so you can find their recipes at the end of this post. Several of us dreamed about the pudding that night after eating it and talked about it the next day.

(image courtesy of Seraphic Singles)

Velvet Smooth Dark Chocolate Pudding (Sept, 2011)

This warm stove-top pudding packs a punch of deep chocolate flavor. It's the perfect recipe for a quick company dessert or a simple nighttime treat.

3/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
3 T cornstarch
2 1/4 cups unsweetened hazelnut or almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz vegan semisweet chocolate, chopped

Whisk together brown sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan. Gradually stir in hazelnut milk, whisking constantly to combine. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, or until mixture thickens. Stir in vanilla, and remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate, and let stand for 1 minute. Stir until smooth.

Mine didn't thicken as much as I thought it should. We called it chocolate soup but licked our bowls anyway. Now I have to try, try, try to make this again and see if I can perfect it! Oh, the tribulations!

Here is the Lentil Soup recipe.
Here is the Apple Galette recipe.

I've loved paging through In The Green Kitchen and am thinking I might have to buy it. Waters' has it set up with an informative opening about what a green kitchen is and how to stock a green pantry with a great list. Each featured chef has their own section, with their green cooking tip; something like David Tanis' Simmering Beans advice followed by his recipe for White Beans with Garlic and Herbs, which I plan to make this week.

Weekend Cooking is a weekend meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any food related post can join in-click on her link and take a look at all the other foodie-posts!

Maggie Stiefvater's new book, The Scorpio Races

2011-08-12T14:46:00.001-05:00

I stumbled across a new blog post by Maggie Stiefvater where she talks all about her new book, The Scorpia Races. I love her creativity and the post describes how she and her sister recorded music/sounds to go with the book and how this book is the closest book to her real self. Read her post on Goodreads.

Oh, and did I mention she's hosting a giveaway for 3 ARC's of The Scorpia Races.

Let Them Eat Cake; Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

2011-08-10T13:33:00.001-05:00

If you were only able to read one YA book this year, let it be this one.

Revolution

Jennifer Donnelly

2010

472 pages

Goodreads Synopsis:

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

My Thoughts:

I gushed about reading the first 5 chapters via Amazon in this previous post and after I picked it up from my library I couldn't wait to get back to it. It didn't disappoint me either. Andi is suffering from her little brother Truman's death and she thinks about suicide more than once. Her pain felt real as she trudges back and forth to school, going through the motions and living for her music. Music played a huge role in this story and it made me curious about the various bands that are mentioned. Modern bands mixed with dead composers make an interesting mix. It should come with a CD.

This would have been a strong story on its own but adding the detail of Alex's diary, locked in a secret compartment of a guitar case, and the fact that Andi becomes obsessed with it brought such surprising twists. Reading about Alex's daring adventures to save Louis-Charles, the would-be king of England, help Andi to work through her own grief and frustration. She heals as she is transformed by Alex's words.

I liked Virgil, Andi's new love interest, who helps her to talk about her pain and he doesn't give up-he's like a positive beacon for her, even when she messes up. There are some creepy parts towards the end that had the hair on the back of my neck bristling away. I was reading it alone, late at night, while my husband was out of town-I scared myself silly. This was solid writing with very memorable characters. I'm pretty sure I know more about the French Revolution than I did before I read this! Thank you, Jennifer Donnelly!

I checked out another Donnelly book, A Northern Light, from the library today.

Jennifer Donnelly's website

Other reviews of Revolution:

Random Musings
Nancy at Tales from a Ravenous Reader
Swoontini
SIDEBAR: I messed around with the HTML; trying to make a dotted box and I didn't get a dotted box, I got white! Why can't I have a brain for HTML...

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

2011-08-07T19:01:00.000-05:00

Soon after reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver I picked up Forman's If I Stay. I found both books had similar themes of resurrection and death. The most glaring difference, for me, was personalities; Sam Kingston was a follower and her focus was on popularity~she does grow as she tries to fix things in her life.

If I Stay's main character, Mia was lovable just as she was~she grows as she learns to live without her family. Her life was lovely; she had funky and interested parents, she was a talented cello player and had a funny and supportive best friend. And the boyfriend, Adam, just as lovable as Mia but scruffier.

Synopsis:

Mia chose life in If I Stay and this second book, told through Adam's perspective, tells us about his journey without her. The band he plays in, Shooting Star, has taken off and he and the band are playing big shows with groupies and fans trailing after them. He always wanted to make it big but it isn't what he expected at all because now it's not really about making music and getting their groove on; it's a show and it's bigger than them. His band has always been like a family and now they are broken pieces linked but not happily. He is popping pills and smoking cigarettes just to make it through the day.

