Book Review - The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

The School of Essential Ingredients
Erica Bauermeister
Putnam Adult
ISBN # 978-0399155437

I'm finding it hard to do this book justice. It's intoxicating, intriguing and moving. It educates and entertains. It will make you giggle, sigh, yearn for romance and grieve for loss. Everything about it is beautiful, including the cover.

The main story revolves around a cooking class - the teacher and her eight students. But the stories of the characters are interwoven elegantly throughout, each dish triggering a memory vignette specific to each student.

I loved The School of Essential Ingredients, but then again, I love to cook and I love psychology. And I especially love words that make me see the story and feel the emotions of the characters. Erican Bauermeister is a talented writer and I can't wait to see what she does next!
(January 2009, pp 256, $24.95)

Giving the bird

Well, maybe not so much the bird, as the means by which to cook it.









The husband and I bought an Electric Roaster five years ago. I was tired of tying up the stove when I wanted to roast a turkey, and it was an affordable solution at $30.00. Then, friends of ours bought a new house, so we gave them a roaster as a housewarming present. And then, we bought hubby's sister and brother-in-law one for Christmas.

A roaster is the type of present that the recipient either loves, or sticks in a cabinet somewhere to grow multiple layers of dust. In both cases of our giving, the roasters were big hits. As I was basting our Thanksgiving bird today, I had to smile, knowing our friends and family were making use of our gifts to them.

No matter what you had for dinner today, or how you cooked it, I hope you made lifelong memories and experienced heartwarming moments. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mind your mouth, as well as your manners.

Saturday evening, my husband and I, along with a friend of ours, decided to grab dinner at a local restaurant. We thought it would be a nice way to end the day, as they had been out deer hunting for most of it. We don't typically eat out, mostly because we both love to cook. We like this restaurant, though - good food, laid back atmosphere and affordable.

I ordered a Julienne salad, and our waitress said "Oh, the cook is gonna love you." I said "Because it's easy to make?" and that's when everything started to slide downhill.

Apparently she was being facetious. When she brought our food, she went on a rant, directed at me, about how it took time to slice the ingredients for the salad, thereby pulling the cook away from all the other orders waiting to be made(there was only one other customer present at the time, and the food I ordered was offered on the menu). Well, I guess I've been disavowed of the notion that a salad is easy to make.

I had a really hard time eating. Suddenly, I lost my appetite, and any desire to stay. My husband and friend looked at each other, and then at me, with confused expressions on their faces. They asked if I wanted to go home. I told them to eat their food.

I've been thinking about this since it happened. I was embarrassed to be berated that way in public. It was incredibly rude and unprofessional. And we won't be spending our hard earned money there again.

It did teach me something, though. No matter what your job is, how you conduct yourself, moment to moment, day to day, will ultimately impact your bottom line.

Honor the memory, but continue to live.

It's raining today. I turned on the television, but then promptly shut it off. I haven't forgotten and I never will.

Instead of being glued to the news, as I was seven years ago, I will take advantage of a day without children underfoot. I have lots of ideas for blog posts, a fantastic mystery to finish reading, a book review to write and a double batch of chocolate chip cookies to make. That should keep me busy until the kids arrive home around 3 pm.

In my way, I will honor the life, and lives, gifted to me. I will hug my boys a little longer when they come in the door. I will curl up next to my husband when I crawl into bed tonight. I will text my daughter the words "I love you." I will be present in the moment, because it is the only one that truly exists.

For a lazy summer day, it's sure been busy.

So far today...

- typed up and emailed answers to interview questions
- run to the grocery store with the youngest boy
- fed the kids lunch - waffles, yummmmm
- grabbed something to eat for myself
- baked lemon bars, mostly because it's cool today
- started reading a book for review
- glanced through the new issue of The Writer magazine
- washed dishes
- done laundry

I still have more to get done, but I'm thinking it's been a productive day so far.

A Departure... of sorts.

I've spent the better part of the morning listening to Bernanke talk about the sad state of our economy. I'm discouraged. He keeps talking about how we got here, but not a lot about good solutions for improvements.

Gas prices are up. Food prices are up. When income can't possibly keep up with inflation, what is there to do?

Well, here's what we're doing.

• We're driving a lot less. Hubby is picking up things we need at Target, or Walmart, or Home Depot on his way home from work. He drives right by the stores, so why make a trip when we don't have to? The local grocery and hardware store are within walking/biking distance, so if we need something right away, we're using our own physical power, instead of gas.
• We're eating out less. We don't go out to eat very often anyway, but now it's really not an option.
• We're using our Sam's Club membership much more. Since we're eating at home more, we're buying in bulk. It absolutely saves us money.
• We are absolutely not installing the window air conditioner this year. On hot days, I close up the house by noon, and use box fans to keep the air moving. It was 101 degree heat index last Thursday. Our house stayed at a comfortable 83 degrees.
• We are turning off lights when we don't need them. They throw heat during the day, so keeping them off keeps the house cool.
• We're tending and nurturing our garden. Right now, we have raspberries, black raspberries, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes starting to come in. Have you seen how much tomatoes cost at the grocery store?! Not to mention the salmonella scare? Our gardens are organic, and we know whose hands have touched the food.
• We are watering our gardens with rain water we've collected in plastic barrels. I refuse to pay for water, when it's only used for watering.
• On cool days, we make our own bread. Granted, the Kitchen Aid mixer my mom bought for us years ago, makes it a much easier process, but still, when a loaf of bread is almost $2.00, making our own is cost effective.
• We're buying 3 to 5 dozen eggs, instead of a dozen at a time. Much cheaper.
• Our kids are drinking much more water, much less juice and pop. It may even save on dentist bills down the road.
• And, we are using our library cards.

I'm sure there are other things we're doing, but these are the ones I can think of right now.

What are you doing to cut costs?

Unplugged - off the grid... well, for the most part

We had an absolutely amazing Memorial Day weekend. The weather was beautiful and warm. We relaxed, and played and ate way too much summertime food (burgers and brats, steaks, watermelon, lemonade, strawberry rhubarb pie and probably a gallon of orange juice). I will be taking a few bike rides and watching what I eat this week. I swear, my belly hasn't stuck out this much since I was pregnant with my youngest child.

I barely touched my computer. I did check emails with my cell phone, but other than that, for the first time in a very long time, I was unplugged. It was so nice, almost like a mini-vacation, except that we didn't leave town. The strangest thing about it is that I feel like we took a two week vacation.

Today, later on, I will be posting a review of Candles Burning by Tabitha King and Michael McDowell. And, if you get a chance, check out Jerry Waxler's blog post today at Memory Writers Network. It's well worth the read.

Another fantastic writer's resource!

I've discovered a new blog, Mike's Writing Workshop & Newsletter. It's chock full of information for freelance writers. And Mike sends out a newsletter with great articles and resources for writers. Check it out!

Today is my son's 11th birthday, so I'll be busy getting last minute details taken care of. He doesn't know it yet, but instead of a birthday cake, he'll be eating Outrageous Brownies, with a side of French Vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce for dessert tonight. He's been asking me to make brownies, off and on, for the last 2 weeks.

I'll post the recipe a little later today.