Monday Malarkey

Happy Monday! My week off to read didn't result in a whole lot of reading because this has been another one of those months that I've repeatedly fallen asleep reading or don't feel like picking a book up when I have the time (a whopping 3 books read, so far) but I keep thinking, I'll always have September. You never know; the reading could pick up any day, now. Like before, I'll just keep trying not to fret about it.


Recent Arrivals:

I went to a secondhand bookstore, last week, so most of the incoming books were purchased; I have only received one book in the mail, since my last Malarkey post.

• Mister Monkey by Francine Prose - My only arrival, from HarperCollins for review (shown at top)

Purchases (shown above):

• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Barchester Towers and The Warden by Anthony Trollope
• Spring Torrents by Ivan Turgenev
• Herbert Hoover at the Onset of the Great Depression, 1929-1930 by Robert Sobel
• Science Fiction Quarterly, Nov. 1957 (a periodical, which includes an entry by Isaac Asimov - cool)

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• Carrying Albert Home by Homer Hickam 

Yep, just the one. But, I've continued to flip through the Jane Green cookbook, Good Taste, because I love it so much. 

Currently reading:

• Little Bee by Chris Cleave - for F2F discussion (this one is rough)
• Spring Torrents by Ivan Turgenev - my October classic selection 

Posts since last Malarkey: 

• September Reads in Review, 2016 (one month's reads in review)
• Good Taste: Simple, Delicious Recipes for Family and Friends by Jane Green (cookbook review)

I didn't have any new cat photos loaded and was busy doing housework and watching movies, this weekend, so I let Fiona Friday slide. Sorry about that.


In other news:

"We" (mostly "he") cooked four recipes from Good Taste, this weekend: the mostly-flourless orange cake, tomato tart, fish balls, and sweet and sour nuts. We screwed up the cake a bit. I thought the almonds should be pummeled to a flour-like consistency but Huz chose to leave them a little rough and I just shrugged it off. Sure enough, the consistency was off. But, the flavor was still amazing. The rest of the recipes turned out perfectly and we were kind of shocked at the flavors. The tomato tart was had a lovely, delicate crust and tasted a bit like dessert. We had no sauce for the fish balls so I was a little worried that they were going to be bland. Nope, they were so good I went back for seconds. You can add sauce if you like but they're fine without. Huzzybuns was less fond of the sweet and sour nuts than I was because he prefers a savory, spiced nut but he thought they were good, just not his thing. I loved them.

So, the conversation after all that cooking?

Me: We're running at 100% approval, here, right?
Huz: Yep.
Me: Wow, that's unusual.
Huz: It is. And, this is great food for sharing.

Of course, that's part of the point of the book. None of those foods are heavy, so you won't send anyone home feeling painfully stuffed. It would be easy to pick a handful of recipes and put out a spread and you know everyone will find something they'll enjoy, if not everything, although we've liked everything.

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