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December TBR

Posted in Books, Church, Home, Reading Challenges, Resolutions on December 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

A few things that are available to peruse for those who need to take a break in my office. Just a little light reading.

I love December and also am already tired of December. There are so many things that I really enjoy happening. But also…there are so many things. This month is Advent, the end of the semester, the start of Christmas, and the end of the year all in one. There are evaluations, interviews, EOY reports, etc., due. There are parties and reviews and the tying up of all manner of loose ends. Also, don’t forget joy and magic and miracles (oh my). 

I’m reading Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent by Enuma Okoro throughout the month, but I’m also combining finishing up my reading goal with my Advent calendar. I use little knitted pockets on my tree to store prompts, and this year, they’re reading prompts. I’ll pick one, read a book that fits the category, and then go to the next one. The categories include things like:

  • Christmas themed
  • Next in a series
  • Features a talking animal
  • Single word title

They also include practical things like:

  • Next book due at the library
  • Girlxoxo challenge
  • Alphabet challenge
  • Book club selection

If this goes as planned, I will finish my reading goal by the skin of my teeth. Even if nothing goes as planned, though, I still have an exciting reading (etc.) month ahead, and I hope you have a wonderful December regardless of how you spend it!

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Friday Five – Welcome to December!

Posted in Books, Food, Friday Five, Fun, Getting It Together, Home, Nostalgia on December 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Last week, I was at the family farm and limiting screen time due to a concussion, but I’m feeling much better now. It’s the time of the year when I’m holiday-ing and transitioning to a new yearly theme, but there are still snippets of home that you’ll see throughout each week’s review this month (and of course, there will be a general review of what the theme has taught me near the end of December).

  • I love this tour of the place where the writer lives. So much good stuff about home and honoring the generosity of the earth and all its creatures. Read it slowly with your favorite warm beverage. 
  • Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul – I would probably not have picked this one up if it wasn’t suggested for a book discussion at work. I’m so glad I did. The pacing was perfect. If I were teaching a writing class, this is the book I would use to show how it’s done. The writer unfolded the story beautifully, revealing just enough to spark interest along the way and building up to big moments with perfect timing. I felt like I was making discoveries along with the main character. I was never bored at any point, and there are not many books that I can say that about. 
  • The Silent Gondoliers by William Goldman – I adored this small book by the author of The Princess Bride. Similar storytelling style – a lot of charm and humor and quirky characters. Fantastical, mystical…it was a lot of fun.
  • The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington – This book was about 200 pages, but it seemed so much longer. If you want to brush up on your time management skills, this is a decent guide with solid tips. It’s especially helpful if you’re a person who tends to thrive with short bursts of intense focus and activity. Reader beware, though – there is a LOT of traditional, neurotypical, motivational speaker-y advice on productivity that fell flat with me. If I could hype up or push myself into being more productive, I would have already published 40 books, own a house, be a Pilates instructor, and have a regular workout schedule that seems as intuitive as breathing by now. If you are reading it and find these bits more overwhelming than instructive, it’s ok to put it down. 
  • Y’all. I was looking for my mom’s surprise cookies recipe to take to cookbook club tonight, and I ran across my old blog that chronicled the foodie weekends Maggie and I had. There are only a few posts, and it’s very, very yellow, but it was a fun trip down memory lane. Damn, I loved that kitchen. *moment of silence* Also, I notice that our cocktail weekend didn’t make it to print. That tracks. That was a fun time. And aw, also this one, the blog I had on Blogger for a minute before I decided that WordPress was a better fit for what I wanted to do when Livejournal started getting wonky. Good times.

The weekend is full, but it should also be fun. I hope yours is fun as well!

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Leftover Soup

Posted in Food, Home, Roots on November 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

(Not a pic of the most recent leftover soup described below, but definitely one of my happier accidents from the past)

One of the things I get most excited to make when the weather is even the slightest bit chilly is leftover soup. It’s especially useful at the end of a holiday or multiple days of gathering when you’ve cooked a lot and have multiple random bits of dishes too big to throw out but too small to serve everyone for another meal. It combines three of my favorite things:

  • Soup
  • Creativity
  • Minimizing food waste

I take a look in my fridge and pantry and identify the items that will definitely be beyond their useful date before I get around to eating them. Or items that I have a ridiculous amount of (like The Great Chickpea Debacle of yore pictured above). Or items that don’t go with anything else but the very specific recipe I bought them for. Or items that would just taste great in a soup.

