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The books of 2007

Well, it's that time again.  I've been looking back on what I read in 2007 and taking stock.  It was an unusual year for me -- the summer of classics, lots of "children's" books and more non-fiction than I'm used to reading.  It looks like I blogged about 41 books (not including crafting and cookbooks), but Pete swears I read more than that.  I'm guessing about 1 book a week this past year.  Here are some of the highlights:

Non-fiction:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver was a clear winner.  I can't stop thinking about this book -- or talking about it for that matter.  I *highly* recommend it to anyone interested in local eating -- or healthier eating -- or just the state of agri-business in this day and age.  I reviewed this book in October.

Other notable non-fiction:  The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain

Fiction:

I don't know that there is one novel that I read this year that stood out above all others, but I have to say that I was most moved by The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  (I reviewed this book back in May.)

Other notable fiction: On Chesil Beach by one of my all time favorites -- Ian McEwan.

I have to mention series/trilogies too since I've spent a good portion of this year re-reading the Harry Potter books and am now finishing up the His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass).  I don't know if I can put one above the other, but they are both utterly fantastic and I would highly recommend them for adults as well as children (older children only for His Dark Materials, though).

I'm not sure where I'll be going with reading in the coming year, but I'd like to re-read some Vonnegut and I'd love to find some good science fiction.  We'll see what happens!
 

Potica

A true cottage industry -- potica!  Does anyone else out there eat this at Christmas?  We always had it growing up, but I wasn't sure if it was a Catholic thing or a Midwest thing or what.  After doing a bit of searching around on the web, it appears to be Slovenian in origin. 

Now first of all, it's delicious.  Maybe it's hard to tell from the photo, but it is made from a dough rolled very thin and then crushed nuts and honey (and other things I'm sure, but I don't know what) are added and then it's rolled up.  This creates *many* layers of goodness!

And you don't buy these at a store -- you don't even buy them at a bakery.  You need to find a local woman who knows how to make them and sells them at the holidays.  I love that idea!  Because of this, some poticas are more bread-y, some are more nutty, some are dryer -- it's very individual.  I'm sure the recipes are passed down in each family.

There are some recipes out there on the web, these are some that looked unique or had helpful illustrations:

• Potica Bread -- looks like a nice variation and makes a pretty loaf!
• Potica -- has instructions with photos
• Potica-Povitica -- a cookbook devoted entirely to Potica!  I've never seen this and don't know anything about the company publishing it -- but it looks interesting.

So, does anyone else out there eat Potica at the holidays?  And if you have a family recipe that you are willing to share, I would love to have it.  I just might try making my own some time for fun!

Tiny Mitten!

I saw some tiny mittens on someone's blog (so sorry, I can't remember whose!) and followed the link to this pattern.  They looked so cute and goodness knows I have lots of extra bits of sock yarn around!  So I cast on last night while watching the Survivor China finale and had this little cutie finished before the show ended.  Wouldn't it be cute on a holiday gift tag or card?   Super easy too -- since it isn't going to be worn or handled much, I just tucked all the ends up into the mitten instead of weaving anything in.

Other than knitting tiny mittens, I've been making cookies with my mom & sisters and reading voraciously.  I'm loving The Golden Compass and I'm really glad I bought the whole set so I can continue reading this trilogy during the holiday!

Bird Watching

We love birds here at our house.  Recently we upgraded from our sad, bent (due to the great tree falling of '04) pole system to two fancy new poles with two feeders on each.  We now have one each of the following: peanut feeder, thistle feeder, no-mess seed feeder (this is the best seed ever -- you don't get weeds from it!), and a safflower feeder.

Why so many?  Well, you get different birds with different seeds and perch types.  Since Pete installed the new set up, we have been noticing a wide range of birds.  Just today Maddie spotted a bird that we hadn't seen before -- the Red Breasted Nuthatch.  We live in northern IL which is where they winter.  They are pretty little birds with a bright orange-red belly and beautiful dove grey backs.  Their heads are black and white with a striking black line running out from the eye. 

When I'm in my kitchen, or up in my office, I love looking out at the birds.  There is something very enjoyable and relaxing about it.  And Maddie has great eyes -- she always spots the unique birds and brings them to my attention.

So what do you need to get started bird watching?

• Feeder(s) -- You don't need a tree -- now you can even get feeders that you place on the outside of your window with suction cups.  But if you have the room, there are beautiful, functional feeder systems out there.  We buy all of ours from our local Wild Birds Unlimited.  The people who work there are very knowledgeable and can answer pretty much any question you have.
• Seed -- Now, it is possible to go to the grocery and buy big bags of cheap seed, but I'm telling you that you will regret it.  Why?  Weeds!  The cheap seed is full of nasty weed producing seed as well as a lot of filler that the birds won't even eat.  So, while it looks like a good deal when you do the math -- don't be fooled.  We also buy or seed at Wild Birds Unlimited. 
• A Field Guide -- We have an older version of the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America.  It has lots of pictures which make bird identification easy.  It also includes maps which show you the migration patterns of each species.
• Binoculars -- We have a really nice set of binoculars that were passed down to us from Pete's dad, but I have another little set that we bought before or honeymoon in Alaska that was quite inexpensive.  You aren't going to be viewing these backyard visitors from too far away, so an inexpensive pair should suffice.  Really though, I can't identify a bird with out getting a close-up look at it, so I would say that these are a must if you are at all serious about birdwatching.

