Gardening!

Yesterday I ran into three people working on the flowerbeds in front of our building. I had always wondered who did the planting, and it turns out it is a group of volunteers. So this morning, I helped plant bulbs in the flowerbeds in front of my building... and worked on another flowerbed up on Broadway.

All that digging is hard work! And it gave me a newly heightened dislike of people who let their dogs poop in flowerbeds. Who does that?! But I can definitely see the attraction of gardening. You get to see some results right away--I felt like the areas we worked on looked better when we are done. Just removing trash is a big deal. And also, you know that, come spring, there will be beautiful flowers! So I hope to be an active volunteer in the 137th street beautification project. We're also going to try to get a garden plot in the community garden at Riverbank State Park (fingers crossed).

Here is a picture of us digging today. If anybody is interested, I'm posting links to the facebook group and a description of the group on a donation website called ioby.

Any of you gardeners have a suggestion for the two beds in front of our building? Or for a smallish plot in a community garden? Any gardening advice for a brand new gardener?

-Kristin

Read More: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I decided to give another bookfair pick a go, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. A few years back I read Everything is Illuminated and really loved that, so I was sure this one couldn't be nearly as good. But it was! After reading the first page I already knew it would be getting a five star (out of five star) rating from me.

The story is about a little boy who loses his father in 9/11. Two years later he is in his father's closet and breaks a vase that contains a key in an envelope labeled 'Black'. So he goes through the phone book, attempting to visit every person with the last name Black in order to solve the mystery of the key. Along the way he meets many interesting people and forms new relationships.

Like Everything is Illuminated, it was a humorous read, but this one was also incredibly heartbreaking at the same time. I never really give 9/11 much thought, maybe because I wasn't here at the time. And I had to go to work so I didn't watch the news coverage at the time. But this book makes you look at how the families of the victims were affected. (Not in a sappy way). And if that weren't a sad enough story line, you also learn about all sorts of other people and their sad, lonely stories (non 9/11 related). Luckily Foer knows exactly how to pepper in humor and adventure and mystery to make this a really super read.

I'm so happy this was the book I ended my 2011 with!

- Megan Leigh

One Hour Runner: More Than Half Way Done!

Yesterday I ran week 6, day 1 of the one hour runner program, which means I'm more than half way done with the program. Disappointingly, my longest run has only been thirty-eight minutes. The time picks up in the second half of the program. Still, I've been hanging in there, even in the cold weather! This week I will finally run for longer than 40 minutes, which will be exciting. I may run slow, but at least I'm running. 2011 was a great year in that I proved to myself that I could do something that I never really thought I could do.

-Kristin

Good Food: Ravioli from Scratch

 We finally tried out our new pasta machine! We used the pasta recipe from the Williams Sonoma pasta cookbook, and the creamed ricotta, herb, and pinenut ravioli filling from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off. Ben was the one who actually made the ravioli. I thought it would take hours of toiling, but it really didn't take all that long! I was skeptical of the filling. I chose it because everybody could eat it (no meat), but how many bland cheese ravioli have you had in your life? I have had plenty. I thought they turned out spectacular though. Ben topped them with olive oil, parmesan, and toasted pinenuts... and this delicate topping really allowed the filling to shine. Delicious!

-Kristin

Recipe in Progress: Monkey Bread

For Christmas breakfast, we decided to make monkey bread. I had never had monkey bread before, so I was pretty excited. AND mom had just sent up a special bundt pan, expressly so we could make monkey bread. The world was our oyster!

I used the recipe from the Pioneer Woman website.

I am sorry to say that many disasters befell my monkey bread. First, the bundt pan I had was a two-piecer. You could lift out the middle part, which I guess is a nice feature if you are making a bundt cake. But for the monkey bread, you pour on this buttery, sugary glaze... And it dripped right out of the bottom! Ten minutes after I had put it in the oven, I smelled something strange. And about two sticks worth of buttery sauce was all over the bottom of my oven! After I had cleaned up the mess (or actually, after Ben cleaned up the mess), I stuck the monkey bread bundt pan inside of another cake pan, so there would be no more leaks. Which was good, because pretty much all of the remaining butter glaze leaked out during the rest of the cooking time.

So after forty-five minutes, the top of the monkey bread looked nice and golden and hard. Time to take it out. But the monkey breads at the bottom were still doughy and semi-raw. WHY? Also, my monkey bread was like four times as tall as the one in the Pioneer Woman picture. And my tubes of biscuit dough looked much fatter to me. Did I get the wrong kind of biscuit tubes? They were the only kind I saw!