One night in NYC Adam is out wandering the streets and passes by Carnegie Hall as people are going in for a performance. It just so happens that Mia is playing and he buys a ticket. Through word-of-mouth Mia learns that Adam (he is a major rock star now and recognizable) is in the audience and sends for him at the end. They meet and talk for a few minutes and it doesn't go well. Adam has all these things he wants to say to her and they just don't come out. He wants to know why she let him go, why she stopped answering his emails and taking his phone calls. Adam leaves Carnegie in frustration and Mia follows him and tries to talk more. The second half of the book recounts this night together as they argue and slowly come together over what happened when Mia's family died.

My thoughts:

I liked this one but I missed Mia's eclectic parents. In the first book you get a real sense of family from them; a coziness and in this one we meet Adam's parents and while they are both there they are not as interesting as Mia's were. I loved Adam's interaction with her family and it added a lot to the characters. Listening to Adam and Mia's dad talk about music helped us get to know Adam. He wasn't just a guy playing in a band-he had potential.

We do get to hear all about Shooting Stars rise, crash and rise to fame again after Adam has a writing epiphany. We get to understand why he's been in crisis and I was a bit bummed his band didn't understand this more. His story was interesting but it got much more exciting once Mia and he were talking-even if at times I found it frustrating and wanted to talk for them!

Both these books are worthy and I like that it is a two-book set and I haven't heard anything about another one. I felt the ends were tied up nicely and I could let them go. And they made me weep!

Read my review of Lauren Oliver's Before i Fall.
Reading Rants reviews Where She Went.

Here's a trailer but I wanted Adam's voice to sound different.

My Day

2011-08-04T00:18:00.000-05:00

It's been my birthday (all day) and it has been an interesting day. Three sweet children, all under the age of 10, made me breakfast. I had scrambled eggs and biscuits. I "helped" by taking the biscuits out of the oven and by making the scrambled eggs last night so Groovy Girl and her two cousins could just reheat the eggs. For her, it was extremely important to serve me breakfast in bed and that I could only take the biscuits out of the oven and pop back into bed. We did not have juice so I had Limeade mixed with seltzer-all served on a tray by 3 smiling children. We all ate the eggs from one plate-4 forks. It was wonderful.

I met a friend for coffee/tea and all 3 children played The Amazing Labyrinth while they ate their cookies and Orangina drinks.

I thought I should look up some facts about my sun sign and refresh my memory of what it means to be a Leo. I found some interesting stuff worth sharing.

"There's an unmistakably regal air to Solar Leos. These are dignified—even noble—folk. Leos have a reputation for being conceited, but think again. Leos do feel important, but this generally takes the form of wanting to change the world in some way—to make the world a better place. They are generally motivated by affection for people, and often have big dreams and plans to make people happy."
From Cafe Astrology website.

Those lines hit it exactly. It is change that I seek, for me and for the world.

My husband sent gifts from afar. I got a Bonsai tree in the mail and a toaster oven from my children. Some school clothes from my mother-in-law and a pair of one-of-a-kind knitting needles from my friend, V. My mom gave me a book yesterday and bought me lunch and a big waffle cone of Hansen's ice cream. 30 of my friends wished Birthday greetings on Facebook and a few sent me texts or called. My older brother sang to my mail box-very sweet.

I was taken to dinner by old family friends-they've known me almost my entire life and happened to be driving from Colorado through Iowa, heading home to Wisconsin. They brought me a rice mix from WI. It was very special for them to think of me in the midst of their busy travel schedule.
My other favorite August birthday is on Jerry Garcia was on the 1st.
I hope everyone has had a blissful day!
Another Leo website!

July Recap

2011-08-02T19:19:00.001-05:00

Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Library)
Changing Heart by Jodi Piccoult (my own shelf)
If I Stay by Gayle Forman (Library)
Fire by Kristin Cashore (library)
Babymouse by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Sisters Grimm (4) by Michael Buckley (Library/g.g.)
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm (library)
Forever (Mercy Falls Book 3) by Maggie Stiefvater
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus (my own shelf)

I'm happy when I've read more than a handful of good books in a month; even during summer when I should have plenty of free time. July's been a good and joyful month with lots of cooking and friends but with enough leftover spare moments to read.

Groovy Girl's 45 minute swim lesson have provided me with lots of quiet time to read. The graduate class I complained about gave me the opportunity to read a bunch of Jennifer L. Holm's books and I have a post planned to share those. I finished off Stiefvater's Mercy Falls series which I loved and hated to see end. I read two of Cashore's Seven Kingdoms series and look forward to where she takes these interesting characters.

