Every once in a while, I need to have one of these completely random posts, so here goes…

I started this blog because I wanted a place to just write and hopefully keep people in my life up to date on what’s going on with me. However, this is an open forum and anyone can read it so I also have to respect the people in my life and not discuss certain things. We all go through rough spots, and I’ve definitely had my share. I don’t write about those and sometimes it also means that I don’t call people on the phone because I don’t want to talk about it.

I am incredibly grateful to the people in my life – my family and my friends. During the holidays I think you truly realize that there are wonderful people all around you and because I’m so far away from most of those people, the holidays are also really hard. I am incredibly fortunate that my parents were able to fly out here and spend a few days with us. I am glad that my father-in-law lives only an hour away, although I wish he would come and visit us more often instead of us always visiting him. I am blessed to feel that I can get on an airplane from time to time and visit friends, although it’s much pricier than it used to be since the munchkin gets her own seat. I do love where we live, and I am making some great friends here, but the holidays remind you that there are people who have known you for years, who accept you for all your faults, who have remained your friend for a deep meaning, not just because you live in the same place or because your kids are friends. For all my friends that are reading this, I love you.

Sometimes being a mom means forgetting who you are as an individual. I truly am trying not to do that. I’ve been getting back in touch with music of my own and it definitely helps – even if I did just create a new pandora station only for them to play disney songs on it.

Someday I hope to live closer to the people I love. For right now, I have the two amazing people in my house who give me joy on a regular basis. May everyone reading this, friends and strangers, have a very happy holiday season. Remember that it isn’t about gifts, it is about love and joy and the people in your life.

This song is currently playing on Pandora and it’s pretty accurate. Love to all!

I feel a world better than I did this afternoon. I think that sometimes the whole working from home thing is really hard and sometimes I get into a funk because I’m surrounded by a mess that I constantly feel I need to clean up. This afternoon I grabbed the munchkin and she chose the library over the park and we had a really good time there. Then we got home and had an awesome dinner.

Beef & Veggie Stir-Fry

This is adapted from a recipe in Parents magazine. I decided to cook the meat in the crock-pot because the broccoli beef recipe I’ve done in the past was that way and the meat was amazingly tender plus the munchkin inhaled it. Well, it worked again.

* 1 lb lean beef strips
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger (the recipe called for more but I’m not a huge fan of ginger)
* 2 tbsp soy sauce
* 2 tbsp water
* 1 tbsp rice-wine vinegar
* few shakes of minced onion (called for 1 tsp onion powder which I didn’t have)
* 3/4 tsp garlic powder (called for 1/2 but again, I cut out ginger)
* 1 tsp cornstarch
* 2 stalks of chopped celery
* 1 bag frozen mixed stir-fry veggies
* 1 can cut baby corn
* cooked brown rice

1. Mix salt through garlic powder together in glass bowl.
2. Add beef strips and mix thoroughly
3. Cook in crockpot for 3 hrs on high or 6 on low
4. When that is done, remove meat from liquid and whisk in cornstarch.
5. Defrost vegetables in microwave and drain (this helps keep water from final dish)
6. Heat a wok on medium heat and stir-fry vegetables until cooked through.
7. Return beef to pan and add liquid mixture.
8. Serve over warm brown rice.

You of course could use fresh vegetables, but I’m trying to a) save money and b) make my life easier. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the vegetables turned out. Enjoy!

I’m sitting here, getting ready to listen to/half watch “Sing Off,” wondering where this show was when I was in a semi-pro a cappella group. On many levels I feel like I “should” be doing many other things – folding laundry, cleaning the house, picking up the munchkin. But I just need a rest.

My parents were here for 5 days and while that was absolutely wonderful, I need a vacation myself now. I can’t seem to motivate myself. Ever had a day like that? Blah! At least I’m accomplishing the feat of getting dinner ready – the brown rice has been cooked (and extras ready for the freezer) and I’ve got a new recipe of Asian style beef in the crockpot.

I have also been looking for new ways to save money and still eat in a healthy way. Last week at a playgroup one of the other mom’s mentioned that a local food co-op was starting up here. After some online searching today I found it and am becoming a charter member. We live in farming country and there is great produce and fresh meats to be had. I’ve always wanted to be a part of a CSA and I’m thrilled that one is starting up here.

