What I'm Reading

[I actually wrote this post last weekend, but for some reason it would not publish. Of course, now things have changed... I'll try to do an update soon!]

I read Shanghai Girls last summer...

 and finished Dreams of Joy, the sequel, last week.

The story (that runs throughout both novels) is absolutely riveting, full of detail and color and richness that draw you into the time and place. I can't vouch for the historical accuracy (and these are novels, not historical texts), but from what I do know of the era I would say that the general outlines are certainly faithful to world events.  I definitely recommend both!

A few weeks ago I reread Angel on the Square, young-adult historical fiction. Whelan evokes the time period (Russian Revolution) very well, and in a way that is accessible to younger readers.

I followed up with another Whelan novel, Listening for Lions. This book has a unique setting (colonial Africa) and a few interesting plot points, though I didn't think it was as rich as Angel on the Square.

 

Last night I read Mama's Bank Account, upon which the stage play, motion picture, and television program I Remember Mama were based.  It was a quick, entertaining read and peek into San Francisco of the 1920s.
 
There's more to come... until then, happy reading! 

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Up Early

This is breakfast when you're up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning, while the rest of the people and doggies are still sleepin' - leftover four-cheese pizza on a Ronald McDonald plate and a Black Cherry Frescsa. Tres gourmet!

And now, I'm tired!

I love a day when I feel productive... and I feel oddly compelled to chronicle my "accomplishments."

Got up before 8:00 and changed sheets. Ate leftover pizza for breakfast, showered, made shopping/errand list. Caught up on 14 current games of Word With Friends. Watched part of the movie Salt for the 8th time.  Got my pack ready for a day out and about - I use this little Camelback backpack as a daily bag (without the water bladder, usually). Seriously, the best bag I have ever used!

Known as "PackPackMini." Mr. Mamie has a similar one made by DaKine, but mine is better! ;)

Took covers off of dog beds and put into wash, along with some beach towels Beagle has been laying on while out on the front patio. Put inside parts of dog beds on front patio wall to air (sorry, neighbors).

Did random organizational-type tasks while husband was on the phone with one of his sisters for almost an hour. Swept the front patio and rolled up the hose, put folding lawn chairs and plastic tub of "summery" patio supplies the garage for the winter.

Left with husband for shopping tasks:

• Michael's: Green pipe cleaners for Halloween craft at school (less than $3.00).
• Target: Numerous household and personal care items, PLUS a pair of nice black chino pants on crazy-clearance for Mr. Mamie ($32.00 total).
• OfficeMax: Had a teacher-rewards program rebate voucher for $86. Used half of it on printer ink, hole reinforcement stickers for the pages in the kids' calendar binders, and a snazzy Built NY neoprene laptop sleeve. We have several Built NY products (lunch bags, drink sleeves, etc. and really like them all). The sleeve is for a  16" laptop, and my MacBook Pro is a 15". I haven't tried it yet, but I think the iPad will easily fit in the sleeve along with the laptop. The sleeve looks like this:

 Like it lots - and love the FREE price!

• Lunch at a sandwich shop recommended by a kindergarten teacher friend. I had purchased a local Groupon-type voucher - $4 for and $8 coupon. We paid $8 cash combined with the voucher. Decent sandwiches and atmosphere, though we still prefer the deli inside the grocery store in TheVillage. 
• HideousWalmartz: A few household items that were not obtainable at Target, a few grocery items (notably, 5 pounds each of King Arthur brand unbleached white and whole wheat flour - seriously, the best quality flour!), some fabric for holiday projects, and two kinds of bath salts (for stress/aches and colds/allergies).Outside the store saw a principal friend and lamented our schools' various technology issues (in our case, shortage of IP addresses).  Inside the store saw one of my first grade colleagues and stood around griping about being sick (colds) and poor (October is a loooooong month). Spent $40.

I can't WAIT to use this later tonight!!!

• Costco: Chicken breasts, romaine lettuce, giant bag of fresh spinach, raspberries, 32 cans of organic diced tomatoes (coupon for BOGO on a box of 8 cans), frozen chicken/vegetable pot stickers (coupon), deodorant (coupon), brown rice/flax seed chips (coupon), 13 pounds of baking soda (for cleaning and baking both), Crystal Light lemonade mix (mostly for GrandmaT, though I have a couple glasses a week), two gallons of milk, two stainless steel vacuum-wall mugs (coupon) for Mr. Mamie (one for hot drinks, one for cold drinks). $102 for the various items, plus $3 for two mocha freezes as a reward for surviving the hysteria of Costco on a Saturday. Ran into the literacy intervention specialist from school in the food court and spent 15 minutes talking about... literacy interventions. So predictable.

 Mr. Mamie's new mugs.