I can't pick a favorite. They've all provided me with a different experience, even the titles by the same authors. Where did your July reading take you?

I'm off to a good start for August as I finished Where She Went by Gayle Forman last night with a free flow of tears and several tissues. Now I'm working my way through Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. I have three more weeks before school begins. Bliss.

Upcoming Posts:

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

and a

Jennifer L. Holm discussion

One Thousand White Women; The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

2011-08-01T21:42:00.000-05:00

A friend gave me this book and said "You've got to read this; it's the best book I've ever read."

A big build up. It sat for about 6 months on my to-read shelf by my bed and every time I ran into my friend, Rocky, he would say..."Have you read it yet?" and I'd have to say "not yet, but I'm going to get to it soon." I put a limit on it for myself; I needed to finish it by July.

I finished it last night at 11:57, (July 31). It only took me four days (in between single mother duties as the male half of my family is off on a mission trip to W.Va.) and I liked the book. I don't think it is the best book I've ever ready but I liked it. Mostly it points out human frailty and that it has been with us since the beginning of time.

The book is a bit of historical fiction, according to the author, but not completely. He's mixed true factual events and real people with a whole lot of fiction. The book begins with a peace meeting between Little Wolf, the Sweet Medicine chief, addressing the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, Little Wolf's request was that if 1,000 white women joined them, became brides of Native men and had babies this would be a clear path to assimilation between the races. The idea made perfect sense to the Cheyenne but the peace meeting collapsed and all went home. This book interjects to change the outcome...What if 1,000 white women did marry into the Cheyenne tribe? What then?

May Dodd is a fictitious character who reads like a real person so well is she created. She's a woman of means from Chicago who had the misfortune of falling in love with, Harry, a foreman with her father's company. They live scandalously, unmarried, and have two beautiful babies together. One night while Harry is off drinking, men come and take May and the babies away. The babies end up with May's parents and she ends up in a lunatic asylum-her illness is reported as "moral perversity."

She is approached one day by special permission as she's not allowed to be near men at all during her "confinement" due to her "condition." She and several other women are given the opportunity to volunteer for the Brides for Indians Program. May signs on immediately as this, in an odd way, is her ticket to freedom. As these women travel west on the train we get to know them and it is these women and the friendships that make this book worth reading. My favorite character was Phemie, a strong African escaped slave who made her way to Canada and then signed up for the program to become truly a free woman. I understood her motivation and her need to connect with the Cheyenne.

There are many interesting themes in this book but the idea of humanity came to me over and over. I wanted May to grandly discover how beautiful Native culture was-and she does to some extent-but every time she feels that way something negative happens and she is thrown backwards. Toward the end of the book my mind kept thinking about our current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a no-win situation bullying another culture, just as we did with the Native Americans.

Life keeps circling and humans do terrible things to each other in the name of religion and assimilation. The book made me think, question some preconceived notions and, especially, appreciate the strong women this book introduced me to. The image of Phemie on horseback, May writing, Helen painting and the Kelly twins will stay with me for a long time. This would make a wonderful book club choice as there are so many elements to discuss.

Jim Fergus website

Weekend Cooking without the cooking; Food For the Soul

2011-07-30T15:55:00.001-05:00

It is blisteringly hot here. We just rode our bikes to the library. It was Groovy Girl's idea...oh, it was hot, hot, hot especially for a little girl to pedal a bike without gears. We did pick up quite a few tasty nuggets while we were there though so I present to you today a combination Library Loot and Weekend Cooking; a mixed bag of ~~greens~~ books!

Food for the Soul:

1. In The Green Kitchen; Techniques to learn by heart by Alice Waters (2010).

Alice is a food queen, to me! I've briefly paged through this handy book and know I'm going to enjoy it. She highlights chefs known for their love of local food and each shares a cooking tip and a recipe. As I open the book at a random page, David Chang is the featured chef , and his tip is "Pickling Vegetables" (81) where he writes about using salt and sugar for quick pickling to serve watermelon, radishes, daikon radishes and cucumbers as appetizers. Right now this sounds like an excellent idea as it doesn't involve turning on the oven. I may have to request this for my birthday which is just around the corner (Aug. 3rd).

2. Mama Panya's Pancakes; A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary and Rich Chamberlain; ill. by Julia Cairns (2005).

This is a delightful book from one of my favorite publishing companies, Barefoot Books. Adika and his mother head to the market. As they travel Adika, always one step ahead of his mother, invites all the friends they meet to join them for his mother's delicious pancakes. He brags and she worries! Mama knows she only has two coins in her pocket to buy flour and a hot pepper. Adika keeps telling his mother it will all work out and as their friend's arrive for the pancake feast they each have something to share.

