Books: Swamplandia, Balzac and The Curious Incident

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Sijie tells the story of two teenagers in China post the cultural revolution sent to the mountains of Tibet to be re-educated. The narrator, and his friend, Luo, meet the daughter of the local seamstress and befriend her. They also discover a stash of foreign novels hidden by their friend Four Eyes and their world is opened. Sijie himself was reeducated in the mountain regions in China during the same time and this novel is said to be semi-autobiographical. He is an excellent author and the story keeps the reader engaged the whole time. The stories they discover (The Count of Monte Cristo for one) expand their horizons and provide stories that keep them in the favor of the village. Their relationships with the seamstress' daughter also proves to be enlightening and traumatizing all at the same time. All in all, I liked it but didn't love it. I give the story 3.5/5 stars.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

I was absolutely sucked in by the cover and title of this book. From Amazon, "Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades." After Ava's mother gets sick, The Chief (their dad) disappears to the mainland, Kiwi, her older brother, leaves to work at a rival theme park, and her sister falls in love with a ghost. This book is a crazy story about this family's life in florida swamp, which seems so surreal to me. The life of this family is so out of reality and chaotic I really felt for little Ava. She is left to her own devices and feels responsbile for her family and her beloved Swamplandia. I didn't think I actually liked the book but the final 50 pages really sucked me in. I give it another 3.5/5 stars since it took me awhile to get in to it.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

This is written from the perspective of Christopher John Francis Boone, an autistic 15-year-old, who tries to solve the mystery of a murdered dog in his neighborhood. He loves his pet rat, Toby, math and watching nature videos and the chapters in the book are all prime numbers. Haddon does an excellent job (or it seems like he does at least) of getting into the head of an autistic teenagers, it really feels like you're reading a journal Christopher wrote. Becuase of that I felt like the story is challenging to really get into. Still, you really get the feeling of how much his Dad loves him, despite their issues, and the reasons behind his choices. Thankfully, it ends well, which is why I give it 3/5 stars.

Thai Iced Tea

Happy Wednesday, you guys. Feel depressed it's hump day? Feel awkward about the term "hump day"? Yeah, me too. Lets move on.

Lets move right on to a delicious, sugary drink. First lets acknowledge, I love beverages. All beverages. Coffee? Yep. Tea? Definitely. Lemonade? Limeade? Yes and yes. Fizzy cocktail? For sure. And summer brings out all sorts of possibilities.

One of my often forgotten favorites is Thai Iced Tea. I generally forget about it until I go get Thai food and see it sitting there on the back page. I promptly order one and am super happy I spent the $3 for a sugary, caffeine hit while eating my pad thai.

However, I don't often get thai food and sometimes remember I like Thai iced tea. Now I can enjoy one at home! WIN!

You can too with a few basic black tea bags, spices and either cream or sweetened condensed milk. After steeping the tea and spices for awhile in boiling water (i.e. an hour until it cools), you just pour it over ice and add your creamy dilutent of choice. (Yeah, I just used a science word)

Side note: did you know that Trader Joes sells sweetened condensed milk in a squeeze bottle?? No more wasting one can for a glass of this stuff. 

Anyway, I realize this is not super authentic but it gets the job done and I hope you like it to. If you happen to have a more authentic recipe that doesn't involve me going to more than 2 grocery stores, give me a shout out. 

Thai Iced Tea 

(sort of based on this, this and this)

Ingredients

• 5 cups water
• 5 bags black tea
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3-4 whole cloves
• 2 star anise pods
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cream or sweet condensed milk
• Ice

To Make

1) In medium saucepan, bring brown sugar, star anise, cloves and cinnamon to a boil.

2) Remove from heat and let tea bags steep until the whole mixture has cooled to room temperature. Once it's cooled, remove spices and tea bags. 

3) Pour tea over ice, then stir in cream or sweet condensed milk. Enjoy! 

Observation Tuesday: Volume 54

I've come to realize this is truth, especially when I'm on night shift. 

credit: http://above-the-charming-clouds.tumblr.com/

Are you afraid of heights? Want to give yourself some serious anxiety just sitting in your own chair? Check out this Buzzfeed article.

Short list of things I'm grateful for today:

• yoga, seriously needed some me time and this was the ticket
• a husband that forgives the crazy in me. 
• parks with crazy pretty views of my city that I've never seen before

Snapshot Sunday: June in Montana

 I spent just a few short days in Montana with some good friends visiting my family and Glacier National Park. We had one fantastic day of weather, ate lots of good food, and generally enjoyed each others company.

On one of my favorite hikes to Avalanche Lake on Tuesday.

The falls near the beginning of the hike.

 Got lots of quality time with this guy. 

 So happy to have family living in such a beautiful place so I can visit!

