family – Page 20 – Peaceful Reader

Weekend Cooking; Pinterest Oatmeal and my dinner plans

We’ve all been healthier this week and I’ve made a few good dinners. It’s been busy though and our tree is being decorated in bits and pieces. Unlike the beautiful ceremonial traditions of decorating the tree together that other families might participate in we’ve done a little here and there all week long.

Groovy Girl has an electronic addiction and can often be found watching HGTV before anyone else is up. One day this week we came down and she was watching a redecorating show that not only spruced up a couple’s condo but made it ready for Christmas as well. The couple have no children and were looking for a very neutral/natural look. Husband, wee girl and I were all transfixed as we ate our cereal and watched how they transformed their space into Christmas without splashing it with red and green. The next day husband and I chatted with GG about what we liked about the decorations and we formed our own plan.

We created our own natural ornaments using a big tube of green balls from Hobby Lobby. The matte and sparkly balls we kept and hung but the super shiny more traditional balls we wrapped in a natural oatmeal yarn I had on hand. We also happened to have a bag of pine cones from my mother’s farm and we’ve hooked those around the tree to blend in also. My husband hated the idea of spending $15.00 on new lights to decorate the tree so he loosely went round twice on the skirt and left them laying. Interesting. It looks great except when it starts to turn dark in the house and the ornaments have nothing to light the way.

What have I cooked this week?

Monday-organic chicken breasts, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, and salad. This meal was so “traditional” I felt like I wasn’t at my own house.

Tuesday-cheese quesadillas with salad on the side. I had these plated up beautifully but failed to take a photo of them.

Wednesday-$5.00 pizza for Teenage Boy. I slow cooked garbanzo beans that night though prepping for a later meal. One day of carry-out is still pretty unusual for us but we have two plays going on and I have forgiven myself already.

Thursday-Husband’s night to cook and he made/burritos which were yummy! I love it when he has a plan and carries it out. Thank you sweetheart.

Friday-we had leftovers and appetizers as we were all heading to different events. (I prepped and roasted the butternut squash, which is the last vegetable to be eaten from our garden!) I am always happy with chips and salsa for dinner.

Saturday-I am making a pasta recipe using the golden squash, some spinach, and some of the garbanzo beans based on this recipe from Epicurious and a recipe my mother-in-law sent me.

I made a wonderful baked oatmeal dish this morning that I found as I lay in bed early (like 5 am) and used my time to scroll through pinterest. At around 8:30 when I actually forced myself to get up I tossed this dish together in my slow cooker and it made the house smell so flavorful! Groovy Girl dismissed it as too creamy (yes, she is a brunette Goldilocks) but husband and I gobbled it up. He ran a Jingle Bell race this morning and I cheered him on so we were both chilly. The next time I make it I would chop the apples up more. I only sliced them using my OXO apple slicer and that was the first thing that bothered GG-huge soft apple slices in the middle of her bowl. Oh, the horror! Husband and I will be eating this all week long for an excellent breakfast treat.

(brown sugar, cinnamon, and sliced apples ready for oatmeal)

We are about to eat the pasta, butternut squash, spinach dish. I made large cheese curls from a Parmesan cheese triangle but I also have some fresh Gorgonzola from our dairy because their is something about squash that pairs well with Gorgonzola’s pungent flavor.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click to her link to find other food-related posts.

In other news I really want these gorgeous purple shoes, love the price but hate spending $10.00 on shipping. What do you do? I am about half way through Louise Erdrich’s The Round House and love her writing.

Advent Joy!

Happy St. Nicholas’s Day!

Our advent season is a little wacky this year because Groovy Girl is spending Christmas in Florida with my mother, brother, and his son, her cousin. I wanted to do something special for her because she loves Christmas (duh, she’s a ten year old girl) and I know Florida will be fun but she will miss us here. We need to do plenty of pre-celebrating so she doesn’t feel she is missing things here.

