Book Review: Home by Toni Morrison

Let's be real here. Toni Morrison can't produce a bad book! Her latest, Home, is no different. It's a good story. It's short (only about 150+ pages). It's poignant.

The story itself centers on Frank Money: an angry, self-loathing veteran (we find out why after a bit of reading) of the Korean War who finds himself back in America. His girlfriend leaves him. He relives terrible memories not only of his friends dying, but of killing. His redemption comes by the need to rescue his abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life.

It's a novel about a defeated man who finds Home.

We can all only hope to be just a beautiful with our words as Toni Morrison. From opening to closing sentence, it was as if she was performing linguistic magic tricks. I think that is where much of this short novel's power comes from: beautiful language. This the perhaps one of the easiest Toni Morrison books to read to date, but no less wonderful.

Book Review: Imagine, How Creativity Works

I do not often read non-fiction. Books, for me, are often like reality TV for others... give me a good, juicy, quick reading fiction book and I'll plow through 500 pages in a few days. Much of the non-fiction I have read feels like fiction. It's often a memoir about someone's interesting life or about an interesting project they've taken on: think Julie & Julia, The Happiness Project, and The Dirty Life. All really good books, but very fiction-like non-fiction.

My most recent read was different. It contained scientific research and interviews with CEOs, musicians, biologists, principals, and drug addicts among others. It was very non-fiction-y but no less engaging. It was actually even more engaging.

The book? Imagine, How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer.

It's not often that I call my husband several times while reading a book just to read him passages during his lunch break. There's just something so captivating about ingenuity and creativity and how it's not only inspired by neurological processes and societal influences, but by the color blue, how fast you walk, how much you daydream among many other things. How it's not just random coincidence that certain individuals (Bob Dylan, William Shakespeare, W.H. Auden) and groups (Pixar, Elizabethan England playwrights, 3M) are creative geniuses. How we're currently in a society inspiring kids to be professional athletes and test takers from elementary school forward, but not inventors or dancers or free thinkers.

I've already told my husband he needs to read this book. As an art teacher who uses a project-based and imaginative curriculum, he's often questioned by those who teach to the test. But, creativity doesn't come from spouting facts, it comes from seeing the world in a new way.

This book is storytelling plus advice for practical application. Loved it.

No-Bake, Microwavable Doggie Birthday Cake

Why, yes, I am one of those people who makes their dog a birthday cake! However, she only has one sweater (which she detests and doesn't wear often) so I'm not one of those people, don't worry.

Monday was Gracie's sixth birthday. We "celebrated" yesterday and I made her the easiest, quickest, cutest little birthday cake with peanut butter, carrots, oatmeal and cream cheese/yogurt frosting. All of the dog-friendly cake recipes I found online called for baking the cakes, but I microwaved. Call me a rebel, but it got the job done. The cake was moist but spongy and definately Gracie approved.

No-Bake, Microwavable Doggie Birthday Cake

Makes one jumbo muffin-size birthday cake.

Cake Ingredients:
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 cup peanut butter
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 cup honey
1 small egg

Frosting Ingredients:
Cream cheese
Yogurt
Flour

Directions:
Mix all dry ingredients together then add all wet ingredients and mix well. Pour dough into greased ceramic or glass ramekin. I used a 2-cup glass bowl.

Microwave on high at 1 minute 30 second intervals. I should take about 3 to 3 1/2 minutes for cake to set. Let cool for 5 minute then flip the cake onto a plate and let cool.

Once cake is cool, combine enough cream cheese and yogurt to frost cake. You may have to add a bit of flour to make it less runny and easier to frost.

After frosting the cake, I garnished it with a few bone-shaped treats and black raspberry.

After singing "Happy Birthday" - of course! - Gracie dove into the cake. First, she licked off all of the icing.

Then she got down to business and chomped down the rest of the cake.

Definitely a Gracie-approved treat. She licked the plate entirely clean then licked all the cake bits off of the grass. I think she'd say it was real good 6th birthday.

Happy birthday to my Gracie dog!

Three Green Pesto Pasta

This dinner came about after A) knowing I had a bunch of ripe avocados to use up B) searching on Pinterst (seriously my new recipe box!) and C) working all day in my garden and not feeling like making a super complicated meal. And oh yeah, I didn't feel like messing with meat either (part of that 'super complicated' category again). What I came up with was Three Green Pesto Pasta, inspired by this recipe from Giada.

Instead of the basil, salt, and pepper the recipe calls for, I used some thawed basil pesto I had made from my own garden's basil last summer. My homemade pesto includes walnuts, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, pepper, and basil. I omitted Giada's almonds and linguine, too.

The end result was pretty delicious and super filling.There's also like three forms of fat and carbs in there too, so I'm sure this is a bit of a calorie dense meal. But, avocados are super healthy, so whatever. Live a little.

Three Green Pesto Pasta

-- 3/4 pound thin spaghetti

-- 2 medium avocados

-- 3 cups arugula leaves

-- 3 tbs. basil pesto

-- juice of 1 small lime

-- 1 garlic clove

-- 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve 3/4 cup of pasta water. Blend the rest of the ingredients until smooth (I used my food processor). Toss the pesto mix and pasta together until well-coated, adding the pasta water, as needed, to loosen the sauce.

Benton Spillway and Hydro

If there's one thing that makes a sunny Sunday afternoon even better, it's a walk through the woods. Being from NJ, I loooove me some trees! Although Indiana is most well know for its flat cornfields, there are some really great, scenic parks that will make you forget there's probably a cornfield a mere stone's throw away.

One of our favorite walk-through-the-woods spots is part of the Elkhart River Preserve. There are several access points in the county to go canoeing on the river, but our favorite starts at the Benton Spillway and ends at the Benton Hydro. We've never actually canoed from this spot. Instead, we walk. Hiking trails go throughout the woods and along the river and canal. It's super peaceful... unless of course, there's a race going on at the New Paris Speedway a few miles away!

On weekends, we tend to pass a few families walking their dogs or riding bikes and even some folks fishing from the dam where the canal spills into the Elkhart River. Near the parking lot, there are restrooms and past that, a few picnic tables and fire rings. What does it for me though is the woods. So pretty.

 

It's definately a Gracie dog approved activity!