It’s hard to describe a novel like this that is so subtle, and where the pieces fit together so perfectly but so seamlessly, it’s difficult to identify the initial components. The writing in this firs t novel is so smooth, it really could have been about anything and it would have been a good book. Bauermeister has a gift for writing about food, and I wonder if it spreads to other topics as well. The metaphors and similes she uses are so poetic, she has you rereading phrases just to capture them in your head forever. I can see myself reading this over and over again. Although this is not magical realism, the food descriptions remind me of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Recommended to me by a coworker who loved it so much her husband read it and loved it too, The School of Essential Ingredients is an appetizing delight.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The School of Essential Ingredients
It’s hard to describe a novel like this that is so subtle, and where the pieces fit together so perfectly but so seamlessly, it’s difficult to identify the initial components. The writing in this firs t novel is so smooth, it really could have been about anything and it would have been a good book. Bauermeister has a gift for writing about food, and I wonder if it spreads to other topics as well. The metaphors and similes she uses are so poetic, she has you rereading phrases just to capture them in your head forever. I can see myself reading this over and over again. Although this is not magical realism, the food descriptions remind me of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Recommended to me by a coworker who loved it so much her husband read it and loved it too, The School of Essential Ingredients is an appetizing delight.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club
Monday, March 30, 2009
cinnamon rolls
The second time though, I followed the directions exactly and the cinnamon rolls turned out better. (Of course.)
After the first batch, I realized I missed the yeasty taste found in regular sweet dough cinnamon rolls. This recipe uses baking powder as a leavener, and is almost more like a biscuit dough than a sweet dough.For the second batch, I increased the sugar in the dough by 1 tablespoon. I probably could have put even more in (because there is never a thing as too much sugar), but this little bit seemed to make the entire dish sweeter. One of the best parts about the recipe is the addition of cloves to the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture of the inside of the rolls. The ground cloves really sets off the cinnamon and is delicious.When I was growing up, my parents made cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast each week. While everyone else was digging in, I patiently unrolled the finished roll, put butter between all the layers, then rolled it back together to douse it with powdered sugar icing. That treatment is just as good now as it was back then.
There is just one roll left in the house. I wonder which one of us will get to it first.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Total Money Makeover
Let me introduce Dave Ramsey. He’s a personal finance radio talk show host who has written several books, including Financial Peace and The Total Money Makeover. He abhors debt in all forms and has created a process with components he calls Baby Steps, to eliminate debt from one’s life and build wealth. As soon as we got home from Springfield, my husband and I started reading The Total Money Makeover. This particular book discusses many money myths before tackling the Baby Steps and above all, encourages readers to “live like no one else so you can live like no one else”—live cheaply now so you can enjoy your wealth later.
My husband and I feel like we were already conservative with our money, but we felt like we were never getting ahead—with money going towards student loans (our only debt now that the last car is paid off), retirement, and college funds, in addition to our regular bills and expenses, we never had any money left over to pay extra on our debts. Ramsey’s method involves focusing on paying down debts completely before funding retirement and college. Ramsey also demands that people create and stick to a budget, something we thought we were doing but not really (we always knew all the bills that had to be paid, but we didn’t track our grocery or household item purchases). So now we have a budget, we both know how much we can spend on certain categories in a month, and we are throwing all possible monies at our student loans, which we plan to have paid off in 2010.
I can’t really explain how much my thought processes towards money changed in the course of reading The Total Money Makeover. Things I had accepted before as fact (like we will always have debt) were blown out of the water. Planning and talking about money is no longer a chore that I shove off onto my husband; we are now both actively involved in the process and know exactly where our money is going. With Ramsey’s plan, I don’t feel like I now have to make more money, because I am making my current income work for my family. It has been an amazingly liberating, mind-changing experience, to say the least.
For a detailed review of The Total Money Makeover, click here. Ramsey's writing style really draws in the reader and makes covering the material enjoyable. If nothing else, you can start the book and give the process a chance. You might be surprised at how much your life can change when we aren't worried about money.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
stretching meat
Last week, I made chicken tacos. Using only one pound of chicken, I added tons of chopped onions and green peppers (frozen from last summer), made all the tacos up with half of a usual portion of the meat filling, and added a copious amount of mexican rice with diced tomatoes. The tacos tasted great and we were able to make many more than usual because of the addition of rice.
I've found several ideas and recipes online for things that we normally eat where the meat can be stretched:
- 1 chicken, 17 healthy meals--I don't even remember how to cut up a whole chicken, even though my mother has shown me over and over again.
- meatballs with oatmeal, cornmeal or rice
- black bean burgers--meatless but full of protein
- lentil and rice tacos--meatless again but I've never tried lentils that I know of
- sweet potato quesadillas--okay, this list is now meatless meals
- cornmeal everything--and I thought cornmeal was just for cornbread
- making meat into an accent instead of the main ingredient
If you are looking for new affordable meal ideas, you might want to check out this list of the Top 100 Blogs for the Frugal Gourmet.