Pinterest has a ton of cool advent ideas which spurred me to create one for her based on the fact that a purchased one would be left unfinished before she left and that is just the kind of emotional dilemma she doesn’t need as she leaves us all for the glory of Disney World.

I took 15 recipe cards one night while watching some television and tried out a few fun ideas for her to do. My husband found red and white envelopes to put each card in, numbered the cards, and taped them up in a tree design.

So far she has opened:

1. watch the (original) Grinch movie

2. one trip to Claire’s

3. read 3 favorite Christmas books with mama

4. Decorate for Christmas with Christmas music playing

5. make paper snow flakes and hang them.

We’ve done all of them except the Claire’s trip. We are going to do that one right before she leaves on her trip. Last night we did the snowflake one using a template I had at work. She folded them up origami style and I cut them out as the tiny grooves were hard for her to maneuver wielding a scissors. We now have snowflakes hanging around our house. No snow on the ground here but we are festive inside.

My stepmother has always sent my kids December 6th gifts to celebrate St. Nicholas Day which was a family tradition in her full German family so today Groovy Girl had an actual box to open instead of an envelope. There were plenty of treats nestled inside. The true celebration involves boots and St. Nick with a long flowing robe as he checks up on children-adding them to his naughty or nice list, I’m sure.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. How are you getting in the mood?

Weekend cooking; O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

We went yesterday to get our tree and I wish I could say it was a glorious event but it wasn’t. The kids argued for a bit, the selection was low from this summer’s drought, and we were in a hurry so husband and Teenage Boy could get to the movie theater to see the new Brad Pitt movie (excellent they said).

Our Christmas tree search is an annual event we do with another family but they blew us off this year with some excuse about too much to do on Saturday. We understand busy but Groovy Girl was steamed about this as she thought it was “boring” without their rambunctious young kids. She was left with just us and Teenage Boy who made her mad in the car but did get her laughing at the tree farm. What’s she going to say when it’s just me and her dad with her? Even more boring, I’m sure. O families!

We did manage to laugh together. We had glasses of cider inside the lodge while we waited for our tree to be shaken. We did run into other friends and in general enjoyed shopping for our tree at the same place we’ve gone for the last four years. After the movie my husband got the tree in the stand with NO cursing and we toasted the tree with some homemade hot chocolate to top off the day.

Did I cook this week though? No really.

It was a strange (non) cooking week for me as I spent most of the week down with a cold. Monday night I sent TB to get a pizza so I would not have to cook. Tuesday I made a quick Ramen-type meal for them and went to bed. And the week continued like that.

Last week I’d whipped up a big pot of chicken noodle soup using the chicken from our Thanksgiving meal. I sauteed onions, celery, carrots, and lots of garlic and added the broth from cooking down the chicken bones. Once the broth and the vegetables are together I added big fat eggless noodles. I make it just like my grandmother made it before me. I remember watching her fascinated as she picked the meat out of the small nooks of the chicken. For years I used this same soup method but substituted the chicken for blocks of tofu. I used Miso paste or vegetable stock and my kids still loved it, especially the thick noodles. How I got sick after eating this soup all last week is a mystery to me. Maybe though it is why my cold only lasted for four days!

This week I’m waiting for inspiration. I have sweet potatoes and a butternut squash waiting for me to get creative. Any ideas?

This post is very loosely linked to Beth Fish Reads weekly cooking meme. Check out her sight for many more cooking related posts. She has a fabulous post up about mouth-watering pull-apart rolls.

Brave New World

For ten days I’ve been blog free-missing all the crazy political disagreements. We took a road trip to Oberlin, OH soon after election night. Long drive. Parent’s weekend. I still haven’t recovered. Car rides of that length showcase our age limitations as I struggle to unfold my small frame from our small/old Saab each time we stop for fuel and bathroom breaks. At least now we have three drivers so on the way there I didn’t have to drive at all. I played with Groovy Girl, read, and did some knitting. Bliss.

Friday night dinner-probably should have edited out all
that table clutter but hey, it’s real life.

