Book Review: The Lovely Bones

I just finished reading The Lovely Bones. It took me well over a month to finish it - not because it was long but because every time I picked it up, I never felt like I had to keep reading.

That sounds like a negative but in this case it really wasn't a bad thing. It was nice to be able to read a book for just a few hours once a week and never feel like when I picked it up again I might be lost or I might have forgotten what had happened since the last time I read.

The back of the book reads:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her - her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

With the above description I figured it would be some kind of murder mystery type book but we find out who killed Susie on the second page. That's when I thought that maybe it isn't a mystery to the reader but it will be a murder mystery to the characters in the book who are still living. It wasn't that either. The whole book is written from Susie's point of view - which was a little different (in a good way) considering she was dead the whole time - and was basically just Susie watching the lives of her family and friends from heaven.

You'd think that a big climax of the book would be the fate of her murdering, but it was really anti-climatic, just a little blurb toward the end - it was written in a way that made it hardly seem important. Any maybe, given everything else that happens, it wasn't important - I still thought it was strange that so little emphasis was put on it when a good chunk of the beginning and middle of the book focuses on the murderer.

The back of the book also indicates that the story might contain some humor, but to be honest, I don't recall thinking anything in the story was funny at all. It is actually a quite disturbing story at times and it was on the sixth or seventh page when I went "Oh, that's why the movie was rated R."

Overall I'd say The Lovely Bones was good. Not great, but good.

Recipe: Mission Casserole

As mentioned in a previous post, CJ really likes chips. One day he was sitting at the kitchen counter eating chips and salsa. The bag of chips was sitting on the counter and CJ proceeded to read the recipes on the bag. He came across one he though sounded interesting: Mexican Beef Casserole. I wasn't immediately convinced but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try, so we tried it, and I was surprised how much I liked it.

This happened the next few times we had Mission Casserole - CJ wanted to put in on the menu, I wasn't excited about but did it anyway and was always surprised how much I liked it once it was cooked up and being eaten. We've now had it enough times that I'm no longer surprised at how good it is.

As I'm sure you noticed, the bag called the recipe Mexican Beef Casserole but I'm referring to it as Mission Casserole - that is because it was on a bag of Mission brand chips. The first few times CJ and I had it we couldn't remember what it was really called so we just called it Mission Casserole and it kind of stuck with us.

If you want to see the recipe for yourself it is on the Mission brand triangle chips - not the circles or the strips, just the triangles. I think we used the triangles the first time but we get our chips at Costco in a 3lb bag that costs a lot less per ounce than buying the same brand at Walmart (technically the bag says they are Kirkland brand but the bag also says they are made by Mission, so basically the same thing). We did, however, have to go to Walmart to get the recipe off a bag of triangles once because we lost it where we had written it down before. I didn't write all the actual cooking instructions down so what I have below is paraphrased.

Ingredients:
1 pound beef
1 onion
1 tomato
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 - 10 ounces Velveeta
1 7 ounce can green chilis
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
tortilla chips

To Make:
1. Saute meat, onions, and tomatoes until meat is cooked through.
2. Combine soup, cheese, chilies, and milk. Heat until cheese is melted.


3. Layer chips then meat mix then cheese mix in a greased 9 x 13 pan.









4. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.


My Tips:
- CJ doesn't like tomatoes and I don't like cooked tomatoes so we don't add the tomato to the meat and onion. Instead I just cut up the tomato and put it on top when the casserole is done.

- The recipe just does one layer of everything but CJ likes to do multiple layers: 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese then 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese. It works out fine either way.

- After it is cooked we'll also add different toppings: tomatoes, bell peppers, salsa, extra cheese, jalapenos, etc. It's nice that CJ can put what he likes on his while I can put what I like on mine.






Nutritional Information:
These Nutritional Facts assume that each casserole has 8 servings, that 6 ounces of chips, lean beef, 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, and Velveeta made from 2% milk (as opposed the whole milk in the original kind of Velveeta) is used.

DIY: Bar Stool Re-Upholstery

Now that I have a kitchen table I have all kinds of plans for DIY projects in the kitchen. I decided to start with re-upholstering my bar stools.

I've had these bar stools for years. I think I bought them for $25 each from Walmart for my first birthday out of college, so several years. They work just fine but they're pretty boring - just plain brown. I wanted to spruce them up a bit.

Like my last fabric project I started out by choosing fabric. I wanted a main fabric with an interesting pattern and colors that incorporated the colors of paint in my downstairs (a tealy-blue in the kitchen, light yellow in the dining area, and an out-doorsy green in the living room) as well as incorporating my accept color - deep pink. Sounds like a tall order and it was. That's a lot of colors to try to get into one fabric. Then I also wanted a solid color, anything but yellow, and a pink fabric with a simple pattern. As soon as I found the main fabric I completely fell in love with it and the other two came pretty simply. Here are the fabrics that I will be using with my kitchen DIY projects:


I especially love that the fabric with all the colors also has brown in it because my kitchen table and server are brown. It's the best.