So anyway, many disasters. But I actually really enjoyed the monkey bread anyway. I will continue trying to get it right. But you know what? I don't think I want all that buttery glaze that leaked out! Just the biscuits dipped in cinnamon and sugar would probably be A-OK for me. So next time I make this recipe I might put in less glaze.

-Kristin

Read More: The Radleys

At the Goddard Book Fair I picked up a copy of The Radleys by Matt Haig. One of the volunteers in the fiction section was lamenting that a couple of books she thought were really good weren't selling. I asked her which ones and decided to give this one a try. There's a reason it wasn't selling. It's because it was awful!

It's a book about suburban vampires who abstain from drinking blood, trying to have a normal life. The idea was fine, but the writing was so awful! I thought maybe if it had been written for young adults it would have been excusable, but it wasn't. This was written for adults. Adult nincompoops. Both reviews on the back of the book refer to the book as witty. I'm pretty sure this book contained not one fluid ounce of wit.

Anyway. I could go on about how the surprising twists and turns this book promised me could be seen coming a mile away. Or how even trying to read this with a British accent (this is an English novel) couldn't save the dialogue. It made me wish I had caved and read Twilight instead (and that's saying a lot seeing as that would be the ultimate betrayal to myself).

- Megan Leigh

Christmas Eve One New Thing: Gingerbread House

We have never made a gingerbread house before. Elliot and I saw a kit at Michael's and decided this would be the year. It came with the gingerbread pieces, the icing, and the candy... you basically just assemble the house with the icing and decorate. Ben and Elliot were the ones who actually ended up making the little house. It looked fun! And now we have another Christmas-y decoration.

-Kristin

Christmas Eve Dinner: Pierogies

Everyone was posting on Facebook about their Christmas plans. My friend Caitlin posted she was having her usual Polish Christmas with pierogies and Polish sausage. I wrinkled my nose at the sausage but gave a big smile and nod to the pierogies. What a great Christmas tradition to start!

- Megan Leigh

We found a large variety of pierogies at Fairway, so we tried a few different kinds: Potato, Potato and Cheese, Potato and Spinach. Then we had to figure out toppings. Sour cream, of course. But Christmas Eve seemed like it required a little bit more. Ben thought pesto sounded good, so we added that to the list. Then I looked for ideas on the internet. My favorite idea there was fluffer nutter pierogies, but I didn't think that I could get everybody on board with that one. Somebody suggested bacon and sauteed onions, and that one did sound like a crowd pleaser. So that's what we had as toppings: pesto, sour cream, and bacon and onions. It was delicious, but very heavy! After we ate, everybody sat around groaning. I'm curious about how other people eat pierogies. Any special topping suggestions?

-Kristin

I made my own topping of sour cream and tomato sauce, heated and mixed on the stovetop so it makes a creamy sauce. I learned this, and about pierogies in general, from this great restaurant that existed in St. Pete when I first went down: Ovo. It's no longer there but it's legacy lives on in the Harper household!

- Megan Leigh

Christmas Eve: Holly Treats

Long ago, when I was maybe a third grader at Avery Elementary, I went to the Fall Festival. At the bake sale, somebody's mom had made these things that were sort of like rice krispie treats, but they looked like holly--little green leaves and red hot berries. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I've never really forgotten those treats, but it never occurred to me that--with Google--I could figure out how to make them myself!

Well, Christmas Eve was the perfect time to figure it out. We Googled some recipes, and then Megan (the marshmallow treat expert), cooked us up some holly treats. Now you can make these in the shape of leaf clusters, like so. But we were not feeling ambitious, so we just threw ours in a pan. I was still 100% happy with the result.

- Kristin

I on the other hand, was not super happy with these Krispy treats. I thought they were too sweet! They differed from the S'More Krispys in that they used a lot less cereal so there was a lot more sugar coating to go around on these ones. If you used more cereal they wouldn't have been coated green all the way. Here is the recipe:

1 package large marshmallows
1 stick of butter
6 cups of cornflakes
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 tsp green food coloring
some Christmas M&Ms

1) Melt butter and marshmallows on low heat
2) Mix in vanilla and food coloring 
3) Stir in the cornflakes
4) Pour in some M&Ms (as many as you want!)

This time I was supposed to wait to put in the M&Ms so they didn't melt and make the treats look... non appetizing. But I just couldn't wait for things to cool down. I started pouring in the M&Ms as Kristin yelled, "Not yet! Not yet! You said you would wait this time!" You can imagine how I laughed and laughed as I stirred the marshmallows into the hot cornflake mixture. But.... the M&Ms didn't melt. I got to have a good laugh and Kristin got her non-brown treats.

