Soup for Supper

I've been thinking about soup all week. With today's single-digit temperatures and an overbooked evening schedule, this is the day! Family dinners are important to me, but a big pan of Corn and Sausage Chowder on the stove and a loaf of fresh bread on the counter will be just perfect tonight.

This is a recipe I've been making for years. It's adapted from Thymes Remembered, a cookbook first published by The Junior League of Tallahassee in 1988. I love Junior League cookbooks and have accumulated several over the years. The recipes are well-tested and the collections often include regional dishes. I've tried many and have yet to be disappointed.


Corn and Sausage Chowder

1 pound mild bulk sausage
1 large onion, chopped
3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dried basil
2 cups water
1 17-ounce can cream style corn
1 17-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk

-brown sausage in large skillet and put in soup kettle
-saute onion in skillet
-add onions, potatoes, salt, pepper, basil, and water to soup kettle
-cover and simmer 15 minutes
-stir in corn and evaporated milk
-cover and heat thoroughly

Muffins for a Winter Day

This is comfort food weather. Bone-chilling cold, wind...and snow. We're closing in on 100 inches so far this season, and should surpass our 120 inch average well before the end of the month.


The girls had a late practice yesterday and I was thinking about making them a snack, when Nan posted a recipe for Maple-Oatmeal Muffins. We all love this combination, so I knew these would be a hit. There was a batch in the oven within half an hour.

Oh, they were delicious! Perfect with a cup of tea on a cold winter's day. This is a recipe I'll make over and over again. Thanks, Nan! Now I'm thinking about a hearty soup, or possibly macaroni and cheese...

A Pile of Classics

Does this happen to anyone else? Over the past several years, I have read many classics with a Yahoo reading group. After voting on the selections, a reading schedule is set and the book is discussed in segments throughout the month. Occasionally, a real chunkster is chosen and the schedule becomes a bit more demanding. Unfortunately, I got into a pattern of falling behind schedule and then setting the book aside (even though I was enjoying it) in order to start the next book on time. As a result, I have accumulated six classics with bookmarks stuck somewhere in the middle and they are now languishing on my shelves:

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (pg. 327, started 10/08)

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (pg.157, started 9/05)

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery (pg.353, started 7/05)

Middlemarch by George Eliot (pg.490, started 2/07)

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (pg. 188, started 1/06)

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (pg.265, started 8/06)

I intend to finish all of these books. My dilemma is to figure out the best way to accomplish this. Since I just started The Way We Live Now in October, I'll finish that first. Should I continue reading a chapter or two every few days, or perhaps designate one day a week as my "classics day"? I'll try both and see which works better. The other books pose a different problem. What if I can't remember what Becky Sharp or Dorothea Brooke have been up to? I'm afraid I may need to start skimming those from the beginning. Well, at least I can be assured this pile will not grow - I'm no longer active in the group.

One final Christmas book

There was a package from England waiting for me when we got home from Maine last week. I won a copy of The Secret Scripture from Lynne (and Rocky) at dovegreyreader scribbles! Sebastian Barry is an author I've been meaning to read for some time. The Secret Scripture was at the top of my Christmas list, and Annie Dunne and A Long, Long Way are both on my wish list. Now I don't have to wait any longer. Thanks, Lynne!

My First Challenge

I've been cautiously eyeing the many challenges swirling around the internet the last few weeks.
Since my 2008 resolution was to take the pressure out of reading, I hadn't signed up for any. My only real challenge, or commitment, has been to read all the books for my f2f group.
2009 will be different! I have signed up for Wendy's (Caribousmom) 2009 Mini Challenges.

Here are the 12 challenges:

1. Read a collection of short stories and either blog about it, OR tell the group about what you read. completed 1/27/09

2. Read a play. Blog about it, OR tell the group about your experience.
completed 1/30/09

3. Read a nonfiction book; write a review on your blog or post it to the group. completed 6/12/09

4. Read 2 essays from the same collection; write a review on your blog or tell the group about what you read.

5. Go to a book event; blog about it or tell the group about it. completed 10/11/09

6. Borrow a library book, read it and review it on your blog (or tell the group about it).
completed 2/6/09

7. Read a book by a new to you author. Do a little research on the author…do they have a blog? How many books have they written? Have they won any prizes? Where do they live? etc… Blog about the book you read and the author OR tell the group about them. completed 10/23/09

8. Make a donation. You can either donate to an organization that supports reading OR make a physical donation of a book (or books) to ANYONE. Blog about it or tell the group what you did. completed 7/09

9. Promote literacy. This is wide open - use your imagination. You could give a child a book, or read a book to someone who cannot read, or volunteer at an event which promotes literacy, or donate to your local library, or write something on your blog with a link to a group which promotes literacy, or anything in between. The only rule with this one is that you must PROMOTE literacy in some way…

10. Participate in a buddy read or Group discussion. This can be a face to face group, an on-line group or a one on one discussion with a friend who read the same book. Either way, blog about your experience or share with the group. Did the discussion give you greater appreciation or insight into what you read? Completed 3/3/09

11. Read a book outside your comfort level or from a genre you don’t normally read. Blog about it, or tell the group about it. Completed 5/1/09

12. Read a classic (defined as anything published before 1970). Tell us why it fits the category of being a classic. Write a review or tell the group about the book. completed 4/8/09

As I complete each challenge, I will add a link to its corresponding blog post.

Thanks, Wendy!

2009 - Books Read

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Fire In The Blood by Irene Nemirovsky
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

2008 - Books Read

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
Fingersmith bySarah Waters
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett
A Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Run by Ann Patchett
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmore
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle
The Sea by John Banville
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
Old School by Tobias Wolff
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
La Cucina by Lily Prior
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Deafening by Frances Itani
The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black
Woman of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through Pages of a Lost Journal by Lily Koppel
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
China Road by Rob Gifford
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day by Winifred Watson
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer