books

Recently Read: Be Ready When the Luck Happens

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If you’re looking for a good book, I highly recommend Ina Garten’s memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens.” I truly enjoyed it and felt inspired enough by it to write this post. It’s one of those books where you’re sorry to see it end. But luckily, Ina Garten aka “Barefoot Contessa” is still around and we can enjoy more books from her and her wonderful recipes.

While reading, I was reminded that when my friends and I cooked for our dinner club, Ina Garten’s recipes were a group fave. And reading about her life made me like her even more!

It’s so interesting how when looking back over a career, the parts of it usually seem connected and even inevitable. But when you see how decisions were made and things happened in real time, it can seem quite random.

Her career was definitely not inevitable at all. If she weren’t so brave, curious and up for any challenge, things could have gone in a million different directions.

She was a policy wonk in Washington, D.C. before deciding to randomly buy Barefoot Contessa, a specialty grocery shop. She always loved food and entertaining and worked extremely hard on whatever captured her attention.

One of the things that I loved most was how she would always go back to a favorite saying by her husband, Jeffrey. “You never know your good breaks from your bad ones.” What seems like bad luck at first, can end up being good. And the opposite also holds true. We never know until some time passes.

Reading this book makes me want to get her first book, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, which  celebrated its 25th Anniversary, with updated recipes!

And speaking of anniversaries, today is my 20 year blogging anniversary! While I don’t blog as much as before, it’s pretty wild to think about all that has happened in 20 years. It’s truly a different world.

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Image: Amazon

A Cozy Quincy Day

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Not much in the world has felt cozy lately. Tuning out all the news and noise for a bit is necessary. But cozy can be achieved. Even if only for a few hours.

Yesterday, I went to the library and took out a few books. I already had some, but another that I had on hold arrived. Then I noticed a few that were on display. Now I have quite a library haul with this big stack of books. It makes me so happy and reminds me of when I was a little kid taking out piles of books from the library.

The older I get, the more that I realize what makes me happy now are the same things that did when I was a child. We do grow up and change as adults. But I think that essentially we are that same soul that we were from the beginning. My soul loves books. Although having parents that were teachers helped too!

The library was packed with people yesterday. The parking lot was completely full and I was stuck in a traffic jam before I could leave it to look for additional parking. There were two events going on and some people were turned away from one because they were beyond capacity. Standing room only! I love to see it.

Even with the library crowds, everyone was in a good mood. It had a really nice community feeling. It was also where I met up with someone to sell them a bunch of plants. She was so happy to get her plants, which of course made me happy too. I love to spread the plant joy!

After leaving the library, I went to see fellow blogger and author of several children’s books, Candelaria Silva-Collins. She invited me to see her reading one of her books, Jump! Jump! Jump! Stacey, at a new Quincy bookstore, The Next Chapter Books and More. Since she was in the area and I hadn’t seen her for such a long time, it was a nice chance to catch up.

We chatted for a while and by the time I left, there were a lot of people in the store. It was such a good feeling seeing the people of Quincy enjoying all things books. It gave me a very warm feeling of community. Something that I don’t feel everyday, but that I’d like to feel more of. Even if only for a few hours.

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Now leaving the cozy feeling for a bit. Another book that I’m adding to my TBR list is On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder. It’s about how to resist fascism in America. He was interviewed by Rachel Maddow last month and spoke about what is happening with our current Administration. He said that they want to make us feel afraid and alone. I definitely think that a way to combat that feeling is through community. Libraries and bookstores are great places to start.

Recently Read: Mirrors in the Earth

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This picture is from just a few weeks ago, and oh how things have changed! Now, most of the leaves are gone from the trees. A few leaves are still hanging on though.

A few months ago, I read an amazing book called Mirrors in the Earth, by Asia Suler. In that book, I learned that there is a word for this phenomenon called marcescence. What a beautiful sounding word!

As someone with many plants at home and who is always observing plants and trees in nature, I have often seen those few leaves, hanging on despite strong winds and wondered how they were still there. As I learned from the book and what I’ve seen in life, nature can be a funny thing.

Yes, sometimes comedic, but sometimes miraculous. Things that seem like they shouldn’t be, often are and continue to be. They persist and resist. Nature has the ability to heal itself. Not that all is well with Mother Earth.

As someone who often experiences eco-anxiety, because of climate change, I felt a great deal of relief and reassurance from reading her book. It’s the kind of book that I plan on reading again. Initially I borrowed it from the library, but I may buy it, so that I can refer to it over time.

Also, so that I can help support the author. She lives in North Carolina and her town suffered devastating losses after flooding from Hurricane Helene. For the past several years, I’ve purchased flower essences from her wonderful apothecary. Now it’s destroyed and under mud. It’s hard to comprehend this destruction.

But destruction also signifies birth. Every ending is another beginning. Sometimes “darkness is that of the womb and not the tomb,” as stated by Valarie Kaur. Some plants need the destruction of fire to flourish. Isn’t that amazing? When I first learned this many years ago, I was stunned.

Fires and floods have battered humanity since the beginning. But we’re still here. There are seasons for everything. A quote from Mirrors in the Earth, adds an additional perspective.

