friends – Page 4 – Peaceful Reader

Reading Retreat 2015

In about a week’s time I will be enjoying warmer weather in a Southern city with two friends. Our plan is to have a reading retreat-24 hours of reading bliss where we will talk books, have a glass of wine, maybe knit a little as we talk, revel in each other’s company. I can’t wait and I hope this week school flies by! I’m excited to be in the presence of fareaway friends.

Months ago we each picked a book to share:

A Place at the table by Susan Rebecca White (2013):
Alice Stone is famous for the homemade southern cuisine she serves at Café Andres and her groundbreaking cookbook, but her past is a mystery to all who know her. Upon Alice’s retirement, Bobby Banks, a young gay man ostracized by his family in Georgia, sets out to revive the aging café with his new brand of southern cooking while he struggles with heartbreak like he’s never known. Seeking respite from the breakup of her marriage, wealthy divorcée Amelia Brighton finds solace in the company and food at Café Andres, until a family secret comes to light in the pages of Alice’s cookbook and threatens to upend her life. (amazon)

Dramarama by E. Lockhart (2007):
Two theater-mad, self-invented fabulositon Ohio teenagers.

One boy, one girl.

One gay, one straight.

One black, one white.

And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP.

It’s a season of hormones,

gold lame,

hissy fits,

jazz hands. (amazon)

A hundred pieces of me by Lucy Dillon (2014):
Reeling from her recent divorce, Gina Bellamy suddenly finds herself figuring out how to live on her own. Determined to make a fresh start—with her beloved rescue greyhound by her side—Gina knows drastic measures are in order. First up: throwing away all her possessions except for the one hundred things that mean the most to her. But what items are worth saving? Letters from the only man she’s ever loved? A keepsake of the father she never knew? Or a blue glass vase that perfectly captures the light? As she lets go of the past, Gina begins to come to terms with what has happened in her life and discovers that seizing the day is sometimes the only thing to do. And when one decides to do just that…magic happens. (amazon)

All three sound excellent! I finished A place at the table, am 1/2 way through Dramarama, and will read A hundred pieces of me this week. I’ll let ya’ll know how magnificent the retreat is?

Grasshopper Jungle

If you want to discover stacks and stacks of good books at your local library you need my friend Tina to go with you. Any time I meet her there she loads me up as we walk down the shelves. On our last trip she handed me Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith and said “here read this, because I can’t, and let me know how it is.” She’s not a fan of dystopia but she was interested in the Iowa setting.

So I read it and for the first 40 pages I kept thinking I should quit. And then I’d read a little more and a little more and then it started to grow on me. At about the half way point I couldn’t stop reading which made me laugh because that’s just what I tell my students-keep going~the really good stuff doesn’t always happen in the beginning. I didn’t almost give up on it though because stuff wasn’t happening-it was the main character, Austin, that drove me nuts. He’s telling us the story as a sort of historical document and we really get to know Austin-it’s his coming-of-age tale after all-right in the middle of the end of the world.

My thoughts were poor Austin all he can think about is being horny and every single page is about his desire to have sex, shit, masturbate, sex, shit, masturbate, with a lot of smoking mixed in. And then just when I thought I couldn’t take his relentless need to talk about it all so much I let it slide~after all he’s 15~and began to appreciate what Austin had to say about his relationship with Robby, his best friend. I loved that he was so confused about his relationship with both Robby and his girlfriend, Shann because it’s tough to be in love with two people at the same time. His friendship with Robby was a breath of fresh air because he cared so deeply. I grew to like him.

I also thought it was a realistic look at small town Iowa with it’s boarded up shops, crazy family drama, and lots of corn. And the book definetely makes a case for not messing with genetics. Say no to GMOs of any kind. And Austin does a great job of reminding us that everything is connected and life is a massive game of 6 degrees of seperation.

Now the huge 6-foot-grasshopper creepy things I can’t even talk about them…

Someone on goodreads mentioned that you either get Andrew Smith or you don’t~and I completely agree. This book is not for everyone but it is good.

Now you don’t have to read it Tina. I thank you for handing it to me though even if my hand now feels a little grubby.