Re-upholstering bar stools is easy enough. Here are the supplies I needed and the costs.

1. About 2 yards of fabric. I used the one with all the different colors, it was about $6.99 per yard and I didn't use a coupon (I should have waited until I had a coupon but its too late now for that). That's a total fabric cost of about $14.

2. A staple gun. I didn't have one of these so I had to purchase one. I ended up buying one at Sears for about $23. I hope to get a lot of good use out of it.

3. Staples. I read on a blog once that re-upholstering projects can use a surprising number of staples so, even though the staple gun came with a few, I decided to buy an extra box. The box had 1,000 staples for about $3. I have plenty left over for later projects.

4. Fabric scissors. I purchased these with a previous fabric project, so no new costs.

That's a total cost of $40 for this project, but that does include the staple gun and staples which will be good for future projects. I actually spent a lot more than that on fabric but I'm only including the cost of the fabric for this one project. I decided to start with the bar stools project because I don't own a sewing machine and my other projects will require sewing. Actually re-upholstering the stools was super easy!

1. Cut the fabric. Make sure to cut plenty for fitting around the base of the stool. When I did some measuring I decided that 24" x 24" inches would probably be ideal but my fabric wasn't 48" wide and I wanted to be able to cut out two for the width of the fabric. I think I ended up cutting the fabric 24" x 20" which worked out just fine.

2. Iron the fabric back-side up. Ok, this probably could have been step #1 and in a lot of cases ironing the fabric should come before cutting but the cutting for this didn't exactly need to be perfect, so I did it a little backwards.

3. Staple the fabric to the back of the base of the stool. I like how the base is round so I didn't have to worry about making sure that the pattern was going the right direction or the same direction on every stool; made it easy.

Also since the base was round I had to figure out how to staple the fabric without leaving wrinkles in the up-side of the stool base. I ended up putting one staple in on each of the four main sides (circles don't have sides but whatever) then folding in the fabric between staples making sure to pull tight (but not too tight).

By the way, using the staple gun was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought my hand would be tired by the time I finished the first bar stool but it didn't start to hurt until halfway through the third but I was still good to finish all four bar stools. And, using the staple gun was some seriously good fun!

4. Cut the extra fabric.

5. Place bases back on the bar stool.

Side notes: I just used a basic fabric from the quilting section. Mom said that if I didn't use an upholstery fabric I should leave on the heavy-duty fabric that was already on the bases of my bar stools, so that's exactly what I did. I image there would be several more steps if I had to take the original fabric off.

Also, since my bar stools are old and cheap, I didn't have to do anything to get the bases off or back on the actual stools - the screws that were keeping them attached fell out long ago. If they were better quality bar stools there probably would have been a few more steps for getting the bases off and back on.

Recipe: Honeyed-Orange Almond Chicken

Once upon time I read an article that spoke of all the great health benefits of honey. After reading the article I went to kraftrecipes.com and searched for recipes that included honey. Here is one that I found that I have loved - CJ likes it too.

The Recipe:

Honeyed-Orange Almond Chicken

2 Tbsp. honey

1/4 tsp. each salt and black pepper

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1/4 cup orange marmalade

1/2 cup Sliced Almonds

Preheat broiler. Mix honey, salt and pepper; brush evenly on chicken. Place on rack of broiler pan.
Broil chicken 4 to 6 inches from heat 5 to 7 min. on each side or until cooked through (170ºF). Brush chicken with marmalade; sprinkle with almonds. Broil an additional 1 to 2 min. or until almonds are lightly toasted.

My Tips:

1. Don't Broil! I found out the first time that broiling chicken that has honey on it will make any honey that has made its way off the chicken and onto the pan bubble and burn and it smells like the food is burning when it really isn't.
Instead of broiling, bake the chicken at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes on each side (side 1 for 10 minutes, side 2 for 10 minutes, side 1 for 5 minutes, side 2 for 5 minutes). However, I do support broiling for the last minute or so to brown the almonds.
2. Don't Mix Other Ingredients With Honey. I don't recommend this because it makes the chicken turn out badly but because it is hard to mix anything with sticky honey.
Instead of mixing these ingredients, just put salt and pepper on the chicken, then drizzle the honey on the chicken.
3. Filet the Chicken. This is another tip for ease. I found that if I just put a chicken breast on the pan and put honey on it, the honey finds its way off the sides of the chicken pretty quickly.
Instead of just placing whole chicken breasts on the pan, cut each breast in half width wise. This will create a flat surface on which to put the honey (flat side up on the pan).
4. Use Tin Foil. Even with baking the chicken instead of broiling, the honey will make a bit of a mess, I recommend placing tin foil on the pan you use before you place the chicken on it.
I really like the flavor of this chicken, it is sweet with just a little orange taste and crunchy almonds. It is simple and pretty fast to make. I like to eat broccoli or green beans on the side with brown rice.
Nutritional Information (4 servings per recipe above):

Book Review: The Help

Apparently Costco is my new book store. Whenever I'm there I always end up browsing the books section; my only wish is that it were organized better.