- Megan Leigh

One New Thing: NYC Ghost Tour

Kristin hovers towards me, making ghost face

Tonight Kristin and I used a Groupon to go on a Ghost Tour. The fun ensued right away. Walking out of the subway car, Kristin stepped right on top of a live rat. She was going to fully stomp on the rat, but I luckily noticed that she wasn't going to notice so yelled out, "Rat!". This messed up her stride just enough that she lightly squished the rat with the sole of her dirty shoe and the rat scurried away, horrified but unscathed. I bet you are wondering if she screamed. She did. I thought this was especially funny since she had been handling gerbils about an hour earlier.

Next we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and bought some munchkins while Kristin used the bathroom, which reminds me there are still a few in my purse.

Onto the church, where we were to meet up and the tour began. It was more of a historical landmark walking tour. We didn't get to go inside any buildings. We didn't see any ghosts, although we learned that one or two people claimed they could see ghosts. We learned a lot of New York history. Why is Wall Street called Wall Street? That our street grid system is not set up north/south/east/west as I assumed it was.

At one stop a guy tried to steal a bike in front of us. He just took the 2x4 he was walking around with and pried open the u-lock. Pop. We gathered around him telling him this wasn't going to happen on our watch. He kept going though, unlocking the bike and getting ready to roll it away. I think when he realized people were calling the police he should finally give up, but that's what stopped him, not the 40 people surrounding him! It made me want to always walk around in a mob, putting a halt to minor injustices.

the spooky graveyard where Ol' Peg Leg keeps haunt

I'd like to go on another tour when it gets a bit warmer out. Maybe not a ghost one, but I'd like to learn some more history!

- Megan Leigh


I also thought the tour was fun (but cold!), and the highlight was definitely stopping that incident of bike thievery. Can you believe that some guy would just whale away on a bike lock with a 2x4, in front of like forty people who are all yelling at him? Crazy! I thought the tour was too big. Like 40 people, all walking around in a big herd, so it was hard to hear the lady sometimes. But it was very interesting. Megan and I thought it would be fun to make our own literary tour of NYC, and our first tour could feature all the places in Winter's Tale. Wouldn't you go on that tour?!

-Kristin

Read More: Anna Karenina

So, one of my goals is to reread a lot of classics I read when I was in high school or even junior high. Because I can remember next to nothing about them and I'm sure I was too young to appreciate them! Anna Karenina was one of those books read too soon, so I've spent the last few weeks wading through this thing for the second time.

I remembered this book as REALLY, REALLY good. So I was surprised to find that this time around, I just didn't like it all that much. I mean, it was a pretty good book. But it also seemed really preachy and heavy handed. And all of the female characters were super shallow, and they were always doing things with their "tiny hands" and "pretty heads." I know it is an old book, but c'mon. All of the interesting, three-dimensional characters are male. I did, however, think it was interesting that Tolstoy can use such measured, careful language to sort of whip you into a frenzy. That's art! Also, the whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking that it was sad to think that in a few decades all the descendents of these people would probably be murdered in the communist revolution. That gave it all an even more tragic feeling than it was meant to have.

-Kristin

Good Food: Triple Chocolate Cookies

Another attempt at super-chocolatey cookies! This time I tried to recreate one of my all time favorites: Grand Central Bakery's Triple-Chocolate Cookies. In The Grand Central Baking Book, there is a recipe for these cookies, but it really requires a stand mixer. Not all of us have a stand mixer, though! I have a feeling that if you have a stand mixer and follow the recipe exactly, the cookies will turn out just like at the bakery. However, I've made this recipe us poor/space-challenged folks can use with a handheld mixer. I thought it turned out very well. Yummy, and the taste was right on... I suspect the only difference is that these cookies didn't puff up quite as much as at Grand Central.

4 oz. (4 sq.) unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped into chunks
10 oz. (1 bag) Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
1 and 3/4 c. sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp coffee
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
2/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2/3 c. semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 c. chopped walnut pieces (optional)


1. Melt the unsweetened baking chocolate and dark chocolate chips in a metal bowl over a pan of boiling water. Make sure it doesn't burn!
2. Whip the eggs, sugar, and butter together in a big bowl. The mixture should be fluffy! Add the coffee and vanilla, and mix a little more.
3. Combine the dry ingredients, then dump them in the big bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix just long enough until the flour gets incorporated.
4. Add the melted chocolate mixture and mix just until the color of the batter is uniformly brown.
5. Stir in the semisweet chocolate chips. And the nuts if you like them.
6. Let the batter sit for 45 minutes. It will set up and become the consistency of normal cookie dough. You have got to believe!
7. Preheat the oven to 350 and bake on parchment paper-lined pans for about eight minutes. Drop the dough on the pan in heaping spoonfuls. The cookies will not look entirely done at eight minutes, but leave them on the pan for a few minutes and they will continue to cook. Then transfer them to a cooling rack until they aren't warm anymore. Our oven runs hot, so maybe they will take a little longer in yours. But don't let them burn whatever you do!