After the shopping we headed toGolfDad's house and changed the sheets on his bed for him. He had some outpatient shoulder surgery on Monday and his arm is in a sling. But the Wombat trained us all well, and sheets must be changed on Saturday morning (see above)! :)  We also gave him about 1/3 of our giant bag of Costco spinach and took away his deteriorating spinach to be added to our compost.

Put everything away at home, started a load of laundry. Vacuumed car, front patio, and tile floors in house with the shop vac. Mopped 1/2 of tile floor. Updated kitchen whiteboard calendar with November info and activities. Reorganized upright freezer in the garage (Mr. Mamie did the chest freezer the other day).

Started another load of laundry. Took my car over to the Igor Family's casa for the Mrs. to borrow for driving kids to a Halloween party (Mr. Igor had their van in fiftyhundred pieces in the driveway). Also took over the canning kettle and other supplies. Watched Mrs. Igor make sausage curls on Niece's head as part of her Southern Belle Halloween costume.

Niece's Southern Belle 'do - Mrs. Igor did an awesome job!

Delivered two of the jars of prickly pear cactus jelly we made to two neighbors. Received 1/2 dozen fresh eggs in return from the people (well, technically from the chickens) next door. Talked with the egg neighbors about the sod they are going to lay in their front yard, offered to help, received offers of help in return (and the use of a truck) if we manage to get our back yard done.

Started another load of laundry. Hung part of second load to dry on indoor clothesline. Started a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Cleaned out the tea kettle, which had been soaking with vinegar in it for two days (even with filtration, the hard water here builds up!).  Ran sprinkler in the front yard (which Mr. Mamie mowed) and moved it around to various places. Mopped the other 1/2 of the tile floors. Tidied the living room.

Fixed and ate dinner, watched NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles on DVR while typing this blog post. And now, it's time for a hot bath with some very aromatic salts!

 ~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Test post.

Just a test post... Disregard the boringness!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Menu Plan 10/22 - 28/11

Another weekend, another meal plan! It really does save my sanity on school days, plus I'm always guaranteed to have some great leftovers to pack in my lunch during the week.


10/22: Steak on the grill, baked potatoes, green salad.  A great example of why it's cheaper to eat REAL food rather than processed junk: Yesterday we were out most of the day, doing errands like going to the library, recycling, Barnsie for some free magazine browsing, Intermountain Farmers for some (more!) canning supplies, and grocery shopping. We also had a huge and delicious lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant with Mr. Mamie's boss and his family.  By the time we made it to the grocery store it was late afternoon and we were tired.  I hadn't planned dinners for the weekend, knowing that we would be shopping.  But it was late and we had other things we wanted to do in the evening, so there we were in the frozen section staring at lasagnas and pot pies.  Everything just seemed so expensive ($10 - $12 for "family sized" entrees) and processed, though!  I told Mr. Mamie that we should go look at the meat section and see if there was something that looked easily grill-able. We picked up a nice little steak - enough for the three of us to have a decent (not decadent) sized portion - and three large baking potatoes for under five dollars. Along with green salad made from lovely organic lettuces we already had at home we had an easy, delicious, inexpensive, and healthy dinner.

10/23: Chili Cornbread Bake, green salad. This recipe makes two 8"x8" pans, so I will have one to freeze for dinner another week.  At the Village grocery store yesterday I couldn't find the right sized package(s) of ground beef - either two 1-lb. packages or one 2-lb. (the recipe calls for 2.25-lb., but 2-lb. seems like enough).  Mr. Mamie spoke to the nice man at the meat counter, and he took two larger-than-one-pound packages out of the display and created the 2-lb. that I wanted. Now that's service that you won't get from The Walmartz! For brunch today we had our favorite Blueberry Sour Cream Waffles.

10/24: Honey Mustard Oregano Pork Chops, scalloped potatoes from a box (yes, processed food, I know), green beans, green salad.

10/25: Crockpot White Chicken Chili, green salad. I will be using pinto beans instead of pinquitos, because we have lots of cans pintos in the pantry. For the cheese we'll use the rest of the bag of pre-shredded "Mexican blend" as well as some fresh-shredded that we already have. This will change the color a little, but it doesn't bother me. Also, I have a can of  Green Giant "Mexi-corn" that's been sitting in the pantry for quite awhile, so that's going in instead of the cup of frozen corn. Tuesday is usually slow-cooker night because Mr. Mamie and I both have classes until after 7 in the evening.

10/26:  CORN - "clean out the refrigerator night." I will be at a Red Robin Restaurant fundraiser for school, eating dinner with my first grade team. GrandmaT and Mr. Mamie will have a left-overs buffet at home. I am sure that there will be plenty of White Chicken Chili for them, and they can add some corn bread or something to it.

10/27: Tortellini Soup, green salad, French bread.


