Adventures with Vegetables: Week 1

After receiving an email from UK, I had this great idea that Luis and I should join a CSA. We are trying to eat healthier and branch out from our normal foods, so I thought that receiving fresh, organic vegetables every week would help us. If they're in our fridge, surely we will eat them, right? Whether this was a great idea, or a moment of pure insanity remains to be seen. We shall see.

First, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture; basically we give the farmers money, they do all the work, and then every week we get an assortment of vegetables. All the vegetables are organic and locally grown. And, since this one is run through the college, since Luis is still a student, we get a discount! What we paid averages out to about $18 a week. Our ultimate goal is to cook more often during the week, eat more vegetables, and not have to buy any more veggies to add to our meals. This didn't happen in the beginning because most of what we received were salad veggies. There's only so much lettuce one can eat.

We received our first share at the end of May. With our CSA, every Thursday you go to UK and there they have bins with the veggies in them. There's a board that lists what you can take and how much. Then you fill up your box or bag with your deliciousness. There's also a swap box at the end, so if you don't want something you can put it there and take something else out of the box. Or not. We've not used that because we're trying to sample everything!

Our first share! So much green!

In our first share we got:

- 1 bunch braising mix

- 1 bunch radishes

- 1 bunch turnips

- lettuce (2 heads and 1 bag mix)

- 1 bunch arugula

- 1 bunch Red Russian kale

And we had the option of going out to the farm and picking sugar snap peas which we were unable to do (sadly).

Overall, I was excited about the greenness, but unsure of what to do with most of it, aside from make salads. Unfortunately, the timing of our first share was poor as we received it on a Thursday, and I went to Boston that Sunday; Luis followed shortly. So we did not get to use a lot of the food. We made a lot of salads and I was able to cook one big meal before I left using some of our plethora of food.

We did manage to try two new things: turnips and the braising mix (which apparently is "a mix of cooking greens that are young and tender enough to be quickly sauteed"). There was a recipe for the braising mix in our newsletter we get with each share that we made. Basically, it was greens sauteed with garlic. In the end, I made a cracker crusted cod (I had cod we needed to eat, I found a recipe that I had most of the ingredients for and then improvised), the sauteed braising mix with garlic, and oven-fried turnips. I thought I took a picture of it, but apparently not. I would like to say that everything we tried that week was delicious, but that would be a lie. The braising mix was eh; Luis said it tasted too much like a plant....

We did however make some delicious turnips, and this was the first time I had eaten a turnip. I followed this recipe, and man, they were tasty.

Overall, week one was not very successful in that most of our veggies spoiled. However, I will put the majority of the blame on poor timing and will not count this venture as a failure yet! We're just getting started! (the CSA actually runs through mid-November)

Also, fun photo, I took pictures of our fridge pre-CSA, this is what it looked like after we got our first share:

So much green!

Also, I am not the most timely in the posting of these entries, so we are now on Week 5 of our adventure. We are swamped in green onions. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH GREEN ONIONS? I have no idea!

I'm pretty excited about the things to come for this summer, and am looking forward to getting more towards vegetables that are sturdier and not lettuce. It's quite strange how I look forward to Thursdays every week and I can't wait to find out what we are getting. In fact, the CSA emails their newsletter every Thursday around noon, and when I started writing this entry this morning, I was constantly checking my email to find out what we were getting (and it included carrots!)

exploring the fridge

I meant to post this ages ago, but vacation and job applications got in the way. Oh well, here it goes! (I also have like 3 blog entries I've been meaning to post!)

I thought that Jill's amusing post about her refrigerator was fun and I wanted to do my own! So here it goes, the Carlin fridge in all its glory!

Our fridge is slightly messy, consisting of many magnets and notes to each other.

