Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I’ve had Lucy Knisley’s Relish: My Life in the Kitchen checked out for a LONG time. I even started it a LONG time ago, but I got distracted and then other people had holds on it, and down it went on the “Currently Reading” list. I decided it was time to work on that “Currently Reading” list, however, and so–after re-starting it, since it had been so LONG–I made my way through and finished Relish this week. Here are my thoughts…

1. NOT a fan of the porn-magazines-in-Mexico section–adolescent boys learning to objectify women is never okay with me. (Porn is also completely contrary to my religious beliefs.) That said, it’s a memoir, and it happened.

2. I do enjoy the way Lucy Knisley writes about food.

3. I really wanted some sort of mention about WHY her parents broke up. I just wanted to KNOW.

4. I used to have a metabolism like that…before I hit 40. It was pretty great, I have to say.

5. Although it does come back to bite you in the form of unsustainable eating habits.

6. But I digress. The point is, I enjoyed it–and I want to make some of the recipes. (Others I’d prefer someone else to make for me, and a few involve ingredients I don’t eat/drink.)

7. I’m looking forward to her other memoirs for adults.

8. Definitely worthwhile for foodies!

In other news, after the warning bulletin about Covid numbers that came through on my phone yesterday, I think we’re going to buy each of our kiddos a candy or three of his/her choice and hunker down for games and a Halloween movie tonight. We’ll leave a bowl of candy on our front porch, but trick-or-treating doesn’t feel like the best idea this year. 2020…

That’s what my oldest daughter is, folks. Where her next youngest sister is loudly, persistently vocal when she’s waiting for me to pass on a book, my oldest is more patient. She is definitely NOT the squeaky wheel in the household, and that fact makes handing her something she’s been waiting for a true pleasure. Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection comes under that category, and I finished listening to it today (thanks in part to the cutting up of another pot of apples for more fruit leather base). A set of 9 short stories set in Cinder’s world, 8 of them involve main characters that we already know; the 9th is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” (NOT Disney’s retelling, by the way. Meyer’s version is a retelling of the original, which is a very important distinction.) Nothing earthshattering is revealed in these tales, but they do give us added perspective on many of Meyer’s characters, and they represent an enjoyable last hurrah for the series. Fans of Meyer’s Lunar world will definitely want to read this one.

In other news, to trick or treat or not to trick or treat? Because that is yet another one of 2020’s miserable, frustrating questions…

Please? Because I missed a week of posts there, and I don’t know that I have a great excuse. (Although it was fall break, and I guess having the kids home–plus occasional extras–may have contributed.) I don’t think I have the energy for a book review tonight, but I did try this Crock-Pot Sweet Kielbasa last week, and I have to say–all of my children scarfed it down. Even my oldest, who has a very strained relationship with smoked sausage after throwing up a Costco hot dog during two different flus, wanted seconds, and that’s nothing short of miraculous. I did have a good amount of extra sauce, but then, I likely used two 14-oz sausages instead of two pounds of it, so that was probably most of the issue. It was smoky and sweet and savory and tender and yummy, and I had to remind all of my offspring that we needed to save a full serving for Daddy, who wasn’t home from work yet. If you’re looking for a quick meal idea–or a meaty snack to bring to a party–look no further!

I got distracted and missed my post on Saturday because I was preparing for an overnight guest…who didn’t end up staying overnight. Ah, well. My food room/guest bedroom looks much neater than usual! Tonight, however, I am here and I am ready to review Louise Miller’s The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living. I’m not surprised my sister recommended this one–if Hallmark made a movie mashup of “While You Were Sleeping” and Anne of Green Gables–to be aired specifically on the Food Network–we’d probably end up with something like City Baker’s Guide. The food and the New England setting are definitely both characters in their own right (they deserve nothing less!), but the real story here is how someone alone in the world becomes part of a loving extended family. They might not be as humorous as Ox & Co.–“these mashed potatoes are so creamy!”–but on the other hand, they’re musical. (Also warm and accepting to an eyebrow-raising degree for a small Vermont town. Vermont is not an immediately-embracing-of-outsiders kind of state.) I feel like the main character’s flaws were pushed a tad aggressively at times, but overall, this was a feel-good novel that’s going to make you almost constantly hungry. (Did I mention that the author is a professional pastry chef?) It may also make a displaced New Englander desperately homesick, resulting in a number of impulse (maple-themed) purchases at Trader Joe’s, but hey–it’s a risk worth taking. (Because maple.) If you love food–or New England–or happy endings, this is definitely a book for you.

