Yummy Read

I've just finished a truly lovely, lyrical, dare I say delicious, novel. And even more special, it came to me in a somewhat roundabout way. I gave The School of Essential Ingredientsto a friend for her birthday after admiring the cover and thrilling over the gushing reviews. Last week I got an email from her, asking me if I'd read it and wondering if I'd like to, because she'd read it in a single sitting and LOVED it. How could I refuse? (Honestly I didn't even remember the name of the book until she told me). Despite her glowing review, I was a little wary. This is not my typical fare. Literary books tend to be a little deeper, and very often darker, than I like. My mixed-feelings about this book evaporated within the first five pages. It is written with such a delicate hand, full-to-bursting with evocative images and spot-on metaphors that I was instantly charmed.

It is about a girl who learned to cook while her mother was lost in books and how, all grown-up now, she enthusiastically teaches others. Not recipes or how-to's, just feeling and experiencing, adjusting to taste, doing what feels right. It is the story of seven strangers learning to cook and discovering that experiencing food in a new way fills the holes in their lives.

My friend told me that reading the book had made her want to cook something as soon as she was finished, and I couldn't imagine it having that effect on me. It has. Lately I've tried to get past my mini-phobia of dirty dishes piling up to do a little extra cooking. I ventured back the orchard and came home with a few more peaches and blackberries, a couple tomatoes, a handful of rosemary and a few sprigs of thyme. Since then I've make a peach cobbler, some homemade french fries seasoned with olive oil and rosemary, a chicken pot pie with fresh thyme, and homemade blackberry ice cream! Yay me!

Seriously though, I highly, highly recommend this book. I only wish the author had another novel ready for me to dive into.

Sidebar: If you're interested in winning a copy of my book, both Green Girl and Silver Strands are doing giveaways, so hop over there and get in on the action!

And so it begins...

It's been a roller coaster of a week so far...



sad, sad news
peach and blackberry pickin'
unseasonable heat...a raging thunderstorm...unseasonable cool
a semi-homemade cookie cake that went over BIG
amateur film-making tweaked with effects to appeal to the elementary school crowd
end-of-year parties at school

momentary relief...

last day of school is tomorrow--a half day--and then, a straight shot of summer...

Last Lingering Days of Spring

I feel like I'm living on borrowed time. The weather here has been lovely--mid sixties in the morning, warming up into the low eighties, clear skies, cool spring breezes, and low, low, low humidity. It's only a matter of time before the skies cloud up, the temperatures shoot up, and the humidity mugs up the days and nights here in south Texas.

I'm reveling in every last gulp of dry, cool air, taking longer walks, squeezing in bike rides. My family ate both lunch and dinner outside on our patio last Saturday, and it was lovely. Everything is more pleasant in this weather. I had to get gas today, and I actually enjoyed waiting for the thirty gallons to pump into my Suburban (I know!)

I dread summer. Much of it I love: swimming, vacationing, snowcones and ice cream, summer fruits and grilling... But the weather here is just overbearing. Going outside between the hours of 7am and 9pm is much like getting smacked in the face with a warm wet washcloth and then having it settle over your body like a cape. And the heat--we're talking 100 degrees--doesn't let up till late October. Rainy days bring out the mosquitos in droves and crank up the misery yet another notch. It's crazy bright, and blue skies are incredibly rare--mostly we get a gauzy cloud cover for miles in every direction. And when there are fires in Mexico, we have a hazy grey smog. Oh, and it's hurricane season too...until October. (I should really write for the Texas Bureau of Tourism.)

But right now, it's lovely, and I plan to take full advantage. Maybe tomorrow they'll be pictures...

Last Chance at Summer

I'm freshly back from my long-anticipated summer vacation and already sunken into the quagmire of everyday life. Thankfully, the unpacking is almost done, along with this week's grocery shopping, and the bulk of the laundry, but with only two weeks left to the first day of school (and counting!), there is plenty on my to-do list.

Two weeks, and I can't help but feel like I need to squeeze in some last bits of summer. NOT that we won't have ninety plus temperatures for another couple months, but once the kids are in school and the pool is closed for the season, summer seems to have slipped away. But I haven't been to the zoo, or had a picnic; we've only made homemade ice cream once and grilled out on our new grill twice. I've missed out (mostly) on the summer's peaches and nectarines and only twice visited the beach. What on earth have I been doing with my time? (Answer: swim team and baseball).

But this week was different... We squeezed in a lot of summer in eight days, with a trip to The World of Coca-Cola, a stay at a Great Wolf Lodge, a couple days at a cabin in the North Carolina woods, a visit to a South Carolina beach, a little bit of hiking, a scavenger hunt, a zip line, and a badminton trouncing. It was a good week.


Glorious Green of North Carolina...
Lake Lure of Dirty Dancing fame...
A giant roadside peach...(which my sister thought looked like a big bum).

I apologize for not visiting the blogs of my fellow Book Review Clubbers last week, but I will remedy that now that I'm home again, in between loads of laundry and quick snatches at those last minutes of summer.