As a non-academic, lover of language, this was a spectacular read. I enjoyed Lynch’s exploration of the history of English, giving me examples of the changes that my language has seen in the past, and letting me know that there are certainly more changes to come.

The Lexicographer’s Dilemma was filled with eye-opening pieces of history which made me appreciate the rules I had learned while under the influence of public education, but it also helped to give me insight into many other pieces of communication… such as “okay.”

There are issues I had with the book. Sure, the pages are filled with plenty of history, but the flow seems to leave a little to be desired, from this reader at least. Perhaps a more strict time-line approach would have made for a more logical read. Lynch follows a theory approach, which I could appreciate on its own, though not being well versed in all of the historical figures, it was difficult for me to pair contrasting and concurrent linguists. (Even an appendix with referenced linguists on a time line would have helped.)

All in all, I loved this book for encouraging me to not become quite so disheartened each time I make a mistake that many of the teachers in my past would find far below my capabilities.

And yet, I can’t help but hope I’ve caught all of the obvious ones in this review.

Okay, I admit it, the name was what pulled me in. I thought there was a chance with the name, I might be able to get Hayden to eat it. I’ll spoil it for you, though, no go.

Anyway, this is a Nigerian-inspired dish, and I love trying new things… this one caught my eye in a lot of different ways. (Each will be highlighted.)

Chicken-Goober Stew
From Cooking Time is Family Time
Basic run down:
Chicken breast, cooked with fresh ginger
onion
garlic
plum tomatoes
tomato paste
water
okra
parsley
peanut butter
Tabasco
Fresh fruit (we used strawberries, bananas and mango)
We served with garlic bread

Basically, cook onions. Add tomatoes and water. Cook. Add chicken, okra, parsley. Cook. Serve with assorted fruit and Tabasco.

Kris: Nice and thick, which Kris really likes when I serve dinner in a bowl. Given that he could add as much heat as he wanted, that went over well, too. It seems more like a winter meal, but that would do away with one of the main reasons *I* loved the recipe.

Brianna: What a terrific use of a farmer’s market. Onion, garlic, plum tomatoes, okra, and parsley all came from Saturday’s trip. If our market was a bit bigger, I might also be able to get the berries there. I was a bit worried that this wouldn’t live up to all the prep work that needed to be done. Pre-cooking chicken, lots of chopping and dicing… but I think doing this recipe more often will allow it to become more of a second-nature prep. I can also see this being a winter dish, using canned tomatoes, jarred garlic, frozen okra, maybe even the chicken strips you can get in the deli these days. I was also a bit unsure of the combination of fresh fruit and hot sauce, but, um, wow. I loved this dish.

Hayden: Well, he ate the mango and the bread at least. He’s up one food type from a normal dinner experience.

Gabe: Was very interested in everything that went into the bowl, but wasn’t so interested in actually trying it. He pulled apart lots of bread, and I think ate some of it. Alas, he is becoming more and more of his brother’s brother.

There’s no way we’re parents of a kindergartner. That can’t be right.
I know we just went took a 2 hour tour of the kindergarten. I know we met our new teacher (who is awesome), but there’s no way that this giant blond kid who writes his own name and led us around the school is ours.

I don’t know who this boy is, but I”m proud of him.

This was very much an “eh” read to me. I certainly didn’t dislike it, but neither did I fall in love with the characters, the scenery, the plot… anything.

I liked some characters, but those characters were the ones who seemed the most glossed over. In all fairness, the character I wanted to know the most about would not have helpful in the “lesson” of the novel: the world is large, but that no matter how small you feel, you’re still a large part of the world to someone. In order to learn that the world is large, characters have to come and go… the character I found the most interesting (Whitey, who proposes to Jim’s mother and is rejected) has to move out of the scene… and this teaches Jim a lesson, right?

The ending was fairly pat, even for a YA novel. I don’t know that I had expected anything else, given the majority of the book, but I think I held out a little bit of hope.

All in all, it was a good read for someone interested in coming of age novels set in a specific time frame (Great Depression era) and locale (small North Carolina town). For a reader drawn to powerfully written characters rather than flowery descriptions of surroundings, it likely will do for you what it did for me.

This is one that I looked to cookbooks for guidance, and then decided I could just wing it. Unfortunately, I don’t tend to measure anything when I wing it, so all I can tell you is, a couple of spoonfuls of this, a chug of that…

Here goes:

Broccoli, chopped
Onion, chopped
Zucchini, chopped
Chinese Red Beans, cut into small sticks
Breast of Chicken, diced
Whole wheat pasta
Peanut Butter
Fish Sauce
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Rice Wine Vinegar
Red Chili Paste
Peanuts
Limes
Red Pepper Flakes

1. Steam broccoli to soften it up a bit. Zucchini can be either steamed or sautéed. Stir fry Chinese Red Beans, cook chicken and onions in sesame oil.

2. Cook pasta as directed on package.

3. Mix a few spoonfuls of peanut butter, about equal parts soy sauce, fish sauce and rice wine vinegar, some chili paste (about one spoonful) into the pan. Let peanut butter melt and create a sauce. Add ingredients again as necessary to get the sauce consistency how you want it.

4. Add all ingredients in pan with sauce (chicken, veggies, pasta and a bit of pasta water to help loosen the sauce up) and heat through.

