Adventures in Cooking: There are 2 more meals

October 21, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

Lordy…

I made the one meal and was quite proud of myself, but there are two more in the box. So here I go:

Check it out: three pots and/or pans at once. That is more than I usually use in month. I made my own pasta sauce (via ingredients portioned out for me and described in a glossy brochure). I am a chef!

All the ingredients combined to create something that appears edible. No one in this household knows how to react.

WO… It has presentation, it has style. Someone could eat this. It’s a real meal.

Hello Fresh has worked some voodoo on me.

Except that… these two meals have taken it out of me. There is one more from the first week, and (gasp!) today is Tuesday, delivery day.. .which means:

Three more meals. Three more nights of cooking. Three more feelings of accomplishment or three more pressure to perform? We shall see.

I can’t wait for the autumn risotto, though

Adventures in Cooking

October 20, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

And I do mean adventures because… I don’t cook. I mean my oven is turned on on average twice a year. I could make use of the oven as storage space with no change in lifestyle.

And yet, I’ve recently decided to make use of Hello Fresh, one of the array of companies that will deliver a box of food to you. Your selected number of meals, all the ingredients, spices, dressings, portioned out for you. You add the cooking.

Right… I add the cooking. Why am I doing this? I don’t have an issue buying food. I excel at buying food. I own the grocery store. It’s the cooking part that I’m poor at. I lack the willingness to slice, dice, prep and wait for food to be ready for dining enjoyment.

But maybe I should and because I know I work best on a deadline, this seems like a worthy experiment. Food will arrive, receipes included. I sort of have to cook them because next week more will arrive. Surely I will not just throw out whole meals, perfected created and shipped to me in a large box. We’ll see….

Week 1

I receive a UPS notification. The food is on it’s way! Yipee.

I arrive home the next day to find a giant box on my doorstep. I inhale deeply. Cooking… will be happening.

I open the large box. Three smaller boxes representing three meals are enclosed. Ok. This doesn’t look too bad.

Here we go

It’s fall, let’s go with the one with acorn squash.

Nice presentation! Look how healthy this appears. I feel good about myself.

I pull out the lovely, glossy recipe cards with describe how to make the above into something. I skim through. I can do this! I can!

I have to roast an acorn squash? What does that mean? Apparently all roasting means is cook it in the oven. I now understand. Just like in technology, there are cool words describing common things that people would know but can easily become intimidated due to lack of knowledge. I’ve got this.

I cut an acorn squash! I did! And it was hard. I have knives from Ikea, just for show, not ginzu knives. I drizzled olive oil and spices on the squash. I don’t drizzle. I made the little parmesan “cookies”, cut an apple and wa-la: roasted acorn kale salad:

I did it! Me! The non-cook. And it’s not only edible, but good. Wait…what?

Bingo!

September 9, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

The results of my Books on the Nightstand Bingo are in and it’s BINGO!

I read so many other books than this, but they didn’t fit. Sad trombone. In truth, the only category I had to go out of my way to find was ‘Set in South America’. I had to Google books set in South America and was pleasantly surprise to find Bel Canto in the results. I adore Ann Patchett and here was a book I hadn’t read. That the entire book takes place inside a large home with characters from all over the world, thus it’s actual physical setting isn’t that relevant doesn’t matter! It still counts.

Thanks to Books on the Nightstand for the fun and interesting twist on summer reading. I think I’ll continue on and try to fill in all the squares, just for shits and giggles.

Go Set a Timer on the Heros of Your Youth

July 21, 2015Leave a comment

This northern gal once visited Charlotte, NC where she saw a historical landmark sign indicating ‘President Davis slept here’. I thought: we never had a President Dav….. OHHHhhhhh.

I have a theory on Harper Lee, and it probably won’t be popular, but I kind of hope it’s true. I think Go Set a Watchman was the story she wanted to tell or the story she needed to tell to work through her own issues. Because she is a person raised in a small town, who goes off the New York and sees the the world differently. How disappointing to be disillusioned with a place you once loved, a society you believed in, a father you loved so well. Her society, how she was raised, her childhood itself that tarnished now. How to go on? Certainly long, rambling rants against the injustice of it all is one way!

After pulling off the feat of writing a novel as a first time author, and one with many lovely passages, then to be told that the flashbacks to childhood are more interesting, to be asked how did Atticus become such a hero, what did young Scout see to believe so much in him, in her world ? And then this idealized version of the person who hurt her, who let her down so much becomes a hero to the world? What happens when you are acclaimed, win the Pulizer Prize and all the rest by portraying potentially your biggest heartache as idyllic? You become a recluse, lapse into Boo Radley mode. Why not. He didn’t like the world he saw, and nor do you. And now, in your advanced years, sister is gone, you think: I’m going to tell my real story, of how the south let me down, how even though my father is flawed, I can still find a way back to love him. He’s a character from his time, fighting for life as he’s always known it.

This is a flawed book, that certainly could have improved with an editor. But it’s also a thought provoking book, a book that makes one feel things, think about who Scout and Atticus are, who you are, which is what makes literature great. So those of you ranting and raving at the disappointment of this different Atticus, aren’t you feeling the same things Scout is feeling? The rants I’ve heard and read rival Scout’s in the book. Good! Feel the feels! I do, and I’ll be thinking about this book for some time. That and wondering what ever became of Boo…

Atticus Finch isn’t perfect: get over it

July 15, 2015Leave a comment

You aren’t, either.
Today my copy of Go Set a Watchman arrived… finally (one whole day after release, the torture). I may never pre-order a book again. Then again, it could just be I shouldn’t have pre-ordered this book. You see, I’m on a sort of internet black out, at least a bookish internet blackout and since I adore the bookish internet, this is torture. I am not reading reviews, discussions of reviews, spoilers, other’s opinions, anything, until I’ve read it. I haven’t read one word, yet, and if it’s poorly written or horrible in some way, I will be sad, but still fascinated because we’ll get a glimpse into the difference between a first ‘finished’ draft and what it became: the creative/editorial process at work!

