Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

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.

I was totally going to review a book last night–I was. Only my parents called in a chatty mood, and that distracted me enough that more than one task got put off. The book in question I shall review tomorrow, but since we’re currently experimenting with all things apple, tonight I offer up this Slow Cooker Apple Butter, which is hands down the best of the recipes I’ve tried thus far. It’s flavorful and lovely and I can get past the weirdness of the texture of apple butter, which is one of the reasons I haven’t been a huge fan up ’til now. I was generous with the spices while still using the measuring spoon indicated, and I turned off the slow cooker just before 5 hours, as I recall. (I also tossed the apples in a few splashes of lemon juice.) If you have extra apples and a bit of time, give this one a try!

Yes, I was supposed to post yesterday, but I was poopered by the time I could have–and it works out, because I finished reading Ruby Goldberg’s Bright Idea to my 11-year-old tonight, and now I can review that and take it back to the library tomorrow. Wahoo! We actually had the book in our house because my oldest picked it out for herself at the library…several years ago. I kept thinking that it was so short I’d go ahead and read it first and get it to her any day now, any week now, any month now, ANY YEAR NOW–you get the picture.

I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

At any rate, it was pretty short for her younger sister at this point, but it was just her thing–a school story defined by an emotional, relationship-driven component–and short makes for an easier read-aloud during the school year, anyway. Ruby Goldberg is determined to win gold at the science fair this year as well as cheer up her grandfather, whose beloved dog just died. Can she build the perfect Rube Goldberg machine while learning how to balance what’s most important in her life? Her growth is satisfying, and although the story arc is compressed into less than 130 pages of actual text, it worked for me. Middle elementary schoolers–especially those interested in gadgets of all types–should enjoy this one.