It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts! I’ve been eating plenty, but reading was slow for several weeks. Luckily all that changed with my “Christmas Book Flood.” I got five books for Christmas, and someone gave me an Amazon gift card which I used to buy three MORE books. I usually get my books from the library, so it was really fun to receive eight brand-new books in the mail (and most of these are books that aren’t available at my library anyway.)
Let’s start off with Dover:
Birchwood Pie recommended this series, and she described them as Agatha Christie-type mysteries, with the addition of humor. I knew I would love them! I got Dover One for Christmas, and got the second and third books with my gift card. These are fun mysteries, exactly as she described.
Apparently Birchwood should just assign me a reading list from now on, because I took her advice and ordered this as well, with the last of my gift card balance:
Birchwood says Nevil Shute is one of her favorite authors, and I can see why. I absolutely love his writing style. I would describe it as sparse and factual, but also extremely compelling. A Town Like Alice is about a young English woman’s experiences during World War II in Malaysia, and after the war in Australia. I want to read more by Nevil Shute, but my library doesn’t carry his books and most of them aren’t available on Amazon, at least not in the print version. I’m going to look into some online used bookstores.
This brings me to a conversation I had recently with one of my clients, an older, slightly eccentric woman. She said she reads over 100 books a year and PURCHASES EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM, mostly from Amazon. After she reads them she gives them away- either to friends (she’ll send boxes of books to out-of-town friends) or to Goodwill. I can’t even imagine how much money she spends on books. We both agreed that we only like to read physical books, as opposed to using an e-reader, or listening to audiobooks.
She said she gets a lot of pleasure from holding a book, turning the pages, and then marking her place with a special bookmark. Yes, I get it!!! A Town Like Alice was the book I read in Tampa, and I bought this bookmark as a souvenir from Ybor City:
Here’s another book from my book flood that I’m currently reading, and look at the bookmark I’m using:
It’s an old library card- Engie sent me a bunch of them, and I love using them as bookmarks.
Let’s move on to eating! You might recall I got an air fryer for Christmas. Here was our first air-fried tofu! I marinated it and then put it in the air fryer- I let it go a little too long because the tofu cubes were almost croutons, but live and learn. We still enjoyed it.
Instead of celebrating on New Year’s Eve, we made a special “Orange Bowl” dinner on December 30th (unfortunately we were rooting for FSU- it’s been a disappointing end to the football season all around.) Our meal was good though- more marinated tofu, buffalo cauliflower, and vegan pigs in blankets. Yum!
For my daughter’s belated birthday dinner (she was in Rome on her actual birthday) we went to a vegan restaurant called Planta, for their all-you-can-eat sushi night! Boy, they probably regretted letting us in the door. My son actually fasted all day to get ready for this event.
Their vegan sushi is so delicious. They use things like hearts of palm and watermelon (!) to make their rolls. Here’s just a few of them:
This was a really fun dinner- we ordered one of every roll, and then ordered more of the ones we liked the most. All the food at Planta is delicious, but it’s pricey. We save it for special occasions (and try to go on all-you-can-eat “Maki Mondays.”)
What have you been reading lately? Do you like using special bookmarks?
What else should I make in my air fryer?
Header photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
27 Responses
What a fun post. I love, love, love sushi and now feel like I need to buy an air fryer (and an InstantPot?).
I have a bedside table stacked with good books and am just struggling to find time to read this week. Maybe next week?!
I don’t have an Instantpot! Should I get one? I think it might be even more useful than an air fryer.
You know I loved this post! Grumble grump that your library doesn’t have either series.
It looks like the last time that I read the Dover series was 2018, so I’m probably due for a reread. That’s the thing with these lifelong favorites, it’s an art to let enough but not too much time go by between revisits.
My first choice for books is always Kindle, but when I do read physical books I use a removable tape marker so that I can mark the exact paragraph where I left off. Yes it’s practical but it seems like I’m missing out on some fun with bookmarks.
Now food! Yes of course you can cook tofu on the stove or in the oven, but I really feel like the air fryer kicks it up a notch. Same with tempeh and soy curls. The default temp on my fryer is 390, but I usually kick that down to 360 for tofu.
