Newbery Medal Books

My BFF is reading all of the Pulitzer Prize winners. Frankly, I don't know how--more than three-quarters of them look so incredibly dull. I may be able to read one a year...maybe.

Nonetheless, BFF has inspired me to accomplish something that I probably wouldn't have bothered to do without a little inspiration. I printed off all of the Newbery Medal and Honor Books from 1922-the present day. I was shocked at how many of them I have never read. Some have been favorites for years and others have been on my "to-read" list since I was a little girl. One of the greatest things is that these books are always readily available at our local library.

This week I pounded out four of them. Did I mention that the thickest one was only 150 pages? You can read one a day! Which is good because I have no less than about 275 books still to read.

This week I read:

The Summer of the Swans: Author: Betsy Byars. Winner 1971. The dad should have hauled his sorry butt home. That's all I'm sayin'.

Sarah, Plain and Tall: Author: Patricia MacLachlan. 65 pages. Winner: 1986. I'd never read it. I know. I've always associated this book with a negative feeling. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about--it's a great story. MacLachlan has an amazing ability to tell the full story without over telling. It leaves a lot to the imagination. It's a talent that other authors should try harder to emulate.

Bridge to Terabithia: Author: Katherine Paterson. Winner 1978. Paterson has won the Newbery at least three times. She definitely has a gift. This is another one that I had never read, but couldn't figure out why--it's obviously a classic. I cried at the end when his teacher tells him that they are going to stick together to get through the tragedy. I have to say that all of the fathers in these books (except for Sarah) were total losers this week. I didn't even know that there was a father in Summer..Swans until the last 15 pages. Ugh. I've always thought that Bridge was a book that I would read to my kids, but I think that I will wait until they are maybe 4-5th grade.

Bud, Not Buddy: Author: Christopher Paul Curtis. Winner 2000. I liked this story, but it hurt my heart to think of a 10-year-old boy traveling all alone to find his dad. I also didn't care for the very negative portrayal of the foster-care system. I know that it may have been different during the Depression, but it still bothered me.

These are the books that I have already read throughout the years. I may read them again, but only when I start to really get through the stack.

Whittington: Author: Alan Armstrong. Honor 2006. It's about a cat. Of course I liked it.

Pictures of Hollis Woods: Author: Patricia Reilly Giff. Honor 2003. Giff also wrote, "Nory Ryan's Song" a story about the Irish Potato Famine. I am a fan of her work. This is a great story.

Hope Was Here: Author: Joan Bauer. Honor 2001. There are parts of this story that are gut-wrenching, but it has a wonderful message.

Because of Winn-Dixie: Author: Kate DiCamillo. Honor 2001. One of the best literature books for youth. Ever. The winner in 2001 was "A Year Down Yonder"--I've got to get it next just because the honor books were so good, this one must be fabulous!

Out of the Dust: Author: Karen Hesse. Winner 1998. A book about the Dustbowl. Very intense.

Lily's Crossing: Author: Patricia Reilly Giff. Honor 1998. Giff. is. good.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Author: Avi. Honor: 1991. Suz's favorite book of all time. I read it because she almost cried telling me about it. It was okay. Oh, Suz, you read some weird stuff.

The Sign of the Beaver: Author: Elizabeth George Speare. Honor 1984. Suz's second favorite book...it was better than Doyle. Much better than Doyle.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8: Author: Beverly Cleary. Honor 1982. I pretty much worshipped the ground that Cleary walked on for a significant portion of my adolescence. I can't wait to read these to Lachlan. In fact, I may start this fall.

Ramona and her Father: Author: B.C. Honor 1978. Every time I see a "No Smoking" sign, I automatically think of this book when she hangs up the sign in the living room and her father thinks that she has written "No Smo King" and he wants to know who that is....loved it!

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Author: Mildred D. Taylor. Winner 1977. This is a great story. Every fifth grade student should be forced to read it...

Frog and Toad Together: Author: Arnold Lobel: Honor 1973. These books are weird, but you read them anyway.

Sounder: Author: William H. Armstrong. Winner 1970. I just read this last year. I hate the man that shot that dog! The books with animals are always the hardest for me to read.

Little House on the Prairie, The Long Winter, By the Shores of Silver Lake, On the Banks of Plum Creek: Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Honors 1942, 1941, 1940, 1938. Wilder never won the medal. How is it possible?

Asian Lettuce Wraps

This recipe was from the August Cooking Light Magazine. They take 20 minutes to make--from start to finish. The recipe calls for mushrooms, but I never have those "on hand" so I've never put them in...and ain't nobody complaining.