So that’s my situation in a nutshell. I haven’t finished stuff for my holiday cards yet. I have a few gifts that still need to be sent. There is a warm bed calling my name, but I think it’s time to go get the munchkin.

This has been a crazy few days. My parents have been in town for Hanukkah which has been absolutely fabulous, and for the most part has meant that I haven’t had to cook.  We did make a great meal for the first night, but the second night had us at a pot-luck party at the temple and tonight we all went out. I think I’m all oiled out, but it’s been worth it. For this coming week, we’ll go simple again.

sunday – out (Thai – mmm….good)
monday – out
tuesday – breadcrumb chicken, garlic peas, mashed potatoes
wednesday – broccoli beef
thursday – vegetable lasagna (a combo of this and this)
friday – Ina Garten’s roast chicken
saturday – date night out!

As always, for more recipe plan ideas, see menu plan monday on http://orgjunkie.com

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The year was 1962. The location, Jackson, Mississippi. The deep South prior to desegregation was a place where most comfortable white households had a black woman doing all of the housework and taking care of the children. Where people had separate bathrooms in their homes (or garages) so that their spaces wouldn’t be “contaminated” by the germs their help carried. It was a time when white women only went to college in order to get a “Mrs.” This is the scene that Kathryn Stockett elegantly paints in her novel “The Help.”

The story is told from the voices of three very different women – Aibileen, Minny and Miss Skeeter. Aibileen is the hired help to Miss Elizabeth Leefot. Aibileen herself has raised 17 white children and one of her own. Aibilene follows the unwritten rules that direct the help to keep their noses and their minds to themselves. Minny is also hired help, but she has a much bigger problem with keeping her mind to herself. She can cook “like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue” which has lost her many a job. Miss Skeeter is a young white woman who just graduated from college, moved back home and wants to be a journalist or writer.

Miss Skeeter comes from the world of white privilege. Her family owns a cotton farm and she was raised by a black nanny – Constantine. She considered Constantine her closest friend and confidante, wrote letters to her while away at college and returned home shocked to find that she had been fired. No one would talk to Skeeter about what happened to Constantine. Instead, she was simply expected to become part of wealthy white society – she is the editor of the Junior League’s newsletter, plays weekly bridge games with her closest friends from childhood, and plays tennis at the club. But it leaves her unfulfilled.

Skeeter gets a job writing the “Miss Myrna” column at the local paper. This is the housekeeping column where people write in their questions and she is supposed to answer them. She takes the job as an opportunity to get something on her resume, but being raised with help, she knows nothing about the subject. She approaches Aibileen, who works for her friend Elizabeth, to help her. In the process, she comes up with another story to write that goes against everything she was raised to think.

This book was beautiful. Kathryn Stockett captured each woman’s voice perfectly. You quickly come to understand these strong women and the challenges that each of them face. While it is a work of fiction, the civil rights movement is definitely a part of our history, but this is also a side that most people have not seen. I could not put this book down and would highly recommend it to anyone.

Although the idea behind menu plan Monday is to post a week of recipes beginning on Monday, that just doesn’t make as much sense to me as having the week start on Sunday since that is when I actually come up with the menus and that is also when I do the big shopping. So with that in mind, here’s my new way of doing this.

I was looking through on of my cookbooks yesterday for some inspiration and found a ton of things to make this week.  Thank you Bon Appetit fast easy fresh.  One big theme of dishes I am yearning to make is various roast chickens. Now here’s the thing, making a roast chicken in this household doesn’t make a ton of sense and I always feel like a big part of it goes to waste. There are only two and a half of us and the munchkin doesn’t usually like my cooking these days (unless I trick her with chopsticks). So even though the recipes call for a whole chicken, I’m making just breasts.

Sunday – cedar plank salmon in the oven (wasn’t great)
Monday – Greek-style roast chicken
Tuesday – pizza
Wednesday – lamb chops with dried onions (my own recipe, I’ll post if it is decent)
Thursday – pasta
Friday – latkes and chicken
Saturday – out

The Greek-style chicken sounds pretty great and super-easy. It’s just lemon juice, garlic and oregano. Of course I’ll serve it with roasted potatoes, hummus and salad.

