It's raining, it's cold, and I want comfort food. Vegetarian friends, avert your eyes.
I start with
quietselkie's crock pot chicken recipe. I call it 24-hour chicken, because that's how long it takes to cook the chicken and make stock from the bones. It's relatively easy: a hour before bed, just dump the chicken (sans gizzard and heart and stuff), herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, and a bay leaf), and an onion in the crock pot, turn it on high for an hour, and then leave it on low overnight. Pull it out in the morning, let it cool enough for you to handle it, and put the skin and all the inedible bits back in with the liquid that you pulled it out of. Cut up the fresh chicken and put in the fridge for later.
To make stock: add another onion and fresh herbs and add enough water to cover, and leave it on low all day. Strain and discard all the solid bits in the evening, and you have stock you can refrigerate. Skim the fat off in the morning. More details in the first two paragraphs here.
If you don't cook your chicken this way, you can get the chicken for your chicken and dumplings another way: a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket or Costco, or roast it. You'll need about six or eight cups of chicken or vegetable stock or broth to make up for the lack of stock from making the chicken the way I do, though.
Chicken and dumplings! My friend the Mermaid got this recipe from a blog several years ago and modified it, so I just call it her recipe now. *shrug* The directions below are assuming you prepped the chicken and stock the way I suggested above; y'all are smart enough to figure out equivalents if you get to this point another way.
chicken and stock
2 large (family size) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups Bisquick (pancake and biscuit mix)
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 small package frozen peas and carrots
1 small package frozen corn
1 jar or can mushrooms
Heat the stock back up in a large pot on the stove, and put the cut-up chicken in. Add the two cans of condensed soup. Stir and heat until smooth, and bring to a boil.
As it's coming to a boil, combine the Bisquick, parsley, and sweet basil together, then add the milk. Mix to form a thick dough. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into the bubbling broth. Turn the heat to low and cook uncovered for ten minutes, stir gently to keep the chicken and veg from sticking to the bottom, and cover for another ten minutes. While the dumplings are cooking, steam or boil the vegetables, and when you uncover the dumplings, dump them in with the mushrooms.
It takes the entire damn weekend to make both recipes, but it is so worth it. I modify it by multiplying the Bisquick and milk by 1.5 times, so there's 3 cups of biscuit mix and one cup of milk. It makes more dumplings, which makes it possible for me to spread it into Sunday dinner and at least four lunches during the week.
I start with
quietselkie's crock pot chicken recipe. I call it 24-hour chicken, because that's how long it takes to cook the chicken and make stock from the bones. It's relatively easy: a hour before bed, just dump the chicken (sans gizzard and heart and stuff), herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, and a bay leaf), and an onion in the crock pot, turn it on high for an hour, and then leave it on low overnight. Pull it out in the morning, let it cool enough for you to handle it, and put the skin and all the inedible bits back in with the liquid that you pulled it out of. Cut up the fresh chicken and put in the fridge for later.To make stock: add another onion and fresh herbs and add enough water to cover, and leave it on low all day. Strain and discard all the solid bits in the evening, and you have stock you can refrigerate. Skim the fat off in the morning. More details in the first two paragraphs here.
If you don't cook your chicken this way, you can get the chicken for your chicken and dumplings another way: a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket or Costco, or roast it. You'll need about six or eight cups of chicken or vegetable stock or broth to make up for the lack of stock from making the chicken the way I do, though.
Chicken and dumplings! My friend the Mermaid got this recipe from a blog several years ago and modified it, so I just call it her recipe now. *shrug* The directions below are assuming you prepped the chicken and stock the way I suggested above; y'all are smart enough to figure out equivalents if you get to this point another way.
chicken and stock
2 large (family size) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups Bisquick (pancake and biscuit mix)
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 small package frozen peas and carrots
1 small package frozen corn
1 jar or can mushrooms
Heat the stock back up in a large pot on the stove, and put the cut-up chicken in. Add the two cans of condensed soup. Stir and heat until smooth, and bring to a boil.
As it's coming to a boil, combine the Bisquick, parsley, and sweet basil together, then add the milk. Mix to form a thick dough. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into the bubbling broth. Turn the heat to low and cook uncovered for ten minutes, stir gently to keep the chicken and veg from sticking to the bottom, and cover for another ten minutes. While the dumplings are cooking, steam or boil the vegetables, and when you uncover the dumplings, dump them in with the mushrooms.
It takes the entire damn weekend to make both recipes, but it is so worth it. I modify it by multiplying the Bisquick and milk by 1.5 times, so there's 3 cups of biscuit mix and one cup of milk. It makes more dumplings, which makes it possible for me to spread it into Sunday dinner and at least four lunches during the week.
I still cannot find the words to convey the shame, horror, and disappointment I feel. For now:
Give me a day or two to think, and then I'll put on my Nasty Woman pantsuit (figuratively, since I only have jeans and awesome boots) and decide how to be the change I want to see in the world.
Give me a day or two to think, and then I'll put on my Nasty Woman pantsuit (figuratively, since I only have jeans and awesome boots) and decide how to be the change I want to see in the world.
To my friends who live in the path of Matthew, please take care of yourselves and stay safe.
