Twenty-three for 50 - Delicious Dessert and Dark Secrets

More of a starter than a finisher lately, I thought I would use a little of my free time to update you a bit in my journey through this year of being 50. I volunteered this year to be an exam-question writer for ALU (Academy of Life Underwriters). ALU has 4 underwriting-related exams and they are considered very challenging. This is something that I have thought about doing for about ten years, since I first realized that people like me wrote the exams. After attending a conference in April (virtually of course), and hearing the association president talk about getting involved and the many ways to do that, I tracked down contact information for the ALU president and asked about how to volunteer. They had 2 open positions - one for marketing (ah, no.) and one for exam writing for 301, the final and hardest of the exams. Sign me up! I wrote a total of 26 questions, all multiple choice, for 3 chapters of the textbook and some of "general knowledge". There are 3 different styles of questions - straight, except ("all of these EXCEPT"), and multiple option (A only, B&C, A&B, etc.). It was time-consuming, difficult, and a lot of work in a short period of time, but also very rewarding and interesting. I feel like I know and understand the material in chapters I worked on better than ever. Reviewing my partner's questions helped me learn more about what makes good questions (and also reminded me that I have the nit-picky proofreading skills necessary for this task).  

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True to my first sentence, I started but didn't finish the blog post on 8/30. Back now to finish it up. I believe my ALU work is technically volunteer time, since I did not receive any pay for it and most was done on my own time. Conservatively, between reading, writing questions, reviewing questions and revising, I will say 25 hours spent. I have 2 day-long virtual meetings coming up this week and then some time to complete final revisions on my questions by early October. Then I will be done until next summer.

Recipe 23 - Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Way back on the 4th of July, I tried this recipe to share with friends. My mother-in-law had made it for dinner the week before and I had right away asked for the recipe. It was easy (could be easier if you use a premade graham cracker or chocolate pie crust but this crunchy crust is so good, you'll want to try it at least once), and if you like PB and chocolate like I do, you'll love it. The filling recipe is from cooks.com and sounds like one that comes on the label of Cool Whip or Hershey's syrup. The crust recipe comes from E's cousin. Combined they are a delicious summer dessert. Unlike other frozen desserts, this one isn't impossible to cut straight out of the freezer.

Butter Crunch Crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the following ingredients together with your hands:

1/2 C. butter

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

1 C. sifted flour (unsifted if you are me and don't have a sifter)

1/2 C. chopped pecans, walnuts or coconut (we used pecans)

Spread mixture in a cake pan (it didn't say what size - I used a Pyrex 8"x12" and that worked fine). Bake about 15 minutes. Stir it up (to break up chunks) and press 2 C. hot crumbs into bottom and sides of 9" pie pan. Cool. Save the remaining crumbs for topping. Can also use for topping for ice cream, pudding, parfaits, etc. Store in refrigerator.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie filling

Mix together:

3/4 C. peanut butter

1/2 C. Hershey's chocolate syrup

12 oz. Cool Whip (Lite works just fine)

Spoon into prepared crust. Sprinkle crumbs over top (or grated Hershey bar). Freeze until ready to serve.

Book 23 - The Husband's Secret

My selection for August book club was one that my mom loaned me after seeing it on my Goodreads list. I can't remember when I put it on my list or how I had originally heard about it. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty looks like chick-lit. Chick-lit is not my favorite (both the term and the marketing behind it, plus most of the books marketed this way), but I thought it would be a light read for summer time. I was pleasantly surprised and really liked this book, plus we had great discussion at book club where others were also pleasantly surprised. The blurb on the back has you "imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something with the potential to destroy not only the life you have built together, but the lives of others as well. And then imagine that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive..." Fairly intriguing, right? I never guessed correctly any of the twists or turns. The plot was not at all what I expected and kept me reading. A couple of notes for potential readers: the author is Australian and the book takes place in Australia. This means that some cultural references and places will likely be unfamiliar. It also means that Easter happens in the autumn. It occasionally confused my American brain a little bit but not too much. The other thing to note is that there are a lot of different characters and storylines taking place at the same time, plus some flashbacks. Pay attention - characters will change from one chapter to the next.

Overall a very good read, not your typical chick-lit, and made me think really hard about secrets between couples and between family members.

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 31 (8 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 28

Blog posts published– 23

Miles walked in August - 62.3

Miles walked so far in September - 14.7 

    Miles walked year-to-date –411.28

Scrap book pages completed –27

Hats donated – 20

Hours volunteered – 25

Nineteen for 50 - Mostly weeding and reading

Time spent in the garden increases this time of year. Maintaining the beds that we re-hauled last year, weeding and thinning plants in the other areas, installing edging and re-establishing the borders between gardens and lawn, pruning shrubs and trees, preparing the soil in the vegetable raised bed, picking out and then planting veggies. E helps with jobs requiring a shovel, edger, or any heavy lifting.  He hauls mulch, compost and dirt. He built a fortress around the veggies to help them stay out of the mouths of deer. He mows and mows, trims and waters. Much of the yard is starting to look great again, after a few years of minimal work completed in it. 

