I am a nonfiction newbie. I really only started to read nonfiction in the last few years, and then this year my reading has been a little wonky and off. So, I am turning to you all as experts this week!
There are some books calling my name lately.. books set in areas near the cold coast of the Atlantic Ocean. I am not sure what this is about really. Maybe I have spent too much time reading woodland books, and I want to explore the deep. Maybe it is because I am a water sign, born in November, just a few days after the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. My ancestors were shipbuilders in England before coming to America, and they continued to be shipbuilders here in Detroit; my great-uncle worked on the Edmund Fitzgerald, and my mom even attended the launch. So, maybe there is a bit of sea in my soul somewhere. (I did have a palm reader in New Orleans tell me I had been a ship’s captain who went down with his ship in a past life..) Anyway, I am making a list of books that fit this sort of profile and I have three on my list so far, and I would love any other suggestions before I dive in to this topic. (pun intended)
These are the books I have lined up so far.
Any other suggestions out there? I will take nonfiction, and fiction too! And on both sides of the Atlantic, not just the UK side. Anyone read these and have thoughts on them? I know The Salt Path is a big favorite, and I plan to read it very soon.
Thanks! I look forward to your comments and visiting your posts!
Last night, my Uncle Art lost his three week battle with COVID. He fought hard as he did his whole life when confronted with challenges but in the end COVID was the impossible hill. We couldn’t say goodbye, we couldn’t be with him, but he wasn’t alone, as a nurse with a huge heart, my sister-in-law’s sister, was working that shift and sat with him so that he wasn’t all alone. These heroes at the frontline don’t have the luxury of saying they are tired of COVID. They see the families and the devastation everyday. Thank God that my Uncle wasn’t completely alone.
I always had a special relationship with Uncle Art. My love of gardening was born in his yard, summers spent racing around then stopping to grab a peach from his trees, rhubarb and strawberries and blueberries, the strange magic of watching peanuts grow. We planted peanuts this year because my uncle did when I was a kid, and I thought it was so crazy that they grew underground. When I got older, and started planting my own garden, we would get together in January and have coffee and doughnuts and plan our gardens together, pick out seeds to share. He would help me start them, and then when fall came around, I learned how to can tomatoes and make jam with him. He was so capable and could do so much. He could quilt and knit and sew; he was a career plumber who designed the systems for some of the biggest buildings in Detroit. He was the Drum Major in Saint Andrews band, which is where my aunt and my mother met him, when my mom was just eight years old. (they were Highland dancers) He loved to tell jokes and watch hockey, played it too when he was younger. When Wyatt was born, Wyatt loved him from the start and would seek him out to sit by and play with as he got older, because Uncle Art liked to joke around with him. The last time we were able to see him was at Wyatt’s birthday in March – and now he is gone. I will carry what I have learned from him though, through the rest of my life and will teach Wyatt, and whenever I plant a garden or make jam or even bake, I will think of him.
This next part is from an old blog of mine, Quixotic Magpie. I spent a day learning how to make coconut tarts from Uncle Art, and blogged about it to his delight. He was so tickled to see it on the internet, and I thought I would reshare it.
My family is divided into two camps: The Coconut Tart people, and the Empire Biscuit people. Don’t get me wrong, we will gladly eat either/or, but..we have a preference for one or the other. I love a good Empire Biscuit, but Coconut Tarts are my weakness. My grandma made them every Christmas and it was the dessert I looked forward to the most.
My grandmother is gone now, but my Uncle Art has taken up the mantle, and baked the tarts for the holidays. Yesterday I spent some much needed time in the kitchen, learning how to bake these tarts. I have decided to share my love for these with all of you! Just note – I am not a baker, nor am I a food blogger. Lol. My tarts look a little more rustic than professional – I have not managed pretty food yet, just yummy tasting! Because these turned out awesome in flavor, if I do say so myself.
Surprisingly, these are not a health food! 🙂 They are fattening and delicious!
Ingredients for the gooey coconut filling:
3/4 cup sugar 1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 lb. butter melted 1 egg 3/4 cup coconut, firmly packed
For the pastry – my uncle’s version: 2 c. flour 2/3 c. butter flavored Crisco + 4 additional TB (my mom uses cold butter but I don’t know how much) a pinch of salt 2/3 c. water
Preheat the oven to 425.