A sample:

It took me a very long time to work up the nerve to kiss Shann Collins, who was the first and only girl I had ever kissed.
There was a possibility that I’d never have kissed her, too, because she was the one who actually initiated the kiss.
It happened nearly one full year after the Curtis Crane Lutheran Academy End-of-the-year Mixed-Gender Mixer.
Like Robby explained to her: I was shy.
I was on the conveyor belt toward the paper shredder of history with countless scores of other sexually confused boys.
After the Curtis Crane Lutheran Academy End-of-the-year Mixed-Gender Mixer, I tried to get Shann to pay more serious attention to me.
I tried any reasonable method I could think of. I joined the archery club when I found out she was a member, and I offered multiple times to do homework with her. Sadly, nothing seemed to result in serious progress.

She finally comes around when he gets in trouble at school for reading The Chocolate Wars by Robert Cormier. If you can handle it you should read it. Welcome to Eden if you do.

Dinner w/ Friends

Last night I made dinner for two friends who’ve recently moved into our neighborhood. It’s been my resolution even before New Year’s Eve that I would host more dinners with friends. It sounds easy enough…invite people over and cook them good food. But where it gets tricky is cleaning of the house space and coordinating calendars can be complicated as well at least in our house.

I like a clean house but I’m not great at keeping it up because, well, I like to read more. And watch Gilmore Girls with Groovy Girl more. And play Ruzzle or WWF on my Kindle more. But all that aside it is a goal for the new year to entertain more, cleaning is optional.

I actually found this recipe when I sampled Jamie Oliver’s app on my phone. I haven’t paid to get the app and I’m not actually sure I will (anyone else have it and like it?) This recipe caught my attention easily and then I thought of this couple, Kathleen and Evan, and knew they would like this dish as well.

{Jaime Oliver’s; mine looked quite similar though}

Tarka Daal

(Tarka Daal is lentil heaven-garlicky with a little bit of a kick, eat it with your favorite naan bread or along with lots of little sides) Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 cup red lentils
1 cup yellow split peas
2 red onions
6 cloves of garlic
2 ripe tomatoes
2 fresh red chilies
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 tsp hot chili powder
1 pinch of Spanish smoked paprika
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
sea salt

1. Peel and thinly slice the onions and the garlic. Halve, seed, and finely chop the chilies and roughly chop the tomatoes.

2. Pick the cilantro leaves and put aside, then finely chop the stems.
3. To a large saucepan, add the onions, chilies, tomatoes, cilantro stems, the lentils, split peas and one third of the garlic.

4. Place the pan on a high heat, pour in 6 cups of cold water and bring to a boil.

5. With a metal (I use wood) spoon scoop away any froth from the top, then add the chili powder, smoked paprika, tumeric and a pinch of salt.

6. Reduce the heat a little and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes, or until the legumes are cooked and the sauce has thickened, stirring regularly. Meanwhile…

7. Make your table look respectable-get the flatware, salt, pepper, and drinks laid out nicely. (This step made me smile and made me prepared, which is good).

8. Roughly 5 minutes before the daal is ready, place a small frying pan on a medium heat.

9. Add the vegetable oil, followed by the cumin and the remaining garlic and fry gently for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is golden.

10. Swirl the cumin and garlic through the daal, tear over the reserved cilantro leaves and seve with your favorite flat bread.

It was quite good and I’m excited for today’s lunch of leftovers. When I make it next time I will put more heat in it. I didn’t add the fresh chilies as I was afraid it would be too hot for Groovy Girl. She didn’t eat it anyway so I’m going all out next time and kicking it up a few notches but the flavor was splendiforous! We had naan and chapattis to dig in with and I served it with brown rice. I did bring extra spice to the table so anyone could spice it up more. Only Evan shook some chili powder onto his 2nd portion. They brought a lovely spinach salad which was a perfect companion to the daal.

Usually with friends we might sit around and talk or play a board game but on this particular night we had tickets to the university’s women’s BB game so we picked up quickly and headed off to the game.

My goal has been successful for the first month and I didn’t die because the house was not immaculate!

The Book Fair is here!

I know this will sound like one big fat commercial from a woman who isn’t into commercialism but I love the book fair! Too me it is one more way to get good books into the hands of unsuspecting kids. And this book fair is the biggest book fair I’ve ever watched get unloaded which means it took me several hours on Friday + several more hours on Saturday for me to set up. It was a lot of work. I even enlisted my husband’s help for part of the day on Saturday. He created a castle front out of my little sketch for the front of the library. The them is “The Kingdom of reading…”

So excited to introduce Hansen students and staff to the fun of an amazing Mrs Holt book fair. There are so many good books scattered throughout the fair that I will be hard pressed to get any work done all week long. I’ll be reading…

Last minute summer road trips w/ G.G.

