Cooking experiment

One of the types of books that I am constantly purchasing is cookbooks. I have a LOT of cookbooks, and I realized over my Christmas break that while I read them, I haven't actually made anything (or much of anything) from many of them. Certain books are in heavy rotation while others have languished. So this year one of my goals is to make at least one thing (preferably more) from each cookbook I own.
I started this off today with The Deen Brothers Cookbook. Previously I had only made a soup from this book which wasn't particularly good. Today I made bourbon glazed pork tenderloin and goat cheese grits. The tenderloin was good, but would have been better if I had marinated it, but the grits were fantastic! I hope that for future recipe attempts that I will remember to photograph the results to share. But take my word for it, if you like cheese grits, this recipe is great.

Call for reading suggestions

While planning out my course of attack for the read the alphabet and read my name challenges I realized that I have a dearth of titles on my to be read list that start with the letters I, Y and Z. In fact, I only have one Y and one Z. This makes me nervous since if I don't like those books I would either have to admit defeat or continue reading something I dislike. And you should all know my philosophy on reading stuff you don't like. So, any suggestions? I like a wide range of books so feel free to suggest anything, as long as it isn't written by a Palin or Snooki.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

This year instead of participating in a crap ton of challenges I am only going to do three. I am aiming to read 75 books this year, as well as retrying the Read Your Name Challenge since I didn't finish that one the way I had hoped. Technically I read my first name so I could count it. Finally, I'm doing a challenge of my own making. Read the Alphabet! Each book needs to start with a letter of the alphabet for a total of 26 books. The exception being x where words with x as the second letter count, like excellent, oxen, or axiom. Qualifiers like "A" and "The" do not count towards A or T, unless you are reading A if for Alibi. I'm very excited! At first I thought I would try to do it in alphabetical order, but I am hard at work on a K and want it to count.

What are your reading challenges going to be this year?

2010 book awards

Ok, I don't have anything to actually give the authors of the books I've deemed award winning, but I like to acknowledge the books that I thought were the best in the genres I read this year.

Best cookbook: Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn. This was a Christmas gift from my father-in-law, and while I have yet to make anything from it the book was a very good read and is filled with recipes that I can't wait to try. Runner up: Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose

Best general nonfiction: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I found it to be really inspiring and a very entertaining read. Runner up: Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart.

Best travelogue: Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry. As fun as it is to experience another country via armchair, it is amazing what you can learn about your own as well. Runner up: A Year in the World by Frances Mayes.

Best novel: The School of Secret Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. It was a delightful read, the only drawback being that it makes you hungry. Runner up: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Best mystery: The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant. I kicked myself for not figuring it out. Great creepy read. Runner up: Dead Woman's Shoes by Kaye C. Hill.

Best children's book: A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. Why on earth did I not read this as a child? Runner up: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

I read 67 books in 2010, which is well shy of my goal of 100, but not too far off of 75 which is the most I've read when I've kept count. I completed all but two of my book challenges (read my name and the 100 book challenge) which I think is quite the accomplishment considering I got married. How about you? What are your favorite books from this year?

Four Christmas Reads

Christmas books are a tricky thing. Sometimes the setting is only secondary to the plot which makes them not truly a Christmas read. Other times the author goes too overboard with Christmas and it winds up being overwrought. Typically my favorite holidays literary passages are one chapter in a children's book such as A Year Down Yonder or the Four Story Mistake. However, I have found a few Christmas books that are quite fun to read.

Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson. Yes, this is technically a cookbook, but Lawson's style is heavy on the narrative, and it is well written entertaining narrative at that. I don't know how many recipes I will make from this book considering I don't have ready access to goose fat and have no desire to eat a steamed pudding. It is a delightful read though.

Immoveable Feast by John Baxter. This is another food related book, but it is not a cookbook. It is a memoir of one Christmas where the author prepares the Christmas feast for his wife's French family. Each chapter focuses on the journey to obtain ingredients for a specific course along with related stories from Christmases past. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, unless you have food issues in which case you might want to pass it by. It will make you hungry.

Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore. I've blathered on about how much I enjoy this book in an earlier post ages ago, but it deserves another plug. It is a sort of Christmas Story for the literary set. (Yes, yes I know, that's actually a book too! But Schwartz goes on to die in the book and who wants to endure that?) Only with zombies, profanity and lots of sex. Delightfully wicked. The extra bit in the 2.0 edition doesn't really add anything, but it is nice to spend more time with the characters.

The Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike and Edward Gorey. At a scant 32 pages, and predominantly illustrations this book is a delightful little truffle of naughtiness. Many things at Christmas are cloying, and the expectations to do so many things and do them perfectly can leave folks overwhelmed to say the least. This book skewers many of those traditions in Gorey's well known macabre way.

W3dnesday

It has been a while so this one will be interesting!

What have you been reading? Since my last post I have read the following books: A Year in the World by Frances Mayes, Clara's Kitchen by Clara Cannucciari, A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee, Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall, Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne-Jones, A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant, and Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

What are you currently reading? I started Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve last night. I'm enjoying it, but not loving it.

What will you read next? I have the following books checked out: A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman, Dead Woman's Shoes by Kaye Hill, and one other mystery who's title escapes me.

5x5: First Holiday Edition

Five Christmas Songs I Love
1. I Saw Three Ships performed by the Bare Naked Ladies
2. Step Into Christmas performed by Elton John
3. Christmas Wrapping performed by the Waitresses
4. Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keen
5. Linus and Lucy performed by Vince Guaraldi


Five Christmas Songs I Hate
1. Feliz Navidad (mainly because it gets stuck in my head)
2. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (do I really need to elaborate?)
3. Is That You Santy Claus? (This one isn't a bad song, but it was playing in every store my sister and I went into when we were doing all of our Christmas shopping in one night back in college.)
4. I'll Be Home For Christmas (it makes me cry)
5. Twelve Days of Christmas (again, because of the ear worm effect, but also because of the aggravating repetition.

So how about you? What are your holiday musical loves and hates?