Book Talk: High School Fiction Part 2

These are the fiction books I bought for the high school library, most of which I have not read. Yet.

A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee--Despite the above disclaimer, I did read this one already. It's about a young girl who becomes part of a female spy agency in Victorian London. Some of the obvious shoehorning of modern attitudes into a historical setting annoyed me a bit, but I still enjoyed it enough that I'd like to read the other three in the series. And I know 14-year-old me would not have cared a bit about those inconsistencies. 

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

The Wishing Day Trilogy by Lauren Myracle

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver--I have read this before, which is why I bought it for the library. Such a good book.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Cosima by Grazia Deledda--A. recommended this book. It's the story of the author's own growing up in rural Sardinia. I read this one already, too, and it was a fascinating glimpse into a place and culture I knew nothing about.

My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather--I love My Antonia. I haven't read Death Comes for the Archbishop yet, but it's set in New Mexico, so I feel like I have to. And I also felt like we really should have it in our school library. So now we do.

And here is a photo of the actual high school library in progress. It's on the stage in the old gym, because that's the only place there was room.

Dune by Frank Herbert--According to A., the greatest science fiction novel of all time. And so of course, I bought it for the library. I got the next three in the series, as well. There are a bunch more, but A. told me the first four are the best, anyway.

Garden Spells and First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen--These were actually my copies that I donated to the school libary. They're easy to read books, with wonderful characters and a sort of overlay of magic that affects the otherwise ordinary lives of those characters.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristof--A science fiction novel told through a series of documents. Cubby read this and really liked it, although he said it was a little disturbing, because it was such a plausible scenario.

Lost on the Prairie--by MaryLou Driedger

The Luck Uglies trilogy--This was recommended a couple of times by Jody here, and I'm looking forward to reading them.

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forester--Another science fiction recommendation from A. He feels about this the way that Cubby felt about Illuminae.

Moon Moth and Other Stories by Jack Vance--And yet another science fiction recommendation from A. He's read a lot of them.

The Night Gardener by Jonathon Auxier

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

The Professional by W.C. Heinz

True Grit by Charles Portis

We Fed Them Cactus by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca--This is the story of the author's childhood growing up only a couple of hours from my own home in New Mexico. She was raised in the traditional Spanish way, but witnessed the beginning of the homesteader era, as well. It's a fascinating book.

A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat

What would you add to this list of high school fiction? Or have you read any of these and would recommend them?

Friday Food: Taking the Heat

Because I have to stay in the kitchen. Like so . . .

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers fried in a skillet, raw snow peas

Long version: There were leftover baked potatoes and some leftover taco meat, which I fried all together in a skillet. Add some shredded cheese, and there's dinner for the two children at home.

Saturday

Short version: Homecoming steak, pesto bread, pasta salad, carrot sticks

Long version: I had not made pasta salad in literally years, but I wanted to make something for our elderly neighbor who just got home after having a knee surgery. My usual offering for such a situation is an all-in-one sort of casserole like shepherd's pie, but it's too hot for that. So I made pasta salad, which is also an all-in-one meal if enough protein is added.

I used just the pasta from three boxes of the Annie's macaroni and cheese that we find way too salty. I mixed the cooked pasta with a mustard vinaigrette when it was still warm, so the pasta would soak up the dressing. Then I added a bunch of hard-boiled eggs, cheddar cheese, onion, snow peas, carrots, and some chopped romaine lettuce, and then mayonnaise, salt, and pepper. It came out very well.

The travelers returned around 6 p.m. They hadn't eaten an actual meal since breakfast, so they were appreciative of the meal I had planned for them. I had made pesto earlier in the day, and I just fried bread in butter and spread it with some of the pesto. This was mostly for the members of the family who couldn't or didn't want to eat the pasta salad.

I provisioned the road warriors for their trip out, but the MiL stocked them up for the return trip. And she used some of the same recycled containers I had sent out with them, also labeled in with a Sharpie.

Great minds and all that.