-Kristin

I didn't like these cookies so much. I ate them, but that's only because they contained chocolate and I was desperate. Whereas Kristin thought the taste was right on, I thought it was right off. I can't pinpoint what was so funny tasting, but they were. Time to continue the cookie search, I say.

- Megan Leigh

Rich. I didn't think they were terrible. It was just a lot of chocolate in a sweet little cookie. Something between this cookie and the last kind of cookie would be best--not a fluff ball, not a condensed chocolate substance.

- Ben

No Meat Meal: Quinoa and Roasted Pepper Chili

Today I tried making quinoa and roasted pepper chili, from Cooking Light. It was pretty good, but it took a long time, because I had to roast the peppers myself! Also, I got pepper on my hand when I was cutting the veggies (I thought poblano peppers were not supposed to be that hot), and now two of my fingers are swollen and hurting. Damn you, peppers.

I didn't post a picture of the chili. I took one, but it looked awful. Ben said not to post it because it would scare/disgust everyone. So if you want to take a look you can click the link above and look at Cooking Light's pretty picture!

We added a little brown sugar and also rice vinegar (just a tiny bit of each) to try to perfect the taste. It worked out pretty well. Garnished with cheese, sour cream, and chives. Yum! 

-Kristin

I liked this chili a lot! Kristin kindly made a vegetarian one so that I could enjoy it. And this time I finally had my soup crackers to make it great.  Chili just isn't chili without those special crackers (even though New Yorkers seem to shun them). Steak 'n Shake taught me this.

- Megan Leigh

Read More: We The Animals

I've got no idea how We the Animals by Justin Torres ended up on my 'to read' list, but one day the library told me it was ready to be picked up and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was more of a novella size than a novel. I had a quick flash of hope, "Maybe if I read a bunch of books this short I can make it to my yearly goal!". Then reality set in. I'll never make it.

But on with the book.

95% of the story is about three young brothers, growing up together, inseparable. Then suddenly it flash forwards to the future when they sadly begin to part ways. It was a quick and simple read. And it was an entertaining enough read, but I didn't find it very gripping. It never really spoke to me. Although I am happy enough to have read it, it's not a book that I would recommend.

- Megan Leigh

Read More: In the Garden of Beasts

Update:

The first thing I learned reading this book was that I know nothing about history. There was a president of Germany who could have taken Hitler out, but didn't? News to me. I thought Hitler was president! It makes me pretty darned embarrassed that I didn't know something as basic as that! And from there I learned much more, but still not nearly enough. I think I'll have to look into getting a World War II book.

I'm not sure what sort of light Larson was trying to paint Ambassador Dodd in. I definitely didn't care for him. He didn't have sympathy for the Jewish people and that never changed. It seemed Americans in general at this time didn't care much for Jewish people either, so that was pretty gross to find out as well. The only thing that finally got Dodd to become aware of how bad Hitler was was when he turned on his own Nazis and had hundreds murdered. These had been people Dodd had over to dinners at his house, so that was when he realized things were unacceptable and could see Hitler's goal to start another war. But Larson quoted his German acquaintances saying that Dodd was a 'hero' for standing up to Hitler. I didn't see him like that one bit. Even though he eventually tried to warn the U.S. of the threat Hitler posed, they ignored him. So the second major thing I learned is that diplomats are useless.

- Megan Leigh



In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin was my second kindle library book. It's by Erik Larson, who wrote The Devil in the White City. So I had a feeling it was going to be good. And it was.

The book is about William Dodd, the US Ambassador to Germany in the years leading up to World War II, and his family. Dodd may have been a little slow on the uptake, but he was a man of integrity, and eventually he did his best to try and make his colleagues understand the threat that the Nazis posed--to German citizens and to the rest of the world. His family, similarly, began by being captivated by Berlin and, bit by bit, started to understand the horror that surrounded them. The tension builds as it becomes clear that many of their friends and colleagues will eventually succumb to the terrible events of that time. And though the Dodds leave before World War II really gets into full swing, there are plenty of terrible events to go around.

