Book Review: An Object of Beauty

I'm striking out on book selections for book club. I'm pretty sure I suggested this book, or strongly supported its selection. I was really excited to read Steve Martin's newish book, An Object of Beauty. I loved his first book, Shopgirl. I have never read a man writing in a woman's voice so accurately captures a feminine character. It was a breathtaking book.

Martin tries, sort of, to do it again. He writes about Lacey Yeager, an art broker, salesperson, gallery owner, etc. She rises to fame, so to speak, in the New York City art world through her charm, cunning and attractiveness. To be honest, I disliked the character, the narrator, and the story. I was never really sure if the book was about the narrator, or Lacey, or was commentary on something larger.

The book did include over 20 reproductions of art and some great art discussion and history. The art reproductions were an asset to the book. And although the discussions of art were sometimes forced, I learned a lot about classic and modern art. I also learned a bit about how the art world works.

Apparently, the book is becoming a movie starring Amy Adams. I'm not sure she'll be able to make Lacey a worthwhile character or not.

All You Need Is Love

Ugh! It's Valentine's Day and Lila and I are both getting over a nasty bug. We had to ask our favorite babysitter to come over and watch her so I can get some work done today. The whole day of love thing kind of got lost in the shuffle with all of that.

Although Lila cuddled with me for approximately 8.5 of her 9 waking hours yesterday, Benny and I did manage to make some homemade Valentine's for his classmates. I didn't get any pictures. Shocking.

As a parent, I find there's a lot of pressure to give "stuff" on these relatively insignificant holidays (not that love is insignificant). Nate and I are trying really, really hard to provide the guidance for our kids to appreciate experiences and small symbols of love rather than to expect gifts. I also hope my kids understand that I love them EVERY minute of EVERY day without the influence of gifts and other stuff. I'd rather give them an extra hug or read them an extra book or take them to see a cool exhibit or help them make homemade Valentine's.

Although it's not technically a Green Means Go(od) day (totally missed it yesterday - see the reference to being sick), here's a great homemade double chocolate cookie recipe. It's completely sans preservatives. Benny and I have started a ritual of making cookies together every Friday. It's one of my ways of showing a bit of love without buying stuff.

All You Need is Love (and Chocolate) Cookies

Ingredients
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
.5 tsp. salt
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup applesauce (trust me)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
8 oz. chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Melt the unsweetened chocolate on low, cool slightly.

Sitr together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat in the sugar, olive oil, apple sauce and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the melted chocolate and then gradually add the flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 11-12 minutes or just until set. Cool cookies on wire rack.

Life Around Here

Confession time: I have been about the worst mom in the world when it comes to pictures. I never have a camera out. And when I do, pictures never turn out well. As a result, all we have of the kids are lame-o posed pictures during events and outings. Gotta change that. (By the way, apparently I use this space as a sort of cathartic confessional. Strange.)

Even though I don't have pictures to prove it, we've been busy busy busy around here. Work life has slowed down a bit and I'm getting into a groove with my new schedule. I haven't had one ounce of time to develop anything (website, relationships, a PLAN), but I'm working on that.

Nate has been super motivated to get the house more furnished - after over three years of living here. In the past two weeks, we've acquired curtains and new bedding for our room, a comforter for Benny's room, a mirror for the living room and a breakfast nook for the kitchen. If I could keep my house clean for more than five minutes (and actually take pictures, see above), I'd post some pictures. Soon, I promise.

The kids have been busy too. After the foot and a half of soon last weekend, we were out on the sledding hill twice. Benny loves to sled. And so does Lila. She sits down and says "Alright!" as she waits for take off. Since I've adopted my new schedule we've visited the Botanic Center (twice), the Nature & Science Museum and the downtown library. We're also averaging one birthday party every two weeks or so.

Life around here is busy, but so good. And it's only going to get better once this snow melts and visions of spring start appearing (blossoms - can't wait!).

No Preservatives

Welcome back to Green Means Go(od)! I know I said that I was going to write about winter running in February, but after the massive snow storm we just received (over a foot of snow!), I'm guessing running outside won't be happening in the next week or so. Couple that with catching my heel on a step and nearly dropping Lila on her head and screwing up my foot, I'm not sure I'll be running in February at all.

So, using my Quality Comfort Food as an inspiration, I'll focus February's topic on eating preservative free. And, as luck would have it, NPR's All Things Considered just reported on the fall of lard and the subsequent rise of Crisco.

