I have a storied history with weight. I started out as a normal-weight baby and then toddler, transitioned to a very overweight child, and then lost it all and became a thinner-than-normal teen.
Thus, I started adult life at a healthy weight. But it all went downhill from there.
Five pounds in college. Five pounds in culinary school. Five pounds with each baby. Another five pounds this past year.
And, all in all, I found myself at a place in which I was way above the highest weight at which I felt at all comfortable. And after many, many years of "I'm not happy with my weight, but I'm too busy-tired-stressed to deal with it," I was finally ready to turn my attention to losing weight.
One year in, I'm happy to report that I've lost a total of....
Zero pounds
When I say "zero pounds," that's not actually true. Actually, I have lost a massive amount of weight - traveling up and down the scale within the same 7-8 pound range. But it has all come back. Yo-yo dieting in miniature, you might say.
BUT
I have learned quite a bit. Firstly, about weight loss. I have learned that, for example:
(1) I do not lose weight easily. ("Mmm-hmm" says every woman in America.) Weight loss is a fight to the death. I should have realized this from my years of doing diets to test their efficacy in fighting morning sickness - even when doing extreme diets (Paleo, low-carb, keto), I really didn't lose much if any weight. The only time I lost a considerable amount of weight (20 pounds, if I remember correctly) was when I went dairy-free - and that weight, unfortunately, stayed gone for only about six months before it crept right back.
(2) However, I can gain weight extremely easily! ("Mmm-hmm," says every woman in America, again.) I can work like the dickens to lose weight over the course of a week, and gain it all back over the weekend.
(And both of these problems seem to be getting worse as I age.)
I've also learned some of my own faults that are contributing to my difficulty in losing weight. Here are a few of them:
(1) When it comes to food, I have an innately disordered appetite. Overeating is automatic for me - moderation is intensely difficult. And I know that this is inborn for me because my parents have told me that as soon as I was old enough to order my own food in a restaurant, I went straight to the adult menu - I never ordered from the child-sized menu, even as a young child.
A great book that outlines the differences between people who find moderation easy and natural, and people for whom overeating is automatic and instinctual, is Bright Lines Eating by Susan Peirce Thompson. This book helped to relieve a bit of the guilt of being someone to whom moderation does not and probably will never come easily, and also helped me to see the innate differences between people like my husband's family, who find it easy to say "Oh, I took three bites of this luscious chocolate cake, and I just can't eat another bite, I guess I'd better throw the rest in the trash" (really!) and someone like me, who eats a piece of chocolate cake and now has to fight a roaring desire to devour the entire cake. I now know that gluttony is a battle that I'll always have to fight, and it's helpful to know that this fight is inborn and not just a sign of my moral failings. We all have sins to which we are prone, and this is one of mine.
(2) Secondly, I realized that I've fallen into bad habits since I've been on my own (so, twenty years). The philosophy of "I'm an adult, therefore I can, therefore I will," does not translate into good end-results when applied to desserts, snacks, and treats. I'm having to re-learn a better philosophy, "I'm an adult, therefore I can, therefore I will decide if it's wise or not and will act accordingly."
(3) I realized when reading Trim Healthy Mama that I have another really bad habit, and that is constant nibbling. This habit can really fly under the radar, and it certainly did with me. Nibbling when preparing food, when serving food, when clearing away and putting away - it can really add up. I've really been working on this problem, and it's a tough one to tackle.
(4) On a side note, my exercise life is non-existent. I love to do ballet, but have neither the time nor the money; I love to walk, but never do because I always end up with a flock of children around me who prevent any serious exercise. I don't worry too much about this, because I am a mama who is constantly active within the home - I'm not stuck in a screen-based job, and I am quite active. However, I am also quite out of shape from a strength or stamina perspective - any strenuous exertion reminds me quite quickly how out of training I am. Again, it's not a big issue to me right now because I do not have the time to remedy it. But it is something to keep on the radar.
One method that I have found works for weight loss is fasting. I've found this quite liberating, and I'm working on incorporating fasting into my life. (Read more with Fast Like a Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz.)
The downsides of fasting have been as been that (1) it is quite easy to overeat following a fasting period and thus regain all of the weight lost, and (2) I find fasting nearly impossible on days when I am super-stressed (which is quite often).
I also find it quite amusing that the only way that I've found to actually lose weight successfully is to completely stop eating.
As a 20-year aficionado of food and health sciences, I am also aware that there is a myriad of reasons why we moderns are having such trouble with our weight. There are massive economic and environmental causative factors that are creating the perfect storm in terms of weight problems and chronic illness. I think that I could easily list a hundred reasons behind all of this. Plastics, screens, antibiotics overuse, various birth practices, chemical food additives, fast food, social programming (like the "you should snack all the time" movement from the 1980s), etc. The cards are stacked against us in so many ways.