(Groovy Girl and her aunt)

Groovy Girl and I have been on a road trip frenzy to finish out the summer with a bang! We headed northeast first to the Rochester area of my former home state of Minnesota. I can wax poetically about growing up in the Land of 10,000+ lakes and my dad and his boating adventures. We spent many fun times going up and down rivers, camping on islands, going round and round lakes as generations of children and adults took their turns water skiing. I recently saw an old pair of wooden skis at an antique store and it took me back to 3rd grade when I had them on my feet for weeks at a time.

(Groovy Girl and her wee cousin)

We went to visit my stepmother and stepsister who is about to have baby #2 (remember when hashtags represented number). It was wonderful to see everyone and we delighted in seeing Groovy Girl’s young cousin, Amalia, who is growing fast. My other stepsister is in the process of moving with her husband and two young daughters to Minneapolis from the south side of Chicago so soon we’ll be able to easily get together.

We came home for one day turnaround and headed east to visit my friend Barb. She lives in the great state of Indiana in the northeast corner. She just purchased a new house and we helped her move, clean, organize, and build to make the new house a little more ready for her family to live in. We spent one long evening doing battle with an IKEA closet organizer for her son’s room.

She runs a very busy business, Marilyn’s Bakery, and was pulled in several different directions while we were there (every day for her) so it was great that we could be there to help. Groovy Girl and I like to help in the bakery but this time it was even more fun to stay at the new house, all shiny and beautiful, and work on that major project. We also had time to get pedicures, attend two yoga classes at The Yoga Room with Mike and go kayaking in the small lake that sits behind her new house.

(Barb and Groovy Girl)

Barb and I have known each since before we were married or had children and there is something comfortable about spending time with someone who knows you so well. We can talk about just about anything and we are lucky that we’ve landed only 2 states away from each other even though busy schedules keep us apart for most of the year.

While we were gone my youngest brother sent me an email asking us to visit before summer ends. We saw each other in Montana but it would be great to see them again and see the new house they have under construction. We’ll have to see what the end of August-beginning of September bring as school starts next week for both of us. How are you ending your summer?

Weekend Cooking; Juicing

{Rise and Shine Juice}

For the last few months I’ve kickstarted my day with hot water and lemon. It is refreshing and a great way to cleanse the body before you eat breakfast. My inspiration was an article I read in my Yoga Journal magazine. I plan to keep this habit up even as the temperature starts to heat up (anytime soon would be great!) and recently I was reminded of an old routine I once had.

My friend Patty started juicing recently and she practically glows at work! She shared some of her morning juice with me last week and I liked it. She and I share food recommendations back and forth as we chat at school because we both try to eat healthy. Her juice was so yummy I decided to dust off my Juiceman Jr. this morning and whip up some morning time juice.

I could not locate the exact recipe Patty shared with me from the Just on Juice website but a quick web search gave me this recipe at Giada De Laurentis’s Food Network page for what I thought were close ingredients.

Rise and Shine Juice

Ingredients:

5-6 ounces baby spinach leaves, rinsed
2 apples, cored and halved
2 medium carrots, scrubbed and halved
2 celery sticks
1/2 large lemon
One 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled
Ice

Directions:

Pass the spinach, apples, carrots, celery, lemon juice and ginger through a juice maker, according to the manufacturer’s directions. Pour the juice into 2 ice-filled glasses and serve.

It tasted great and it was more orange than green. My husband tried it and said it was far better than he though it would be. Groovy Girl surprised me and backed away as if I were her worst nightmare. Suffice it to say she won’t be borrowing the juicer for awhile.

I used to juice and then I quit because I felt bad for all that pulp (fiber from the veggies) I dumped into the compost bin. It seemed like a lot of work for one beverage-a delicious and healthy one but still isn’t it better to actually eat your veggies I concluded. Plus I had a toddler roaming at my heels and it was hard to keep up. The glow my friend Patty has developed is appealing though.

