Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I’ll be taking a break for a bit, because I’m having a baby today!  Wish me luck!

When I first started at Borders, I spent a year or three grabbing up every free book available to me (as well as buying a good many books just because the price seemed too good to pass up).  Somewhere in my ten year stint there, of course, I figured out that wanting to read books and needing to own them were not the same thing (also that any living space is at least somewhat limited in its capacity to store all of the books you can acquire for little or nothing as a bookstore employee).  Some time in those first few years, however, I saw an arc (advanced reading copy) of Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories; the topic itself didn’t jump out me, but the author did.  I remember, during my YA Lit class in college, having to choose books to read in a number of different genres and share our experiences with the rest of the class; someone in that class read a book by Daniel Pinkwater, and he went on and on about how hilarious and wonderful he was.  Oh, hey! I thought.  Daniel Pinkwater’s supposed to be really funny!  And so I took the arc.

Since advance reading copies, by definition, come before the book is actually out, that had to have happened around 2001; I haven’t gotten around to choosing it as my book to read until now.  I have to say, though–I’m honestly glad I did.  (And not just because I can now pass it along to someone else.)  It starts out bizarre, in a ‘wow, your family life was insanely dysfunctional’ kind of way, but as it settles into its main topic, it becomes an enjoyable little bit of humorous memoir about dogs in Pinkwater’s life.  It meanders a bit, but after all, cohesive plots are often not the strong point of memoirs; this one is funny enough that I didn’t particularly mind.  If you like memoirs OR dogs, this book is worth taking a look at.  (And if you’re itching to read it, you can comment and I’ll get it back from my friend Brittany when she finishes it and send it on to you!)

I was contemplating what to write about tonight, since I am plenty tired and haven’t tried any new recipes since the pancakes (or finished any books since Saving Lucas Biggs), and I decided I ought to officially announce on here that come next week, regular posts will not so much be happening for a while.  My 3rd c-section is scheduled for Tuesday, and since c-sections come with a four-day hospital stay, well, I won’t be saying much next week.  And after that?  Well, I will then have four children at home, and I imagine that will require some adjustment (this is me understating, by the way).  I would like to try and keep up, mind you, but I’m not crazy enough to think that’s going to happen right away.  For now, then, I’ll post at least once more before the baby’s born, and we’ll just see where it goes from there.  In the meantime, suggestions for baby girl names will still be considered through Monday…

Every other Wednesday my oldest has a church activity from 5-6 and then dance from 6:15-7; this means she has to eat whatever leftovers we have in the fridge (or, if all else fails, a deli meat sandwich) for dinner at 4:30.  Which means, of course, I’m down a good eater for dinner–AND I have to start dinner knowing I have to leave the house to take her just before five, and then be done eating in time to take her from one to the other.  (My hubby then picks her up while I bathe the boy.)  You can probably appreciate the need for an easy meal on these nights, right?  (If you can’t, well, I can’t imagine why you’re interested in this blog.)

Anyway, tonight’s pick was these Apple Pie Pancakes with Vanilla Maple Syrup, which I enjoyed–but which also need some tweaking.  I did love the flavor, although I messed with the spices a bit (I’m just all about more nutmeg flavor, and so I lessened the cinnamon and cloves some to make up for it).  I doubled it but stuck with one (large) apple (out of pure laziness, to be honest with you, but they were apple-y enough, overall), and I used half whole wheat flour because this is the Pregnancy of Craving Fiber!  These are predictable changes for me, however, and I wouldn’t say they NEEDED tweaking if these were the only things I wanted to change.  What needs to change next time, however, is the leavening.  I admit to using 1% milk instead of whole, but that shouldn’t have made the batter all that thin; I’m thinking the recipe really wants buttermilk instead (at least partly), but to do that it possibly needs some baking soda instead of all baking powder, and I need to research how to change the proportions properly.  (And yes, I am aware that altitude may be a major factor here, since the blogger lives in San Diego.)  In the meantime, the flavor truly was lovely.  If any of you know how to make them a bit fluffier without messing with that, please share!