That pretty much sums up my day, folks. I took the clean-but-just-tossed-in-a-laundry-basket clothes from the first half of the week and created a laundry mountain on my bed; I even added 3 or 4 new loads to it over the course of the day. The first half of the afternoon, however, was spent at our new orthodontist’s office. He’s out of network but willing to give us an impressive discount despite our lack of orthodontic coverage, and so my oldest is now lisping (she has bumpers, which I never had) and trying to learn how to chew with braces on. Good times! (By the way, Dr. Pezza, if we lived in Rhode Island, I would have come to your practice without a moment’s pause. Do your hands still smell like Dial soap?)

Anyway. Clean sheets are on my bed and Laundry Mountain has been reduced to what will fit in one (larger) laundry basket; all I have left between me and the shower is a review of Jessica Kim’s Stand Up, Yumi Chung!, which is totally worth your time. Funny-but-poignant middle grade fiction is always a win for me, and Kim’s debut novel is a lovely example of it. Yumi Chung has a genius older sister, strict, restaurant-running immigrant parents, and a wholehearted love of comedy. An unexpected chain of events finds her leading a bit of a double life, which eventually comes crashing to pieces around her; that isn’t the end of the person Yumi was hoping to become, however, and watching her use those pieces to create a successful mosaic of her truest self is a joy. Kids should relate; parents will appreciate. Give this one a try!

Because the audiobook of Winter was 24 HOURS LONG, folks. And I finished it last night! The ending was pretty satisfying, and I have to say, the course of the plot was less annoying than I’d feared. (I normally dread having to slog through an against-the-odds rebellion’s early losses to an oppressive regime, no matter who the writer or what the setting.) It was a solid ending to the Lunar Chronicles and an interesting retelling of “Snow White”, despite Snow White and her protector not actually being the main characters. I noticed some reviews complaining about Winter‘s length and pacing, but I thought it did a fairly impressive job of believably portraying the rebellion’s development and progress.

In other news, I got to visit family in Idaho with my kiddos over the weekend, and good times (and food!) were had by all. We listened to Guinea Dog 3 on the way up and Andrew Clements’ A Week in the Woods on the way back, and we got home in time to do a decent amount of the unpacking before dinner and bed last night. Wahoo!

Sorry folks–all of the apples (plus a meeting) distracted me on Wednesday, and now I’m focused on some family time. See y’all Tuesday!

Okay, I’m just in a “Pitch Meeting” kind of mood–can you tell? Last night, however, I finished Sky Island (A Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventure), and it really did feel like a mashup of James Bond and Nancy Drew–and a touch of “Free Willy”–only with a Vietnamese-Californian flair. The pacing felt awkward to me as an adult, but perhaps that’s because the friendship rift is as important to its audience as the solving of the mystery and the confronting of the villain? I’m honestly not sure. I AM pretty sure, however, that my girls are going to thoroughly enjoy this seaside mystery. It’s not the kind of powerful literature that some graphic novels are, but it’s fast-paced adventure fare. Offer it to the readers in your lives accordingly!

On a different note, cross your fingers for tonight’s batch of fruit leather–I added some fresh raspberries and frozen strawberries to the cooking apples at the end. (I’ve still got five boxes of apples, but I’m trying!)

I finished reading Wolfie & Fly aloud to my 5-year-old this week, and honestly, I thought it was odd. There were lots of good things about it–Wolfie’s world getting stretched a bit, kids using their imaginations and working together, the absurdity of the adventure–but the amorphous quality of that adventure caused some problems for my OCD, and I did not love the parents’ lack of anything resembling parenting. Perhaps I would have liked it better if it had been more obviously fantastical? I don’t know. My youngest, however, gave it a thumbs up, and so it’s probably a good choice for the short chapter book stage–under 90 pages, some half-page illustrations, etc. Let me know what you think!

I’m actually doing it today–yippee! And by “IT” I mean reviewing Celia C. Perez’s (pretend that first “e” in “Perez” is accented) Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers, which I finished several days ago now. It was on my radar before it showed up on Granite School District’s “Best Books” list, but I moved it up when I saw it there, and I’m glad I did. Perez’s “strange birds” are a group of disparate girls who find themselves joining together in protest against a traditional hat used by the local Girl Scout-ish group, the Floras. Lane is spending the summer with her grandmother and trying NOT to think about her parents’ in-process divorce; Ofelia is hoping to convince her older and extremely protective parents to sign an application for a journalism contest that might culminate in a trip to New York; Cat has secretly dropped out of the Floras and hasn’t told her parents yet; and Aster, after being homeschooled by her grandfather thus far, is facing middle school in the fall. They’re a somewhat predictably unlikely group, but their journey is unexpected and realistically bumpy. A few pages here and there teeter on the edge of feeling didactic instead of an organic part of the story, but they never–quite–fall in, and what’s a few pages in a few places in a 350-page book? I enjoyed reading Strange Birds AND learned new things about Florida history, so I’d call that a win-win; older elementary girls are going to be fans of this one.