And of course, fantastic artwork by small children (and me!). And, it even holds my letter informing me I passed comps with distinction! Also, I love the Scooper Bowl picture. So much ice cream.
Inside our freezer full of unhealthy things. Please ignore the frozen dinners, I try to. And you can't see both of them, but there's two cartons of ice cream! We also have vegetables, but they're in the door where you can't see them.
Inside our fridge! Important stuff like beer, fruit, almond milk, various breads, hummus, and yes, there's 3 pitchers of sweet tea. That's not normal.
And some condiments in the door. Delicious salsa. And the best thing in there is in the top left, in the jar with the gold lid- homemade apple butter!

Now that I look at these pictures, they really aren't that interesting. Oh well. I took these a while ago and a lot has changed in our fridge. Mainly we had to clear out the bottom shelf and the crisper to make room for all our vegetables!

Coming up next: Sam and Luis eat vegetables! So thrilling!

Introducing... Master Sam!

I figure since I posted my goals for the year on my blog, I should update them as well. So far, I've fully accomplished one of them and that was to get my Masters!

On May 8, 2011 (yes, Mother's Day) I walked across the stage at Rupp Arena and became a Master of something (that's how it works right?). I have to say, during the months leading up to graduation I wasn't interested in participating in Commencement. I've done it before, twice, and it was at 9 in the morning, and I had to be there at 8 in the morning, and I had to pay $70 for a cap, gown, and hood that I would only wear once. But Luis was keen on me doing it and my brother was walking in his graduation ceremony later that day so we decided to make a day of it! And of course, the fact that I got to wear a hood was a nice addition and it reminded me of this picture:

Because I vaguely remember during this event thinking how cool it would be to have a Masters hood and really pretend I was a Jedi. (Sadly though, I tried this and it didn't look like a Jedi, let's just say Master's hoods have this weird, peak-like thing on the end, and well.....)

Anyway, having a Masters feels like such a huge accomplishment and like these past two years were worth all the work and stress. Seriously, there were times when I questioned why I was going through this stress and work, and times when I debated giving up. Studying for that comprehensive final exam was so incredibly difficult, and I really thought that I had failed. I knew that had I failed, there was no way I would be able to go through that pain and stress again. Luckily I not only passed, but passed with distinction! I'm incredibly happy it's over though. So incredibly happy. Now, if I can find a job that uses my Masters degree.

Hey Masters degree. You can see me modeling my lemon yellow hood which represents Library Science. I seriously felt like I clashed cause the back of the hood was blue and white. So many colors! And the purple and white cord represents membership in Beta Phi Mu, the International Library and Information Science Honor Society. Classy, right?

Also, I'd take a picture of my diploma but it takes 90 days for UK to mail it to you! 90 days! Ridic!

Next goal to complete: going to Boston!

books update

I was really excited to go to the bookstore today. I've been looking forward to it for weeks. For my Children's Literature class I had to read all the Caldecott, Newbery and Printz Award winners (and Honors), as well as the Morris Award winner. I FINALLY finished all of them and now get to read some books I want to read. Somehow I ended up at the store and bought 4 books, and all of them were from the Children's/YA section. *Sigh.* I should get some more adult books. Seriously. It's just Children's/YA books are SO good! Anyway, I came away with:

Syren by Angie Sage. This is the fifth book in the Septimus Heap series. I enjoyed the first four and have them all in paperback, so of course I had to wait until this one came out in paperback to buy it.

Death Cloud by Andrew Lane. This is the first book of a Young Sherlock Holmes series. I'm a fan of Sherlock and his spin-offs (notably Laurie R. King's Mary Russell series), so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. I actually have to read this for class, but I want to read it anyway. Sharon Draper is coming to the McConnell Conference next week, so I'm reading this one first.

Copper Sun by Sharon Draper. I've read this one and it's amazing. I just want Sharon Draper to sign it next week.

Seriously though, I need some adult books.