Go see Ghostbusters. Support your fellow women and show the execs there's money to be made in badass women characters, dismantling the male gaze, and women sitting around eating pizza with no salad in sight.
I'm writing it down here so I remember the basic proportions and don't forget any ingredients. This yields a dozen regular sized burritos or eight extra large burritos; this depends on the size of tortillas you get. The whole thing from beginning to end took me a little less than two hours this morning; I had to do the mushrooms in two batches.
INGREDIENTS
18-24 eggs
a few glugs of milk
thyme, black pepper, dried parsley
bunch of green onions, rinsed and chopped
1/2 lb sausage (I like sweet Italian)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
bag of fresh baby spinach, rinsed and drained
1 lb fresh mushrooms
olive oil for sauteing
1 lb salsa
8-12 burrito tortillas (8 extra large, 12 regular size)
shredded cheese (I use jack and/or cheddar, and mozzarella works when you don't plan ahead and run out of everything else)
RECIPE
1. In a huge frying pan, cook and break up the sausage. Put the cooked sausage on a paper towel covered plate and set aside.
2. In the frying pan, use the leftover grease and some olive oil to saute the sliced mushrooms (medium-high heat) until they're brown.
3. While the mushrooms are cooking, crack all the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the milk, parsley, pepper, and thyme. Mix until the eggs are scrambled, then set aside.
4. When the mushrooms are almost done, add the chopped green onions and baby spinach. Once the spinach is wilting, add the beans and return the sausage to the pan. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low.
5. Pour the egg mixture over everything, stirring to make sure it's all submerged. Stir frequently while cooking to get nice curds. (I like my eggs well done, so I cook them until they're almost completely cooked.)
6. Lay out a sheet of aluminum foil, then a tortilla. Sprinkle a small handful of cheese in a rectangle toward one end, then drizzle some salsa over the same area. Spoon some of the egg mixture over the salsa, then roll up the burrito. Wrap the burrito in the foil.
They freeze really well. I don't know how long they'd last in the freezer, because I eat them all within two weeks. But I should think they'd be good for a month. I keep two in the fridge and the rest in the freezer so the reheating time is shorter when I'm ready to eat.
The foil precludes popping them in the microwave, so I put them in the oven or in a covered frying pan for 45 minutes or an hour, maybe turning after half an hour. Best scenario is putting a burrito in the oven at 300F, going for a swim, then coming home and eating it right away. Lots of protein just after a workout. Not that I swam today, because I was cooking.
If all goes well, I will make regular burritos and stuffed shells this weekend. (I think I've posted the stuffed shells recipe here already, but I haven't done this with the non-breakfast burritos.)
And while I'm talking about food ... for the record, nacho cheese Doritos and Dr Pepper do not go well together. ACK.
INGREDIENTS
18-24 eggs
a few glugs of milk
thyme, black pepper, dried parsley
bunch of green onions, rinsed and chopped
1/2 lb sausage (I like sweet Italian)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
bag of fresh baby spinach, rinsed and drained
1 lb fresh mushrooms
olive oil for sauteing
1 lb salsa
8-12 burrito tortillas (8 extra large, 12 regular size)
shredded cheese (I use jack and/or cheddar, and mozzarella works when you don't plan ahead and run out of everything else)
RECIPE
1. In a huge frying pan, cook and break up the sausage. Put the cooked sausage on a paper towel covered plate and set aside.
2. In the frying pan, use the leftover grease and some olive oil to saute the sliced mushrooms (medium-high heat) until they're brown.
3. While the mushrooms are cooking, crack all the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the milk, parsley, pepper, and thyme. Mix until the eggs are scrambled, then set aside.
4. When the mushrooms are almost done, add the chopped green onions and baby spinach. Once the spinach is wilting, add the beans and return the sausage to the pan. Reduce the heat to medium or medium-low.
5. Pour the egg mixture over everything, stirring to make sure it's all submerged. Stir frequently while cooking to get nice curds. (I like my eggs well done, so I cook them until they're almost completely cooked.)
6. Lay out a sheet of aluminum foil, then a tortilla. Sprinkle a small handful of cheese in a rectangle toward one end, then drizzle some salsa over the same area. Spoon some of the egg mixture over the salsa, then roll up the burrito. Wrap the burrito in the foil.
They freeze really well. I don't know how long they'd last in the freezer, because I eat them all within two weeks. But I should think they'd be good for a month. I keep two in the fridge and the rest in the freezer so the reheating time is shorter when I'm ready to eat.
The foil precludes popping them in the microwave, so I put them in the oven or in a covered frying pan for 45 minutes or an hour, maybe turning after half an hour. Best scenario is putting a burrito in the oven at 300F, going for a swim, then coming home and eating it right away. Lots of protein just after a workout. Not that I swam today, because I was cooking.
If all goes well, I will make regular burritos and stuffed shells this weekend. (I think I've posted the stuffed shells recipe here already, but I haven't done this with the non-breakfast burritos.)
And while I'm talking about food ... for the record, nacho cheese Doritos and Dr Pepper do not go well together. ACK.