The watercolor illustrations are filled with the bold colors of Africa and the end pages have tons of related information including a map of Kenya! I love when a book about a country does that; it makes it so much easier to share that information quickly with students as you read the story. Great choice. Of course, the pancake recipe is included. According to the notes pancakes are eaten around the world and it shares the names-Scotland-bannocks, France-crepes, Mexico-tortillas, Indonesia-dadar gutung and China-bao bing. Now I'll know how to order one of my favorite foods.

Find other food-related posts at Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post.

What else did find at the library, you ask?

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (read yesterday's post and find out why I was happy to find this one on the shelf.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman-It was on the hold shelf for me and it will be my next read after I finish One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper-This one just practically jumped off the shelf at me as I perused the YA new shelves.

Now I'm grabbing my book and I'm off to the local water-~~ing hole~~ park to join Groovy Girl and her friend.
Have a blissful weekend whether you're cooking or not!

ps. I found this great blog, Sweet Mama Jane while perusing for a photo of Alice's book. Click there to read a full review of In The Green Kitchen.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and Pink Floyd

2011-07-29T11:19:00.003-05:00

You know how when you are working on something intently but then you get distracted...

That happened to me yesterday while working on my last homework project. I stopped and checked my
emails (this is not the distraction, I do this all the time) but an email from Any New Books? for YA/children's books and I clicked on it (first mistake) and scrolled down where Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly caught my eye and I clicked on it (second mistake) and it took me right to an Amazon page that told me to click (YES!) one more time to read the first chapter. Of course, I hesitated for a second, okay, maybe half a second and then clicked to read (third mistake)!

But then I was swept away. I was able to read five chapters in and am hooked!
Got to find the book so I can keep reading...
Need to know more about Andi.

Also I love it when a book takes me to music which it did by mentioning David Gilmour. I had to stop and google him (distracted from a distraction!?) to see if he was real and yes, yes he is real and happens to be the guitarist for Pink Floyd (my husband would be a bit embarrased that I had to google this fact...) but the song is good maybe even great. I listened to it while I read the fifth chapter, which I must now, well you know, find because it wouldn't give me anymore chapters. Just checked on-line and my local library says it's available-I'm in luck. Never mind that I already have four books checked out-this is how distractions work.

I'm off to the library after I proofread my paper and electronically submit it!
Click here for the synopsis from GoodReads of Revolution, NOT my paper...

P.S. Groovy Girl just looked over at me as I was typing and said "Mommy, I thought you were supposed to be finishing your homework NOT a blog post...hmmm"
She even said it a little snarky with emphasis~ and she raised her eyebrows at me!

Which led to a little discussion about distractions...
and the cycle continues.

What's distracting you today?

Winning Recipe of the Week

2011-07-23T15:11:00.000-05:00

(Food Network Image)

Menu planning has been chaotic this summer but I'm still working at it. My friend, Verda, sent me this recipe to try. One week I purchased some of the ingredients at the farmer's market but then that week I didn't have time to make an actual recipe-it was a lot of noodle soup and cold sandwiches. Yesterday I had the time and my ingredients were still good. Oh, and the results were so delicious and luckily there are leftovers.
Thank you for sharing Verda!

Lemon Rice and Eggplant-Chickpea Curry

3 T. olive oil, divided
1/1/2 cups basmati rice
4 cups chicken stock, divided (I used veggie stock)
1 bay leaf
1 lemon, zested
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground cardamon, optional (i didn't have this)

1 T. butter

1 med. onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium eggplant, peeled and chopped (I used two baby eggplants and didn't peel)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 14-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1 15-oz can of chick peas, drained
salt and pepper
2 rounded T. mild or hot curry paste
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped roasted cashews (I used sliced almonds because they were already in my cupboard, begging to be used)

Directions:
Heat a med. pot over med. heat with extra virgin olive oil. Add rice and toast for 1-2 minutes. Add 3 cups stock and the bay leaf, lemon zest, tumeric, coriander, cumin and dardamon. Cover pot and bring rice to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer rice for 18 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork, remove bay leaf and add butter. Toss to coat the rice evenly.

While the rice cooks, make the vegetables. Heat a deep non-stick skillet over med. heat with 2 T olive oil. Add onion, garlic, eggplant and bell pepper. Cover and cook stirring occasionally 7-8 minutes. Uncover and add the tomatoes, chick peas, salt, pepper, curry paste and remaining 1 cup stock. Simmer 6-7 minutes longer. MIx scallions into rice and top with vegetable mixture. Garnish with roasted cashews (or almonds in my case).

