2014 - Book 5

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" - Washington

Here I thought Washington would be the "Twilight" saga . . . oh well, I already listened to those in book-on-CD format, so it was good I didn't have to "read" them again.

This book was just okay for me. It was one of the only books I'd actually heard about on this list, so I was expecting a little more from it that it just didn't deliver. Perhaps I was just a little weirded out by being in the mind of a teenage boy, who knows? While I enjoyed learning about his life, family, and tribe, I could have done with less personal boy puberty stuff. So, I wouldn't recommend this book for a girl, but I could see boys liking it quite a bit. The cartoons in it were entertaining, but the story was over-all sort of sad. It wasn't a bad book, but not my favorite either . . . hopefully the next book I read will be better.

Sorry I don't have any recipes to share this time . . . I'll make up for it in my next post ;)

2014 - Book 4c

"Front and Center" - Wisconsin (again)

This was the third and last book in the "Dairy Queen" series. I enjoyed it . . . it was good to get more details on the life of D.J. Schwenk, but I wasn't too happy with the ending. I mean, all of the details were nice, but it could have used just a bit more, and the way it was written was kind of an abrupt stop in my opinion. Overall though, I still enjoyed the series and I'm glad I read all three of them. It gave me a greater appreciation for farmers and student athletes . . . two groups of people I don't really know very much about. Have any of you read them . . . what did you think?

In other news, I made this insane caramelized onion mac & cheese. My aunt shared the recipe with me on Pinterest and it just sounded so fantastic that I couldn't pass it up. Caramelizing the onions took quite a bit of time (WAY TOO MUCH) plus all of the chopping . . . check it out: that is a lot of onions!

Three pounds of onions chopped into 1/4 inch slices

After 1 hour

After 2 hours . . . according the recipe, they should be done by now

After 3 hours . . . perhaps I should turn the heat up a bit?

After 4 hours . . . I'm getting very frustrated

Yup, after 5 hours . . . grr

About 5 and a half hours in . . . finally done

Finished masterpiece

While it was good, it turned out to be very heavy tasting. Not bad, just a bit much for a main course. It would make a stellar special side dish though. I still think I taste and smell like onions the next day ;) Also, the sauce was really salty on its own. The sweetness of the onions balanced it out well, but it was a little disconcerting knowing how much sodium was in the dish. Oh well, it was good to try :)

I also made the 2nd batch of crock pot bean soup. It was much improved by soaking the whole batch overnight in 3 cups of water and the addition of 1 tsp. baking soda before cooking. I also did half and half water and chicken broth to reduce the salt level. I don't really know which it was, but the soup was much better this time around . . . thanks for the suggestions!

Hope you all have a great week :)

2014 - Book 4b

"The Off Season" - Wisconsin (again)

I must say, I quite enjoyed this one too, maybe even more-so than the first book in the "Dairy Queen" series because it's written more like a book and not quite so much of a narration. The story is good, the characters are developed more, and it was a good, clean book. I'm looking forward to finishing the trilogy sometime soon.

I have decided that I am definitely a sucker for a happy ending. This book wasn't "full of fireworks" happy, but it still had a good sense of closure and promise for a bright tomorrow. To illustrate my love of a good ending, I have decided that pretty much every story has to have one. I made up a happy ending for Javert in Les Mis. I was inspired after seeing Norm Lewis, the guy who played Javert in the most excellent 25th Anniversary Concert edition, on a Cialis commercial. See, it turns out that Javert didn't die when he fell into the river, he just floated along until he found his house and his wife. He decided that Valjean was right all along and he should really stop being such a workaholic and take life easy. He moves with his family to the U.S., loves to watch his son's play little league, and now he has a good job as a commercial actor. Brilliant, right?