For more menus, check out orgjunkie.com

I’m reverting to childhood. I love this movie. I just purchased 3 songs from itunes. I had the LP when I was a kid and listened to it to death and I’ve probably seen this movie more times then I care to count. This is quite possibly one of my favorite scenes of the movie, although favorite as an adult, not as a child. I don’t think I even knew who Gene Kelly was when I fell in love with this movie and I remember watching it at one point as a young adult with my jaw hitting the floor when I realized he was in this. Ah, the good ole days.

I love books. I’ve been trying to write reviews to books that I read, but I am constantly wondering, what makes a good book review? I am not a fan of reading the review sections of the newspaper, but I do like to read other people’s reviews on goodreads.com. I want to know why people liked a book or didn’t like a book. I want advance warning when a book is fabulous but the first 50 pages suck.  I love getting recommendations from friends and have finally found book clubs that I enjoy (there was one I was in that was heinously bad). I love to share my love of reading, a passion that my geeky 2 year old already has succumbed to.

So pardon me for my book reviews, but they are a work in progress as I try to figure out the best way to write them.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I first read this book when it came out in 2006. It had been a gift from my husband and I knew nothing of what it was about. I quickly came to understand that this is one of those books that everyone should read, especially anyone who had been touched by the power of books.

As the narrator explains in the beginning, this is a small story “about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter and quite a lot of thievery.” The girl is Liesel Memminger who is 9 years old when we first meet her on a train to Munich to be delivered into the hands of foster parents by her mother. She is the protagonist of this story, which is interestingly narrated by death. Death is not supposed to get attached to living people, but something about Liesel captures his attention early on and he hovers over her life throughout the years. The story begins in 1939 so WWII is an underlying character in the story as well.

Liesel first steals a book at the grave of her younger brother, who died en route to Munich. The book she steals is The Grave Diggers Handbook, but she doesn’t know this as she cannot read. But words are a huge part of who Liesel is to become and this book is the beginning, her entry into the meaning and power of words. Her foster father, Hans, finds this book later in the story and so begins her reading lessons.

Throughout the twists and turns of this elegant book, Liesel learns about how powerful words are. She continues to steal books, although there is a long break between the first book and the second, and they feed her soul. When her foster family hides a Jewish man in the basement, she begins to learn about a different facet to the power of words – she sees how writing words down can bring joy to people and from one special book, she understands how words can move people to do things. Since Hitler is also a fringe character in this book, towards the end Liesel makes a powerful statement about words -

“Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing….What good are words.” (p. 521)

In this statement she acknowledges how the Fuhrer convinced people to believe in his vision with words. But she unknowingly also makes a statement about the power that we all hold with our own words. In the end, she writes her own story and it saves her life.

This is one of the truly special books of our time. It is a story of Nazi Germany from a non-Jewish perspective. It is a story showing how WWII impacted everyone – the fear in people’s hearts, the hatred, the good deeds, the heroes, the death. Although this is published as a YA book, it is a book for everyone.

There are certain things that we cling to when we are looking for comfort. Yesterday it was a rainy chilly day, so soup was the comfort. Today, I don’t know what was up with me, but by dinner time, again I went with simple comfort, aka pasta. Tonight I plan to curl up with a good book. A quick post and then no more electronics and an early bedtime.

Books are the ultimate comfort for me. Last night my book club here met to discuss a book that I had read when it first came out, The Book Thief. I loved this book when it came out and it was just as powerful with the second reading. I haven’t written my review yet, but I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

I’m not sure what it is, but I get an odd sense of comfort from reading a good book twice. I also like watching movies more than once. My husband and I disagree on this idea, but he doesn’t read much fiction and he likes dramas and documentaries which don’t often lend to multiple viewings. When a book has characters like this one, even when the subject matter is difficult (WWII Germany), you just want to surround yourself with the familiar, good hearted warmth.

When I was in college, and even after, I remember watching certain movies over and over. One of my favorites was the totally cheesy but wonderful The Cutting Edge. I also could watch almost any Gene Kelly and/or Judy Garland film over and over. I even still love my childhood favorite of Xanadu.

I’m going to go escape into a good book, but here’s a little bit of happiness from me to you.