Long time, no blog, I know.

Reading: The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love was very fun. And so was our bookclub meeting, with Deb dressed as Ms. Sweet Potato Queen Minnesota, me in a pink feather boa (thanks, Deb!), Fat Mama's Knock you Naked Margaritas and plenty of trashy talk.

This month, our book is more serious and also more difficult. I will have to think when I am reading instead of laughing. We are reading Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, a Chinese writer who has won a Nobel Prize for Literature. I have just started it so I will try to keep you posted. I am looking forward to it, if only to learn more about Chinese culture.

We are planning a girl's night out to see Under the Tuscan Sun. We read the book a couple years ago and liked it pretty well as a group. From the reviews of the movie, I know that the storyline has been changed a bit, taking out our favorite character, Ed. In the book, the author and her husband (or maybe they weren't married) buy an old villa in Italy and fix it up. It is along the lines of A Year in Provence but in Italy instead of France. Anyway, there are great scenes in the book, where the author paints vivid pictures of life at their villa: Ed, sweaty muscles glistening in the sun as he prunes the olive trees; Ed, sweaty muscles glistening in the sun as he rebuilds the stone wall; Ed, sweaty muscles... You get the picture. We all loved Ed and wondered where we could get our own. He works hard and looks good while doing it.

I read Prodigal Sons and Material Girls a couple of weeks ago. The author has some very interesting things to say about advertising and how they spend billions targeting children, starting with toddlers. Some of the facts and figures were appalling to me. He had some good advice on how to counteract the "three-headed monster" and get your children to think about how and where they spend their money and how you, as a parent, can avoid the "mom as ATM" role. Very interesting reading. I will file it away for when I have kids.

Eating: New favorite to add to our meal rotation: Betty Crocker's recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. 1 package (10oz) frozen peas and carrots (we used chopped cooked potatoes and frozen corn)--rinse and drain. Melt 1/3 C. butter in a saucepan over medium until melted. Stir in 1/3 C. flour, 1/3 C. chopped onion, salt and pepper. Cook stirring constantly until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in 1 3/4 C. chicken broth and 2/3 C. milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in vegetables and 2 1/2 to 3 C. chopped cooked chicken. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare pastry for 9" two-crust pie (or cheat like I did and use 2 frozen pie crusts, thawed). Roll 2/3 of pastry into 13" square and place in ungreased 9x9x2 square pan. Pour chicken mixture in. Roll remaining crust into 11" square and place over filling. Turn edges under and flute. Bake 35 minutes, until golden brown. We both agreed this was very good, filling and tasty.

I finally returned the bowl to Matt (of the Pasta Salad). We have had it since July and it was in the way. He had already replaced it but I made him take it anyway. It is big and I don't have anywhere to store it. It has been sitting in the kitchen so it wouldn't be forgotten and was starting to get a little annoying.

Gardening: Just pulling up the dead ones, wondering what to do with my 3 perennials and my strawberries. Do I chop them off? Do I put mulch over them? Won't do much of anything with them today, as it is rainy and windy.

Eric has constructed a leaf composting thingy in the back yard. He saw it on some home-improvement show. It is made of posts and wire and will be full of leaves by the end of the season, then full of nice composty-stuff (whatever that is called) next year. He is excited not to have to haul it to the city yard-waste place.

Hello, my bloggians! I hope there are some of you remaining. I know that one should never neglect one's bloggians for spans of time as I have. I would understand if you told me to take my blog and blog it. Please, though, give me another chance. And I will never call you bloggians again (I made up that word, by the way.).

Reading: I finally finished Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Excellent book! I would highly recommend for all readers. Excellent writing, extremely interesting story and well-defined characters. It takes place in an unnamed South American country and starts out with terrorists busting into a birthday party being given by the Vice President of the country for a Japanese business man. They have arranged for the Japanese man's favorite opera singer to perform at the party. Anyway, so the terrorists come in and take the whole bunch of them (over 100 people) hostage. The rest of the book details the next 4 months in which the terrorists and the hostages are in the house, while the people outside try to negotiate the release of the hostages. Meanwhile, the singer performs, people fall in love and everyone learns a good deal more about themselves than they ever would have without the hostage situation. Good good good reading. And picked by a member of the book club whose pickings I always approach skeptically (she has selected The Sparrow by Mary Dorian Russell--disturbing sci-fi-- and The Last Day by Glenn Kleier--millenium scare trash) though this is two good ones in a row now. Last year she picked E=Mc2 by David Bodanis. That was the very interesting, well written, easy to read story of the famous equation, Einstein and the A-bomb.

The book we are reading this month is The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love, A Fallen Southern Belle's Look at Love, Life, Men, Marriage, and Being Prepared. It is a hoot! Chapters include: The True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding, The Five Men You Must Have in Your Life at All Times, Men Who May Need Killing Quite Frankly, What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes or Just for Entertainment. There is a recipe for Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas. The Sweet Potato Queens are a group you absolutely must meet. You may already be a Sweet Potato Queen and just not know it. Deb, my Southern Belle friend (though she has admitted she more be more Po' White Trash than Belle) is both the chooser of this book and the hostess for the book club meeting where we will be discussing it. I am anticipating lots of southern hospitality, plenty of Fat Mama's Knock you Naked Margaritas, and maybe, just maybe, some grits. Y'all must check out this book! While you are at it, look for The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner) too.

Eating: As the weather cools, my stomach's thoughts turn toward warm comfort foods: meatloaf and baked squash, tator-tot hotdish, beef stew, chili with corn bread. It was a cool day last weekend when we planned our next 2 weeks' menus so many of these things found their way into my grocery cart. We must start now if we are to build up enough fat to make it through the winter. I think I would like some warm apple crisp and fresh from the oven monster cookies too. Just in case I run low on carbs. Mmmmm....food....

Gardening: My sunflowers did bloom, though the ones that were supposed to be 6-8 feet are about 3 feet and the 3 foot ones reached about 6 inches. Next year I will plant them earlier. The butterflies are wildly in love with my flowers right now though. I can't walk two steps without stirring up a half dozen of them in my wake.

I picked about 8 apples off my tree today (well, 8 good ones and a whole bucket of wormy ones). They are nice and crisp and sweet. Very good apples. The first year we were here, there were a ton of apples on the tree but all were bad. Last year, there were just none there. This year, there are a fair amount and some are good. Next week there should be more. I will try to freeze them this year because I just don't have anywhere to keep 2 bushels of apples until I can use them all. I like to make applesauce (with brown sugar) in the crockpot (it smells so yummy while it is cooking), and apple crisp but my favorite recipe is for Fresh Apple Cake. My former roommate Steph still talks about this apple cake. Here it is for you, my loyal blog readers. So easy even my cooking impaired relatives (you know who you are!) can whip this up in no time. Add together: 2 eggs, slightly beaten, 1 1/4 C. oil, 1 tsp. vanilla, 3C. peeled cored and sliced apples. Fold in: 3 C. flour, 2C. sugar, 1tsp. cinnamon, 1tsp baking soda. Bake 1 hour at 300 degress in a 13x9 pan. Delicious served warm or cool, with or without a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream or whipped cream.

Bon appetit, mes amis!