Sunday

Short version: Bull and potato skillet, cucumber spears, vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell

Long version: I took out a bag of the processed bull and fried that with some spices and potatoes pre-cooked in the microwave. 

Creativity in the kitchen takes a serious hit when it's 84 degrees in said kitchen before I even start cooking.

The cucumber was actually an Armenian cucumber, which is botanically a type of melon. It looks and tastes like a cucumber, though, and, most importantly, it is very heat tolerant. I have trouble with typical cucumbers getting bitter in our very hot sun. Armenian cucumbers aren't supposed to do that, so I decided to try growing them this year. 

So far, I've been very impressed with them. The only remaining question is what kind of refrigerator pickles they make.

Is there anyone who is not yet aware how easy it is to make chocolate shell for ice cream? Half a cup of chocolate chips melted--either in the microwave or on the stove--with a teaspoon of coconut oil. Stir until smooth, and that's it.

Monday

Short version: Pork and rice, still-frozen peas

Long version: I had some pork steaks in the freezer, so in the early morning I browned those, then cooked them on the stovetop until they were tender with the last few tablespoons of pesto, the last of a can of commodities spaghetti sauce. When they were done, I took them out, added some water, then cooked rice in that. I put the pork on top of the rice and put the whole skillet in the refrigerator. 

It was only 9 a.m. when I put the skillet in the refrigerator. Then at dinnertime, all I did was take the whole skillet out and re-heat it on low heat. 

The heat that makes me so cranky is making the calabaza take over the world. Silver linings.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers, cucumber, highly unusual cereal

Long version: It's so handy to have our thermostat right on the wall of the kitchen, so I can see that it's 86 degrees in my kitchen, thereby confirming my feeling that it was way too hot to turn on the stove.

I foraged in the refrigerator instead. A. got the rest of the pork and rice. 

There was a bit of of the plain processed bull left, so I microwaved that with butter (it's incredibly lean and needs the extra fat) and barbecue sauce to make sandwich meat.

There were also a few hard-boiled eggs, so I made egg salad for those who preferred that for sandwiches.

Some of the children were still hungry after their sandwiches, and I really didn't have much else on hand, so I decided they could have a bowl of cereal for a second course.

They never eat cereal for dinner. Literally never. I know this is common for many people when they don't want to cook, but not for us. However, it's not a bad filler if they're hungry after already eating actual food. So everyone got a bowl of either Cheerios (thanks to the MiL, who sent this home with the travelers) or generic Rice Krispies. 

A. had just brought home a bunch of cream from his grocery run this day, so I put a little of that on the cereal along with the milk. And now I'm a shoo-in for Mother of the Year. (Not being facetious. My kids were THRILLED. What's that about low expectations again?)

Wednesday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: I got all ambitious and took out stir-fry beef. It was hotter than I expected in the kitchen when it was time to cook, and I was very tempted to cop out on actually stir-frying, but I did it anyway. Besides the beef, there were carrots and snow peas from the garden, as well as lamb's quarters.

While I was standing there sweating and stir-frying, the storm that had been hovering on our horizon for a couple of hours finally broke. The rain-cooled air blew into the kitchen and actually cooled it down enough that when we sat down to eat, I wasn't sweating.

The reward for my industry, I suppose.

Thursday

Short version: Meatloaf, garlic bread, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I was baking bread anyway, so I figured I should take advantage of the oven having to be on to make meatloaf and garlic bread as well. It was pretty hot by the time we sat down to eat, but it was good meatloaf.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

T.T.: Married Wisdom

One of the more interesting things about marrying a person is that you learn that the way your own family always did things is not necessarily the way that other families always did things.

Take, for instance, grilled cheese sandwiches.

A. doesn't even call them grilled cheese. He calls them toasted cheese. And the way that he makes them has one very important difference from the way I always made them.

Who could ever imagine a debate about grilled cheese?

Both of us start out the same--slices of bread with cheese inside. But whereas I would drop butter right into the pan to melt before I put the sandwiches in the melted butter, A. only butters the bread itself.

And I must admit, this is the best way to do it.

