Gosh I Like to Cook for Myself

I'm high off the lovely dinner I made for tonight.  Perhaps the burn from the garlic, but I know what I like.

My most recent food goal is to eat fish at least once a week.  The fishmonger at Whole Foods suggested  fresh cod, so I started with that. Mark Bittman, from his book Kitchen Express, suggested Pan-Seared with Spicy Lime Butter (pg 91).  Mark's recipe directed me to make a butter compound with shallot mixed with lime zest and juice.  Lacking shallot, I substituted about 6 cloves of garlic. Hee, hee, let the fun begin.

Staring at the seasoned fish I was about to sear in butter and olive oil, I realized we were going to want something else on the table to go with it.  Rosie grabbed some kelp noodles while we were shopping today, and I thought in a little broth, they might be a great way to catch any butter compound that melted off the fish.  Of course, the chicken broth, noodles and fish would look very mono-chromatic in the bowl together, so I dropped a handful of arugula into each bowl before pouring in the small amount of soup.

The result delighted me.  Creamy textured fish, slightly crunchy kelp noodles, the sweet of the butter contrasting with the acidic of the garlic and the bitter of the arugula, all went down nicely with our animated dinner conversation about the Mars Curiosity.

Here's Mark's recipe that I started out with (plus my notes), in case you'd like to try some similar fun.

Pan-Seared Fish with Spicy Lime Butter
Stir together about a half stick of softened butter, a finely chopped shallot (I substituted the 6 cloves of garlic), the zest of a lime and a good squeeze of its juice (Bill and I were talking, so I put the juice of the entire lime in), a minced red chile (left this out for the kids), and a pinch or two of salt.  Pat any type of fish fillets dry, season them with salt, and cook them quickly in a tablespoon of each olive oil and butter.  Turn the fish once and cook until golden and cook through, about five minutes.  Serve the fillets with a generous spoonful of the compound butter on top.

Mocha Mama's YA summer reading list

One of my very favorite bloggers, Mocha Mama, recently posted a Young Adult summer reading list.  Some of the books look beyond Theo at this point, but right in my interests.  And of course, there's always next year.

Says Mocha Mama:

Every year I make myself a list of all the great new YA books that have been published during the school year and try to read them all. Lately, however, I find myself looking toward books that I’ve missed in the past (because, really, I cannot read them all) and asked a bunch of friends to help me put together a list of favorites. Some of them are new and some are not, but they all came highly recommended from people whose opinions I trust. Even the school librarian where I work chimed in and loaded me up with a boxful of books for the summer. 

 Click here for the rest of the post!

Good luck with your summer readers.

Writing elsewhere

Yesterday I made a guest post to the Seattle Neufeld Community's blog.  You can read it here. Also, while you are there, read the lovely posts by Sara E. and Molly.  They are amazing writers and inspiring mamas that I feel so fortunate to have in my life.

Theo's Thumbs Up Booklist: 2011-12

Theo has read 220 library books this year!  This of course doesn't include any re-reads of books in the house, comic books or anything his dad has passed to him from the large stack of review books that arrive daily on our front porch.

People often ask what Theo likes to read, so here is a list of his thumbs up from this academic year for your browsing pleasure. You'll notice we were in the Ancient History cycle this year.

As usual, I'm desperately trying to keep him in books, so if anything you see here reminds you of something he might like, drop me a line.  You'll have my undying gratitude!

Still More Stories to Solve  by Shannon
Castle in the Air by Jones
Throne of Fire by Riordan
Lord Sunday by Nix
Tortoise and the Hare (Music CD) by Simon
Hoot by Hiaasen
The Kingfisher Soccer Encyclopedia by Gifford
Maia of Thebes by Turner
Nicholas on Vacation by Goscinny
Ralph Masiello's Ancient Egypt Drawing Book by Giblin
Cleopatra VII, Daughter of the Nile by Gregory
Egyptian Diary: Journal of Nakhat by Platt
Technology in the time of Ancient Egypt by Crosher
Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers by Butcher
Metropolis: Egyptian Town by Steedman
The Ancient Near East by Stefoff
The Ivory Throne of Persia by Coit
The Immortal Fire by Ursu
Olympians: Athena by O'Connor
Corydon & the Fall of atlantis by Druitt
Corydon & the Island of Monsters by Druitt
Corydon & the Siege of Troy by Druitt
Hello, My Name is Bob by Alsenas
Olympians: Zeus by O'Connor
The Shadow Thieves by Ursu
The Siren Song by Ursu
The Battle for Skandia by Flanagan
Olympians: Hera by O'Connor
The Siege of Macindaw by Flanagan
Stormbreaker by Horowitz
Treehouses You Can Actually Build by Stiles
The Glass Cat of Oz by Hulan
Mission: Spy Force Revealed by Abela
Sally and the Something by O'Connor
Uncle Bigfoot by O'Connor
Everything I Know About Cars by Lichtenheld
I Love You Because You're You by Baker
Oh My Gods! by Bryant
Journey into Mohawk Country by Bogaert
Stickman Odyssey by Ford
Children's Book of Mythical Beast and Magical Monsters by DK
Conquest! Can You Build a Roman City by Bruce
Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome by Moss
The Siege of Macindaw by Flanagan
The Sorcerer of the North by Flanagan
You Wouldn't Want to Be A..... by Stewart
...Roman Soldier
...Cleopatra
...Cursed by King Tut
...in the Forbidden City
...Live in Pompeii

Playing The Game

Forwarded from a friend who I deeply respect and admire (and think is super fun to boot), this post - on Whatever by John Scalzi (who I know I'm supposed to know but can't pull out of my brain's muddled files) - is a great way to think about and explain privilege. I'm thinking it is a perfect start into yet another conversation with my white son about what society/culture has handed him without implying that he is or has done something bad. Which usually leads to the accompanying Spiderman "with power comes responsibility" talk.

The part about "Gay Minority Female" almost made me spray coffee out my nose.

Click through on the first line to read the entire post. It is well worth your time.

I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon. It’s not that the word “privilege” is incorrect, it’s that it’s not theirword. When confronted with “privilege,” they fiddle with the word itself, and haul out the dictionaries and find every possible way to talk about the word but not any of the things the word signifies.

So, the challenge: how to get across the ideas bound up in the word “privilege,” in a way that your average straight white man will get, without freaking out about it?

Beautiful Modern Swan Dance - Charles "Lil Buck" Riley

*I* am in Vancouver all by myself!!!!  I can't remember the last time I actually took time just to myself.  Last night I had a lovely walk around this funny little neighborhood of Burnaby (it reminds me of Ballard 15 years ago before it got discovered, except with an international mix), ate some amazing pho and went to bed at 9:00.

The Neufeld Institute Conference is here this weekend.  I took the opportunity to come up a day early to rest and wade through my increasingly terrifying pile of things I've said I'd do that are not tracked or maintained in any way.  An hour reading through updates on Things software and refinements on their discussion boards of how to most effectively use the software, and I'm feeling a renewed sense of possibility and commitment.

Anyway, in the course of cleaning out things from my to-do email file, I came across this amazing dance clip forwarded by my housemate.  Hope you love it!

What is iTunes thinking?

So, I'm listening to music and trying to conquer the avalanche-prone heap that was once my desk.  I'm feeling lazy, so I picked play by genres.  Pop seems like good, upbeat sorting music, right?

What I want to know is how Michael Jackson, Iyaz, Air Supply and Frank Sinatra could possibly all fit in there together?

Weird.

Wish me luck on the piles.