Newbery Disappointments

I'm currently taking a class in grad school that requires me to read all the Newbery Medal books. I haven't read all of them yet, but I just finished reading the winner, Moon Over Manifest. I did what most book nerds do when the children's literature awards were announced, I looked them up on amazon and Goodreads to see what others had to say about them (John Green tweeted not long after the winner was announced that there was only one review of it on amazon). When I saw that Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool had won, I went to amazon to look it up. I read the plot description and groaned. I'm not a big fan of historical fiction books, and of course, Moon Over Manifest is one (if you want to know what it's about, follow the link, I don't want to repost their reviews). I did not want to read this book, but I had to for class. And I'm still groaning. Moon Over Manifest is not a terrible book. I found it boring, but it's not my favorite genre anyway. It has some good qualities, but overall I gave it two stars. My review, as posted on goodreads:

"Winner of the 2011 Newbery Award. I think my expectations might have been too high because of this honor, but I was very disappointed in this book. I thought it was too long and too slow, and the alternating between past and present drove me crazy. Not much happened in the present except for the three girls running around asking people about the Rattler. The stories that the diviner told from 1918 were interesting and exciting. The book flap says that the girls go "on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt," but the hunt just seems like an excuse to get the ball rolling on the tales from the past. It feels like throughout the book more and more mysterious elements are added that you think relates to their main mystery, but when you get to the end all the mysteries are solved and many of them are not connected. The ending felt like an afterthought when it was realized that the original mystery (the spy) hadn't been solved yet and was quickly mentioned in the last few pages."

My issue with Moon Over Manifest is not that I found it boring, it is would a kid find it boring? I know that 10 or 11 year old me wouldn't make it past the first few pages. I can't realistically see children picking this book up out of a stack *voluntarily* and really enjoying it. Does this really represent the best of children's literature in 2010? Lately there has been a lot of controversy about the book awards, people are asking whether these books are what children would pick or if adults are picking them based on their literary merit. Are these books that adults think children should be reading? I've read a lot of the Newbery winners, and I've read all the ones from the 90s when I was a kid. Most of them, I loved. Missing May, The Giver, Shiloh, Number the Stars: everyone in my class read these books, we had to wait to get our hands on them. They truly are great examples of children's literature. And all of these books led me to read more by the authors. Now, an elementary school librarian I know doesn't even want to buy the Newbery winner because the kids won't read them. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! won in 2008 and no kids at this school want to read it. It's still a great book and is very useful for literature and drama classes; it definitely has merit. But is this the type of merit we want for a children's book award?

Most years when the awards are announced, I get disappointed. I think the Newbery Award is not doing its job when it comes down to representing the best of children's literature. Overall, the purpose should be to highlight the books children want to read, not the ones they should be reading. They can get those in their classrooms. In my class, we have to present at a children's literature conference on the award winners; many librarians come to these presentations and make a decision whether to buy these books based on the presentations. I would hope that at these presentations we would be able to highlight books that kids will love. Maybe I'm wrong, but I always thought that the point of these awards were to highlight great books for children. After all, we're just trying to get them to read something (and I'm not saying that Diary of a Wimpy Kid should win just because kids love it, I just think there should be a better compromise). I'm worried about the state of the Newbery Award. I trust it, as an adult, but that may not continue for long.

On ALA's website there's a quote from the Newbery committee chair, Cynthia Richey:

"Vanderpool illustrates the importance of stories as a way for children to understand the past, inform the present and provide hope for the future."

I can see Moon Over Manifest accomplishing this, but it seems like this is more directed at something teachers and educators would find useful over children. We in my class are having this same problem, while discussing the Newbery and Caldecott books, we keep talking about how they would work in shcools and in the classroom and we neglect to think about the appeal they would have in a public library sitting on a shelf. I understand the difficulty that comes along in this decision, but I think the Newbery Committees are losing sight of the ultimate goal, and I hope they can find their way back again soon, before everyone loses faith in their decisions.

There's an excellent article from School Library Journal here that talks about the Newbery Awards. It was written in 2008, but I think it still holds up today. My favorite quote:

"John Newbery, a highly successful publisher, believed that children’s books should offer readers delight and instruction in equal measure. So he searched for materials that would be both popular and profitable."

That is THE John Newbery.