Well, I made this up after we'd just finished watching "Coriolanus". I was intrigued by the Shakespeare tragedy after seeing that Tom Hiddleston is currently starring in a production of it in London, and thanks to modern technology, it is being broadcast to movie theatres in the U.S. If you know me, you probably know that I'm a sucker for pretending that I live abroad, so whenever these events come up, I'm pretty excited to go see them. (Anyone want to go with me?) I'm not the hugest fan of Shakespeare though, so I wanted to make sure the story was decent before I paid money to see it in the theatre. I rented the 2011 movie rendition starring Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler. It was rather violent and weird (mostly weird because they tried to put it in a modern setting but still used all of the old English language), and of course, depressing because it's a tragedy. Anyways, after thinking up this crazy ending to Les Mis, I figured there was no way I could come up with a happy ending to Coriolanus . . . he is, after all, (SPOILER ALERT) very dead in the end.

But fear not, I did manage to think of something. I know it's kind of silly, but I thought it was fun. So in the story, Coriolanus is a war hero who gets pushed into politics even though he's got pretty poor people skills. He tries to maintain his ideals, but eventually the people (lead by some nasty power-hungry politicians) turn on him and he is banished from Rome. He joins forces with the rebel fighters that he used to oppose in order to fight back against Rome. Delegations from Rome are scared and try to reason with him, but in the end, only the delegation of his mother, wife, son, and some other random lady manage to get him to agree to make a truce. That doesn't sit very well with the rebel leader and when Coriolanus comes back after signing the treaty with the Romans, the rebels kill him. So, I decided that  Coriolanus has a secret identical twin. He is kind of a psychotic sociopath, so he's been imprisoned (and his exsistance hushed up by the family) for most of his life . . . funnily enough, in Azkaban (the wizard prison in Harry Potter). The twin brother bears a striking resemblance to Lord Voldemort, but that's besides the point ;) Anyways, when Coriolanus goes into Rome to sign the treaty, his wife, brilliant detective woman that she is, manages to get the twin brother out of Azkaban and into the waiting car to take Coriolanus back to the rebels. The manipulative mother, not realizing this is her other son (because she's just so caught up in "saving Rome" and the brother is rather in shock and confused about what to do) tells him exactly what he should do . . . go back to the rebels and live with them. Who knows what her real motives are, but he does so, because he really has no idea what else to do. So the real Coriolanus escapes to Sicily with his wife and son and lives happily ever after and the man the rebels kill was evil anyways, so everyone is happy, right? So there you go . . . didn't think I could make a happy ending out of one of the most tragic of tragedies, did you? :) I know . . . I have quite the imagination ;)

Anyways, back in the real world, I made some "healthy" maple pumpkin muffins today . . . aren't they pretty? They taste pretty good too (although the whole wheat flour does make them taste healthy, so it depends on if you like that or not). Here is the recipe: maple pumpkin muffins. I used a little over one Tbsp of water to make the glaze just right. Have a great weekend :)

2014 - Book 4a

"Dairy Queen" - Wisconsin

Okay, so I might be a little bit biased, but this was my favorite book so far. The bad language was at a minimum, there was no inappropriate romantic stuff, and not a single werewolf or vampire. Amazing, I know. It wasn't my favorite book of all time, to be sure, but I did enjoy it. It is a story about a teen girl who has to do almost all of the work on her family's dairy farm and a lot about her family dynamics. Oh, and football . . . a lot about football. It's written like she is speaking it all, and the author did use the word "annoyinger" once, which was well, annoying, and a negative in my opinion. For some reason, her voice in my head sounded like she had more of a southern accent . . . weird. But it was pretty good, and since I don't have any of the other books from the library yet, and my friend who lent me this book also gave me the other two in the series, I just might read those as well. 

We got a winner of a frozen crock pot meal tonight too. It was cilantro lime chicken tacos. Of course, they were improved with lots of avocado, salsa, and cheese in the taco shell, but the chicken mixture was pretty good. I had to add a little bit more salt and some southwestern seasoning to spice it up a little bit more, but it's a good base recipe. You could add whatever other seasoning you wanted and adjust the spice level to your taste as well. . . I highly recommend it. 