I was attempting this, but I do scan the front page of the New York Times every day, so I know, I read, I processed. Really dumb, NYT, really dumb. You know what you did.

Ok, one spoiler coming. If you are somehow completely off the grind (and yet reading this.. hmmm), and don’t know, the NYT has spoiled that Attitus may be a racist, in the headline of the review no less. Again: really dumb, NYT, really dumb. What do I think about the perfect father and lawyer, not being ever so perfect? A. He’s a white man, in the south, in the 1950s… he’s not unusual. B. He should also be in 70s by the time of Go Set a Watchmen. I’m sure we all know older people with views different than the current times, and we still love them. C. He’s a human being, thus by definition not perfect and what is literature, but a device to hold a mirror to ourselves? To Kill a Mockingbird was a fairly unflinching look at a town at a period of time, why should this be different. If we ignore our past because we don’t like it, we are dishonest. Frankly, it sort of makes me like him more because he still did the right thing.

So, I can’t wait… and I hope you can’t, either, and won’t let something like an imperfection deter you. Plus, Scout all grown up and living in NYC!

Books on the Nightstand Bingo!

June 21, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

I’m giving the BOTNS Bingo card a whirl. By kismet, I’ve read three books since Memorial day that fit a square, but naturally I want to read ALL the squares. That will take some planning..

Where Do I Start, Where Do I Begin??

June 2, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

Where do I start, where do I begin?
Here, once again, is my BEA book haul:

How does one decide amongst these fine titles, never mind the (cough cough**) number of books already on my TBR. What to do? WHAT TO DO?

Punt! I’m going to finish the three books I have in progress, then tackle City on Fire (which for some reason I keep calling City of Ruin – why? no idea. Springsteen reference? – even to the reporter who asked me what galleys I was most looking forward to at BEA… thus proving I’m an idiot, not worthy of being in his article. Surely I redeemed myself by mentioning The Muse and The Water Knife?? Even a little?). City of Fire will take enough time for me to have pondered what to do next.

** where cough cough is defined as a number so large as to make one consider the list owner an insane asylum candidate. Hmm… if I were there, perhaps I could read all day every day.

Having the Choice to Not Have it All

May 31, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

Now that I’m home, but the BEA buzz hasn’t yet worn off, I decided to see what CSPAN had filmed for us (tip to BEA lovers: CSPAN films some sessions at BEA. They are then broadcast on Book TV on the weekends or available at their website. Also, PBS has Book Now Live, which records bookish events, including some BEA and Bookcon. Sweet!). On CSPAN I find a panel entitled: Women and Leadership in Publishing:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?326180-1/bookexpo-discussion-women-leadership-publishing

This rings all my bells. Well, women and leadership in almost any field is an interest of mine so.. Let me get some popcorn. though I know what I’m going to hear: that it’s hard to balance everything, that men are asked or expected to balance everything, that some men don’t realize any of this and expect it all anyway and that we can’t have it all, we have to choose. Still, bring on the horror stories, because we like to understand each other’s experience.

The above is a shot of Bethlam Forsa and Madeline McIntosh after Bethlam described that she felt she had done something wrong by getting pregnant after taking on a new role and that she returned to work 2 weeks after giving birth (Mcintosh audibly said: “oh..” after). I immediately thought: that was her choice. No one could legally make her do that. And then she immediately went on to say it was her choice. She did what she thought was needed for her career. At this point, I turned it off. Just this and the earlier descriptions by Lisa Sharkey of previous jobs where men threw typewriters if angry and ‘sneaking out’ via the back stairs at 8pm was enough to sate my penchant for the horror stories.

But I kept thinking about it. Yes, Bethlam made a choice, and maybe she made that choice because it’s what she truly wanted, or maybe she felt she had to make the choice to return or her career would suffer. It is an unfortunate fact that the later is a reality in some workplaces and having recently watched quite a bit of Mad Men, I know that things have improved substantially, though there is a long way to go. But she’s fortunate because it was her choice, and no one should criticize her for it. She has a right to live her life on her terms. What makes me more sad if all the women who do not have that choice: lower income women, single moms, people without easily affordable child care. I originally started writing this as a whine about not being able to have it all, to have to make decisions, but in thinking about it more I realize it’s a luxury to have those choices. I’m sad that it’s a luxury, I wish that everyone could have those choices.
Maybe I’ll return to watch the rest of the panel. Perhaps these smart, successful women will have something to say that will make me feel better.

BEA Love

May 31, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

One of the things I love after BEA is the book haul postings. Love it! There are many people who will a completely different haul, 100% different than mine, and be just as thrilled. I love that because it means there are so many books out there, to please so many kinds of people.
I’m just going to keep posting mine, because I’m pretty happy.

BEA15

May 30, 2015August 18, 2018Leave a comment

And so I return home after another wonderful BEA. Here is my two day haul:
Day 1 (Thurs)

Day 2 (Fri):

AND:

All this certainly looks like less than it felt like when carrying it or rolling it down the street in this bag, which was completely stuffed, and another entire tote bag.

I will not be attending Book Con because of last year’s experience. Being herded like cattle in a small, sweltering space just isn’t for me. I hear some of the issues have been resolved, but I’ll reserve judgement until this year’s attendees weigh in. Wait.. maybe not. I’m not sure I want to hear about things I’ve missed. 🙂 I’m already sad about missing Nick Offerman, and I’ve avoided knowing who else is there so I’m not sad…

More complete recap coming soon!

Living Reflections

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