Want to know how good they are? Just ask Suz to bear her testimony about them. Seriously, she feels religious about them.

The best part is the dipping sauce. So good. I usually make two batches. One with the Sriracha for Jeff and I and one without any heat for the kids. If you are pretty sensitive to the heat I would start with a 1/2 tsp of the chili sauce and then work your way up. We can take all 2 tspoons but we're pretty hard core like that...

Oh, and PS, I use iceberg lettuce because it only costs 89 cents. The end.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 3 cups coarsely chopped shiitake mushroom caps (about 1/2 pound)
• 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 cup thinly sliced green onions (about 4)
• 1 (8-ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained and coarsely chopped
• 12 Boston lettuce leaves
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha (hot chile sauce, such as Huy Fong)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms; sauté 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Place mushrooms in a large bowl. Heat remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add turkey, garlic, and ginger to pan; cook 6 minutes or until turkey is browned, stirring to crumble. Add turkey mixture, onions, and water chestnuts to mushrooms in bowl; stir well.

2. Spoon 1/2 cup turkey mixture into each lettuce leaf. Combine hoisin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Sriracha, and salt in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Serve sauce with lettuce cups.

Blood Or Milk?

I finally made a decision.

On Saturday, I put all of my baby clothes, bibs, strollers, high chairs, monitors, bottles, changing tables, toddler beds, bedding, burp cloths, and buntings up for sale in my front yard.

Some decisions are not easily made.

I laid in bed for a very long time on Friday morning. Mostly I was contemplating whether or not I was REALLY ready to close the door on a chapter of my life. For as long as I can remember I've always known that eventually I would be a mother--even when I put it in writing about a thousand times that I would not. In some ways, when I finally did decide to become pregnant with Jack, it was literally a concession. I didn't want to do it, but I didn't see any other way.

When we came home from Ukraine without the girls--I've never had such a hole in my heart. It felt like somebody dug a pit and I didn't know how to fill it. Even now, looking back, I know that there are wounds that time will never heal.

But I wanted to fill that hole. I wanted to go back in time and make myself whole again and I knew that the only way to do that was to move forward in the only way possible. And that's why I'll always know that it was a concession.

And my pregnancy was God's way of giving me a good slap in the face for being such a be-yotch about the whole thing.

And the post-partum depression, suicidal thoughts, and Lachlan's severe handicaps were His way of humbling me into absolute submission because I still didn't have it figured out.

And when I pulled all EIGHT of those 50-gallon Rubbermaid tubs off of the storage shelves and started to go through them I just stared at all of it in disbelief--where does the time go?

Another blogger wrote last week about how in the Book of Mormon, Jacob speaks about the experiences of life, "and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us as a dream." I know exactly what he is talking about. It does seem like a dream. The dream of motherhood, where we have the ability to remember only the wonderful moments in the middle of the night when your little baby is sleeping on your chest. It fills all of the empty holes and yet, it threatens to create another one when we try to move on to another phase of life. The one where we trade onesies for training bras and cell phones.

I went piece by piece through every bin. I sorted all the clothing by size. I smelled the special small baby outfits and cried a little when I couldn't detect any of the scent that my subconscious ached to have again, just for a moment.

And then it was okay. Because I know that this hole will be filled with something new. And I will probably love it even more because I will be operating on a full-night's sleep and eventually they will be able to buckle their own seat belts and get their own glass of water--and if it's God's will--even stop peeing the bed.

Even these days will pass by as if in a dream.

I keep coming back to this:

Blood and Milk

By Sharlee Mullins Glenn

I dreamed of Oxford...

(spires, a thousand spires, endless lectures, musty halls

a solitary self in a Bodleian expanse

A good life, my dear Wormood. An orderly life.)

then awakened to laundry

and things to be wiped

(countertops, noses, bottoms)

How did this happen? And when, exactly?

Time flows, it flows, it flows

and there are choices to be made:

left or right?

paper or plastic?

blood or milk?

There's freedom in the bleeding;

bondage in the milk - do not be deceived.

Ah, but it's an empty freedom; a holy bondage,

A sweet and holy bondage.

Five times I chose the chains, those tender chains,

(though once will bind you just as well!)

and checked the crimson flow.

Suckled while dreaming of Trinity Term

but awakened, always awakened, to the laundry

and to that small and cherished captor at my breast.

I love "there are choices to be made". Do you feel it too?

