Children’s books about deployment
This is for Connie Schultz. She recently wrote about hearing a customer in a bookstore ask about books for children whose parents get deployed. The customer was turned away with none to be found. This is also for that bookstore, that customer and anyone else who might be looking for similar books.
Some great sources
Posted by Becky @
4:08 pm |
Books: Gilead
I’ve recently been told that I don’t deserve what I have.
Standing right behind that, I believe, is a condemnation that I don’t practice religion the way I “should.”
I have heard any number of fine sermons in my life, and I have known any number of deep souls. I am well aware that people find fault, but it seems to me to be presumptuous to judge the authenticity of anyone’s religion, except one’s own. And that is also presumptuous. (p. 173)
This has prompted a lot of self-reflecting and a search for understanding on my part. That search has led me to realize some very important things about the wretchedness of cruelty people visit on each other. It’s so difficult to see the good in others when one only looks for faults.
Let me say first of all that the grace of God is sufficient to any transgression, and that to judge is wrong, the origin and essence of much error and cruelty. (p. 155)
While all this happens, I read a book called Gilead. It’s written by Marilynne Robinson, an Iowa author. In the book, a kind, gentle, old man — a preacher — writes a last letter to his young son. Unintentionally, he also speaks to me when I am in desperate need of kind words.
When I read books is almost as important as what books I read. Reading is not just about content but also context, and it’s not just the context of the words in the books. It’s the context of my life. Seemingly unrelated books I read in sequence often fit together in unforseen ways. I often find myself reading a book at a time when I need those stories or information most because of what’s happening in my life.
It seems to me there is less meanness in atheism, by a good measure. It seems that the spirit of religious self-righteousness this article deplores is precisely the spirit in which it is written. Of course he’s right about many things, one of them being the destructive potency of religious self-righteousness. (p. 146)
And so it is with the old man in Gilead. He’s taking stock, looking back on his own life and looking ahead to his son’s life without him. He’s trying to tell his son what’s important. In doing so, he speaks to several things that have been on my mind lately — understanding the differences of others without mocking or ridiculing the very essence of who they are.
In every important way we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable — which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. (p. 197)
Some people believe the only way to hear the voice of God is to sit in a church or cathedral and listen to the voice of someone who preaches.
I hear the voice of God in a brilliant sunrise.
I hear it when I look into the depths of my husband’s or my children’s eyes.
You see how it is godlike to love the being of someone. Your existence is a delight to us. I hope you never have to long for a child as I did, but oh, what a splendid thing it has been that you came finally, and what a blessing to enjoy you now for almost seven years.
And I hear it in the words of books I read.
Posted by Becky @
12:03 am |
Books: Food Lover’s Companion
When I was putting together my mother-in-law’s recipe for fish soup, I discovered that the author of one of the most-used books in my kitchen had died. Three years ago this month. Sharon Tyler Herbst, who wrote the Food Lover’s Companion (among many other food books), died in January 2007 after fighting ovarian cancer.
Posted by Becky @
4:03 pm |
Food: Fish soup
Fiskesuppe
Ingredients
2 pounds (about 4 cups) fish (I use cod and salmon)
1 teaspoon salt
bottle of wine
2 tablespoon butter
2 cups carrots, finely sliced
2 cups leeks, finely sliced
2 tablespoon flour
4 1/2 cups broth from fish
1 1/2 cups crème fraîche (see recipe below)
2 cup shrimp
1 tablespoon fresh dill, minced
Salt
Pepper
Put fish in water and 1 teaspoon salt. Heat just
until boiling and remove from heat.
With a slotted spoon, remove the fish from the
water and cut into small pieces. (Check for
bones.)
Open a bottle of wine and pour
yourself a glass. (Mine was
strawberry wine from Florida.)
Remove fish residue from water with a small
strainer or spoon.
Melt 2 tablespoon butter in bottom of a pot.
Add carrots and leeks and warm through.
Sprinkle flour over vegetables, then add fish
broth. Heat to boiling.
Stir in crème fraîche.
Place fish in soup with slotted spoon. Heat to
boiling, then add shrimp and dill. Salt and
pepper to taste.