- Current Mood:
hungry
This is going to look like spam, but it’s just me making a personal request to my followers. (I made a similar request on Tumblr and Facebook.)
You know I’m a member of a women’s chorus, and for thirty hours -- between 6 am on 27 April and noon on 28 April (Pacific time) -- a foundation in Orange County (California, USA) is having a fundraiser on behalf of a bunch of local nonprofit organizations. We are one of those organizations. If you have $25 to spare, a donation would be gorgeous, and I would be pathetic with gratitude.
Even if you don’t have a second nickel to rub against the first, you can still do something. The nonprofit that gets the most clicks from different computers and IP addresses from now until noon tomorrow gets an extra $1000, even if all of those clicks don’t result in donations. So if you click the link to the Orange County Women’s Chorus page at the I Heart OC foundation, that adds to our tally and boosts our chances. Even if that’s all you do, I will still be pathetic with gratitude.
If you boost this signal so your friends can see it, I will sit here like a big, fat gaping thing for thirty seconds before bursting into tears. (It’s an ugly sight, so I’ll keep the webcam off for that.)
What’s so special about this chorus, you ask?
We have a conducting internship program that pays young women to spend a year or two honing their craft and learning from an amazing conductor of choral music.
My voice was deteriorating because I had nowhere to sing and no one to sing with because I stopped going to church. (Scary ex and ideological differences.) This is my second season, and my singing is as strong as ever now.
One night a week, I walk into our rehearsal hall and leave everything else outside because I can lose myself in learning the music.
We are a family. We genuinely like each other, and we support each other through thick and thin.
We are a damned good amateur chorus. We brought a bronze medal home from the International Eisteddfod last year!
We had enough contributions last year to send at least eight women on scholarship to England and Wales on a nine-day tour. I was one of them, and it was the best experience of my entire life.
So please, if you feel comfortable doing it, even just following this link will help:
https://iheartoc.org/npo/orange-cou
Thank you.
You know I’m a member of a women’s chorus, and for thirty hours -- between 6 am on 27 April and noon on 28 April (Pacific time) -- a foundation in Orange County (California, USA) is having a fundraiser on behalf of a bunch of local nonprofit organizations. We are one of those organizations. If you have $25 to spare, a donation would be gorgeous, and I would be pathetic with gratitude.
Even if you don’t have a second nickel to rub against the first, you can still do something. The nonprofit that gets the most clicks from different computers and IP addresses from now until noon tomorrow gets an extra $1000, even if all of those clicks don’t result in donations. So if you click the link to the Orange County Women’s Chorus page at the I Heart OC foundation, that adds to our tally and boosts our chances. Even if that’s all you do, I will still be pathetic with gratitude.
If you boost this signal so your friends can see it, I will sit here like a big, fat gaping thing for thirty seconds before bursting into tears. (It’s an ugly sight, so I’ll keep the webcam off for that.)
What’s so special about this chorus, you ask?
We have a conducting internship program that pays young women to spend a year or two honing their craft and learning from an amazing conductor of choral music.
My voice was deteriorating because I had nowhere to sing and no one to sing with because I stopped going to church. (Scary ex and ideological differences.) This is my second season, and my singing is as strong as ever now.
One night a week, I walk into our rehearsal hall and leave everything else outside because I can lose myself in learning the music.
We are a family. We genuinely like each other, and we support each other through thick and thin.
We are a damned good amateur chorus. We brought a bronze medal home from the International Eisteddfod last year!
We had enough contributions last year to send at least eight women on scholarship to England and Wales on a nine-day tour. I was one of them, and it was the best experience of my entire life.
So please, if you feel comfortable doing it, even just following this link will help:
https://iheartoc.org/npo/orange-cou
Thank you.
I'm wearing all black today. Arthur was not in a cooperative mood, so when I told him to get out of the bathroom so I could close the door, he didn't move. I picked him up, set him on the floor, looked at my shirt that now has a streak of white fur down the center, and groaned, "Arthur, why are you white?"
Lord.
Lord.
Like last year, I started with some relatively short and fluffy stuff to build my confidence and my numbers.
5 January
No category, never read before: So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. First published in 1983.
I wanted to like it more than I actually did, but it's the first in a YA series, so I wasn't expecting anything too sophisticated. (Look at the difference between Tamora Pierce's very first book and the last in the Beka Cooper series.) I read one of Diane Duane's Star Trek books and liked it a lot, so I was fairly certain I'd have a good time reading this. I will look for the rest of the series at my leisure -- I think there are ten in all -- and continue reading. I'd give it a 9 out of 10, but since Goodreads has a five-star system, I gave it four. It was a fun adventure, though I was a bit taken aback occasionally by events or creatures that showed up with little warning. (Though it might have been my problem ... depends on whether there was foreshadowing or not.)
6 January
No category, never read before: Matilda by Roald Dahl. First published in 1988.
I first saw the movie a year or two ago and liked it, so I wanted to have a go at the book. I really liked it! I loved Matilda developing her mind and talents, and the moments when others got the better of Miss Trunchbull and Matilda had nothing to do with it -- the chocolate cake and the newt -- were delightful.
13 January
A book about a road trip: Ashfall by Mike Mullin. Published in 2011.