My in-laws met us in Oberlin coming from the D.C. area and we had a wonderful time visiting together and exploring Oberlin. My mother-in-law is an amazing woman, truly. She is a successfully crafty woman, taking on new projects with gusto, turning out finished projects that look far better than the original picture. She turns out award-winning quilts, scarves, hats, towels, American Girl accessories, and period costumes for smallish children to wear to colonial villages. I have many of her handmade gifts and I treasure each one.

(Teenage Boy’s Graduation quilt)

She made a quilt for our oldest daughter for graduation and completed Teenage Boy’s quilt in time for his early graduation. She sent a photo of the quilt for graduation as they were traveling out of the country at the time so we waited until this weekend to actually pick up the quilt-I wanted her to be able to present the quilt to him. Isn’t it beautiful! It is a t-shirt quilt. She wasn’t very excited when I told her I wanted a t-shirt quilt for him. Her mind bleeped “tacky”, I’m just sure. But instead of tossing my idea aside she went to a quilting class and t-shirt quilts just happened to be one of the topics. I’m pretty sure Teenage Boy will love this quilt forever and for me, it makes me smile and teary as I can look back on all his adorable stages and activities; from the Winnie-the-Pooh theatre shirt, the “I need my space NASA shirt” that he wore for days on end as a four-year-old, to his love for various sports teams, HP, and his travels to Alaska, Montana, and Colorado. It’s all there, one pretty great life, wrapped up on a gorgeous quilt.

Every once in a great while I think I could trade my husband in but then I remember how much I love his parents and decide to keep him forever again and again.

Happy travels…

Ghosts of the Titanic by Julie Lawson

Ghosts of the Titanic

Julie Lawson

2012

168 pages

I plucked this title from the library shelves on a recent visit. I was thinking of my students who just love anything to do with the sinking of the Titanic. As I’ve written about in other posts it is always fitting to find out a book is worthy of its price tag before I buy it for the library.

I wasn’t sure this one was going to be with it until I’d made it more than half way through. I often tell my students that the best part of the book doesn’t come until the middle of the book-good thing I took my own advice. I struggled with the narration, which gave me little empathy for Kevin Messenger, the young man telling the story. He seemed whiny and filled with negative energy and his relationship with his father is particularly difficult. But I love stories that intertwine and this one does just that. Mixed in with Kevin’s story is Angus Seaton’s tale, a 17-year-old seaman who was on the Canadian ship first on the scene to rescue Titanic survivors. Through Angus’s early actions he forever connects his life to the Messenger family. This insider look at those days immediately following the Titanic disaster are little known treasures of information and will delight my students. The fact that this also becomes a real ghost story for Kevin Messenger will make this tale even more thrilling!

Random quote:

Angus had lost count of the number of trips they’d made to the ship. Ten? Twelve? Back and forth to the ship, pulling hard at the oars or taking his turn at the tiller, breath steaming into icy clouds, the grim task never easing up. More bodies to be numbered and recorded, more personal effects to be bagged and tagged. He longed to be back in port, to tear off his clothing, peel away his skin, throw himself into something that didn’t scream of death. (36-37)

The difficult task of pulling bodies from the freezing water and then recording their personal items so they could be identified was a horrific experience for this group of seamen and one that affected many for years after. Angus is overwhelmed and because of his weariness he ends up with an object in his pocket that should have been tagged for one of the bodies. This object links him to the woman throughout his days and makes him crazy with grief, regret and her ghost.

Pick up this book to find out how Angus and Kevin are connected through time.

Happy Halloween.

Weekend Cooking; Recipes Galore

My new trick is searching for recipes on my Kindle while standing in my kitchen. Who knew this would be my new favorite thing? My only wish is that I could figure out how to put a pin-button on my kindle-there must be a way so if any of you smarties out there know how it’s done I would be pin-happy! It’s been a busy week and yet I’ve accomplished some good meals throughout-even some that everybody liked.

Last Sunday I cooked the last of our farm chickens from Shamrock Farms. We had a very traditional meal of roasted chicken, baked potatoes, and a salad. I love grabbing potatoes from our pantry in the basement. They arrived a few weeks ago as my mother dug the last of her potato piles up, tossed them in a box, dirt and all, and brought them to me. I have a hard time ever purchasing store bought potatoes after our supply runs out.

From the leftover chicken scraps I made this Chicken Alfredo which made the family absolutely swoon. They were mesmerized by the carbs and chicken combination as I don’t usually make this dish. It was far from the overly-drenched saucy thing I picture in my mind, the recipe was easy to follow, and it took me less than 30 minutes to make since the chicken was already cooked. I didn’t have fettucine noodles but I didn’t let that stop me and just substitution another pasta shape and I’m pretty sure my peeps didn’t even notice. Obviously not my photo then above either for those quick thinkers. On the side we had these delicious zucchini oven chips-which took longer to make than the pasta but were pretty worth it. It was our last zucchini from our very own garden also so we celebrated that.

My mom brought me venison steaks from well, a deer, my step-father shot with his manly bow and arrow last season. For a girl who’s been vegetarian her whole life this was a reach but you can’t get more local than his farm so I gave it a try. Other than some jerky he shared with us last year none of us had ever had venison before and yet it was a winner. I found this great marinade recipe and soaked the four steaks overnight. My mom gave me very specific instructions that I should cook them only 3 minutes on each side or they get too dried out and I didn’t listen. Or more accurately I didn’t believe her. I did 5 minutes but I think the marinade counter-balanced that a little bit because except for the smallest piece they were all moist and readily eaten up even by the ever-picky Groovy Girl. I only ate half of mine, choosing to focus on the leftover salad from Monday. If my mom chooses to share again I will take them because the family ate them up, especially Teenage Boy. I thought they were gamy tasting but then I’m happy with salad and potatoes.

Yesterday I used the chicken bones and made a delicious chicken noodle soup for dinner. I had my own recipe in my head and yet I have to admit I googled a recipe just to check if I was missing anything major and found this great post and Hyacinth’s recipe @ PW. I might go back to that recipe next time I want to make broth-I loved that she left the onion skins on! Bold move.

I also whipped these cookies up last Sunday night to serve at our Teacher Preview book fair event. I made these into stars with yellow frosting for the theme of Every Reader’s a Star! I wanted a super easy recipe that would not require two hours of refrigeration and this recipe rocked. Making Christmas cut-outs will be so much easier this season.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click to her site to find many other food-related posts.

Weekend Joy.

I’ve had a great weekend. We picked out two lovely pumpkins on Friday and we’ve taken several walks to admire Fall colors. I’m almost finished reading Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill and I’m at a point where I don’t want to put it down. I read four more chapters this morning before going to church. I have to really push for other times in my days to read other than bedtime because then I only get 2-3 pages read before my eyes drift dreamily shut.

I finished the post about four of my favorite ARC’s from September’s reading. It is frustrating to plan a post in my head, finish the books, but not get to my computer all week long to write it. I have a certain glee over finishing and finally completing the post.

The best part of my weekend though was spent curled on the sofa with Groovy Girl and the dog, watching two movies on Friday and Saturday night.

My husband and I awarded her 2 movie nights for how well she prepared herself for a recent Social Studies test on Native tribes. She studied three different times with us and her hard work paid off-she scored 100 % on the test! My husband took her to our local movie store on Friday night even though we have a Netflix acct., somehow now going to the movie store is more thrilling that pulling it from the ole queue.

Friday we settled in with a big bowl of popcorn and watched We bought a Zoo with Matt Damon as the adorable widow with two adorable children. I don’t get out much apparently because I didn’t pay attention while this was at the theater so when the credits started flowing I knew we were in for something interesting with Cameron Crowe as the director. His other big movie, Almost Famous, is one of my favorites. I teared up a few times during the movie as the family struggles with the mother’s death. I know my family would also completely fall apart if something tragic happened to me. For Real-we joke about it all the time here. I appreciated the teenage son, well-played by Thomas Ford, as he tries to cope with his mother’s death. Plus who could resist Maggie Elizabeth Jones as little Rosie! We loved her impish look.