Vær så god! ~ Bon appétit! ~ Dig in!
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Crème fraîche
I made my own crème fraîche, thanks to Sharon Tyler Herbst’s Food Lover’s Companion. I changed the amounts to 1 1/2 cups whipping cream and 3 tablespoons buttermilk. Here’s what she said: “This matured, thickened cream has a slightly tangy, nutty flavor and velvety rich texture. The thickness of crème fraîche can range from that of commercial sour cream to almost as solid as room-temperature margarine. In France, where crème fraîche is a specialty, the cream is unpasteurized and therefore contains the bacteria necessary to thicken it naturally. In America, where all commercial cream is pasteurized, the fermenting agents necessary fo crème fraîche can be obtained by adding buttermilk or sour cream. A very expensive American facsimile of crème fraîche is sold in some gourmet markets. The expense seems frivolous, however, when it’s so easy to make an equally delicious version at home. To do so, combine 1 cup whipping cream and 2 tablespoons buttermilk in a glass container. Cover and let stand at room temperature (about 70°F) from 8 to 24 hours, or until very thick. Stir well before covering and refrigerate up to 10 days.Crème fraîche is the ideal addition for sauces or soups because it can be boiled without curdling. It’s delicious spooned over fresh fruit or other desserts such as warm cobblers or puddings.”
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Without pictures
Fiskesuppe
Ingredients
2 pounds (about 4 cups) fish (I use cod and salmon)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon butter
2 cups carrots, finely sliced
2 cups leeks, finely sliced
2 tablespoon flour
4 1/2 cups broth from fish
1 1/2 cups crème fraîche
2 cup shrimp
1 tablespoon fresh dill, minced
Salt
Pepper
Put fish in water and 1 teaspoon salt. Heat just until boiling and remove from heat. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon from the water and cut into small pieces. (Check for bones.) Remove fish residue from water with a small strainer or spoon. Melt 2 tablespoon butter in bottom of a pot. Add carrots and leeks and warm through. Sprinkle flour over vegetables, then add fish broth. Heat to boiling. Stir in crème fraîche. Place fish in soup with slotted spoon. Heat to boiling, then add shrimp and dill. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4.
Crème fraîche
Combine 1 1/2 cups whipping cream and 3 tablespoons buttermilk in a glass container. Cover and let stand at room temperature (about 70°F) from eight to 24 hours or until very thick. Stir well before covering, and refrigerate up to 10 days. (Source: Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst, 1995.)
Posted by Becky @
2:56 pm |
Books: Gilead
I just started reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I think I’m going to like this author. Food for thought already.
There’s a lot under the surface of life, everyone knows that. A lot of malice and dread and guilt, and so much loneliness, where you wouldn’t really expect to find it, either.
My point in mentioning this is only to say that people who feel any sort of regret where you are concerned will suppose you are angry, and they will see anger in what you do, even if you’re just quietly going about a life of your own choosing. They make you doubt yourself, which, depending on cases, can be a severe distraction and a waste of time. This is a thing I wish I had understood much earlier than I did.
Posted by Becky @
10:06 am |
Books: The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa
December 22, 2009 | Books,Iowa
I just finished reading The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa by Elizabeth Stuckey-French. Her stories were interesting, but I didn’t like anyone in them. I wonder if she liked the people in her stories much.
Posted by Becky @
1:25 pm |
Books: She taught me to eat Artichokes
December 12, 2009 | Books,Iowa
I just finished reading two books by Iowa author Mary Kay Shanley, The Memory Box and She taught me to eat Artichokes. They are both warm, touching and just a little bit sad. But maybe that’s just me.
Posted by Becky @
8:12 pm |
Books: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
I just finished reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. If you ever loved a dog, you might like this book.
Posted by Becky @
5:29 pm |
Book: Lights on a Ground of Darkness
I just finished reading Lights on a Ground of Darkness by Ted Kooser. Have you ever read Kooser, the 13th Poet Laureate of the United States? Oh, you must. You must!
Posted by Becky @
11:41 pm |
