Reading: Century Trilogy

I am two thirds of the way through my third book of the year. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett is literally a heavy book coming in at over 1,000 pages. I could get a workout reading the hardback version.  Luckily, I am reading it on my beloved Kindle, so I am not exhausted from holding the darn thing.And when I fall asleep holding, I don't end up with a black eye!

I started reading it based on the recommendation by my best friend, husband and mother-in-law, three of the biggest readers I know. Varied in what they read, I felt that if all three liked it enough to recommend it, then I too would enjoy reading the series.

 

My husband was the clincher with his statement that it reminded him of Downton Abbey. I am a huge fan of Downton Abbey, being one of the few who did not cheat and find it online before it was premiered  in the USA two weeks ago.

 

Reading: An Inspired Walk

I am sure you all have either heard of, read or seen Wild *. This book seems to be everywhere and with the Reese Witherspoon movie out in theaters, I am sure millions of people will see Cheryl Strayed's story.  I love Reese, she is from my hometown and is my hair crush. However, I wanted to read the actual words written by the girl who walked the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) alone.

 

I am a fan of hiking. After a brief hiatus when the kids were whiny and made for a very painful  hike, I am back. Steve and I hiked a lot this fall and the girls were up for several long hikes as well. However, I am a ninny. I am afraid. Yes, I truly am afraid of hiking by myself. Mostly because I have read too many books about girls getting attacked.  The wild animals don't scare me. The wild people do.

Reading: Slacker or Realist?

Last year I tried a less lofty list of books I wanted to read. And guess what, I ended up with less books read. Ridiculous, really. I set my bar very realistically I thought and I ended up reading exactly three off that list. Even more ridiculous.

The List of Books, 2013 edition

Sarah's  Key
Bossy Pants
Wolf:  The Lives of Jack London
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Lolita
Let's Pretend This Never Happened
Team of Rivals
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Pillars of the Earth
The Silver Linings Playbook
Unbroken
One Thousand Gifts 

Whatever: Give me a book shout out

I am in a book lull...

I have read a few fluff books lately and need a good one I can sink my teeth into.

Something high brow, maybe a classic.

This summer I read The Great Gatsby again. The fire was lit.

Now I need something else to follow the funny books I have been reading...my Tina Fey (Bossy Pants) and Mindy Kaling ( Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?). Both were really well written, funny, insightful books about and by..smart and very funny women.

Book People, send me some ideas.

Library of Congress

Gratituesday: Books

I read a lot, apparently.

Although not as much as I would like or even as much as I used to. I read at night, as part of my night time routine. You know, wash face, brush teeth, moisturize, set alarm clock, read. 

Lately, I have been reading magazines while I sit outside and eat my lunch as well.

I blame the computer for my lack of accomplishments. Worm holes are easy to fall down, reading blogs. But, books are my friends.

As a kid, I was an early and dedicated reader. I read all the time.Charlie Brown books, my Big Book of Fairy Tales, Beatrix Potter, The Bopsy Twins and of course, Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing were all early favorites. I read instead of interacting with my peers once I got to school, as I was VERY shy and changed schools a lot.

Via

Cooking: Chili two in one

I just finished reading a book about an American who meets a Frenchman, moves to Paris to be with him, and ends up living there. The book details their adventures in buying an apartment and her efforts at embracing the cultural mindset of the French in work and everyday life. Oh, and there are recipes.If you are looking for an interesting, fluff book (non-fiction) I am happy to loan it/recommend it to you.  I dream of taking my family and going to live in a foreign country, so this fueled my desire to do so. AND it also brought to the forefront my Americanness. I am not ashamed to be an American, in fact, I am quite proud to be one. However, when I hear about 4,000 calorie meals and listen to my husband complain about our $1,400 a month insurance bill, I do sometimes wish I lived somewhere else, even for a short time. 

VIA

The main character in  Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard (Elizabeth) freely admits to being more comfortable in Victorian England than her native New York City, so when she moves to London to get her master's degree, she does not feel out of place. After meeting her future husband at a conference in Paris, and eventually moving to Paris, she still feels very much at home shopping daily at the local market and eating as the French do, long and late. However, when her very American mother visits, she is annoyed by her American ways of wanting to have leftovers and seconds.  Bounty and the celebration of it is indeed a very American thing. We are a nation built on hard work and determination. We are also very much of the mindset that we deserve the bounty that should come with hard work. 