Saturday we watched Big Miracle with our favorite Office character, the handsome John Krasinski, plus Drew Barrymore and Kristen Bell. This is a great story of three whales, a mother, father, and baby California Grays, stuck in an ice swell off the coast of Barrow, Alaska. Ted Danson plays against type as the owner of an oil company angry about the whales and the environment who finally sees the reason behind trying to save them. The local indigenous tribe is in favor of killing the whales so their traditions are shared with their children. This incident did take place in the 80’s during Reagan’s administration yet the arguments are still timely as we struggle with natural resources vs. the natural world issues.

Both stories are based on real events and they were great picks by Groovy Girl. I have a whole cleaning list that didn’t get finished this weekend but I’m grateful for the time spent relaxing and sharing good stories. How did you spend your weekend? Everyone in my family is now quietly working on projects which means it must be time for me to steal away to finish Iron Hearted Violet!

4 New Books to LOVE!

At the beginning of September I challenged myself to read through my big and beautiful, ever-growing pile of ARC’s from Little, Brown and Company. I aimed for ten and finished seven. Here I bring you the top 4 realistic fiction titles to look for.

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King: This was my absolute favorite story. I’m now a huge fan of A.S. King and her coming-of-age, coming-to-grips tale of Astrid Jones. She’s unusual and knows it yet longs for the shelter of a loving family and honest friends. She struggles with her own identity, familial disfunction, her sexuality, and what it means to be a good and true friend. This story is a marvel and Astrid is a character that I think about often. Buy this for your library or a teenager in need. Booklist Online has a very creative interview with A.S. King – read it, it will make you laugh. (ARC provided by Little, Brown, and Company, release date October, 2012)

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher; The Matthews family is broken in every way. Jaime, the youngest, narrates the story of this family’s critical loss. Rose, Jaime’s sister and twin to Jasmine, dies from a terrorist bomb in a local park. Jaime’s mother, trying to heal herself, attends a local grief group, meets someone else and leaves the family. In order to douse the overwhelming pain Jaime’s father drinks. Eventually Jaime, his sister, Jas, and father move to the country to get out of London and away from the Muslim’s. Jaime’s father blames all Muslim’s for the death of his daughter and he emotionally abandons his two living children while grieving for Rose. This book brings out the blanket racism that clouds good judgement as Jaime, in his little country school, befriends a local Muslim girl. This book by debut author Annabel Pitcher is beautifully written with rare wit about a topic that will have people talking. (ARC provided by LBC, August, 2012)

DJ Rising by Love Maia; Music is Marley’s world. With a scholarship to attend a prestigious school and a job busing tables at a hip restaurant he has his hands full just trying to make it on his own. In the midst of his own teenage life he juggles caring for his drug-addicted mother who never recovered from the death of her husband, Marley’s music-loving dad. Marley has two dreams: one is to DJ at a fancy club and the second is that the beautiful Lea Hall will talk to him. When his mother tries to recover, and the DJ world starts to suck Marley in, will he be able to accomplish any of his real goals as he learns to figure out what is most important? This book is well worth reading as you want Marley to triumph over the life he’s been handed and Maia’s lyrical writing make it a quick read. Soundtrack to come according to her website. (ARC provided by LBC, Feb., 2012)

The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney; At first glance this could appear to be a fluff YA chick read but there is much deeper stuff below the surface. Budget cuts leave Julius P. Heil High without a football coach or a team causing several affluent families to take their young players to private schools. With so many young men gone the girls start looking at the second and third tier of eligible guys. The theatre geeks, the band boys, and the stoner dudes suddenly all have a place at the table. Through this new adventure Kelly begins to see her old band-friend, Hunter, in a new light; he could be truly crush-worthy if the plastic girls (the “Spandexers”) can keep their hands off him. I enjoyed this story as it explores high school stereotypes and told through Kelly’s and Hunter’s alternating chapters. Hunter is a boy I would have loved and you will cheer for him as he finds his true voice. Flynn Meaney is also the author of Bloodthirsty. (ARC provided by LBC, August, 2012)

These four easily captured my attention. I have several others still to review including an elementary fiction title and four picture books and I am happy to share these exciting titles. The common denominator is identity which is something teens struggle with whether gay, straight, male, female, rich, or poor and these titles raise awareness for this angst.

