Trying to motivate meself

I made a stir fry on Sunday, but all the vegetables were routine.  Carrots, broccoli, zucchini, etc.  Since I'm totally failing to cook and eat interesting foods, here's a challenge--

Go to Central Market one day this week and load up on some "interesting" vegetables.  Some of the vegetables on my list would be better as winter crops, but I can look for collard greens, mustard greens, shitake or portabello mushrooms, or even apricots.  I bought apricots two weeks ago and let them spoil.  Why didn't I put them into a crisp?

Stay tuned.

Slow Sunday

Tracks by Louise Erdrich

Summary: I finished it just to finish it.  And that's not a good thing to say about a novel.

It's set in North Dakota during the days when the Indians were dying of white man's diseases, poisoned with white man's liquor, and slowly selling off their land or losing it for unpaid taxes.  There's nothing huge or dramatic in the story, just people you feel like you know telling the story of life.  I should have loved it, but....

How can such uniquely eccentric people undergoing funny, peculiar, and downright painful episodes of their intertwined lives, still produce a novel that I almost didn't finish?   I guess I stopped caring after a while.  Maybe it was me.  Probably it was me.

The best of it was the way legend enhanced life, especially at the beginning.  Later it was just happening.

Not just another vampire novel

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell


The blurb calls it a "magical" new collection of stories.  I'd call it "dark imaginacal".  Because they are truly strange stories, mind-bending and eerie.  The worlds a little out of joint, always.  Karen Russell's plots twist and twirl and suck you in--from the first words you're in it for the duration.  And then you are her willing slave, her puppet to dangle above a staged world of disturbing images.  Her nightmares are your nightmares.

The book is worth picking up for one story alone: Reeling For the Empire.  In short--girls are recruited to work in a silk factory.  But soon, they are the silk factory and you're one of them.
(At least, I was one of them.  I have a good imagination, too.)

I recommend the audiobook--your local library ought to have it.  The various stories are read by different artists, each one a master of many voices.  We get so used to special effects in the movies, we forget the power of the individual--in this case, the actor who could evoke so many different dead presidents, voice and phrasing and style, so real it made you laugh.

My only tiny quibble is that in each story, a couple of scenes should have been self-edited--out.  Especially in The New Veterans, a story about a massage therapist treating an Iraqi war vet...at times the story twisted and turned and folded back in on itself and I got a tad annoyed at its failure to advance as I expected.  But I wouldn't volunteer to choose which scenes could go without weakening the narrative.

Back to adventures in vegan dining

I checked out La Madeleine's grilled veggie sandwich with tomato basil pasta salad.  To make it truly vegan, I would have had to hold the Swiss cheese but I got confused by the menu.  I was afraid that if I held the cheese I'd have held the basil pesto too.

Verdict?  Flavorless.  Without the cheese it would have been nothingness.  The bread was good and thick and soft and crusty, but the vegetables were ultra-sparse.  Nearly nonexistent. 

And the pasta salad, well...I should have known better.  I need to remember that to most people, "pasta salad" simply means a cold pasta dish.  It is not salad.  I think salad means something with vegetables.   I think I detected a bit of tomato in there and possibly a mince of parsley, but I had to really really try.

The only other option I have is the tuna croissant.  Which of course means butter.  Obviously butter isn't vegan, but it'snot a major issue in my diet, either.  I'm mainly trying to get the cheese and milk out.  Life without butter wouldn't be worth living.

Next time.

Weekend quickie

Bad Taste In Boys by Carrie Harris

What can I say?  It's all you'd want in a teenage zombie story.  Gutsy heroine, plenty of gore, oddly believable and cute love interest.  Topped with a shallow plot and no deep emotions to clutter up the action, sprinkled with a so very unlikely and implausible ending.  Wa la!

If I'd only been on a beach chair with a fruity drink by my side.

Found in the garden

Basil!   Is it time for fresh pesto?  Let's see...



Ingredients:
    3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
    . . .

I guess I need to plant some more.  About two and three-quarters cups of it.

My education in how to disappoint your readers

              My Education
              by Susan Choi

It was awfully well written, only twice as long as it needed to be, and woefully from the heart. The sex was nicely steamy.  But I just didn't click with it.