I have become very conscientious in the last year of the amount of food my family wastes. As someone who really hates leftovers, I have slowly trained myself to eat more of them. (Luckily my husband loves them and falls on that grenade a fair amount). I have started trying to extend my cooking into two meals, for example, turning leftover pork ragu into pork soup with tomatoes and white beans.  I like to think my American love for something to be "two in one".

This week I created my own recipe for a two in one. 

My family love Mex, Tex-Mex, Cali-Mex, really any form of Mexican inspired food. As I mentioned, this week is a hectic week of swim meets (2), volley ball tryouts, talent show auditions, swimming/diving practices, homework and school. That is my kids alone. 

We get home at 6 pm and I like to have dinner on the table before 7 if possible. So, my friend Crock Pot was put to work this week. I read enough recipes to realize that the frozen chicken thighs could be put in the crockpot at 9 am and at 6 pm would be ready rock. 

Boom! My theory was proven right. I put 2  pounds of chicken thighs, a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 1 package of  taco seasoning, and 1 table spoon dried onions in the crock pot, salted it and peppered it, closed the lid, turned her up to high and went and worked out.  I checked it a few times and made sure the chicken was thawing, but I could have left well enough alone.  I also made a batch of Dinner A Love Story's Mexican slaw.

Most of my cookbooks

At 5, I turned it to low and went and picked up the girls from school. When I got home, I sauteed some onions, mushrooms and bell peppers with a little cumin, garlic, salt and pepper for myself. While that was sauteing, I sliced and avocado, warmed up the shells and shredded about half the chicken.  Viola! Chicken tacos with slaw. 

We sat down by 6:30! Everyone loved it.  I was so thrilled with myself!

The girls ate more of the chicken out of the crockpot, but I still had about 5 thighs left and all the juice. I just shoved it in the fridge and called it a night, sharing my plan with my husband for the next night's dinner. ( I may have gloated a bit).

My collection of recipes that work

Steve questioned my plan, wondering if that was gonna be enough.  I assured him I was a master, but decided to stop after drop off the next morning and buy a pound of some sort of beef. 

I won't bore you with the blow by blow of  how the chili came about, just suffice it to say my family was almost giddy and my husband told me several times just how much he really, really  loves me.

I think I hit a carni home run.

Here is the recipe for the two in one. I upped the chicken to 2 1/2 pounds for my future reference as my kids eat like teenage boys. If you are not as inclined to eat what amounted to 9 large tacos,  feel free to just do the 2. Also, I originally was going to get beef stew meat, but the store was out. So fiddle as you like.

Tanya's Two Night Two in One Tex-Mex Coup D'etat 

or

Tanya's Taco/ Chili Two in One

(After making tacos using 2 1/2 lbs chicken thighs, one can diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, dried onions and salt/pepper, start the below recipe with remaining 1 lb chicken)

• 1 lb. Chicken thighs
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 sm. can tomato paste
• 1 onion diced
• 1 can pinto beans, drained
• 1 can black beans drained
• 1 tbl. diced onion
• 1 tbl. chili powder
• 1 tbl. cumin
• 1 tbl paprika
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced 

Fire up the leftover chicken in the crock pot on low. (It will look greasy. Ignore it.) In a skillet, brown beef  with a little salt and pepper. Drain and add to crock pot along with all ingredients EXCEPT beans.  Cook over low for 8ish hours. Add beans one  hour before serving. Serve with cheese, sour cream, left over slaw, etc. 

*If you will not be home for an hour, you could always add the beans in the beginning. I think they might be mushy, but maybe not.         

Reading: What I am reading right now

I am reading a really funny book.

Funny to me because it is about a family with three grown daughters who are very opinionated.

Very familiar territory to me.

I have been reading it at night and it makes me laugh. My husband wakes up and looks like a deer in headlights and I feel a little guilty. But, I keep on reading and keep on laughing. As this is the first book I have read by this author, I can't wait to find her other books and read them.

 

The non fiction humor in it really cracks me up. 

Looking for something "real" and funny to read? Check out 

Why is My Mother Getting A Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask  by Jancee Dunn. Hilarious. Especially if you remember the 1980's.

I am so glad MY daughter picked it up and handed it to me at the book store.Of course there was a very sarcastic look that went along with it.

Can't wait til I get my tattoo...