I had heard a lot of good things about this book, and while I didn't love it, I liked it enough to want to read the rest of the series eventually. It's not the first thing you think of when you hear "road trip," but it involves travel, often on roads, so it works. Alex lives with his family in Iowa, and his parents and sister go to Illinois for a family visit. Alex is sixteen and stays home. The supervolcano under Yellowstone blows its top while he's home alone, and all hell breaks loose. After a few days of staying with neighbors, Alex heads out to find his family.
29 January
A fanfiction book: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen. Published in 2009.
The author credit should have said, "By Seth Grahame-Smith, with apologies to Jane Austen." If you're going to graft a story of your own devising into such a well-written book, don't be so clumsy and puerile about it. I promised a friend at work that I would read it and let her know what I thought. After telling her, she said she owes me for falling on this sword. I think it's a brilliant concept, and if an author with the skill of Tamora Pierce or Robin McKinley had come up with it, it would have been fantastic.
Currently reading: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (reread), Feed (reread), Star Wars: Before the Awakening (new to me).
I feel a bit burned out after last year's challenge, so I'm not sure how many books I will get to this year. I'm not giving up, but I won't punish myself if I don't accomplish my goal this year.
5 January
No category, never read before: So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. First published in 1983.
I wanted to like it more than I actually did, but it's the first in a YA series, so I wasn't expecting anything too sophisticated. (Look at the difference between Tamora Pierce's very first book and the last in the Beka Cooper series.) I read one of Diane Duane's Star Trek books and liked it a lot, so I was fairly certain I'd have a good time reading this. I will look for the rest of the series at my leisure -- I think there are ten in all -- and continue reading. I'd give it a 9 out of 10, but since Goodreads has a five-star system, I gave it four. It was a fun adventure, though I was a bit taken aback occasionally by events or creatures that showed up with little warning. (Though it might have been my problem ... depends on whether there was foreshadowing or not.)
6 January
No category, never read before: Matilda by Roald Dahl. First published in 1988.
I first saw the movie a year or two ago and liked it, so I wanted to have a go at the book. I really liked it! I loved Matilda developing her mind and talents, and the moments when others got the better of Miss Trunchbull and Matilda had nothing to do with it -- the chocolate cake and the newt -- were delightful.
13 January
A book about a road trip: Ashfall by Mike Mullin. Published in 2011.
I had heard a lot of good things about this book, and while I didn't love it, I liked it enough to want to read the rest of the series eventually. It's not the first thing you think of when you hear "road trip," but it involves travel, often on roads, so it works. Alex lives with his family in Iowa, and his parents and sister go to Illinois for a family visit. Alex is sixteen and stays home. The supervolcano under Yellowstone blows its top while he's home alone, and all hell breaks loose. After a few days of staying with neighbors, Alex heads out to find his family.
29 January
A fanfiction book: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen. Published in 2009.
The author credit should have said, "By Seth Grahame-Smith, with apologies to Jane Austen." If you're going to graft a story of your own devising into such a well-written book, don't be so clumsy and puerile about it. I promised a friend at work that I would read it and let her know what I thought. After telling her, she said she owes me for falling on this sword. I think it's a brilliant concept, and if an author with the skill of Tamora Pierce or Robin McKinley had come up with it, it would have been fantastic.
Currently reading: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (reread), Feed (reread), Star Wars: Before the Awakening (new to me).
I feel a bit burned out after last year's challenge, so I'm not sure how many books I will get to this year. I'm not giving up, but I won't punish myself if I don't accomplish my goal this year.
- Current Mood:
lazy
Natalie Cole, Lemmy, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, and now Brian Bedford. 2016 has sort of sucked so far.
I had to double check, so in case you're wondering, this is Brian Bedford:
(If they come in threes, who is number six?)
I had to double check, so in case you're wondering, this is Brian Bedford:
(If they come in threes, who is number six?)
First David Bowie, and now Alan Rickman?
All I can think right now is that I'm so very grateful for the technology that allows us to record visual and audio performances, so even though someone is gone now, and we'll never have anything new from him, we'll still have his life's work to enjoy for years to come.
Rest in peace, Alan.
All I can think right now is that I'm so very grateful for the technology that allows us to record visual and audio performances, so even though someone is gone now, and we'll never have anything new from him, we'll still have his life's work to enjoy for years to come.
Rest in peace, Alan.
- Current Mood:distraught
So darth_kittius listed her book challenges for the year just past and the year to come, and one of her lists caught my eye: All 339 Books Referenced in The Gilmore Girls. I can't possibly read them in one year along with the challenge I'm already doing, but I will refer to it in the years to come when I want something to read. (Which is kind of silly, since I have over 380 books on my to-read list at Goodreads already.)
