January Plated Dinner

This year, I am not focusing on necessarily all new recipes. I would like to just practice plating. I am also hoping I can get my children involved and have them take turns planning, shopping and cooking a meal for the whole family. I don't want them leaving my house only knowing how to make frozen pizza, Kraft macaroni and cheese and Ramen noodles. Somewhere along the way, they need to be able to cook something.

Thinking back, I started cooking at the age of 15. My mom's food was very bland so I started making spaghetti, chili, and some other foods just to add seasoning. I never did meat and potato meals. I learned that much later.

The January meal was a simple boneless pork chop with a red wine sauce, pureed peas, and garlic mashed potatoes. Pureed peas are a bit off-putting because they are such a bright green. However, they tasted delicious.

Review:

Glen loved the pork chop and the sauce and, of course, the garlic mashed potatoes. He ate the puree but didn't love it.

I loved everything. The pork chop was tender. The garlic mashed potatoes were amazing. I love lumpy mashed potatoes with skin still on the potatoes. There is actually texture to the dish. I loved the pureed peas. Peas, cream, garlic and parmesan cheese. All good.

Dakota passed on the peas. He ate the regular whipped potatoes. He loved the pork chop. He is a meat lover!

Alexsei ate the pork chop. She liked the sauce. The potatoes were her favorite and she did like the peas.

Savana is trying to go vegetarian. She passed on the pork chop. She loved the potatoes and the peas.

Alaric ate the pork chop without sauce. He likes pork so he actually liked the chop. He ate the whipped potatoes and passed on the peas. I don't think he eats anything green.

December Book

I read the latest Stephanie Plum book. Mercifully, I can read the book in 3 hours. This latest was called "Takedown Twenty". As I have said before, it is time Evanovich ends the series. Her faithful fans and readers are getting tired of the formula. Stephanie can't alway be in life and death situations. She can't continue to go back and forth between Ranger and Morelli.

If Ranger says, "Babe" one more time, I will start tearing pages out of the book! It was cute at first. Then it got boring. Now it annoys the holy crap out of me.

The charm is wearing off. The interest is waning. I keep swearing I will stop reading and yet, I keep coming back. It is only because they are quick reads. I don't even know if I care any more who she chooses or if Stephanie ever becomes a real bounty hunter. Or how many more cars will get destroyed while in her possession.

It is time to let this one go.

I went  back and looked at my Good Reads review of this book. I didn't give it a review, but I gave it 4 stars. I don't know why I gave it 4 stars. Maybe I was just that happy that I actually finished one more book before the year ended.

October Meal

I made my October meal on October 30. I squeaked it in. We did have a guest for dinner that night. Alexsei's best friend Rachel Schollaert happened to be at the house on that night so she stayed for dinner night. Dakota was not home.

I went with a total autumn theme. I had roasted pork with a sauce made with wine and apple cider. I served it with creamy polenta and roasted vegetables with apples. I made carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onion.

The loin was very tender. The vegetables were delicious. I could have doubled the amount I made. The potatoes and carrots were especially popular.

Glen liked everything. The creamy polenta was not his favorite, but he ate it anyway.

Me: I liked all of it including the polenta.

Alexsei: She thought the pork was fine. She was not a fan of the sauce. It was sweet. She also likes polenta the way I usually make it. She ate some, but did not love it. She did love the vegetables.

Rachel: Rachel passed on the pork. She loved the vegetables and ate some polenta.

Savana: Savana also passed on the pork. She loved the vegetables and wanted more potatoes. She also was lukewarm on the polenta.

Alaric: I believe he ate the pork.

October Book

So the blog fell by the way side for the months of October-December. I did read a book in October. The book was "One Word that Will Change Your Life" by Dan Britton, Jimmy Page and Jon Gordon. We were given this book to read by our Principal. I read it on a drive through Iowa. It only took a couple hours.

The premise of the book is to select a word that will guide your year. The one thing the authors challenged is that you do not think about your word. The word should come to you. Of course, after I finished reading the book, I thought about words. As we were driving along, we passed a cell tower. All of a sudden, the word "Escape" jumped into my head. So that is my word.

I have been exploring the many meanings of escape. One of the strongest themes for me is that I am ready to find a new teaching position. That is the top escape for me. I am also trying to escape things that I feel waste my time. I am trying to cut down on my internet life and spend more time with my "real life" people. I also want to escape my unhealthy habits. These seem to all be worthy goals for the word escape.

This was a very easy read. It is very religious-based. I was surprised our principal has us read it based upon the religious angle. I am eager to see my progress come October 2014.

I would recommend this for anyone interested in Self Help books. It is a quick and simple read. The idea is very simple. It is not a time consuming, life change. I just need to continue my focus on my One Word.