Reminded me of Less Than Zero, chick version.  Girl with no ambition and even less experience in the world falls into wickedly obsessive love with older woman.  Older woman returns the feeling, or seems to, but maybe isn't willing to be anyone's one and only...then maybe she will...and so it goes.  People get hurt, people drink a lot, and people do all those foolish and hurtful things people do.   And they were all pretty pathetic in the end.

But that's not a spoiler, is it?  Pathetic to me--you might have cheered at the ending.  I can imagine my best friend loving this book, the ending especially.  People do grow up here...writing that makes me realize what annoyed me the most--the "growing up" part is skipped.  She fast forwarded all the years of finding herself and tidied it up with a pat ending.  She went from poor, hurting adolescent to well-adjusted adult in zero pages, flat.  What a cheater!

Very happy I filled the birdbath

There was a happy happy Chickadee too, but I missed him.

Me, I'm watering trees and garden.  There are chances of showers for the next few days--mostly under 50% but I can dream!

Very good book, not getting read

This book challenge is going nowhere.  I've been checking books out of the library, but the plan was to knock off the books that I've been cherishing on my shelves, some for years, in hopes of being presented with the gift of time.  Time to read.

It's not going to happen.  No fairy elves here.  By the way--did you people who saw Maleficent notice that the third fairy never got to present her gift?


Anyway, the time is something I'm going to have to invent.  Steal from those important things that occupy my day, like laundry, cleaning, sitting at work and staring at stupid emails...my time.  I want it back.

No post post

Long day at work today.  7:15 till 7:15, including driving.  I put down 10-1/2 hours.  Needless to say, no cute gardening or cooking comments.  I forgot to check on my caterpillar...I wonder where he will go to cocoon up?  Is cocoon even a verb?

A Saturday afternoon in the garden

The weeds didn't quite take over.  I cleared some of the overgrowth around the honeydews and the cow peas,  Also the peppers, where I encountered the most viscious army of imported fire ants I've met in years.  My ankles are bumpy.



About a third of the onion harvest.

 

And the master of my dill patch.  I didn't have any immediate need for the dill, although I was thinking about some cucumbers in sour cream, but it appears he did.  The usual choice was made--black swallowtails versus dill--and the usual answer.  He lives...and maybe the dill will come back with plenty of watering.

Maleficent

A whole lot better than people said it was!  The True Love's Kiss part was predictable, but NOTHING else was. It was imaginative, original and maybe just a wee bit dark on the "King" part but that was necessary to the plot.


Cool.  Totally.

The Neil Gaiman book on my list was misshelved but

Buzzed through The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman.

I envy his imagination!  Think of stepping into a bucket of water with one foot, feeling the bottom of the bucket under your foot and the cold water soaking your pants leg.  Then stepping in with the second foot...and sinking into the ocean!  Not a cold, harsh ocean...a friendly one where your being becomes one with everything, scattered out into the stars....and beyond.

I probably didn't convey the image he intended, and I won't even attempt to describe the multitude of other mind-bending scenes of this short book.  I get the feeling I could re-read it and have an entirely different experience.  As to his Hempstock family, long may they live!  I hope he writes more stories featuring them.

Book of the month winner!

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt


I've never come so close to giving up a book that I later turned out to LOVE!  The first few chapters seemed unbearably shallow; simplistic; vaguely funny but unsubstantial...you know, typical pre-teen humor writing.  The main reason I didn't give it up is that I was listening to it on the IPod and I didn't have another book loaded behind it.  It was either that or NPR's Marketplace.

Since I don't have any money and am therefore not concerned about stocks or bonds, Marketplace lost and The Wednesday Wars won.  And so did I!

When they started Shakespeare's The Tempest the plot turned around and a story that was simply so-so--this happened and this happened and she said this and he said that--it suddenly turned funny and portentuous and the plot started to thicken like treacle.  I was hooked.  And then the cream puffs!  And Caliban and Sycorax!   And the yellow tights with white feathers on the.....

Soon the laugh-out-loud funnies were mixed in with cry-your-eyes-out saddies.  And the too-good-to-be-true's alternated with the why-does-it-have-to-be-this-way's.  And I wept for Holling, for his sister, his sad, sad Father...and even Mrs. Baker.

So to quote Shakespeare, The slings and arrows of outrageous fate hit poor Holling hard...and he endured.  If you like YA literature, read this--or may

 toads, 
 beetles,
 bats,
 light on you!