I've read at least 40 of the titles below already, but I will consider rereading those -- even the ones I didn't like much -- to be part of this multi-year challenge. And I may never finish all of them, but I will at least give it a try. (If I've read 10% of the book and don't like it, I don't force myself to finish.) And I can shoehorn some of these into any yearly challenges I start, though this won't be a category in itself. But me reading a book can fulfill this challenge and a yearly challenge at the same time. It'll probably take me at least ten years, but here goes:
( Read more...Collapse )
darth_kittius listed her book challenges for the year just past and the year to come, and one of her lists caught my eye: All 339 Books Referenced in The Gilmore Girls. I can't possibly read them in one year along with the challenge I'm already doing, but I will refer to it in the years to come when I want something to read. (Which is kind of silly, since I have over 380 books on my to-read list at Goodreads already.)I've read at least 40 of the titles below already, but I will consider rereading those -- even the ones I didn't like much -- to be part of this multi-year challenge. And I may never finish all of them, but I will at least give it a try. (If I've read 10% of the book and don't like it, I don't force myself to finish.) And I can shoehorn some of these into any yearly challenges I start, though this won't be a category in itself. But me reading a book can fulfill this challenge and a yearly challenge at the same time. It'll probably take me at least ten years, but here goes:
( Read more...Collapse )
I've done some working, researching, and revising, and I've come up with a challenge for 2016 that I like. I have a quota of total books to read, a quota of new-to-me books to read, and some of those new-to-me books will have categories like last year. A few categories are repeats from last year, some are from PopSugar and Book Riot, and some categories are my own invention.
GOALS:
Total books: at least 60
Of those, total books I haven't read before: more than half of the total books
Of the new-to-me books, total books that have categories: 26
Categories:
A book mentioned in another book
A book mentioned by a celebrity or performer
A book mentioned by an author
A book in the same series as a book I read in 2015
A memoir or biography
A book I started but never finished
A book with a direction in the title
A book of fanfiction Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
A book of poetry
A book written by an author who identifies as transgender
A book written by an author who is not heterosexual
A book with an author who is a person of color
A book set in my home state *
A nonfiction book about feminism
A self-improvement book
A book that is being made into a movie with a US release date in 2016
A recommendation from Oprah's Book Club
A book that intimidates me
A book about a road trip Ashfall
A book I own but have never read
A book of short stories
A book set in a country I have never visited *
A book originally written in another language
A play
A book based on a fairy tale
A nonfiction book about science or math
A direction in the title means one of the following words: up, down, right, left, north, south, east, or west
Fanfiction: an example would be Nicholas Meyers's The Seven Per-Cent Solution, which is fanfiction of ACD's Sherlock Holmes stories
* Most of the story has to take place in the location mentioned in the category
What's the point of this complex Venn diagram of categories and such? I missed reading some of my favorite books in 2015, but I loved broadening my horizons so much, too. So I have some categories to direct me toward stuff I might not normally seek out, some wiggle room when it comes to other new books, and time to reread old favorites.
I have discovered that Goodreads doesn't have a tally or function for rereads, so I've reset their challenge to the minimum number of new-to-me books I want to read this year, and that is 35. I have a shelf on the website that will include every book I finish in the calendar year, and that will be the real total for the challenge I described above.
And yes ... I made another spreadsheet.
GOALS:
Total books: at least 60
Of those, total books I haven't read before: more than half of the total books
Of the new-to-me books, total books that have categories: 26
Categories:
A book mentioned in another book
A book mentioned by a celebrity or performer
A book mentioned by an author
A book in the same series as a book I read in 2015
A memoir or biography
A book I started but never finished
A book with a direction in the title
A book of poetry
A book written by an author who identifies as transgender
A book written by an author who is not heterosexual
A book with an author who is a person of color
A book set in my home state *
A nonfiction book about feminism
A self-improvement book
A book that is being made into a movie with a US release date in 2016
A recommendation from Oprah's Book Club
A book that intimidates me
A book I own but have never read
A book of short stories
A book set in a country I have never visited *
A book originally written in another language
A play
A book based on a fairy tale
A nonfiction book about science or math
A direction in the title means one of the following words: up, down, right, left, north, south, east, or west
Fanfiction: an example would be Nicholas Meyers's The Seven Per-Cent Solution, which is fanfiction of ACD's Sherlock Holmes stories
* Most of the story has to take place in the location mentioned in the category
What's the point of this complex Venn diagram of categories and such? I missed reading some of my favorite books in 2015, but I loved broadening my horizons so much, too. So I have some categories to direct me toward stuff I might not normally seek out, some wiggle room when it comes to other new books, and time to reread old favorites.
I have discovered that Goodreads doesn't have a tally or function for rereads, so I've reset their challenge to the minimum number of new-to-me books I want to read this year, and that is 35. I have a shelf on the website that will include every book I finish in the calendar year, and that will be the real total for the challenge I described above.
And yes ... I made another spreadsheet.
- Current Mood:
optimistic
I'm so glad I saw that web page a year ago that got me reading all those books. The challenge didn't say they had to be books that were new to me, but it felt great to broaden my horizons by choosing books I hadn't read before. I've finished fifty-nine books in 2015, which is better than one a week; this includes the challenge and seven others.
I felt a little stifled by mid-November because there were several books I wanted to read, but none of them fit into a category I hadn't already fulfilled. So I ventured away from the challenge several times starting in October, but I came back to finish the challenge, reading the last two books between Christmas and New Year's Eve.
