Ahh.... another Halloween. It now always reminds me of our last Halloween in New York when the little kid shouted "TRICK OR TREAT", did a double-take, and seriously asked me how I figured out how to dress up as Short for my costume. Fantastic.
In case you're curious, I believe I told him that it was a trade secret, but I'd be careful to hang it up properly so it'd still be good for next year.
So he got his treat, and I got my trick.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Book Recommendations
I've been coming back more and more to my lovely collection of children and young adult books, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you.
I'm not really sure why I love The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Weise. It's sad and definitely not politically correct. Ping is a hunting duck from China who goes up and down the Yangtzee River with the family that keeps him (uses him for fishing) along with all of his wide family. Ping gets separated from them one day and has an adventure.
Culturally speaking, this book is filled with stereotypes and faux pas that an American with Asian roots may be annoyed by. However, considering I grew up watching old-style Kung Fu movies with my dad, it didn't really bother me. At the very least, Ping can be a history lesson. But it has a lot of great sounding words, repetition and word plays that the kids can play along with. Great for ages 0-Adult.
I don't know about you, but all my dolls and creatures have names. They also talk to me. I don't care what you say, it's Real. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams helped me understand that those times when I was in a hurry and left Charlene or Teedee upsidedown on their faces or out in the cold, they didn't hate me, and everything was all right. This story is sad, but also helped me learn about love and loss and redemption. In a weird sort of way. Probably good for Pre-K and older, unless you have little kids who need to read about loss to get through something.
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. The farm animals are tired of the farmer, and fight back when they discover an old typewriter that helps them communicate. This book is just funny. Great for ages 0 - Adult.
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw has great rhymes and fantastic sense of humor. General plot: stuff happens to sheep in a Jeep. Great for ages 0 - Adult.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Milo comes home one day to find a kit to make a tollbooth for use with his toy car. But when he drives through it, he ends up in another place! This story is education oriented, with characters like the Spelling Bee (who spells his words), and Tock the Watch Dog (pictured on the cover). The book recommends ages 8 and up, but I know an 8 year old who didn't get it. This book is all about word puns and taking things literally (or not). One of my top favorites.
The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh, is a sci-fi book for young adults (probably Junior High and up, maybe 3rd grade and up for mature kids) that I found to be written in a much different quality than other standard sci-fi stories.
Yes, I know The City of Ember (by Jean Duprau) was just released as a blockbuster movie. The movie trailer motivated me to find and read the book, and I'm glad it did. With today's average kid, I'd say high reader Third Graders could follow the book, but it opens opportunities for discussions of many sociological issues and world responsibility issues for the Middle School level. It's very well written, is engaging and uses great vocabulary; to Lanse and myself it read like a "children's book" but it isn't condescending in any way.
Before there was Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings (at least in my reading timeline), there was John White's Archives of Anthropos. When I read them, The Tower of Geburah was the first of the series. Geared for young adults, or advanced readers in lower grades (my 4th Grade teacher read it to the class), this series is Christian allegory published by Inter Varsity Press (my copy's IVP, but Amazon says Topeka Bindery, which I've never heard of), but it's not nearly allegorical to the obvious extent of something like The Pilgrim's Progress. It's a fantasy series about children who travel to another world and save the day; similar to Chronicles of Narnia, but at the same time completely different. The good is very good, the evil is pretty evil, and there's a lot of magic going on... but it also continually offers explanations of how it exists and can be fought in the real world. While it's obviously fiction, this book helped form a lot of my ideas of my faith and how my life fits into the spiritual world.
Like the Narnia series, John White originally wrote this story first, wrote a sequel, and then wrote a prequel.... and then the publishing companies decided to re-release it in chronological order. So if you look it up on Amazon it'll put this as Book 3. Unfortunately, I didn't find the other books quite as captivating, and I'd worry that you'd miss out on the joy of this one if you do it how they say to. In my world, the series goes: The Tower of Geburah, The Iron Sceptre, and The Sword Bearer. I believe there are other books in the series published as well, but that's all that's listed in the front of my copy.
Also, I just discovered that the cover artist is Kinuko Craft, one of our favorite fantasy illustrators. Yay!