I'm so very, very grateful for the choice I made to yield--to concede. Those were times of bondage that I wouldn't trade, memories to be held in the deepest part of the heart.

And now it it over.

....pause for one more tear.

....then listen for a sigh of relief.

What This Town Really Needs...

Is a Greek restaurant...

There isn't even a bad Greek restaurant in this town. And sometimes a girl just has to get her fix...

So I made my own falafel and pitas. And before my ego just explodes from how good my cooking techniques are becoming...

I'll just let you know that all you need is a food processor--and you too, can be AMAZING!

In all honesty, these are so simple and out of this world good. I mean, your husband will look at you and say, "oh, my hell these are good!" See what I mean about the ego...

They were so good I forgot to take a picture.

Falafel:

1 can chickpeas (drained)
1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
2 Tbs. fresh parsley
2 Tbs. fresh cilantro
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c.+ flour
vegetable oil for frying

1 recipe of Soft Pita Bread (or store bought pitas-- If you're in a pinch, but don't be in a pinch)
English cucumber slices, quartered
tomato, diced
shredded romaine lettuce
1/2 red onion, sliced paper thin
Tzatziki Sauce

Directions:
Place chickpeas and onions in a food processor. Pulse until almost smooth. Add the parsley, cilantro, salt, red pepper, garlic, and cumin. Process until well-blended but not pureed.

Remove chickpea mixture and place in a bowl. Sprinkle in the baking powder and flour, and gently mix. Add enough flour so that the dough can form a small ball without being too sticky. Refrigerate, covered, while you heat the oil and chop the veggies. Mixture can easily be made several hours ahead of time.

Using a small cookie dough scoop sprayed with Pam, form the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of walnuts (you should have about 16-18 balls). Flatten between greased hands, until each ball becomes a 3 inch circle.

Heat 2 inches of oil to 350 degrees in a deep pan (I always use a candy thermometer to make sure my oil temperature stays consist ant) and fry 1 ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little flour. Then fry about 5 balls at a time for a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

Stuff warm pita bread with 2-3 falafel balls and all vegetable toppings. Add a generous amount of ranch dressing and serve hot. (to serve with the falafels I cut each pita in half and opened them up at the seam to stuff them)

Soft Pita Bread

Makes 8 flatbreads
3 c. flour
1 1/2 c. boiling water

1/4 c. potato flour OR 1/2 c. potato flakes
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 tsp. INSTANT yeast

Directions:
Place 2 cups of the flour into a large mixing bowl (or Kitchen Aid). Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir till smooth. Cover the bowl and set the mixture aside for 30 minutes. This process will cook out some of the starch, making the bread very soft and pliable.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes) and 1 cup of the remaining flour with the salt, oil and yeast. Add this to the cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several (5-7) minutes to form a soft dough. Add additional flour only if necessary-- The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat soft. Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour. (Note: Since this is a flatbread, the dough will not rise very much due to the small amount of yeast-- But it should still rise noticeably.)

Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each around 3-4 oz.-- I use my kitchen scale for this), cover, and let rest on an oiled surface for 15 to 30 minutes. Roll each piece into an 8-inch circle, and dry-fry them (fry without oil) on a griddle or frying pan over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes per side, or until they’re flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking either too quickly, or too slowly; cooking too quickly means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out. Stack the cooked bread in between a soft, clean towel to keep them warm and soft. Serve immediately, or cool before storing in a plastic bag.

Tzatziki Sauce:

You can alter this to your taste (I like a lot more lemon juice in mine).

1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt (that's 2 6-oz. containers)

1 clove garlic, minced

1-2 tsp. lemon juice

3 green onions, firm ends finely chopped

1 tsp. dry dill weed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced

Combine ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Store covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Bakery Blueberry Muffins

Jack likes pancakes.

Let me mention that one more time, the kid likes to eat a pancake.

He asks for them several times a week, but I rarely indulge, except for Saturday mornings. I use a great recipe from the Food Network magazine. On occasion though, I just can't stomach another pancake so I decided to try this recipe for blueberry muffins.

I like blueberry muffins. I like lemon blueberry even more, so I tweaked this recipe a bit to indulge my personal palate. These muffins are beautiful and have a great flavor. I made them in my extra large muffin tins and doubled the recipe so that I could have a solid dozen. I cooked them longer because they were in the larger tin, but I don't recall how much longer...just keep checking on them until they are cooked all the way through.

The original recipe is taken from Tasty Kitchen (if you haven't been there yet...come on, really?).

