Hello and welcome to Wednesday’s Reads and Eats! I had some good ones this week. Let’s start with this book…
I REALLY enjoyed it. As a matter of fact I enjoyed it so much I stayed up way past my bedtime reading it (come on! If you’re at the last 50 pages of a murder mystery, you can’t put it down.) This is the same guy who wrote Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone, which I also enjoyed- but I liked this one more. It’s a murder mystery set ON A TRAIN! What’s not to love?
Just like the last one, the plot got a little convoluted- but it all made sense, and followed the “fair play” rules of the classic whodunit.
Since I’m making “Reading and Eating” a weekly feature, and I don’t usually get through more than one book a week, I’ve decided to include any blog posts or articles I especially enjoyed. I always like Marc and Angel, but somehow this article, “10 Daily Habits that Often Waste 90 Percent of our Time” particularly hit home. So many quotes seemed like they were speaking directly to me:
Patience is not about waiting, it’s the ability to maintain a positive outlook while working hard for what you believe in.
Effort is never wasted, even when it leads to disappointing results. (Wait! Were Marc and Angel at my race last month? Have they been spying on me???)
The “10 Daily Habits” to avoid include: Change Nothing and Expect Different Results, Keep Waiting for the Right Time (“we forget that paths were made by walking, not waiting”) and Refuse to Accept Necessary Risks. This article is definitely worth a read.
Okay, FOOD! Well, it was a lackluster week of eating. EXCEPT FOR SUNDAY! To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day I made Irish Soda Bread and Vegan Irish Stew, both from Nora Cooks.
You know how bread is so addictive, and once you start eating it, it’s hard to stop? Well, I’m convinced that if the only bread in the entire world were Irish Soda Bread, we wouldn’t have that problem.
I always want to make it on St. Patrick’s Day, and then I remember that we don’t really like it. You wouldn’t want to eat it plain, that’s for sure. It was a good tool for sopping up the stew though:
Especially since I messed up the recipe. At the end you’re supposed to add a slurry of cornstarch and water- well yes, that would have been good! Except that I forgot to do that. I was wondering why the stew was so… soupy. I also forgot to add parsley. I used seitan instead of the Gardein product that Nora recommended, and in spite of all the ways I tried to ruin it, it still tasted good.
There was a bottle of Guinness in the stew, and my husband drank one for the occasion, but I skipped it because I knew I would be having a drink the next two nights (more on that coming up later this week!). I know, so boring- but I knew I wouldn’t feel good if I drank three nights in a row.
Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
What are you reading now?
Header photo by Richard Bell on Unsplash
40 Responses
The stew looks so yummy! I never celebrated st. patrick’s day, even when I was living in the US, not sure why. It would have been fun.
I’m slowly getting back to reading after a break, breaking blank, a easy read so far.
Sometimes I celebrate St Patrick’s Day and sometimes I forget all about it. Since it fell on a Sunday this year I figured I might as well making a fun dinner- next year I might do nothing.
It might not taste good, but the bread LOOKS great!
That patience quote speaks to me, too. How is your ankle doing?
I’ve started to track the tiniest of improvements I see each day (“oh look, I can stand on one leg!”). Today I’m planning to do a short test-walk, let’s see how that goes.
Yes- that patience quote is good for both of us. My ankle is much much better. Not 100% of course, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m glad you’re seeing improvements as well! But of course you are- everything heals. We just have to be patient!
I’m reading a book about the future of Wales called Welsh (Plural) and The Shell Spotter’s Guide, which I got from NetGalley. Both good in different ways!
You always read really interesting books! I’m in a phase where all I want to read are mysteries.
Yes, I remember trying soda bread in Ireland and being like…hmm. This looks better than it tastes. Lol! We did nothing to celebrate St Patrick’s Day this year. It was weird- I used to do a big thing for the boys where I’d turn things green- their milk, even the toilet water!- and make it look like a leprechaun had come. I’d leave a trail of green construction paper confetti to a box of lucky charms hidden somewhere, etc. They loved it. But then it turned out that we were traveling for St Pattys Day the last two years- in 2022 in Ireland! And last year in Costa Rica. So the last time we were home was 2021 when Asher was 11 and still was game for the holiday fun. This year no one even mentioned it or seemed to remember or care- nor did I! Kind of sad, I guess!