By no means have we cut all preservatives from our diet. We still eat crackers, cereal, boxed mac and cheese and canned tomato sauce. However, I try to make as much from scratch as I can. For example, I refuse to make cakes or brownies from a box. I make my own pizza crust and my own pie crust (using vegetable shortening, which I'll have to reconsider). We don't buy processed dinners and we try to steer clear of processed snacks. We almost never have soda or juice that isn't fresh squeezed. I realize that I have a long way to go to ensure that my family is eating preservative free, but I do feel like we're getting there.

Because the goal of these posts is supposed to provide small, easy changes in lifestyle, I thought I'd focus on a small, easy change that everyone can make to both cut preservatives from their diets as well as reduce the use of packaging: Popping popcorn on the stove.

Nate and I have never owned a popcorn popper. We have never purchased microwave popcorn either. Rather, we buy popcorn seeds and pop them in olive oil in a regular old pan on the stove. With a dash of sea salt, it's just about the best popcorn ever - and so much healthier for us. It's not just about health in terms of calories and fat either. Check out all the stuff that comes with microwave popcorn.

I am hoping to incorporate at least one guest post this month, so stay tuned! Happy popping!

Supper Bowl II

It's no secret that the Brown-Struckman household doesn't have a TV. Perhaps it's not a terribly surprising conclusion that we don't really care about professional sports either (since no TV is a serious impediment to keeping up with professional sports). Last year I didn't even realize it was Super Bowl Sunday until we sat down at a local restaurant for dinner and found the restaurant completely diner deserted. Aha! Light bulb.

Since we had such a nice experience in sparse-diner dining last year, we decided to do it again this year. We visited Watercourse, a great vegetarian restaurant near our house (and the inspiration for Smashing Tomato Soup). It's just about the most anti-Super Bowl restaurant there is in town. And it was perfect...

Despite looking rather annoyed, Benny had a great meal. He even got hot cocoa and red velvet cake. Lila, who just learned to drink from a straw, impressed us with her skills. Then we realized that she was actually tipping her cup back and spilling all of the water on herself and the floor.

Happy Supper Bowl Sunday!

Quality Comfort Food

Quality comfort food. Sounds a bit redundant, right? Comfort food is sometimes less about quality and more about the food we ate as kids. I'm thinking about mac and cheese from the blue box, Velveeta cheese, which never goes bad, cinnamon toast with margarine and super processed sugar.

Nate and I have been making a delicious potato corn chowder for nearly our entire marriage. I'm fairly certain that we got the recipe from a flyer at Whole Foods; I wouldn't know. I make the recipe from memory now. Side note: Making recipes from memory is a GREAT way to save time!

On with the potato corn chowder - it has a total of seven ingredients - all but one of them processed (the cheese). We make it so much that Benny considers it comfort food now. I do have a warning: Because this is from memory, the amounts are just guestimates. Enjoy!

Potato Corn Chowder from Memory

Ingredients

1 large yellow onion, diced
 6-7 large potatoes, cubed
6-8 cups of water
2 veggie bouillon cubes
1 cup milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup frozen or fresh sweet corn
S&P to taste

Method

Saute the onion in olive oil for about five minutes. Add the potatoes, water and bouillon cubes, bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Mash the potatoes, add the milk, cheese and sweet corn and simmer for about five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

If we have leftover bacon from a weekend brunch, we'll add some bacon bits to make this comfort food even more comforting.

Time Out Comedy Show

Nate is off tonight for his first board of directors meeting for Benny's school. I'm really proud of him. He decided to become more involved and applied to be on the board. That means that I had the pleasure of bedtime for both kids. Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about putting both kids to bed. In reality, it's quite easy. That said, Nate was a little late in leaving tonight after Lila pooped all over the floor (we were giving her some air time - apparently when she says "poop" she means that she's going to poop, not that she has pooped).

Long story short, Lila was in bed by 7:15 or so and Benny was busy playing some games at Sesame Street online. I warned him several times that he was on his last game. Yet, when I shut the game off, he threw a massive tantrum. I warned him that he could get his pjs on and calm himself down or he would get a time out. He didn't stop, so I put him in time out in our room.

Benny doesn't get many time outs any more. He can mostly control his tantrums now, which is a total bonus of being four and a half. But, he started the time out with his normal time out behavior - hitting the door, screaming, you know, the usual.

And then, and then, he started saying things that totally cracked me up. I'm sure he was just trying to calm himself down, but my gosh, sometimes he says some of the most hilarious things! Such as,

"I don't want time outs. No thank you. NO THANK YOU!"

"I'm going to put Mom in time out."

"Not fair. Not fair. Not fair!"

Just imagine a crying, screaming child saying things behind a door. Hilarious!

Benny did emerge from time out, put on his pjs, read a story and went to bed. It ended up being a lovely evening.