Half-and-Half: 5 Books About Food and 5 Books That Made Me Hungry

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is all about one of my favorite things: food! I divided my list into two parts: the first is about books that mention a certain yummy food over and over, to the point where you just need to have some! The second half of the list is books I enjoyed in which food plays an important part in the story.

1. Cocoa from "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield
2. Cinnamon rolls from "Maybe in Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3. Lemon bars from "Aunt Dimity Digs In" by Nancy Atherton
4. Snack cakes from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
5. Pancakes from "Agnes and the Hitman" by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

1. "My Life in France" by Julia Child: the famous chef's memoir of her time in France.
2. "Kitchens of the Great Midwest" by J. Ryan Stradal: the story of a chef told through vignettes in which she is a minor character.
3. "Delicious" by Ruth Reichl: a young woman moves to NYC and gets a job at a struggling food magazine.
4. "Sweetbitter" by Stephanie Danler: a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a New York restaurant.
5. "Quentins" by Maeve Binchy: set around an Irish restaurant.

Monday Musings

My week: It was another pretty quiet week here. Jarrod's schedule shifted again, to working 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., so that was a bit of an adjustment. I got a haircut on Monday and had several (at least 6) inches chopped off, and it feels so much better!

Reading: I finished and thoroughly enjoyed "The Royal We," then read the short story collection "American Housewife" in one day. It was ok... a little wacky and not particularly memorable. I did absolutely love the line, "...hot chocolate is a gateway drug to reading." Ain't that the truth!?

Then I read and loved "His Majesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novik, the first in a fantasy series that's set during the Napoleonic Wars with one huge departure from reality -- dragons. Dragons are bred to be used in battle, but they're also highly intelligent -- and they hatch from the egg already knowing how to speak -- and form an unbreakable bond with their handlers so they're sort of a cross between pet, equal, friend and weapon. Our main character's dragon is named Temeraire, and it was absolutely impossible not to fall in love with him. I enjoyed this book so very much and I can't wait to read the next story in the series! Luckily there are nine books out, so I won't have to wait to find out what happens.

Now I'm a little ways into "Underground Airlines" by Ben H. Winters, a speculative fiction novel set in present day imagining the Civil War never occurred and slavery is still legal in four states.

Knitting: I worked up the knitted hummingbird a friend asked me to make, and I absolutely love how he came out! (You can see a couple photos here.) I had a few requests to make more, so that's what I'm working on at the moment.

Watching: We finished up season 4 of "Orphan Black" and now comes the long wait til the spring to find out what happens next. That show always has me on the edge of my seat! I also watched a few more episodes of the BBC period drama "Lark Rise to Candleford." It makes for such easy, pleasant viewing and it's the perfect thing to watch while knitting.

Baking: I made cinnamon rolls for the first time ever this week, and holy cow, were they good! I love baking and I love cinnamon rolls, and I think I must have subconsciously avoided making them for so long because a tiny little part of my brain knew I would end up devouring almost an entire pan by myself. These particular rolls-of-amazingness were pumpkin pecan cinnamon rolls with maple frosting; here's the recipe from Bakerella.

Buying: I pre-ordered myself the British version of the new illustrated "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." I wish I had thought to do that for the first illustrated edition last year, but oh well.

Looking forward to: My mom's visit is fast approaching -- she'll be here a week from tomorrow! We'll be going to Kauai, Jarrod's and my favorite island, for a few days and I hope she loves it as much as we do!

I'm linking up with Kathryn of Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Monday Musings from Colorado #4

Highlight of the week: I spent four days in Dallas visiting my best friend, Katie, last week. I only get to see her a couple times a year so it's a big treat! We had a fun few days; we visited Fort Worth to see the stockyards and the daily longhorn cattle drive, we went to the Dallas Zoo where Katie's a zookeeper, and we traveled to Waco to visit Magnolia Market (of the TV show "Fixer Upper"), the Dr. Pepper Museum and Waco Mammoth National Monument (Columbian mammoth fossils -- so cool!). Plus, Katie is fostering two baby raccoons that were displaced by construction at the zoo, and they were just about the most adorable things ever. Katie was also dog-sitting a goldendoodle puppy, so it was just cuteness all around!

Reading: I finished "A Murder in Time" by Julie McElwain and liked it pretty well; it was a page-turner, which is makes for great travel reading. The writing was nothing amazing but I enjoyed the plot, which involves time travel to 1815 England and a series of grisly murders. I also read "The Blue Bath" by Mary Waters-Sayer, an advance-read book I had from NetGalley that came out last Tuesday. It was ok... I didn't love the plot, though I did find it to be very well written. And last night I started "A Gathering of Shadows" by V.E. Schwab, book two in her Shades of Magic series, which features four parallel universe Londons. I liked "A Darker Shade of Magic" (review) and I have high hopes for book two!

Knitting: Finally, something to report on the knitting front! I ordered some yarn from Knit Picks before I headed to Dallas and it arrived on Saturday. Some of the yarn will be turned into a short-sleeve sweater, the Cap Sleeve Lattice Top by Purl Soho. I'm so excited to have a project back on the needles!

Buying: I ordered some earrings from one of my favorite Etsy shops, happyment, and they arrived the other day. This is my second pair of earrings from the shop and I absolutely LOVE them. I get compliments every time I wear the pair I bought several months ago. They're a bit of a splurge, but they're so well made and so pretty! Here's a picture of my new earrings (stolen from the shop listing).

Eating: Katie took me to Velvet Taco, an awesome little gourmet taco shop in Dallas. I had the annatto shredded pork taco and the spicy chicken tikka taco, along with a corn cup, something I'd never even heard of before but which was absolutely freakin' delicious. We also went to Sprinkles Cupcakes, one of the original cupcakeries and something Katie and I do every time I visit her in Dallas. It was Cinco de Mayo so I got a yummy margarita cupcake.

Watching: "The Big Short." The movie was cleverly done and the plot -- based on the 2008 housing crisis and crash of the big banks -- was fascinating and disturbing.

Looking forward to: Jarrod's been in Florida for a month-long training course for the job he'll be doing in Hawaii, and he gets back this weekend! Also, my little brother graduates college -- my alma mater, Colorado State -- on Saturday!

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I'm linking up with Kathryn of Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Monday Musings

Highlight of the week: We had a wonderful Sunday! It was the perfect weather for doing something outside -- which was lucky because I was already planning to drag poor Jarrod to the Wool Gathering festival in the next town over, a big event all about fiber arts! We also scoured the fields for our perfect pumpkins and enjoyed apple cider slushies from a local orchard. Oh yeah, and we had a super-healthy lunch of white cheddar cheese curds with house-made ranch dressing. Mmmmmm. Pumpkins, yarn, fried cheese and sunshine. Pretty damn good day!

As for a bad but interesting highlight, some kids set off a stink bomb in the library while I was working on Saturday. I had never experienced the horrors of a stink bomb before -- and I actually initially blamed the rotten-egg smell on a poor elderly gentleman I was helping before we all realized that it was something waaaay worse than mere flatulence.

Reading: I am SO terribly behind on book reviews, but I have actually been doing a lot of reading lately. I finished "War of the Encylopaedists" by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite (4 stars), blew through "Kitchens of the Great Midwest" (4.5-5 stars, not yet decided), and read a local true crime book called "The Girl on the Volkswagen Floor" (3 stars) about an unsolved murder in a Dayton suburb in the '60s. The book had been circulating among my co-workers at the library with good reviews, but I was a little disappointed in it. At least I read it in a day! Now I'm on to "The Dog Master" by W. Bruce Cameron. I also signed up for R.I.P. X, a fun event centered on reading scary books (mysteries, thrillers, horror, etc.) this fall!

Knitting: This week I finally had a chance to finish sleeve #1 of my BlueSand Cardigan. It went from looking like a wonky vest-y thing to a potentially wearable garment! I got started on the second sleeve last night while Jarrod was watching football. After that I'll have to finish the pockets, sew in a gazillion yarn ends, block and then... I'll have knitted a sweater! I've enjoyed this project so much that I already picked out -- and ordered yarn for -- my next sweater. It'll be Recoleta by Joji Locatelli, knit in Malabrigo Rios in teal.

Watching: "The Age of Adaline." I really, really wanted to see it in the theater but didn't have time. And I'm actually kind of glad I didn't. It wasn't bad by any means, but it definitely wasn't as fantastic as I expected. I thought the movie would be focused mostly on Adaline's "past" lives, but it was really just about present-day. I wanted so much more information and background. We're also still really enjoying "Fear the Walking Dead."