That's about all you need, but of course there are all kinds of fancy accessories associated with bird watching as with any other hobby. 

I also found some good stuff on the web when I was writing this post today:

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology's online bird quide
• Wikipedia has lots of bird info.  This is where I got the freely licensed photo of the nuthatch. 
• For those of you also in Illinois -- Birds of Illinois
• For those of you homeschooling, at 50birds.com they have lots of good stuff including realistic bird coloring pages.

Have fun watching the birds in your backyard!

Been reading:

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon was on my to read list for quite awhile -- it's a short book and was a quick read. I'm thinking it would be a must for any Sherlock Holmes fans as it's a story starring SH as an old man.  I never read any Sherlock Holmes, so I missed most of the references I'm sure.  It's a nice little derivative work. 

What I really like is the cover, which was created by Jay Ryan.  We have the print hanging in our hallway, as well as several other Jay Ryan works throughout the house.  (See more of his stuff at The Bird Machine.)

So, all in all, I suppose the book would be a must read for the Sherlock Holmes fan, but I wasn't all that excited about it.

Next up was Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon which was recommended to me by Pete.  It was a very impressive read with a strange structure.  Many different narrators recount bits and pieces of the main character's life.  Instead of switching back and forth amongst these narrators, Hemon sequesters each one to its own section of the book. 

The story feels (and is) somewhat biographical -- telling the story of a young man who flees Yugoslavia and makes a life for himself in the US.  It's not dissimilar in feeling to some of the books on immigration that I read earlier this year (notably The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears), but is completely unique at the same time.  I definitely recommend this book.

Right now I'm reading (yet again) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien -- although I'm reading a fancy version that Pete bought me several years ago which includes Tolkien's illustrations, as well as his color illustrations.  (My eyes are too bad for the ancient paperbacks which used to belong to my dad.)  I'm also following along in The Atlas of Middle-Earth which has a bunch of added maps -- yes, I'm a geek.  After that I plan to read the His Dark Materials Trilogy which is on it's way from Amazon.  Fun holiday reading -- yeah!

Monthly meme

Well, my husband tagged me for this meme, and since I have nothing else to post here. . .

• January -- That's what Maddie calles me.
• February -- Quilt Block a Day is not dead!
• March -- I swear I've been crafting, but I've been doing far more reading over the last few days because of this book.
• April -- I have so many books to review right now, that I've decided to call this book review week.
• May -- Right now Pete is between jobs (although not for long -- yeah!!) and we've been trying to enjoy his "time off".
• June -- I completely slacked off in May and didn't get a theme up, but I have one up now for June/July, so go take a look at the Pincushion Challenge blog.
• July -- I just tried a bacon chocolate bar -- yes, meat & chocolate?!?
• August -- Wow -- hard to believe that I've been blogging for 5 years now!
• September -- I have posted the September/October theme for the Pincushion Challenge.
• October -- On Friday Pete took the day off of work because we were driving down to Champaign for the U of I game, so he was able to join Maddie and I on our weekly garage sale expedition.
• November -- Okay, so I mentioned an impending office remodel a while back -- but what ever happened?
• December -- Whew!

Tag, you're it! If you do this meme on your blog, leave me a link in the comments so I can take a look.

Vosges Caramels -- Insanely good!

I just put up a review of Vosges Exotic Caramels at the Chocolate Blog.  They are ridiculously good. 

Pretty Much Finished

Whew!  The home remodeling stuff for this year is pretty much finished.  The painters left yesterday afternoon and by bedtime the tree was up.  What do you think of the new wall color?  Here is what it used to look like:

Quite a change, huh?  I guess it's pretty dramatic -- I think it looks like chocolate and was joking Pete that I wanted to lick the walls.  I think it works since the room is so big -- and is connected to the sun room, which makes it even bigger.

Speaking of the sun room. . . it's painted the same color. 

And here's a view from the family room, into the hallway and then the dining room.  The hallway used to be gold:

And the dining room used to be red -- now it's a sage-y green/grey:

Now for a few final photos of the office:

My awesome painter painted my wooden IKEA magazine holders to match the room color.  Now my built in looks so fancy!

And speaking of IKEA -- we got some amazing straw ornaments and I decorated my office with some of them:

And a close-up:

I just looped the ornament string around the string holding up one of the slats and then back around the tip of the ornament.  Kinda festive -- which I like since I usually reserve all my holiday decorating for the main part of the house (family room, dining room, hallway).

I'm so glad that this is finished (well, except for window treatments for almost all the first floor windows -- ugh!)  I feel like I have my house back after three weeks of having workers in and out.  It was so worth it though!