I must be imagining things.  The very year I will be having a baby 8 days after the Newberys are announced is the year that the Medal winner and one Honor book are verse novels; the other Honor book, unbelievably, is a graphic novel.  I couldn’t ask for a more manageable list, but I confess–I’m not entirely comfortable with a Newbery year where no books of a traditional format actually win.  I love verse novels, mind you–love them–but I can’t help wondering why on EARTH they couldn’t find one or two regular novels as well.  Many years see four or five Honor books, and you can’t tell me no worthy contenders came out last year.  I wish I’d been a fly on the wall during the decision-making process.

Anyway, for inquiring minds, here are the ALA Youth Media Award Winners for 2015:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-library-association-announces-2015-youth-media-award-winners-300028995.html

I want to read plenty more than just the Newberys, but I’m  trying to be realistic about what life will be like in the next few months…

Yeah, yeah, like anyone reading this blog really thought of me as being into football.  I am from New England, though, so I’m being sincere when I say ‘Go Pats!’  I always cheer for my home teams–if by cheer you  mean that I’m happy when I hear that they’ve won, but I don’t always care enough about the sports themselves to know much more than that.  (By the way, this is slightly off topic, but I was amused to see my high school prom date’s FB status:  “Let’s show Starbucks drinkers what Dunkin Donuts can do!”)  In all fairness, I did watch as much as I could of the last few minutes of the game, since it was a bit of a nail-biter.  (I was putting the girlies to bed during the interception, though.)

Nevertheless, I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for weeks, and the reason why has nothing to do with the Super Bowl.  The ALA Midwinter Meeting has been going on all weekend, and tomorrow morning they will announce their Youth Media Awards.  (The press conference is from 8-9 in Chicago, which means I may catch snatches while getting the kids ready for school.  We’ll see how that goes.)  I’d like to thank the Salt Lake County Library system, by the way, for upping the number of hold slots allowed per library card–I should have enough spots to put all of the new Newberys on hold this year.  (Many of the other Award categories tempt me as well, but I will try to be realistic about all of the things that are NOT going to happen in the next month or so!)

There you have it, folks.  Be a fellow geek and watch the broadcast online.  (Let’s just hope I don’t randomly go into labor between now and then; I never have before, but I sure am contracting, and there’s a first time for everything…)

I finished Saving Lucas Biggs the other night–staying up WAY too late to do it, I might add–and I have to say, I really did love it.  And yes, I checked it out of the library precisely BECAUSE it looked good, but it was better than I’d hoped for all the way through, and how often does that really happen?  I was a bit worried at first about some of the subject matter–some things are hard for me to read about pregnant–but it did such a good job of moving along that I was okay with it.  Not that it was constant crazy action, mind you, but it was always moving forward with purpose. If that makes sense.

The basic plot  revolves around thirteen-year-old Margaret, whose father has been framed for, convicted of, and sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit.  In a desperate attempt to save him, she uses her family’s “quirk”–the ability to travel through time–to try to change history back in 1938.   To tell you more seems unfair, really; one of my favorite parts of the book was its ability to go places I wasn’t actually expecting.  After all, who doesn’t love an unpredictable but entirely satisfying ending?  You’ll just have to read this one yourself.  It’s poignant, original, and says amazing things about friendship and love, so I promise you–it’s worth it.

This is what happens when you’re 8 1/2 months pregnant, right?  Anyway.  Remember the Apple Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins from the other day?  I opened up a big can of pumpkin for those, and since that left me with more than half a can, and we had soup last night, I went looking for a recipe for pumpkin bread that would use up a bunch of it (because who doesn’t love bread and soup as a meal?).  When I found this Healthy and Delicious Pumpkin Bread, I decided it was the winner–it made two loaves, which was perfect (I wanted an extra loaf to give to a friend), and I had all of the ingredients.  I even mostly followed the recipe!  I made the applesauce substitution she suggested, and I went with a little less than half whole wheat flour instead of just a third; I also went heaping on the nutmeg measurement (I’m nuts for nutmeg!) and used regular vanilla yogurt instead of Greek (it’s what I had).  I did have to extend the cooking time, which wasn’t surprising to me.  I know my oven is somewhat slow and using glass pans exacerbates that, but 50 minutes still seems unlikely.  Mine took more like an hour.