Considering watching: A lot of the new fall shows start this week! I always seem to pick the absolute worst new shows to try, but I'm considering checking out "Code Black," "Quantico," "Blindspot," "The Bastard Executioner," "Limitless," "Life in Pieces"  and "The Grinder" Or maybe none of them... I still have tons of stuff on the DVR to get caught up on -- and as I said, I have pretty much the worst track record ever when it comes to deciding which new shows to watch!

Eating: Young's Dairy cheese curds. De-lish.

Shopping for: Ankle boots. And I'm having a pretty tough time finding some that match the vision I have in my head. I bought five new shirts this week, so my fall must-do shopping is pretty much done other than the elusive booties.

Following: @andrewknapp on Instagram. Processing new books at the library Saturday I came across one called "Find Momo," which is kind of like "Where's Waldo" with beautiful photographs and a cute border collie. Check it out! (Andrew Knapp is Momo the dog's daddy.)

Looking forward to: Making apple dumplings with the fresh Cortland apples I picked up at a local orchard yesterday! Perfect dessert for the first week of fall.

Monday Musings (from Colorado)

 

Highlight of the week: We're in Colorado visiting my parents for the week and it's been so nice to see them and enjoy the absolutely stunning scenery of my home state. On Sunday we hiked to Lost Lake, a beautiful turquoise lake tucked high up in the mountains. We definitely noticed the altitude change -- it was a fairly short and easy hike, but we were huffing and puffing! (More pics on my Instagram!)

Reading: Last week I read "The Book of Speculation," which was a pretty cool book that earned four stars (review to come one of these days). On the flight I started a book I've been waiting for the library to get forever -- "Rubbernecker" by U.K. author Belinda Bauer. It's about a super-smart medical student with Asperger's who notices something fishy going on with the cadavers. So far, so good!

Knitting: I didn't have much time to knit this week, but I did get started on the sleeve of my BlueSand Cardigan. I've had such a good time working on an actual garment that I already bought a pattern for my next cardigan!

 Watching: We got caught up on the first two episodes of "Fear the Walking Dead" and I'm totally into it! It's totally different from the regular "Walking Dead" as it deals with the beginning of the zombie infestation and it's actually way more terrifying. We were a little skeptical before we started watching, but Jarrod and I both like it so far.

Eating: If you ever have a chance to eat at Rudy's BBQ, do it!!!! We first discovered Rudy's when we were stationed in middle-of-nowhere Del Rio, Texas, and it was pretty much the only good thing about living there. Now there's one in Colorado Springs -- yay!



Looking forward to: The rest of the week here in Colorado! Jarrod and I are going to drive up Pikes Peak and head up north to Rocky Mountain National Park. And we're going to see "A Walk in the Woods" at the theater with my mom. And of course I'm going to enjoy spending as much time with my family as possible -- I usually only get to see them once or twice a year so it's a treat! :)

Monday Musings

Highlights of the week: Holy cow, this week was totally awesome! There was a highlight on every day:

Monday: My husband is in the Air Force and we'll be moving to a new base this winter. The assignment list with all the possible jobs for Jarrod's rank and career field was released Monday, so now we know what our potential living locations might be! There were some not-so-great places but some exciting ones too, like Colorado, California, Seattle, Alaska, Virginia, Florida, Germany and England. Now Jarrod has to put together his top-20 list and we'll find out this fall where we're moving. (There's NO guarantee whatsoever that he'll get anything he wants -- it hasn't happened yet! -- so we'll just have to wait with bated breath!)

Tuesday: We went to see the Broadway show "The Book of Mormon"! It was written by the creators of "South Park" (Colorado natives -- woo hoo!) and it was absolutely hilarious. I fully recommend it! Even Jarrod was laughing out loud, and that never happens.

Wednesday - Thursday: My best friend Katie was in town for her brother's wedding and we got to hang out in the middle of the week. Katie lives in Dallas and I hardly get to see her, so any day we spend together is a great one!

Friday: We set off for Tennessee and Jarrod's 30th birthday gift from me, the NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Saturday: The race! It was my first-ever NASCAR race and it was so much fun. A lot of people say, "Why would you want to watch cars driving around in a circle?" and I admit that I usually read or knit while my husband watches races on TV, but in person it was a totally different experience! The vibration in my seat, the smell of rubber, the incredible noise! It was a blast!

