Second Annual Fall Festival Recipe Exchange: Butternut & Chicken Soup with Orzo

All right, so yeah, I'm still taking a break from book blogging, but the cooking and baking around here only stops when my stomach and nose can't get along. (That hasn't been a problem since first trimester.)

Last year, I posted two recipes for My Friend Amy's fall recipe exchange: Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes and Cheese Ravioli with Pumpkin Sauce.

This year, I've decided to post one of the soups I've most looked forward to since I planted my butternut squash in the spring.

Butternut & Chicken Soup with Orzo

• 1 medium-large butternut squash, peeled & cubed
• 8 cups water
• 1-1.5 lb chicken breast, cubed or shredded
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1.5 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon minced green chili pepper
• 1/2 cup orzo pasta
• 1/2-1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1. Cook butternut in water till it's soft; optional: drain some (a cup or two) of the water.
   
2. Purée using immersion blender or food processor--or just smash up with spoon.
   
3. In skillet, melt butter on medium heat. Add garlic, peppers and spices; stir until fragrant. Add chicken cubes and cook with the lid on till done, stirring occasionally.
4. Add cooked chicken to butternut.
5. Add uncooked pasta to butternut.
6. Adjust salt, pepper and water depending on taste and consistency of soup required.
7. Allow to boil on medium heat until pasta is cooked, stirring occasionally.
8. Add cream and cilantro; simmer 10-15 minutes before serving.

Just a few notes: This is a very forgiving recipe--very hard to mess up, very easy to adjust to taste. I think that you can roast the butternut instead of cubing and peeling (which is very time consuming), but I haven't tried it (and if you do, don't forget to add water--or chicken broth--to the soup to thin it out a bit). I'll be adding G. Washington's Golden Broth seasoning when I make it this fall; that stuff makes everything taste better. The above is my variation of this soup recipe at food.com.

Yes, I've been taking an unannounced hiatus

I haven't quit my book blog, but I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff (baby planning, traveling, etc.), and so while I have been reading, I haven't been blogging about it. Looking forward to commenting on some other people's Mockingjay posts, though--maybe tomorrow. I think I may have to re-read it before I get around to finally reviewing it here. And the rest of what I've read... eventually.

Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake & Abby Epstein

Your Best Birth is about knowing your birthing options and not feeling pushed around by doctors who often seem to disregard maternity patients' wishes. Or at least, that's what the book says. I don't know what it's like to have a baby in a hospital in the US; I probably never will. But I know my own mom's experience (at least, when she had me) was less than satisfactory, and she's still a little bitter, I think, about the treatment of OB-GYN gave her. If she'd felt there had been other options, she might have tried them.

So, here's breaking the news: I am pregnant; I'm at the beginning of my second trimester. And I remember two people singing the praises of this book: Jenn at Devourer of Books, who had a baby last year, and Dooce, who also had a baby last year.

Now, of all my generation in my family--several cousins, a sister--only one of them hasn't had a C-section. I don't know the particulars about why all of them had C-sections (except my sister--my niece was floating around in her placenta, basically swimming laps, and wouldn't stay heads-down), but I don't want surgery. And I certainly don't want to be pushed into it because of hospital protocols, which is often, apparently, what happens. I am also in love with the idea of a birthing pool, ever since I read on Pacing the Panic Room about the birth of Tessa Tangerine. (I started following Pacing the Panic Room because I loved the pictures he was taking of his wife every week of the pregnancy.)