West side - cleaned up last year

Front garden by sidewalk

ground covers run amuck in the "stump garden"

Tomatoes safe from the jaws of deer

The cabin is 'under contract' so hopefully the closing and transfer to the buyers will go smoothly. There are a few things at the cabin that we'll bring home and store for now but it is for the most part cleaned out and awaiting the new owners creating their own memories there.

Work is, well, work. A lot of days I struggle to figure out how to get all the things done. Other days I say, "Screw it. I'm going outside." And then I wake up at 2am thinking about all the things that still need to get done.

I am preparing to go on a scrapbooking retreat later this week. This is about half the group that usually goes but when planning, we were still just getting first vaccines and made the decision we would feel more comfortable with a fully vaccinated group, keeping it small and paying a bit more. I usually go with this group 3 times a year and now it has been 16 months since last there.  I am slightly anxious and at the same time excited about it.  Planning what project I will work on, I decided to go way back in time and work with photos I have on hand, from high school and college days.

Since last blog post, I haven't completed any books or tried any new recipes, but do have 2 recipes and 3 books in reserve.  We had recipes last time so I'll start with the books

Books 19, 20, and 21

Book 19 was a book club pick and we'll be discussing it tonight. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was one I was only mildly interested in and didn't anticipate liking it much. It seems there was a lot of hype about this one and EVERYONE was reading it. Sometimes when things get overhyped, they greatly disappoint me, if I even end up reading them at all.  This one did not - I read it quickly and would pick it up eagerly to see what was going to happen. It is a novel that is part environmental science of the North Carolina marsh (not nearly as boring as that phrase makes it sound), part coming of age story of Kya the "Marsh Girl" (one of my favorite descriptions of her was "a tangled-haired, barefoot mussel-monger who lived in a shack") and part murder mystery of Chase - "the best quarterback this town ever saw".  It tells Kya's story chronologically, from the time she is a young girl until she is an older woman. Chase's story starts with his body being found. It was engaging and well-written, especially for an over-hyped book.  One of the lines that stood out to me (and doesn't give away any part of the story but resonated with me), after one of the characters asked if Kya could forgive him: "Why should the injured, the still bleeding, bear the onus of forgiveness?"

It took me a full 4 months to read book 20, but considering that I first remember hearing about the book (and about the subject) 30 years ago, that seems like hardly any time at all.  Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick is probably not a book you are going to read. Chaos theory is most likely not your idea of interesting reading and this book, though accessible to beginners, is not exactly a beach and margarita read. As a math major many years ago, I attended a talk on chaos (symposium? is that what they called those?). Honestly most of it went over my head. A friend who took a class on fractals mostly annoyed me by pointing out fractals and non-fractals in the cafeteria (strawberry - fractal, caf tray - not a fractal) without telling me what the heck a fractal was. A fractal is a shape that is infinitely complex - think of a hill. For you and me, a hill is relatively smooth and we can walk over little differences in terrain. For a cat or dog, there may be more differences in surface to navigate. For something smaller, say an ant, it becomes even more complex. The closer we get to the surface, the more complex it is. I only explain this because I didn't want to be like the person in the cafeteria. Probably the most familiar part of chaos theory is the Butterfly Effect.  This book told how chaos theory became to be a new science and how many different disciplines were all studying it at the same time - meteorologists, biologists studying population growth, physicists looking at turbulence, and so on. Like I say, I thought it was interesting but the audience for this one may be limited.

Finally, the most recent book finished was one I first read probably 25 years ago and it immediately went on my list of my favorite books. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood is one of her first novels, written in the '70s, and I have always struggled to describe the book and why it affected me so much. The blurb on Goodreads seems particularly misleading to me - "part detective novel, part psychological thriller".  If you are looking for either of those things, you will be sorely disappointed, I think. Certainly there is an element of mystery to it - the unnamed narrator goes with her boyfriend and another couple to an isolated cabin in Quebec to look for her father who seems to have disappeared - but that storyline seems very secondary to her introspection and to the story she is telling herself and her friends vs. her reality, her coming to terms with reality and escape back to nature through madness.  As a twenty-something, I scribbled many quotes from this book in my journal.  Re-reading it as a 50-year-old, I felt myself wanting to scribble them again and then scribble some more. I think it hit me differently than it did a quarter-century ago, but it really hit me this time too. Atwood is poet as well as a novelist and this novel definitely has a poetry to it. A few of my favorite lines:

“We battled in secret, undeclared, and after a while I no longer fought back because I never won. The only defense was flight, invisibility.”