 

Reading: The food of my soul

I have been on a reading tear the past week or so. 

I have read at least four books and am in the middle of two more as we speak.

Literally, it is the food of my soul. 

I read to entertain myself and to keep my mind sharp. But it is also a form of education and escapism.

If I am lucky, I escape and lose myself in my book. That used to drive my husband nuts. He now listens to books on mp3, so he is right there with me and I have to yell to get his attention.

My favorite book that I have read lately is Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. 

From the start, it griped me and did not let me go. 

What could have been a very depressing book about rural poverty, Hurricane Katrina, and loss of something loved, actually was very heartwarming.

Ironic, I know. 

Via

The main character is Esch, a teenage girl being raised by her alcoholic father along with three brothers in rural Louisiana. She looks for love in the usual stereotypical ways with boys that come to visit her brothers and of course, ends up pregnant. Her brothers deal with the crippling poverty they live in via various outlets. One is sports, another being the adored baby. The third brother raises a fighting pit bull, caring for her as if she were his beloved girl friend or mate. He breeds her and tries to raise her litter of puppies, with a wing and a prayer, literally. His ignorance and dedication at times almost kills her as he gives her horse medication to prevent parvo. 

The family is loyal and dedicated to each other in the way orphans often are, carrying each other through hardships, turning inward. Their father is oblivious to it all, due to his grief and subsequent alcoholism and often ignores what is plainly going on in front of his eyes.

The book's climax is the horrible force and great illluminator that was Katrina, bearing down on the family, forcing them to fight for their lives and bringing things to light that had been hidden. Just like the storm brought to America's attention the plight of the poor in Louisiana and elsewhere, Salvage the Bones brings to light the family's hidden secrets. Esch and her family are forced from their homes and she is forced, along with her father, to face the truth. They begin anew with the hope that he will wake up from his grief and she will finally find the love she has missed since her mother died.

Very well written and page turning to the end, this book grabbed me like few that I have read lately.

My soul was fed.

Reading: I have been busy

I've been busy...

reading that is!
I am happy to report I have read two books on my list of 30. 

One I really loved...and one I did not.

The first was The Hours by Michael Cunningham. I really identified with one of the main characters in particular who realized that she was aging. Like, "What the hell?", realization. I, for one, found my first patch of gray hair this past fall and it hit me... I am aging. I am not 26 anymore. I am okay with that, but it was still a  very weird feeling. The character in the book has the same realization as she reflects her own twenties, and the love she has for a friend who is dying of AIDS. The  book actually focuses on three characters and their dealings with depression, aging and life, and has a very lovely turn at the end. Very well written, especially if you like Virginia Woolf, who is a character in the book.

The second book was by one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver. The Poisonwood Bible was all the rage a few years ago. I have been very hesitant to read it and I now know I should have stuck with my gut. I did not enjoy it one bit. Not sure why. Other than I found it to be a bit trite. I mean the story of a  heavy handed egotistical man being blind to the plight of his wife and family? A wife who blindly follows her husband because she has no other options? Children who are more observant than their parents? Nothing new. While I did enjoy the eldest daughter's internal dialog and the history of the Congo, I did not enjoy the book. Read The Bean Trees if you want to read a good book of hers.

I am reading The Omivore's Dilemma a little at a time. The subject, America's food supply, is a very dry one. However, as I am both fascinated and unnerved by how we get our food and what we eat. I see what many call a "potential for famine" in what we grow, as well as the cause for many of our national problems. The cost of growing, transporting and processing our food is beyond the seed and feed. We so much oil to produce our food that the military factors into the costs of our food. And, since we grow so much of one particular crop, should we have a blight or disease strike it, we could face a very serious problem. Very interesting, serious stuff.

More on that once I finish it...in July at the rate I am going. It's a lot to take in.

I am currently reading a book about food. When French Women Cook by Madeleine Kamman is truly a lovely memoir. As someone who spent loads of time with my grandmothers as a child, I love hearing or reading stories about women learning to cook from their's. My grandmothers varied in ability and desire to cook, so I got a wide variety. Madeleine's family all came from different regions of France, so she received lessons on many different styles of cooking. Quite a lovely read and a cookbook as a bonus.

I read when I eat lunch, when I wake up and don't have to be anywhere (usually Saturday mornings) and at night before I go to sleep. Reading books is like eating a meal for me, necessary and fulfilling.

My dream path to...anywhere!

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