My sister says she hates books like Your Best Birth because their goal is that everyone has a totally natural birth and they make you feel guilty if you want pain meds or if you have a C-section--which is how her prenatal classes made her feel. My response was that, yes, Your Best Birth is really heavy on supporting the decision to have a drug-free labor, home birth, midwives, doulas, and all of that. But mostly, they just don't want you to feel pushed into having a less-than-joyous birth experience you didn't need to have; they want you to have more facts than you're likely to get from hospitals and doctors. They acknowledge that C-sections are sometimes necessary (though there are an alarming number of elective C-sections) and that after 24 hours of labor, you really might need an epidural to keep going. And that's FINE. What you need, you get. But they don't want you to be pushed into having an epidural by the nurses who pop in every half hour or forty-five minutes to ask if you're ready to have an epidural yet, or get jacked full of Pitocin on Tuesday by the doctor who really wants to go away Thursday night to start a long weekend instead of waiting for your labor to start/progress naturally.

Also, Lake & Epstein provide lists of questions for doctors, midwives, doulas, etc., as well as a history of widwifery (really interesting) and a general (if a little biased) overview of the birthing industry in the US. They also made a documentary, which I haven't seen but would like to, called The Business of Being Born.

Now, unfortunately, I don't think BC's health care--or the health care from my husband's employer--would pay for a midwife and doula for a home birth. In fact, I am pretty sure there aren't any truly qualified midwives in my town, and to get a midwife to deliver my baby, I'd likely have to go to Vancouver Island. So I think the homebirth in a tub is out.

Fortunately, my doctor says that here in BC, they approach pregnancy and labor a little differently, with as few interventions as possible. There are showers and tubs for laboring moms at the hospital and they won't hook me up to an IV--or even put a needle in, in case I need one later--unless it becomes absolutely necessary. And I can feel free to walk, squat, whatever positions I want. I feel much better knowing that.

Of course, I have yet to take a look at the maternity ward here. There's only one hospital in town, so I have pretty limited hospital options (again, unless I want to take ferry to Vancouver Island while I'm in labor). But I've heard nothing but good things about its maternity ward, and I find it pretty comforting that most women in town receive their prenatal care from their general practitioners rather than an OB-GYN. There's only one OB-GYN and he's the prenatal care for high risk pregnancies and otherwise, expectant moms only see him for emergency C-sections (though I'm told he's also skilled with forceps and can be called in for that as well).

I'm really glad I read this book, because I don't think I would have considered that there are options other than hospitalization to have a baby, or that doctors could have ulterior motives for offering epidurals or kick-starting labor, or that there are so many options even if you choose to go to a hospital. I strongly encourage other pregnant women to read this book--even if you've already had children. It's fascinating.

The Blue Cotton Gown by Patricia Harman

Patsy Harman is not an unusual woman. She worries about finances. She gets irritated with her husband's ability to sleep no matter what their current crisis is. She feels the need to listen to her patients and colleagues, and is just as sensitive as any other woman you're likely to meet (even if she doesn't cry as much).

What makes Patsy Harman a bit of an anomaly is that she's a midwife in Appalachia, and she and her OB-GYN husband operate their own medical practice, even though they don't deliver babies anymore (obstetric malpractice insurance got ridiculously high). They've had a bit of bad luck with accountants, and Patsy finds it difficult to balance the problems of her patients and friends with those of her own life.

One of the early reviewers said that The Blue Cotton Gown (a memoir) reads like a novel--and it really does. I didn't want to put it down. I had to know how Patsy was going to handle the accountants, whether she was ever going to get to sleep on her own, whether her teenage patient who lost twins was going to see the light about the loser she was sleeping with--or her friend's daughter, who was having a similar problem in her love life.

I cheered her victories and good decisions and commiserated in her frustrations and worries (seriously, how many inept accountants are there?). She introduced me to the business side of medical practice, which I hadn't really considered before. As with all businesses, there's a fine line between solvency and bankruptcy, and the Harmans are walking it. But even the financial worries--they got a letter from a legal firm; are they getting sued? or how do they get the IRS to quit taking the money they no longer owe them?--are nothing like worrying about whether or not you have cancer, whether or not you'll have to have a hysterectomy, whether that kid's overdose was an accident or suicide. And Harman balances them all beautifully in this memoir, with a generous splash of humor and other bits of light-heartedness to keep you from losing sleep over her problems.