Not only does it require less butter altogether, but there's no butter on the open areas of the pan that will burn and smoke as the sandwiches toast. 

Anything that keeps my smoke detector from going off is a good idea.

And now! A poll!

Do you call them grilled or toasted cheese sandwiches? And do you butter the pan or the bread?

Snapshots: Baby Time!

A. has had the cell phone with him all week, which means I don't have any new photos to put here. But I do have lots and lots of old photos.

My youngest will be five years old in October, and I no longer have any real babies anymore. I mean, I call them my babies all the time, but . . . no, definitely not babies. 

So let's take a walk down Sentimental Lane and see the babies when they actually were babies.

Poppy:

Jack:

Calvin:

And Cubby:

There you have it! My (past) life, snapshotted.

Book Talk: High School Fiction Part 1

Okay! Back to books that are actually physically present in my own home and have been read by at least one member of my family. Part 2 will be the fiction books I bought for the high school library but haven't actually read myself (yet--you know I'm going to be reading most of the books I bought).

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare--This is classified as a children's novel, but the main character is a 16-year-old girl. Children can read it, but I think teenagers would like it, too. I love it, and have read it many times.

Constance, a Story of Early Plymouth by Patricia C. Clapp--This is the imagined diary of the real Constance Hopkins, who was only 14 when she came with her father and stepmother as part of the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony. It's very historically detailed, and supposed to be quite accurate, although I know very little about Plymouth so I can't vouch for that. In fact, all I know about Plymouth I learned from this book, which I have read many times. 

Down the Common: A Year in the Life of A Medieval Woman by Anne Baer--I picked this book up on a whim at my college bookstore and have read it several times in the many intervening years. It's another meticulously researched book that has engaging characters. What I love about it is that although the details of medieval life as obviously particular to the time, the author did a fantastic job of expressing the commonalities of a woman's life through every time period.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden--This book feels so real, it's hard to believe it's actually fiction. I have a copy that I've read many times, and I bought a copy for the high school library.

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner--Maybe I should have just titled this High School Historical Fiction. I do enjoy good historical fiction. This is good. Excellent, in fact. It is, again, a fictional diary of a real person, a woman who homesteaded in the Tucson area in the 1880s. There are a couple of intense scenes of sexual assault, so I would definitely recommend this for older teenagers, but the overall writing and story are just so engrossing.

The story in the book begins in 1881, which is coincidentally the same year as the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ. (Okay, so this photo of the kids in the cell near the gallows in Tombstone is a bit of a stretch for illustrating this post, but it was the best I could do.)

Deathwatch by Robb Wright-- A. bought this for the boys. The blurb on the front of this book is, "In the desert without food, clothes, or water and hunted by a madman with a .358 Magnum." This did not spark my interest, but my boys LOOOOVE this book. They've each read it multiple times. And then I found several copies of it in the boxes of books that have been taught in classrooms at the school. It won a mystery award in the 1970s, too, so although I can't personally vouch for it, I think I can safely recommend it.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank--Written in 1959, this is described as the classic novel of a post-nuclear apocaplyse. Despite the scary subject, the story is actually quite optimistic in its portrayal of how the survivors, well, survive. It doesn't have anything really objectionable in it, either, and both my older boys have read my old copy so many times it fell apart and I bought a new one.

The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green--There are, of course, many versions of the classic Robin Hood story. My boys like this one. It seems to have been first published in the 1950s, and the language is slightly old-fashioned but not unreadable.

I'll stop here. More to come, though!

What would you add to this list of high school fiction?

Friday Food: And Then There Were Three

A. left last Thursday with the older two for a driving trip to New York, leaving just me and the younger two. And it was really hot, so I cooked as little as possible this week. But still! There is food to list!

Friday 

Short version: Fried pork, spaghetti, carrots, chocolate cake

Long version: Poppy requested "pork and spaghetti" for this meal, and I was happy to oblige with commodities canned pork fried with spices, and spaghetti with the last bit of a can of commodities spaghetti sauce, the last two frozen cubes of pesto from last summer, and a bit of cream. 