The spices were wonderful and Groovy Girl walked through the kitchen at one point and said "something smells really good!"

This recipe is from Rachel Ray and the Food Network.
Linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme-anyone can play along with a food-related post.

The Talented Maggie Stiefvater

2011-07-22T22:32:00.001-05:00

I was casually doing homework; researching Jennifer L. Holm for my author study and I was on her website and watched a video for Squish, her new comic series. It's cute and will appeal to boys like Babymouse appeals to girls but anyway after the video ended several other video clips were advertised and one of them was by Maggie Stiefvater.

It was for Shiver and then I found this one for Forever which I am reading right now (in between homework). I am amazed at Stiefvater's talent in creating this art and the music that goes with it. I'm going to miss Mercy Falls so I'm not in a hurry to finish the book. Enjoy the video and search for the others on You Tube. More on Jennifer L. Holm and my author study later...

Book Morsels

2011-07-21T23:16:00.000-05:00

A morsel is a tasty bite of something...teasing you to try more or to say "no thanks" but it gives you an idea of what it's all about. I have a backlog of books to review and the task is overwhelming what with homework, drama camps, and all the other fun things of summer getting in the way I thought this would be a perfect way to share the last four books I've read.

Tasty morsels-all delicious in their own way! They are in order as to how I read them not by my enjoyment level.

A Summer Affair by Elin Hildebrand (2008) 478 pages

I read this one on the beach-my first Elin Hilderbrand and I enjoyed her writing very much. This is a quick read about Claire, a young married woman, trying to keep it altogether on the Island of Nantucket. She has a nice home, a handsome husband and several terrific kids. She is asked to cochair an annual charity event which puts her in constant contact with the wealthy Lock Dixon and they have an heated affair. I liked Claire and her friend and sister-in-law, Siobhan, a caterer with her own marital problems. I enjoyed the back story of Claire's life before she married Jason, which comes up as her first love, Matthew Westfield, is a huge rock star and has agreed to come back and play the Gala to help Claire out. Claire is an artist-a glass blower-and that was a very intricate part of the story and was interesting to learn about the delicacy of her art. I now have more Hildebrand on my to-read shelf!

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (2008) 447 pages

My dear friend Jess in Little Rock introduced my to Picoult a few years ago and I've enjoyed most of her collection. This one is about a mother, June, whose husband dies unexpectantly leaving her alone with their young daughter, Elizabeth. June later marries Kurt, the police officer, who helped her out of the car wreck that killed her husband. And one day 5 years into the future June and Kurt are expecting a second daughter when Shay Bourne arrives to help them out of a construction mess. Picoult's tales are complex and I'm not going to give you much more but the story is told through alternating voices; June's, Michael's, a young priest, Maggie's, a ACLU lawyer-(my favorite character) and Lucius, a vibrant man with a few regrets. I thought the death penalty issues were well done and the whole mystical idea that Shay Bourne may or may not be Jesus was an interesting concept. This one was predictable though-I could see Kurt's flaw pretty quickly but not a bad read.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman (2009) 196 pages

I loved this little book and sat right on my comfy sofa and read almost the whole thing in one sitting. Cried quite a lot. Has some similar themes to Before I Fall without all the mean girl stuff. This one has a cast of characters to love: Mia, her rock and roll family and Adam, the to-die-for-boyfriend. Mia plays the cello and loves classical music contrasting with her father who played drums in a hipster band and her boyfriend who plays in an alternative band. It has lots of musical references and I enjoyed Mia's non-traditional family. This one is really well-written and I could easily read it all over again. Now I need to get my hands on the second one, Where She Went.

Fire by Krisine Cashore (2009) 461 pages

I am pretty darn excited to cross both of Fire and Graceling off my to-read list and I'm liked them both. Fire is about the Seven Kingdoms of which Cashore refers to in Graceling but does not continue Katsa and Poe's story. That was a bit of shock to me but once I got past it I liked Fire just fine. After all it does say "companion to Graceling" not sequel to Graceling. Fire is a vibrant colored monster in the Dells born from a human mother and a monster (and cruel) father, Cansrel. Both parents have died and Fire lives in a small house on the estate of Lord Brocker and his son, Archer. There are some unrest issues in the kingdom and Fire is asked to come to King City to meet with Nash, the king and Brigan, his brother and commander of the king's army. I like the world that Cashore has created. This one was very good. Click on the title to read my review of Graceling.

The Smarty Owl has a great full-length review on Fire that is worth reading.

I hope your week has been blissful and full of reading!

Wordless Wednesday; Colonial Williamsburg

2011-07-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

Cousins enjoy Colonial Williamsburg