Get Help

Not for me. Do you listen to Writer's Almanac? Is it just me or has Garrison Keillor got the most morbid taste in poetry ever? I'd post some of his selections here but it would probably be a copyright infringement. I'm not big on breaking the law. I do encourage you to check out Writers Almanac online and definitely go through the archive to read some of the daily offerings. My sister, a lifelong Minnesotan has informed me that the residents of the Land of 10,000 Lakes are officially done with Garrison.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

More Cooking with Sweet Potatoes

After the rousing failure with sweet potato fries, I tried my hand at sweet potato crisps last night and they were much better than the fries. You basically dehydrate them for a long time in the oven at about 200 degrees. I do mean a long time. It took at least two hours. The trick is thin slices and frequent turning. You also have to make sure your crisps are in one layer on your baking sheet. This means that, unless you have a commercial oven, you will either make a very small amount of crisps or have them going all day. I chose the former.

I have a temptation to make pumpkin seed butter next. I truly doubt anyone will eat it, but I'm curious.

On Juvenile Fiction

My first grader has moved onto a new book. called Sardine in Outer Space. He got it for Christmas but just picked it up this week. He is so into it, I caught him last night at about 9:15 reading by flashlight.

Sardine is a graphic novel about a girl named Sardine, who, with her Uncle Yellow Shoulders are trying to stop the evil plots of Doc Krock and Super Muscleman. In one chapter, DK and SM are trying to kidnap all the children who misbehave. I'm happy to report that they are foiled.

It is very delightful to hear my son laughing out loud as he reads. Again, I tell the naysayers, if getting books like Sardine and Captain Underpants get your kids to read, then how can they be bad? Don't judge the quality of a book by the proportion of words to pictures.

That's all for now. Enjoy your day.

The Verdict is In

I have two reports for my faithful readers of which I think I have two. I guess that makes one report for each of you. First, the pasta/chicken concoction met with mixed reviews. I didn't have any lemon zest so the sauce wasn't as lemony as I would have liked and the sauce needed a bit of roux to thicken it a little bit. The kids and I liked it but it was not appreciated by the man of the house. Oh well. You win some you lose some. It still went to school for lunch today. I'll keep trying because I liked it. And based on the report I read in the Washington Post, we need to really cut back on our consumption of beef and pork. Looks like they'll kill you. Read it for yourself.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/betterlife/2009/03/meat-heavy-diet.html

Second, I finished Butchers Meat. It did take a long time to get to the death but once it got to that point, things really zoomed along. I typically have Monday to myself and I spent a considerable part of it on the couch finishing my book. I was satisfied with the end. It was logical. I think the author should steer away from some of the romantic side tales he included. They were simply a distraction and had no relevance. (I am now a book critic as well as an art critic.) All in all, worth the time it took to get to the murder. I would recommend it.

Now I am on to a biography of Harriet Scott, Dred Scott's wife. If you remember, Dred Scott and his wife sued their owners in an attempt to gain their freedom. The case dragged on for 10 years. The Scott's lost appeal after appeal and were finally granted their freedom after their owner's returned them to his original owners in Missouri who freed them. Scott died 9 months later. The book is very interesting so far. I haven't read very much but I am amazed at how much work the author put into this work. Harriet and Dred Scott were illiterate. They could neither read nor write. There are no first hand accounts of their struggle. The research the author did was insane. There are 150 pages alone in the book for notes and the bibliography. What an epic work this is! I look forward to putting the kids to bed so I can dive back into it tonight.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Who am I?

Feeling a little guilty about my comments re: Maya Lin exhibit. Really. Who am I? I can't say I enjoy fine art. I like looking at a pretty picture, or sculpture or piece of china, but my tastes are pretty basic. I like pretty things. I'm not sure I truly appreciate all that it takes to make a magnificent piece of art like the landscapes of Maya Lin. I am a shallow, shallow women. Forgive me Maya. You are great and I am a schlub.

I'm trying my hand at a new pasta recipe. I decided my cooking lacked flavor so I'm onto a sauce/marinade phase. Sauces and marinades are very Recessionista (not my term). If you marinate your meat in a lovely concoction of oil, vinegar and a variety of spices, it helps tenderize it. You can buy cheaper meats and save cash. I tried this over the weekend with some beef. We usually head for the new york strips (At COSTCO. Don't get all uppity.) But this time we got "beef loin flap meat." ??? I marinated it in a marinade with red wine, oil, vinegar, worcestshire, etc. It was fantastic! The true test of the success of my endeavor was my husband saying to make sure their was some left for his lunch today.