While I drank my orange glassful of juice and after she’d backed up from me Groovy Girl said “Now look you’ve had all those veggies and it isn’t even lunchtime!” So wise that little one.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme even though there was absolutely no cooking done for this post. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Julie's Falafel-Stuffed Pitas

A few years ago my friend Julie copied this recipe for me after she’d told me how delicious and easy it was to make. I tucked it away in my recipe box until last week. During Spring Break I cleaned a few cupboards out including the three different locations of cookbooks. I was going through a recipe box looking for one from my mother-in-law for her pie crust. I didn’t find that card but I did organize the box better and I pulled this one out to make. My thoughts were “why haven’t I made this already?”

I made it tonight. Sometimes it takes me all week to gather ingredients. Even though I thought I had everything my husband had to stop and get a lemon and a cucumber to complete the list. Crazy.

{source}

{Super Easy}Falafel-Stuffed Pitas

1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground red pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 egg
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, drained

Cumin is one of my favorite spices. I love just the smell of it. I was bold and added 2 heaping teaspoons. I only had red pepper flakes so added just one teaspoon of that. I try not to buy cans of beans anymore preferring to make them myself. A few weekends ago for fun I cooked two bags of garbanzos and then froze them in two cup bags. I unfroze a bag and a half for this recipe. Love garbanzos too, especially freshly-made.

Toss all those above ingredients into your food processor and mix until smooth. Divide into small patties. {This was a very sticky step} Heat a nonstick skillet (I used a cast iron Lodge) with olive oil. Cook 5 minutes on each side until slightly browned.

Prepare sauce:

1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 T. lemon juice
2 T tahini
1 garlic clove, minced

Mix together. Serve falafels with whole wheat pitas, curly lettuce leaves, tomato slices, cucumber slices and pile all together.

My husband and I both thought Feta cheese crumbled on top would have made a wonderful addition. Next time that will be on our serving platter as well. They were tasty but too much for Groovy Girl who created her own sandwich with her pita bread.

Thanks Julie! We loved them. Next time it won’t take me two years to make them.

Tonight at 8:30 all the lights in my house will be turned off in celebration of WWF Earth Hour. Find out more here. We participate in this worldly event every year and love how it reminds us of how important our earth is and how our resources are truly limited. Use a flashlight to read by, light a soy-based candle, hold hands, or just look outside. It was a gorgeous day outside today and I’m excited to end my evening with Groovy Girl this way.

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

Peace out. Happy eating.

Happy Halloween

Alice’s Mad Hatter

We were invited to a neighborhood party for Halloween-not quite our neighborhood but darn close. Everyone gathers together and eats first (soup, salad, and bread with a few delicious Halloween desserts tossed in). I tried to two soups and they were both good and Groovy Girl polished off most of a bowl of chicken noodle soup. It was fun to do something different in such a nice event.

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

Groovy Girl decided she wanted to make cupcakes to bring to the party. We searched online last night and found a perfect recipe and by that I mean a recipe she swooned over. We made the cake and frosting from Erica’s Sweet Tooth. Instead of the peanut butter cup on top she added one candy corn. She’s become quite an expert froster and the tiny cakes were a hit.

SuperGirl and the Mad Hatter

We’ve sorted the candy and have two large zip locks full, one of chocolate and one “other” and this year she even made a small bag of mom and dad candy-that includes Heath and Snickers bars. She truly has enough candy to last her a year. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

Weekend Cooking; Almond cravings

I’ve written in previous posts about my love for lemons but I don’t think I’ve shared how much I love almond-flavored baked goods. We toss back a lot of almonds as a snack item here and did you know that a handful of almonds may help you sleep better? Yes, it’s true. This bar recipe combines both almond flavor with a nutty topping and they were delicious!

I made them for a holiday party and wanted something that would appeal to adults in the crowd, something a little more sophisticated.

Almond Toffee Bars
KA Baker’s Companion
about 48 squares

Cookie Base

1 cups (2 sticks) butter
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Topping

1 cup brown sugar, packed
5 1/3 T (2/3 stick) butter
1/4 cup (2 ozs) milk
1 cup (3 ozs) sliced unblanched almonds

Preheat oven to 350.

To make the base: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream the butter, then add the almond extract and the confectioners’ sugar, beating all the while. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Press the dough into an ungreased 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking sheet (what my mom calls a jelly roll pan), pushing the dough all the way to the edges and up the side just a little. Bake the crust 15-20 minutes, until it is golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Topping: Combine the brown sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan stirring over low heat just until the brown sugar is dissolved and the butter has melted. Spread this mixture over the cookie base. Sprinkle with sliced almonds. This is the only step I veered off recipe. I already had a mason jar full of whole almonds, I had all other ingredients on hand so when I put together my ingredients previously I just took from the jar and loosely chopped enough to sprinkle over the top. The end result was they were still delicious and had a more rustic look instead of a finished look. At the holiday party they were swooped up and talked about by several groups of adults. We ran out of them even as a table of ladies asked for more. Huge hit. Will make again. No photo exists.