Also, interesting point, 4 of the 5 Newbery books this year are historical fiction. Why? Thoughts?

x-posted to my book blog (which I may start using again)

Goals Twentyeleven

I usually don't make resolutions or goals or anything for the New Year, but I feel like 2011 is going to be a big year and should be recognized as thus. Therefore, my goals:

-exercise more

I know this is the most clichéd of goals/resolutions, but nonetheless, still something I want to do. I do alright with exercising when it's warm out and can run, but now that it's cold I need to find something else to do.

- cook real meals more often

This will be difficult to do until I finish school, but I'm really tired of eating pasta all the time and would like to branch out.

- get my Masters

This one should be easy to keep! I can't wait until May!

-celebrate said Masters with a trip somewhere I've never been

I'm looking at you, Peru!

-learn Spanish

If I ever get that Rosetta Stone program loaded on my computer, I'm going to start on learning Spanish once again, especially if we make it to Peru.

- get a new job

Another cliché of a goal, but one that I think I can make happen with aforementioned Masters

- go to Boston

It's been too long! Preferably in the warmer months.

- spend more quality time with Amber and Gabriel

Since they've moved to KY, I get to see these kids a ton, but only for short periods and usually there's other stuff going on. Since I don't know how long they'll be in KY (or me and Luis for that matter) I want to spend time doing fun things with them.

- have Marielly up for a visit in the summer

I love spending time with Luis' little sister and would love to be able to spend some quality time with just her. This one might be hard to do with our travel plans/job hunting.

-see Jill and Kathy

Also not sure how this will work out, but if we can make it happen, it'll be awesome.

- read less

I'm probably the only person in the world who wants to read LESS. I do love reading and spend a lot of time doing it, but I think I could spend less time reading and more time doing other things. I think I get so immersed in my books that I tend to ignore everything else around me. So I'd like to read less and try other things, like getting back into photography and conquering Goldeneye Wii.

Yup, it looks like 2011 is going to be an interesting year.

books 2010

In 2010, I read a lot less books than previous years, (last year's list can be found here) but I'm going to blame that on this being the first year I was in school for the entire year (even summer!). Still, I managed 115 books, the majority being young adult books. I had to read a lot of YA books for school, but a lot of them were really good.

Highlights include:

-7 re-reads, most due to grad school

- reading Paper Towns and meeting John Green

- meeting Patrick Rothfuss

- finally reading Ender's Game and discovering it is as awesome as everyone says

- I read 2 Newbery Award winners, When You Reach Me and The Midwife's Apprentice

Favorites:

Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (more Percy Jacksonesque books!)

Fool's Errand and discovering how much I love Robin Hobb's books

Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Here's the list, as always, starred books are re-reads:

1. Tris’ Book – Tamora Pierce
2. First Lord’s Fury – Jim Butcher
3. A Sacred Landscape – Hugh Thomson
4. Odd and the Frost Giants – Neil Gaiman
5. Splendor – Anna Godberson
6. Hero Type – Barry Lyga
7. Stargirl – Jerry Spinelli
8. Identical – Ellen Hopkins
9. Whale Talk – Chris Crutcher
10. Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson
11. Jellicoe Road – Melina Marchetta
12. Living Dead Girl – Elizabeth Scott
13. Paper Towns – John Green
14. Angry Management – Chris Crutcher *
15. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky *
16. Daja’s Book – Tamora Pierce
17. Parrotfish – Ellen Wittlinger
18. Green Arrow: Year One – Andy Diggle and Jock
19. The Arrival – Shaun Tan
20. Briar’s Book – Tamora Pierce
21. Manhood for Amateurs – Michael Chabon
22. Leviathan – Scott Westerfeld
23. Let It Snow – John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle
24. Feed – MT Anderson
25. The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson
26. The Killing Joke – Alan Moore
27. Graceling – Kristin Cashore
28. Nation – Terry Pratchett
29. Never Trust a Dead Man – Vivian Vande Velde
30. Chasing Vermeer – Blue Balliett
31. The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin *
32. Make Lemonade – Virginia Euwer Wolff *
33. A Step from Heaven – An Na
34. Climbing the Stairs – Padma Venkatraman
35. Purple Heart – Patricia McCormick
36. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian – Sherman Alexie *
37. Copper Sun – Sharon Draper
38. Sunrise Over Fallujah – Walter Dean Myers
39. The Boy who Dared – Susan C. Bartoletti
40. Exploding the Myths – Marc Aronson
41. Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green & David Levithan
42. Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
43. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
44. The Book of a Thousand Days – Shannon Hale
45. Fairest – Gail Carson Levine
46. Bad Boy – Walter Dean Myers
47. The Doppleganger Chronicles: The First Escape – G.P. Taylor
48. Chasing Harry Winston – Lauren Weisberger
49. The Gardner Heist – Ulrich Boser
50. Lies – Michael Grant
51. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
52. The God of the Hive – Laurie R. King
53. Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine
54. Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane
55. The Midwife’s Apprentice – Karen Cushman
56. Tentacles – Roland Smith
57. Fire – Kristen Cashore
58. Changing the World – Mercedes Lackey
59. Riker’s High – Paul Volponi
60. Heist Society – Ally Carter
61. The Red Pyramid – Rick Riordan
62. Marcelo in the Real World – Francisco Stork
63. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Jane Austin & Seth Grahame-Smith
64. All the Lovely Bad Ones – Mary Downing Hahn
65. Cryptid Hunters – Roland Smith
66. From China with Love – Emily Buchanan
67. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Grace Lin
68. Al Capone Shines my Shoes – Gennifer Choldenko
69. Socks – Beverly Cleary (audio book) * I had to listen to this, it’s read by NPH!
70. Magic Steps – Tamora Pierce
71. Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List – Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
72. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist – Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
73. The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle – Patrick Rothfuss
74. Street Magic – Tamora Pierce
75. Because of Winn-Dixie – Kate DiCamillo
76. When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead
77. Framed – Frank Cottrell Boyce
78. Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America – Dyan Sheldon
79. Kentucky Curiosities – Vince Staten & Liz Baldi
80. Airhead – Meg Cabot
81. Going Bovine – Libba Bray
82. Cold Fire – Tamora Pierce
83. Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx – Max McCoy
84. Medium Raw – Anthony Bourdain
85. Shatterglass – Tamora Pierce
86. Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
87. Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
88. The Day of the Djinn Warriors – PB Kerr
89. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
90. Changes – Jim Butcher
91. Princess Mia – Meg Cabot
92. Behemoth – Scott Westerfeld
93. Pretties – Scott Westerfeld
94. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy – Orson Scott Card
95. The Man who Loved Books Too Much – Allison Hoover Bartlett
96. Another Faust – Daneil & Dina Nayeri
97. The Lost Hero – Rick Riordan
98. Pet Sematary – Stephen King
99. Forge – Laurie Halse Anderson
100. Doomsday Book – Connie Willis
101. Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories – Zack Whedon
102. The Zookeeper’s Wife – Diane Ackerman
103. Boy Meets Boy – David Levithan
104. The Ring of Solomon – Jonathan Stroud
105. The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde
106. Mini Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella
107. Zombies vs. Unicorns – Holly Black
108. Specials – Scott Westerfeld
109. Extras – Scott Westerfeld
110. Arrows of the Queen – Mercedes Lackey *
111. A Cook’s Tour – Anthony Bourdain
112. First Test – Tamora Pierce
113. Page – Tamora Pierce
114. Squire – Tamora Pierce
115. Fool’s Errand – Robin Hobb

First up for 2011: The Count of Monte Cristo, the unabridged version

What I'm looking forward to in 2011:

- Presenting at the McConnell Conference and meeting Sharon Draper (as well as other authors)

- reading the Newbery/Printz Award winners

- meeting Orson Scott Card in a few weeks and reading more of his books

- finally reading some of the huge stacks of books on my shelf

- Patrick Rothfuss' second book in The Kingkiller Chronicles

- the final Leviathan book