My favorite books from 2015 were:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Night Circus
The Lions of Al-Rassan
The Newsflesh Trilogy (Feed, Deadline, and Blackout)
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Watership Down
Station Eleven
Longbourn
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
( Statistics and Spreadsheet Under the Cut.Collapse )
Farewell, 2015 Challenge. It's been an amazing year.
On to my 2016 Reading Challenge:
A book by an author you love but haven't read yet: Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce.
Well, of course this category was going to be by Tammy! I had to save my favorite author for the end. My first thought upon realizing that this book would be about counterfeiting was, "Hm. The Star Wars prequels were about trade disputes, and look how that turned out." But then I remembered that it was Tamora Pierce, and if anyone could make the subject matter interesting, she could. And boy, she did!
Non-challenge book #7: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. Translated into English by Simon Pare. Crown Publishers, 2015. Originally published in German by Knaur Verlag, 2013.
This book is lushly romantic and sentimental, bordering on schmoopy, but never quite crossing the line. I really liked it, though I recommend the print. The audio performance I started but never finished left much to be desired.
And that's all, folks! I'll post a year-end summary by the end of the day.
Well, of course this category was going to be by Tammy! I had to save my favorite author for the end. My first thought upon realizing that this book would be about counterfeiting was, "Hm. The Star Wars prequels were about trade disputes, and look how that turned out." But then I remembered that it was Tamora Pierce, and if anyone could make the subject matter interesting, she could. And boy, she did!
Non-challenge book #7: The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. Translated into English by Simon Pare. Crown Publishers, 2015. Originally published in German by Knaur Verlag, 2013.
This book is lushly romantic and sentimental, bordering on schmoopy, but never quite crossing the line. I really liked it, though I recommend the print. The audio performance I started but never finished left much to be desired.
And that's all, folks! I'll post a year-end summary by the end of the day.
A book your mom loves: The Christmas Train by David Baldacci.
If you like movies produced by the Hallmark Channel, this is for you. A lot of people like that sort of thing, but I don't. I found it rather schmoopy. The book got me interested in what was going to happen, however; it was just that the ending was too hearts-and-flowers for my taste. At least it was an easy read, and I got it over with in a few hours.
Onward and upward: ONE TO GO! The last category is "A book I haven't read yet from an author I love." Who else would it be but Tamora Pierce? I shall start her Bloodhound -- second in the Beka Cooper trilogy -- tomorrow. I've read six new-to-me, non-challenge books in 2015, so if I finish Bloodhound quickly enough, I may make it to sixty new books in 2015. I certainly have enough books checked out from the library, so I could do it!
If you like movies produced by the Hallmark Channel, this is for you. A lot of people like that sort of thing, but I don't. I found it rather schmoopy. The book got me interested in what was going to happen, however; it was just that the ending was too hearts-and-flowers for my taste. At least it was an easy read, and I got it over with in a few hours.
Onward and upward: ONE TO GO! The last category is "A book I haven't read yet from an author I love." Who else would it be but Tamora Pierce? I shall start her Bloodhound -- second in the Beka Cooper trilogy -- tomorrow. I've read six new-to-me, non-challenge books in 2015, so if I finish Bloodhound quickly enough, I may make it to sixty new books in 2015. I certainly have enough books checked out from the library, so I could do it!
I read Mira Grant's Feed a couple weeks ago, and since then, I've read the two full-length sequels, Deadline and Blackout. There are other stories available in e-formats, and I will get to them as soon as I can. The one about San Diego Comic Con in 2014 sounds good -- "Browncoats" is somewhere in the title, leading me to think Mira Grant is a Firefly fan. (Many geeks are, so that makes me like her more.)
No spoilers, though there may be some in the comments:
This is good stuff. Grant did her research on virology and made the causes and effects of these two fictional viruses believable, at least to this science-geek non-scientist who only knows conceptual astronomy. The emotional components were brutal, and I often felt weary at the sorrow and loss the characters felt. By the end, it isn't even really a proper zombie book; zombies are a by-product, something to be avoided, but at the core of these books are friendship, power struggles, action, family, double-crossing, and love.
I had thought the trilogy would be re-published next year in one volume, along with some shorter works, but I was mistaken. It's the eight shorter works coming out in a single print volume:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316309583/r
So I will splurge on the three novels -- over 1800 pages in all -- if I get any Christmas money.
Back to the reading challenge after this! I will start on David Baldacci's The Christmas Train tomorrow, and it should be a quick read.
No spoilers, though there may be some in the comments:
This is good stuff. Grant did her research on virology and made the causes and effects of these two fictional viruses believable, at least to this science-geek non-scientist who only knows conceptual astronomy. The emotional components were brutal, and I often felt weary at the sorrow and loss the characters felt. By the end, it isn't even really a proper zombie book; zombies are a by-product, something to be avoided, but at the core of these books are friendship, power struggles, action, family, double-crossing, and love.
I had thought the trilogy would be re-published next year in one volume, along with some shorter works, but I was mistaken. It's the eight shorter works coming out in a single print volume:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316309583/r
So I will splurge on the three novels -- over 1800 pages in all -- if I get any Christmas money.
Back to the reading challenge after this! I will start on David Baldacci's The Christmas Train tomorrow, and it should be a quick read.