Thank you Zoe!! You make my day with your monthly emails.

Soaring with Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Ask the Passengers

A.S. King

October, 2013

I started my September ARC (advanced reader’s copy) challenge with a bang! This book seriously blew me away with how wonderfully-written it was. Carrying just enough sarcasm, wit,and angst mixed with profound love; it made me smile, laugh, shake my head, and cry in rapid secession, it gave me such HOPE!

Ask the passengers is Astrid Jones’ story. She’s a high school student in a small town where her parents have settled her after a major move from New York City. Her parents craved the hometown experience without realizing the affect it would have on their two young girls; Astrid and Ellis. Astrid feels she’s never quite fit in to this small-town, small-minded community. Ellis, on the other hand, seems to have made a life with the popular kids. In a way each member of the Jones’ family struggles with new identity after the move and they’ve gotten stuck in crisis mode. Eventually they come to realize it is just another way to not accept themselves. A.S. King weaves this drama around this family’s journey back to each other.

But first the gossip. Lots of gossip. Small towns are never as idyllic as they seem. Astrid’s family feels rocky and she takes her life cues from this. She’s busy keeping a major secret for her neighbor and best friend, Kristina, and her boyfriend, Justin. They fool everyone into thinking they are the perfect couple-prom couple perfect. But when Kristina and Justin go out on their cute weekly Friday double dates they actually are dating the other person. Yep. Kristina and Donna, and Justin and Chad have it all worked out. Nicely. Modern set up. Astrid keeps their secret. See how small towns are not what they seem to be…

What Kristina doesn’t know is that Astrid has her own secrets and she’s not ready to share at all. Instead she sends her love out to passing airplanes. Better to give it away than store it up or throw it away.

“So I send my love, and I ask the passengers: Where are you going? Can I come with you? I could finally feel at home.” (98)

When she talks to the plane passengers we get a message back, showing us the profound effect an outpouring of positive emotion can have. So while Astrid misses the big city idea and what that represents the plane people are having their own problems thousands of feet above her. And the small town people might catch her off-guard; people are filled with surprises as she discovers along her journey. Through her narration we hear odd angles like her humorous thought-process of small town gossip:

“They say: I bet her and that Justin Lampley will have some damn pretty kids. They say: I can’t figure out why she hangs out with that weird neighbor girl.That’s me. (Astrid)” (4)

The proverbial “they” is always a fear; whether in her mind or truthfully being told it’s hard to bear the fact that in small towns people are watching your every move. And one night the double daters and Astrid are caught in their secret world, busted, and tossed back to their families. Do they recover from stepping outside the small-town boundaries? Maybe. Yes. No. Out of negative we know that good often occurs and this book has so much good mixed in with everything. I could read it all over again!

I let a friend borrow it today-she sent praises within the hour! This book deserves much attention as a story filled with love, redemption, and what it means to be yourself where ever you live. I’m curious about A.S. King’s other titles-what wonderful messages might be revealed within their covers.

ARC received from Little, Brown, and Company. Thank you Zoe!

Birthday Girl week begins!

Groovy Girls’s birthday is on Wednesday and yesterday we hosted her birthday party for 7 friends. We have a downtown art fair that takes place yearly and right before her big day so this year we combined the two. My husband, the creative driving force, designed a treasure hunt for the girls. Downtown stores held clues leading them ultimately to our unique candy shop where bags of sour, gummy, and delightful candy awaited them!