Jude’s new favorite toy is…wait for it…a box of peppermint Tic Tacs. No, he hasn’t figured out how to open them yet. But he likes them so much, he dances around with them and laughs and laughs, and Dan had to pry them out of his hot little hands last night before he put him to bed. Other kids have teddy bears; mine wants to sleep with a box of breath mints.
Disclaimer: Statements and opinions expressed in this blog and its links are solely those of the author or authors and may or may not be shared by Jude Sweeney.
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I have been thinking of subscribing to National Geographic. I picked up the Exploration special issue, and that’s what made me start considering it. It’s cheap, almost always interesting, and hey, my kids would have a veritable treasure trove of magazines to cut up for school projects. My mother never let us cut them up – God knows why, since no one ever seemed to read them either. This fact embittered me further when I had to toss the whole lot of them into the dumpster when we cleared out her house. Not even the library wanted twenty years worth of old (AND garage-y smelling) National Geographics. My fifth-grade project on killer whales could have been sooooo much better. At any rate, I find that I enjoy reading about a lot of the stuff that shows up in the magazine, and looking at the cool pictures, and it’s relatively cheap – 19 bucks for a year. Heck, I’ll happily give up my ridiculous Parents magazine subscription for that. There are much stupider reasons to subscribe to a magazine, I suppose.
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I am sharing a recipe – something I never would have dared do on the old Babelonium blog. But even if Gina doesn’t eat yams, she’ll tolerate me. I share this because I have been totally chowing down on these things. I guess my body/baby is craving beta-carotene? But as my husband oh-so-wisely pointed out, “If your body wants yam cakes, give it yam cakes.” See why I’ve been married to him for ten years?
Yam Cakes, courtesy of Laurie Colwin
Peel and shred one large yam. Beat up two eggs and add to the yams. Mix with four tablespoons of flour, a good shake of red pepper flakes, and 2 healthy teaspoons of fermented black beans (buy these at the Asian grocery – they’re something insanely cheap like 79 cents a bag and a bag will last you for ages, if you decant them into a glass jar.) Fry in olive oil (use about a soup spoon worth of batter per cake) till golden brown, flipping halfway thru. Drain on paper towels.
I could and have happily eaten an entire batch of these things for lunch/dinner/midnight snack. They also go really nicely with any sort of fish and rice. And you thought this blog was only good for books.
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Just got the new issue of House and Garden. I love Dominique Browning, and look forward to her editorial every month. She is a lovely writer who addresses many of life’s little foibles and quirks with humor and thoughtfulness. I have both of her books, and have given them as presents several times. So, having said all that, I now display my pettiness. Her photo on the editorial page is very attractive (although I liked her better with her hair short). But in this issue, there is an insert advertising some social function or another, which she attended, and she is in the candid shots. She looks NOTHING like her editor photo. I wouldn’t recognize her if we passed on the street! (Not that she would care…) She’s clearly a good bit older than in her editorial photo, and her hair is completely different. And she just doesn’t look as stylish as I expected. I am petty and horrible, and I am sure she is a lovely and interesting person, but I admit to some pretty major disappointment. Although I just found this, and she looks almost like her editor photo.
So maybe it was just the lighting/dress/camera angle in the photo in the magazine…
I am so shallow.
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Last night was the last night of the Gumberg book sale. I was being somewhat picky earlier in the week but once you get a box for a buck, well, why be picky? I grabbed some stuff I will probably never look at again, but it can always go to Goodwill. And you never know when you might need it. Particularly that book on quilting priests’ vestments…. I did score copies of The Westing Game, Roller Skates, and Stones From the River. I already own multiple copies of these but now I can give them to people to read without worrying about getting them back. And I got some records of children’s songs for Simon to noodle around with. He’s the only one who uses our old record player anymore, so he might enjoy these. One of the records has a version of Big Rock Candy Mountain on it, which is the sole reason I grabbed it. Although I suppose the lyrics are somewhat questionable for a four-year-old.
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