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| Behold, the CAT RAMP. |
Children: Picture Books
Gertie: The Darling Duck of World War II (Shari Swanson, 2023, children's picture book history) - The story of a duck that built her nest on top of a bridge piling, and the city who adopted and rescued her and her ducklings. This book would be a great companion book to McCloskey's "Make Way for Ducklings," and would also be a wonderful addition to an elementary-age World War II unit study. Highly recommended.
Children & Teens: Chapter Books
Pushcart War (Jean Merrill, 1964, children’s fiction-fantasy) - It took me a long time to get into this book (which was recommended by a librarian). However, I pushed onward, inspired by our love of this author (especially her sweet and funny "Please Don't Eat My Cabin"). Eventually I caught the swing of things and enjoyed the book. Of course, at this point, I am so far removed from the book that I can barely remember what it was about, so just a brief summary - a town wins the war to save their pushcarts from encroaching trucks. I enjoyed it! Thoughts on this book, anyone?
The Adventures of TinTin (TinTin series, Georges Remi, ~ 1930, fiction-fantasy comic series) - I had heard of these my whole life, but only recently found one at a thrift store. Our children LOVE them! They are written in the form of an adventure comic, and I am looking to find more of the series. Highly recommended.
Teens & Adults:
The Case Against Sugar (Gary Taubes, 2017, nutrition & food history) – I have enjoyed two of Taubes' books in the past, and knew I was in for a treat - which I was. This book is a treasure. Taubes gives an exhaustive and fascinating account of the entire history of refined sugar - from the first time it was recorded in historical literature up to the present day. Included are the development of different foods (candies! soda! etc.), the changes in cultures and cuisines that happened as sugar moved in, the involvement of sugar in the cigarette industry, and everywhere else that sugar has affected our lives (hint: it's a LOT). Primarily, Taubes tracks the rise in sugar consumption concomitant with the obesity epidemic, and asks the question, "Can we conclude that sugar is the primary mover behind the obesity epidemic?" While Taubes obviously feels that the answer is yes, and I agree, he also goes back and - like a good scientist - gives all of the reasons why he might be wrong. (Bravo!) This book is fascinating and informative, and would actually be a great addition to a world history course. Highly recommended.
The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own and The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life (Joshua Becker, 2016 and 2018 (respectively), lifestyle) – Basics of minimalism by one of the most active proponents of the movement. I appreciate this man and his work very much, but I didn't come away from the books with much - most likely because I feel like I've already read just about every minimalist book on the market. And I'm right now in a place where I'm pretty disillusioned with minimalism - it is a philosophy that I have followed for a solid 20-25 years, but the stuff pours in faster than I can get deal with it. And each piece of clutter comes with a child attached who is desperately sure that HE WILL DIE if I so much as get rid of an old candy wrapper. So, yeah. Despite the fact that I am a minimalist and will remain one for life, I have found that minimalism is a philosophy that over-promises and under-delivers. Call me a minimalist failure. (With apologies to Mr. Becker. Please go read his books, just to be nice to him after my rant.)
Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K. Jerome, 1889, comic fiction) – I discovered this book several years back, and it is a gem. Some fun history: The book was originally slated to be a travel guide to the Thames River. However, the author's editor noticed that the author's material was turning out to be wildly funny, and so he told the author to scrap the travel guide and just write a funny story of three men's trip up the Thames. This will explain why - while most of the book is terribly funny - there are still some long, dry (and sometimes super-sentimental) historical bits stuck in seemingly at random. Despite that one defect, this book is one of my favorite comic works, and I highly recommend it.
What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women & The Food That Tells Their Stories (Laura Shapiro, 2017, food history) – This book covers biographical sketches of six different women, focusing on the story told by records of what they ate. The author is obviously leftist/feminist, which of course colored her writing (as politics and worldview do with us all) - additionally, some of the women she chose to showcase were decidedly unpleasant characters (such as Hitler's mistress and the woman who was the moving force behind Cosmo magazine). Additionally, there were quite a few "Ack, I wish I hadn't read that" moments. I admired the author's thoroughness of research, but I was thankful when I was done with the book.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown, 2014, life management) – In reading this, I realized that I'd read it years before, and for good reason - it's a life management classic. The book is beautifully neat and trim in how practically and succinctly it presents the material, and it is first class. While I occasionally ran across points that I disagreed with, this is an excellent book - I think I would like to re-read it at least every five to ten years. Highly recommended.