We made the filling first, but I don’t think it matters which you start with. It was easy! Basically, just combine all the above ingredients in a bowl, and whisk until everything is mixed really well. You want to make sure you really incorporate the sugar, it has a tendency to want to sit on the bottom.
Next we made the pastry- this was a little bit more complex but not too terribly difficult. I just really hate getting my hands dirty. Bleh. You start by adding all the ingredients together in a medium to large size bowl- we used a vintage Pyrex one which I am sure was not bought vintage like mine were. Then I cut it in the Crisco using a pastry cutter. Once this was all cut in well, my uncle showed me the next technique, of making the dough all crumbly. I am not sure of the technical terms, but we called it making it crumbly.
This technique involved running it between his hands, using the friction to combine it and make it all crumbled into little balls, Once the mixture was all crumbly balls, we could easily roll it all together into a ball.
Ta-da!Once we had this nice round ball of dough, we split it into two balls. Next, we placed one of the halves onto a floured piece of wax paper to roll out. We also put another piece of wax paper over the top of the dough, so it was sandwiched between two floured sheets of wax paper. Then I commenced rolling. You want it nice and thin, but not too thin. Maybe 1/4 inch thick.
We had some little helping hands too. My cousin’s three year old daughter assisted me. Once it is rolled out, you can cut circles to place into the muffin tray. I would say the one my uncle used was about 4″ across. He said this was not perfect but it worked for him. So maybe the size of a wide mouth water glass.
Once you roll out all the dough and have cut the circles, you can start slowly placing them into the muffin tin. This part is the slowest, most laborious part in my opinion.
Mine were a bit messy but looked like this when I was done. A bit of a trick – instead of using your fingers to press the dough down into the tins and onto the sides, once you have it set in loosely, you can use a small lump of dough as a little press instead of your fingers. Once you have everything ready to go, you are ready to fill! Give that filling a good whisking again to stir up any sugar that may have settled while you did all this stuff with the dough. When finished, add about 2 TB filling to each tart. This is entirely up to you, how much is added. I just wouldn’t suggest all the way to the top, because then they will overflow during cooking. Pop them into the oven for about 15 minutes (12-17, but we did 15) until the dough is a nice golden brown, and the filling has a nice golden color as well. My uncle then covers his with a dish towel for a few minutes to trap the heat a little longer without baking.
Once they cool, enjoy! Perfect with a milky, sugary cup of tea. Yum!
And that is all there is to it! I hope I did an ok job explaining this – I didn’t realize how difficult it was to write down a recipe that is mostly conveyed by look and feel in our family. If you try to make them, let me know how it goes!
Nonfiction November this week is all about book pairings, and I did mine on The Simplicity of Cider and The Cider Revival; however, when I was considering books for that particular post, I thought about adding a second pair and decided not too. I haven’t read the nonfiction half yet, although it is on my TBR for this winter. But then I got an email that made me change my mind. But, books first!
I loved this series by Nevada Barr, and my favorite was Winter Study, set in my own home state of Michigan. I love to read books set here, and I have always been fascinated by Isle Royale, it’s remoteness, and it’s animal inhabitants, especially the wolves. Then a few years ago while at the zoo, we talked to a few scientists who had a table set up about this very topic, the wolves and moose of Isle Royale. They had spent months there studying the population of both, their relationship, and all that good stuff. It was fascinating to talk to them, and afterwards I added this Rolf Peterson book to my TBR.
Which leads me to today when I received an email from the Wolf Conservation Center in New York. (we “adopt” a wolf there every year- this year we adopted Deven) This email was about a free webinar being given by Dr. Rolf Peterson, about the wolf restoration happening on Isle Royale. I just thought the timing was so coincidental, since I had just been thinking about this topic this week! I immediately signed up of course, and I am excitedly looking forward to it. It is November 19th at 6 pm EST, if anyone is interested in signing up as well!
I am writing this a day early, on election day so I have lots of feels going on right now! My kiddo is napping and I am drinking my millionth cup of coffee, tucked under a blanket, listening to a podcast while I type. I had a tough time with the prompts this month!
Appreciating: Well, this is an easy one, My husband of 20 years, today. We have been together since we were seventeen and he is still my rock, my best friend, my fellow explorer of this world and parenting, my love, just my everything. We have grown and changed so much over the years but we have always grown in the same direction.
Ordering: Christmas gifts and baby firepits for our porch, which we think we are really going to need this fall. Also anniversary gifts and er, my own birthday gift..