I gather them, imagine what they would taste like together, and ponder a spice profile that most closely fits it (and also my existing spice collection). Then I warm some oil, chop up whatever soupy aromatics (onion, garlic, celery, peppers, carrots) I have on hand, add them to the oil, and get started crafting my soup.

This past Saturday, I got to teach my dad how to make leftover soup. This was thrilling in several ways. First, I hardly ever get to teach my dad cooking tips – it’s usually just following his instructions on whatever plan he already has in his mind. Second, I got to root around freely in their over-the-top herb/spice collection. Finally, I got to watch his amazement as he discovered the joys of combining coconut milk and lemon, one of my favorite culinary delights in life.

In addition to sauteed onion, garlic, and celery, we combined:

  • mashed sweet potatoes with rosemary and butter
  • boiled russet potatoes
  • green bean casserole (green beans, cream of mushroom soup, milk, and those weirdly addictive crunchy onion things)
  • cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, random garden herb blend, fresh cracked black pepper, salt
  • coconut milk
  • lemon juice

Other than adding enough water to make it the consistency we wanted, we didn’t fuss around with it too much. Just let it thicken and simmered it until we declared it done.

It was a hit! The end result was homey and warm and comforting and delicious. I was especially pleased with the salty-sweet theme. Mom, Dad, and I all enjoyed it, and I got to bring the small amount we had left over home to savor the next day.

If you’ve never made leftover soup, I highly recommend it. It’s a low-stakes experiment from which you may discover new favorite flavor profiles or combos.

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November 2023 TBR

Posted in Books, Home, Reading Challenges, Resolutions on November 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Goodreads tells me I’m 20 books behind on my goal. What Goodreads doesn’t realize is that November and December are typically cozy, super-reading months, so I am confident that 180 for the year is still within reach. I’m still finishing up several books from last month, but of course, I’m already excited about what’s next.

Book Clubs

And a few we’re discussing at book clubs at work in December which I may start this month:

Reading Challenges

I started the year with the goal to 1) read books I already own and 2) work on my massive TBR. While I have technically done both of these things all year, I’ve realized that trying to even make a dent in my home collection as well as all the books I want to read enough to put them on the list is somewhat of a fool’s errand. I may have finally come to terms with the fact that this is never going to happen and that’s OK. 

Something I can complete and that keeps me out of a rut? Reading challenges. Oh, how I’ve missed Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge and the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge this year. Even though I linked them, I’m not even going to read through that list. It’s too tempting to see how far I can get in two months (i.e., not far. I already know. No need to torture myself.).

What I am going to do is try to finish the simpler challenges I took on this year. I still have quite a few to go for my alphabet challenge, and I have a good shot at finishing both the Girlxoxo and MMD Minimalist ones before the year is out.

And a few that are due at the library soon…that may or may not get read before they’re returned…

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Day 31 – The Paprikash (Month in Review)

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Nostalgia, TV on November 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

(From Season 7 of Grace and Frankie, episode 14 – “The Paprikash,” as viewed on my teeny tiny netbook)

I love this whole show, but this episode (this scene in particular) is easily one of my top five favorites. Grace calls her brother Jeffrey because she keeps trying to make her mother’s chicken paprikash recipe (which turns out to be her dad’s recipe) and it never quite turned out the way she wanted it to. But what Jeffrey wants to talk about is the dad he never knew because he died when he was four, which is a painful memory Grace would rather not revisit.

But Frankie has an idea.

Frankie: “I think there’s a way for both of you to get what you want. Grace wants the recipe and Jeffrey wants to know about his dad. So every ingredient you give Grace, she’ll give you a detail about your father.”

Grace: “Frankie, that is the most insane idea that you’ve…”

Jeffrey: “One quartered chicken.”

Grace: “He slept in the hospital when you had pneumonia.”

And they went from there, alternating memories of their dad with the food they both remembered from their childhoods.

I ugly-cried so hard.

This is what the food I grew up with and all my favorite dishes I’ve made since mean to me. It’s not just a pleasant taste or smell (although most of them are delicious). It’s inherently linked to the memories I have, sitting around the table or on the couch, in the kitchen or at a suitable distance so as not to irritate the cook.

It’s the soup Mom made when she came to Denton to take care of me when I was too sick to stand for several weeks.

