Catch Up

August 17: Drove into NYC to catch the bus for MD, saw the Empire State Building from my sunroof

August 19: Found this in a bookstore. Just when I thought the vampire craze couldn't possibly get any worse...

August 21: The singing waiter at Ellen's Stardust Cafe in NYC who looks a lot like one of my friends

August 22: CUTE SHOES that my extremely generous and wonderful mother bought for me (THANK YOUUUUU!!!!!)

August 22: The second pair of adorable cute shoes (THANK YOU AGAIN!!!)

August 23: My friend's hair, as styled by another one of my friends

Today: Cleopatra's Daughter, which I started and finished today. I'll probably do a review of this one in a few days or so.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

Today, the boy and I visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It's a really nice museum with some really amazing things in it, but the best part about it is that you can see the whole thing in one day. It's only three stories high - four if you count the lower level, which I don't, because it's only an overpriced cafeteria and some flight simulators - with a couple of exhibits per level. My favorite exhibits were the one with the gowns of the first ladies, Julia Child's kitchen, and the little pop culture niche where I took the picture with Dorothy's ruby slippers.

The Mighty and Most Collegiate River

Right up there is the stream that runs behind my apartment building in Maryland. I say "stream" because, on most days, it really is barely more than a trickle of ugly brown water. On my way to a meeting in the building, however, I noticed that this once puny creek had swelled into a quickly-flowing river of Mississippian proportions.

I exaggerate.

It was, however, quite impressive to see the water level so high. This is due to the massive amounts of rain Maryland has been getting recently, as opposed to the almost zero amount of rain we've gotten up in New Jersey. The river was so high, and the water was flowing so quickly, that honest-to-goodness rapids were forming!

Pictured: Honest-to-goodness rapids. Or...rapid, singular.

I apologize for no post yesterday; I did take a picture, but it was with my cell phone, and I left my memory card adapter at home (foolishly thinking I would only use my camera to take pictures).

Bis morgen!

Early Presents

So because I will be in England for my and the boy's two year anniversary, I had to get and wrap presents early. Also, because I didn't have wrapping paper, I used scrapbook paper. Note the naked box edges on the bottom present.

Going to Maryland tomorrow!

My Puppy

This is my puppy, whom I've only just realized is the exact same shade as the floor and the furniture.

But there she is, ostensibly lying there in a sleepy puddle of dog, but really protecting her new, most precious bone.

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

Because I have some for you right here. Gouda, cheddar, and dill havarti, to be specific. Plus, a singular cherry tomato in the center just to balance it all out.

Bis morgen!

Lesson Learned

See this bag? It's filled with a loose brown powder. Do you know what that powder is? Or should I say, do you know what it is NOT. It is NOT whole wheat flour, like I thought it was.

It is pre-made muffin mix. It contains flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder, among other things. Pre-made muffin mix is a fantastic idea - it means you can make muffins whenever you want to, just add one or two ingredients and boom! muffins! Unfortunately, muffin mix is only good when the user KNOWS it is muffin mix. It is not so useful when the user assumes it is whole wheat flour, and adds it to a recipe (that already contains baking powder, by the way) in quintupled proportions.

Some of you (Mum) may see where I am headed with this.

I am referring to the Zucchini Muffins o' Explodingness that I made the other night, the ones that erupted in my stove and left mounds of carbon on the oven door. It was in this recipe that the pre-made muffin mix was mistakenly assumed to be whole wheat flour. This (awful, stupid, ridiculous) error was discovered by my mother shortly after dinner last night (I had made potato pancakes, which also called for a few tablespoons of flour - thus, the bag of "whole wheat flour" was sitting out on the island).

Mum: Why is this out?

Me: Oh, I used it for the potato pancakes because we're out of white flour.

Mum: ...But...but this is pre-made muffin mix.

Me: ...What?

Mum: Did you....use this for the muffins the other night?

Me: Yes!

Mum: *silence*

Me: *silence*

Mum: Well, that explains it! *imitates batter exploding in the oven to illustrate her point*

Book Review I

"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers."