Planning: Our winter projects, my reading list, small celebrations for the three of us for Thanksgiving, comfort meals. I made cottage pie the other night and we ate it with cider to toast with. It was delicious and perfect for the cold blustery day we were having!
Perfecting: Not much! Lol. We are working on our pie and bread making this month, which is becoming a tradition. Other than that, I guess I am perfecting how to be cozy and hygge. Lots of tea, blankets, books, warm sweaters.
Wearing: At the beginning of fall, I ordered a few new things and I am loving this sweatshirt cardigan I bought from Tentree. It is cozy and warm and has a hood, plus little thumb holes. And pockets! It is perfect.
It’s a big day here in America, and I know most of the country is feeling anxious and worried about what will happen should their candidate not win. It is just more uncertainty for a year already filled with uncertainty and upheaval. It’s a rough one, I know. I am trying my very best to look past this day and moment to the things I can control (a mantra of mine this year!) I am also drinking lots of tea and eating chocolate.
October flew by. We had some good times! Time outside, exploring, with friends, with family as best we could. We even celebrated our first snow of the season with Chinese takeout, a long time tradition of ours! We splurged and ordered from a fancy Chinese restaurant in Detroit, The Peterboro. That bao was amazing…
This month Billy and I celebrate our 20th anniversary – tomorrow, actually! That is crazy to me. Aren’t we still just 20 years old? Lol. Then, my birthday is midmonth, on the 16th. I am not sharing that number though. We have some ideas in mind to make this month as special as we can despite the circumstances. I am busily putting together our lesson plans for the rest of the month and December, thinking of ways to socially distance and see our family, which in Michigan might get tricky with this weather, planning new creative projects to try. And it is pie month for Billy and I!
Whatever this month holds I am trying to keep looking forward and keep on keeping on.
We had a pretty good week last week! We spent a lot of the week preparing for the little Halloween party my sister-in-law was planning for the kids. It was small and outside, and masked. It was perfect for our kiddos to do something to celebrate the holiday. Wyatt went as a raven. Dinogirl was a butterfly, and my friend’s daughter was a mermaid. They painted pumpkins, made slime, and took turns hitting the pinata. We were home by 3, and we made nachos for dinner and watched The cartoon Legend of Sleepy Hollow followed by the Johnny Depp version. A different kind of Halloween but a good one.
Read Last Week:
So, I tried the Kelley Armstrong and couldn’t get into it. I think partly because I had just read a similar feeling book the week before that I hadn’t enjoyed – I will try reading A Stitch in Time again because I was actually enjoying the actual writing, just not the story line, if that makes sense. I ended up pulling an old favorite out and reading it.
Reading This Week:
Something about November makes me want to read moody water books, and this one looks fantastic. I am also reading a book for nonfiction November but I am going to share that at a later date.
We are watching Vexed (Acorn via Amazon) which is pretty funny and easy to watch, just what we wanted! We are also watching the Bake Off, of course, and Sherlock.
And that is from our corner of the world. Stay safe everyone!
We actually had activities on our calendar this week, two days in a row! On Friday we took a little trip to the pumpkin patch and on Saturday, we had our Wild Hunt, a little treasure hunt in the wild that Billy and I organized. Both were so much fun! I am planning a post on our Wild Hunt for midweek, and I am so excited to talk about it. We were also supposed to go to the library’s curbside trick-or-treat but Wyatt was pretty worn out and had fallen asleep so we missed it. I guess we are not used to doing so many things anymore! I also made bread last week, something I had on my bucket list! Check that box off! Now to keep it up. I also started prepping for Nonfiction November!
Read Last Week:
I had planned on reading The Once and Future Witches but for some reason the digital download would never work! It was very frustrating. I ended up reading The Haunting of Brynn Wilder, which I think was one of the free Amazon Prime Reads for the month. It was a little meh for me – enough to keep me reading but I felt like I kept waiting for the haunting to happen but it was a different sort of haunting and it felt very anti-climatic to me. I never really bought the relationship between the two main characters either, unfortunately.
Reading This Week:
I am looking forward to this one! I usually love Kelley Armstrong and my husband and I are mini-book clubbing this one together. I am reading it, he is listening to it. It has been a while since we have done this so I am excited.