- Current Mood:
sleepy
I finished another non-challenge book today: Feed by Mira Grant. It's the first in the Newsflesh "trilogy" (five books and more to come), and I really liked it. Political intrigue, virology, murder, two siblings looking out for each other, science fiction, and zombies!
So basically, the cure for the common cold and the cure for cancer -- both viruses -- got together and created something entirely new that restarts a mammal's nervous system when the body dies and shuts down. This is how the zombies happened in 2014, and it explains how it spreads. Now it's 2039, and the protagonists are bloggers who run a news site. Bloggers have gained credibility as a source of news since the dead started walking: the official news sources were denying anything was going on, but the bloggers, who weren't being censored, spread information on self defense and what was really happening. The siblings and their business partner are invited to join a senator on the campaign trail as he runs for President of the United States.
I love the world building, the research that went into the causes and effects of the Rising, the strong brother-sister relationship, and the plot that kept me guessing right up to the end. It's occasionally graphic, but not as gory as you might think a zombie book would be because this isn't an origin story. The world changed a generation before the events in this book; there are security protocols, quarantine areas, and defense mechanisms, and the world has had twenty-five years to learn and adapt. But people are still people, and shit happens.
I have yet to read any other books in this series, but I hope to get my grubby little paws on them this weekend. Once I started, I wanted read this 599 page book in one sitting, and I needed Kleenex before I finished. Twice. If I like the other books, there's a complete volume coming out in June with the three main novels and some in-between novellas.
So basically, the cure for the common cold and the cure for cancer -- both viruses -- got together and created something entirely new that restarts a mammal's nervous system when the body dies and shuts down. This is how the zombies happened in 2014, and it explains how it spreads. Now it's 2039, and the protagonists are bloggers who run a news site. Bloggers have gained credibility as a source of news since the dead started walking: the official news sources were denying anything was going on, but the bloggers, who weren't being censored, spread information on self defense and what was really happening. The siblings and their business partner are invited to join a senator on the campaign trail as he runs for President of the United States.
I love the world building, the research that went into the causes and effects of the Rising, the strong brother-sister relationship, and the plot that kept me guessing right up to the end. It's occasionally graphic, but not as gory as you might think a zombie book would be because this isn't an origin story. The world changed a generation before the events in this book; there are security protocols, quarantine areas, and defense mechanisms, and the world has had twenty-five years to learn and adapt. But people are still people, and shit happens.
I have yet to read any other books in this series, but I hope to get my grubby little paws on them this weekend. Once I started, I wanted read this 599 page book in one sitting, and I needed Kleenex before I finished. Twice. If I like the other books, there's a complete volume coming out in June with the three main novels and some in-between novellas.
I was asked what the secret to my family's beloved stuffing recipe is, so I decided to post it here, both for ease of access in the future and for sharing. A few of the instructions are a sort of use-your-best-judgement sort of thing, and I have decades of experience making and watching it being made, but I've done my best to describe those procedures. (If I'd known I would make a blog post this morning, I would have taken pictures.)
The quantities here have been doubled, because we always make more than can fit into a large turkey. The rest gets baked separately; see below.
Ingredients:
three pounds good bread: white, baguettes, Italian, French, but don't get too fancy (you want the taste of the bread to compliment the other flavors, not overwhelm them)
2 bunches of celery
2 yellow or brown onions
vegetable oil
dried herbs: thyme, poultry seasoning, white pepper, salt, dried parsley
turkey broth (see below)
Start the turkey broth the day before. I use the giblets from the turkey, and I also get extra necks from the supermarket. Chuck them in a stock pot with an onion (peeled and cut in quarters), the tops and bases of two bunches of celery (you'll use the stalks in the stuffing), and some fresh or dried herbs: parsley, rosemary, thyme, and poultry seasoning. Pour in enough water to cover it all. Cover and let that happily boil away overnight so the turkey bits have time to cook and so the flavors have time to mix. If you do this in a slow cooker, turn it to high for an hour at the beginning and then on low for the rest of the night.
Break three pounds of bread into small cubes; no more than an inch on any side. We used to use cheap white loaves, but now I use baguettes and/or French and/or Italian bread. Yummy bread makes yummy stuffing. This takes a while; heat the oven on low, like 250 F, and lay some of the bread in a single layer on cookie sheets or in roasting pans, and toast them until they're crisp. Not necessarily changing color, but you're speeding up the process of making the bread stale. Toast more of the bread, then more, then more, until all of it has been in the oven. Set aside.
Measure the herbs:
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
4 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
2 tsp ground thyme
4 tablespoons dried parsley
The recipe calls for a teaspoon of sage, but we don't like it, so we leave it out. I am very generous in my measurements of the herbs here, except for the salt, because I dry brine the turkey with salt. Mix and set aside.
Finely chop three cups each of celery and onion. Like less than a centimeter on any side. Pour the vegetable oil into the largest frying pan you have and saute the onion and celery in it until the celery has lost some of its color and the onion has gone a little translucent.