It’s the kind eyes of the farmer at the market who snuck more Crowder peas into my bag while I was trying to pull it together after bursting into tears as I told him how my MeMaw always grew them in her garden.

It’s learning that I do like cherries after all and figuring out how to give recipes my own flair.

It’s being a little dissatisfied with most of the chocolate cake and steak I eat anywhere but the farm because no one makes them like Mom and Dad (respectively).

[Seriously – Mom’s chocolate icing – it’s like ganache and buttercream had a baby that got all their best genes. It’s fudgy and decadent and amazing.]

I may have run out of steam a little here at the end (it’s been a hard month). And there are hundreds more stories to tell, but you get the gist. When I think about what home means to me, there’s always food and drink involved in some way. Every place I’ve ever lived has its own menu with memories embedded firmly within it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the stories and the food, and I hope you get a chance to eat wonderful things with people you love very soon.

We have food at home: 31 days of exploring the tastes I grew up with

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Days 28 & 29 – Favorite Takeout

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home on October 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know if the cheesesteak pizza was a thing at a Pizza Hut near you this summer, but it was quite possibly the very best pizza this particular chain has ever made. Just look at it. When I was young, I often had a choice of having my birthday party at Pizza Hut, My-T-Burger, or the skating rink, and I have to say – if this had been on the menu, it would have been Pizza Hut every year.

I mean, probably not. I was a strict hamburger (NOT sausage) or plain cheese pizza fan back in the day. This would have probably been too outside my preferred palate then. But now? I can’t even get excited about my standard spinach, tomato, and olive on a delicious stuffed crust right now. I’m still in mourning over the cheesesteak.

I try not to get takeout or drive-through meals too often. I feel sluggish and blah when I eat most of the things I can order through a mechanical box or online. I certainly didn’t grow up eating fast food on a regular basis.

But one way I’m different from most of my family and friends is that I live alone. And while cooking for myself is lovely and soothing and decadent, so is occasionally saving myself the trouble. Many people will answer the question, “What’s your favorite meal?” with “One I don’t have to cook,” and I feel that. Sometimes, it just doesn’t make the cut on the daily agenda. Some days, the best thing I can do to take care of my soul is drive through Whataburger for a patty melt (sans the sauce – it’s just too much).

Most of my weekend fare has been warm salads and black bean tacos, and I’ve stayed reasonably hydrated. But Friday after work, even though I had food at home, I made a beeline for one of my favorite takeout spots right off campus. I ordered chicken fried rice and crab rangoon, and I ate it all with a cup of super sweet hot tea (a habit I picked up when I lived with Margat). It was excessive and awesome, and just what I needed.

I don’t know if I have a great point to make, but I do know that no discussion about the place food has in my life and in my home would be complete without at least a brief mention of how much I enjoy – one might even say require – the occasional drive-through. And seriously – that pizza deserves an award.

I hope you’ve had a great weekend, and I wish you a wonderful week ahead.

I’m talking about food that makes me feel at home this month.

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Day 27 – The Last Friday Five of the Series

Posted in 31 Days, Books, Food, Friday Five, Fun, Home, Mental Health, Nostalgia, Seasons on October 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Tomorrow, our Rise and Shine book club is discussing spooky reads and there’s a Halloween party in the evening. On Sunday, there is a book fair at a local bar and our annual Spiderdead show in the afternoon, and then I have an RLA interest presentation (the last one I’m giving this year!) early that evening. I’m definitely taking Monday and Tuesday off for what will be some much-needed and long-overdue downtime. 

Here are five food-related/adjacent ponderings I’ve had this week:

