Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Since today is the first of two odd-numbered days in a row, I’m taking the easy way out.  Have you read Mother Bruce yet?  Because this tale of a grouchy foodie (bear) who finds himself an extremely reluctant mother (figure) to four baby goslings cracks me up.  The art is pure fun, the text satirically hilarious for adults AND wildly entertaining for kids, and…yeah.  Grab this one, folks–whether you have kiddos the “right age” for it or not.

Quite literally!

The good?  No further ear complaints from my 5-year-old today.  Instead we had a lovely play date with friends in the neighborhood AND made it to Ream’s to buy apples, apples, and more apples.

The bad?  My hubby’s got a stressful, stressful week at work, and my oldest has big projects due that she’s stressed about.  Also, my 2-year-old’s being very, very two.

And the ugly?  My kitchen and dining room.  Intellectually, I know I accomplished multiple things, but you wouldn’t know it to look at those two rooms.  I guess we’ll see what happens tomorrow…

No review today–my hubby got in from out of town and then my 5-year-old woke up freaking out about a clogged ear.  Here’s hoping that there’s not a Sunday trip to Instacare in our future!

I read Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl back when it became a Newbery Honor book, and I was impressed with it.  When I saw she had a new book out, then, it went on my list; it shot up to the top when I realized that my 8-year-old had borrowed Roller Girl from her teacher’s library, read it, and loved it.  (She’s kind of obsessed with graphic novels.  I would have waited a year or two before getting it for her myself, but what’s done is done, right?)  So I checked All’s Faire in Middle School out on her library card and read it myself before sending it her direction.

Yeah, I won’t be sending it in her direction just yet.  And it’s not because it’s offensive or not a good book, because it’s not and it is.  It’s just that she’s EIGHT, and some of the middle school issues and drama–not to mention the peeking at an older girl’s romance novel on the sly–are either straight up a bit old for her or not what I want her to be focusing on.  (Which I’m sure is why the suggested age range is 9-12.  I’d pass it on to my 11-year-old if I could do it without her younger sister seeing it and completely freaking for it, but they share a room.  I don’t actually think that’s possible.)  I’m going to return it in favor of some Jennifer L. Holm graphic novels, but I won’t be forgetting about it any time soon.  Imogene’s struggles to adjust to a foreign environment, her painful journey through tween girl friend issues, and her interactions (and relationship readjustments) with her family make for a visual reading experience that’s both humorous and poignant; Jamieson does coming-of-age very, very well.  If you have a middle schooler–especially a girl–you should grab this one.*

*In the interest of full disclosure, the queen mean girl in the story uses the full length, full strength version of OMG multiple times.  We’ve had the conversation with our kiddos that we don’t use that expression long since, and I don’t see them picking it up just from reading this.  On the other hand, it is there.  Just so you know.

If you know me at all, you know I grew up in RI but now live in UT, which means I pretty much gave up amazingly authentic (and just plain amazing) Italian food for amazingly authentic (and also amazing) Mexican/Latin food.  (Not quite a fair trade, given my Parmesan cheese obsession, but not a terrible one either.)  When I opted to try this One-Pot Chilighetti recipe for dinner last week, I was hoping it would be the kind of mashup that gives a nice nod to both contributors, and I have to say, we weren’t actually disappointed.  No doubt my Italian friends’ grandmothers are shuddering in their graves, and possibly some of my Latino friends are rolling their eyes, but all of my kids really liked this one, and I enjoyed it, too.  (Although next time I’m totally chopping up some olives for the half of us that like them to put on top.)  My bean-hating-8-year-old said not a word about the beans, my almost-3-year-old fed FAR more of it to herself than she usually bothers with, and my 5-year-old gave it two thumbs up.  Even the 11-year-old was pleased, and my hubby willingly ate the leftovers, which almost never happens with pasta.  A clean sweep all around!  I did mess with the spices a little, since I vastly prefer cumin to chili powder–I used 2 tsp of cumin and 2.5 of chili powder, after consulting with my friend Andrea–and I swapped out the kidney beans for red beans, since they sit with my digestion a bit better.  (I may also have tossed some garlic in to saute with the ground beef and onion at the end–I honestly don’t remember.)  OH, and I used V8 instead of plain tomato juice, because I like the taste.  What really matters is that everyone ate it happily, and while it made a ton, they all ate the leftovers happily as well.  THAT, my friends, is a clear win.  You should try it for dinner this week!

Okay, so maybe it’s a brinner, but this Strawberry Cheesecake Baked Oatmeal was lovely.  I was looking for a baked oatmeal recipe that wasn’t peanut butter or banana–or apple, because I was about out–and this one said fresh OR frozen strawberries.  I looked no further, because a)strawberries and b)cheesecake and really, there is no c.  They had me at strawberries and cheesecake.  Interestingly enough, it got mixed reactions when I served it up; my oldest loved it, although she doesn’t actually like cheesecake, but my middles weren’t unqualified fans.  (My two-year-old is, you know, two, so her relationship to food is a complicated one.)  My hubby doesn’t enjoy the texture of oatmeal, though, and I’m wondering if that may have been a factor for some of the kiddos.  Either way, I certainly enjoyed it, which means they’ll likely get a chance to change their minds.  Let me know what you think!