A few weeks ago, Mum handed me The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and told me to read it. A few days ago, I finally got around to it...and finished it that same day. It was an extremely enjoyable book - the characters had a depth and range of personality that I was not expecting from a novel structured as a series of letters and telegrams, and the plot was both lighthearted and deeply moving (I realize that to call a book both of these things is a little confusing, if not downright contradictory, but somehow this book did end up being both saddening and uplifting. I'm going to take that as a sign of good writing). What I found most engaging about Society, however, was that it was set in a time period and place I had never given a passing thought to - post-WWII England and Guernsey, which is (apparently) a really tiny island in the Channel. I'm no stranger to WWII or its aftermath, but no class I've ever taken or book I've ever read has given as much focus to the individual survivors and their struggles to recover from the trauma of the war as Society does. A significant amount of historians, authors, and teachers tend to focus on the political ramifications of the war and the recovery efforts that took place in Germany, but outside of that, most of what happened in Europe and at home is overshadowed by the Cold War.

I was particularly struck when, early in the book, the lead female mentions buying a new dress for the first time in four years. FOUR. YEARS. I don't think I go a month without buying something new for my closet, and I don't go a week without buying something else frivolous (take-out food, scrapbooking stickers, lip gloss, etc.). Not once, in all of my educational forays into WWII, did I ever grasp the concept of rationing - not until I read that part about the dress. To me, rationing meant having toast with homemade preserves instead of butter, or not having cookies for a few weeks because sugar supplies are low. Rationing wasn't supposed to mean forgoing new clothes for years, or sharing one copy of Pride and Prejudice with every single one of your neighbors because all the bookstores were destroyed in the Blitzkrieg.

Society was effective at bringing to life this distant era because it really hit home. As an avid reader with vague aspirations of becoming a writer, I had no trouble connecting with the myriad of characters, all of whom were drawn together by a love of books and literature. As a history student, I appreciated the attention to detail and care with which the author crafted her novel's environment. I will caution, though, that it is an unusual book. It is very much an homage to the simple act of reading, and to the way that a good story draws people close and binds them inextricably together. For this reason, those individuals who scorn books and reading will probably not enjoy Society...but then, I think you would be hard-pressed to find someone who has never found pleasure in the listening to and telling of a tale.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was a wonderful and memorable book, made all the more special because of the author's obvious love for books and writing. A relatively quick read, it remains with you for quite some time (or at least I expect it will, I only read it two days ago but it's still very fresh in my mind), which merely extends the sensation that one has just read a truly excellent novel.

Sadly, there is no recipe for potato peel pie. :(

Cupcakes Make the World Go 'Round

My sister and I have these two friends (who for the sake of anonymity shall go by pseudonyms until I can ask them permission to use their real names), Cupcake Mistress and Musical Knits (it's almost midnight, forgive me). Tonight, they came over to bake cupcakes, which is something we've been saying we should do since late May, but haven't gotten around to until today. It was wonderful - we talked, we laughed, we ate cupcake batter (well, some of us did), and we listened to sixties music. And, of course, we decorated cupcakes. Some looked normal, while others...well...others reflected our truly insane nature.

Why, yes. This cupcake DOES have a mustache!

LOVE cupcakes

Zucchini Misadventures

Like I promised, this is today's real post, with pictures from today. I had intended to write about a book I read today (I read quickly), but my attempt to bake zucchini bread proved too disastrous not to write about.

The first step in turning a green garden monster into a delectable treat is, naturally, to peel the skin from the zucchini. I detest this step the most, as it requires the most hand-to-zucchini contact. Zucchinis, I have discovered, produce a gluey, sticky slime when peeled, which makes it incredibly difficult to hold. This is especially problematic when the zucchini - which is quite fat and heavy - is being held precariously over the garbage so the peels fall directly into the bin. Having learned from last time (wh

en the zucchini was nearly dropped into the garbage), I laid it out on a paper towel (or 9) on the counter and shaved it that way.

The culprit.