It was an hour, however, that was well-spent.  Everyone was happy to eat it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The pumpkin flavor was milder, which (as I’ve said before) is what I prefer, and it was moist and tender.  It crumbled a little when cut, but that may well have been that it got into the oven on the late side and was still warm (the slightly melt-y quality that warmth gave the butter MORE than made up for the crumbliness).  Bottom line? We’ll be making this recipe again.

It’s true that a more-savory-than-our-usual-recipe cornbread was possibly not the best choice for breakfast on Saturday, but since we’d had sweeter muffins for dinner the night before, I opted to try this Creamed Corn Cornbread anyway.

We were underwhelmed.

To be fair, my picky middle mentioned several times that something smelled “really good,” and she claimed to like it initially.  My oldest, however, is the one who usually likes new recipes, and she was unimpressed from the first bite.  (My son, to be fair, did eat most of it without prodding.  One can’t really expect a two-year-old to do that again with the same recipe, though.)  And my middle stopped liking it about 2/3 of the way through.  (I may have made a tactical error in pointing out that it had actual corn in it, but I don’t think that was all of her problem.)  As for me, well, I probably need to accept that I don’t love the texture of actual corn in my cornbread.  I love cornmeal, you understand–love the grittier feel it brings to bread–but the creamed corn…nah.  Not for me.  Add to that the fact that there was less sugar (I do like sweeter cornbread) and the cooking method browned it more than I prefer, and well–shoot.  It’s probably not the recipe’s fault, but this is not the sort of cornbread that is going to work for our family.

And that’s saying something, folks, because she’s my pickiest.  I opted for breakfast for dinner tonight because, well, it’s what sounded good, and my energy level isn’t exactly impressive at the moment.  I picked two recipes and gave my girlies the choice; I didn’t ask the boy, since he’s guilty of choosing something and then not eating it on an almost daily basis.  They voted for these Apple Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins, and let me tell you, they were lovely.

I didn’t actually change them up much, either.  I subbed maybe 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour instead of using all white; since it gave you a range on the amount of chopped apple, and I had barely over two cups when I’d peeled and chopped one old tiny one and one big Costco one, I stopped there.  (I probably would have been happy with more, but I was feeling lazy and I’d met the minimum.)  I opted to use up the last of my dark brown sugar instead of using light, but that was a ‘it’s drying out, there’s not much left, and it fits the flavor profile’ kind of decision.  And I put sugar on top of some and not others as a ‘is it worth the extra sugar?’ kind of experiment.  (Oh, and I used salted butter.  Because I didn’t care and I haven’t found that it matters.)

Okay, that sounds like more changes than it felt like, but I promise you, they weren’t significant.  And the muffins were tasty.  I could have chopped the apples into smaller pieces, but they were still good the way they were.  I enjoyed them so much partly because the pumpkin was mild–I want to like the taste of pumpkin better than I do, really–and partly because there was a nice mix of spices.  I love cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves, and I’m okay with smaller amounts of ginger and allspice.  (I don’t particularly care for strong ginger flavor; I’m fine with allspice, but it seems like such a weak and vague sort of spice to me.  Really, I’m just nuts for nutmeg.)  These proportions were perfect.  My friend Britt pointed out that she’s not in the mood for pumpkin anymore–the time has come and gone–and my friend Andrea would likely agree, but the New Englander in me is up for fall flavors pretty much all the time.  (And like I said, the pumpkin was mild.)

In summation–because that’s a fun phrase to use now and then–I liked these muffins better than several other recipes of a similar type that I’ve tried.  They’re worth making.

If you’re in the mood, that is.