Tonight's creation is lemon herb chicken with a lemon cream pasta sauce. I sauted garlic in melted butter, added a cup of cream and a cup of broth with some herbs. My choice was some Italian herbs but I wish I had used the lemon grass. I let that simmer until it was reduced by half, added some lemon juice and lemon rind and let it sit on very low heat until the pasta was cooked. I will serve the chicken on top of the pasta very soon. It smells pretty good. We'll see what the masses say.

Enjoy (the rest of) your day!

We'll See

What does it mean when you say, "We'll see?" I find myself saying this frequently, mostly to my youngest child and mostly to requests for trips to the store, dessert, another hour on the PS II, etc.

Why don't I say "yes" or "no?" I don't know. My youngest is prone to taking no very badly, depending on how well he's slept and eaten. If I say "We'll see," he still has a ray of hope that his wished will be granted. And I am spared having to deal with an angry or annoyed seven year old. I could say no and provide an explanation but the chance that he would stay put for the explanation is slim to none.

So why don't I just say yes? Can I say yes to all his requests? Of course not. He can't go to Game Stop every weekend. He has no money and I can't buy him a new game every week either. Dessert? Rotting teeth nonsense is at play here. More video games? Brain rotting nonsense at play here. A conditional yes is possible. "You can have a piece of fruit or yogurt if your still hungry." That often works. I just have to hope he stays in bed and doesn't see me sneak some ice cream. "You can play video games after you have done your homework (cleaned your room, etc)." That works too.

I suppose I want my kids to grow up with the understanding that you can't have everything you want the instant you want it. You have to eat your vegetables before you can have ice cream. You have to do your homework before you can go outside. You have to sit through the horrendous meeting with the guy who has bad breath before you can work on the cool project. "We'll see," can be seen as a tool for a greater future appreciation of the inevitable unpleasantness you must endure before the fun can start.

We went to the Corcoran Gallery to see Maya Lin's exhibit, Systematic Landscapes. We enjoyed the varying sizes of the works. I think the kids like the huge room sized sculpture called "2x4 Landscape" best. It filled most of the room it was in and was made entirely of sections of 2x4s. I liked it because I liked smelling the wood. I didn't like the gallery employee stationed in the room however. She chastised my kid for leaning on a wall. ???? She wouldn't let me take a picture though no signs indicating this prohibition were posted in the gallery or the exhibit brochure. I'm no art critic but I didn't like the Atlas Landscapes. They were clever. Lin cut landscapey looking shapes out of atlases. I thought it would have been more interesting if the shapes were more relevant to the page she chose. For example. If she had chosen Israel, it would have been cool to see something the shape of the Dead Sea. Maybe she did this and I didn't see it noted in the labels for the works. It was a cool exhibit and we enjoyed it without huge crowds, thanks to a marathon and anti-war protest scaring people away from Washington.

I did feel bad for the gallery employees. While we were there, an alarm near an exhibit of small bronze statues went off 3 times. The statues are displayed on a tiered table that is open. The display tempts you to lean over to view the pieces from several vantage points, but this is not a what the Corcoran wants. There are motion sensors on the perimeter of the lowest table that go off every time you lean in. Very annoying. If they don't want people to look more closely, they should enclose the display.

That's all for now. Enjoy your day.

Reading

In the county in which we live, the schools assign all children reading homework each day. My 1st grader is supposed to read 15 minutes a day and my 6th grader is supposed to read for 20 minutes a day. I am very fortunate that both boys are avid readers so there is no challenge in getting this task accomplished.

I split the reading time with my 1st grader. He reads a few pages and I read a few pages until he is done. I've read some very interesting books with him. This is a brief overview.

If I could, I would call Dav Pilkey, bake him huge cake and give him a big hug for creating his Captain Underpants series. We tried to get our youngest to read the books his brother had enjoyed at his age, like the Magic Treehouse series. Though the series offers a wide range of topics, I think he quickly grew bored with the books' formulas.

One day, he picked up Captain Underpants at the library and sat down and paged through it. He was enthralled. He paged through, giggling at the drawings and the crazy antics of the main characters, Harold and George. Within about 6 weeks, we had completed the entire series of books. I no longer heard my son tell me that it was too hard to try new words. All I had to say was, "Dav Pilkey wouldn't have put that word in this book if he didn't think you could read it." I did get an occasional, "Stupid Pilkey," in reply, but he did keep going.

Many people are opposed to the whole graphic novel genre. To those of you who think that graphic novels are glorified comic books and have no literary value, I offer you this: They will get the most unwilling reader to read and that is the most important thing. There are words on a page and as much as we would all like our 7 year olds to read Tolstoy, it isn't likely to happen. Get them going on something that entertains, discuss the book with them and you will be giving them skills that they will apply when they are ready to read Tolstoy.

Stay tuned to this space for more children's book recommendations. Enjoy your day!