I like the weekly feature, by the way! I always like the idea of weekly themed posts but seem bad about coming up or implementing any of my own. I guess my blogging is too haphazard, though I do think it would be fun to have some structure sometimes. I just don’t always have guaranteed windows of time to blog, so it can be hard for me to always produce a certain post on a certain day.
Well, that sounds fun! I never really did anything like that when the kids were little, and I wish I had. Things like that are so easy (turning the toilet water green, ha ha… never thought of that). Well, maybe I’ll do things like that with my grandkids (you can see I’m really planning ahead here.)
I’m also glad to hear that Irish soda bread doesn’t even taste good in Ireland! So it’s not like I’m doing anything wrong.
Lololol glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t like soda bread.
We have houseguests coming and you just reminded me I need to buy some Guinness as I’m making baked beans on Friday. Well, and other things, but I NEEEEEED GUINNESS. I don’t care for drinking it, I’m not a beer gal, but I love cooking with it.
I’m reading Breasts and Eggs, which is a Japanese translation, and it is kind of odd but I’m enjoying it a lot.
That DOES sound odd! I’ll be looking forward to your review of it.
I used to drink Guinness, but now I don’t really like it. I DO like beer, but mostly IPAs. I took a sip of my husband’s on Sunday and remembered oh, I don’t really like this. I guess Guinness is kind of like the Irish Soda bread of the beer world!
I was carb loading and then re-fueling this past weekend so no fun Irish foods.
I do have some chocolate stout in my fridge waiting for the right time.
you could have carb loaded with beer and bread! But… maybe you wouldn’t have felt so great for your race. I don’t really like dark beers anymore, but chocolate stout sounds good!
I’ve never really celebrated St. Patrick’s Day much since I don’t like Irish food lol but your stew actually looks pretty good!
I love the quote about effort is never wasted. I feel like that applies to so much, especially running. I often get down on myself for not making much progress even though I’m training a lot but it’s a nice reminder that the effort will eventually pay off in some way!
Yes, i love that quote- definitely what I needed to hear right now.
Irish food… isn’t the best. But that stew was pretty good, and it was a fun dinner.
Yay for weekly reading and eating!
The last time I made beef stew, I had slurry issues. I made it in the Instant Pot, which was all fine and well, but it wasn’t hot enough at the end for the slurry to thicken and it would have taken forever if I’d put it back on pressure or used the saute function to try to heat it up. That left me with the option of putting it on the stove(!) and I said hell no and served it as is and had the comfort of knowing that the leftovers would be thicker.
I’ve given up on trying to bake bread. It’s a lot of work and it never comes out right for me.
I finished Every Last One yesterday and all that I can say is that anyone reading this needs to drop everything and get their hands on it. It was so, so, so good and I can’t thank you enough for the recommendation. I sent you an email just now with some spoiler-y things that I didn’t want to say in a comment.
Oooooh! Okay I can’t wait to read it. Yes, that book is incredible! Hopefully we can convince more people to read it. I think they’re scared off by the subject matter.
i was making that stew on the stovetop, so I have no excuse for not doing the slurry! My husband has been eating the leftovers, and I’m sure it is thicker.
I do…nothing for St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not a drinker, don’t really like the colour green and it just isn’t on my radar. Though, interestingly, a boy who has been in my daughter’s class for 8 consecutive years was born on March 17th, so I think until my dying day I’ll remember when this random child’s birthday is!
Yes, green isn’t really our color either. Any time the kids have (or, had in my son’s case) some occasion where they were supposed to wear green, we were scrambling. And I don’t always celebrate the day- it’s one of those holidays that can fall any day of the week, and I’m usually not up for a celebration on a random Tuesday night. This year it was Sunday so I figured, why not?
yum! I also cannot drink days in a row– I feel you on that one.
I even felt kind of yucky drinking two nights in a row- it didn’t help that the occasions were Monday and Tuesday night. Not my favorite nights for festivities!
So, I was at a social gathering (I mean, it was a party, that suggests a PARTY and it was more of a sedate affair with lots of sitting around and eating and not dancing and getting wasted) on Saturday and the host’s mom was visiting from California and she made this amazing Irish soda bread that had nuts and berries in it and I ate three slices, so good Irish soda bread must be out there. I’ve had it!
