memes – Peaceful Reader

I finished book five in The Underland series, Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins. This has been quite an accomplishment as I read the whole series with 3 fantastic 5th grade boy readers. They’ve loved this series, reading each one in a quick span of about 2 weeks, which is an excellent triumph. Along the way each young man created a plausible character would they be lucky enough to exist in the Underland world. At our last meeting they were so animated about discussing the series and that there is not a sixth book that I charged them with appealing to Suzanne Collins to continue the series with just one more book. Like a dying man to water they all agreed how it would help them to know how Gregor is faring and if Luxa and Ripred are holding to their bond.

As a teacher and a reader I am overjoyed by their display of emotion over the book. I love that they get to know Suzanne Collins through this work as well as The Hunger Games. We’ve discussed such deep topics through this series; war and peace, what it means to be a warrior, how does this compare to our war-plagued world today, and the mind-set of a soldier during battle and after. Whew. These conversations have spilled over into guns and why we need to have guns in our homes. One of my three shared that his mother almost shot him one night as he came in late through the front door of their trailer. Guns. But this blog post isn’t about guns so much as it is about cookies. Not to {ever}make light of guns but honestly we need cookies more.

In one poignant scene as Gregor is preparing for battle, one in which he believes he is doomed to die, he eats one last cookie made by his kind neighbor Mrs. Cormaci. It’s an oatmeal raisin cookie and that cookie got me to thinking about last bites. Not a last meal, mind you, but just a taste of one last thing-what would it be? For Gregor he was very excited to have that cookie in hand.

I’m going to make these oatmeal cranberry cookies (cuz if it were my bite I would prefer cranberry over raisin) and Martha does it best. I’m going to bring these to book club this week as we have our final conversation about The Underland Chronicles, we find a way to mail our letters to Suzanne Collins and we pick our last book of the year.

The quote:

“They settled themselves down to wait. Gregor passed Ares (his bat bond) a cookie and ate the other. If he did end up dead, he was glad the last taste in his mouth came from Mrs. Cormaci’s kitchen.” {339}

Happy Saturday! This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekly cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

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.

Tag: memes

Gregor and his last bite

Weekend cooking; O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree