Postings

I've been lurking on LibraryThing's forums for several years now (yeah, this blog is not the only place I have problems posting), and today I scrolled through one of my favorite topics - the worst books of this quarter (or whatever time period) where folks share what they couldn't bear to read another page of. Sometimes these posts are places for people to get all snobby about their reading or to take a couple of shots at book club recommendations, but when I read this post I cracked up:

Worst books so far:

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis. I had been looking forward to reading this book. It was a really boring book. Even a character who can bring people back from the dead couldn't make this book interesting to me.

The Clue of the Missing Bagpipies. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #41 Typical Nancy Drew. I'm just tired of her being such a know-it-all in every book.

Is Sex Necessary? Or Why You Feel The Way You Do by James Thurber and EB White. I gave this a rating of 2/5 -- my lowest so far. A humour book that was not funny and really outdated.

I feel like I should add The Late Hector Kipling by David Thewlis. I gave it a 3/5 and thought it was well written, but, it was VERY dark and not what I was expecting.

I love Nancy Drew, but I do agree she can be a know it all. Now I'm off to check out the poster's library. I have a feeling I'll enjoy her reviews.

Recipe Roundup

I've been cooking quite a bit lately, and thought I'd share what recipes I've been testing:

From Vegan With A Vengeance, I made the Coconut Heaven Cupcakes which were amazingly terrific. My only complaint is that the cupcakes and the frosting left me with a 1/4 a cup of coconut milk in the can. I hate it when things don't come out even. But they were so good, I plan to make them again, soon.

From Veginomican, I made the much more healthy Banana Wheat Germ muffins. These were also delish and much more healthy with very little sugar, lots of wheat germ and of course, no eggs or milk, so pretty low fat too. They also dealt with a problem we often have in our house: over-ripe bananas. Jason and Nora are pretty good about eating them up, but I won't touch them once the peels have any brown spots so we usually have 2-3 that I either end up freezing for smoothies or now I will use in these muffins. The muffins also freeze well.

Also in Veginomican, was the jicama/avocado/watercress salad. I always buy a jicama with great intentions and then I remember that I really don't want to eat more than a little of it. Or maybe the jicamas I buy are just too big and I should look for smaller ones which are reputedly milder and sweeter. I didn't have any watercress, so I didn't make this exactly as written, but did follow the directions on the dressing. Next time I will use less dressing and probably add the avocado when plating this since it got a little mushy in the fridge. Overall, you have to love jicama to like this salad, and while I don't dislike it, I don't really want to eat this for days, so make it if you've got a group coming for dinner and you need a side dish. I also added two shredded carrots which was a plus for me since I find jicama sometimes overwhelming. The dressing is pretty tasty, so you may want it for other salads.

This weekend I finally did something I've been meaning to test for a while - Veganizing the Krauskopf zucchini bread recipe for Nora. Honestly, I didn't think this was going to work, the recipe calls for 3 eggs, which is more than I've ever tried to substitute before. Most of the on-line vegan zucchini bread recipes call for using Energy Egg Replacer, something I've never bought because Isa's list of egg replacements in VwV usually calls for something I already have on hand (soygurt, bananas). This time I used one of her suggestions that I've been wanting to try for a while - 2 T ground flax meal + 3 T water whipped until that egg-like consistency. I really thought this would be too dense, especially tripling the amount to replace all three eggs. But zucchini was overrunning the crisper so I thought I'd give it a try. It was super good. The texture was perfect and while I can't claim this is the healthiest of recipes (there is a lot more sugar and oil than those banana muffins), I think the flax seed and unbleached flour help the recipe some and I might try cutting back on the sugar, because it's a great way to get Nora to eat zucchini. Nora, Jason and I ran though one mini-loaf in record time and I had to hide the other three in the freezer or else nothing else would have been eaten that day.

This week I also got the Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann. Since Nora will be going to pre-school two days a week, starting Tuesday, I've been trying to think about how I will pack lunches for her. This is also feeding my new bento obsession, that I really hope doesn't get out of hand, since I don't really have room in my kitchen for more things. VLB is very kid oriented and while it uses more processed vegan food than I would like, I totally see its place for helping vegan kids (and kids with food allergies) fit in in the lunch room. I also appreciate the suggestions for kid friendly menus at home. I bought this cookbook for two main reasons: vegan cheeze fondue and veggie corn dog recipes. However, just leafing through I'm finding some amazing new ones I want to try: apple tofu spring rolls and savory autumn leaf pies among others. So hopefully this along with this blog will help me make fabulous lunches that Nora will actually eat, which has been a challenge lately since she's stopped eating most of the things she used to love (Someone tell me just what is so offensive about peaches? I've even peeled them for her!).

Changes

Yes, I'm monkeying with the blog.... Thanks to Kat for the template link!

This is Not a Soccer Blog

Nevertheless, I give you this photo of Jason because it makes him happy.

This was taken during his man-date with some soccer cultural blogger who was road tripping across the US on his way to grad school. Inexplicably, Jason is not wearing Spurs gear, despite the intent of going to this sign to take a photo and despite the grad student/soccer culture blogger being an Arsenal fan. I would have thought that was a perfect opportunity to "support the team", but Greece got the shout out that day.

Recent Rural Property Purchases

I thought I'd better update you on the status of some of my old posts. Since some of you have inquired, I have indeed, bought the farm. It came in last week (was it last week?) and I couldn't be more pleased. It was one of those great eBay snares and here are my gloat pics. Note the fabulous condition of the lithos on the sides of the barn, silo and tractor, the presence of ears on the animals, and most glorious of all -- floor boards on masonite instead of plain green plastic. This is the farm of my childhood and not one of the later models. Oh, yeah, Nora likes it too.

Here's the whole farm, note that the orange pen and it's creatures do not belong to this farm set, but they came with the e-bay listing, along with that cute, wooden(!) truck up front and the boat in the back by the silo, which was not part of the original farm set, but was part of the houseboat set that I also had and thankfully my parents saved - this boat is going to their house to join the bigger houseboat, yellow lounge chairs, and red table set with lobster dinner that survives.
Close up of the farm animals and the fabulous inside of the barn. This picture is not detailed enough for you to see that the fence pieces have a rough-hewn texture - detail completely lacking from today's FP toys. Also missing from this picture (and modern FP farms) but not from my set is the happy sound of "moooooooo" that happens when you open or close the door (or when you spend several minutes triggering the mechanism: moooo, moooo, mmooooooooooooooo). Note the Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Symbol on the side of the barn in the pic below.

Nor do the modern sets have nearly the number of figures/pieces. While the modern figures are more detailed, they are perhaps too specific. Like many modern toys they eliminate the use of imagination by filling in too many of the blanks for us. Or maybe I'm just too blinded by my nostalgia for me to warm up to them. Here's the modern FP person and the vintage for your comparison:

In other news, I finally installed the Dutch Kinder on my mom's old pantry that she refurbished for Nora. This project went incredibly well. I fully expected the decals to crumble given their age and for me to have a royal fit. But they performed as their 50 + year old descriptions claimed and slid off their paper backing with water and adhered to the doors as if they were brand new. Actually, given the state of recently manufactured things, probably better than brand new. My lesson from these two experiences - go vintage. Better quality, more detail, and it keeps stuff out of landfills.


This is my favorite decal, sorry it's so blurry!:

Here's Nora and Grammy having a tea party in front of the pantry, by the way that cute tea set is from Lillian Vernon Kids and is NOT vintage, but it is perfect for little hands with it's soft fabric construction although it is perhaps a bit pink. Despite the horrors of the regular Lillian Vernon catalog, the Kids catalog has some neat stuff (as well as too much Disney Princess crap):

Soccer Blog

No, this isn't Jason's Blog - he doesn't have one because he has a dissertation instead. So why am I writing about soccer? Because my cousin is. Well, really my cousin's son, Sito is. He plays soccer for his school and also for the Scott Gallagher team (okay, I don't really follow much soccer, but I'm told he's a big deal). Anyway, the cool thing is that Sito's team has made it to the 2007 National Youth Soccer Championship (way to go, Sito!). But for me the really cool thing (not a soccer fanatic, remember) is that he was one of 7 players chosen to blog about it on their site. Check him out here. I hope they win and that he keeps writing.

Contagious

Well, Tree and Todd, this is really all your fault! You got me doing this and now Carol has the bug! Check out her Dreamday Cafe - some of you may remember her old radio show of the same name. I am loving her photos and its nice to see where she is now, since I haven't visited her since she and Fred moved. And then Fred, not to be outdone by Carol's fabulous photos and commentary, has started his own as well. I now know all about his guitars and I imagine I will be learning more about the various bands he plays with too. It seems that Fred has beat me to the punch, by having Jason guest on his blog - you all will enjoy his commentary on what songs Jason thinks Fred should be writing and playing. Welcome to the blogosphere you guys and thanks for sharing and keeping us up to date with your lives!