I'm not really sure why I love The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Weise. It's sad and definitely not politically correct. Ping is a hunting duck from China who goes up and down the Yangtzee River with the family that keeps him (uses him for fishing) along with all of his wide family. Ping gets separated from them one day and has an adventure.
Culturally speaking, this book is filled with stereotypes and faux pas that an American with Asian roots may be annoyed by. However, considering I grew up watching old-style Kung Fu movies with my dad, it didn't really bother me. At the very least, Ping can be a history lesson. But it has a lot of great sounding words, repetition and word plays that the kids can play along with. Great for ages 0-Adult.
I don't know about you, but all my dolls and creatures have names. They also talk to me. I don't care what you say, it's Real. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams helped me understand that those times when I was in a hurry and left Charlene or Teedee upsidedown on their faces or out in the cold, they didn't hate me, and everything was all right. This story is sad, but also helped me learn about love and loss and redemption. In a weird sort of way. Probably good for Pre-K and older, unless you have little kids who need to read about loss to get through something.
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. The farm animals are tired of the farmer, and fight back when they discover an old typewriter that helps them communicate. This book is just funny. Great for ages 0 - Adult.
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw has great rhymes and fantastic sense of humor. General plot: stuff happens to sheep in a Jeep. Great for ages 0 - Adult.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Milo comes home one day to find a kit to make a tollbooth for use with his toy car. But when he drives through it, he ends up in another place! This story is education oriented, with characters like the Spelling Bee (who spells his words), and Tock the Watch Dog (pictured on the cover). The book recommends ages 8 and up, but I know an 8 year old who didn't get it. This book is all about word puns and taking things literally (or not). One of my top favorites.
The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh, is a sci-fi book for young adults (probably Junior High and up, maybe 3rd grade and up for mature kids) that I found to be written in a much different quality than other standard sci-fi stories.
Yes, I know The City of Ember (by Jean Duprau) was just released as a blockbuster movie. The movie trailer motivated me to find and read the book, and I'm glad it did. With today's average kid, I'd say high reader Third Graders could follow the book, but it opens opportunities for discussions of many sociological issues and world responsibility issues for the Middle School level. It's very well written, is engaging and uses great vocabulary; to Lanse and myself it read like a "children's book" but it isn't condescending in any way.
Like the Narnia series, John White originally wrote this story first, wrote a sequel, and then wrote a prequel.... and then the publishing companies decided to re-release it in chronological order. So if you look it up on Amazon it'll put this as Book 3. Unfortunately, I didn't find the other books quite as captivating, and I'd worry that you'd miss out on the joy of this one if you do it how they say to. In my world, the series goes: The Tower of Geburah, The Iron Sceptre, and The Sword Bearer. I believe there are other books in the series published as well, but that's all that's listed in the front of my copy.
Also, I just discovered that the cover artist is Kinuko Craft, one of our favorite fantasy illustrators. Yay!
Chicken Stoup
Since I'm sick (a wonderful gift from Friday's flooding) I really wanted chicken soup. Amazing what can happen when you want chicken soup and actually have a chicken! I didn't take any pictures of what ended up to be more of a stoup, so you'll have to use your imagination.
Into my Ellie (1.6qt crock) went
I ran this on high for 4 hours and then put it on low because we were too lazy to get up and eat it right away.
My stoup was REALLY GOOD. We had it with homemade bread and what was in the pot fed the two of us for one meal. It was a lot chunkier than canned chunky soup; it really was more like a soggy casserole with a little bit of broth poured over the top when we served it out. When I say it that way it doesn't sound as good, but it really was.
Into my Ellie (1.6qt crock) went
- 1/2 diced green bell pepper,
- 1 diced stalk of green onion/chives
- 1 tiny can of sliced mushrooms I found in the back of the cupboard
- Chicken from the parts of the chicken that we tend not to prefer; I put in mostly wing and leg meat
- 3/4 cup of chicken broth
- Dry whole grain Minute rice, didn't measure, just sorta shook the box over the pot.
- I didn't put in any seasonings because the chicken I used was from the last thing I cooked and had lots of flavor, and the broth had loads of salt.
I ran this on high for 4 hours and then put it on low because we were too lazy to get up and eat it right away.