“From any rational point of view I am absurd; but there are no longer any rational points of view.”

“'Do you love me, that's all,' he said. 'That's the only thing that matters.'

It was the language again, I couldn't use it because it wasn't mine. He must have known what he meant but it was an imprecise word; the Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them, there ought to be as many for love.”

Until we weed again,

Hallie

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 21 (5 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 20

Blog posts published– 19

Miles walked in June - 8.09

            Miles walked in May - 52.42

             Miles walked year-to-date –234.48

Scrap book pages completed –19

Hats donated – 20

Hours volunteered – 0

Seventeen for 50 - Catching up on books

Weekends have gotten a little busy recently between visits to parents and working at the cabin.  I'll make this post a little shorter and hopefully post again sooner.

Work is busy, mildly chaotic and frustrating.  If it was fun all the time, they wouldn't need to pay me and it wouldn't be called "work", right?

Since post #16, I have completed 3 books (and started 2 more), made 2 new recipes (and have another planned for tomorrow), and walked more days than not.  Catching you up with the books in this post and with the recipes in the next.

Books 16, 17, and 18

After ending April with only two books completed in that entire month, I then finished two on the 1st of May and another one three days later.

Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken was a book club selection and most agreed it was a little odd.  We read another book by the same author very early in our book club (1997/1998), The Giant's House which was about a librarian and a young giant. Bowlaway was about multiple generations of a family and centered around a Massachusetts candlepin bowling alley built by Bertha.  Bertha herself was odd - she appeared one day at the turn of the 20th century in a cemetery and no one knew where she came from or who she really was (and she certainly wasn't telling).  I learned about candlepin bowling, that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction (Bertha's death seemed highly improbable to me until I learned it was based on a true historical event), and confirmed that families can have secrets that have repercussions for generations.  I waivered between 3 and 4 stars for this book. Quirky characters and situations (and lots of them), and the author's many clever phrases and descriptions kept me going.  The many characters and convoluted plotline kept me confused.

Later that same day, I finished re-reading Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson.  I wrote about this one in 2012 (during the April A-Z Challenge - W was for Watson) so you can read that entire post here or this summary: I am not sure where I picked up Larry Watson's novel Montana 1948 but the slim volume is marked as a library book.  I have bought many a discarded library book but this one puzzles me a bit since it is not from the county I live in.  That matters not.  This little novel packs a punch and I have read it multiple times.  There is a powerful sense of place and the characters are people you know, or think you know.  Our narrator, David, starts with this line: "From the summer of my twelfth year I carry a series of images more vivid and lasting than any others from my boyhood and indelible beyond all attempts the years make to erase or fade them..." And this story is one that made in indelible mark in my mind, too.  David's father is the sheriff in the small town in eastern Montana where they live, his uncle is a charming war hero and respected doctor.  Marie Little Soldier, David's family's housekeeper, becomes ill but refuses to let the doctor treat her.  What is revealed when the sheriff investigates why Marie refuses treatment rocks the foundation of this family and the events that unfold challenge their values, beliefs and ideals.  From the back cover, "It is a tale of love and courage, of power abused and of the terrible choice between family loyalty and justice."  I don't want to give away too much but once you pick up this book, be prepared to read it in one sitting. 

Book 18 was another re-read, one I remembered as a childhood favorite but couldn't recall much about it besides the basic premise that a girl wakes up one morning to discover her mind is in her mother's body.  Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers has been made into a movie twice that I know of and has probably been "updated" but I re-read the 1972 original edition (digging deep into the library's treasures).  I have it in my mind that this is the book I was reading the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade when my parents were splitting up, that this was the book that they asked me to put down because they had something to tell me.  That's how I knew it was very serious - no one had ever told me to stop reading before.  After re-reading, I think some of the situations in this book were maybe a bit more mature than I would have been at 7, so maybe I have mis-remembered that this was the book of that summer.  Or perhaps some of the more serious situations just went over my head at that time.  Regardless, it was very fun to re-discover this book and it is still fun to think about literally putting yourself in someone else's shoes for a day.  Annabelle, the daughter, is a bit bratty but not over the top so that you dislike her.  She is 13 and has pretty typical behaviors and thoughts for her age.  And her mom's lesson is not so severe that you think she did it as a punishment for Annabelle's rotten behavior.  Some of the language and situations are a little dated but not distractingly so.  Women's rights, racial discrimination, and politics - really not so different then as now, unfortunately.

Next time, I'll have 3 new recipes for you!