5. Serve with peanuts, red pepper flakes and lime wedges.

Kris: Likes this type of recipe so much that he gets irritated with me for not writing any of it down with measurements included. Thinks it reheats for lunch even better the next day, so I try to make enough for 4 meals for the 2 of us.

Brianna: Big fan, so much so that I won’t even put it on Hayden’s plate, so as to not waste any of it.

Hayden: Ate a peanut butter spoon for dinner and giggled with glee that I wouldn’t put a plate in front of him.

Gabe: Enjoyed a peanut butter spoon as well, but did eat a few bites of the pasta and broccoli. I count that as a win, given his desire to do everything like big brother right now.

I brought home some fresh beef from work, knowing that we wanted to do hamburgers with it. Given the meat’s leanness, though, I thought it would be best to spruce up the ground beef a bit.

Searching through allrecipes.com gave me this: Bacon-Wrapped Hamburgers.

Our grill isn’t working properly right now, so these were fried stove-top and finished off in the broiler. Given what was in my fridge, I made a couple of minor changes (Monterey jack cheese in place of cheddar, grated pecorino romano in place of Parmesan, diced red onion in place of white)… but all in all, a win recipe, for the adults at least.

I served with a range of fresh toppings: arugula, tomato slices, red onion, and banana peppers.

Kris: Excellent.

Brianna: Biggest issue with these is the mess needed on my hands in order to form the patties (especially when I have a crying toddler in the kitchen, too). But the taste was absolutely excellent.

Hayden: Ate one quarter of a ketchup sandwich.

Gabe: Tried a bite of hamburger, but was more interested in shoveling ketchup into his mouth via a fork.

Hate is not the opposite of love, as Toni Morrison is able to so clearly show in this tale of how one man has connected the lives of so many women.

The story of Cosey, a man with a deep history that infects every aspect of his being, and the women in his life, is a fascinating, if a bit surreal, read. The fact that clarity comes in pieces as to how the women are connected, the history of the relationships, and the definitions of love became a bit overwhelming at times. There were pages in which I felt lost, but the payback was well worth the dizziness inflicted by the rollercoaster of characterizations.

The payback I was able to get from it was a lesson. Perhaps you can’t know a full history in the moment you want to, but always be open to learning another piece of the timeline… it may be an important one.

From Ready, Steady, Spaghetti: Cooking with Kids
Recipe: Corn Fritters

Basic idea: Remove corn from a couple of ears of corn, dice a red bell pepper. Cook them in a bit of oil until softened a bit. Through in an herb (I love dill, and never use it, so that’s what I used in this recipe).
Mix a few eggs together with the veggies, and then pan fry them.

Kris: Eh. Mostly a texture thing. Perhaps try with canned creamed corn instead?

Brianna: Well, I ate far more than I should have, but gave away most of my chicken nuggets to the others to make up for it.

Hayden: Almost wouldn’t eat the nuggets that went along with them.

Gabe: Eh.

Overall: Well, if we have a couple of ears of corn that won’t be used in another way, I’ll fry them up with eggs for myself. And, OMG, I love dill. Why do I never think to use it?

Dinner tonight was a mix of a recipe, what we had left in the fridge, and what I could find at the grocery store.

We started with a recipe from Ready, Steady, Spaghetti: Cooking with Kids. Spring Rolls.

I scoured our grocery store, which, given its preppy clientèle, I thought was sure to have rice wrappers. Nope. But given our current love of jalapeño poppers, I knew that wonton wrappers were there. I went with round dumpling wrappers instead.

The recipe called for julienned carrots, but we had coleslaw mix left over from last week, so I used that instead. I diced it up a bit more, to make it fit more easily within the wrappers.

So, I count this as my recipe, right?

Cooked chicken, shredded or a very small dice.
Rice noodles (prepped in hot water, and then cut small)
Coleslaw mix (chopped finer than for coleslaw preparation)
Fresh basil (very small tears)
Dumpling wrappers

Filled each dumpling wrapper with a small pile of the other ingredients all mixed together. Ran water around the edges, fulled and pressed together.

Steamed for a few minutes.

Served warm with soy sauce and plum sauce.

Reactions?
Kris: Good. Not a huge fan, but a fun concept of stuff our leftovers in dumplings. Willing to try again. We should have tried cinnamon basil in them instead. (We’ll be doing so next time, I think.)

Brianna: As is often the case, I am the largest fan of a recipe. I enjoyed these very much, especially for the new experience. They weren’t spectacular, but I definitely loved the mix of the rice noodles and basil.

Hayden: Are you kidding? The kid didn’t even touch them.

Gabe: Tried a couple of bites, but I think the texture of the steamed dumplings (a bit sticky and chewy) gave him pause. However, he was very fond of the oyster cracker that were left on the table from a prior night mixed with soy sauce and plum sauce.

I don’t know that I have anything new to say in praise of this novel. So instead, I will say, I would never have imagined myself so heartsick over the loss of a computer until now. Goodbye, dear Mike. I shall miss you, too.

Heinlein is able to explore a world of politics, revolution, love, family, and dedication in an intricate and enjoyable way. Life is complex, and so is his story, weaving multiple aspects of what it means to be a sentient creature into the tale. From humor to love, the good parts of life must be explored fully. From rebellion to war, fighting for you and yours, the sticky parts must be waded through.

His ideas about never allowing yourself to get trampled by the standard way of life was refreshing, and I wish that more politicians could embrace this philosophy.