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And now, three books from The Good and the Beautiful, all geared toward high school students:
Treasure for Debby (Amy Wentworth Stone, 1936, realistic fiction) – I will quote from the website: "Debby dreams of attending art school, but, though she and her sister live in a grand mansion filled with exquisite artwork and valuable heirlooms, the household finances are sadly lacking. When a handsome visitor tells Debby of a potential art scholarship, she begins a quest to secure the additional money she needs, and Debby and her aunts must decide if they should sell their prized possessions. Treasure for Debby is the delightful story of a young woman who learns powerful lessons about relationships, trust, and love; and along the way, she discovers some of life’s true treasures." A fun book, and one that I enjoyed very much.
Thistle & Rose: A Story for Girls (Amy Walton, publishing date unknown, realistic fiction) – From the website: "After a lifetime of loneliness in London, 14-year-old Anna is finally leaving the city to live with her aunt and uncle in the countryside town of Waverly. However, when she arrives, she finds that things are not what they seem. Her efforts to please everyone lead her to a desperate choice between what is right and what is easy." Also a fun book.
King Otto’s Crown (Richard Roth, trans. Mary Ireland, 1917, history) - A historical account of tenth century Germany. Interesting and informative, and would be a great addition to a Medieval studies course.
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Lost Connections (Johann Hari, 2018, psychology-sociology-health) – In Lost Connections, Johann Hari describes his battle with depression and his journey through the world of antidepressants. Along the way, he discovers something big - namely that the narrative of the 90s, "Your depression has nothing to do with your circumstances - you just have a deficiency in your brain and you need these antidepressants to remedy that deficiency" - is actually, on the whole, wrong. Curious? Then read this fascinating book. The author is a leftist and an atheist, which colors his work (I have found myself praying for him often), but aside from some conclusions to which he is led by his worldview, this work is both thorough and highly valuable, especially for a country such as our own that is deep in a mental health crisis (spearheaded by things like depression) that is only worsening each year. Recommended.
An Autobiography (Agatha Christie, 1977, autobiography) – If you are a Christie fan - and even if you aren't yet one! - this book is a keeper. I discovered it in a seaside used book store (in Pismo Beach, to be specific) during my childhood, and it has been an annual re-read since. Not only is the material fascinating - Christie was born during the time of servants, carriages, and pre-WWI garden parties, lived through both world wars and ended up in the hippie seventies - but it's also well-written, engaging, and highly educational (it would make a great pick for a modern history course). Highly recommended.
Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (P. G. Wodehouse, 1974 - comedy) - And finally, my Wodehouse of the month! Aunts Aren't Gentlemen is actually my favorite Wodehouse so far, and it is a real treasure. If you haven't enjoyed one of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels yet, this would be a great place to start. (Any place is a great place to start!)
Kitchen Notes (and Various Etceteras)
By the end of Easter, we somehow had ended up with masses of candle wax on our carpet. And so off to the internet went I - and thankfully found that it's not an insurmountable problem after all. A tip from the stables: a warm iron over paper towels. It took a long time, but it worked!
Above is our Easter garden, with crosses veiled in black for Good Friday (the candles surrounding the tomb have already burned down in this picture). This year we started our garden in time for the seeds to sprout, but alas, before Easter, they had already died. I'm thinking that chia seeds are just not the best choice for an Easter garden - though I'm not sure what else to try, being that I don't want to buy ten pounds of grass seed just to have a pinch to plant every Easter.
Ideas, anyone?
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My original "kitchen note" post for this quarter actually morphed into its own article - Reducing Sugar in Recipes - It's Possible! (Here's How It Works for Me).
Do you reduce sugar in recipes? I'd love to hear about it!