If there's one thing that didn't quite sit comfortably with me, it's that most of the time, I had no idea this book was taking place in Appalachia, which has its own distinct character. Harman's practice could have been in Idaho or Maine or Texas if it weren't for the occasional references to local geography or the very rare mention of an Appalachian trait of the locals. Maybe it's because Harman isn't from the area, but I think I would've appreciated a little more local color.

All in all, highly recommended. I really wish I could remember whose blog I read a review of this book on--whoever you are, thank you!

Dewey: The Small Town Library Can Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

I'm a cat person. You must know this by now. I mean, our cat made international news last December (and we're still introduced to new people as "the people who's cat waited at the side of the road for them for two days after their accident in Wyoming--you saw it on the news, right?") and though I think our Wavey is every bit as remarkable as Dewey, I must admit, Dewey's story is pretty amazing. And he is one handsome cat.

I cried when I read about Myron taking him out of the book drop after the coldest night of the year, with his paws frostbitten and him so cold there was no heat coming from him. And I cried at a lot of other things in the book too. I, however, skimmed most of the bits about life in Spencer, Iowa (I come from an even smaller town in Ohio and highly doubt life is all that much different there) and rolled my eyes several times at Myron's insistence that Dewey's behavior was unusual for a cat (I often disagreed)--but there is no denying he was a remarkably well-suited cat for a library.

I loved the stories of specific library patrons and the statistics of how their patronage increased after Dewey became a fixture there, and the way stories of Dewey spread until people from all over the world were coming to Spencer, Iowa, just to see him. (I would've been one of those people who detoured a road trip to go meet Dewey.)

I would give this book to any cat person to read.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (HP #7, re-read)

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Do not read this if you haven't read
or have forgotten a lot of what
happened in Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows.

When the rest of my family reached the end of this book after its release in 2007, they all immediately read it again. I didn't, so I've only read The Deathly Hallows once prior to the Harry Potter Reading Challenge, and I'd forgotten a lot. What I did remember: leaving the Durselys'; the loss of Hedwig; some scandal around Dumbledore; breaking into Gringott's; Neville and the Sword of Gryffindor; the result of the final battle between Harry and Voldemort and why it happened like that.

But I forgot so many of the details that it was almost like reading The Deathly Hallows again for the first time. Almost. I forgot the role Kreacher played. I forgot what happened to Dobby. I forgot that Delores Umbridge reappears; what's waiting for them at Godric's Hollow; how they get the sword of Gryffindor; and The Tale of the Three Brothers. How I forgot that last one, I don't know. I forgot that Harry is a kind of horcrux himself, even though when I finished reading #6 all those years ago (before the release of #7), I had a theory that he was.

And I kinda want to read it again. Right now. (But I promised my husband I wouldn't. Apparently, I get really wrapped up in Harry Potter world.) Maybe next time I undertake re-reading the whole series (probably reading it aloud with kids), I'll have forgotten most of this again. I'm hoping so, anyway.


This reading challenge was a most satisfying experience. Thanks, Galleysmith!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HP #6, re-read)

***I do not regret including spoilers; if you haven't read it yet--WHY NOT?

"I enjoyed the meetings, too," said Luna serenly. "It was like having friends."

I, too, wish they'd continued the DA. It was just so much fun, and I would've felt more confident when they're battling Death Eaters at the end if they'd continued on with the DA.

So, Slughorn creeps me out, but I love how Harry uses Aragog to get the memory out of him. (I also forgot that he continues to teach at Hogwarts in book #7, which I'm currently almost through.)

I totally forgot where the "Prince" of the Half-Blood Prince came from, so that was a small surprise all over again. I wish we'd learned more about Dumbledore in this one, even though I know we learn a ton in the final book, it still doesn't seem like enough.

I love how Snape prevents Harry's performing the Unforgiveable Curses in the end; that was when I suspected that he hadn't really gone back to the Death Eaters in the first reading. And I love that Draco can't do the task he's been assigned. He's a complete git, but at least he couldn't kill Dumbledore.