Until we eat again,

Hallie

 

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 18 (6 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 18

Blog posts published– 17

Miles walked in May - 16.55

               Miles walked in April - 44.99

               Miles walked year-to-date –190.52

Scrap book pages completed –19

Hats donated – 20

Hours volunteered – 0

Fourteen for 50 - Lovely Lemon Bars and a Book about Leningrad

Easter dinner was just the 2 of us today, but I made honey hoisin pork tenderloin, au gratin potatoes, and some roasted asparagus (just a drizzle of lime olive oil, salt and pepper - yum!) and then for dessert...

Recipe 13 - Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars

I love lemon - lemon tarts were one of my favorite indulgences when I was in France during college, particularly those from one tearoom near the chateau in Angers.  Traditional custardy lemon bars with a buttery crust from the cafeteria at St. Olaf were worth trying to grab a second or third.  And there is something about citrus that says "spring" and "Easter" to me, so for Easter dinner, I told E to check the Pinterest dessert board for something with lemon.  This was the winner from The Salty Marshmallow blog - Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars.  I think I would call them Creamy Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars, or something like that.  It is a sugar cookie base, cream cheese lemon filling and then topped with more crumbles of the cookie dough.  I either used too much of the cookie dough for the crust, or didn't let the topping cook long enough to be crunchy, but I think when I make them again, I will make half the dough and skip the crumbles on top.  They didn't really add anything for me.  Overall a nice easy alternative to the usual lemon bar - I would make it again.  Prepare ahead - the crust needs to completely cool before adding the filling and then you will bake again.  Also, be careful when eating - the bottom crust gets quite crispy and when I tried to eat mine with a fork like a civilized person, the bar slipped off the plate and landed on the couch (yes, I was being civilized eating on the couch in front of the TV).  It was much easier to eat when I just picked it up with my hand.

Crust:

1 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 C (2 sticks) butter at room temperature

2 C flour

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

1/4 C lemon juice (for me, juice of one lemon)

2 Tbsp lemon zest divided

1/2 C sugar 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8"x8" or 9"x9" baking pan with foil or parchment and spray liberally with non-stick cooking spray. (There is enough butter in these, you could probably skip this, depending on your pan.  The foil did make it easy to just lift out of the pan so I could cut easier, though.)

With stand mixer using paddle attachment, or with hand mixer, beat together the softened butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Set mixer on low and slowly add the flour (½ cup at a time) and mix just until dough comes together.

Press half of the dough into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

Cool completely before filling.

Store remaining sugar cookie dough in a bowl in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For the filling:

Again with stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat together the softened cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp. of the lemon zest until smooth and creamy.  Pour filling over cooled crust. Top filling with the remaining sugar cookie dough by crumbling it evenly over the top.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until cookie crumble is light golden in color.

Top with remaining lemon zest as desired. (My zest got dried out before I had a chance to do this.)  

We cut into 16 squares and ate them room temp.  I think they would also be good chilled but the crust might get too hard.

 

Book 13

This was a book club selection and came highly recommended by an Italian exchange student who lived with one of our members a couple years ago.  City of Thieves by David Benioff takes place during the Siege of Leningrad, an aspect of World War II that we had read about at least on other time (The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean).  I see that at least a couple of my book club friends have given it 5 stars on Goodreads, but I am still wavering between a 3 and 4.  I didn't love it for some reason I am still trying to figure out.  The story was interesting enough - while the Nazis have the city under siege, Lev and Kolya are arrested.  Instead of being executed for their crimes, they are told they can save their own lives by bringing a powerful Soviet colonel a dozen eggs to use in his daughter's wedding cake.  Simple enough, right?  If only the citizens were not literally starving to death, resorting to eating whatever questionable "food" they can get their hands on.  Eggs are not readily available even if one had the money to buy them.  It is part historical fiction, part buddy adventure.  The author has written screenplays and, to me, the book read like he was already adapting it for the film.  And one of the characters consistently annoyed me.  I don't know - I learned more details about the siege of Leningrad and the Russian side of WWII, and the book read pretty quickly, kept me wondering how they were going to get through and if they would find eggs ever - but I just didn't love it.  For the 2nd month in a row, I may be the outsider at book club who didn't like the book that much.

Baby Hats

Four more hats turned in last Monday (along with my giant bag of yarn).  I am working on one now that should be pretty cute but I made a mistake and am trying to decide if I just go with it and knit on or rip back to the boo-boo.  The hat is currently sitting in time-out while I decide.

