Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Super Swell Readers! I hope you’re enjoying plenty of relaxation with your friends, family and favorite food products. Here’s my favorite part of the holiday spread:
What are you eating today?
27 Thursday Nov 2014
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Super Swell Readers! I hope you’re enjoying plenty of relaxation with your friends, family and favorite food products. Here’s my favorite part of the holiday spread:
What are you eating today?
26 Wednesday Nov 2014
Posted Faith
inBack in October, author Ellen Gable contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing her new novel A Subtle Grace. Since I love books, free things and offering opinions — solicited and unsolicited — I said “sign me up!” The came to Bret’s office direct from the publisher and I brought it along with us on our trip to Europe.
Initially, I put off starting the book. For some reason or another, I was worried that if I got going that it would require a lot of quiet time to pay close attention. Happily, I was completely incorrect. A Subtle Grace is a great vacation read — just deep enough to hold your interest but light and fluffy enough to be read in snippets on the subway.
Ms. Gable has a knack for setting the scene. You can tell that she has meticulously researched the time period in which the book is set. Everything from the way priests interacted with parishioners to the way old guns operate, A Subtle Grace‘s setting in the later 1890s is vibrant and interesting.
One of my favorite aspects of A Subtle Grace is the fact that Ms. Gable took the time to craft story lines for all her characters — not just the ones central to the romance. Beyond Kathleen and Luke, we get the opportunity to check in with Caroline and David as well as learn more about Will, John and various other folks. Having those other story lines was key to it’s readability as I, quite frankly, found the relationship between Luke and Kathleen to be a little lackluster.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching their (very traditional, very 1890s) romance unfold, but I almost feel that so much attention was paid to Kathleen’s inner turmoil and relationship with God and the Church that we didn’t learn enough about Luke. Sure, we know that he’s a better guy than Karl, but there wasn’t a whole lot shown of Luke and Kathleen’s relationship prior to their betrothal and subsequent marriage.
In short, if you’re already into romance novels, you’ll like this book. If you’re already Catholic, you’ll probably like this book. If you’re on the fence about either, you may not like this book. Either way, I think A Subtle Grace is worth reading, if only because the vivid setting and descriptions make for the ultimate vacation read.
Disclaimer: I received my copy of A Subtle Grace for free from Ms. Gable and her publisher. However, I was not compensated in any way or my opinion and all opinions stated above are wholly my own.
25 Tuesday Nov 2014
Posted Travel
inAre you ready for the first (of many — let’s be real here) posts about our trip? I sure hope you are! Today, I’m going to tell you all about our trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Sure, it might not seem like a salt mine is a prime tourist attraction, but in Krakow, an 800 year old salt mine is the place to see and be seen.
Honestly, when it came to cultural excursions, our choices seemed to be the Mine or Auschwitz. We chose the Mine for a number of reasons, so we booked the trip through our hotel and set off on a rainy morning. Here are five things I can tell you, right off the bat, about booking a trip to Wieliczka:
So, with that knowledge in mind, I can tell you that our trip to the Wieliczka Mine was worth every Zloty. If the underground pilgrim route isn’t cool enough for you, there are an astounding number of salt sculptures that were crafted by miners not artists.
*This might only apply to me, but if I don’t get lunch, I contemplate starting international incidents.
**Seriously, just don’t think about it. If you think about it, you’ll get scared. If you don’t think about it, you can just enjoy your day underground.
24 Monday Nov 2014
Posted Faith, What I Wore Sunday
inTags
collections, fashion, JPII, pictures, Poland, Pope Saint John Paul II, WIWS
You might now be aware of this, but Pope Saint John Paul the Second is kind of a big deal in Poland. Especially in Krakow. Since we all love JPII around this part of the blogosphere, I thought I’d kick the week off right by showing you every single picture I took of him while we were away:
Oh, and in case you aren’t so keen on pictures of pictures of the Pope, here’s what I wore Sunday:
To see what everyone else wore Sunday, scoot on over to Fine Linen and Purple.
23 Sunday Nov 2014
23 Sunday Nov 2014
Posted 3Ws
inSo I’m going to try to make this whole link up thing happen this weekend. Since it can’t be “real” link up without at least a few rules, I made up some rules:
So there you have it! All the rules you could ever want or need! See you tonight!
*Don’t do a million, let’s keep it reasonable here.
**Central time.
***I mean, I’m pretty terrible at hashtags, but people wanted them soooooo…..
21 Friday Nov 2014
Tags
7qt, aligncenter, beer, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, budapest, caption, Chicago, environmental stewardship, fish friday, friends, funny stuff, great britain, honeymoon, lists, neil diamond, Odds and Ends, Poland, prague, reusable shopping bag, Saint Elizabeth, travel, vienna, zoo
Oh hey there hey! I’m back (and better than ever) from our epic European adventure. Obviously, I’m going to force you to read all about it in the weeks to come, but I wanted to pop in for 7 Quick Takes with a few fun facts and statistics for you.
