favorites lately

 The 2 best books I have read so far this year are The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

The Mister picked up the Hunger Games prequel when it came out last year, and I wasn't very interested in reading it.  I read the Hunger Games books when they came out and I enjoyed them, but I never kept them to reread.  I decided to read this one so I could add it to the donate pile, but I LOVED IT.  My memory of the other Hunger Games books is pretty hazy, but I don't think you have to know them by heart to enjoy this book.  It is long, and if it were up to me there were some sections I would have trimmed, but it's so good.  The ending!!!!!!  Gah!

I added The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo to my wishlish after I finished Daisy Jones and The Six.  Heck, I added all her books to my wishlist.  I got totally pulled into this book and cried so hard I nearly threw up.  And if that isn't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is.

 

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The only podcast I'm currently listening to is Keep It.  I started listening from the beginning a while back so I think I'm still in 2019.  But I like it.

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I don't know why I took this picture before I recycled these bottles, but here's some sprays/oils I used up late Spring/early Summer.

 

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I am still on my iced coffee kick, and still continuing to not drink (I will shyly shout out that I have been sober for over 7 years now.  Seven!  Go me!)  so this summer I have tried some different cold coffee drinks and some alternatives to alcohol or pop.  Here's some bad photos of a few drink I've tried this summer, plus the beer cozy that I bought The Mister for Christmas - 

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I haven't been watching much TV but here's a few shows I watched that I really liked - 

What are your recent favorites?

tomato tart from the past

 This tart first showed up on my blawg in 2006 (!!!!!!!!) but my mom was making it for years before that.

 We make it with store bought dough so it's super simple; just saute some onion and garlic until soft and starting to brown, spread over the dough, leaving a border, and top with sliced tomatos and whatever kind of cheese you like - we usually use mozza and feta.  Sometimes we stir basil and/or oregano into the onions and garlic.  Adding some fresh or sauteed spinach would be amazing!

It's a quick easy meal that is best when you can get your hands on some beautiful tomatos.  

Happy Wednesday!

book club 29 - The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

 2021-29

 

book club 28 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

 2021-28

 

growing avocado plants

 I remember my mom would often try to grow an avocado plant from a seed by stabbing toothpicks into an avocado seed and sitting it in water.  She tried and tried but could never get one to sprout. 

I recall trying a few times over the years as well, and just like her, had no luck.

Last year during the hours I would spend numbing myself by staring at videos on my phone I saw a different technique that involved peeling the outer layer off the avocado pit, then wrapping it in a damp paper towel, sealing it in a plastic bag and leaving it on a sunny window ledge.

Like this - Grow an avocado plant from seed

I suddenly remembered the videos a month or so ago, conveniently after buying a bag of avocados at The Boys request, and told The Mister about, who was like "Cool."

So we tried it.  First off, peeling avocado pits is difficult!  And if you have weak little fingers and nails like I do, it hurts.  Soak the pit in water for a day or so first, it might help.

The wrap the pit in a damp paper towel, put it in a baggie or plastic container with a lid, and put it somewhere sunny.  The sun hits our place at an angle and so we don't really have any super sunny window ledges, and so maybe that's why it took longer, but I would guess our pits sat around for close to a month before they split and sprouted.  But they did!  And since we don't have any super cool jars or vases like all the avocado growers on Tik Tok do, The Mister fashioned some little holders for them from plastic bottles.

 This is 3 of our 4 pits and they seem to be doing well so far.  My fingers are crossed that they will keep growing and I'll have an excuse to buy some funky bottles for them.  

Update!  No funky bottles, but The Mister picked up some mason jars from the dollar store.  They look super cute - look how tall that first one is getting!

book club 27 - Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

 2021-27

 

book club 26 - The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

 2021-26

 

its easy to make fruit sauces, and cheesecake

 Tis the season for lovely fresh fruit.  A super time of the year.  We are still steering clear of people and places, so no trips to farmers markets or farm stands for us this summer.  

I picked up some blueberries and peaches from Gourmet Greens for us to eat au natural, in smoothies, whatever.  

When the blueberries started to get soft, I turned the rest of them into a blueberry compote by washing them, putting them in a pot with a splash of water, some sugar, a dash of salt and a splash of vanilla.  Once the compote came to a simmer I turned down the heat so it would bubble gently, and let it cook for about 30 minutes, until it was thick and delicious.

I served them with some little no bake cheesecakes - I made the base with crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter, and then used this recipe for the filling.  Easy and delicious!

The rest got used up on toast, mixed in to yogurt, I even threw some into a smoothie.  I love blueberry season.  We planted a blueberry bush in the yard this Spring; it gave us a handful of blueberries before the heat and smoke started to damage it.  If it survives the winter, I am going to plant more.

I also bought a case of peaches,  Heaven!  It seemed like such an extravagant thing to do but they are so delicious.  The Mister is getting concerned that we won't get through them all and will lose some to spoilage, but I won't let that happen.  And to prove it to him I made a peach sauce.

For this one I peeled and sliced up some peaches and added them to a saucepan with some butter and brown sugar and a pinch of salt.  Let it simmer for a few minutes and it's ready to go.  If you wanted to, you could add a splash of alcohol - like some whiskey!  That would be good.

cookbook cleanup number 26 - Cravings 2 by Chrissy Teigen

 Cravings 2 came out a few years ago and I bought it for myself since I enjoyed her first book so much.  We have cooked a ton out of this one - baked eggs in ham cups, french toast cups,   banana bread, Thai fishcakes and peanut butter blondies,  seafood stew and skillet flatbread - the flatbreads we have made many times.  

Here's what we tried - 

Patty Melts - I had to leave out the bacon since I didn't have any.  They were delicious and pretty easy.

Grilled Pork Bahn Mi sandwiches with quick pickles - amazing.  Loved loved loved.

Popovers.  So easy and loved these too.

Cheesy Breakfast Hash, with added sausage.

We also made the Red Chicken Curry which was SO good, and the Sweet Soy Glazed Pork Chops but with chicken instead.  Still good!

I like this book and everything I've made, so it's a keeper for me.

Cookbook Cleanup results so far - Back on the bookshelf - 14  Donated -12

interesting things at the grocery store

 I stopped by FreshCo last week; this store emerged from the renovation of the Sahali Safeway location last year.  They are more no-frills than some other grocery stores but they carry a very good selection of International foods, which is fun.  I stopped in to pick up some milk and came out with - 

KD Flavour Boosts - I saw these online somewhere and I really thought it was a joke.  It's not!  The store had 3 flavours - Butter Chicken, Cotton Candy and Jalapeno.  The display said there are also  ghost pepper, poutine and buffalo wing flavours.

The kids were excited about the cotton candy one, but when I offered to make them mac and cheese with it on the weekend, they both screamed no at me.  We haven't tried either yet.

Cheetos Flamin' Hot Mac n Cheese.  I bought this more as a joke for The Mister, as neither kid likes spicy food.

Cheetos Mac N Cheese - this one's for the children, as they both like Cheetos.  They tried it.  The Boy thought it was fine.  The Girl did not like it at all.  I had to finish the leftovers for lunch a few days later.  It was fine, but a terrifying color.  It made me think of something I'd seen on Tik Tok about the vaccine - if you eat processed foods (and truly, who does not?) you don't need to worry about what's in the vaccine.  This would be one of those foods.  That color is not found in nature.

I bought this hot honey from Fresh Street Market and I was underwhelmed by it at first - you have to be a bit heavy handed with it to get the jerk flavors, but when you do - delicious!

I have long wanted to try green papaya salad but haven't had the chance yet.  I picked this up from Costco a couple of days ago.  It's not quite what I wanted but looks good.  How can you go wrong with mango and veggies?

book club 25 - The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

 2021-25

 

book club 24 - The Nanny by Gilly MacMillan

 2021-24

 

book club 23 - Something To Talk About by Meryl Wilsner

 2021-23

 

parmesan cheese and pesto

 I bought a little container of parmesan cheese pieces from the store (Fresh Street Market!) for $3, brought it home and whizzed them up in my food processor.  My food processor jumped and clanked and I thought it was going to burst apart, but eventually it whizzed the parmesan into teeny pebbles of cheesy goodness.

I put it on the table next to the tomato basil bread (The Mister's first bake from Grandma Today)

 

Next I used the food processor to make a batch of Winter Pesto from the Urban Vegan cookbook - I was actually a recipe tester for the cookbook; you can see some of my test results here and here .

This pesto is one of my favorite recipes of hers - instead of basil and pine nuts she uses spinach and walnuts!  So delicious.  My garlic was incredibly bitey in the finished dish, so I stirred in a couple of spoons of the parmesan to try to tone it down.  If you were keeping it vegan you could use some nutritional yeast - and it was delicious.  We tossed it with ravioli for a quick dinner.  The next day the garlic had mellowed a bit and it was even better.  I smeared it on some toast and topped it with tomato slices.  Super good.

Recipe: Winter pesto