Seriously.  I want to take a road trip there, because Angel Island just soared up to the top tier of my “places I want to visit in the US” list.  Did you know that Angel Island–an island near Alcatraz, ironically–was known as the Ellis Island of the west?  In the latter years of the 19th century up until just before WWII, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other immigrants were detained there, hoping to gain entrance to America.  Their experiences and history make for fascinating reading, although they also make one shudder at the racism they endured.  Russell Freedman excels at making history accessible and compulsively readable for younger readers (AND older readers with small children at home and resultantly diminished powers of concentration); his Angel Island:  Gateway to Gold Mountain is no exception.  Don’t miss it!  (And if you’re planning a trip to San Fran, take me with you, will you?)

It’s January.

Which is alarming because, for the first time in I don’t know HOW long, I’ve managed to read only one of last year’s four Newbery winners.  ONE!  And it was essentially picture book length!  The other three are all well over 300 pages, and I haven’t gotten to them partly because I have so much less time to read than I used to and I desperately want to FINISH books.  Which is why, in 2018, I set a Goodreads goal of 10 fewer books than last year; I want to read more of the longer books that I’ve been putting off for being, well, longer.  Now, the catch is that I also like to read a lot of the books my older girlies are interested in, and so this will be the year of bigs and littles for me–big books that I’ve been putting off because Goodreads is already yelling that I’m a book behind!, and little books (or graphic novels, because they’re fast if not little) that my girls want and that I’m curious enough about to read before handing them over.  I’ve already finished one of the latter this year, and tonight I get to review one of the former.  (Although to be fair, it’s noticeably illustrated and has a large, impressively spaced font style, but still–370 pages!)

Technically, of course, When the Sea Turned to Silver is checked out on my oldest daughter’s card; she loves Grace Lin’s most recent books.  Since one of those was a Newbery, however, I care enough about Lin’s other books that I sequestered this one in my room until I got the chance to read it.  (Does that make me a bad mother?)  It seemed a good choice for easing into a commitment to read longer books this year, though, and so off my shelf it came.  And I have to say, I really enjoyed it.  It suffered a bit from the necessity of reading it in smaller chunks–most books do–but the way the stories in it weave together and build toward the climax gave it an added measure of intensity for me.  Pinmei’s social anxiety also made her a more interesting main character, perhaps because I know and love more than one person with similar struggles.  Watching her grow and develop into a strong (female) protagonist from such a timid beginning is both entertaining and rewarding, so seriously–don’t miss this one.

When we got my hubby’s annual Christmas ham (he works for a small company–it’s something they do), I went looking for ham recipes to use up the rest of the what was in the freezer (not last year’s Christmas ham, mind you–I got one over the summer).  And while I love cheesy, hammy goodness as much as most of the people I know, I had already made our favorite homemade mac and cheese with ham and I was trying for something a little less cholesterol-laden.  (Yes, I know, it’s ham, but still.)  This recipe for Potato, Ham, & Carrot Casserole caught my eye for that reason–no cheese.  AND something other than broccoli or peas (which I love, but again, I’d already gone down that road).  Granted, it sounded like kind of a strange combination, but I had all the ingredients, so why not?

Honestly, I’m still surprised at how much I liked it.  It did what a good casserole recipe is supposed to do–it tasted like something more than just the sum of its parts.  The carrot flavor came through and actually blended enough to work nicely, and the onions were part of the whole in a way that’s especially nice when you’re feeding children.  When I asked the kiddos for feedback I got two thumbs middles (one of which upgraded to middle-to-up by the end of the meal) and one thumbs up–from my most stalwart potato-hater (!).  And while I’m STILL a bit weirded out by this, I’m certainly not complaining!  The only change I made–other than using diced ham instead of sliced, because it’s what I had–was to use a homemade cream of celery substitute instead of canned cream of mushroom, since that was going to make all of us happier.  (I also think the flavors work better, but maybe that’s just me.)  OH, and I threw a tablespoon of butter into the pan to cook the ham and onions.  (Because BUTTER.)

Bottom line?  My hubby gave it a thumbs up as well, so this is definitely happening again.  Give it a try!*

*Just so you know, this only fed all six of us because I still have littles.  If your family is bigger than four–or if more than one or two of those four have my kind of metabolism–I’d serve it with some sort of bread to fill people all the way up.  

Yes, I missed a post on the 11th, but there was vomit, and I just didn’t have it in me.  (The two-year-old got the short straw, in case you were wondering.)  Tonight, however, I’m realizing that even without vomit, I may still not have a post in me.  I’ve even tried two new recipes in the last two days, but between the sick child, a lack of sleep partially caused by the sick child, and a general inner fog (caused in part by the lack of space a newly-not-napping two-year-old gives her mother)–meh.  The beef stew recipe wasn’t exciting anyway.  I’ll post the baked oatmeal one soon, but in the meantime, well–sleep beckons, and coherency seems beyond me.  I shall return on Monday!