And I cried harder, I think, this time than either of the previous two readings. Seriously, through about 30 pages, I had to keep tissues on hand to keep from getting pages wet.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (HP#5, re-read)

Do I need to mention that this contains spoilers? (Haven't you read Harry Potter yet?)

I like The Order of the Phoenix a lot more now than I did the first time I read it; it definitely lacks the levity of the preceding books, but even knowing that going in didn't prepare me for how serious this book is. Now, a few reads later, I appreciate the plot development, the preparation of the readers for the sixth and seventh books.

Delores Umbridge has always been hard for me to read; she's a wretched character and though she gets what's coming to her, knowing that in advance doesn't make it much easier to read everything she does during Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. (And she reminds me of a character or two from my own teaching days.)

But I love the D.A. It's my favorite part of the book, the scenes in which Harry's teaching his schoolmates makes me so happy, and I wish there had been more D.A. scenes.

And somehow, I can never quite picture all the weird things in the Department of Mysteries in the battle scene at the end. It's a huge, monumental scene and I always feel that I'm not quite picturing it as huge as it needs to be. But I'm getting there. Maybe a couple more reads will let me feel that I've paid the scene its due diligence. Am I the only one who feels that way?

I don't cry when Sirius dies, but I do when Harry finds that two-way mirror in his trunk afterward. I forgot about that mirror, and boy, I lost it. And I lost it again when Dumbledore, after explaining a million other things, says to Harry, "'You may, perhaps, wonder why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess . . . that I rather thought . . . you had enough responsibility to be going on with.'" (And Dumbledore's crying.)

All right--what parts made you cry?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (HP#4, re-read)

I must confess: I've already read #4, #5 & #6 without blogging about any of them, which makes writing about them as though I've just read them rather difficult. (Well, I just finished #6, so that one should be pretty easy.)

However, The Goblet of Fire was pretty familiar to me; I've probably read it half a dozen times before, so not a lot jumped out at me or surprised me, except the mention of a few names that would become important in future books--like The Lovegoods. (When the Weasleys & company show up for the Quidditch World Cup, Mr. Weasley is told that the Lovegoods had arrived a week in advance.)

Every time I read this book, when I get the part where Harry's name comes out of the Goblet, I remember my first reaction--I was so excited (and, somehow, surprised), that I slammed the book shut and yipped. That's right--I yipped.

And can I just say that I really expected that, after my first reading(s) of The Goblet of Fire, Krum would be a more important character in the rest of the series than he turned out to be? (I really expected to see a lot more of Krum than Fleur.) I'm still rather disappointed that he didn't.

What about you--were there characters you expected to have a bigger role in the series than they turned out to have?

Might I suggest you breeze over to this site?

A teen from Oregon has written an original song and made a music video based on Laurie Halse Anderson's book Chains.

I love this kind of bookish enthusiasm.

Essay Contest--for kids!

Anyone familiar with The Magic Tree House? If you know or have kids in the ages 7-12 bracket, you might want to look into this essay contest. Open to US & Canada residents. Winner receives a $5000 tree house from Kids Crooked House (and must have a place to put it). Deadline: October 31, 2010.

The essay question: Jack and Annie travel through space and time in the Magic Tree House to complete the missions for Merlin or Morgan. Write about an adventure you would like to have in the Magic Tree House. Where would you go and what would you do?

Rules and Forms can be downloaded at the Magic Tree House Passport to Adventure page (PDF reader required).


I found out about this contest from The Well-Read Child, which posted the full press release from Random House.

Unforgettable: Into the Dream by William Sleator

I read Into the Dream three or four times when I was in 5th-7th grade. Loved it. But for the life of me, I could never remember the title, even then. The cover I remember was different, too--it had a Ferris wheel in the background, and there's a picture of it on GoodReads, but it's tiny. Anyway, maybe now that I've learned the title (again) and posted it here, I'll be able to remember it.