China Study Cookbook #22

I finally resumed cooking with The China Study Cookbook's Zesty Succotash and Cookus Interruptus' Szechuan Tempeh.  The succotash was pretty good even if I did overcook the onions and undercook the edamame.  I'll make it again, although I probably won't bother following a recipe.  Just saute a bunch of good stuff together and delight in the results.

The Szechuan Tempeh was icky, so no picture. Basically, you fry tempeh and then you dump a combination of soy sauce, mirin, balsalmic vinegar, maple syrup and toasted sesame oil on it, and simmer.  The flavors did NOT marry.  So far I've hated balsalmic vinegar in everything I've tried it in--it's a loud, harsh flavor and doesn't play well with others.

Guaranteed to be the last suit you'll ever wear

The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work
by Yoni Freedhoff

I have high praises for this book.  Not surprising--I've been reading his blog for months.  Since I haven't tried his approach and seen it work, I can't say, "Buy this book."  But I want to.

His actual diet recommendations are very similar to The Zone diet with maybe a little less fat.  The plan for three meals per day and three snacks, never letting yourself get hungry, including a substantial amount of protein in every meal and snack, and keeping the overall calorie count low--all that is straight Zone.  I know that people (even me) can lose weight on this diet.  Your body is continually fueled and operating at a high metabolic level (if there is such a thing).  You never feel hungry so you don't sit around and obsess about the next meal.  It works.  I'm thinking of trying it for a little while.

But...I don't want to stay on such a diet forever.  All that protein that the body doesn't need...where does it go?  To nourish latent cancer cells?  And all of that meat and cheese...it would cost a lot since I'm not going to eat animals poisoned with GMO corn, confined in the dark and kept alive with antibiotics...and in any case, why do we want to provide our body proteins pre-mixed?  If high-quality protein is so important, why don't we just harvest dead humans?

My other quibble with his approach is on a matter for which the research is not yet conclusive.  If eating all the time keeps the body running faster, is it also wearing out faster?  Is there any benefit to fasting?  When I tried the mini-fast approach, a daily fast from 10:30pm to 3:30pm, I didn't notice any difference in my energy level or concentration.  That's a suspiciously subjective observation--"I didn't notice."  Tee hee.

Anyway, all this is beside the point.  It's a good, well-researched approach from a doctor who has counseled a lot of dieters and truly knows his stuff.  It's not wildly out of line with other proven approaches on the market.  Mr. Freedhoff's method is centered on long-term, sustainable, healthy eating that doesn't make you compromise your quality of life. I say yes!

Catching up on book reviews

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One Of America's Leading Atheists
by Dan Barker and Richard Dawkins


Bland beginning; captivating de-conversion story; then pages and pages of rebuttal of Christian beliefs, sometimes written in a sarcastic, belittling tone.  Most people can't help getting a little silly when discussing the ludicrous and conflicting beliefs that Christians profess.  But I expected more from someone who used to be there in the middle of it.

His descriptions of debates, done post-de-conversion, are great.  I wanted more, but  I guess it's hard to remember enough details of an oral debate to write a complete description--blow by blow, thrust and parry, audience laughs and disapproving silence.  He related a few  highlights, including how a man came up after a debate and said that Mr. Barker's arguments had resulted in strengthening his faith.  Mr. Barker then says,
[I paraphrase]  Then I have won the debate.  Faith is what you need when you don't have certainty.

Another theme that runs throughout the book--

Basic atheism is not a belief.  There is a difference between not believing there is a god and believing there is no god--one is the absence of belief and the other is the presence of belief.

I was sorry he didn't use my own personal answer to the question--I don't believe in gods, but I do know that mankind has a very good imagination.  And an infinite capabilility to believe in things that aren't the slightest bit true.  It's hard to believe that so many people have lived and died for a delusion that feeds on the weakness of man's spirit.  But how many people have died because of the color of their skin?  Because of the belief that Jews poisoned the wells and bred disease?  Because they were accused of practicing witchcraft?

Stupid humans.

Peas!

Peas appeared in the garden. With no help from me.

The recipe said to taste one raw, and if tasted sweet, it was okay.  I tasted one that I was planning to discard because it was a little yellow--it tasted dry and cardboardy.  Then I tasted a smallish one and it was indeed sweet.

So of the mixture I found, probably half are good and half bad.  We will see...in about five minutes.