Cookish: Simple Supper

Ready for a simply declicious supper? You need lettuce, roasted potatoes, and eggs. Ready?



1. Roast some potatoes.

Ingredients
New Potatoes
Olive oil
Onion
Garlic or garlic powder/granulated garlic (because I was somehow without fresh garlic in the house--a true sin)
parsley
oregano
salt
pepper


Preheat oven to 425. Quarter your new potatoes and finely chop some onions. Toss in a bowl with olive oil, oregano, parsley, granulated garlic, salt and pepper. Be generous with the salt--potatoes need salt. Put on a rimmed cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes.


2. Soft boil an egg or eggs (depending upon how many you're serving. One egg per person.)


Bring water to a boil. Add the egg and simmer for about 4 minutes for a runny yolk. You want a runny yolk--trust me. Put eggs under cool running water and then peel egg(s). Here's a hint: use old eggs. Not rotten, people! Just older. It means there's more space between the egg and the shell, which means they are easier to peel.


Soft-boiled eggs are not the easiest thing to peel, so I offer an alternative to soft-boiled egg: a poached egg. Just as good. Just remember the runny yolk. Trust me on this.


3. Make a salad. Toss some simple greens (I use just green-leaf lettuce, but romaine or bibb lettuce would be good too) with some white wine vinegar, a little olive oil, and some salt. Keep it simple.


Put it all together now:


Salad in a bowl. A few roasty-toasty potatoes on top. Egg on top of that. Break egg with fork and yolk spills out....mix it all around. Yum.


I apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera battery has betrayed me. I hope to have the situation remedied soon.

Bookish for Kids: Escape Under the Forever Sky

Escape Under The Forever Sky is a story of an American girl living in Africa with her ambassador mother. Lucy has friends and likes where she lives but she deaires freedom. Her mother is very worried about her safety, and thus puts serious restrictions on where she can go and what she can do. Of course Lucy decides to rebel against this, but she quickly learns her lesson the hard way when she is kidnapped. She decides she must escape from her kidnappers and find her way home, even though she is far from the city and does not know exactly where they have taken her. Her adventure as she escapes is exciting, though I thought it was over a bit too quickly. Of course, this is written for a young audience and perhaps the author was anticipating short attention spans. Not bad, overall.

PS-I liked the cover on the ARC better than the final cover. Just FYI.

Cookish: What's for dinner?

Tasty Broccoli Quiche

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, minced (you can use more if you like)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or your choice)
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Parmesean cheese



If you buy pie dough not already in the pan, place it in a pie plate and crimp the edges.Aww, it's pretty. Preheat your oven to 350. Chop up your onions, garlic, and broccoli. Saute in the butter til tender. Meanwhile, mix up the eggs, milk, salt, black pepper, and melted butter.Add the sauteed veggies to the pie crust and sprinkle the cheddar on top.
Pour on the egg mixture and sprinkle some parmesean on top, just for good measure. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the center is set and the top is golden and delicious.


Eat it up. Yum!

Bookish movie: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The 6th Harry Potter book is one of my favorites, so I was really looking forward to this movie. I made two mistakes:

1. I re-read the book right before going to see the movie. This makes all of the changes and discrepancies all the more obvious, and I knew I was going to regret it, but I couldn't help myself.

2. My hopes were too high. For some reason, I was thinking the movie would be very true to the book, even though none of the movies really have been since Chris Columbus left the project.

So, the special effects were great; there were a number of laughs; the girl playing Lavender was spot-on. It was an enjoyable movie. The kids are really growing up, and it's very cute to see.

Problems: Changes. The beginning was different--I could get over that. There's lots of little plot changes, too that I could look past, even though I do think the way Ginny and Harry get together in the book is infinitely better than in the movie. Then, they insert a scene at The Burrow that has no basis in the books. It was a big scene, too, and just seemed out of place and weird. I might have been able to get over that, but then they left out the big battle at the end! WTH! So, the invented Burrow scene took its place? That just does not work and was the biggest disappointment to me. I liked the movie more until that happened and since it is right at the end of the movie, it pretty well spoiled it.