Steps and Miles.
According to my beloved FitBit, I walked a total of 324,916 for 155.58 miles. Of course, we can’t necessarily believe what the FitBit tells us in terms of mileage but I do think that I could stand to put in a little more effort into my daily physical activity — because health and stuff.
Cities and Sites.
Over two weeks, we were in 5 cities that spoke 4 different languages. We took five planes and four trains to get there. I would tell you the number of churches, cathedrals, palaces and museums we visited, but we lost count at the double digits.
We visited 1 zoo, though. In Vienna. It was the best zoo I’ve ever been to.
Religious Experiences.
Catholicism — yea.
Slogans.
Most of the cities we went to had slogans — because tourism and stuff. Some of them were pretty impactful, like “Vienna. Now or Never” and “Vienna Waits for You.” (Yes, we totally noticed that those two seem to contradict each other.) There were also such gems as “Budapest: Pearl of the Danube.” and “Krakow: JPII’s Boyhood Home.” (“Budapest: Home of the Ballpoint Pen.” didn’t make it through the run-off elections, I don’t think.)
As great as those slogans were, we decided we needed to write some of our own:
Fun Facts from Other Travelers.
One of the best parts of traveling is that you get to meet other people who are traveling. For the most part, we did what we could to avoid making new friends out and about (sosorrysointrovert) but, despite our best efforts, we did meet some friendly people who told us all about what life is like in Britain. Here are some things that I learned:
Odd Objects.
Anytime you travel, you find all sorts of stuff that you never knew existed. For example, we greatly enjoyed the sesame goldfish crackers that were available for purchase in several countries. We were not quite as enthused by the ketchup-flavored Cheetos. The best weird thing we brought home by far is the Mike Tyson Energy Drink.
…honestly, it’s so good that it’s going to get its own post.
Odds and Ends.
For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t The Lyceum! Bring sparklers because Kelly can be a touch sensitive about her pyrotechnics.
20 Thursday Nov 2014
Posted Travel
inThis is a quick programming note to let you know that I’m back in the US! I plan to spend the day unpacking, doing laundry and cataloging all the sweet stuff we bought.
I’ll see you tomorrow for 7 Quick Takes!
19 Wednesday Nov 2014
Tags
Lindsay is a 20 something single Austinian who blogs about everything from modesty and sick Mass fashion to the books she’s reading and the struggles of choosing between bar trivia or Bible study. She blogs over at Lindsay Loves and you should check her out immediately after reading this post.
I love to read. Anyone who meets me becomes rapidly aware of this. My mother claims that I taught myself how to read, and although I have not verified the legend, I choose to treat it like St. Christopher and accept it as true even if it is not factual.
I also love words and grammar. I have a master’s degree in English education. I used to use that to teach high school students; now I use it to amuse my coworkers in a construction company office. I enjoy words precisely because we use them to communicate stories. We study literature because it teaches us what it means to be human. That’s my motto. That and “teamwork makes the dream work.”
The kicker is that, although I have the ability to analyze classic literature and popular fiction for its messages and themes and to unpack symbolism and such… I usually don’t. I don’t really read books for grown-ups, and I don’t usually read classics at all, and I don’t choose books because they’ll make me think deeply. I read young adult fiction (YA), and I read it because I like it.
I am fortunate that YA for grown-ups has become mainstream. Forever Young Adult is based right in my current locale of Austin, Texas. I am a “YA for the not-so-Y A” hipster, though: I was into it before it was cool.
I usually summarize my love of YA by saying, “I like books about teenagers with problems.” But when I was catching up here at Super Swell Times, a blog I thoroughly enjoy but find myself chronically behind on, and Elizabeth mentioned her affinity for YA, I realized that my preference goes deeper.
I like YA because there is hope.
Now, I read a lot of YA dystopias (and I maintain my YA hipster claim because I loved The Giver, and that was out ages ago), but it’s not just about hope for the future. It’s about the virtue of hope. Hope is the gift from God that gives us a sense of trust. Humans can (and almost all will) let us down. God won’t. Humans make promises that they can’t always keep. God always keeps his promises.
In YA, there’s an underlying theme that things would be better for our characters if only they were adults. Friends wouldn’t stab them in the back, futures would be set, and they would be free to do whatever they wanted if only they were grown-ups. The structures set in place by the adults in the world around them are a major cause of their angst and those problems I like so much, so if they were the adults themselves, it would all be so much better.
As I become a grown-up, I know that to be completely untrue. Adults have the same problems. Many of them are worse. Not everything gets easier. The young will never listen to those admonishments, but the old will always know them to be true. Similarly, adult books are depressing. They begin in terrible situations and tend to get spectacularly worse before they end on a relatively high note.
I don’t need that kind of despondency in my pleasure reading. I prefer a world where there is at least a tacit hope for the future and a sense of trust that things will get better. That is why I read YA.
Well, that, and I am reassured that I’ll turn out okay because at least my young life wasn’t that bad.