I didn't know a whole bunch about Nazi history before reading this book. I mean, I've read books like Night and the Periodic Table, but they are written from the perspective of the Nazi's victims later on. Not so much about how the party came to power and the events leading up to war and the concentration camps. So I learned a lot.

But mostly this was just a riveting and horrifying story about a country full of people that willingly submitted to a small group of insane and murderous men. It made me think a little more than usual about how precious human rights are, and how ready most of us seem to give them up in the United States... what with warrantless wiretaps, police brutalizing peaceful protesting college students, the now-normal practice of stopping and frisking without cause in New York City, and extraordinary rendition. When we think about WW2 era-Germans giving up their rights and consenting as a society to such awful things, it seems so foreign and unbelievable. But maybe we are not so distant from these types of moral and ethical disasters as we like to think. It scares me to think about it, and this book made me do just that. As I finished this book, I was reminded of David Foster Wallace's beautiful piece on the value of liberty, "Just Asking."

-Kristin

One New Thing: Olea

This morning we (Me, Molly, Cat and others) brunched at a incredibly cute restaurant called Olea in Fort Greene. As we walked to the restaurant Cat raved about their polenta. I had never had polenta, and really didn't even know what it would be so I had to order it. Polenta, scrambled eggs, home fries (of course I would have preferred hashbrowns but chefs around the world hate the hashbrown), salad and toast. I was so excited that I was being adventurous.

Then the meal came. And what was this exotic polenta? Grits, that's what. Grits with a fancy name. Others tried to tell me that they were different, that they were creamier. But they were grits. But good grits! Usually when I order them I'm disappointed, these however were mighty fine polenta grits.

To make the meal even better they ended it how every meal should be ended, with a little square of dark chocolate. Pink wrapping for the girls, blue wrapping for the boys. Even if the meal had been terrible, I would return because of the chocolate.

- Megan Leigh

Good Food: Double Chocolate Cookies

So, working at Elliot's book fair last week I had a lot of time to browse through random books. I happened across one called "The Cake Mix Doctor." At first, I thought the premise was really lame. This lady writes a whole book of recipes that rely on spiffing up cake mixes so that you end up with a delicious cake. If you read this blog, you'll know that I have been struggling to bake good cakes from scratch. So this idea of starting with a cake mix seemed hideous to me. I mean, is it really so hard to just mix together some flour and baking powder and sugar? Why involve a cake mix in all this?

But then I thought more about it. My from-scratch cakes have all turned out terribly. Maybe I *should* be starting out with a cake mix, I thought, at least for now, because my cakes from mixes actually turn out much better than my cakes from scratch. Maybe I can learn some tricks and some day work up to making a cake from scratch. And the book was 50% off, so I bought it. Why not give it a try?

As it turns out, there is also a section in the back for cookie recipes. I LOVE double chocolate cookies. But I have never tried to make them myself before. I don't know why. They just seem magical, I guess. Well today I felt bold and decided to give my first double chocolate cookie recipe a try. This recipe is a variation on one I found in The Cake Mix Doctor Returns. I thought it was decent!

The key is to under bake the cookies. I found they were best when baked for eight minutes, although the recipe called for 10-12. I also think these cookies need additions to be good. I added chocolate chips and walnuts. I think the cookies would be very bland without them--they are sort of light and taste like a cake mix, so they need the richness of the chocolate chips and nuts.


1 package (18.25 oz) chocolate cake mix
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 stick butter, melted
about half a cup of chocolate chips (i used a mix of Nestle semi-sweet and Ghirardelli dark chocolate)
about half a cup of walnut pieces


1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Combine the cake mix, cream cheese, egg, vanilla, and butter in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, mix on low until the ingredients are just combined. Then mix on medium until the dough is thick and smooth. Note: This dough is really thick, so you probably really will want an electric mixer. I tried to do it by hand because I was too lazy to get out the mixer at first, but I gave up.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts by hand.
4. Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (I cover mine in parchment paper).  Bake on the middle rack for about eight minutes for nice soft cookies. Note: You can cook a little longer for chewier cookies. Be careful and make sure they don't burn, though! Since the dough is so dark, it's a little difficult to tell when they are starting to become too done, and I burnt my first batch.

-Kristin

It was quite a nice surprise to come home to an empty house with bags and bags of these new chocolate cookies. No competition. I slowly ate away, enjoying every bite. I ate a lot of cookies tonight. They weren't the normal, doughy cookie we usually make. As Kristin said, much more cake like, but still very good (coming from one who hates cake).

I'm thinking next maybe we should attempt the delicious S'mores cookies we get from Westside Market?

