Book Lovers Love Books

August 9 was National Rice Pudding Day. Nobody in the family cares for rice pudding so I made rice and pudding to go with dinner.

It was also Book Lovers Day so let me tell you about a reading challenge I took on in August.

In preparation for her book, So True a Love, that was coming out on September 3, Joanna Barker hosted a read-along for her book, A Heart Worth Stealing, which is the book that takes place before the new one. The read-along was simple, a chapter a day. I enjoyed it and there were definitely times I was excited to find out what would happen the next day/chapter.

Once school started, I did a lot of my reading in the van waiting to drop off or pick up kids.

I am looking forward to reading So True a Love, but I can't be in too much of a hurry because I also have several books to read for the Adult Reading Challenge at the Orem Library, including the Orem Reads book for October, Fahrenheit 451. I enjoyed reading Frankenstein with other readers for Orem Reads last year. 

Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack came in at the library while I was reading the other two books. It's one that counts for the library reading challenge.

During this read-along, Joanna Barker also had some games and things online. One of them was to "describe a book badly." I described Esther Hatch's book, There Goes the Groom, this way (since I had recently finished it):

"A couple spends their engagement delivering packages."

I tagged both Joanna Barker and Esther Hatch on Instagram. Esther Hatch got a kick out of it and reached out to me about how the main character in her first book was "Lord Telford." Of course that immediately became my next book to read.

 

Then I shared this experience on Instagram and both those authors thought it was cute:

Too cute not to share.

My four year old couldn't find a little tiger eraser he was playing with. I told him, "I'm sorry. I don't know where it is."

He told me, "I dropped it in Mommy's bag."

Oh. I started pulling out items from my bag- shopping list, etc.

I pulled out The Roses of Feldstone by Esther Hatch because she told me one of the main characters has my surname so of course I have to read it. By the way, her most recent novel, A Proper Facade, released recently.

As you do with four year olds, I held up the book and asked, "Is this your tiger?"

"No," he replied.

"What is it?"

"It's a book."

Next I held up A Heart Worth Stealing by Joanna Barker whose next novel, So True a Love (sequel to this one), comes out September 3.

Again I asked, "Is this your tiger?" to which he replied, "No. That's Mommy's chapter."

I am participating in a read-along of that book with Joanna Barker this month, a chapter a day. My son hears daily, "I need to read my chapter," or "I read/finished my chapter," always referring to that book.

I think it's adorable that he picked up on that and associated the book with my "chapter."

In case you're wondering, we did find that tiger eraser at the bottom of my bag.

August was a good reading month.

Leftovers

 

This is why it's important to label the containers you put leftovers in.

Excuses for New Recipes

I love excuses for trying new recipes. And things that I wouldn't just try on my own without the excuse. For example, August 23 was Cuban Sandwich Day. I'd never heard of a Cuban sandwich before. So I looked it up and figured out how to make it. 

Normally it would use Cuban bread, but I don't know how to make that so I made French bread to use.

I cut a loaf into 7 pieces for each of us to have one. The pieces were cut so there would be the top crust and bottom crust if that makes sense. Even if it doesn't makes sense, that's how I cut them. Tee Hee.

Each sandwich had variations of the following fillings (some of us had it all, and some don't like certain things on their sandwiches): mustard, shredded pork, ham, swiss cheese, and pickles. I put the sandwiches in our sandwich maker, which wasn't too easy because of the thickness of the fillings and the French bread but they turned out fun and yummy.

So that was our version of a Cuban sandwich. I rounded out my plate with some corn and yet another new recipe, Mexican Rice, from shelfcooking.com

You know I love finding reasons to celebrate. We'll have to celebrate this again next year. 

P.S. August 23 is also Gene Kelly's birthday so there was some dancing around and singing happening.

Sometimes Dinnertime is... Fun?

I made Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken and noticed the chili peppers looked like slugs as they cooked. 

Of course since it had chili peppers in it, it was spicy.

Mom: There's a reason it's called kung pow.

 

Some dinosaurs came to dinner as they often do.

At one point, Jet started flinging rice all over. Jr. helped clean it up.

Jr.: The spinosaurus is cleaning up. Can you clean up like the spinosaurus?

The stegosaurus started cleaning up.

Jr.: See. This is why the spinosaurus is a carnivore. It's much less messy.

Celebrations With and Without Pictures

October 5 was Get Funky Day. One of us was in a funk that day. I said it counted.

October 6 was National Noodle Day. My plan was to make stroganoff with egg noodles. I asked Jr. Jr. and Lucky if that would be good for them after their dentist appointment. They didn't think so. They would rather have rice... with chicken cooked in gourmet sauce. 

Well, I gave them what they wanted. And I made stroganoff with egg noodles. It was just one of those days. It is not often I cook multiple entrees.

Ooh, that reminds me of something that happened recently. It was a leftovers for dinner night and I noticed there was spaghetti sauce that needed to be eaten up but no leftover spaghetti. So I cooked up a bunch of spaghetti noodles and... the kids all took the pasta but didn't touch the spaghetti sauce. Sigh. Now I know why there was leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge but no spaghetti. Actually after I mentioned something, I think Nichole put some sauce on her pasta.

October 8 was Fluffernutter Day. Tee Hee. We did have fluffernutter sandwiches for dinner.

October 11 was International Day of the Girl Child. I put on the menu plan "boys make dinner" so Nichole and I (the girl childs) could have a break. Jeremy wasn't feeling well so he left dinner making to the boys boys. Jr. made Polish sausages with mashed potatoes and cheese. Lucky made hot chocolate. Jr. Jr.... didn't. I tried to do some catching up of my blog while they were and were not making things.

That day was also It's My Party Day so the kids and I sang that song. 

And here's another thing. For Family Home Evening treat one night, Lucky got out pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows and instructed us on how to make certain things and in what order to eat things. I think he enjoyed having that power.