18 Tuesday Nov 2014
Posted Food
inTags
Catholic History Nerd was one of the very first blogs I ever read or commented on and I’m so happy that I did. Sarah is one of the sweetest people ever (even though she puts cheese on her tuna casserole, which is just gross) and I’m thrilled that she’s here to hang out with you guys today!
I love reading cookbooks, and not just for the recipe ideas. Since each section is only a page or two, they’re easy entertainment if you’re tired or have a lot on your mind. My cookbook addiction started the year I wrote my master’s thesis. I would check armfuls out of my local library and bask in the instant gratification of reading an entire book or actually finishing a (food) project in only one evening. It was a comforting break from month-long research tasks.
One of the most fun parts of reading lots of cookbooks is comparing all their different tones. Thanks to the boom of chefs becoming celebrities and celebrities writing about food, there are some ridiculous ones out there. Rachael Ray makes up cutesy rhyming nicknames for dishes. The Skinny Bitch books are basically Regina George yelling at you about the evils of meat and then ordering you to buy processed “chicken” substitutes. In Skinny Italian Real Housewife of New Jersey and convicted felon Teresa Guidice explains how buy good olive oil, dress in animal print, and cook “sexy swordfish,” whatever that means.
My favorite, though, are the lifestyle magazine books designed to inspire the feeling that you are besties with the author, just hanging out around their kitchen table. There are usually cute stories of accidentally invented dishes, name-dropping of famous friends, and glamour shots of the author bonding with local produce. Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s All Good is a prime example of this. Her healthy diet recommendations are actually pretty decent, but they get drowned out by the portraits of her standing in grain fields or posing with baskets of vegetables. Honorable mention goes to Shauna Ahern’s Gluten-Free Girl Everyday, which contains a killer biscuit recipe but also cites Twitter accolades in a discussion of stir-fry. Gag.
I get hypnotized by the glowing family kitchen stories – yes, I can too can live a magically delicious life full of healthy abundance! How did I never notice kale and lemons were so poetic? Then I come up for air and realize “Why am I listening to this person’s entire life story when I really just want to make dinner? I wouldn’t even want to hear my friends go on like this”
I really don’t want to say there is a gender divide in cookbook styles … but it does seem like recipes wrapped in all the feels and personal details will be written by a woman. This opens up a whole can of worms about gender stereotypes in the food world. Women are comforting nurturers, but men are the master craftsmen. It reminds me of a female chef’s rant in the movie Ratatouille about how hard she works despite her colleagues’ patronizing attitudes. “Every second counts and you CANNOT be MOMMY!” But really, the average mom is less self-absorbed than a glossy “look at what a foodie I am” photo spread.
The best cookbooks aren’t portraits of their authors. Instead, they showcase the merits of different ingredients and the wider community that inspires and enjoys them. Here are some of my favorite cookbooks that manage to blend chatter and information really well. I didn’t plan it this way, but they’re all from the South. Other places have good eats too, but the South definitely gets the concept that food means much more than filling your own plate.
The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
My husband and I bought this on a whim the last day of our honeymoon in Charleston, SC, and it’s been the best souvenir ever. The recipes are full of seafood and fresh vegetables, and the images with them make us feel like we’re back in Charleston’s historic downtown. The Lee brothers love their city, and have done a ton of research about its unique history. They talk about farmers’ markets, fishermen, church teas and 1940s hostesses like they’re dishing juicy local gossip. Being history nerds, my husband and I love how much Matt and Ted reference early 20th century “receipt” books. They don’t pretend to have invented Charleston’s food; instead they’ve written a love letter to the other people who have made it so vibrant.
Favorite recipe: Pan roasted okra, corn, and tomatoes. It’ll smoke up your kitchen but it’s so worth it.
Cooking Up A Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, many people lost the contents of their homes, including their recipe collections. In the aftermath of the storm, the local newspaper became a valuable resource for retrieving recipes readers could remember but not quite recreate. The resulting collection is an amazing tribute of community support and how strongly food factors into New Orleans’ identity. The dishes in here originated everywhere from famous chefs to somebody’s mother-in-law’s uncle. It’s like the results of a newspaper clipping scavenger hunt.
Favorite recipes: We’ll probably never attempt the deep-fried turkey or squirrel sauce piquant, the classic jambalaya and gumbo are staples in our house.
My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking by John Besh
This last book is more personal, but it’s done very well. New Orleans chef John Besh has written several books; this most recent one is about what he and his wife feed his kids. He’s very honest about the busy restaurant schedule he keeps and how he balances that with family life. The book has lots of practical advice about how to make a big meal on weekends and then use leftovers for quick dinners. Maybe I don’t mind all the family photos since his sons go to my husband’s high school, but it’s nice that Besh doesn’t make himself the star of the show. Instead, he encourages readers to prioritize quality time with family and friends.
Favorite recipe: Cherry tomato five-minute sauce, which really does make a huge batch of fresh pasta sauce in no time.