This year's basil is hiding in a row partially under the still-blooming hollyhocks, and looks really good. I think it might like the shade in the afternoon here. I have hopes for lots of good pesto this year.

Our neighbors had a small family birthday celebration for their daughter, who was turning six. They asked us to come so there would be some other children there, and that is where the cake came in. It was a homemade, very dense chocolate cake--almost like a flourless cake, although there was some flour in it--with a ganache poured over the top, and it was very good.

Not to be obnoxious, but it's rare that I eat anything baked by someone else that's as good or better than what I make, so that was a nice treat.

Saturday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: There was leftover spaghetti and pork, and also leftover cake. The neighbors gave us the leftover cake because they were leaving this day for a two-week roadtrip. My children were delighted to have the cake. It really was good cake.

And now, do I have a treat for you! When I was at my parents' house, I went through the photo albums and took some pictures of our childhood pictures to show my brother and his daughters when we went up to his house. Quality is less than ideal, but this still make me laugh.

My very curly hair was a trial to my mother for my entire early childhood in the very humid deep south.

Sunday

Short version: Tuna salad sandwiches, raw snap peas, chocolate pudding pops

Long version: When there are only three of us, I can get by with one 12-ounce can of tuna, rather than three cans. Incidentally, I always eat tuna salad in an actual salad, with the addition of shredded cheddar cheese, pecans, and dried cranberries. I'm not a huge fan of tuna, so I like it better when I can taste a lot more than just the fish.

The lettuce for my salad came from the neighbors' garden that I was watering for them while they were gone. They told me to take anything in it, since it's mostly for their guinea pigs anyway (I was not taking care of the guinea pigs, though), so I harvested one of the two giant heads of romaine.

I thought the snap peas in the garden were done, but they're producing more flowers and peas now. I think maybe because I interplanted them with green beans, and now that the green beans are bigger, they're shading the snow peas. Or something. Nice to have more snap peas, though. The kids love them raw. I do, too. I rarely cook them.

I used this recipe for the pudding pops again, and again I used more cocoa powder than it called for. I made a half recipe, and still got four pudding pops, and man, they really are so good. Waaaaay better than the store-bought ones. A bit of a pain actually cooking the mixture before putting it in the molds, but definitely worth it.

Monday

Short version: Beef and bean soft tacos, raw radishes and carrots, more pudding pops

Long version: I made the taco meat--two pounds ground beef and one can of black beans--in the morning before it got hot, then just microwaved corn tortillas with cheese and meat at dinnertime. Carrots from the garden, radishes not.

Being the only two kids at home means that when there are four pudding pops, you get to have a pudding pop for two days in a row. Whee! Crazy how little food we consumed this week with the three biggest eaters gone.

Tuesday

Short version: Pizza, raw carrots and snap peas

Long version: Jack had been asking when it would be cool enough for pizza, and I guess this was the day since it was a chilly 85 degrees. This was the only day in two weeks that wasn't over 90 degrees, though, and I was making bread anyway, so I made the pizza. Just one: half with just cheese, half with some of the leftover taco meat.

The kids ate the vegetables in the garden with me while I was getting basil for the pizza. I love garden-produce season so much.

Wednesday

Short version: Steak, fried potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, zucchini bread

Long version: I made the zucchini bread because I had two bags of shredded calabacitas (an immature squash almost exactly like a zucchini) left in the freezer from last year, and I'm just now getting the first calabacitas on the plants in the garden. Those two bags had exactly enough calabacitas for the zucchini bread. Unfortunately, it turned out sort of wet. 

I had a completely solid lump of dried brown sugar that turned out to be exactly one cup when I softened it in the microwave. And I needed one cup of sugar total for the zucchini bread recipe. But that was supposed to be half white sugar, and I think maybe the extra molasses in the brown sugar contributed to the extra moisture. I think also when zucchini is thawed it needs to be drained a bit more to make good bread than I drained this.

Oh well. The children didn't notice. And it can always be toasted.