One Word that Will Change Your Life

September Book: Joyland by Stephen King

Once August hits, the New Years Resolution gets harder and harder to try and complete. I failed to complete any in August. With school starting for me and the kids, band for Dakota and football for Alaric, it was really hard to get everyone together. The only goal met for September was a book. Today is the last day of the month so I figured I better get my blog entry to complete. I am hoping to at least get books read through the rest of the year.

Joyland was a perfect end of summer book. I was delighted to find a Stephen King novel that was fewer than 300 pages long. Printed under the Hard Case Logo and having a cover like a pulp fiction novel, I wasn't sure what to expect. The story is about 20 year old Devin Jones, a college student whose girlfriend dumps him. He takes a job working at an amusement park, Joyland, in North Carolina. That's when the story begins.

The amusement park has a cast of 1000 interesting characters including other summer workers who become lifelong friends with Devin. King introduces carny lingo, and a great behind the scenes of how an amusement park runs.

Once again King proves he is a master of characterization. A few pages into the book and the reader "knows" Devin. And like his other book, his characters are multi-dimensional. There is no clear black and white. The book gets interesting when Devin looks into a murder that happened years ago in the parks' haunted house ride. 

A bit of a ghost story, a bit of a coming of age story. No real horror. Anyone can read this book. I couldn't put it down.

July Book: Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

I wavered between a 3 and a 4 on this book. I really wish I could do the 3.5 stars. I would give some sections of the book a 2 and some a 5 so it balanced out for me. The premise is that Ursula Todd keeps dying and gets to live her life over again. It wasn't really reincarnation since she always came back as herself. She also had deja vu about her previous lives so she was able to make different decisions and thus change the outcome of her life. 

The story is set in England. Ursula is born in 1910 over and over again. I thought the book started out very gimmicky. I got very irritated with the baby deaths and then the child deaths. Once the book focused on the adult Ursula it was a fantastic read. Both World Wars are covered in this novel. World War II is more captivating because it takes place during Ursula's adult lifetime.

Not only did Ursula's life change in each of her "lives", but so did the lives of those around her including family members, lovers and friends. The detail of the bombings in London were difficult to read because they were so realistic. The horror of war was brought to the forefront.

Spoilers: The section of her life where she marries a German could have been tossed. The section where she shoots Hitler was a complete waste of time and was sadly used as the teaser for the book. So happy that was a very short, unimportant part of Ursula's life.

It also ends as it began. That was rather a simplistic way to end this novel.

I also got confused by who some of the characters were. My favorite parts were when Ursula interacted with her family. The characters were the most developed.

Overall I would recommend the book.

Shakespeare on the Green

   This was the 27th year for Shakespeare on the Green. The company performs 2 plays every summer, and they are free to the public. I have wanted to go for a long time and am happy we finally did. The evening begins at 6:00 when different activities and entertainment are offered to the crowd. You are also able to pack food and drink. Some people sit in lawn chairs and some just throw a blanket on the ground and sit on the grass. Entertainment includes a juggler, singers and 2 minute Shakespeare where a group of actors perform a play in 2 mintues. The crowd calls out a play from the list in the program.

   The outing for July (I will call it June if we end up doing something else this month) was to go to Shakespeare on the Green. We ended up going over 2 nights. Dakota and I went on July 3. The play was Twelfth Night. I had read the review and decided I really wanted to see this. The director chose to go with modern costumes and since music is an important part of this play, the director added many modern songs. They ranged from "When the Lights go down in the City" to "Call Me Maybe". Sometimes the lyrics were changed by adding Shakespearean words to the songs. 

  I was pleased that I understood a great deal of the language even though I haven't taught Shakespeare for many years. I was able to follow the plot with little problem. Dakota was also able to follow the action. We both loved the experience. The crowd for July 3 was estimated to be 1500. 

  On July 5, Glen, Alaric, Savana, Alexsei, Rachel, Mikayla (these 2 are Alexsei's friends), and I trekked to Shakespeare. We brought a picnic lunch. The weather was remarkably nice for a July evening. The humidity was low. We also found my brother Jeff and his wife Ana. We sat by them. They left at the intermission. The crowd was estimated at 4000. It was packed. We ended up sitting in almost the same spot that Dakota and I did.

  Alaric brought electronics along, but never used them during the play. At intermission, I explained to Alaric and Savana who the characters were and what was going on. That helped them with the the second half of the production. I was shocked that Alaric actually enjoyed it. I reminded me of a Baz Luhrman production. The music worked well with the action and the actors were having fun with the production. 

  Overall, everyone enjoyed the production. I don't know that the kids would like a traditional Shakespeare production, Dakota might, but at least they got to experience Shakespeare live.

2 Minute Shakespeare

Brass Monkey!