I grew up without a television. No, I didn’t grow up in the 40s…I’m not that old. But my parents made the decision that their children’s lives would be richer (and less contaminated by popular culture, I suspect) if we had to find ways to entertain ourselves other than watching a screen. So, I read books. LOTS of books.

I believe I spoke in a previous blog post about a lovely cinema I used to frequent, often for midnight showings of new movies. Among the amenities of this now-defunct theater was an in-house restaurant, which meant you could order off their menu from inside the auditoriums. In addition to the delicious Seven Layer Bars which I couldn’t get enough of, my other favorite of theirs was a spinach artichoke dip, served either with chips or with grilled flatbread. Forget the chips…I ordered a double portion of bread every time, called it dinner, and went to town.

Have you ever been reading a really good historical novel and as you’re busy inserting yourself into the narrative so as to really immerse yourself in the world, you think “This time period would be perfect if I knew how to make penicillin so that I don’t die of some deadly infection”…?  No?  Just me, then?

Approximately a century ago, when I was working a night-shift job, I naturally kept drastically different hours from my family and friends.  This meant I was awake late at night, looking for things to do.

It interests me how much my taste has evolved since I was a child.  I assume this is true for everyone.  Of particular interest for today’s post is the fact that as a child, I did not like legumes.  Well, except for peanuts.  And peanut butter.  But my mother’s split pea soup?  I could choke it down but I certainly didn’t like it.  Chili?  Not only was it full of beans but the spice profile was also not to my taste (that hasn’t changed…cumin is nasty).  And my mother also occasionally made a vegetarian dish she called Cheesy Lentils.  Like the split pea soup, I could eat it, but I had to force it down.

This post will not make much sense if you haven’t read part one.

In addition to watching a lot of YouTube, I also like to look at Pinterest.  And over the last few months, as I was wandering around looking at Pinterest images, a project idea started to take shape in my head, helped along quite a bit by a few images I found.  The general idea was of a globe with terraforming machine embedded in the surface and clear geological activity visible.  How to do it was the question of course…

When I decided to review the Invisible Library series for the blog, I had about two weeks to get everything done, and since there were eight books (even for me, that’s a lot of books to read in two weeks), I put myself on a daily reading schedule, based on the number of pages in each book.  This allowed me to plow through all eight books in my (arbitrary) time limit, take notes, and write the post.

When I was a child, my mother often made the ultimate in easy comfort food, creamed chipped beef.  (I know, I’ve also claimed that macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food.  I don’t see why I have to have just ONE ultimate comfort food…) Also when I was a child, you could get this dish at most any restaurant that served “American food.”  These days, I don’t think you can get this old favorite anywhere…at least, I haven’t seen it on a menu in many years.

I have a confession.  Every so often, when I am very anxious about the outcome of a book (or more often, the fate of one of the characters), I have to read the ending in order to reduce my anxiety enough to go back and read the book in the proper order.  If you think that’s crazy and weird…well, I can’t really disagree with you.

Right up near the top of the “America’s Comfort Foods” list has to be chicken pot pie.  Hard to say whether it beats out macaroni and cheese but the precise hierarchy can be a debate for someone else.  For today, we’re going to talk about chicken pot pie.

Summer is here…the season of sunburn.

Five random things…

Why is there no ham in hamburgers?  Is shepherd’s pie made of actual shepherd?  These are the questions that plague me in the sleepless dark hours of the night.  So, I did some research.

Do you like quirky yet witty (ie: British) humor? Puns? Classic English literature? Doctor Who and Douglas Adams? I think Jasper Fforde might be for you, specifically his Thursday Next series of books.

I might have mentioned previously (a few times) on this blog that I watch a lot of YouTube.  And I come across lots of things I end up trying for myself.  On the list recently have been altered paper clips.  Why alter paper clips?  Because.  No seriously, that’s the reason.  Because.

I don’t dislike muffins, exactly…I just don’t love them.  They fall in between all the bread-y things I like.

My mother is fond of sending me emails with links to articles she thinks I might enjoy.  One recent such email included a link to the Connecting Threads website, about a project one could make to use up left-over strips from a jelly roll.

I believe I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but among the holiday baking traditions for my family are: Christmas Cherry Coffee Cake, Almond Butter Cookies, Ragamuffin Cookies, and Peanut Butter Balls.  In fact, as with the Ragamuffin cookies, my family did our best to persuade my mother to make her peanut butter balls on every “occasion.” (Happy Tuesday!  Have a peanut butter ball…)

I don’t exactly dislike murder mysteries, or mystery stories in general…I’d just usually prefer to read something else.