- Megan Leigh

One Hour Runner: End of Week Four

Sorry we have been gone for so long! I was helping with a book fair at Elliot's school all week, and that is pretty much all I had time to do. I ended up with a lot of new kid books, and the fair raised a lot of money for Elliot's school. So all that was nice.

Today I got to go out for my last run in week four. This was an exciting run, because it was the first time in the program that I got to run longer than thirty minutes! That's right, I ran for thirty-five minutes today. In reality, I've run that long a lot in the past. But it was still exciting to do it officially. Since I hadn't run for the last week, it was kind of hard! It felt good though, to be running on a brisk winter morning. I'm back!

-Kristin

One New Thing: The London Candy Company

Today, Elliot and I took a different route on our afterschool errands, and we ended up wandering down a stretch of Lexington we don't usually go down. We were in search of a snack, and we happened across the London Candy Company. I hesitated, and said I didn't think candy was a good snack. But Elliot boldly entered.

This  shop has every kind of British candy you can think of. Ever read a British memoir and wondered about all of those weird candies that the authors swoon over in the childhood part of the book? Come here, and you can give each of them a try! They also have a variety of pastries (including pain au chocolat!) and a little coffee bar. Very cute. And the guys who worked there were really friendly. That always stands out in New York.

Here is some of the candy we bought. I think Elliot and I will continue to go back until we've tried everything that looks interesting.

Fun Elliot fact: his favorite kind of chocolate is white. Would you have ever thought? 

-Kristin

Read More: Half Broke Horses

I can thank Kaye for this book. I read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls before and really loved it. I'm very fond of memoirs, you see. I assumed Half Broke Horses would be along the same lines, but it wasn't at all. First, it wasn't her memoir, but her grandmother's as imagined by Walls. I didn't find out until the end that her grandmother had died when she was only eight, so these stories had all been passed down by her mother. It was written as if her grandmother was writing, but there was so little detail that you could tell it wasn't a real first person account. Each segment of story was very short, which was fun and really great for the train. I never had to stop in the middle of a chapter.

Her grandmother led a very interesting life, thus this was quite an interesting read. She grew up on a ranch breaking horses, moved to Chicago for a brief time, then back to the wild west to become a teacher, ranch manager and back to teacher. She was a tough lady who could roll with the punches.

Although I didn't like it as much as The Glass Castle (I think I enjoy books that make me grateful for my childhood) it was still a good read that I wouldn't hesitate to suggest!

- Megan Leigh

One New Thing: Dough Ornaments, Day One

Today Elliot and I worked on dough ornaments while Poppy took her nap. The recipe is easy:

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups warm water

That's what it said, anyway, but I had to add a lot more water for it to get dough-ish. Then we baked them in the oven at 300 for a long time. Here is a preview of what they will look like! I thought they were fun to make, but I think Elliot got bored. At first, he was really excited, but he kept making huge sculptures, and I pointed out they would be hard to hang as ornaments. He pointed out that I am very critical. Then his attention started to be drawn by the show on the television. Ah well! I got two ornaments out of him.

We are still trying to decide: paint or no paint? We have to finish them tomorrow. Can you tell what the one in the upper left corner is?

-Kristin

Get Healthy: Eat Less Meat

Since turkey day has passed and I've had my fill of that good ol' bird, I've decided to try and go vegetarian. Yet again. Yesterday marked one week of no meat. I hope I can keep it up!

- Megan Leigh

No Meat Meal: Veggie Pasta Bake

Tonight I made a Veggie Pasta Bake. I thought it was decent, although it could have used a little more flavor somehow. Kristin says, "add salt!" I say salt is for schmucks. The recipe did call for Cayenne Pepper, but I forgot to add it. That could have really changed the recipe. I also would have added another box of spinach, and maybe even another can of tomatoes. You can never have enough veggies!

- Megan Leigh

I really liked the recipe. Nothing beats roasted red peppers! I think Megan's idea about adding more veggies could be good. I also don't see what she has against salt. She won't use it, and then she complains things are bland! It's a good recipe, though. I would definitely like to eat this again.

-Kristin

Recipe: S'more Krispy Treats

I've been very terrible at cooking lately, but this week I've decided to turn that around. I started off with a recipe for S'more Krispy Treats. They turned out yummy, because where can you go wrong? So maybe they aren't beautiful. Maybe they look like a dog pooed then threw up on it. It doesn't matter, as long as you eat them with your eyes closed. I think next time I would try letting them cool a bit more before adding the chocolate chips?

Kristin wants to make a Christmas version where we dye the marshmallow green and add Christmas M&Ms instead of the chocolate chips. Will they end up any prettier?

- Megan Leigh

One Hour Runner: Back on Track!

