Looking forward to it!
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For the upcoming book club, we'll be reading Huckleberry Finn by, of course, Mark Twain. Or Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. I'm a little late to tell you and for that I apologize, but I can explain why I took so long later. for now, please choose your novel and get ready! I'll go over the first few chapters of Huckleberry Finn this Saturday.
Looking forward to it! Edit: CANCELED
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I missed Cookbook Tuesday! Ah well. No harm done, I'm sure.
The reason I missed was because classes started this week! AHHHHHHH!!! I'm actually feeling very calm about it. So far, my new mottos are:
I'm living in the on-campus apartments this year which, so far, is much, much preferable to living in the dorms. At least for me. I have my own room, my own space. I have a kitchen and a living room, and I'm not far from the academic buildings so the walk in the morning isn't long. But anyway, you're here for the recipe, aren't you! This week, I'd like to share a marinara recipe with you. It's very quick, and it has a bit of a bite to it. It's a feisty, smooth, thick marinara–– In a small saucepan, saute:
in a fourth cup of vegetable oil. This only takes a few minutes to get it nice and hot. If you don't want it "hot," leave out some of the red pepper flakes. Then pour and stir in a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes and simmer until it's hot through and through. And that's it! I think I got it from Barefeet in the Kitchen, but as you can see, I like it with a little spunk. It's super tasty, it isn't runny, and it's delicious. Take my word for it and try it. [Note: If you put in 2 TABLESPOONS of red pepper flakes, it will be too hot and angry to eat. I know from experience.] I've decided to now have a Cookbook Tuesday!! Since I'll be cooking so much from now on, I can share some of my successes with you. And the first recipe I want to share with you is GERMAN SOFT PRETZEL STICKS! I highly recommend this recipe. I've tried several soft pretzel recipes in the past with varied satisfaction, but this is by far the best. The ingredient list is pretty simple – you probably have all of this in your kitchen right now if you do any baking.
This recipe does call for kneading and letting the dough sit to rise, but you don't have to knead it for long. Then you boil 2 quarts of water and dunk 6 sticks at a time for about 30 seconds each batch, turning over half way through. After you let them dry a little on paper towels, you butter and salt them and stick them in the oven at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. It's that simple! You might ask somebody to help you, though, because it can be a lot of steps to keep track of. My fiancé seasoned some of them with sugar and cinnamon and salt. I haven't had a chance to try them because I was full! I'll have one for dessert tonight. The morning is very quiet. Routinely, cars pass by on the road beyond the woods. The sound is clear. But when the road is silent or the cars rumble only distantly, I hear the cicadas.
Now they've stopped. Now they've started again. Through the open window, a cool breeze reaches in to cool my cheek. My dog rustles in the dirt in the garden under the window box. It seems like deafening noise compared to the cicadas. Undaunted by the silence, more cars race by. A motorcycle challenges the early meditation. Even the birds are mostly quiet. Even the leaves in the wind make hardly a sound. Only the cicadas go on, chirping to each other. Somewhere a cricket starts calling. A frog, perhaps, chirrups at some distance. The harrowing sound of a tractor-trailer downshifting as it comes over the hill into town, loud and cyclical – but it's gone now. Deep in the woods, the birds begin to sing to each other. They stop. They start again. The leaves rustle. Trees whisper to one another. Suddenly the wingbeats of Chickadee-dee-dee-dee-dees, and they shriek at each other in all their voices as if in some unforeseen distress. Some other bird – a Blue Jay maybe – yawns in the distance. The Chickadees calm down, talking in turn. They approach the ailing dogwood tree but the feeder is empty. They leave. Only the stirring of trees, now, as they wake. The breeze has warmed up – indicating that soon, day will be fully upon us in all its stifling weight. The cat stirs against the hollow cardboard paper towel tube on the sill of the picture window. Cars, in more numerous ranks than before, rumble through town. Another tractor-trailer or two grumble into a slower speed. The refrigerator hums. It's almost 9 o'clock, after all - that's nearly noon! Why are the humans still in their beds? The cicadas have been up for hours. Branches wobble slightly, but the wind is resting. The road is empty. The birds – silent. The chirping cicadas chitter on. The quiet early morning, I spend in solitude, reminds me that magic is just beyond my reach. … Maybe the birds will return if I fill the feeder. If you read my last post I just posted this morning, you'll know that I'm home now and I just moved out of my apartment. Sadly… I just realized, also this morning, that I don't have the book with me. I didn't get much research done and I'm not prepared for the next book club! :(
But we can make this work. Just this past Thursday, I tried to post from my phone – but I see, now, that it was unsuccessful. Just this past Thursday, also, I moved out of my apartment. Summer's over, and for better or for worse, I'm leaving my apartment located near campus and I'm moving into the apartments on campus. Heaven only knows what awaits me there. But it's not air conditioning, that's for sure. But before I can move on campus, I piled my things in my boyfriend's living room, behind the couch, and the two of us drove home to Massachusetts. I'm not thrilled to be home again. I'm glad to see my little sister/roommate, but I'm not close to my family, and as my family grows up and evolves, I find that my relationship with my mother does not improve but actually gets worse.
Fortunately, my boyfriend is very supportive and very patient and very loving, and I can talk to him about all that's going on inside of me. So, for crafting, I'd like to share a pattern that I'm knitting for my boyfriend to go with the scarf I finally finished for him not too long ago. I fervently hope that it doesn't take nearly as long to knit this beanie. I'm knitting from a pattern I found on "Pretty Quirky Pants" and then I found the pattern on Ravelry – I have an account on Ravelry now! Follow me! Almost done with The Moviegoer! What do you think is going on in this novel? What's the point? |
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Me!I'm a twenty-one-year-old, I love farming, and I have a passion and a need to write. Archives
March 2016
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Movie Points
1. Script 2. Theatrics/Drama etc. 3. Music 4. Characters 5. Theme 6. Storyline 7. Morals 8. Acting 9. Satisfaction (worth two points) My Rating Levels A = all T = teenager M = adult D = adult discretion (Look for these in my reviews) |