Still, I want to give it my best shot. And hopefully the disciplines that I am beginning to learn now will have a positive impact.
I'll check back in and let you know.
And please, if you have any amazing weight loss tips, let me know!
Last year, we noticed a stray cat stranded on our neighbor's roof. Not a big deal. "If it gets hungry enough, it will come down." Right?
Not this cat.
Said cat stayed up there, mewing pitifully, for... days. We finally managed to lure her to the edge and capture her. Then we brought her down, fed her a good meal, and expected her to go on her way.
Next day, said cat was back on the roof, mewing pitifully.
After this went on for a week or two, we finally captured her for good, adopted her, and kept her inside until we were fairly sure she could be trusted. She has since become a beloved pet.
Except for one problem - she still manages to get herself stranded on roofs. We're not sure why, but every few weeks the cat goes missing - and inevitably will be found stranded on a neighbor's roof. And, whaddaya know, most people don't want us running over their rooftops trying to capture our renegade feline.
Enter the cat ramp.
I can proudly claim copyright for this idea, though it took us quite some time to get it made. And during the first feline escapade for which we used the cat ramp, the cat ignored the ramp, even when we lined it with cat treats and put a bowl of tuna at the end.
Behold, the CAT RAMP.
But then, just as we were about to give the cat up for lost - at this point she had stayed on a neighbor's roof for six days - she came down.
And there was great rejoicing.
***
Insane felines aside, let's have some books!
I am in the middle of a busy season of life, and I am also trying to work on another book-based project (making a read-in-order booklist for grades 3-12, which I will make available here if I can ever finish it). I am also quite behind in publishing this quarterly reading list. Thus, I am trying to simplify this post - no book cover pictures, briefer descriptions, and not a lot of extras. I beg the reader's forgiveness, and will hope to include more next time.
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.
***
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.
***
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.
Do you reduce sugar in recipes? I'd love to hear about it!
***
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?"
***
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.
***
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.)
***
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 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.
***
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!
Many years ago - long-time readers will remember this - I did a massive amount of low-carb dieting. (Not to lose weight, which was a good thing, as I didn't, but to see if it would help morning sickness, which it did.)
My long-term conclusion, based on my experiences, is that despite its use in curbing severe morning sickness, severe carb restriction was - for me, at least - nearly impossible to maintain over the long-term. I'm no longer in favor of "keto for life" approaches.
(I am totally fine with dietary approaches that include low-carb cycling, such as Trim Healthy Mama or forms of intermittent fasting. I also believe that keto can have a very important role in healing disease states. I just am not a fan of the "everyone should be keto, all the time, for life" philosophy. Additionally, after one gets over gloating over the delectable seething-with-butter-and-bacon dinner recipes, keto is a fairly miserable experience, especially in the long run. I know the this-is-so-wonderful romance stage of beginner keto, but after it's over, oh boy is it over. When I finished up with my several years of keto, I ended up obsessively eating sweet potatoes at every meal for close to a year - yes, breakfast-lunch-dinner - and I've been in love with pasta ever since. No more keto for me, if I can avoid it.)
However! One of the huge benefits of a time of low-carb living was that my sense of sweetness was completely re-set, and I finally understood why many foreigners find American desserts unpleasantly oversweet. It's because we Americans make crazy-oversweet desserts!
Since then, I've been on a quest (1) to find less-sweet desserts (being that I, too, like dessert!), and (2) to lower sugar levels in my existing recipes.
(I also find that super-sweet desserts now make me sick - quite literally. Not sure why - probably should find out - but there's nothing fun about being sick for hours - or all night - because I've chosen to eat dessert. Lowering sugar is a better way.)
Finding low-sugar recipes on the internet is both difficult and complicated, because different people mean different things when they say "low sugar." Many people consider anything without white sugar to be "sugar-free" or "low sugar." It may have three cups of honey in it, but it'ssugar-free because it has no white sugar! (Definitely not what I'm looking for.)
Also, many people develop "low sugar" recipes simply by removing the sugar and replacing it with a sugar replacement, usually a 1:1 sugar-alcohol mix. I prefer not to use these sugar replacements, for two reasons (1) they are slightly less expensive than antique silver, by weight, and (2) the slightest overindulgence in such things can induce violent illness (just ask me - I've been down that road). My husband tends to be super-sensitive to those products, as well, and can feel ill after eating just the smallest bit of xylitol or erythritol. Overall, they're just not worth it for us.
(Plain liquid or powdered stevia works great for us as a sweetener, and we use it daily in our coffee, but it is no good in baking, as it lacks all of the additional chemical and structural characteristics of sugar that are necessary in baking. Additionally, at high concentrations, stevia has an unpleasant bitterness - our family still talks about the ice cream that I made with several teaspoons of liquid stevia in it. It's one of my only creations that even I've refused to eat.)
And now, back to cooking - not with non-white sugars, or fake sugars, but simply with less sugar.
*****
Here are my findings:
(1) With most American recipes, most of which have far more sugar than they need for structure and texture, you can reduce sugar by one-quarter to one-third without negatively affecting the outcome. With some recipes that have really gone nuts on the sugar, you can reduce sugar by half - or even more.
(2) Sugar reduction is easiest in puddings, custards, cheesecakes, ice creams, and sauces.
(3) Sugar reduction is usually fine (using the one-quarter to one-third reduction rule) in muffins, quickbreads, cakes, etc. If I reduce sugar by enough that I'm nervous about the structure of the finished product (because reducing sugar can reduce the moisture of the finished product), I compensate by adding extra moisture in the form of sour cream, coconut milk, banana puree, extra fats (butter, oil), or whatever happens to be standing by and looks good. For example, I recently reduced the sugar in a zucchini bread recipe by 75% - and to make up for the lost moisture, added banana puree into the mix. It was a delightful success, and I include the recipe at the end of this post.
(4) Sugar reduction is much riskier in cookies and candies, so I usually don't try it with those - or with any recipe that depends strongly on sugar for structure, color, etc.
(5) I cannot overstate the role of experimentation in this process. When I try a recipe, I give a guess as to how much sugar I can subtract - and if it's a success (and it nearly always is), I make a note of it, and then try to take it lower the next time. Experimentation is easy - and lots of fun.
*****
Two recipes from my childhood have lately been great successes with sugar reduction:
Jewish Apple Cake (from Cooking Light) - This was an Easter morning favorite from my childhood - but 1 1/2 cups of sugar (plus another 1/4 cup for the topping) seemed a bit much. I reduced the in-the-cake sugar to 3/4 cup, and increased the cream cheese from 6 oz. to 8 oz. to account for any lost moisture (which saves having leftover cream cheese, too!). The result was amazing - and honestly, it was still a bit too sweet. Next year I will take the sugar even lower and add perhaps a bit more butter.
Lemon-Swirled Cheesecake (Cooking Light) - Growing up, this was our Easter dessert. (I learned to cook with Cooking Light - thanks, guys!) I hadn't made it in years, but wanted to try it again this year - but again, the sugar! Yikes! (1 3/4 cups in the cheesecake, 2 T. in the crust, and however much is in the 8 oz. of lemon curd - probably something like 2 1/2 cups total in one cheesecake!) Thus, with this one, I got brutal. I left the lemon curd alone - mainly because I already had lemon curd in the freezer that I wanted to use up - but reduced the sugar in the crust from 2 T. to 1 T., and the sugar in the cheesecake batter from 1 3/4 cups to 3/4 cup. Yes, you read rightly - an over 50% reduction. Things got crazy in the kitchen all day. Then I watched to see how guests reacted - yes, I made this for guests, not smart - and... (drumroll, please!)... it was a complete hit. Delightfully and lightly sweetened, without being sickeningly sweet.
I realize that both of the above recipes were "healthy living" recipes from the nineties, when fat was considered oh-so-evil, but sugar was pretty much given a free pass. These recipes really reflect that philosophy - which has mainly passed by, I think.
*****
Around here, sugar reduction in recipes has on the whole been wildly successful. (And again, my family is my testing ground - especially my husband, who is extremely suspicious of anything labeled "healthy" - which, admittedly, is somewhat my fault, considering the number of atrocious recipes that I've tried to foist on the family over the years in the name of health. Tomato-free "spaghetti sauce" and coconut-flour pizza crust come to mind. Oh, the horrors.)
And the promised lower-sugar zucchini bread recipe, altered from Zucchini Bread IV on allrecipes.com. I reduced the sugar by 75%, compensated for moisture loss by adding banana puree, increased the zucchini, and also added more baking powder (because 1/8 tsp. per loaf seemed rather pointless). It was a huge hit with our family.
Best Not-Too-Sweet Zucchini Bread
Yield: 2 (8x4-inch) loaves
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup banana puree
2-4 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup chopped walnuts (opt.)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease two loaf pans.
Beat eggs in a large bowl until light and frothy. Add sugar and oil and banana puree; mix until well combined. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, nuts, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder; stir into egg mixture until incorporated. Divide batter into the prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of each loaf comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes.
*****
Enjoy, everyone!
(And please, do let me know your own tips for creating lower-sugar recipes!)
It was a year of extremes. Extreme joy - goals achieved, new life, and miraculous answers to prayer. And extreme sorrow - loss, suffering, death, illness, and stress of all kinds.
In summary, 2023 really was a year to remember.
So far, 2024 has been a year of... illness. So far we've had three colds, influenza, and a particularly violent stomach bug. Oh, I hope that we can move past this soon!
We have also had another pregnancy and loss - not the catastrophic nightmare of last time, but only the briefest whisper of a presence before a tiny soul took flight.
2024 has already been quite the year.
***
My goal for the beginning of this year is setting better systems in place.
A systems - meaning any personal or household routine - can be good or bad. For example, "get up, panic at how behind I am, yell at kids, rush out the door late" would be a not-so-good system. An improved alternative might be "get up, make a to-do list, switch the laundry, put away the dishes." Etc.
I have some good systems, but I also have some not-so-good systems. Most of my bad systems have to do with poor household management - specifically, management of how my children manage their time and belongings. So much of the time what happens seems to run along these lines:
(1) The children make horrendous messes and leave them for Mom to clean up.
(2) Mom end up overwhelmed and discouraged.
Ditto with time management.
And this is obviously a bad thing. Thus, my goal this year is to work on implementing better systems. Here are some things that I have implemented, or am in-process on implementing:
(1) Teaching children to make their beds and brush their teeth immediately upon rising, so that it's not a mom-has-to-nag item for later.
(2) Writing out complete chore lists, so that I'm not randomly assigning chores all of the time.
(3) Implementing a zero-tolerance rule for clothing left on the floor. (This is a major problem in our home, and endless reminders and do-overs have done nothing to improve things.)
(4) Having children age 10 and older take over their own laundry duty. I have always done all of the laundry up until this point, but I have realized that our older children do not know how to do laundry. I need to improve on this - pronto.
(5) Using a reward system for staying on task during lessons. Each child starts the morning with five "m&m credits," and I cancel one credit each time a child is dawdling or goofing off. Remaining credits are paid at the end of lesson times.
Note: This system worked for an impressive two days before I forgot about it. I really need to get it re-started. I find that reward systems fall by the wayside very quickly around here. I'm not sure if that's the system, or me. Does anyone have any insight on that issue?
(6) Working to standardize breakfast - i.e. assigning a particular breakfast to each day of the week. Right now I know (blessedly) that Monday is reliably "oatmeal," but after that it rather descends into a free-for-all, and the system needs improving. I have tried the "everyone makes his own breakfast" method, but that has not worked for us - the end result is inevitably a kitchen mess that would make any mum weep with despair.
** If anyone knows of great school-day breakfasts, please let me know! Really. I need ideas.
(7) Improving our bedtime routines. Right now it usually tends toward "wild kids, stressed parents," and we need improvement.
All that to say, family life is very interesting, and it's never dull. There is always something to work on.
What are you working on in your family life right now?
***
As usual, I am super-late with finishing Christmas activities. I realized that most of that was due to our behind-hand school year (more on that later), which caused me to push all the way to the end with schoolwork, rather than taking Thanksgiving through Epiphany as a Christmas vacation.
Also, though, I have realized something foundational to the holidays - nothing is worth having a stressed-out Christmas. Nothing. (I've gone that route before.) So if we're doing Christmas into February (or June), fine.
So, this season, most Christmas activities (cookies, etc.) didn't happen before Christmas. Or Epiphany.
King Cake for Epiphany. Whoever finds the hidden treat is "king for the year."
Or Candlemas.
Or Ash Wednesday.
So here we are, in the beginning of Lent, taking Christmas cookies to neighbors. (Really. I'm not kidding.)
Better late than never?
(Or make them just a bit later, and call them "Easter cookies.")
At least we did manage to get most of our Christmas activities done. Decorating Christmas cookies, baking lepkuchen, concocting our Christmas pudding (which we traditionally light on Candlemas, but illness and jobs prevented that this year), baking fruitcake, building gingerbread houses - most of it got done. The only things that I couldn't quite finish were baking the last bit of lepkuchen and serving our Christmas pudding, both of which will be frozen until after Easter.
Merry Christmas, y'all.
(Oh, and our decorations are still up. Oops.)
Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses! This year our eldest rejected my "cheat" of assembling the houses with hot glue, and insisted on using the proper royal icing alone as a cementing agent, and surprisingly, it came together well. I also had the experience of making royal icing without a hand mixer - my hand mixer having received mortal wounds in the effort of making dairy-free nut-based cheese (which was awful). Surprisingly, making royal icing by hand was not difficult, and turned out better than my usual royal icing.
***
But back to the topic at hand - kitchen islands.
Whose idea were they, anyway?
Because the ideal - a beautiful clean surface cheerfully serving as an extra kitchen prep area - is completely different from the reality - an insanity-producing clutter attractant.
Seriously, you guys.
Our kitchen island does very little other than attract clutter. And mean clutter, mind you. The easy-to-put-away clutter doesn't stick around. What does stick around is the hard-to-put-away clutter - the stuff that really doesn't have a home; the stuff that is a serious nuisance. And work as hard as I might, the clutter flows onto the kitchen island far faster than I can put it away.
In fact, a week or two ago, I spent a serious amount of time clearing the surface - and the clutter was back within 30 minutes. I did this three times in one day. It was utterly futile.
And thus, I do question the sanity of whoever created these clutter-attracting beasts. "Hey! Let's make a two-ton clutter-attractant, and put one in each American kitchen! Great idea, yes?"
Some ideas are better left on the cutting room floor.
This book - a work of fiction in which a group of English schoolboys, marooned on a desert island, gradually descends from orderly government into savagery and barbarism - is considered a classic, and is an interesting interpretation of the workings of human nature, especially human nature in social groups detached from general society.
I have wanted to read this book ever since high school - it only took me 25 years or so to get around to it!
My reactions were mixed. The book was fairly gruesome, and made unpleasant reading. Also, some parts - such as the part about the pilot - were puzzling. I don't think I'll be going back for a re-read.
At the same time, the book is valuable and contains good material. The ending is splendidly written. And the book contains valuable insight - namely, that human nature is not naturally good. While human beings are made of good stuff, we have much evil contained within us (just as the Bible teaches, and the Founding Fathers well knew). It takes good methods of government to control the evil side of human nature, and bad forms of government can release a hellish force of evil if they do not acknowledge and allow for the evils inherent within human nature.
I would love to hear what others thought of this book. Thoughts, anyone?
Fast Food Genocide (Joel Fuhrman, 2017) – Nutrition and nutrition politics.
I've noticed that nutrition books often have titles that are not accurate portrayals of the book's true intent. For example, a famous book about wheat has a title that implies "you should stop eating wheat," but what the author actually means is that "you should stop eating wheat, all grains, sugar, and practically all carbohydrates." And it's the same thing here. The title implies "you should stop eating fast food," but the author's message is that "you should stop eating fast food, junk food, processed food, salt, and meat, and eat a vegan diet." I really prefer titles that accurately portray the message of a book, and not just a tiny bit of it.
I enjoyed this book. It's got a lot of great material. One thing that I especially appreciated is the author's grasp of a little-realized fact - that diet has a real influence on mental health. This is one of those things that is well-documented in the literature but not acknowledged in common medical practice, and it's a fact that is not receiving the recognition it deserves. Our food influences our mood, and our mental health. (The author does, in my opinion, take this theme way too far, attributing everything from racism to crime to dietary deficiencies. So, a good beginning, but took it far past logic or reason.)
Two downsides of this book:
First, wokeness. In the middle of the book, the reader is suddenly treated to a pages-upon-pages chapter on the evils of Southern whites. It's long, and it's vituperative, and it's really unnecessary and out of place. A one-paragraph summary of the author's point (that nutritional deficiencies could have contributed to racial strife, which is questionable anyway) would have sufficed.
Secondly, there are hints throughout the book that the author would prefer nutritional policies to be not just recommendations but goverment mandates. In other words, the government should control what and how people are allowed to eat. Really?
I do understand the frustration of watching people destroy their health with bad food choices. But governmental control is, in my opinion, not the answer.
"I have eaten the diet that Dr. Furhman advocates since 2013. It is definitely the safest way to eat, tastes good, and has helped my health. For this I will always be thankful. But not all of Dr. Fuhrman's words in this new book, in fact, maybe only a quarter of his words in this new book, are factual. He has a political agenda and would legislate the way people eat. Perhaps it is because he cares about us, or perhaps because he would back his atheistic beliefs and feel good about himself; and also perhaps that he would grow rich in this world's assets. It is one thing to expose the poor eating habits of Americans and educate them, and now, those copying American society around the world; but it is another to enforce through civil law the way people eat."
There is good material in this book - but I'd prefer a book about straight nutrition that leaves politics alone.
Witness (Whittaker Chambers, 1952) – Autobiography of a Communist agent turned informer during the first half of the 20th century.
A friend heard that I'd never read this book and promptly handed me a copy. In my ignorance, I thought that it was a book off of which the movie "Witness" had been made - it's not, and the two have nothing to do with each other. But without further ado, I plunged into the book.
"Witness" is the autobiographical account of the life of Whittaker Chambers, from his (very dysfunctional and sad) childhood through his young adulthood, when he became passionately and deeply involved with the American Communist party, up until his departure from the Communist party - which was an extremely dangerous thing for him and his family - and through his participation as a witness in the Alger Hiss trial (which, again, I'd never heard of).
This book has to go on my list of top favorites. It is fascinating, well-written, engaging, and covers a lot of very important American history, especially regarding the spread of Communism in America. I wish that this book were on more high school level reading lists - I'm guessing that it is the book's length that prevents this (it is quite long), but this book is a keeper.
For more on the history of Communism in America, another person to check out is Bella Dodd, who was - during the same time period - responsible for placing Communist agents in the American public school system. She also has an amazing story to tell.
Highly recommended!
Gaudy Night (Dorothy Sayers, 1935) – Realistic mystery set in the 1930s.
A young woman (Harriet Vane) works to solve the mystery of a "poison pen" amongst the female dons at Oxford. Harriet's friend (and disappointed lover), Lord Peter Wimsey (a professional detective, and one of Sayers' ongoing characters) comes down to help her, and the mystery is solved. Even more interestingly, the book contains the final answer to "will she or will she not finally say yes to Lord Peter Wimsey's proposals"?
I have heard of Dorothy Sayers for years, and I was so glad to finally pick up one of her books. While I am an avid Agatha Christie fan, I actually don't usually go for mysteries, so I wasn't sure if I would like this book. But I enjoyed it very much.
Unlike Agatha Christie novels, which are the soul of brevity and inevitably get straight to the point, Gaudy Night was super-long and had a gentle, relaxed tone that made for a very long and leisurely read. The descriptions and character developments are first-rate.
The downside to the book was that there were so many characters that I simply couldn't keep them straight, and by the time I reached the "who done it" denouement, I didn't really know who the culprit was - or much care. But I enjoyed the book thoroughly for its workmanship, and I loved meeting Lord Peter Wimsey, another detective who has become a classic, and it was fun to compare him with my beloved Hercule Poirot.
One interesting note was how deeply embedded the doctrines of feminism were in this text - perhaps not too surprising, as the story took place among female academics, but surprising to me, as the book was written just about 100 years ago. It goes to show how far back in history the feminist movement goes - unlike many modern Christians who intone that "everything was fine through the 1950s." This book had so modern a tone that I would not have questioned anyone who told me that it was written in the past couple of years. I wondered, also, how much Sayers herself subscribed to feminist views, or if they were simply taken on for the sake of the book, or if she even realized that she was espousing feminism. A most interesting study in worldview.
I very much enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more of Dorothy Sayers.
Any other Sayers fans out there? I would love to hear your take on her books.
Suicide of the West (Jonah Goldberg, 2018) – Political and worldview analysis.
I expected this book to be an easy read, but it was actually much more of a challenge than I expected. But it was a good challenge, and I enjoyed it very much.
Because this book was written during Donald Trump's presidency, the author deals with a lot of Trump politics, focusing especially on the rise of populism. The author is not particularly pro-Trump, and he goes into detail about the trends arising around Trump's rise to popularity. Having always been mildly pro-Trump myself, it was really good for me to read a conservative commentator's thoughtful and well-reasoned arguments (instead of unreasoning hysteria) for not being in favor of Donald Trump, and I came away from the book with an appreciation of the non-Trump side of conservative American politics.
I enjoyed this book. It was worth the effort to read, and I gained a lot through reading it.
Anyone have thoughts on this book?
A Severe Mercy (Sheldon Vanauken, 1977) – Autobiography.
I am an enormous fan of C. S. Lewis - and I expect that you are too, dear reader. His books have influenced and challenged and blessed me enormously.
C. S. Lewis's books have, to my mind, a distinct flavor - a feel, a style - that one can detect at sixty yards. It's like a delicious scent that one immediately knows as something beloved and familiar.
This book had the delicious scent of a C. S. Lewis book. I recognized it immediately. And yet the book is not written by C. S. Lewis at all. What was going on?
As I read, I discovered that while this book was not written by C.S. Lewis, it was written by a man who was befriended by C. S. Lewis, and later became an intimate life-long friend.
I guess C. S. Lewis awesomeness can be gained by association!