The first time I saw The Help I didn't buy it. It sounded kind of interesting but wasn't what I was looking for at the time. I filed it away in my head as something I might read later. Then I saw a movie trailer for it and figured that if it was good enough to make a movie out of it might be worth reading.

Here is what the back cover has to say:


Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step . . .

Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child. She's always taken orders quietly, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can no longer bit back. Her friend Minny has certainly never held her tongue, or held on to a job for very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leave her speechless. And white socialite Skeeter has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband. Normally Skeeter would find solace in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared.

Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town - to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention: hope for a better day.


I bought The Help as something to read during down time on vacation. I think it was a good vacation read - not too serious, not too jovial. There were times when I was really into it and times when I wondered if it were ever going to get to the point.

It was interesting to see a little into the lives of the black maids during that time and to hear some of their stories but I wish there were more of their stories. A lot of the book focuses on Skeeter and her relationships with her other socialite friends and a potential spouse, which is also interesting because of the way they treat her after they suspect she has any amount of sympathy for the black population, but I could have done with a little less of the day to day aspects of those relationships.

I also wish there were a little more about the woman Minny worked for, specifically what happened to her in regards to her relationship with the women in town (she wasn't one of the socialites) after a shocking event toward the end of the book. She was an interesting character and I would have liked to know if she ever got what she wanted out of life.

I occasionally found the book hard to follow. The chapters can be from either Aibileen, Minny, or Skeeter's point of view with one of the chapters being from a third person point of view. When the point of view changes, the name of the person whose point of view it is is given with the chapter number but whenever I put the book down in the middle of someone's point of view, when I picked the book back up again I had to start reading to figure out whose point of view it was. I liked hearing the three points of view but I wonder if there could have been a better way to indicate whose point of view it was.

Overall I'd say that the book was good but not fantastic. I can see how it would make a good movie and I suspect the movie might be better than the book because it will all be compacted down to just a few hours, leaving out anything that dragged on a little too long.

I Have Strawberries!

This spring I decided to grow some things that I could later eat. In the past I've successfully grown tomatoes, but then I found out that tomato plants had to be replanted every year and that kind of turned me off to growing them again. I've also semi-successfully grown basil in the past; it took a few attempts but I had a good bit going last fall. I completely failed at trying to grow a raspberry bush in a 5 gallon bucket.

So this spring I decided that I wanted to grow some things that we easy and that I wouldn't have to replant next year. In end I went with basil, cilantro, and strawberries. Since we had a strangely cold spring I had to start my growing indoors. I grew the basil and cilantro from seeds and the strawberry from what appeared to be just roots. The basil and cilantro did really well inside but the strawberries never took off; I'm not convinced that I didn't plant them upside down.

When it finally got consistently warmer outside I put the basil and cilantro on the front steps and eventually planted new strawberries - this time from actual plants. The basil didn't last long, I guess that's what happens when they don't get watered. The cilantro is doing pretty well even though it was touch and go there for a while. The strawberries are doing amazing! I even have a beautiful red one that should be ready to be eaten in a few days (though I won't be able to eat it because I'll be out of town).

I chose strawberries because I read that they are pretty hardy and that they can last about 3 years, even through harsh winters. Since I hate replanting stuff every year and since I'm not great at remembering to water things, they seemed perfect. Hopefully we'll continue to get along nicely through the summer and the next few year.

Recipe: Oven Pancakes

The recipe for Oven Pancakes comes courtesy of Stickboy, CJ's friend who lives in Sweden. Apparently CJ and Stickboy email pretty much every day, it is precious, and on one of those days Stickboy shared a recipe, so CJ tried it, and it was really good. Stickboy shared said recipe using the metric system, so we had to do some conversions but I think it turned out great.

Ingredients:
Bacon*
1 egg
2/5 cup flour*
4/5 cup milk*
salt

*No amount of bacon was included so I guess everyone is free to add as much as they'd like. The conversions came to fifths of cups, which is strange, so CJ rounded to fourths of cups.

Instructions:
Cook the bacon, set aside. Mix together the egg, flour, milk and salt. Add bacon. Pour into a greased baking dish (an 8 x 8 worked really well for us). Bake at 435 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until the outside is brown while the inside is still moist. Top with jam. Serves 2 - 3.


CJ and I love these. They are really easy to make and are really good. We've topped with strawberry, grape, raspberry, and apricot jam as well as almond butter and it seems as though you really can't go wrong.

Here is the nutritional information assuming 4 strips of bacon were added and it makes 2 servings. This does not include jam or other toppings. It is a safe bet to assume that every tablespoon of jam has about 50 calories, a ton of sugar, and not much else.