  • I especially love this time of year because, while I do enjoy some spooky things and darker themes, I mostly just love how much cozier everything is. Cool weather (actual cool weather, not the “it’s no longer in the triple digits must be a cold front ha ha” phenomenon) is on its way in the next 48 hours. I will wrap up in a blanket with a cup of tea and a bowl of popcorn while I settle in to re-watch a soul-soothing show or movie any time of the year, but cool weather means I can do that without cranking up the A/C. Tonight I’m probably going to watch something hygge/homey/foodie from this list. My regulars are Chocolat or Under the Tuscan Sun, but the list reminds me of quite a few I haven’t seen in a while, and also how did I miss A Good Year?
  • Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree – I think I’ve found the genre I want to write. Cozy fantasy. This one was especially lovely to me because the main character is an Orc who decided to leave the mercenary life to open a coffee shop. I WANT TO LEAVE THE MERCENARY (I mean, Student Affairs, but sometimes it’s basically the same) LIFE TO OPEN A COFFEE SHOP. It’s like The Hobbit, but if Bilbo had just said, “No, thank you, but would you like another spot of tea?” instead of going on the adventure. It taps into my deep-seated desire to have a home that is so cozy and welcoming that I never want to leave and is also a place where I can feed people and watch their faces as they have those little moments of joy that a really good cup of coffee or delicious pastry can bring. 
  • The main thing I like about joining Tertulia is all the discounts I get (and also I enjoy their co-op vibe). Another thing I like is that I get curated lists like this one in my inbox with recommendations to add to my home foodie collection. Alice Feiring’s To Fall in Love, Drink This has been on my TBR for a while. That may be my next Tertulia purchase.
  • I’m pretty good about keeping my pantry and freezer (and to a lesser extent, my fridge – sometimes some questionable things linger in there) reasonably stocked and cleaned out. When space is limited, it only takes a little swerve in the direction of either sparse or out of control to have me ordering takeout more often than I (and by I, I do mean my budget) would like. But occasionally, I get a wild hair and end up buying way more of one item than I need. Right now, I have so many canned beans in my apartment. I mean, as overages go, shelf-stable ones are my preference, but dang. I guess I’m having beans in just about everything I cook at home for the foreseeable future. 
  • I really could have used a list like this when I was first starting out as a new-ish home cook. There’s lots of great advice and resources linked in here. It also sparked a bit of nostalgia through several moments when I thought, “I remember when I learned that!” It took me so long to figure out that “What are your favorite flavors and textures?” is such an important question for me when it comes to a meal plan that I’ll actually use (rather than one that I feel is a good plan I should want to use – very different things). 

My long weekend is so close I can taste it. I hope your weekend is nice!

I’m writing about food and home this month.

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Day 26 – Gross Things That Make Me Happy

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Joy, Nostalgia on October 26, 2023| 2 Comments »

I imagine most of us have those certain foods we love that would make others recoil in horror. Do yourself a favor – DO NOT google “gross foods” to come up with examples. If you must, satisfy your curiosity with this link but also don’t click on that if you don’t want to see some questionable and possibly revolting things (and I only say “possibly” because I recognize that what I might find revolting others don’t, because that list got a lot of yucks from me).

I mean, you do you, but I’m not eating anything that starts with “jellied” and ends with some animal part.

I will absolutely chow down on some chicharrones (aka, pork rinds), though. When the dining hall across the street from my office made them, I was delighted. They remind me of afternoons at my grandparents’ apartment. Mom stopped by several times a week to visit with her mother, and Granddaddy spent most of the time singing Marty Robbins along with his record player in the back room. And these salty snacks were readily available. One of my earliest memories with this set of grandparents was discovering that Smoky the cat really liked them, too.

Jello salads are also on my list of foods I generally enjoy that others often have on their iffy lists. This is another perk of holidays and potlucks – there’s always at least one of them. My absolute favorite is a lime green one with pineapple and cottage cheese (another food people seem to have very strong opinions about). I don’t even mind that it has pecans in it, but I prefer it without them. *sigh* It’s been so long since I had this treat. I may have to make some before the year is over.

I also really crave hot dogs every once in a while, as long as I don’t think too much about what they’re made of.

Most of the foods I love that others side-eye are ones that are strongly tied to memories of home and comfort, and I suspect that’s the same for most people. If I were to survey the folks in my office, we’d get nostalgic gushing about pickle loaf, hot Cheetos with bananas and milk, sucking the heads of crawdads, and various other dubious pairings and practices that, despite all odds, bring them joy. I may not be interested in trying (or reliving) them myself, but I like listening to others rave about their favorite things.

Speaking of suspect snacks, I think I’ll go see what I can find in the vending machine next door.

I’m writing about all kinds of foods – the good, the bad, and the ugly – that remind me of home this month.

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Day 25 – Sandwiches

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Nostalgia on October 25, 2023| 3 Comments »

I ate a lot of sandwiches in my childhood. As a food group, the sandwich has a lot going for it:

  • It’s fast and simple to make.
  • It doesn’t dirty up a lot of dishes/pots/pans in the process.
  • It is versatile, so it’s easier to tailor to picky food tastes than most things.
  • It can be as nutritious or decadent or anything in between as you want it to be.