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 13 (6 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 13

Blog posts published– 14

Miles walked in April - 7.2

Miles walked in March - 51.17

               Miles walked year-to-date –136.16

Scrap book pages completed –12

Hats donated – 20

Hours volunteered – 0

Nine for 50 - The best laid plans of mice and men...

birthday flowers from my mom

 "The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men/Gang aft agley," says Robert Burns (and probably better known today as "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" from John Steinbeck). I don't know that my plan to have another post in a few days was really well-laid, but it certainly did go a bit awry.  This past week was a series of Mondays.  It started with a very Monday type of Monday, went on to the Mondayest Tuesday in a long time, which then transitioned into a Wednesday in which I spent 3 hours with IT trying to recover my spreadsheet of all I had done on Tuesday (never to be recovered, by the way), and ended with Thursday and Friday and my frequent mentions of when I would like to start drinking (9am was the record for earliest mention, but please note I did not drink even a sip until nearly 6 pm on Friday and then only 2 cocktails).

my b-day shirt from my sister

For this post, let's travel back in time to my four-day birthday extravaganza, now nearly 2 weeks ago.  If you recall, the big day was a Tuesday, so I took Monday and Tuesday off from work and we began the celebration on Friday after work.  There were flowers, gifts, cards, phone calls, special deliveries, favorite meals, and time spent doing some of my favorite things.  I baked (my birthday cake - new recipe below), we ate (menu planning was undertaken seriously with b-day extravaganza in mind), I scrapbooked, read (see books below), walked, did a little knitting, spent time with E.  We tried on Saturday for food from a favorite Italian restaurant only to be told that they were full and weren't doing any carry out.  On to plan B, where the B stands for BBQ pulled pork from another local place.  Later that evening, I scrapbooked via Zoom with my sister and a couple of our friends who we haven't seen for more than a year (I only got 1 page done that night but also completed 12 cards).  Sunday was pizza (of course) but I got to choose the toppings (sausage and green pepper) and we made it deep-dish.  Monday we Nordic walked at the community center, around the ice arena while a couple of young women practiced figure skating - I admired one's persistence as she over and over attempted a jump and fell on her butt.  I got new walking shoes and discovered our shoe sales guy also had failed  carryout from the same restaurant we did on Saturday.  Still hungry for Italian of some sort, we got Olive Garden to go and ate while attending virtual Mini Medical School.  Then on Tuesday, E made his famous Chicken Tacos (these have been renamed tacOOOOOOs because they are that good). It was a good birthday - thank you to all who were part of it through your wishes, cards, gifts and being there for my first half century.

Recipe Nine - Chocolate-Glazed Chocolate Bundt Cake (aka The Fiftieth Birthday Cake)

This recipe is from Weight Watchers Best-Ever Desserts. Copyright 2007 so I have had it for awhile.  Back when I was a member, back when they were still Weight Watchers and when they still had the Points program.  It was a tasty cake that we ate all weekend long, and that I sent home a chunk of with a friend who delivered a delightful unexpected gift to my door.  If you need some chocolaty goodness, this is a cake for you.  I didn't put any candles on it, though I did receive a thoughtful package in the mail that included exactly 50 candles sprinkled throughout the box.

Cake 

2 C all-purpose flour

1 1/4 C granulated sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used semisweet Ghiradelli)

1 T instant espresso powder (I did not add this)

1/2 C boiling water

1 T vanilla extract

1 C low-fat buttermilk

1/3 C canola oil (I used vegetable oil because that is what I have)

1 large egg

1 egg white (which reminds me I need to toss out that extra yoke still in the fridge)

3/4 C semisweet chocolate chips

Glaze

1/2 C confectioners' sugar (aka powdered sugar)

2 oz semisweet chocolate, melted (same Ghiradelli as the cake)

3 T fat-free half-and-half

Naked cake

Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray a 10" Bundt pan with nonstick spray.

Whisk together in a medium bowl: Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a small bowl, combine the cocoa, chopped chocolate and espresso powder.  Pour the boiling water over the cocoa mixture, stirring until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.  Stir in the vanilla.

In a large bowl (yes, this is a 3 bowl cake), whisk together the buttermilk, oil, egg and egg white.  Stir in the cocoa mixture until blended.  Gradually add the flour mixture, stirring just until blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 45-50 minutes.  Let cool in the pan on a rack 10 minutes.  Remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely on the rack (mine cooled on the plate because I didn't want to have to figure out how to move it from the rack to the plate).

To make glaze, whisk together the glaze ingredients in a small bowl (I used a glass 2-cup measuring cup) until smooth.  Let stand until cool and thickened, about 15 minutes.  Place the cake on a serving  plate.  Pour the glaze over, allowing it to drip down the side of the cake (like it needs my permission to drip?).  Let stand until set, about 10 minutes.  

In case you want the info, if you somehow slice this into 24 (!) pieces, it is 4 points/serving in the old old points system.