Also, to Elisabeth’s point: there is a man I know (an acquaintance, really!) and his birthday is March 17. Every year I go out of my way to say happy birthday to him even though he barely knows me!
Really? Nuts and berries? Well, that would definitely help! I wonder if this is authentic, or just her way of spicing things up to make it more palatable. Now I want to make it again, but I’ll look for a fancier recipe.
LOL to your description of Irish soda bread! I am sure I’ve had it before, but can’t really remember it… just a vague sense of density? I looked for it at the grocery store this past weekend but didn’t find any. When I reported the disappointment to my husband, he looked askance at me and said, “GOOD.”
“Dense” is definitely one of the words I’d use to describe it. i like your husband’s reaction, ha ha. He’s obviously had it before.
Oh, I love a murder mystery on a train – I am going to put a hold on that at the library!! I am currently reading Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi as part of the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompt to read a book set 24 years before I was born, which is 1953. I am only one chapter in, but I like it so far! I usually make some sort of Irish food/bread for St. Patrick’s Day, but took this year off; the Mr and Lil Momma made a leprechaun trap, but I really think it only is for her to get chocolate.
I’ve never heard of that book! I should probably tackle a reading challenge like that at some point- i’m in a phase right now where I only want to read mysteries. It would be good for me to branch out.
The stew looks so good! And the book sounds like one I would enjoy, thanks for sharing! I cannot drink multiple nights in a row either, but that is probably for the best, lol.
Yes, I think our bodies are trying to tell us something. Or maybe save us.
I need many days off drinking now too. I have never celebrated St Patrick’s Day. Minor holidays aren’t a big deal here. I just finished reading Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens which was really good.
I’ve never heard of that book but I like the sound of it!!! I’m looking it up.
I love a good whodunit and I just added both of those books (Train and Family) to my holds at the library. That sounds like exactly what I need to snap out of my reading funk. I am with you on the drinking! I had two nights in a row where I went “out” and had three beers each night and by the third day I was useless and hungover! They don’t make ’em (me) like they used to! I am not officially a lightweight.
Ha ha, I’m with you on that, Kyria. I used to be able to do it in my youth but not anymore.
I need to pick up Everybody On This Train is a Suspect – I enjoyed what the author did with his first book, even though I “only” gave it 3 stars because I felt the ending was really convoluted. But I like everything else leading up to it, haha.
I just finished the book I was reading and I’m debating between two different books to read next. Eeks!
Stephany, sometimes I have so many books to read and I feel like I want to start them all at once, I guess that’s a good problem to have.
Glad the stew turned out great – it looks delicious! I love stews!
We did absolutely nothing for St. Patrick’s Day. I just can’t be bothered to put effort into all these little holidays that mean nothing to me. I know this makes me a not fun mom but so be it… My parents didn’t celebrate minor holidays either but they made the big holidays really special so it feels like it all evens out.
I just started “Family Family” by Laurie Frankel. I’m too early into the book to say if it’s great but I generally really like her books, especially “This is How it Always is” which I highly recommend if you haven’t read it!
No, i haven’t read that book but I’ve heard of it- I’ll look it up.
I never did much for St. Patrick’s Day when the kids were little. I remember a couple times making a “green” dinner. And sometimes now I just ignore it, but for whatever reason, this year I was motivated! Next year I”ll probably do nothing since it falls on a weekday.
St Patricks Day is not a thing here so no celebration and until now I didn’t even know it just happened.
The bread looks good though.
I put the book on my TBR and will check out the article now.
Yes, I don’t remember St Patrick’s Day being a thing in Germany. Who knows why it’s such a big thing here (well, big-ish…) I think people just want an excuse to drink beer?
I love soda bread – but NOT with currants, raisins, or any other gross add-ins (my opinion only, ha). I actually like dense, kind of dry breads. I know, I’m weird. But Nora’s seems more complicated than other recipes I’ve seen (NY Times has a wonderful-looking Irish brown bread recipe I’d love to try) so I probably will avoid it.
And I confess, since I stopped eating meat, “stew” (even with vegan subs) does not appeal. Sorry. More for you! 🙂
I have never celebrated St. Patrick’s Day but I’d try the stew and bread 🙂