Sunday: We visited the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, which was just gorgeous. The Vanderbilt residence, finished in 1895, is the largest privately-owned house in North America with 250 rooms and situated on 8,000 beautiful acres. Not surprisingly, my favorite room was the library. And the gardens were totally stunning -- they were designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of Central Park and the Chicago World's Fair, who was featured in a great book I read a few months ago, "The Devil in the White City." After touring the Biltmore, we headed  back to Tennessee and made our way to our cabin in the Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg. The Smokies are one of my favorite places on the planet. So incredibly peaceful and relaxing.

Also: Our veggie garden is doing awesome this year, as you can see below. And our mini pumpkins have exploded. Fingers crossed for a bumper crop -- I love pumpkins!

Reading: I'm still working my way through "The Little Paris Bookshop." It seems like it's taking me forever to read this short book! I think it has something to do with it being translated; the writing just doesn't always flow that well for me. I also started the audiobook of the first Harry Dresden novel by Jim Buctcher, "Storm Front." I'm enjoying the narration so far, and the story is intriguing.

Eating: Tons of barbecue! We ate at Ridgewood Barbecue near Bristol and Moe's Original Bar-B-Que in Asheville, and we'll be eating at Calhoun's and Hungry Bears BBQ here in Gatlinburg. Also, Krispy Kreme donuts! We have a tradition of always getting a box of fresh  Krispy Kremes when we arrive in Gatlinburg. We accidentally attracted a bear to our cabin with our empty Krispy Kreme box the first time we came here together two years ago (blame the cabin owner for not having a fully bear-proof trash can) and now we get Krispy Kremes as our bear-sighting good luck charm. Hasn't failed us yet!

Looking forward to: Spending the next couple days in the enchanted forest that is the Smoky Mountains!

Monday Musings

Highlight(s) of the week: Jarrod was gone for work this week and I definitely made the best of having the house to myself. Of course I miss him, but I did enjoy finally watching all of last season's "Downton Abbey" (can you believe there will only be one more season? Sniff, sniff...) and spending a shameful number of hours outside reading in my hammock.

I also did some online shopping this week and ordered this awesome Hermione Granger shirt that says, "When in doubt, go to the library." Is there a more perfect shirt to wear to work at the library? And I also ordered some Pilot Varsity fountain pens. I've been wanting to start writing my letters with a fountain pen for a while and I'm told these disposables are perfect starter pens.

Thinking: Can you believe it's August and that the summer is 2/3 over already? Ohio had such a cool, rainy start to the season and it's only now feeling like actual summer. I'm definitely enjoying the blue skies and copious sunshine -- and I wish we could just press pause! We have a busy month and a half ahead of us and before we know it, it'll be fall. This is our last summer in Ohio before we move to parts unknown next winter. I love Ohio summers and I'm trying to enjoy the mild nights, bountiful fireflies, beautiful wildflowers and all the sweet corn and delicious ice cream cones I can handle!

Reading: As I mentioned, this was a banner week for reading. I finished up the audiobook of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (I can't say enough about the awesome HP audiobooks!), finished "The Kill Artist" by Daniel Silva (ok), read "The Bookseller" by Cynthia Swanson (meh) and blew through "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson (surprisingly phenomenal). Now I'm reading "See Also Murder" by Larry Sweazy, set in the 1960s and about an indexer (literally, a woman who makes indexes for the back of books) and a murder mystery.

Knitting: Still working on my BlueSand Cardgian. It was coming out way to small so I ended up ripping the entire thing out and starting over last Monday. I was devastated, and I almost shed a tear over the whole fiasco! But now I'm back on track and almost caught up to the place I had been before disaster ensued.

Watching: I watched all of last season's "Downton Abbey," which was totally awesome, as well as "The Longest Ride," which was surprisingly good for a Nicholas Sparks movie. Not only was it the best Sparks movie I've seen (and, yes, I think I've seen them all), it was the best movie I've watched in a while. After I finished "Downton" I watched the first episode of another PBS series, "Mr. Selfridge." I wasn't totally hooked, though, so I'm not sure if I'll continue. I also watched "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" since I just finished the audiobook and was reminded of how different the movies are from the books. Ugh!