Sushi is stupid expensive, but it’s so worth it. I’ve never had vegan sushi so obviously I need to do something about that. Just saying that the vegan food that I’ve had on the road is always better than non-vegan food, so I imagine it’s the same for sushi. I’ll keep my eye out for a vegan sushi place in my travels this year.
Okay that’s a good tip! 360 for tofu in the air fryer.
If you just go to a regular sushi place for “vegan sushi” you’ll end up with a lot of vegetable rolls. To get really gourmet vegan sushi you might have to find a vegan restaurant that does it well.
The sushi looks amazing! Usually vegan sushi is just like cucumber or avocado rolls which are fine but those rolls are next level! The best vegan sushi I ever had was tempura sweet potato rolls at a sushi place in my college town, I miss them (and my college days!)
I love my air fryer and use it more than my oven, especially in the summer when I don’t want to heat up my whole apartment. I’ve even used it to make spaghetti squash which turned out amazing and much easier/faster than the oven!
One of our favorite rolls at Planta has tempura broccoli in it- so good! I love the crunch.
Clearly I need to branch out with my air fryer! Spaghetti squash? I need to google “vegan air fryer recipes”
Wow, imagine buying 100 books a year. I own a lot of books, but I probably only buy/ receive as gifts between 5-10 a year. Even that is a lot! Well, I guess we all have to spend money somehow and just think of her dollars (hopefully) supporting authors.
I love my air fryer! I have a double basket one so that one basket is used exclusively for meat for the guys, and the other one is veggies only. I am surprised how often I use my air fryer, honestly. When my husband bought it I kind of thought “what” but I’m really into it.
I prefer physical books too but my Kobo is SO good for travel. And we are heading to Mexico this weekend, so I have it all loaded up with books for the trip. This is my favourite thing about it – it’s tricky to pack a ton of books but the Kobo is so easy!
Yes, I can definitely see how an e-reader would be better for a vacation. I did bring several books to Tampa, but I was driving- much easier than flying.
I hope I can eventually say I’m really into my air fryer! I haven’t used it much- I need to get more creative with it.
Yay! I’m so glad you’re using the old library cards as bookmarks. I think they’re useful to have around the house for lists and things, too.
Dover isn’t in my library. Hmm.. I just looked! I can get it through my university library and have just ordered Dover One. We’ll see how that goes before I dive into any others.
What is the draw of physical books over ebooks? They’re heavier, harder to hold, and sometimes have weird covers. I am reading one right now where the cover is matte and feels sort of sticky and I hate it. I wish my library had a better ebook collection!
Ha, i definitely like the covers of nice new books, rather than library books. But still… I like physical books. Having said that- I’ve actually never tried an e-reader, so maybe I’m just crazy.
I’m a physical book person, too! However, I can’t imagine buying over 100 books in year. I use the public library and then only buy books that truly grab my heart and that I’ll reread as part of regular rereads cycle.
Yay air fryer! We’ve done crunchy potatoes, roasted veggies, and dumplings in ours in our rotation lately.
Yes, I must try potatoes in the air fryer! I need to try all sorts of things, actually. All I’ve done is tofu and cauliflower.
I made air fry tofu too and burned the top layer. need to lower the temperature and shake more often. it’s super convenient though. what did you use for marinate?
vegan sushi sounds fun! I don’t think I can find it here in Jakarta though.
I don’t use bookmark because I mostly read in kindle.
I was putting the tofu on 390 but I’ve now learned from Birchwood that it should be 360! That should help. I can’t remember exactly what the marinade was, but it was probably some combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar, maple syrup and siracha.
I am an ebook person because it’s so convenient! I do like reading physical books but the convenience of the kindle wins! But because I almost exclusively read kindle books from the library, it can limit my reading. Like I wanted to read that Town called Alice book but there isn’t an ebook for it at my library!
That is interesting about your client buying all those books! But I suppose you can get to a stage of life where spending money on books just doesn’t matter since you can’t take your money with you! My reading is totally set by what is available at the library. So it would be cool to just buy what I wanted to read but I don’t think could do it at this point of life.
Your birthday dinner for your daughter sounds so fun! You guys definitely got your money’s worth!!
Yes, my reading is usually dependent on what I can get at the library- so it was really fun to get all these books from Amazon that I couldn’t read otherwise. Yes, maybe when we’re older we’ll just say “Screw it! I’m spending all my money on books!”