A Severe Mercy is Vanaukin's autobiographical account of his youth and young adulthood, focusing on his courtship and marriage with his wife, Davy, until her early death (at around the age of 40), and of his grief after her passing. It is also the telling of the couple's coming to the Christian faith, under the mentorship of C. S. Lewis, and the development of their faith through the years.
To put it mildly, A Severe Mercy is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I enjoyed it tremendously. And it's not just a love story - it's got a lot of real depth to it as well. As literature, as a love story, and as a religious work, it is a work of great merit.
I learned that there is a sequel, titled Under the Mercy - which is, alas, out of print and rather pricey to find used. However, I think it would be worth the money to snag a copy, and I'm currently working on that.
This book merits not an "it's okay, maybe read it" label, but a go out and buy it right now! designation.
I know you'll enjoy this book as much as I did.
Jeeves & Wooster Books of the Month!
This month my Jeeves & Wooster selections included the following:
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (P.G. Wodehouse)
Very Good, Jeeves! (P. G. Wodehouse)
Right Ho, Jeeves
For Children: Picture Books
They Were Strong and Good (Robert Lawson, 1940) – Autobiographical account of the author’s immigrant and pioneer ancestors.
A wonderful picture book - well drawn, engaging, and full of both historical merit and positive character messages. Highly recommended.
The story of the 1914 Christmas truce - in which German and British soldiers spontaneously declared a cease-fire in order to celebrate Christmas as friends - I find one of the most moving of all war stories, and I was thrilled to find a children's book telling the story.
The author, John McCutcheon, wrote a song about the Christmas truce titled, appropriately, "The Christmas Truce" - you can watch a video of the author singing the song here.
This book would make an excellent addition to a study of World War I. It's also a great character builder in the qualities of mercy, compassion, and peace building.
Enjoy!
For Children & Teens: Novels
Ballet Shoes (Shoes series by Noel Streatfeild, 1936) – Realistic fiction.
It is a tragedy that I did not know about this wonderful series during my own childhood!
The "Shoes" books form a six-book series written all about girls in different dance or artistic pursuits - ballet, dance, theatre, skating, etc. The books are extremely well-written and entertaining, as well as educational - both about the artistic pursuits, and about life in an earlier time (the first Shoes book was written in 1936).
Some of these books are easily available, while some are difficult to find. A five-book set is available here (missing "Dancing Shoes," which is thankfully one of the easier books to find, so you can buy that one separately to complete the series).
I highly recommend this series. I read it myself, just for fun!
Classic Starts books (various) – Various titles abridged for elementary-aged children
There are several mainstream series of abridged classics for children, and I have really fallen in love with this one - "Classic Starts." The series includes many classic works, and all are tastefully written and illustrated. All of our children have benefited from this easy introduction to classic literature.
I'd heard of this book for years, but never read it - and wow, was I missing out. This book - a wartime story in WWII-era China - is an absolute delight, and both I and our children loved it. It would be a lovely addition to any unit study on WWII or modern history, and any age from mid-elementary and up would benefit from it - and enjoy it!
Highly recommended.
Brady (Jean Fritz, 1960) – Realistic fiction set in pre-Civil War Pennsylvania.
We've always enjoyed Jean Fritz's Revolutionary War era books, as well as her other books, so I was excited to read Brady, a new read for me. The book follows a young boy through his experience with pre-Civil War politics and slavery issues, including his family's participation on the Underground Railroad.
The adventures of a flying car and the family who owns it! In all honesty, it's not really my style, but there's no doubt that it's fun, well-written, and an established classic. Give it a try, or let your kids have at it.
Archimedes and the Door of Science (Jeanne Bendick, 1962) – History.
The life of Archimedes. Very well-written, and includes a lot of history as well as early science. Highly recommended!
Very well-written and realistic. As I've written before, there are loads of poor-quality historical fiction books for children out there - thankfully, this book is not among them. It is a great book, and will be a good addition to any homeschool library.
A few notes from the kitchen:
This Christmas season included a few wonderful new recipes:
Pumpkin Crumble Cake - see my notes in the comments as to how to make a dairy-free version, as well as how to replace the cake mix with a homemade version. For the recipe itself, I reduced the sugar to 1 1/4 cups, and am going to try to reduce it further to 1 cup.
Another great recipe was Autumn Pancakes - they have an awesome texture, and even our oatmeal-hating child loved them. My only change is to let the oatmeal mixture sit for longer than five minutes, which gives more time for absorption and softening, not to mention cooling. Given how long things take around here, that's an easy thing to accomplish.