I took a week-long break from running, because the arch of one of my feet was aching. After hearing scary injury stories from many friends, I thought best just to let it heal! I was a little afraid that when I tried to start back up, my week's hiatus would ruin everything and I wouldn't be able to jump back into my schedule. I didn't need to worry, though! It felt great to get back out there, and my feet didn't hurt at all.

I also tried a new route at Ben's suggestion--the greenway next to the Hudson, but this time going North instead of South. It may be my new favorite place to run. Yesterday morning, when I went out, a mist hung over the Hudson. The George Washington Bridge and the little red light house peeked out, and you could catch glimpses of the bluffs on the other side of the river. Ducks and geese bobbed along in the water. The greenway takes you right alongside the river, with wide-open space on both sides of you... it's not at all claustrophobic-feeling, like the southern greenway, where you are wedged between the river (down a steep embankment) and the westside highway (up a steep embankment). Also, the path is flat and not slanted like the south greenway, so it feels much better to run on! The only good/bad thing about this part of the path is that it is EMPTY. It's so rare to be alone in Manhattan, but there were stretches when I was running on a wooded path all alone for a couple minutes here! On the one hand, it was nice and peaceful. On the other hand, I felt like I was about to set up the opening sequence of a Law & Order episode. Maybe I will try to go at times when there are more people around.

I tried to take a picture, because it was so pretty, but my dumb iphone has a horrible camera. All you could see was white. I am jealous of Megan's new version!

-Kristin

Get Healthy: Gym!

I finally got my year long pass for the gym today at the community center by our house. I am gonna get in shape! I am gonna get all strong and freaky looking like Madonna! Watch out world!

Not only did I venture out (with support from my dear sister, Kruger) to get the pass, but I actually convinced myself to walk in the drizzly, dreariness to go to the gym. It's nice because everyone there was using the weight lifting equipment, so I had the things I wanted all to myself. I did 30 min on the elliptical and 30 min walking on the treadmill.

I am so out of shape! By the time I was done I was a little lightheaded. Although that could have also been due to my poor caloric intake and lack of water for the day.

Included is the picture on my ID. It looks like a picture of a convenience store robber on the news.

-Megan Leigh

I thought the picture looked like the wanted signs in the subway you see when rapists are on the loose.

-Kristin

Read More: The Department of Mad Scientists

The Department of Mad Scientists by Michael Belfiore is a book looking at some of the projects DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has worked on over the years and is working on currently. Although DARPA is a federal agency, it is very unusual in that it is crazy innovative and not bogged down in bureaucracy -- so they get shit done. It's possible for a scientist to come up with an idea in the morning and get it funded by the afternoon.

Although DARPA is super awesome, they don't get much recognition for their achievements. Internet? Nope, not Al Gore, but DARPA! Personal computers and mice (the kind that hook up to your computer)? DARPA (but perfected by Steve Jobs, of course)!

I should have read this book when I first heard about it. Reading about their current projects, even a couple of years later, was already old news. One of the things they were working on was computer voice recognition. Now we have Siri! Another project was cars that could drive themselves (at the time of the writing they still had a LONG way to go), and now we've got the Google Car! They were also making great strides in the solar power field, so I'm excited to see where that goes!

The book was very interesting, but the writing was a bit dry. I think he could have made it a more lively, funny read. I'm sure there was a lot of DARPA nerd humor that got left out.

Do I recommend this book? I do. It's fun to learn about DARPA's history, but also a bit sad to learn that the government can do things efficiently, they just refuse to!

- Megan Leigh

Read More: Atonement

We got the movie version of Atonement from Netflix a few years ago, and I don't think I was the one who requested it. I didn't know much about it, and I wasn't very excited about watching it... I knew it was some Keira Knightly movie and not much else about it. I think I was working on something while it was on, so I didn't give it my full attention. But as the move started wrapping up, it struck me that this actually seemed like a pretty good story. I was sad that I hadn't been paying attention. So I decided I had to read the book. And I've finally gotten around to doing it!

The book Atonement by Ian McEwan is achingly beautiful. It harkens back to that Brideshead Revisited/Remains of the Day-type atmosphere... English manors and a love that can never be. But while all of the elements of a classic, heartwrenching love story are there, it is so much more. From the beginning, there are hints that maybe the narrator can't be trusted. So you start to wonder what really happened and what didn't. What people really thought, and what thoughts the narrator imbued them with in the interests of a good story. Everything gets neatly wrapped up in the end, which is satisfying. I don't see how the book could work without this last section, in which everything is revealed, but I almost wanted to be left wondering.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. Usually I read a book, enjoy it, and never think about it again. They are just entertainment. But I know I will continue to think about this one for a long time--it's truly haunting. One of the best books I have read all year.