Several other sweets I’ve enjoyed over the holidays:

I made The Brown-eyed Baker’s Salted Caramel for the second time. A friend of mine from school has been on home rest for about 6 weeks after a nasty spill she took off the roof of her house. Yes, real women DO clean their own gutters! She (thankfully) is a daily reader of my blog and had asked many times for this salted caramel recipe. Yesterday I made it for her and took it to her still warm in the jar. Enjoy Kay!

I’ve written several times about my friend Barbara who owns Marilyn’s Bakery in Hobart, IN. She sent us a tin of their to-die for English toffee. The tin is almost gone (small sob) and December is almost over. There won’t be any more until next December. Luckily I can always look back on the memory of my husband and I standing in the kitchen as we both read different sections of the newspaper while we nibble at the toffee in the tin. It was about 9 in the morning. You could order some for yourself but you’ll have to wait, just like us.

Life’s too short not to eat delicious things.

Happy Holidays.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads where you will find many other food-related posts.

Where has the month gone?

Oh, yes, my blog…

Sometime during August I completely forgot for days that a blog is something I do, or did. I love writing and getting responses and some weeks are busier than others but August-truly you slipped away from me.

My attention has been at school. My school began with teacher work week days creeping up on me like a bad cold. One minute your happily waking up late, making breakfast for everyone, and then sitting down and resting for like two hours with a book in your lap and then BANG-time to go back to work.

My attention has also been on getting Groovy Girl prepared for 5th grade. Mostly that’s me sulking for a few days on the fact that she is even old enough (how could it be!) to be in 5th grade. Where did that time go? She is sassy and smart and totally prepared for school days. She has a new backpack from Target with a matching lunch box. She has folders matched to notebooks in 5 different hues. She has new colored pencils, markers, a big box of Kleenex and a medium sized scissors for her 5th grade fingers. She has everything but a best friend ready for school. I don’t know why she has such trauma with friends she just does. Mostly many of the other girls are already bossy tweenagers while she is insecure and small-ish. She wants to play make-believe while other girls prance discussing training bra sizes or whatever and the others play kick ball. One or the other no in-between. She doesn’t like kickball. Yikes. It’s been a rough couple of years for her in the friend arena but that’s another story.

My attention has been on Teenage Boy who is going to grow out of his blog name soon. He started at a local community college on Monday. His high school began the process to close (big tears-me, not him) while he was a junior last year and he made the smart decision to graduate with the last seniors by taking two on-line courses. He finished on the last day possible to graduate and began his first week at HCC with four classes. Wow. That’s just about all the mother can say. Wow.

My attention has been on working out more as I’ve added ten pounds to my smallish frame. The summer of turning 50gave me an unusually shaped waistline and I’m not happy about it. My kids still say I’m the
“skinniest mom they know” but I can feel this lump like a perpetual baby bulge. I am trying to walk more and bring full time yoga back into my life. For now I’m wearing multi-colored muu-muu’s to school.

In other news:

My car was rifled through while I was volunteering at the Democratic office for two hours. The important objects taken were a very nice water bottle, my black sunglasses, a bag of quarters (about $18), and our Garmin GPS!! The strangest thing they took was a pair of Bob’s striped size 3 of Groovy Girl’s that we had ordered and then needed to return because she discovered a small tear in the canvas. “They” got a brand new slightly ripped pair of shoes-tags still on them! I hate the idea of someone going through my stuff and I’m not happy with myself about forgetting to lock it but they are just objects Lesson learned.

I finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn in like 3 days! Review will be forthcoming but know that it was GREAT. My women’s book group read James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a young man. I couldn’t get through it and don’t know if I will ever go back. Joyce’s stream of consciousnesses was not enjoyable. It was my first free download to my Kindle Fire so there’s that to celebrate!

Most of all I’ve been paying attention to my blessings. This blog is one of them and I will bring myself back to it now. It was nice taking a short breather but I could tell I missed it the last two days.

What’s grabbed your attention this month?