Books: Rodeo in Joliet, Quitter and Gone Girl

Rodeo in Joliet by Glenn Rockowitz

I actually heard Mr Rockowitz speak at an oncology nursing symposium a few months back where he read an excerpt from his book. He's had four different types of cancer and this is the memoir of his journey the first time. Obviously, he survives so it's not really a spoiler. He starts out living in New York City with his wife who is eight months pregnant. He goes through chemo, experimental treatment and being a new dad while fighting this horrific diease. It is an incredibly raw, beautiful, heart wrenching story. He swears, talks about vomiting, a lot, and tells some uncomfortable stories. You will cry if you read this, just a heads up, but man is it good. 4/5 stars.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I finally hopped on the bangwagon and read Gone Girl. Flynn tells the story of Nick and Amy, a NYC couple, living in Missouri. On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary Amy disappears, in what appears to be a violent struggle in their living room. While the search goes on, Nick is consistently evasive, bitter and shady. It's a real who did it mystery. I was definitely drawn into the story almost immediately. But as the book goes on, I didn't really relate to or even like any of the main characters. They don't have many redeeming qualities. I say 3/5 stars because I couldn't wait to finish it but felt really anxious the whole time I was reading it and didn't like the ending.

Quitter by Jon Acuff

Jon Acuff, is the author of the blog, Stuff Christians Like, where I originally heard of him. He's hilarious on the blog so I had high hopes for the book. Quitter is about "closing the gap between your day job and your dream job." He starts out the book by advising you not to quit your day job. As the book progresses he talks about finding your dream job, by identifying your "hinge" moment (that time where something really clicked in your life/mind), learning to hustle, and finally getting to the place where you can quit your job to pursue your dream and be okay. As part of the generation that serially quits jobs and believes our dream job, or climbing the corporate ladder, should happen almost immediately, it was really refreshing to read his perspective on how to wisely find that. I give it 4/5 stars because I definitely learned something about and for my own pursuit of my dream job.

Observation Tuesday: Volume 53

Yes, Please | Party of One by Andrew O'Hagan. An article about traveling alone. Makes me want to hope in the car and do a solo road trip. After doing research abroad one summer in Vancouver I learned a bit of this lesson but this article makes it sound so lovely. (although I do love a good vacation with my husband/friends).

17 Books That Should Be On Your Summer Reading List. Like a need more books to read, but I just added half of these.

In honor of my favorite teacher (my husband), 33 Teachers Who Got the Last Laugh.

Baked Apple Donuts

When I was a kid I spent the night at my best friend's house probably once a week. And a lot of weekend mornings I was visiting their dad would run off to Dunkin' Donuts to pick up a dozen for our breakfast. This was not a tradition my family had and so I just loved it. 

It make weekend mornings special. Ever since then my perfect Sunday morning involves fresh donuts from the place down the street (figuratively, not literally). I reserve it for random weekend mornings now but it's so fun to do. 

In order to make to my weekend fantasies come true at home and on weekdays, I splurged on Amazon. This donut pan arrived in that brown box a few days later. I knew I needed to christen the pan with some fantastic donuts and when I saw this recipe for cinnamon sugar coated donuts I knew it was the winner. 

These donuts are a light and fluffy baked version of the typical fried variety at the store. And baking them is much less intimidating than frying something, which I have an irrational fear of.

I loved them so much I ate 3 one day. They're just too easy to snack on when sitting on  your counter.

The recipe starts off with simmering dried apples in apple juice to get them really plump and tasty. When added to the batter and baked they're succulent bites that really make the donuts awesome.

The original recipe recommends using a pastry bag to get the batter spread evenly into the pan but I didn't want to get something else messy and used a regular spoon and it was just fine.

See how they come out of the oven? Perfection!

Dipping them into cinnamon sugar is just like the icing on the cake; not necessary but so so good.

And how can you deny something that looks this good?

So go on, buy yourself a donut pan and make your weekend (now weekday) dreams come true.

Baked Apple Donuts

makes 12 donuts

from Barbara Bakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup apple juice or cider
• 3/4 cup dried apples, in bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

To Make

1) In a small saucepan, bring apple juice and dried apples to a low boil and simmer, uncovered until liquid is all absorbed. Take off heat and let it cool to room temperature.

2) Preheat oven to 325*. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray. In small bowl, whisk flours, soda, salt and cinnamon. In another, larger bowl whisk together brown sugar, egg, vegetable oil, applesauce and extract. 

3) Add flour mixture to larger bowl and stir until combined. Finally, stir in the dried apples.

4) Spoon mixture into donut pan, until the cup is about 3/4 full. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove and let cool completely on rack. 

5) In a bowl combine cinnamon and sugar. Dip donuts in the sugar, covering completely and shake off excess. Store in airtight container, sugar will absorb into donut. They're best the day of, but good for 2-3 days after. Enjoy!