I can’t believe this, but we are watching Father Brown again. We just haven’t found a replacement for it yet. We are also watching Sherlock, which we are LOVING, My Dream Farm with Monty Don, Unsolved Mysteries Season 2, the Great British Baking Show, and I really want to try The Haunting of Bly Manor although I am nervous to start it because although I can read scary things, and listen to scary things, I am a wimp when watching scary things. And we are heading into the Halloween home stretch now, woohoo! Our Halloween is going to be different this year, but still fun. Chrissy is planning a little mini party, social distanced, for our kids that will have pre-made treat bags, pumpkin painting, Halloween Bingo, and hopefully a pinata, if Billy can pull it off!
It was a busy busy week around here. So many doctor appointments and conversations with insurance companies – ugh. I got my flu and pneumonia shots this week too, so another box checked on my list. It was a week really, of busy work like that, getting stuff done – I guess we really are like squirrels over here, getting ready for winter. Making bread, collecting seeds from the garden, cleaning and rearranging – my husband is getting ready to paint our family room and I am really excited about that. It gets so dark in there in the winter that the lighter paint color is going to make a huge difference. So, lots of preparations happening around here.
Read Last Week:
Oh my gosh, I loved this book! I think it really explores relationships, especially in families, in a very unique way… I would put this on my list of one of the best I have read all year.
Reading This Week:
I am really excited to read this! I feel like I have been waiting to read it for such a long time. Yay!!!
The Great British Bake Off, Father Brown again since we apparently love that show, Sherlock, and Victorian Farm. And then starting next week we are going to start watching all of our spooky Halloween favorites, starting with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow – both the Disney cartoon and the version starring Johnny Depp.
And that is it from our corner of the world. Stay safe everyone!
If I thought August flew by, I wasn’t ready for September. The last Currently post, I was actually sitting in my son’s hospital room post-surgery. The rest of the month was a bit of a blur. But, we can only keep moving forward – the story of 2020 for us. October is my favorite month in all the year and while it will be different for us this year, we can still get in our autumn hikes!
Anyway, on to the prompts!
Admiring: The terrariums I am seeing on Pinterest! I have plans to create a few myself this winter, to keep the feeling of green and life going throughout the cold and dark winter and wow, I have seen some amazing ones! There are seriously so many inspiring, creative terrariums out there – with snails, with mushrooms, with flowers, with succulents, some whimsical, and even some that are Star Wars themed.
Making: Bread, soup and other cozy recipe favorites, lists, lesson plans, and grocery pick up orders, and fun October spooky plans to watch scary movies and read ghost stories…
Going: To park and picnic dates, socially distanced wine nights with my friends, and back to the woods and wild for our hikes
Scheduling: Medical appointments, homeschool field trips to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard, a family yet socially distanced Halloween Trunk or Treat or at least a bonfire with my brother and his family
This past week was another low-key week. I did spend A LOT of time on the phone with doctors and insurance companies, and Wyatt had two appointments as well, so it was a big medical week around here. Friday and Saturday we got a chance to relax finally. Friday Wyatt and my niece Dinogirl had nature class together at the park where we hiked and searched for squirrels, then Saturday Billy and I and Wyatt took a hike together at a new trail system that just opened near us. It’s always fun to hike a new route!
Read Last Week/Reading This Week:
Not a thing. My reading was all off, which is just how it has been this year. It’s a new week though, and I am trying two different books to see if that helps.
I started Return to Virgin River and so far I am enjoying it! I am also planning on starting Help the Witch; I love Tom Cox and this looks appropriately spooky for the season. Anyone else follow him on Instagram by the way? It’s a great account full of humor and cats and countrysides.
We watched and enjoyed Queens of Mystery on Acorn – I was bummed it was so short of a series. I guess there is going to be a second season, but it is on hold due to COVID. Like much of 2020. We also found an old favorite Victorian Farmhouse on there too, and started rewatching it as well. We began a few things to sample and decide what we are going to binge next – Vera, Maigret, Outer Banks on Netflix, The Moonstone (2016), and Emily in Paris on Netflix for something lighthearted. I think we are going to stick with Emily in Paris and The Moonstone. Finally, we watched Enola Holmes for our movie night, which was cuter than we expected but good.
I am still listening to a million podcasts, with Redhanded and Casefile getting the most playtime, followed up by Homemaker Chic. I hope to add in some ghost story/haunted pods this month, so if anyone knows any, let me know in the comments! Wyatt has been listening to a few podcasts as well – Earth Rangers is his favorite, but we also listen to Classical Kids Storytime and Storynory.
And that is it for us! My thoughts are with all of you now, with the current state of this world in turmoil, that you are staying safe.
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 