Cake in its glazed glory

Book Seven, Eight and Nine

I finished 2 books during my B-day weekend (not that I started and read them completely during that time.  As you may realize, I often/always have more than one book in progress at the same time.  I happened to have read the final pages of 2 books during that extended weekend.).  The first was one that had been on my Goodreads "want to read" list for many years and that I almost picked for book club until a couple of people wiser than I said "nobody wants to read that book but you, Hallie" and I picked something different.  As I read and really enjoyed it, I realized that most (normal) people truly would not appreciate it like I did.  The subtitle to Stiff by Mary Roach is "The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers".  I'll admit, it was an odd book but odd in a way that I approve.  I am a fan of murder related TV shows and forensic science (CSI and Bones to name a couple).  Movies with serial killers intrigue me. Medical science is also fascinating - the time I got to go into the gross anatomy lab and see the digestive system in living color was seriously a highlight - and I can read very detailed medical records without feeling the least bit squeamish (other than anything dealing with eyeballs or, inexplicably, finger/toe nails - those gross me out).  All that said, this book examines all the different ways that human cadavers have been involved in scientific (and sometimes bizarre) undertakings and studies over the past 2000 years or so.  Topics ranged from plastic surgeons practicing face lifts on the newly deceased, organ donation, use of cadavers in car safety and army weapon testing, and for help in future criminal investigations by studying how bodies decompose under various circumstances.  You may find this book disgusting in places (I struggled a bit with some of the vivid descriptions in the body decomposition field) but I found the author's humor (a bit of a gallows humor) and enthusiasm for learning all she could about the various uses for cadavers interesting and the book highly readable.

Book 8 was a book club choice - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.  It also had been on my "want to read" list for about as long as Stiff had.  I liked the first part okay and then it got odd and I lost interest.  I don't want to give away too much but it only got 3 stars from me (of 5).  It seemed like the author was trying to make a point about something but I am not entirely sure what that point was.  I didn't really like most of the the characters (other than Mr. Penumbra) and had trouble remembering who some of them were, let alone remembering what their purpose was supposed to be.  Readers at work have been talking about Sourdough by the same author but I think I'll pass.  I kind of liked that the cover glowed in the dark, but that seems an odd reason to like/recommend a book (or anything else, honestly).

One of my favorite authors, Margaret Atwood, wrote the book of poetry Dearly that I read as book number 9 this year.  I don't usually read poetry but enjoyed this.  I had noticed that it was dedicated to Graeme, in absentia. Graeme Gibson was Ms. Atwood's long-time partner.  He died a couple of years ago and had vascular dementia prior to that.  Themes of love and loss, and the passing of time run throughout this collection of poems.  Some of them really stuck with me and I find myself still thinking about them 2 weeks later, particularly Ghost Cat and Blackberries.  I also realized that I had heard her reading from the book on the radio one day and now understand why her voice was breaking as she read.  

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 9 (5 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 9

Blog posts published– 9

Miles walked in March - 13.42

Miles walked in February – 34.04

                Miles walked year-to-date –91.23

Scrap book pages completed –12

Hats donated – 12

Hours volunteered – 0

Until we read or eat again,

Hallie

Six for 50 - Decluttering is the Enemy (or is it?)

Zeke sometimes sits on my desk and judges me

I spent this past week training/on-boarding 2 new hires to my company.  Training is my main job and I do enjoy this part of it, but I have to say, being "on" all day is really a lot of work for me, and pretty tiring.  I was happy to have the weekend to relax.  I was "on" again for Zoom book club last night and by the end was tired.  I tried to bail saying I needed to get the garbage ready to go out, until they reminded me it was only Saturday.  Sorry, book club, I was getting tired!

Training was the usual array of system issues, coupled with trying to do everything virtually.  There was a fair amount of demands for sharing screen so I could see what was going on, and then requests for control so I could just do the 10 steps needed, vs. describing them.  ("Click the 3 little dots.  No, not the ones in the top bar, the ones in the blue bar.")  It is easier when I just push people out of their chairs and set it up myself.

We tried something new this week - Nordic Walking.  We had a one hour class to show us how to get poles that fit, and then how to use the things.  It is a way to get more of a whole-body workout from just walking.  It was fun and easy (even though I had trouble getting out of my own head and kept bringing up my right hand and right foot at the same time, vs. opposite hand and foot) and we got some poles to try out for a couple of weeks.  We used them during the class and then took our usual afternoon walk (1.2 mile loop) with the poles.  I guess it works because I had tired muscles in my arms and my core (though it didn't really feel like I was doing much while I was actually walking).  Then the outside temps sunk to the single digits or below zero.  Eric has been walking (I think it was -13 when he went out today) but I am a fairweather walker and even with all the layers won't walk when it is below about +15.  Due to some good walks early in the week (and Nordic walking class), I have 8.1 miles in this month.