They also left out major important plot points that are necessary for the 7th book, so I am not sure how they are going to work that out. The battle is pretty freaking important. Fenrir Greyback? Completely unexplained. Fleur and Bill? Wait, who? Percy? Not even a mention. Kreacher being inherited by Harry? Nope. There's a new Minister of Magic? No hint of that in the movie. Voldemort's parents? No flashback. The other objects that might be Horcruxes? No clue. Some of that probably could have been left out, but all of it? Yikes. I'm not sure how much sense the movie will make to those who haven't read the book. Probably most of the meaning will come through, but some things will seem very abrupt, I think.

So, I am SOOO glad they are splitting the 7th book into 2 movies because they have so much to fit in. The movie was good, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much better. Seeing it at the opening showing (yes, I went at midnight and still got up for work in the morning) added to the atmosphere and was quite fun.

I will go see it again on IMAX, and being a little further removed from reading the book might make it more enjoyable.

Bookish Review: The Footprints of God

The Footprints of God is a strange story for Greg Iles...a bit more philosophical/theological than his usual fare. The book focuses on the question of whether a computer can be built to match the processing capability of the human brain, whether artificial inteligence is possible. In this case, an elite team of scientists have been gathered by the government not to create artificial intelligence, but to build a supercomputer that can capture human intelligence. An advanced MRI provides a complete map of a human's brain, including all of that person's memories, emotions, and motives. They are striving to build a computer that can bring this map to life--creating a human consciousness that will never die. But once it is created, can it be stopped?

The book is entertaining and interesting, if a little strange. It does bring about a lot of questions about God, humanity, and how far science should go. Set in North Carolina (Iles tapping into his Southern roots yet again) and New Mexico, as well as Israel.

Bookish Review: The Seduction of the Crimson Rose

The Seduction of the Crimson Rose is the 4th book in a series by Lauren Willig. The books follow hapless grad student Eloise Kelly as she tries to uncover the identity of the Pink Carnation and other similarly-named flowery spies (think the Scarlet Pimpernel). The books all have two levels: Eloise and her research and her ever-deepening romance with a decendant of one of the flowery spies, and a past romance Eloise uncovers in her research. The books are light and funny romances with a bit of intrigue and danger.

This particular one follows Mary Alworthy, a beautiful and wily girl who lost her best chance at a good suitor to her sister, as she teams up with the slimy and seductive Sebastian, Lord Vaughn. The more time Mary and Vaughn spend together trying to ensnare the Black Tulip (a.k.a. the bad guy), the more they are drawn together. But when Vaughn's dead wife shows back up, and the Black Tulip draws ever nearer, things get a little complicated.

Fun series. Start with The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. They are better in order

Cookish: What's for dinner?

I guess we can call this an attempt at lo mein.
Ingredients
1/4 onion
8 oz mushrooms
2 carrots
olive oil
salt
garlic clove
1 pkg frozen snow peas
3/4 cup frozen peas
cabbage
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup water
1 boullion cube
sesame oil
sesame seeds
1 tsp chili-garlic paste
2 pkg soy sauce (take-out size)
1 heaping tsp hoisin

Chop onions and sweat in oil w/ a little salt. Sice mushrooms, add to onions, and saute. Add 1 cup water and boullion cube; let simmer and begin to reduce. Cut carrots into matchsticks or circles, add to pan and allow to cook for a few minutes. Grate in garlic (using your handy microplane. You have one, right?); add chili-garlic paste. Mix cornstarch with soy and add to the veggies. Add snow peas and peas. Add cabbage (I used the plain green stuff, but you could use napa). Add hoisin sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil. Toss with 1/2 pkg of whole wheat thin spaghetti. Top with sesame seeds, and enjoy!