Random Food and Book Thoughts on Foodie Friday

On Fridays I like to feature a food related book here at The Book Bench, but this Friday I've just got a bunch of random food and book thoughts I need to clean out of my mental closet. Heaven knows that's the only really spring cleaning I care to do.

1. My daughter has been enjoying The Everything Kids' Cookbook by Sandra Nissenberg this week. It has kept her busy in the car, at the school bus stop, and in the waiting room at the dentist's office because it has word searches and scrambles, puzzles, and games as well as recipes and cooking tips for kids.

2. Peeps are back in the stores! Sure, there were Peep pumpkins in October and Peep snowmen and Christmas trees in December, but we all know the old school bunnies and chicks are the best. Have you ever put one in the microwave and watched it puff up? Good times. Speaking of Peeps fun, my kids learned the meaning of the idiomatic expression "gilding the lily" a few years back when we dipped the bottoms of Peep chicks in melted chocolate and then sprinkles. They were fun to make, really cute, and disgustingly sweet. Http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/ is worth a visit with kids if you love those little marshmallows the way we do in my household. They are a fat and gluten free food by the way.



3. I think I mentioned that I have begun my third read aloud of Harry Potter, this time to my youngest. Somehow it got all three kids talking about the Harry Potter books and their favorite characters, settings, and plot points. We all agreed that we love Honeydukes Sweet Shop purveyors of chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties, Bertie Botts' every flavor beans, and more. Interestingly, they noted that although it is a wonderful reading experience that Honeydukes sells enchanted treats, candy stores in and of themselves are magical places.

4. There is no easy segue from magical candy stores to Cormac McCarthy's bleak and gripping The Road. My husband is finally reading it and finding himself pulled into the store. As we were discussing it this week, I told him that every single time I have opened a can of food (soup, sauerkraut, stewed tomatoes) since reading The Road more than a year ago, I have thought of the man and the boy.

5. Speaking of me and cooking, here's an effect of the current economic nightmare: every night as I put dinner on the table, I find myself mentally calculating how much it cost to prepare per person. For example, Tuesday's Mexican lasagna night cost about $2.80 a person, but last night's grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit cost about a buck a person. I never really did these calculations on a regular basis before, but lately I can't help myself.

Those are my random Foodie Friday thoughts. Anything new with you and food?

Read Aloud Update and Then I'm Off to Buy Snacks for Future Dungeons and Dragons Nights

We finished The Mysterious Benedict Society before bed last night. The listeners were very contented. Afterwards, the older kids went to read in their own beds before lights out (Holes for him and The Doll People for her) but not until we had decided upon our next family read aloud book. My daughter has an eight year old friend named Shawn who recently finished J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and has been raving about it. Apparently all three of my kids trust Shawn's opinion. It may not be politically correct to say, but I fear I may be opening a Pandora's box of nerdhood here. But, our home is a democracy (when it's convenient to me), so I found a copy described as "Good as New" from Amazon for one cent plus shipping and handling. It should arrive by Monday, giving my voice a much needed vacation. Well, sort of a vacation. My six year old wants me to read the first Harry Potter to him. I've read it aloud twice already, but that was several years ago and he pretty much played with Matchbox cars or fell asleep on my lap while the older kids listened. We've made a deal to read a few pages each day when he arrives home from kindergarten before his siblings. I'd better go unwrap a honey lemon Ricola because that kindergarten bus will be here in no time!

The Popularity of Orphan Lit Explained

Monday's Daily Beast included a great interview with Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays Harry Potter. The interviewer, Kevin Sessums, called Harry perhaps the most well known orphan in all of literature, and there is quite a genre of orphan literature. As you can tell from my effusive review yesterday, I am glad Ren of The Good Thief has joined ranks with Oliver Twist, Harry, Anne Shirley, and Pippi Longstocking. I've begun reading The Mysterious Benedict Society aloud to my kids at night. That too has an orphaned protagonist. Why have I fallen for so many orphans? I certainly never envied their circumstances. Daniel Radcliffe gives some insight by quoting James Carville of all people, who said that Americans love an underdog but hate a loser. As far as explanations go, that works for me.

4750 Pages and Counting?

When my oldest two children were in kindergarten and first grade, I begain reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone aloud to them. It was wonderful. We waited until Ethan, then a toddler was asleep, and then we cuddled in my bed and read fifteen or twenty minutes each night. They hung on every word. At their insistence, I reread it once we finished. Then I read the second book twice. I read the third book once and moved on to the fourth. By the fifth, Ethan started listening in sometimes. Occasionally we have taken Harry with us while we wait at doctors' offices and the school bus stop. He has come on all of our family vacations for three years now. I read the sixth book, and last night I finished the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. As I finished, my daughter Hayden and I had tears in our eyes, both from the story and from the emotion of ending this great experience. We have read dozens, maybe hundreds of other chapter books and picture books during this time as well, but our daily time with Harry was a treasured ritual. On the other hand, my vocal chords are glad of the rest. Well, they thought they were going to get a rest. My husband Bill said to me, "I really think you ought to start at the beginning and read them to Ethan as well." I'm not sure if he is sincere or if that is some sort of Muggle joke.