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A note to any fellow desert-dwellers - downed Palo Verde branches make a wonderful crown of thorns for a Holy Week craft. We made three, tying them with twine - and one of them, having done its duty as a crown, is now adorning our bathroom wall as a wreath.
This was a big improvement on the crown of thorns crafts I saw on the internet, some of which - like the brown playdough + toothpicks version - made me jump out of my seat in alarm, crying "what on earth IS that thing?"
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Two posts I plan to share soon: my ongoing weight loss journey (hint: I haven't gotten very far), and our homeschool curriculum choices for 2024-2025. I promise to get those up in good time - at least sometime before 2047, which is when I'll have time to sit down and write them.
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Another of my latest kitchen projects - finding cookies that don't spread during baking.
I don't bake a lot of cookies, but when I do, I usually spend a good bit of time banging my head against the wall over cookies that have (1) spread, (2) melded into each other, and (3) turned into nightmarish chipping-with-a-chisel sessions of trying to get them off of the pans.
Thus, I started searching for "cookies that don't spread."
My first triumph was, voila! These little darlings: Easy Soft & Chewy Chocolate Cookies That Don't Spread. Not only were they quite literally the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had, but they didn't spread. Oh, the glory!
Now, note that I did chill the dough overnight before baking, due to running out of time - something that helps, but doesn't prevent, spreading with normal cookies. When some of my cookie balls got too warm, they did start to spread. So probably make sure that your balls are cool enough to be firm - and if not, stick them in the fridge for a bit to firm before baking.
(Note: I made this recipe a second time at a later date, and the cookies spread dreadfully. Not sure what I did wrong - apparently the curse follows me despite my best efforts.)
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And finally, a few recipes:
It's been so many years since I'd made a milkshake, and I wasn't sure - is it really as simple as just ice cream and milk? Yes, it is! Behold, the milkshake. Enjoy!
(Normally we make banana shakes - frozen cubed bananas, milk, peanut butter, and vanilla. This recipe is awesome, uses up bananas, and can easily be made dairy-free. But a good old-fashioned milkshake is fun too.)
For some reason, I decided to look up raisin bread - and voila, a new classic: Easy Raisin Bread. This is so good, and is reminiscent of Boston Brown Bread (but without the coffee can!). It is easy, fast, delicious, not too sweet, and makes a great extra to take along when delivering a meal.
Another new family favorite - Roasted Red Pepper Pasta. It is easy, fast, beautiful, and utterly delicious. An added bonus: my mushroom-haters didn't notice the mushrooms!
Last month I cooked for a vegan family, and couldn't get to the store for vegetable broth. Thus, a new culinary adventure: Homemade Vegetable Broth! It was actually amazingly delicious - I would totally have used it for my own recipes as well. Note: I used dried herbs instead of fresh, because I never have fresh around, and it was fine.
A few months back I was frantically searching the internet for a quick bread that would be suitable to take to a diabetic (such recipes are hard to find if you don't want to use sugar replacements, which I didn't have on hand). I tried this one - Sugarless Vegan and Apple Loaf. It was a bit peculiar, but I actually liked it - especially with lots of butter.
This Mexican Chicken Casserole was fast, easy, and popular with the family.
This Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole also came together super-fast - I sautéed the vegetables in the morning, and threw the dish together in ten minutes in the afternoon. Perfect for when we had to be out the door for a music camp concert!
Did you know that the feast day of St. John the Baptist (June 24th) is also called Monsoon Day in the Southwest? (Read this book: Hip, Hip, Hooray, It's Monsoon Day! This book is an annual tradition here!) Our family tradition is to make Pineapple Upside Down Cake for Monsoon Day. (Pineapples = tropical, tropical = monsoons. Get it?) This year we'll also be making Winster Wake Cakes on the Sunday following St. John's feast day (which is apparently when the feast day is celebrated), and I'm looking forward to that. We're also watching traditional Morris dancing, which is also traditional for that feast day.
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And there you have it, friends! Books and food - all you need. Have a wonderful summer, write and tell me how you're doing, I'll hope to check in again soon!