Until next time :) 

2014 - Book 3

"Everybody Sees The Ants" - Arizona

Okay, this book was not so bad, but I still don't think I really liked it. The amount of swear words was off-putting, in my opinion. Other than that, it was at least a real story with morals and characters that seemed real, so that was nice. It even had some pretty good messages about standing up to bullies and being engaged in your family-life. I don't really get the whole premise of the ants that cheered for the main character and told him what to do, and it was a little odd (but fascinating at the same time) that he had dream adventures with his POW/MIA grandfather, but still, miles above that last book. 

Other than reading, I wanted to give you a crock pot meal update. I haven't had to make too many lately because of so many generous people (my mom especially) who made us lots of food over Christmas and New Years. That being said, I only really have one to report on: tortilla soup. It was not as good as the taco soup, but it had just the right amount of spiciness. It was a bit too watery, so maybe next time I'll put less water in it, but it wasn't too bad. If I had to choose between the two to make again though, I'm definitely making the taco soup. I'm getting excited to compile my next list of freezer crock pot meals to try . . . Pinterest, here I come ;) 

Hope you are all doing well . . . talk to you soon :) 

2014 - Book 2

"Where Things Come Back" - Arkansas

Okay, I started reading this US of YA list with the assumption that these were actually good books. I sure hope they improve because I did not like this book at all :(

I feel almost guilty for being so harsh on the last book, because compared to this one, I loved "Shiver". I never, ever stop reading a book that I've started, and I was about ready to give up on this one by page five. It was nothing like what I think a good book should be, and granted, that is my own opinion, but I enjoy books because they can transport me to another time and place and introduce me to new friends and, in the end, give me some sort of joy, hope, and satisfaction in a happy ending. This book was just crude (foul language), scatterbrained and depressing. Not that it didn't have a "happy" ending, but I had no sense of closure or completeness when I finished this, I was just glad it was over. So sorry, Arkansas, I didn't like the book that was picked for you. Here's to hoping the next book is better!

Other than that, I tried a new recipe tonight . . . homemade crab rangoon. I got a cute little Fry Daddy deep fryer for my birthday and finally broke it in tonight. It worked well even though the control freak in me was a little stressed that it had no temperature control dial. The filling didn't really taste like much, and once they were cooked, did not fill very much of the rangoon at all. That might have been my fault for just using up scraps of egg roll wrappers and making crab rangoon sticks instead of the traditional star/cluster shapes. Oh well, I'll try a different recipe next time I guess, and not over cook them . . . oops. I'll get a hang of this deep fryer yet :)

Crab rangoon sticks

Black hole award

To ensure that this post is not entirely depressing (sorry about that), and because I can't believe that I forgot to share this recipe with you guys . . . I present something good and wonderful: crockpot cinnamon almonds. . . YUM. In the midst of all of the rest of my Christmas baking frenzy, I somehow forgot to mention these. They turned out perfectly and are super good. Give them a try, you won't regret it :)

MMM . . . cinnamon almonds :) 

Okay, I'm off to try and redeem the US of YA now with another book . . . I pray that it's better than the last one.

2014 - Book 1

"Shiver" - Minnesota

Well, my first book of 2014 was aptly chosen. I was indeed doing a lot of shivering during the time that I was reading this book. I experienced some -40 wind chills, I think the coldest I've ever felt in my entire life. 

As for the book . . . it was just okay. It started out rather "Twilight"-esque because it's a story about werewolves, although instead of being really warm all the time, the outside temperature causes the wolf-human transformations. I'm really hoping the majority of books on this list aren't like that. Not that I didn't enjoy the story, but I just hope YA novels are a bit more diverse than just werewolves and vampires nowadays.