My stoup was REALLY GOOD. We had it with homemade bread and what was in the pot fed the two of us for one meal. It was a lot chunkier than canned chunky soup; it really was more like a soggy casserole with a little bit of broth poured over the top when we served it out. When I say it that way it doesn't sound as good, but it really was.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Crockpot Rosemary Apple Chicken
We bought a whole young chicken (very small) and I just put it in the crock pot. We also bought 3 apples that I intended to use with the pork, and then for some reason changed my mind. So I did some digging and found a great recipe using both, plus some rosemary from my garden. This all went into my 6 quart crockpot.
(I love the Crock Pot Lady's blog format, so I'm imitating her. I mean to flatter, not thieve!)
Ingredients (as seen above):
Directions:
Ingredients (as seen above):
- A small chicken. I unwrapped it yesterday hoping to just plunk the frozen bird in, not realizing that there were weird bits of paper on the outside and the bag of guts inside, and I couldn't get them off/out. (It's my first time cooking a whole bird, be nice now.) So I had to put it in something else and re-wrap it and let it thaw the normal way. That's why it looks weird in the picture.
- 3 apples, Granny Smiths in this case. I peeled and diced them.
- Chives (about 3 stalks), chopped up. I ended up having 1/2 cup of diced chives. The original recipe also called for a whole sweet onion and a couple cloves of garlic, but I didn't have them.
- Fresh Rosemary. The original recipe said 3 stems, but how long? So I put three stems of varying sizes inside the bird, one tucked in each wing, and I finely chopped the leftover little bits to mix into the liquid. Maybe it'll be too much, but I like rosemary.
- 1/2 c. chicken stock; I've never used chicken bullion, and this is actually the granule stuff; the jar said 1 t. to 1 c. boiling water, so I did 1/2 t. to 1/2 c. boiling water.
- To the stock I added: Kosher S&P, 1/4 t. Garlic salt (to make up a little bit for the missing garlic), and 1/2 t. dried onion (and then it clumped weird so I sprinkled more on top to make it even).
Directions:
- Lock the cats in another room
- Wash and chop/dice/hack all the things that need chopping/dicing/hacking.
- Prepare the chicken stock; add the spices to it.
- Prep the bird; take out the bag-o-innards, and I cut off as much fatty skin as I could because I'm just that way.
- Put apple chunks and chives in the bottom of the crock, reserving 1 apple's worth and some chives. Put the bird in the crock. Stuff the bird with rosemary stalks, some chives, and as many apple chunks as will fit. In my case, it was just about one apple.
- Pour the stock/spices over the top, and dump in any remaining ingredients.
- Turn it on high and cook it until you know that it's safe to eat. I don't own a thermometer, so after 3 hours on high, I plan to put it on low and go out for the afternoon, get my free crunchy taco at Taco Bell, get a free mocha latte at Barnes & Noble, talk to Lanse for a while, and probably eat the chicken around 8. I figure if it's falling off the bone, it probably reached a safe temperature.
I'll update when we've eaten some to tell you if it's worth it. It's smelling pretty darn good right now though!
Update 1: the liquid level is now at about 3/4 of the crock pot, and the steam is making bubbles out the side of the lid. So maybe reduce the stock to 1/4 c. I let some steam out just now, since it was making hissing noises when the wet escaped.
Verdict:
It was very tasty. Very tasty indeed! I served it over whole grain rice, with a side of green veggies. Neither of us ate enough though, so we crashed big time... like rice tends to do, this made us feel full before we'd actually provided our bodies with enough energy, so keep that in mind when you serve it up. We're now going on Day 3 of leftovers; the first leftover day we just ate the chicken again with a veggie, yesterday I made stoup (see next post), and today I think I may just have turkey sandwiches for lunch. Yay!
Update 1: the liquid level is now at about 3/4 of the crock pot, and the steam is making bubbles out the side of the lid. So maybe reduce the stock to 1/4 c. I let some steam out just now, since it was making hissing noises when the wet escaped.
Verdict:
It was very tasty. Very tasty indeed! I served it over whole grain rice, with a side of green veggies. Neither of us ate enough though, so we crashed big time... like rice tends to do, this made us feel full before we'd actually provided our bodies with enough energy, so keep that in mind when you serve it up. We're now going on Day 3 of leftovers; the first leftover day we just ate the chicken again with a veggie, yesterday I made stoup (see next post), and today I think I may just have turkey sandwiches for lunch. Yay!
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