Here's the tricky part. Three pounds of bread is a lot of bread. More than any one container, including my stock pot, can hold. So I divide the bread into the two biggest containers I have. Sprinkle some of the herbs over the bread, then spoon or pour some of the onion/celery/oil mixture over, then some of the broth to moisten. Mix. Repeat with the herbs, vegetable mixture, and broth, and mix. Move some of the bread mixture from one container to the other. As the bread gets wet, it will condense, but don't overdo the wet stuff too much; you want an end result with some structure, not stuffing soup.
Stuff the turkey's cavities with the bread mixture. Start roasting the turkey, or put it in the fridge until it's time to go in the oven.
The rest of the bread mixture will be dressing instead of stuffing (unless you have a second turkey), and it won't be quite as good, but I've been trying for years to duplicate the in-the-turkey process without the turkey. I think I've done pretty well. Put the leftover bread mixture in a ceramic or glass casserole dish. Pour a lot of broth over it and mix. You're trying to make it the consistency of stuffing, so it needs to be pretty wet. You want to see puddles in the crevices between the bits of bread. Then press the dressing into the dish, like you were stuffing the turkey. Again, you're duplicating the in-the-turkey process, and the stuffing inside the bird is compressed in there. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 325 F for about half an hour. Pull it out of the oven, fluff it and then press it again, put more broth over the top if it needs it, and then it goes back in the oven uncovered for another forty minutes. This is so the tops of the bread get a bit crunchy, like the exposed bits of bread at the edges of the turkey's cavities.
The card upon which this recipe is typed is old, slightly stained, and yellow with age; it's been around a lot longer than I have. This is the ultimate comfort food for me, because the textures and flavors say "Home" like nothing else.
The quantities here have been doubled, because we always make more than can fit into a large turkey. The rest gets baked separately; see below.
Ingredients:
three pounds good bread: white, baguettes, Italian, French, but don't get too fancy (you want the taste of the bread to compliment the other flavors, not overwhelm them)
2 bunches of celery
2 yellow or brown onions
vegetable oil
dried herbs: thyme, poultry seasoning, white pepper, salt, dried parsley
turkey broth (see below)
Start the turkey broth the day before. I use the giblets from the turkey, and I also get extra necks from the supermarket. Chuck them in a stock pot with an onion (peeled and cut in quarters), the tops and bases of two bunches of celery (you'll use the stalks in the stuffing), and some fresh or dried herbs: parsley, rosemary, thyme, and poultry seasoning. Pour in enough water to cover it all. Cover and let that happily boil away overnight so the turkey bits have time to cook and so the flavors have time to mix. If you do this in a slow cooker, turn it to high for an hour at the beginning and then on low for the rest of the night.
Break three pounds of bread into small cubes; no more than an inch on any side. We used to use cheap white loaves, but now I use baguettes and/or French and/or Italian bread. Yummy bread makes yummy stuffing. This takes a while; heat the oven on low, like 250 F, and lay some of the bread in a single layer on cookie sheets or in roasting pans, and toast them until they're crisp. Not necessarily changing color, but you're speeding up the process of making the bread stale. Toast more of the bread, then more, then more, until all of it has been in the oven. Set aside.
Measure the herbs:
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
4 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
2 tsp ground thyme
4 tablespoons dried parsley
The recipe calls for a teaspoon of sage, but we don't like it, so we leave it out. I am very generous in my measurements of the herbs here, except for the salt, because I dry brine the turkey with salt. Mix and set aside.
Finely chop three cups each of celery and onion. Like less than a centimeter on any side. Pour the vegetable oil into the largest frying pan you have and saute the onion and celery in it until the celery has lost some of its color and the onion has gone a little translucent.
Here's the tricky part. Three pounds of bread is a lot of bread. More than any one container, including my stock pot, can hold. So I divide the bread into the two biggest containers I have. Sprinkle some of the herbs over the bread, then spoon or pour some of the onion/celery/oil mixture over, then some of the broth to moisten. Mix. Repeat with the herbs, vegetable mixture, and broth, and mix. Move some of the bread mixture from one container to the other. As the bread gets wet, it will condense, but don't overdo the wet stuff too much; you want an end result with some structure, not stuffing soup.
Stuff the turkey's cavities with the bread mixture. Start roasting the turkey, or put it in the fridge until it's time to go in the oven.
The rest of the bread mixture will be dressing instead of stuffing (unless you have a second turkey), and it won't be quite as good, but I've been trying for years to duplicate the in-the-turkey process without the turkey. I think I've done pretty well. Put the leftover bread mixture in a ceramic or glass casserole dish. Pour a lot of broth over it and mix. You're trying to make it the consistency of stuffing, so it needs to be pretty wet. You want to see puddles in the crevices between the bits of bread. Then press the dressing into the dish, like you were stuffing the turkey. Again, you're duplicating the in-the-turkey process, and the stuffing inside the bird is compressed in there. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 325 F for about half an hour. Pull it out of the oven, fluff it and then press it again, put more broth over the top if it needs it, and then it goes back in the oven uncovered for another forty minutes. This is so the tops of the bread get a bit crunchy, like the exposed bits of bread at the edges of the turkey's cavities.
The card upon which this recipe is typed is old, slightly stained, and yellow with age; it's been around a lot longer than I have. This is the ultimate comfort food for me, because the textures and flavors say "Home" like nothing else.
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