It was interesting going back and reading YA fiction now that I'm not in the age group that it is targeted at anymore. I found myself more frustrated with the parents for being irresponsible and clueless to what their daughter was going through than identifying with the teenager. I would say it should be aimed for a bit older YA crowd since there was more romance in it than I was expecting for a YA book, but it was still PG-13. I don't want to give too much away, but essentially the protagonist has an unhealthy obsession with the wolves in her backyard after she was attacked by them as a child. She is "in love" with one of them and ta da, he turns into a human when the weather is warm enough and they find each other for a few moments of bliss before strife comes into the picture threatening it all. There is an interesting resolution though, and if you're a high school biology teacher out there an assign your class papers on diseases, if this book gets popular, I would expect lots of girl's papers to be about bacterial meningitis . . . just saying ;) 

So, I wouldn't buy this book, and I probably wouldn't read it again, but it was entertaining for the most part, and I can see some of it's appeal to the YA crowd. I think another book on the US of YA list is by the same author so we'll see what else she can come up with. 

In other news, not book related I made the baked oatmeal again, this time a cherry/apple/walnut version and it was really good. I just doubled the recipe and baked it in a 13" x 9" pan for about 50 minutes . . . yum :) 

Okay, well that's all for now, I'll keep you posted. Hope you are all staying warm :) 

The End of 2013 & The Beginning of 2014

Hello everyone from the beginning of 2014. Did you all have a nice New Year's celebration? Any closing thoughts on 2013 or new resolutions for 2014?

I can't believe that it's been two years now since I started this crazy life experiment blog. I sure have done a lot more than I thought I could or would. It's been a great growing experience and I think has molded me more into the person that I want to be. I'm involved in a lot more things and capable of way more than I thought I was. Although 2013 was not quite as crazy in terms of challenges as 2012 was, I still got a lot of things accomplished, just perhaps not what I originally set out to do.

On the negative side, I didn't finish my children's book or get anywhere on scrapbooking (oops), although I did get quite a bit of knitting and baking accomplished. But hey, in the big picture, getting a house isn't so bad ;) Things like that just kind of came up and I tried to roll with them and just do what I could do, and that theme will continue into 2014.

My husband has decided that my phrase of 2013 was "I'm busy", so my 2014 goal is to learn to relax a little bit and not be so hard on myself. One of the reasons I started this blog was because I found that I had a lot of free time and I didn't feel like I was filling it with very productive things. Now, after two years of solid productivity challenges, I think I've altered my habits enough that idleness will not be a problem anymore. At the same time, I do want to just be able to veg out and watch a movie if I want without feeling guilty about all of the self-imposed things that I have to do . . . it's time to find a more healthy balance :)

As for this blog, I will still keep it up for my faithful readers (you know who you are ;)) because I know how much I enjoy reading my friend's blogs, but I won't hold myself to one post a week. If I didn't do anything noteworthy, I don't have to write a blog about nothing . . . but if I have a very productive week, maybe there will be more than one post . . . who knows :)

I will also keep exercising because that's just a good idea for my health (especially if I want to keep baking ;)). My goal is still one hour a week, but one and a half would be more ideal, and seriously, that's really not that long.  

And of course I can't go a year without some sort of challenge, so when a friend posted this list on her Facebook, it seemed to be fitting for 2014: The United States of YA. Also, another friend did a "read at least 50 books in 2013" challenge and I was rather jealous of her, so they were both inspirations for my 2014 challenge: read all 50 books represented by the United States of YA map. I adore reading, and was a little surprised that I hadn't read a single book on this list. Granted, it's been a while since I was the YA target audience, but after reading some adult books, I'm more than happy to go back to YA literature . . . less graphic, gory, etc.

So, I'm going to aim for one book a week, but if I have more or less time, it's flexible, and if I don't finish, oh well (or so I'm trying to convince myself) ;) In addition to the reading, I do want to continue learning new knitting things, cooking and baking experiences (of course!), work harder at my job as my church's special music planner, and personally devote more time to my musical instruments (now that I don't have to worry about disturbing my apartment neighbors :)).

While I aim to relax more, I will not be idle, I promise :) Any one want to join me on any of my tasks? I look forward to a new year of adventures, thank God for all of the blessings He brought me in 2013, including all of you, and wish you all of the best today and for the rest of the year :) Talk to you soon :)