Coffee Talk – Children’s Books, Elections
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Welcome to Coffee Talk! A concept that I shamelessly stole from Daenel over at Living Outside the Stacks. It’s a chance to talk about some of the random things that are on my mind. Grab a thermos of your favorite drink, and join me for a little chat.
Children’s Lit
I’ve been on a weird children’s literature kick in the last week or so. I’ve read both of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, and am currently on my second Oz book. I’m totally blaming my brand new niece, Charli, for this. She’s a week old today, which seems to coincide with my reading so many stories featuring children. Apparently, some people see kids, and want one of their own. I see kids and want to read books written for them.
Elections
Is this election cycle over yet? Every time I turn on the TV or radio, it seems to be all that’s on. And needless to say, everything is a mess. As a member of the IT Department here at work, my first response is to ask….
What is going on in your life?
“Apparently, some people see kids, and want one of their own. I see kids and want to read books written for them.”
I <3 you. Srsly.
More than ever!
I see kids and want to go back to being one…but to the sixties, not now. 😉
Easter Week is a huge deal locally, so I have maybe one class on Monday, and then I'm done till the Monday after. Looking forward to it!
Lately I've been trying to learn origami…which at age 53 and with stubby, callused fingers, is a challenge! Makes quilting seem simple by comparison.
Maybe you should start with bigger pieces of paper! I’d be quite happy to have the responsibilities of a child. Eating my veggies doesn’t seem like such a bad deal anymore.
As a girl in a large family dominated by boys, I came to responsibilities early: cleaning, washing clothes, preparing meals, gardening etc. Having a veg garden made eating them so much easier–I had worked hard for them! And fresh-picked tomatoes or sweet corn or beans–man I miss those. There were days we would just eat corn, or asparagus in white sauce on toast, or home-grown BLTS: I made the bread, we had grown the tomatoes and lettuce.
By the time I was eleven or twelve I was doing most of the cooking at home, as my mom worked in food service at the local hospital and the last thing she wanted to do when she got home was cook!
I’m surprised you hadn’t butchered the pigs for that BLT. We can say that at my house, or at least that we had them butchered. We’re lucky enough to live near a few amazing local butchers, so we don’t have to do the dirty work. We drop off a pig or a cow and get back the meat.
As far as responsibilities go, I was the oldest of 3 girls, but somehow managed to get out of most cooking and cleaning responsibilities. As a matter of fact, my mother still has a habit of walking around behind people, picking up their stuff. One of my cousin’s kids even asked her once if she would please not throw his drink away because he wasn’t done with it. Because of things like that, I have a tendency to leave messes. Or maybe it’s my creative mind, I’m not sure. Either way, I’m very messy.
Have you ever eaten Nero Wolfe’s Roast Corn? I got the technique from a novella called Murder is Corny:
Using fresh-picked sweetcorn, still in its untouched husks, put it in the oven set at its hottest-possible temperature for 20 min. The corn steams to perfection in its own natural wrappings. (I have set the oven to 550ºF and it works beautifully. The hottest setting on your thermostat is the one you want.)
Have paper sacks or lined wastebaskets at the table. Each diner husks their own hot, fresh corn at the table and dresses it with butter or olive oil, salt and/or pepper.
Angels sing softly in the distance.
Use more ears than you think you will want, because you will probably find yourselves eating just corn at this meal. The leftover ears (hah!) are perfect for cutting off the cold corn to make creamed corn or frying up with a bit of onion and bacon for “breakfast succotash.” But I bet you won’t have any left over.
I have never done it this way. I usually boil ours, or if it’s just the two of us, I have mastered making my corn in the microwave with wet paper towels.