Reading at Decade’s End

Yeah, it’s no news that there are a million and a half “Best of the Decade” floating around the tubez. I hadn’t even considered the “aughts” a decade personally until I started to see these crop up, and a lot of them are silly and entertaining. Some inspire me, namely the book ones. Two I like:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5.Best_Books_of_the_Decade_2000_s (voted by readers)

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-books-of-the-00s,35774/ (by the AV Club staff)

As always — I read too much! — I’ve done pretty good on most of the lists, but there are many on there that I’ve been meaning to get to or just found out about. Therefore let it be proclaimed that by the end of 2010, I will have read the below. It’s not really a daunting task — I read too much! — but it’s nice to have a list that at least most people have pre-read and approved for me.

(On another note, no, I haven’t been reviewing books I’ve read on my other site in the last few months. Over the summer when I was reading trashy summer books, I got out of the habit and now the task seems too daunting to catch up on. Seems like a waste as I’ve been doing it for so many years, but that’s the state of it.)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everyth… by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves

American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Someone is going to make a comment about me not reading this yet, I just know.)

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Devil In The White City (2003), Erik Larson

Freakonomics (2005), Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner

Nickel And Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America (2001), Barbara Ehrenreich

Bel Canto (2001), Ann Patchett

The Blind Assassin (2000), Margaret Atwood

Carter Beats The Devil (2001), Glen David Gold

Fortress Of Solitude (2003), Jonathan Lethem

The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle (2008), David Wroblewski

The Terror (2007), Dan Simmons

White Teeth (2000), Zadie Smith

Snow dog

Some dogs hate it.

Some dogs love it.

Ours is obviously the latter.

Squirrel!

Little cutie pie

He’s getting used to his bed.

Well, he probably spends about 15 percent of the time he spends napping in it, but that’s a start!

Welcome back!

Well, welcome me back home, because I’m definitely not back to any sort of routine since we got home on Monday afternoon. I had one job this week, and the client decided they want to write the piece themselves. Because they’ll do a super good job. I just know it. Instead of working then, I’ve been online Christmas shopping, sewing, reading and regular old goofing off. Usually “goofing off” includes blogging, but, eh.

Anyway, wanna see my holiday photos? (Disclaimer: The SO took them. I only shoot the food I cook. Actually, it’s just that he doesn’t like to watch me handle the camera in his presence. You can just see him cringing in anticipation of disaster.)

We ate outside. I sweated. I thought I was sunburned, but false alarm.

26 pounds, in case you’re wondering.

I think you’ll notice a few things that are significantly different than how I do Thanksgiving at my house. No. 1, there is something related to football gracing the table. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) No. 2, there is not a single vegetable in the spread, and CRUDITES DOESN’T COUNT. (IMO, some of my favorite holiday foods are veg, so there is something wrong with that.) All of it, however, was very good, made by the SO’s very sweet brother, who does everything homestyle directly from their mother’s recipes. Butter and all.

He also made homemade cinnamon rolls the size of my hand that he served for breakfast every morning. Don’t tell Joe.

We ate a lot of leftovers while we stayed home to be blissfully lazy, playing Settlers of Catan and Little Big Planet. I say blissfully because — I kid you not — I haven’t had a single day, even on the weekend, where the SO hasn’t worked at least four hours in months. Seriously, I can’t think of when. The boy is crazy. Then again, seeing his brother’s amazing work with wood and the quantity of it he does, it runs in the family.

We also saw the dumbest but quite fun movie eveh — 2012 — and ate out a lot. Mongolian BBQ was especially yum.

Our last night, we dragged the brother and sister in law to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. I say dragged because, again, they’re a little bit homestyle and all American and a bit unadventurous. At least one of them is. We went to this restaurant all the time when we lived in the desert, but can’t find anything similar here as yet. It hadn’t changed all that much.

The food still looks like a big steaming pile of poo! (It really, really does, doesn’t it?) You still eat it with your hands using spongy rolls of bread and then eat the plate. And it’s still absolutely to die for. As in, I will continue eating past the point of full because if I don’t, the SO will beat me to it and eat it all, and I don’t know when I’m going to get this shit again. Really, looks like, but doesn’t taste like, shit.

The only thing that had changed was that the menu now offered half “raw food” options, and there were all sorts of advertisements for raw food seminars on the walls. The owners must have has some sort of culinary conversion while we were away. But we’re glad they’re still cooking some things, because I don’t know if I really believe — as one of the flyers stated — that raw foods “have the highest vibrations of any food source.”

Is that because they give you gas? Hrm.

Just a little (big?) comparison

I took this photo of Ein today.

I took this photo the day we brought Ein home.

And thanks to the marker of the gate in the background and my mad Photoshop skills, I can show you the miracle of growth. Is the mash up perfect? Nah, but the gate and the scale of it are right on.

He’s certainly much bigger, but you can also tell he’s gotten used to me. He went from the “who is this crazy lady?” look, to the “and what is this crazy lady up to now?” look. He’s growing up. Sniff.

Packed in cotton

Is about how I felt today.

The house was so silent, the snow was falling all morning. We went on our long walk and ran into only two other dog walkers in 40 minutes, making it feel like the whole neighborhood was deserted. I only have one job this week, so I cleared my email box and my my RSS feeds. And both stayed pretty clear all day, as if no one was talking to me, or talking in general. I read for an hour, then spent several hours in my new sewing area working on Christmas presents — with my iPhone buds in my ears and Ein napping in the cave that is under the guest bed. (It has a bed skirt, which for a dog who likes to be underneath things, is heaven.)