-Kristin

Must See: Peep Show

For a long time a British comedy show called 'Peep Show' has been on my radar, but I've never gotten around to watching it. I had no clue what it would be about, I just knew Netflix told me it was up my alley. One night Ben was bored and stumbled upon it and got hooked, so finally I was convinced to give it a go. Before the first episode, Ben warned us, "the first couple aren't that funny." But they were. They were hilarious.

The show is about two super awkward roommates. You alternate seeing the show through each ones point of view and hearing their sad, sad thoughts. I feel I needn't say more.

Five stars! Watch it!

- Megan Leigh

When you find a show this funny, you wonder why in the world you'd never heard of it before. Why aren't people crying out Peep Show from the rooftops? So funny!

-Kristin

One New Thing: Zen Palate

Today Kristin and I finally got to go to this Haitian restaurant we've had our eye on for a long time. We get there and sit down and Poppy immediately starts being a terror, so we have to leave. It was such a tiny little place it seemed too disruptive. So we went on our way and ended up at a vegetarian place called Zen Palate.

I got Shepard's Pie Croquettes. They were very delicious! Fried mashed potatoes? Yes please! There may have even been little cut up mushrooms inside. I kept telling myself it was some sort of tiny tofu pieces and was okay.

Poppy was much happier at this restaurant, perhaps because she got her own high chair. Perhaps because the atmosphere was more inviting. I learned that she can slurp up noodles really well. A really disgusting process, but it gets the job done. It reminded us of the monster from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children that has tentacles coming out of its mouth. Or maybe Squid Face from Pirates of the Caribbean. Either way - Grosso! The hostess lady didn't think so. She took pictures and video. I asked Kristin if it was weird that a stranger has pictures of Poppy on her phone. She wasn't too worried about it.

- Megan Leigh

I had gotten carryout from this place before a few times, and I thought it was OK. But when I ate here in person, I thought the food was much better. This happens all the time! Is the food really better when you eat at the restaurant? Or is it just about presentation and ambience? We should test this out sometime. Anyway, Megan didn't say this was a vegan restaurant. But it is. And it is still yummy!

Look at Poppy. So tiny! You would never know the chaos she can cause! 

-Kristin

I didn't say it was vegan, because the website says VEGETARIAN. I don't want this blog to contain lies.

- Megan Leigh

Good Food: Bogie Brownies

So these brownies are supposed to be Humphrey Bogart's favorites, and the recipe can be found on the Brownie Power website, which has great step-by-step instructions. These brownies are super easy to make, and my favorite thing about them is you can make them using only one pan--no extra bowls or anything! Compared to the last brownie recipe we tried, these brownies have lots and lots more butter, sugar, and eggs... all the rich stuff. And they are very bare-bones. Nothing extra! I think there may have been a typo in the instructions. It said to bake the brownies for 20-30 minutes at 300 F, which seemed very low... usually things are done way too early in our oven, but after 30 minutes the brownies weren't even close to done. Maybe they meant 375? Anyway, the brownies turned out pretty dry, but it may have been because they baked for a very long time at a weird temperature. They were also very cakey, rather than fudgy--they puffed up big time. If I made these again, I would bake them at a higher temperature. But I'm not sure I will, since there are so many good brownie recipes out there! Why fiddle around with one that isn't amazing?

Megan took this picture of the brownie. It's pretty awful. It might be the worst picture of food so far on this blog. We need to work on our photography skills!

-Kristin

There was certainly no fear of me yelling at the others in the house, "Quit Bogarting the brownies!"

- Megan Leigh

Good Food: Chocolate Chip Muffins

As you can see from the picture these muffins aren't huge and gorgeous or anything. But they are easy to whip up, tasty, and not sickeningly sweet. You know, like those Otis Spunkmeyer muffins that a certain mother buys a certain sister when she goes home... Yes, I know what goes on in St Louis when I am not around. Anyway, these muffins are understated.

6 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk
1 c. chocolate chips (or whatever seems right)

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a muffin tin.
2. Mix together the butter and sugar, until it is all creamy, in a big bowl.
3. Mix the salt, baking powder, and flour in a smaller bowl.
4. And then in a liquid measuring cup, beat the eggs with the milk.
5. Pour 1/3 of the the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then add a little of the milk/eggs. Keep repeating until everything is mixed together. If it looks too thick, add a little more milk.
6. Mix in the chocolate chips.
7. Divide the batter between 12 muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes, until they are nice and golden!

-Kristin