I forgot to comment about the air fryer! My fave thing to make is cauliflower! For some reason it is extra good in the air fryer!
Yes, our buffalo cauliflower came out really well!
100 books! Yikes! My goal is to buy no books and I have been doing that for the last few years. Does she buy new books or older/used books? If they are new, that could easily be $10-$20 per book! She should start using the little free library or going to Goodwill or something! I guess if you want a certain book and you don’t want to compromise, you do what you gotta do.
I love making potatoes in the air fryer; they crisp up on all sides nicely plus you just give it a shake about halfway through and you don’t have to do the roasting things where they stick to the pan all the time. I also like making salmon and if you put a piece of parchment paper in there, it is basically no clean up. I tried broccoli and it does taste good but it shrinks way up so you need to have a couple of big heads or you will basically get barely any food! I also like plantain chips, cauliflower, and tofu of course!
PS re Instantpot, they are great! However, I think now there are ones with an air fryer attachment so you can have the best of both worlds! Local tip: try FB Marketplace, as Instantpots had a bit of a craze and I bet there are a ton of people now trying to get rid of one (I got a stationary bike that way after the pandemic).
Hmmm! Okay, I”ll check out FB marketplace for an instantpot. And, I haven’t made potatoes yet in the air fryer, which is just WRONG. Maybe I’ll do that this weekend.
This client buys all NEW books. I know- she’s spending a lot of money!!!
I got a hand-me-down air fryer from a friend and I have yet to use it… please share any good recipes you tried 😉
I haven’t read a physical book in ages, not because I don’t love physical books, but because I get most of my books from the (digital) library these days and it’s so convenient to have them on my reader and phone (and they sync my bookmark). It’s just so convenient to have the book with me at all times.
I know a lot of people who buy everything they read, but they usually read 10-20 books a year. With 100 books, that would really add up! I wonder if you have any good used bookstores around you that you could recommend. But then again, maybe she doesn’t care and likes the shiny new Amazon books. I know I really love them, too!
Ooh, I love my air fryer! It’s great for veggies. 🙂
I’m not a fan of sushi. But I’m glad you enjoy it and it looks like a great feast. I like the sound of these books. I just finished the Covenant of Water – so long and a very good book, overall. I just stared The Measure.
That vegan sushi looks amazing and now I want to find a vegan restaurant around here that has it. I love the client buying so many books, supporting the authors and passing the books on to others.
I love a physical book, and I love an audio book. I’m not so fond of the ebooks, not sure why. I love bookmarks, and those library note cards are perfection.
I was at Costco last week and almost bought a toaster oven/convection oven/air fryer. I resisted the temptation, but now I’m wondering if I should get one…
Just watching TV tonight, there’s a show on our local PBS station that spotlights SF Bay Area restaurants, and they featured a vegan sushi restaurant! It looked so good, I’m going to have to give it a try!
I wouldn’t like to think what I spend on books each year although I also have gifts and free books via NetGalley and a certain number of books from publishers for review every year. I don’t give everything away but a lot, otherwise I’d have no room – I like to donate to our local Oxfam Books (and they know me as a good donor, apparently!) and lend out a lot. I have a lot of bookmarks but a special woven yellow one my friend Ali gave me to match hers … except I discovered I already had one, from a source unknown. Happy reading and eating year. We’re considering an air fryer and it’s good to know you can do tofu in it as maybe that’s a less scary way to cook it?
You already know I spend $$ on books but I only really buy them on sale (e.g., $1.99-3.99 on Apple books). Exceptions are for the CBBC (I bought My Brilliant Friend for this winter’s selection) and if I am buddy reading anything. But for the most part, it’s the cheapo ones, audiobooks via Libby (very few so far but hoping to improve here), and the occasional print book. I’m with Engie – I cannot figure out why people prefer print books! I ALWAYS have my phone with me, and therefore, I always have a book (or, well, many…). 🙂 To each their own!
Also, I use my air fryer ALL the time for everything. Frozen veggies – throw them in, air fry x 15 minutes, done. Spaghetti squash. Tofu. Veggie burgers. I barely use my oven anymore and I LOVE it. (Oh, and baked potatoes – I usually do sweet, not regular, but they’re good, too, and delicata squash.)