Reading and Eating
Well, this last week was an odd one. I prepared a ton of food and only managed to take TWO photos. And I started a book that I loved, but couldn’t find any time to read. It was like an alarm went off every time my butt touched the couch- it was a signal for cats to start throwing up, the oven to beep, and my daughter to have the pressing need to discuss her next hair color. But I persevered, and finally finished Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. This book was described as a “dark Harry Potter” or “the anti-Harry Potter you didn’t know you wanted.” In my opinion, the two books shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence. There was nothing Harry Potter-ish about this book. One of the Amazon reviewers described it as “surreal and confusing” and that sums it up well. The main character is a teenage girl, Sasha, who is “selected” to attend a special school. The students are forced to study intricate and incomprehensible material, which eventually leads to scary and dream-like transformations. When I say I “loved” this book, I mean I was completely engrossed in it every time I managed to read. Several times I got honked at in the car line at my daughter’s school- I would take out the book while waiting and the story was so compelling, I would be reading and reading, not noticing that traffic had started to move. Parts of it were so odd, it was hard to come back to real life. My family would be talking to me and I would stare at them… what? Something about laundry? It was so easy for me to be immersed in Sasha’s world at the “Institute of Special Technologies.” HOWEVER. I think this is the first time I’ve ever liked a book this much, yet have no desire to read the sequel. Somehow it feels like one book was enough, and I don’t want to continue on with the story. I think I want to read a regular book, where regular things happen to regular people. About all that food… my son arrived home from college, along with his roommate. His roommate stayed with us for five days and in preparation for the visit, I stocked the fridge! I made a REALLY good pasta salad, this one from Nora Cooks. It was a big hit, and provided lunch, snacks, and a side dish for dinner one night. I also made a big batch of pinto beans, using a Chipotle copycat recipe. I actually can’t remember which one I used- they’re all very similar. I also made a Chipotle copycat recipe for rice, and again, this Chipotle copycat recipe for tofu sofritas. And we had guac and salsa. This all provided dinner one night, and was a handy thing to have in the fridge for lunches. One night I made the Thai Yellow Mango Curry from Minimalist Baker. This recipe is so good! For some strange reason, every time I make this I make naan (recipe also from Minimalist Baker) which mixes Thai and Indian. Oh well, it’s fusion! Another night the boys made an Asian meal, which I took this stunningly bad photo of: And another night, we ate out at our favorite Thai place- this may have been an overload of Asian food, but we found out the restaurant is closing soon and felt that we just had to go. I completely forgot to take a photo, which seems like not just a blogging fail but a life fail as well. When will we ever- our family plus my son’s friend- be back at that restaurant together? Never. I really wish I had remembered a picture. The day after our friend left, we had so many odds and ends of leftovers, I announced that we were going to use everything up for dinner that night. As much as I loved having the fridge full of food, it was also oddly satisfying to eat everything and have it (relatively) empty again. And now it’s back to normal. I have a library hold to pick up tomorrow (a normal mystery) and once again I have no idea what we’re having for dinner. SIGH! Has anyone read Vita Nostra? – I’m interested to hear what other people think!