10/28:  Grilled Orange Teriyaki Chicken (from the freezer), Yellow Rice, green beans, green salad. This meal got bumped from last week. We had Honey Baked Pork Chops instead, because we had just purchased a large package of pork chops for a good price.  We grilled them rather than baking and they were great!

Need a fun fall treat for a work meeting, class, family party, etc? Try this Fall Snack Mix from Cynthia Matzat's blog. Super cute, and it satisfies that salty/sweet combo craving! I took a huge bowl of it to my reading endorsement class last week and it was a big hit.
 
~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe: Tortellini Soup

Last Friday evening the five first grade teachers from my school had a fun social evening at the home of KB.  We truly like each other as PEOPLE and FRIENDS, and work together as if with one brain. I am SOOOOOO lucky to have such an incredible, brilliant, caring group of women to teach with! We had a great time talking about school, planning, gossiping a bit, discussing life and death... and of course, EATING! KB made a delicious Tortellini Soup, and she shared the recipe with me. I know that Mr. Mamie is going to LOVE this!

Here's the recipe (whick KB got from her mom), with a couple of very slight modifications.

Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 1 pound ground Italian sausage
• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 - 1 cup sliced carrots (depending on how carroty you like things)
• 1 small to medium zucchini, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup diced green pepper
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• 30 ounces (2 cans) beef broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1 package refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini*
• Shredded/grated Parmesan cheese, for topping
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  In a soup pot, saute onion in olive oil until it begins to soften. Add ground sausage and garlic; cook until sausage is browned.
2. Once the sausage is cooked, add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, water, and carrots to soup pot.  Bring to a full boil, then continue at low boil for 20 minutes.
3. Add the tortellini, diced green pepper, zucchini, oregano, and basil. Cook on low for 20 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste, top each bowl with shredded Parmesan, and serve.

 *Prepared tortellini comes in various sizes/flavors.  I purchased a frozen 19 ounce bag of three-cheese filled tortellini at my local market for a little over $3.00. This is a lot of tortellini, so depending on how things look when I start adding it in, I may only use 1/2 the bag (9.5 ounces).

Enjoy!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Menu Plan 10/10 - 10/21

Doing some catching-up, since I didn't post last week. But there WAS a plan!

10/10: Grilled Orange Teriyaki Chicken, rice ("fried rice flavor" from a box), green salad.

10/11: Goulash, made previously with half the recipe eaten at the time and half frozen in a casserole. We baked it from frozen at 350 for about an hour, then topped it with some cheddar cheese and baked it 20 more minutes. We LOVE LOVE LOVE this goulash recipe - full of spice and depth! Also green salad.

10/12: Leftover buffet, green salad.

10/13: Turkey Black Bean Chili, cornbread (from Marie Calendar's mix, which we buy at Costco), green salad. First time trying this recipe - made a couple changes: Subbed 28 oz Muir Organic crushed tomatoes with basil plus a 4 oz can of diced green chilies for the 14 oz can diced tomatoes and 10 oz can of Ro-Tel.  Subbed 14 oz can of Eden Organic pinto beans for the kidney beans (because I really don't care for kidney beans).  Browned the ground turkey the night before and assembled everything in the CrockPot. GrandmaT put the CrockPot on LOW about 6 hours before dinnertime, and it turned out GREAT. Mr. Mamie's mom and his twin sister joined us for dinner, and they both took the recipe home with them. Definitely give this a try for a yummy, easy, fairly healthy CrockPot meal!

10/14: Ate out as were were running errands.

10/ 15: Frozen pizza after we returned from a day at Bryce Canyon National Park.

10/16: Spicy Cheeseburger Soup (one of our absolute FAVORITES!), leftover cornbread, sliced apples, green salad. We use Cheddar, NOT Velveeta in this recipe!

10/17: Porcupine Meatballs with Sweet and Sour Sauce (meatballs are already made and in the freezer), whole-grain egg noodles, pineapple chunks, green salad.

10/18: Frozen prepared breaded/stuffed chicken breasts, Annie's Organic Macaroni & Cheese, strawberries, green salad.

10/19: Southwest Rice & Beans Casserole, sliced apples, green salad [meatless meal]. I will use brown rice I have already cooked and frozen in 1 cup portions.

10/21: Lasagna Cupcakes, bread sticks, strawberries, green salad. I made these a few weeks ago, and the ingredients yielded enough to freeze half of the components. They're pretty easy to assemble, so it's do-able for a school night, given that the meat, sauce, etc. are already ready to go. I was able to find round wonton wrappers in my local grocery store, and also used a shredded "Italian" cheese mix (mozzarella, Parmesan, Asiago, etc.) to make things even simpler.

10/22: Grilled Orange Teriyaki Chicken (from the freezer), Yellow Rice, green beans, green salad.

Haven't planned the weekend yet; will wait to see what activities are going on and what's on sale at the grocery store!



Halloween image credit

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)