• ½ cups Shortening, Butter Flavored Is Fine Too
• 1 cup Sugar, Make That A Heaping Cup
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 whole Eggs
• ½ cups Buttermilk, Or Vinegar Soured Milk
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 2 cups Flour
• 1-½ cup Blueberries, Frozen (They Keep Their Shape Better If You Add Frozen)

Preparation Instructions

First, preheat your oven to 450F. Completely grease a standard-sized 12 cup muffin tin, including the top edges between the cups.

Cream generously the shortening (butter flavored is fine too) and sugar, then add the vanilla, eggs and buttermilk.

In a separate bowl, mix the salt, baking powder and flour.

Gently fold blueberries into flour mixture as to not break up the berries. Then add this to the creamed shortening/sugar mixture.

Please don’t overmix or you’ll have hockey pucks. Less is more!

Fill your muffin cups all the way to the top. Mound them up good. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. Your batter should make about 10-11 muffins.

Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar for some sparkle

Bake at 450F for 5 full minutes, then reduce the heat to 375F and bake about another 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t overbake. The initial 5-minute baking at a high temperature will help them make a high dome. Shhh! That’s a bakery secret.

I like to cool these off then put them in a large Ziploc bag and let them rest overnight. For some reason they seem even better the next day.

Impossible Swiss Chard Pie

I know that you're thinking that Swiss Chard probably isn't for you. You know that it is so good for you, but that it will taste like a dandelion green dipped in petroleum.

Well, think again.

People. It is so good. It is easy to grow. It is easy to harvest. It is easy to incorporate. Anything that you put spinach in...replace it with this and your healthy self will thank you.

I found this recipe in a cookbook from my wonderful friend in Ithaca, New York. Pat LaPoint's family has a blueberry farm and they make a blueberry vinegar and chutney that will send you over the moon for this stuff. I'm sending out this recipe because it is so good and so tasty. I hope that it will teach you to love Swiss Chard.

1/2 pound swiss chard, washed and chopped (remove the stem and give it to your chickens, just use the leaves)

1 cup fat-free sour cream (I used plain nonfat yogurt)

1 cup fat-free cottage cheese

1/2 cup Bisquick baking mix

1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted

2 eggs

1 or 2 tomatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 inch pie plate. Spread chard in plate. Beat sour cream, cottage cheese, baking mix, margarine and eggs until smooth--15 seconds in blender on high or 1 minute with hand beater. Pour into plate. Top with tomatoes; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake until knife inserted between center and edge comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool 5 minute. 6-8 servings.

Hungry Visitors

This is Black-Toes. She loves to come see what we are having for breakfast. She likes a good banana and steel-cut oats.

My chickens are going to start laying eggs near the end of the month. I am so excited.

The Grand Tetons

Jeff and I drove up for one night of Young Women's camp. I slept in a tent. Well, actually, I laid on the ground in a tent for six hours. There wasn't much rest. It was still fun. I never get tired of looking at this...

The "Goon"

Jeff's office pays for everyone in the company to enjoy a day at Lagoon every other year. So we put some bacon grease in our hair, piled on some fake tattoos and threw some Vienna Sausages in the ol' cooler and went down to spend the day with some of my good buddies from the Jiffy Lube.

As with nearly every place we have gone this summer, Jack was disappointed that there were only dinosaur rides and "NOT real dinosaurs." He talks tough, but he's still his mother's child when it comes to a fast ride. When we would get off of a ride that he thought was unpleasant at best he would say, "Dad, THAT was not my hypothesis!" I know. We don't know what it means either, but Buddy the T-Rex says it all the time on Dinosaur Train...so that means we are going to hear it too. It was pretty funny.

Lachlan likes a good thrill ride. I had to ride the "drop you" ride four times. She's going to have to ride with her dad when she gets on the real one. The kiddie rides are for people like me. We laughed so hard when we thought she was going to jerk herself out of the airplanes. She kept pumping the lever back and forth so fast that the plane looked like it was a bull at the rodeo. I laughed so hard I thought I would pee my pants. She also got so mad in the bumper cars because her car got stuck between two "unmanned" vehicles. She wouldn't get out of her car at the end and then yelled at the attendant to come and help her.

I remember going to Lagoon with my cousins as a kid. It's funny how little it has changed. There are more "water" rides which really helps with the heat. Our favorite family ride was a water ride. Jack laughed so hard when we got wet. I don't know if it was that funny or if he just had a little heat stroke.