2 new recipes this week!  And this is where "decluttering is the enemy" comes in.  In my quest to clean up my photos on my phone, I deleted the picture I took of the first recipe!  I was thinking I would have to describe it for you instead but then, when I went to upload the pic for the 2nd recipe, I discovered that I had already forwarded myself the other photo before I deleted from my phone!  Yay me!

Recipe Five

Another soup!  We had it for dinner 3 nights in a row, with breadsticks or crackers.  It is a recipe that tastes even better the 2nd time, so either let it simmer for 30 minutes as it suggests or cook and save for another day.  I love stuffed peppers - E not so much but he will eat finely chopped and well cooked peppers.  This soup is a winner because it has all those great stuffed pepper flavors, plus is easy and filling.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

adapted from Cooking Classy website - I'll help you out and give you not only the ingredients list but also how much of it to use (plus none of those freaking annoying pop-ups or ads. While I don't make any money from this blog, I also do not have annoying ads all over the place.).  I also skipped the olive oil for browning the beef (it is not needed) and cooked peppers with the beef instead of separately (helps the flavors blend and saves time too).  

the photo that once was lost but now is found

1 lb lean ground beef

3/4 C chopped green bell pepper (about 1/2 large pepper)

3/4 C chopped red bell pepper (about 1/2 large pepper)

1 C chopped yellow onion (about 1 small onion - we did not add this because someone doesn't like onion here)

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 t dried basil

1/4 t dried oregano

2 1/2 T fresh parsley (I used about 1 T dried)

28 oz can petite diced tomatos with juice (I used my immersion blender for a quick puree, leaving a few small chunks)

15 oz can tomato sauce

14 oz beef broth (can use canned.  I used Penzey's beef base and hot water)

1 C cooked white or brown rice (I used Trader Joe's frozen organic brown rice, not the whole packet)

shredded cheddar or mozzarella to top soup

In a large pot (I used Dutch oven), brown ground beef with peppers and onions until beef is cooked through and veggies are soft. Add salt and pepper to beef while cooking.

Add in tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, and herbs.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes (or 15 if you are like me and impatient/hungry).  Prepare rice while soup simmers.

Add rice into soup.  Sprinkle each bowl with cheese, if desired.

Makes 6 servings.

Recipe Six

This was a quick recipe from the Star Tribune.  After calculating the calories per serving, I eliminated part of the pasta and half of the ingredients for the sauce.  It was still very good and very filling at almost half the calories.  I did not need a dinner of over 800 calories.  I'll present it as I made it last night. The toasted sliced almonds really add a nice crunchiness and flavor - don't over cook them!

Pasta with Creamy Avocado Sauce

Serves 2.

6 oz pasta (we used farfalle/bow ties)

1 avocado

6 T chopped fresh parsley (I used about 1 T dried parsley - did not measure)

Grated zest of one lemon, plus 1 T juice (ended up with very little zest because I forgot and cut the lemon in half first, making it really hard to zest.  The full/as published in paper recipe called for 1 T and I decided I needed that full amount for flavor even though I only used 1 avocado vs. 2)

1 T olive oil

1 T grated Parmesan (recipe called for nutritional yeast which would allow this to recipe to be vegan but said could sub parm, so I did.  Because I don't have nutritional yeast and was not about to buy it just for this recipe.)

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 chile or few pinches of chile flakes (I had some red pepper flakes so used that, but less than a pinch because I am a wuss)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 T sliced almonds

Boil pasta according to directions on package.  

Halve the avocado, remove stone (duh) and scoop flesh into a bowl.  Add parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, cheese, garlic and chili. Season with salt and pepper. Blend together (I used a potato masher), taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Toast the almonds in a dry skillet until golden brown.

Drain the pasta and stir together with the avocado sauce ("sauce" will be thick like guacamole).  Divide between 2 bowls, sprinkle with lemon zest (or if you are me, you don't because you didn't read the directions and had stirred zest into the sauce) and scatter sliced almonds atop the dish.  

You can also serve with fresh spinach or arugula.

Book 5

Becoming by Michele Obama - this book was shared with me by a coworker who I adore.  She mailed it to me a couple months ago and said when I am done, I can pass it on.  I enjoyed this book and though I already knew a lot about the presidency of Barack Obama, I didn't know much about the First Lady, other than that she is classy, smart and compassionate.  I was delighted to learn more about her childhood, college years and first job, and then behind the scenes at the Obama home while Barack was first in state politics (and away from home most of the week) and then on the path to the White House, plus what it was like to live in the spotlight and in the White House.  Good book - I would recommend to most anyone. 

Hindsight 2020

Speaking of books, and picking up where I left off last week, here are the rest of the books I read in 2020.  The * indicate a book club selection.

