Sweet Yet Sour

What Our Family is Reading…

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 | Anna, Books, Henry | 4 Comments

I’m trying to be a little better about posting regularly; I have two friends who are partaking in Blog365 in which they post everyday and I’m a little jealous.  Let’s face it though, I can’t even get a shower every day with two kids, so it seems unlikely that I will be able to blog everyday!  But, I thought it might be fun to do a post about what all of the members of our family are reading these days.

As for me, I have just finished Run, by Ann Patchett.

This is my third Ann Patchett and I am back to loving her after reading Run.  I read Bel Canto a long time ago and loved it so much I recommended it to everyone I knew.  But then I read The Magician’s Assistant and was disappointed that I was not as enthralled with the story or the characters as I was with Bel Canto.   Run has wonderfully developed characters; you love them all, despite their faults, and this was again one of those books that I did not want to put down.  The book does a great job examining family, adoption and race.  I recommend to everyone I know that they should read Run.

For my next book I’m reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese; I’ll let you know what I think!

Mike is currently engrossed, but not done with The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I don’t have a final review from him, but he can’t seem to put it down and I’ve already bought him the second in the series, Catching Fire.  On his bedside table Mike also has Brew Like A Monk, The Gunslinger (Dark Tower I), Under the Dome (both by Stephen King), and Michael Chabon’s Fatherhood for Amateurs.

We generally read Anna three stories at naptime and bedtime and being a toddler, she sometimes gets stuck in a rut and likes certain books repeated.  For a long time I got to read The Wheels on the Bus, Curious George Goes to a Costume Party and The Little Red Caboose over and over and over.  Another lovely tradition is reserved for the times when her daddy puts Anna to bed; Mike makes up little stories about a little girl name Emma (who is basically Anna) who goes on little adventures.  Emma goes to the park, the ocean, on helicopter rides, etc. and Anna truly adores her Emma stories.

Lately her favorites are: Bedtime for Francis by Russell Hoban,

I Like You More Than Elephants, by Norm Byers and Good Work Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish.

I grew up with the Francis series and with Amelia Bedelia so it is lovely to be reading these books to my own daughter.  The Francis series are about a little girl badger who is pretty much like every little girl in the world.  Bedtime for Francis is about Francis finding every little excuse to avoid going to bed: ” ‘There is a giant in my room.” said Francis, “May I watch television?’ ”

I Like You More Than Elephants is a book that Anna came home from school with and is truly adorable: “I like you more than elephants, they don’t fit in the house…I like you more than timber wolves, they tried to eat my mouse!”

And then there is the always lovable Amelia Bedelia series; Amelia Bedelia is an inane housekeeper who takes all of her instructions literally.  When asked to “Make a sponge cake.” she makes cake batter, cuts a sponge into pieces and stirs it in!  When told that her employers would like a “chicken dinner”, she serves them cracked corn since, “That’s what chickens eat for dinner.”

As for Henry, we are still at work on a consistent bedtime routine, so the books that I read to him are the same every time he goes to bed or nap.  I did this with Anna, always reading Eric Carle’s, The Very Hungry Caterpillar last.  That way, Anna knew, since she wasn’t able to understand what I was telling her, that it was bedtime.  We do the same things in the same order every time and it makes bed time a lot easier for babies.  Currently we are reading You and Me Baby by Lynn Reiser:

It’s full of color photographs of real babies, mommies and daddies.  It’s great for babies and toddlers, since babies like to look at other babies – especially themselves in the mirror – but other babies will do just fine.  As for Henry, he loves to reach out and touch the pictures of the babies and then help me turn the page.  It’s not high literature, “Hey baby! Look at you, looking at me!” and Mike can’t stand reading it, but the simple language and pictures are enough to make small babies happy.

And to finish up right before the light goes off and I kiss him good night, Henry listens intently (but yawns) to Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Jane Dyer.

This is a beautifully illustrated book that is about all sorts of parents putting their little ones to bed. I actually have it memorized so that if Henry is especially sleepy I can “read” it to him in the dark, “Time for bed little goose, little goose, the stars are out and on the loose.”  Cuddled on my lap in his fleece sleeper with feet I can feel Henry relax, see him yawn and rub his eyes and I can tell he knows that it’s time for bed…

Baking and Julia

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 | Books, Cooking | 2 Comments

In the ongoing search for more ways to have fun in the kitchen, a friend of mine has come up with “Have the Cake” – a blogging and baking group.  Starting August 1st, those of us participating will be baking a selected item, one recipe per month, making our own adjustments, and blogging about the process.  It sounds like so much fun and I can’t wait to get started in a few days…

If you would like to participate, go to the Have the Cake website, and sign up! The more the merrier!

On another note, I am all about Julia Child these past few months. First, for our June bookclub we read “My Life in France”, Julia Child’s autobiography. I was struck by several things reading this book, but most notably how scientifically Julia approached cooking.  The woman made mayonnaise every day for two weeks to get the perfect recipe!  Julia carefully took notes on each recipe, including things like how the weather would affect something and what not to do to avoid pitfalls.  This is kitchen science that I can really appreciate – although I don’t practice it myself.  I’m much more of a “throw stuff together without measuring” kind of cook – but I think Julia’s method is great.

I was also struck by how much Julia loved France and the French people.  The Paris and Parisians of her time in France are so different from my experiences in France.  She speaks of kind, open people, when I was generally met with snootiness – but I think Parisians in general get sick of tourists.  I do remember fondly a woman who saw my sister and I dragging our bags along a road in the outskirts of Paris, stopped her car, got out and said, “Etes-vous perdu?” (”Are you lost?”) and carefully directed us to where we were going.

Reading the book did not, however, make me fall in love with French food.  There is far too much veal, duck (both of which I don’t eat or don’t like), and things like squib (baby pidgeon) for my taste.  There is a horrid description of a “pressed duck” that involves actually pressing the duck (it’s dead – don’t worry) in a canister… Bleech!

But, the book did make me want to add “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” to add to my cookbook collection.  Julia’s careful research and recipe writing would be nice to have in my inventory.

Now, in between continuing to try to get through, “Eat, Pray, Love”, I’m reading “Julie and Julia”.  A movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams is coming out soon based on this book and “My Life in France”.  “Julie and Julia” is a non-fiction account of a woman in New York city who decided to cook all of the recipes in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and blog about it.  I’m not finished yet, but so far I’m impressed that someone would attempt this in a New York city sized kitchen and a deep seated hatred of eggs.  There’s a lot of eggs in Julia Child’s world.  Thankfully Julie didn’t hate butter or she’d really have been in trouble.

All this reading about cooking (and watching “Top Chef Masters” every week) has really made me hungry and in a baking mood.  I’m glad “Have the Cake” is coming up so I can have some kitchen science of my own to dig into!