Premise of the story: Two friends discover they're having the same dream about a little boy in danger and, on the understanding that it's not just a dream, feel compelled to help him. And somehow, there's a psychic dog involved. I only remember bits and pieces, but I don't think I'd want to reread it as an adult because I'm pretty sure that as an adult reader, I'd be a little disappointed.

Nonetheless, I'm excited to have re-discovered the title and would recommend this book heartily to kids in grades 4-6. (I think I read it for reading class in 7th grade, but it was way below reading level then.)

I'd give up Ben & Jerry's in favor of this

I have a few distinct categories in my Google Reader--book blogs, foodie sites, design sites. I know my blog's very basic and not at all pretty, but I have dreams of making a fantastic one sometime soon. (But then, I read most blogs through the reader and seldom visit the sites, so I don't see their designs, and it becomes less important. Still, I'd like to design my own. Soon.)

But my design folder also includes interior decorating ideas, DIY projects, and packaging designs ('cause I love product packaging).

One of the packaging blogs I follow is The Dieline, which recently featured this student project:

There's a whole line of literary ice cream packaging. And if it were a real brand, I imagine it'd be the only ice cream in my freezer.

This is just to say...

I pre-ordered my copy of Mockingjay today. Now, I just need to make sure I get my copy of The Hunger Games back so I can re-read the first two before August 24.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (HP#3, re-read)

I can't say I had any new revelations while I was re-reading HP#3. Again, I noticed that I remember the series of events in the movie better than the book's, but I like (of course) the book better. I wish we'd seen more of Lupin's classes. Knowing what comes next, I have a few character qualms, but re-reading #4 might resolve those. And (SPOILER AHEAD!) I'm getting a bit misty whenever Hedwig gives Harry an affectionate nip. I really like Hedwig, and I hate knowing her fate. I try not to think about it, but going LA LA LA LA while I'm reading doesn't exactly help.

But thinking about Hedwig brings me to a bit of a tangent. Every year at Thanksgiving, to kick of the Christmas season, my hometown of Pemberville, Ohio, has a festival of trees, and every year the theme changes. About five years ago, the theme was books, and my mom and sister immediately claimed Harry Potter.

And it was a rockin' tree. They made a lot of the ornaments and they borrowed my snowy owl to put underneath it, along with a bunch of HP-related things like magical-looking books, a broomstick and potion bottles, and the whole series (however many had been published at the time).* And of course, people come in to see the trees and vote for favorites, and there was one kid who was super excited about the Harry Potter tree. He told me he was voting for it because he wanted to win it because of that snowy owl underneath the tree. He really wanted that owl. My owl. My Hedwig.

I explained to the kid that the trees people vote on don't go home with "winners"--the ornaments and everything underneath the trees belong to the people who designed them and they were just sharing with the town for a while. It didn't occur to me at the time that he didn't need to be disillusioned--he'd probably just have assumed later that he hadn't won--that it was kind of mean of me to wreck his hope.

But it probably doesn't matter. I don't think he believed me.

I asked my mom to keep an eye on my owl anyway, just in case.


*I'll post pictures if I can get Mom to send me a few.

Unforgettable: Southern Ladies & Gentlemen by Florence King

I was breezing through my Google Reader today to prepare for the onslaught of the reading marathon posts I expect this weekend. (I'm not participating because my garden beckons, but I hope everyone else has fun!) Anyway, I came across a post at Bluestalking titled "Good writing vs. bad, southern and otherwise." Any mention of Southern writing makes me think of Southern Ladies & Gentlemen. I know I've recommended it to several of you for challenges that have you reading Southern books, but it's really a book that anyone who's ever read Gone with the Wind or To Kill a Mockingbird or any of the other classic Southern books (or plays) should read.