We lunched on a lot of peanut butter (creamy) and jelly (grape). When it was cool outside, we got soup and grilled cheese with white bread and American slices (cut on the diagonal, the way nature intended). We also ate a lot of bologna and cheese, and my favorite way to do that was toasted in the toaster oven. It was fun to watch the slice of bologna curl as it heated.

There always seemed to be a jar of either chicken or tuna salad (or on occasion, their weird cousin, ham salad) made in the fridge. Mom’s chicken/tuna/ham salad usually included the same basic elements:

  • Hard-boiled eggs
  • Shredded (chopped? diced?) chicken/tuna/ham
  • Miracle Whip
  • Salt/pepper

Occasionally she’d put pickles in it, or celery and grapes if she was making it for her sorority or an adult luncheon of some sort. But for us, it stayed simple.

My favorite sandwiches, though, were special treats. They required a specific bread. I’m pretty sure it was a Mrs. Baird’s product, but they looked like the Wonder Bread Philly Cheesesteak rolls. White bread roll with sesame seeds. You take the bottom of the roll and layer thinly sliced deli ham. On top of that, you sprinkle shredded mozzarella. Put it in the microwave long enough to melt the cheese. Spread the top of the bun with ranch dressing (specifically Hidden Valley Ranch – accept no substitutes) and place on the melted cheese.

When I make a sandwich today, it’s typically on bread from Ravelin or The Market at UNT. The meat and/or veggie specifics vary, but there’s always some kind of cheese involved. It’s often open-faced (because it’s usually lunch and an abundance of bread makes me sleepy) or half a sandwich that I eat in conjunction with something else, like a cup of soup or a salad.

But my ultimate comfort sandwich is still that hot ham and mozzarella hoagie. Heaven.

What’s your favorite type of sandwich?

I’m writing about homey foods and comforting snacks this month.

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Days 23 & 24 – A Warm Beverage

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Mental Health, Nostalgia, Seasons, Wild on October 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

This month, y’all. It’s a wild one. I like my new job, but I miss my easy Octobers. Also, the world seems to be a little bit more on fire (proverbial and otherwise) than usual. I’m taking a couple of long weekends and some extra nights off this week, but I need a real break. And I need a breath to process all that’s happening so that I can actually wind down well enough at the end of the day to get more than 3-4 hours of sleep. Don’t know when that’s going to happen.

In the meantime, I am embracing the slightly cooler weather with all my favorite comforts. Soups, easy one-pot meals, and breakfast tacos are on the menu for the week. I’m also enjoying a near-constant intake of warm beverages.

Coffee and tea are my staples. Hot Tang is also a frequent visitor to my repertoire (although clearly, I’ve been doing it wrong by neglecting to add whiskey). I even drank a plain cup of hot water the other day. I love warm beverages.

Coffee brews all day at the farm and has for as long as I can remember. Mom doesn’t like it strong, so the caffeine release is significantly slower (allegedly). Tea was always iced unless you were sick (because Texas). I didn’t start drinking hot tea in earnest until I came to college, but now it’s my usual way to drink tea.

But there was one hot tea drink we had growing up that was an instant comfort to me. I’ve heard it called Russian tea and friendship tea, but to us, it was just spiced tea. Mom often made it around the holidays, and she made a lot of it because we gave it as gifts. She would mix all the ingredients together and fill pint-sized jars with a cross-stitched lid that read “spiced tea” with a picture of a cup beside it (I think – my memory of the picture is hazy at best). She would do the same with hot chocolate mix (I can’t remember if she mixed her own of this as well or just bought it in bulk) with another cute cross-stitched label that read “hot chocolate.”

I can’t seem to find the actual recipe, but I often helped with the mixing (even I could be trusted to stir). I think the proportions of a batch went something like this:

  • 2 cups powdered Tang
  • 2 cups powdered lemonade (always Country Time)
  • 1 cup instant tea (always Lipton)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Do yourself a favor – mix up a batch of this, pour hot water over a couple of heaping spoons in a cup, stir, and enjoy. Feel free to play around with the proportions. It’s very sweet, but that’s just part of its charm.

I’m on an Irish Breakfast Tea kick right now, but I may have to add these ingredients to my next grocery list so I can have this mix on hand. I may also dig around for the cross-stitch patterns next time I’m home. I know some people who need this mix and a cute jar in their lives.

A cup of Mom’s spiced tea may be just what I need to make this hectic October a little sweeter.

I’m writing about the recipes and foods that feel like home to me this month.

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