Of books and food and other stuff of life

 

Yes... more pictures of autumn beauty because it was so beautiful... and I still have not purchased new "good" batteries for the camera to take any new pictures.  This is the county road which leads to (and from) our house and most of those leaves are now turning into a natural compost on the ground below.

We're experiencing Indian Summer here, with highs in the 60s now and at least 70 by week's end.  If the cycle is normal (and there have been few normal weather days this year), it will begin to turn much colder again by next week.

I've been reading The Pioneer Woman Cooks, as well as gaining five pounds by looking at the pictures.  Oh, yum... quite a few things I'd like to try as soon as these bouts with nausea are over.  One could find a much better place to live when one has sinus "issues"... but instead I take Benedryl and fall asleep on the sofa instead of cooking.  That, too, shall pass...

I've been making more soups lately as they are inexpensive and lovely to just reheat at dinner time.  I'm hoping to bake a couple of cakes and some muffins just for the freezer to have on hand when needed.  I'll just whip up an easy buttercream frosting when needed for the cakes.  I had some cookies in the freezer but gave the last of them to my husband for his brother.

No baked goods will be made until I buy more flour.  For the first time in years (and years), I let myself run out of flour!  That is always a basic commodity on my shelves but the larder has been much less full this past year.  Still, how could I let myself run out of something so basic?

Oh, well...

I pulled a couple of books off the shelves, one being The Christian Imagination (Leland Ryken, editor)... a book given to me by Stephanie a year or two ago.  I read some of the chapters at that time but there are many yet to be read.  The other, A Girl of the Limberlost, and no... I have not read it, yet... even though we visited the area a couple years ago and I have heard about it for so many years.

I think after these books, I will turn to something quite light for awhile as the Holidays come upon us... perhaps re-reading many of the Mitford books.  Eventually as the weather turns colder and real Winter sets in, I want to turn my attention to reading The Lord of the Rings (I read the Hobbit but not TLOTR) and Lark Rise to Candleford.

I have a few unread Goudge and Stevenson books on the shelf, feeling quite badly that they have had no attention, and some others books were given to me waiting impatiently for their turn.  Stephanie keeps telling me inanimate objects have no feelings but then again... she also told me Kermit is a Muppet.  I mean, really... whom can one trust these days?

Oh, two book related answers to questions (of which I am really, really late... sorry!).  

First, I give the Amazon link to make it easier for you to find further info about the book.  I usually check out the Amazon reviews of a book (sometimes knowing I will like a book by who does not like it).  :)

Second, I rarely purchase or read abridged books but I have learned to "never say never".  I do remember buying a very nice abridged version of a child's book at a thrift shop once because it had beautiful illustrations.  I can't, however, remember what book it was (since it was given to the children when they visited that year).

I tend to be a very nosy curious person so abridged versions leave me wondering what they left out.   Having said that... there have been times when reading one of "the Russians" that I may have wished for something abridged.  I have to be in the mood for a really long book and why one would abridge a shorter book is beyond me... unless their name is Reader's Digest.

Now it is time to remove myself from the computer for awhile.  Dinner must be made and for all the cookbooks I've read recently, I haven't even thought what to make.  I will open the refrigerator door and see if the maid left anything after cleaning the house (one can dream, can't they?).  :)