King presents a study of Southern culture which is not only fun to read, but just about everything in it is applicable to any truly Southern story. It's a mix of essays (pop culture/sociology/history/etc.) that turns into something that suddenly makes Southern texts a lot more interesting and/or understandable and/or shed a new light on a story.

This is the first reading assignment I had for my Southern Women Writers class in grad school, and I am so glad Dr. Dukes had us read this. Enlightening and hilarious and highly recommended.

Hamlet & Ophelia by John Marsden

After reading Hamlet and Ophelia (which is titled just Hamlet in the US), I'm still not certain whether Hamlet loved Ophelia or whether he actually went mad or just pretended to. And I still don't have a really clear idea of Ophelia as a character. Since these matters have been the subject of academic debates since forever, I'm of two minds whether it means that Marsden did a really good job, and whether this modern narrative version's ambiguities are more frustrating than the play's.

Aside from some anachronisms, mostly character habits and language (example: one of the characters mentions hormones, which is a 20th century word), very little of this book doesn't come directly from the play. The former teacher in me was finding ways to incorporate it into a Hamlet unit, which would probably work well for a lower-level lit classes. The re-adaption lacks quite a bit of the wit of the original play (though some scenes incorporate it well--like the cemetery scene. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well."). Mostly, I really like the idea of the debates that could stem from the interpretations Marsden makes in contrast to how others read the play. Like Ophelia.

Ophelia's presence is a mystery. Supposedly she's a possible love interest for Hamlet, so Marsden takes a few liberties in trying to flesh out her character, but I found that to be even more confusing. He paints her as a little unbalanced from the beginning, which I don't recall any hint of in the play (but it has been a few years since I read it), and she lusts wildly after Hamlet, though she is mostly discreet about it. I've personally tended to infer from the play that Ophelia and Hamlet had a sexual relationship before his father's death, but in Marsden's interpretation, it's all lust. Descriptive lust.

I wonder how anyone who's never experienced the play before would feel about this book. Loving the play, I'm not totally crazy about it, but I certainly think it has its merits.
One perk is that I'm totally in the mood to go re-read the play.

I would without hesitation recommend it to high school lit teachers and it definitely belongs in high school libraries everywhere (assuming your local school library is still operational), though you can expect a few challenges from parents who take exception to Ophelia's allowing her fingers in close proximity to her thighs while she thinks about Hamlet.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (HP #2, reread)

I've reread HP#2 several times, and at this point, I assume that you all have too. If you haven't read it (and WHY not?!), beware forthcoming spoilers.

I love that Ginny joins the ranks of Hogwarts students and that though she doesn't pop up very often in the course of the book--till the end, of course--she develops a very distinct presence in the bigger picture. And who can't sympathize with a crush that huge? I look forward to seeing more of her character in the next books; I don't remember much about Ginny's role between this and the last couple books, except that she's present and that I think we'd notice if she weren't making regular appearances in the story.

Has anyone else found themselves rereading #2 and a little voice in the back of your mind screams, "Horcrux!"??? I'd almost forgotten that word.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (HP #1, reread)

I've re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone probably more than any of the others. Mostly this stemmed from an intent to reread the whole series before the next book came out, but sometimes it was just because. That might not seem strange to you, but frankly, this book is my least favorite of the whole series.

I'm looking forward to seeing, as I reread the rest of the series, how Rowling's writing improved, matured. I'm also remembering my first reactions to the movies, and I'm a little ashamed to say that I was surprised that I'd forgotten how different events actually happened in the book. Like the Devil's Snare after they get past Fluffy. I totally forgot how that all went down.

And more than ever, now that I'm rereading the series, I love (and want) these Harry Potter tattoos.

Interesting tidbit for Lisa Snelling and/or Peter S. Beagle fans

Amongst Lisa Snelling's Ebay listings is a chapbook by Peter S. Beagle (art by Snelling). Fans of Beagle and/or Snelling will want to check it out (if they haven't already).

Listed at $15 + $7 (UPS) shipping to Canada or $3.50 (USPS) to the US.