 *This Tender Land byt Wiliam Kent Krueger (MN author, this was the 2nd book we have read by him.  This one was part Huck Finn, part Homer's Odyssey, and all around a pretty good read.  It takes place in MN during the depression and the main characters are orphan brothers.  I really do need to read The Odyssey sometime because the story line keeps coming up in other books.)

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (Funny, 'cuz Trevor Noah, but also racially enlightening.  I laughed and cried, sometimes on the same page and love his mother. Very good book.)

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo (I read this one for a book club we had at work, starting it after, but finishing before, How to Be an Antiracist (below).  I found it easy to understand and we had some good discussion about it at work.)

100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen by Sarah Kieffer (I like this cookie book a lot.  Directions are easy to follow and though I have only made 2 of the recipes so far, the results are delicious.  I love that she gies the basics and then also options to jazz up those basic recipes. I can't wait to try the pan-banging recipes which went viral after being written about in the New York Times, earning their own hashtag.  Look for cookie posts in the future.)

How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (Another for the at work book club, I liked how he interwove his personal story with different aspects about racism and antiracism to illustrate his points.  This one is worth a re-read.)

Talk Before Sleep  by Elizabeth Berg (Berg is a solid writer and this book did not disappoint.  It was not my favorite of hers - Joy School probably is - but it was a good read about women friends.  One of the main characters, Ruth, is dying of cancer, we know that from the beginning.  Seeing the relationship between her and Ann made me appreciate my own friendships, and know that I have people in my life who are there to laugh and cry with.)

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White 

My review from Goodreads:

I’ve read this book a number of times: as a child, as a young adult aloud to children, and as an adult. I’ve seen the movie as well. And I always have loved the story and characters. I read it again this year though apprehensively, because I was afraid I would be too sad at the end and really who needs more sadness this year?? But as I read, I really was struck by the beautifully crafted story, the rich descriptions, and fully developed characters. Who knew there could be so much humanity in a pig, a spider or a rat? I felt like I was right there at the farm, and knew exactly how it smelled and what the air felt like. Amazing work, E.B. White. Adding more reads or rereads from this author to my lis

*The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (This was an interesting book from a few different perspectives and I learned about the blue people of Kentucky as well as about the Pack Horse Library Project which brought books and other materials to the people in the hills of Kentucky during the Great Depression.  Good discussion for book club as well.)

The Natural by Bernard Malamud (This is one I read aloud in the car so it took a really long time for us to get through it because we weren't in the car very much last year!  I don't remember the movie very well but this was an interesting story about a baseball player in the early part of the last century.  I am not the hugest baseball fan and the writing is a little old-fashioned but it was a good story and made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen with Roy.)

*Last Orders by Graham Swift (another re-read of an early book club selection, and another story involving death and frienships, this time the friendships of men.  I would have enjoyed my re-read more if I hadn't stopped and started so much - I had trouble keeping the characters straight until I really focused on it and made a chart.)

Fifty for 50 Tally

Books completed – 5 (4 more in progress)

Recipes tried – 6

Blog posts published– 6

Miles walked in February – 8.1

                Miles walked year-to-date –51.87

Scrap book pages completed –6

Hats donated – 6

Hours volunteered – 0

Until we read and eat again,

Hallie

From the Archives - Highlights of 2013 Reading, Part 2

Another entry "from the archives" - found in my draft folder from early 2014.   May this tide you over until I post new/recent material.

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Reading: As I said in a previous post, I read 44 books in 2013.  Of those, 19 were Newbery Medal winners and I blogged the highlights of those the other day.  What were the other 25 books?

Favorites:
The Romanov Bride by Richard Alexander, which I previously wrote about here.
The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (I blogged about those 3 here)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - A magical novel that had me from the first page and kept me entranced until the end.  I found myself sitting on the edge of the bathtub in a hotel room in the middle of the night just so I could find out how the story ended.  I was mesmerized by the idea of a circus that arrives without notice and is only open at night.  The vivid descriptions brought this fantastical circus to life and the multiple intriguing story lines kept me guessing how and when they were going to intertwine.  The main plot line centers on two young magicians who have been trained since youth expressly for a competition between their instructors.  Unaware of the competition and that ultimately only one can be left standing, the two fall in love.  There are many characters but my favorite characters were the circus itself (named Le Cirque des Reves, which means Circus of Dreams), and the Reveurs, a group of devoted fans who identify themselves to each other by dressing in black and white (like the circus) with a dash of red.  My book club enjoyed this book also, and the majority of us showed up to the discussion dressed in black and white with a bit of red.
Making Rounds with Oscar by David Dosa - This is a non-fiction book about Oscar, a cat who lives in a nursing home and only spends time with the patients who are about to die. Sound depressing? It really was not.  The peace that this cat brought to the patients in their final moments was comforting.

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... and 19 others that there it is unlikely I will remember now 6-7 years later.

Until we read again,

Hallie