***
Another kitchen adventure around here lately was our first ever Super Bowl party. This was not something that I ever saw myself doing, as I have a passionate dislike of football (and sports in general), and an even more intense dislike of the politics that seem to surround the game nowadays. However, it happened - mainly due to our children's sudden enthusiasm - and they had a wonderful time decorating and hosting friends.
In case anyone saw the creepy "He Gets Us" ad, I wanted to share - along with a great response article) - an intensely awesome and breathtakingly beautiful how-it-should-have-been-done video (don't miss this one - it is so good!):
***
Now, onto a more light-hearted kitchen theme - birthday cakes!
February is a big birthday month for us - we literally can't finish one cake before it's time for another.
Our first cake of the month was an utter disaster. A complete. and. utter. disaster. So bad that I didn't even take a picture of it. We just quit in the middle and ate it - it was delicious - and I promised the birthday child that I would re-do the entire thing after birthday season. That adventure is yet to come.
The second cake of the month was a much bigger success. The theme - dinosaurs. I found this cake to be my inspiration:
I loved the idea of two tones of green. I approximated her colors by using plain green for the deep green, and green plus yellow and one drop each of black and brown for the yellow-green. The contrast was great. Upon discovering that I don't actually have a grass tip, I used this fun tip to approximate:
For the cake itself, I used a favorite cake of ours - Beat and Bake Orange Cake. This is a splendid cake, and super-easy to make. My changes:
I find that regular sugar works just fine.
I increase the orange zest, and add an equal amount of lemon zest. (Maybe a tablespoonful or so of each.)
I used this frosting, which has less sugar (I find most frostings unpleasantly sweet). It would be a bit on the soft side for layer cake frosting, so if you're planning a layer cake, either chill the frosting a bit first, or omit the orange juice and use a teaspoon of orange extract instead:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
2 (8 oz. each) cream cheese
1/4 cup orange juice
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. each vanilla, lemon zest, orange zest
And the outcome was - while not anything near the model - a great cake that thoroughly pleased both birthday child and guests.
***
This past week, we attended what I think may have been the most awesome children's birthday party ever.
Why so amazing?
Because the mom pulled it off without destroying herself - something that parties tend to do to women, and which certainly happens to me.
Here's how this act of brilliance went, via text:
"Hey, everyone - a couple of our kids are having birthdays soon. Meet us at the park on Saturday to celebrate - we'll bring pulled pork and cake. Bring your own lawn chairs and sports equipment, and post here what food or disposable dishes you'd like to bring."
And that was it.
The kids played wildly for several hours - no pre-planned activities needed - and the adults got to talk. At the end, everyone helped clean up.
Zero headaches, zero exhausted-overworked-overwhelmed mom, zero "I will NEVER DO THIS AGAIN" moments.
This is my new model for how to throw a party.
****
Another kitchen adventure was our much anticipated FROG CUPCAKES for Leap Year! (Frogs leap. Get it?) Very uncomplicated, very unprofessional, but very fun - and our children anticipate this for months (years!) in advance. This time I used Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake as the base. By halving the recipe and then reducing the 1 cup of sugar to 3/4 cup, the batter was just perfect for a dozen cupcakes.
My favorite all-natural green coloring is chlorophyll, which you can buy at Sprouts or online. The eyes are made with trimmed marshmallows + chocolate chips, and the mouths (we're going to do pink next time) were piped by the 9yo.
It's hard to realize that this is a first-leap-year-ever for two of my children - and by the time it rolls around again, our eldest teen will no longer be a teen, and we'll have two more of the younger crew who will be teens. Wow.
Happy Leap Year, y'all.
Music & Dance
I am a huge fan of English folk dance, and we recently discovered the YouTube channel Historical Dance. Oh, what a treasure trove! Try this one on for size:
We found that one a bit hard for us to learn right away, but we did learn this easier one - give it a try! Super-fun, and not too difficult. (It also revealed to me how completely out of shape I am - ouch!):
There are so many wonderful videos on this channel. Enjoy!
***
We are just starting to enjoy the music from Laudate Mennonite Ensemble. Here is one of their recent productions:
I recently learned of the existence of many wonderful Mennonite choirs. If you haven't yet searched out this area of choral performance, give it a search on YouTube.
***
Speaking of historical dance forms, we are currently enjoying videos of Irish dance. Try this one!
***
To end the music & dance section, I'll leave you with our 2yo's current favorite (he is currently fussing in my arms because I'm writing about it rather than playing it!
***
Okay, folks! That's it for this entry. Write and let me know how you and your families are doing - and if you've read any good books lately. I hope that each of you is having a good spring and a wonderful Lent.
And in the meantime, pray for me, as I pray for you.