Eating:
Last week I mentioned that I made these blackberry cheesecake bars from the Pioneer Woman to take into work. Well, I saved a few for myself and I ate them alllll week. And they only got better with time. I highly recommend this recipe!

Quote of the week: "Books were my transport to the larger world, even though I'd castrated more hogs than I would like to admit, pulled weeds until my hands ached well into winter, and withstood the fickleness of North Dakota weather like every other farmer's wife I knew. Farm work was in my blood, but books had always been my first true love. They were my magic carpet ride to a normal life; my sanity." -- Marjorie Trumaine in "See Also Murder" by Larry Sweazy

Three Days in Dallas

A couple weeks ago I had an awesome little three-day getaway to visit my best friend Katie in Dallas. She works at the Dallas Zoo and I got an fantastic behind-the-scenes tour. And we ate delicious cupcakes from Sprinkles, a famous cupcakery, and visited Dinosaur Valley State Park. It was so fun to hang out my bestie and her adorable dog, Ruby -- neither of whom I get to see often enough!


Here's a picture from my zoo tour! That's me on the left, Katie on the right, and Katie's friend Shannon in the middle with the adorable penguin. It was so downy-soft!

Check out that tongue!

Yum yum! We had a delicious meal of gourmet pizza and this tasty dessert pizza (topped with mascarpone and Nutella among other things) at a place called Cane Rosso.

Sprinkles and its snazzy Cupcake ATM!

We just so happened to visit Sprinkles on its 10th anniversary, and in exchange for waiting in a rather lengthy line we got our cupcakes for free! I got a Cuban Coffee cupcake and it was amazing! Just thinking about that coffee frosting is making my mouth water.

On the last day of my trip we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, about an hour and a half southwest of Dallas. The park is home to lots of fossilized dinosaur prints.

The Texas bluebonnets were in bloom and the fields of blue were stunning!

Here's Katie and Ruby.

These pretty reddish-orange flowers are known as Indian paintbrush.

More gorgeous bluebonnets.

Butterfly Cupcakes: A Pinterest Success

Aren't these butterfly cupcakes just so cute and spring-y? I actually had good luck with something from Pinterest for a change -- here's the link to my "pinspiration." 

The wings are white chocolate-covered pretzels. The initial recipe used pre-made pretzels but I dipped my own -- and then used sprinkles to cover up the mess I made of the chocolate. The butterfly bodies are pastel M&Ms and the antennae are a pull-apart sour candy that I snipped into little pieces.

These decorations were fun and fairly easy to put together and the chocolate-covered pretzels added a yummy, crunchy, slightly salty element to balance out the sweetness. Success!

Knitting Update + Valentines and Sushi

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I just got the last of my valentines in the mail this afternoon. I'm sensing a trend here... the top two cards are from my grandma and my mom, and the bottom two are from the packs I sent out to friends and family. I guess you could say I'm a dog person! ;) 

 

Saturday was a beautiful day for winter in Ohio -- it was in the upper 40s and not overcast for a change! Jarrod and I decided we needed to get out of the house, so we went to a new sushi place someone had told him about called Fusian. It's basically a build-your-own sushi restaurant where you go down the assembly line and point out what you want on your roll, from a variety of proteins to several different sauces and toppings to finish off. I was super excited because I always end up with vegetarian sushi since I don't eat seafood, but Fusian had chicken! It was so fun to customize what we wanted on our rolls -- I got chicken, avocado, carrots, cucumbers, green onions and cream cheese with spicy mayo and tempura crunch. Mmmm, I can almost taste it now!  Yum yum yum! We'll definitely be frequenting this place!
 

 And here's my progress on the Follow Your Arrow 2 MKAL. (Here's my Ravelry project page.) I was really loving my shawl up to this point, but I'm a little disappointed in this clue. I think I should've gone with the other option, which made more of a chevron shape and would've flowed a lot better with clue 3.

On the other hand, I do like how clue 4 continued on with the nature theme I've decided I have going. I think the pattern is supposed to represent a quiver of arrows, but to me it looks like a bouquet of flowers. It's so pretty that I can't bear to rip it out, so I'm just crossing my fingers that the last clue ties everything together. I can't believe we only have one more clue left -- it's bittersweet! Mystery knit-alongs are so much fun, and there's an extra anticipation factor with this one because there are two totally different choices each week. I'll miss waking up Monday mornings and logging onto Ravelry first thing to see what beautiful clues await!