I have to note that it's so weird cooking for only me and the two youngest. I made one New York strip steak that was just under a pound, plus two diced potatoes (baked in the morning while the zucchini bread was in the oven), and it all fit in just one 12-inch skillet. Quite different from my usual musical burners with three big skillets on the stove at once to fit all the food needed.

The salad was exciting because it was the lettuce from the neighbors' garden, plus a cucumber, a tomato, and a carrot from my garden. Again, I just love garden-produce season.

Thursday

Short version: A harvest feast, tortillas and cheese, vanilla ice cream

Long version: I went out to the garden in the late afternoon to see if there were any ripe tomatoes for my salad, and I came back in with five small tomatoes, about a pint of snow peas, several tiny carrots that were hiding under the peas, and five eggs. I mentioned to Jack that I could make dinner just out of what I had brought in. "Are you going to?" he asked. "Do you want to?" I asked in turn.

The answer was yes. And it occurred to me that really, this was a meal so simple to prepare that the younger two children could do it. And without the older two kids here, I could actually supervise the two small ones cooking without a crowd in the kitchen.

So that's what we did. They washed all the vegetables, snapped the stems off all the snow peas, and chopped everything up. I turned on the burner, but they added the butter to the skillet, and then the vegetables to cook, and then salt, pepper, and garlic powder (a bit too much garlic powder, but these things happen). Then they cracked the eggs into another pan with butter and fried those, taking great delight in the flipping of said eggs.

They served themselves, and they cut up their eggs themselves with butter knives. It was all very satisfying, and they were so proud of themselves.

(Here is where I really wish I had some very cute photos of the two small ones cooking and proudly holding up their plates of food, but I don't, because A. took our shared cell phone with him on his trip. So you'll just have to take my word for it that it was adorable. And that is not a word I use very often.)

I added the tortillas and cheese for them because while I'm fine with just eggs and vegetables, children need something a bit more filling.

We got the ice cream at the tiny store in the village when we stopped in for something else. There is very rarely ice cream there, but there it was. And it was 93 degrees outside. I decided it was fate and bought the ice cream.

A highly satisfactory meal all around.

The three travelers are supposed to return tomorrow, so my kitchen will get a lot busier. As it should be.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

A Much-Delayed Answer

Several weeks ago, Natalie left a comment asking what the commodities food is that I talk so much about. And I apparently completely missed that question when it was asked.

I'm sorry, Natalie! I wasn't blowing you off on purpose, I promise!

It's a good question, and I'm sure others have wondered as well, so I'm going to answer it here now. 

Our county has a program funded by the USDA whereby anyone below a certain income level can get free food. I suspect it's the equivalent of a food bank, but since we live so far from any distribution centers, it's just sent to us.

Once a month, anyone in this program gets a big box of food that includes pantry items. We've also seen fresh and frozen meats and other refrigerated things. In addition, there's a box of fresh produce. There's also a dairy box with milk, butter, cream, and so on, but I don't know if they get that every month.

I also don't know if all the elderly people here are below the required income level, or if the program automatically provides the food to anyone over a certain age, but all the older people we know get these boxes. 

We are not signed up for the program, but we get these things secondarily from our neighbors because they can't eat it all. They mostly give us the pantry stuff. A single elderly lady is unlikely to be eating a pound of split peas every month. So we get a LOT of split peas and other beans, along with rice, spaghetti, canned tomato sauce, and canned vegetables.

Some of this stuff just goes to our chickens, because I really am not a fan of canned vegetables and we don't really eat that many split peas.

In addition to our neighbors' extra foods, the lady who distributes the boxes--also a neighbor--stops by after she's done her delivery route and gives us some of the extra things. This is why we get one or two produce boxes every month. I have no idea how this program is supplied, but there's also always something particular she has in ridiculous excess. Last month, that included flats of strawberries and many, many packages of pretty fancy bread from a bakery. 

And when I say excess, I mean she has a pick-up truck bed full of food. Since Covid, the supply of foods for this program has actually increased. Again, I don't know how this program actually works, but I know they always send way more than is used here. And we get the overflow, because otherwise it would just be thrown out.

So there you go! That's what I mean when I mention commodities food.