Meyer Lemons

Reading Cooking for Mr. Latte years ago had a profound effect on me. It made me long for meyer lemons. Some readers left the book annoyed at the whiny narrator, some took away an enhanced appreciation of Italian cuisine, others may have questioned how their family dynamics play out in the kitchen. I wanted desperately to cook with citrus I'd never heard of.*, **
I've finally had my chance. The local Walmart has been stocking bags of meyer lemons for the last month (or perhaps longer, I never thought to check until the Mister mentioned that they had them). I purchased them and put them to good use in two of the Mr. Latte recipes.
The dishes, linguine with meyer lemons, creme fraiche, arugula and freshly grated parmesan (too lemony in the end) and chicken with a sauce of meyer lemon, chutney, sour cream and mayo were mixed. But the slightly orangey lemons? They are really good.

*For mom, "Of which I've never heard". I think it it sounds too stilted to so rearrange the sentence, but I can do it for you.
**Reading wikipedia I learn that I could have learned of meyer lemons, Citrus x meyeri from Alice Waters or Martha Stewart. Somehow I didn't. The image is from wikipedia.

STIR up your reading, 2012

During the second half of 2011, I read 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5) books a week. I've read none in the last six weeks.
Whoah. I never read no books.
I don't even have one in progress that I'm not liking which is slowing me down. I've just not been reading.
But that is changing.
STIR 2012 is here.
Once again, each month or so one of my friends will be picking a book that she or he wants to read and thinks I would like*, promoting that book in advance on my blog so other friends can join, discussing it with me (in person, over the phone or electronically) and allowing me to share the discussion.
I'm also hoping to have another author involved with our discussion, as happened with Juno's Daughters, but lined up in advance and happening over the summer.
What to do now: 1) pick a month is you want to be a selector
2) check out the February(ish) and March selections and read them if you'd like.
3) think if you know of an author who would like us to read her or his work and would be willing to discuss it with us.

February: The City and the Mountains by Eça de Queirós (read up on other works by Eça de Queirós here on Wuthering Expectations as part of the Portuguese Literature Challenge). My copy, translated by Margaret Jull Costa, was a Christmas gift from MBiL, with whom I will be discussing it.
March: The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins Everybody is reading it, why don't we? My kind cousin sent me the trilogy for Christmas. Read the story before the movie

Summary of 2011 to come someday in the meantime, links here.

*Fiction, under 500 pages, no horror. We laugh about how well our students read directions, but fewer than half of the selections in 2011 met these criteria.

Growing up!

Aster seems to be a slightly neater eater than Dianthus at the same age, but no less enthusiastic.

Mature as he suddenly is in his button-up shirts, Dianthus is not too old to frolic in the snow.


Snow image December in Kansas; Leggos Christmas in Colorado; Aster and squash here in Oklahoma last week.

Happy Groundhog Day from the Star Boys

What do these have to do with Marmota, weather predictions and the end of winter? Not much, but they make me happy. In their glow-in-the-dark star pjs, Dianthus was watching bunnies and Andrew was watching Dianthus (taken in December in Colorado).