Maybe it’s the book I’ve been listening to — The Ghosts of Belfast — about a man haunted by his past and isolated from his former existence. Maybe it was the weather, or my lack of busyness. But I had the feeling all afternoon that I was a character in some apocalyptic novel. A plague story perhaps, as I loved those in adolescence. (The Stand, anyone?) That I was separate, apart, isolated and independent. That if I walked out into the world, it would be abandoned and unmoving.

Which is silly, really, because I chatted with two friends on Skype, and I messaged the SO once or twice. And I have little Ein here, who is totally my best little man and my shadow. (Could I love him anymore? Doubtful.) But I feel both physically and mentally as if I’m packed in cotton today — in my ears, around my torso — and not in a totally unpleasant way. After all, what I loved about the plague novels was thinking about what I would do in an abandoned world. Filling up grocery carts of food, raiding the REI, creating a survivalist base camp and stealing lots of books. Doing incongruous things like living in the library, walking alone down the middle of a four-lane road, singing and dancing in public, snooping in other peoples’ houses. What have you.

So tomorrow morning — hopefully after getting a hold of the ONE story source I need for this week — I’m going to put back in my ear buds, listen to my Ghosts of Belfast, and sew some more. Thinking I’m the only, or one of the only people, left in the world. Until 6:30 p.m., when the SO gets home. Then again, if there’s no one left in the world, who am I making presents for? Hrm.

NaNoBlo… and I blew it

I forgot to post yesterday. Boo! I shall attempt to soldier on despite my omission.

The fruits of this afternoon’s labors

I made my place mats! (And took very blurry photos with my iPhone, because the iPhone doesn’t do so well in the dark against reflective black.)

Conversations chez nous

(Background: The puppy barked for at least 20 minutes on and off after I got home from girls night yesterday. I think he heard the garage and knew something was up. The SO thinks I spoil him, and that was the reason.)

Me: So I don’t spoil him. P and I were talking, and he just thinks I’m the alpha dog.
Him: Oh really?
Me: Yes, I’m the alpha dog and you’re just one of the pack. That’s why he comes to me right away out of his crate. That’s why he pays more attention to me being here or not.
Him: So that means you don’t spoil him?
Me: Well…
Him: I think you and P are far too good at rationalizing. Maybe you two talk to much.
Me: Fair enough. But. Alpha dog! Alpha dog!

Cherry Brown Butter Bars

These are what made me a little late to girls night tonight, and therefore they’re the only thing I can think of to fill the day’s blog post. Mine turned out a little more gooey than they should have, even after totally cooled, but still tasty. Not bad for something I put together based on what was in the freezer, some cherries I’d frozen months ago.

Cherry Brown Butter Bars
Recipe and photo from Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Bon Appetit

The recipe I drew inspiration from is a 9-inch fluted tart with raspberries that if early commenters are any indication, is nothing short of delightful. What I’ve hacked it into is something a little more casual and finger-food friendly, or in our case, easier to pack up and share with friends, you know, if we’re feeling generous. As for the fruit you use, no need to limit yourself to either cherries or raspberries — use whatever looks best by you right now, or whatever you have on hand. I bet you could even carry this into fall with apple or pear slivers.

Special equipment: Although not a prerequisite to make these, if you’re the type of person who has cherry pitter or even a removable-bottom brownie pan, this recipe will be even more of a cinch.

Makes 16 2-inch square bars (pictured), or 32 2×1-inch bars, if you, like me, prefer baked goods bite-sized

Crust:
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
Pinch of salt

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1 pound sweet cherries, which will yield 12 ounces of pitted cherries, which yielded some leftovers, perfect for snacking (alternately, you can use 12 ounces of the berry of your choice)

Make crust: Preheat over to 375°F. Cut two 12-inch lengths of parchment paper and trim each to fit the 8-inch width of an 8×8-inch square baking pan. Press it into the bottom and sides of your pan in one direction, then use the second sheet to line the rest of the pan, perpendicular to the first sheet. (It should look like this.) Congratulations! You’ve just faked a square tart pan.

Using rubber spatula or fork, mix melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl, or if you’re Deb, in the bottom of the small saucepan you used to melt the butter. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated. Transfer dough to your prepared pan, and use your fingertips to press the dough evenly across the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust until golden, about 18 minutes (it will puff slightly while baking). Transfer crust to rack and cool in pan. Maintain oven temperature.

Make the filling: Cook butter in heavy small saucepan (a lighter-colored one will make it easier to see the color changing, which happens quickly) over medium heat until deep nutty brown (do not burn), stirring often and watching carefully, about six minutes. Immediately pour browned butter into glass measuring cup to cool slightly.

Whisk sugar, eggs, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk browned butter into sugar-egg mixture; whisk until well blended.

Arrange pitted cherries, or the berries of your choice, in bottom of cooled crust. Carefully pour browned butter mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake bars until filling is puffed and golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes (though, of course, this took less time in my hyperactive oven so please watch your baking times carefully). Cool bars completely in pan on rack.

Use the parchment paper overhang to carefully remove cooled bars from pan and place them on a cutting board and cut them into squares with a very sharp knife. The cherries, if they fall over your slicing lines, will want to give you trouble but if you saw a sharp knife into them slowly before pressing down, they’ll cut neatly and with minimum carnage.

Do ahead: Can be made at least a day ahead, and stored at room temperature. Any longer, keep them cool in the fridge.