“Just like the hemlock perched between two boulders, we came into this world knowing how to live between a rock and a hard place, to straddle this gap between what is dying and what is being born. Open yourself to the bridge that you are, and we can all cross from one side of this torrent to another. This is not the end; it is the beginning. Who you are is the gift you were meant to bring to this Earth, and your presence here is exactly what is needed for this great rebirth.”

As we approach the second term of a presidency that so many of us do not want, it gives me some comfort to think that we are the people who are needed for this time.

A Few Unexpected Things

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I’m so happy that I finally have this book! For the last few months, I kept hearing about Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and wanted to read it. I put it on hold at the library and it came in much sooner than expected. I just started reading it and was immediately pulled in with the first page. A very good sign!

So often things are unexpected and bad. When they’re unexpected and good, that’s the best.

That’s been happening with some plants. Overall, I have a green thumb and do extremely well with most plants. Except for a few. Two plants in particular that everyone always says are so easy to grow were never easy for me. Years ago I gave up on African violets and snake plants. I tried so many times and they always died. But now, I’m apparently a snake plant charmer and working magic with African violets too. Very unexpected!

Two movies that I watched recently had the exact opposite effects on me than expected. Part of it may have been that my expectations were too high for one and super low for the other.

When I first heard about the movie Past Lives, I wanted to see it immediately. It sounded perfect! A friend and I had planned to see it in the theater when it first came out. We could never get our schedules to work together and we missed seeing it.

Now it’s on Amazon Prime, so I watched it last week. I was disappointed. It wasn’t bad, but I expected to love it. It was somewhat slow, with some long drawn out scenes that didn’t need to be and started to feel tedious. I was glad to have not seen it in the theater. Further, the people that I wanted to end up together did not. It’s a love story that kind of broke my heart.

Also, somewhere in my mind, because of the title maybe, I was thinking time travel or magical realism, which are two of my favorite genres. It had neither. That’s on me. But it was a further disappointment.

The other movie, Meet Cute, is also on Amazon Prime. I think I found it on a list of good time travel movies. It stars Pete Davidson and Kaley Cuoco. I didn’t know much about her, except for that she was on The Big Bang Theory, which I watched a handful of times.

As for him, I enjoyed his SNL skits and hosting, but never understood all the woman flocking to him. What’s the deal!? I heard it’s just that he’s a really nice guy. He has a kind of sweet charm and magnetism that his role in this movie displayed.

Again, my expectations for this movie were very low, but I enjoyed it. There was actual time travel! It was the time loop variety like in Groundhog Day. I always find it interesting to see how the loop will end. The movie was different than I expected and gave Before Sunrise vibes, with lovely views of New York City.

So much in life is about managing expectation. Maybe it’s best to expect very little. But I always feel like that’s a negative way to be. Is it better to be delighted when not expecting much? I don’t know. That surprise is nice, but when you’re expecting a lot and manage to get even more, that’s the dream. I guess putting up with some disappointment is part of the deal.

Maybe it’s best to find a balance between the two and be somewhat neutral. Last week I bought some dollar scratch tickets from soda can deposit money. ‘Tis the season for holiday miracles and you have to be in it to win it!

I won five dollars on one of them. I reinvested and got a five dollar scratch ticket today. I wasn’t sure which one to get, so I asked for one that won a lot. A guy behind me said, “If it wins a lot, it won’t be there!”

Sheesh. I didn’t say anything and figured I’d leave it up to chance. I won twenty dollars! Unexpected! Time to reinvest!

Dinner Tonight + Book Goals

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dinner tonight

This was my dinner tonight! It was very good, but spicier than intended.

I sauteed Vidalia onions and orange peppers in olive oil, then seasoned with garlic powder, lemon pepper and balsamic vinegar.

When I cut up the onions and peppers, I kept the scraps and boiled them in water to make a vegetable broth. The basmati rice was cooked in the broth, along with a bit of of butter and a chicken bullion cube.

Imitation crab pieces were added to the onions and peppers right before removing from the heat. I buy the fake crab every few months, but don’t think that I’ll continue. I did a quick search and found an article stating that they are extremely processed.

Which I knew, but I didn’t realize exactly how much less healthy they are compared to real crab. Again, this should have been more obvious to me. The calories are about the same, but there is way less protein and nutrients than real crab, but more carbs. I think I’ll buy canned crab from now on instead. Although, I guess I should look at that label too!

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Now to books! Since this year is wrapping up, I have some more book goals. I need to start and finish a book, so I can return it to the library. It’s called, “The Comedy of Error: Why Evolution Made Us Laugh,” by Jonathan Silvertown.

I’d like to read five more books before the year ends. The number is rather random and pulled from the air, but it feels doable and a decent amount. I’m not yet sure what the other four books will be, but I have a few in mind.

One book that I’m really interested in reading is a novel called, “Before the Coffee Gets Cold,” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I heard a lot about this book from several YouTubers and was reminded of it again today. Apparently it’s part of a series of four books. There seem to be a mix of reviews, but I’m definitely feeling a pull to read it.

This book seems to have everything that I love. Coffee, cafes, time travel and short stories. The story is about a small cafe in Tokyo where people can time travel. But they have to return before the coffee gets cold.

This reminds me of a Korean drama on Netflix called Nine Time Travels. Nine magical incense sticks allow the main character to travel back exactly 20 years to the day. But he returns when the stick stops burning.