Once the gargantuan squash had been peeled, I had to slice it up into itty-bitty pieces to fit it inside the food processor. I did once try to grate it by hand, but when my arm cramped up after shredding a meager 1/4 cup, I changed my method. Putting together the food processor was another adventure in itself - I wrestled with it for a full 10 minutes before conceding defeat and hollering for Dad to come and help.

Quick question: how many cups of shredded zucchini does one 13 inch, 2 pound zucchini produce? 5, I hear you say, or perhaps 6? Ha! Alas, you would be wrong. 8, actually. 8 cups of shredded zucchini. And how many cups did the recipe call for? Yes, that's right - 1 and 1/2. And, tell me, when you convert the recipe to find the proper amount of all ingredients, how many eggs does that amount to?

15. It amounts to 15 eggs.

GAH.

After the actual zucchini process was over, the rest was pretty straightforward. 8 cups of flour, 4 cups of sugar, blah blah blah. I honestly felt like I was cooking for an army. Well, maybe not an army. A platoon, perhaps.

Ingredients and a spoon. And the largest bowl in the house.

Everything was fine, until Mum came home and checked the muffins/bread loaves in the oven. They'd only been baking about 15 minutes, but hoo boy! do they rise quickly in there!

So this is why you don't fill the cups up all the way...

The zucchinis decided to face death in the same manner they faced life - exploding out all over the place. Aaaand now I get to go scrape all the burned-on bits out of the oven.

But you know what? They turned out pretty darn good, even if they do look atrocious.

It's just one big, zucchini-laden blob.

A lengthy Absence

In a fit of apathy that has lasted over a month, I let this blog fall by the wayside. I assumed that it was alright to do so, since I had no readers besides my Mum and my sister. Apparently, they disagreed, and have recently taken to persuading (pestering) me to take up my virtual pen and return to the blog. So I have. Here are the pictures that I did manage to take since July 1, not including today. My plan is to post these, make zucchini bread, and then post today's real post.

Yupp, zucchini bread. As any experienced gardener will tell you, zucchini plants tend to produce more zucchinis than expected. Unfortunately, I am not an experienced gardener. I'm not any sort of gardener, actually. My parents planted all the vegetables, including the teeny-weeny plants that exploded into zucchini-bearing, backyard-noming jungle vines. Since I hate zucchini in almost any form, and since Mum and sister like zucchini, my clever and not-at-all devious plan is to turn most of it into zucchini bread, which, surprisingly, I do like.

Picture time!

July 2: Garage Sale, day one!

July 3: Day two of the garage sale!

July 4: Cupcakes I made to bring to a Fourth of July Party.

Thank you, Martha Stewart.

July 6: Poster of Scarface, complete with model gun and bullets.

Found this in a sub shop downtown run by an Italian family,

which was not at all worrying.

July 11: Maggie's graduation party

July 17: Embarkation day for our cruise to Nova Scotia.

This is the tail of the carnival ship, which makes really,

really loud noises that can startle certain people.

July 18: Mum and Dad and a sunset on the ocean.

July 19: I found this on a tree in St. John's. It has

nothing to do with our day in St. John's, but it's

my favorite picture from the day.

July 20: THESE ARE MEN IN KILTS. I love

Nova Scotia.

July 21: Last night on the Carnival Glory, and the last night of

some really amazing food.

July 30: Maggie's surprise for me. Yes. That is a tomato,

in my bed, dressed like a person. For the confused

among you, it was in response to a zucchini I left in

Mum's bed dressed as a sleeping person. I even used

a sock for a sleeping cap. I can't find the picture of it though.

July 31: Harry Potter themed cookies in honor

of Harry Potter's birthday. Maggie made these. Try and guess

what they are!

August 5: The container store! And my ideal closet.

August 6: I painted my nails a very deep plum. The nail

polish came from one of those "Spend this much money, get

this gift" promotions Ulta offers. Also: yes, I bite my nails.

August 7: I made myself a jewelry board!

August 8: Asian money!

That's my post for right now! On to the zucchini foe...er, bread.