Wedding:  Quinn’s wedding plans continue apace. We are now less than a month away and the bad dreams are starting. Last night I dreamed that the wedding was today and I didn’t have a single bite of food prepared.

House:  We are getting the library plans finalized. When Quinn moves out, the boys will move upstairs and their bedroom will become a library with shelves lining all walls and a desk built into the closet space. I am beyond excited aobut this. All of my books will soon be alphabetized!!!

Me:  I am doing a presentation at an event called Ignite Boise 2 two days before Quinn’s wedding. My presentation will be on my 200 books project, will be only five minutes long and will be in front of 750 people. All the tickets are already sold out but a video of my presentation will be available online after the event.

Reading: I am perusing The Collected Letters of CS Lewis Vol 3 for the third or fourth time. I find them to be very motivating and infomative. I am also just finishing up Boethius and getting started on Capote’s In Cold Blood. Soon I will start pre-reading books for school including: Malory, History of the Kings of Britain, Chretien De Troyes’ Complete Romances and  The Mabinogion. It will be my second reading for each of them.

I’ve been busy with many things this last week. Jared is ready to launch his new furniture line (Check it out HERE) and I’ve been doing all the writing for him, taking pictures for him, and helping him finalize ideas and decisions. We’ll be having a launch party a week from Friday to celebrate and at the party all the prototypes he built will be available at silent auction. They are the pieces he photographed for the website so what you see there is what you get if you win. And speaking of photographs, our friend Ted took some amazing pictures for the website and the brochure (coming soon) and they will be replacing the mediocre snaps up now.

I also sent in Chapter One of my book on Saturday night. Here’s hoping the editor at WWNorton likes it.

On Sunday night Quinn and I started on her dress. The fabric is LOVELY and very red and I’m nervous every time I cut into it. I might even share pictures if she lets me…

My sweet and lovely children have been lots of work lately but that’s been worth it because last night at the dinner table Alex made us say Grace over the meal six times. He holds out his hands to Jared and I and bows his head and closes his eyes and waits for you to pray. SO CUTE.

I’m going to make scones for the first time ever this morning. My lovely, sweet and pregnant friend is coming over and she was craving them. If they work, I’ll post the recipe here and over at The Complete Woman.

I’ve been so busy with the new website and, well, life that I barely have time to read. I’m in the middle of three books right now: Father Joe by Tony Hendra, The Chronicle of the Cid, and Life in a Medieval Castle  by Joseph and Frances Geis. All of which have great so far but not of whom are done…

We went to a wine tasting party on Thursday and hosted a “She lost her job, soon she will be homeless” party for a friend last night. I promise, it was much more fun than it sounds. We drank beer, root beer, cider and hard lemonade out of bottles wrapped in brown paper bags and munched on cookies baked from a Depression Era recipe. We had popcorn and tried to make stone soup. We also “discussed” the travesties of the Narnia movies. This is especially fun since one of our friends is the founder of NarniaWeb. Good times.

OK, I’m definitely planning a celebratory party. I will be finishing sometime on New Year’s Eve so the party is kicking off at 8pm. Please bring something to munch since I won’t have time to cook until after I’m done reading.

Also in the cards is a party on Friday the 9th at 7pm. It is for a lovely friend who lost her job. It is a soon-to-be-homeless party. I promise she has a sense of humor about this. I will be serving Stone Soup (I provide the stone and everybody brings something to throw into the pot) and we will be doing gag gifts. I suggest things like a tin cup for begging, a cardboard sign “Will write for food” (she’s a writer), maybe a few coupons for the Rescue Mission. Personally, I’m getting her some beans and rice.

Today I have to bake a batch of cookies, make candy, clean the house, sort out the place settings, and read Plato’s Republic. Whew! I think I’m getting help though in the form of my sister Quinn and our friend Megan so we might finish before the sun goes down…

Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose was excellent. Didn’t end how I had expected it to, but no matter, it was a very enjoyable book that rekindled my desire to study Latin. I now have access to a book entiled (something like) Basic Latin Grammar in 20 Lessons: For reading the missal but not Virgil. My plan is to study Latin grammar and then read interlinear texts to expand my vocabulary. So I should have a grasp of it by January 20th…

We spent time with friends both Friday and Saturday hosting a bake day and then brunch. Kayla and I baked up a storm and the resulting cookie fest with a little hyper-inducing. I love people, at least most of them, or most of the ones I know. It is lovely to have that happy camaraderie and those with whom you are truly comfortable.

We enjoyed a party Sunday night at our dear friends home. Five couples and around 200 kids made for somewhat nutty fun. Jared was a sweetheart and rode herd on our two while I got to relax most of the evening. The food was great, activities excellent and white elephant gifts odd but good. We came home with a magnetic game set, a talking Goofy and movie tickets. I did surrender both Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc and P.G. Wodehouse’s Carry On Jeeves.

I’m in the midst of Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table which is an odd but very interesting autobiography.

I’ve had several requests for my Caramel Heavenlies recipe.

Line a cookie pan with aluminum foil then line the bottom with graham crackers. Sprinkle Three cups of mini marshmallows, one cup of grated cocoanut and half a cup of sliced almonds across them. In a small sauce pan melt half a cup (one cube) butter and then dissolve into it half a cup of brown sugar. Add one Tablespoon cinnamon and two teaspoons vanilla to the mixture and then pour evenly over the graham crackers. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely then pull off the aluminum foil and cut the Heavenlies apart. I like to cut small squares and then halve them into triangles. You can re-use the foil by turning it over for the absolutely necessary second batch.

I’m in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and so far, so great. I hope the sheer pleasure of it keeps up. It was a best-seller back in it’s heyday but I’ll forgive it that flaw if it continues to be so much fun to read. I wish I was more of  a Medevialist because the jacket claims that it gives a window onto the medevial mind. That is something I wish to know more of and a claim I wish to able to substantiate.

Baking starts in earnest today. On the to do list are Shortbread Cookies, Caramel Heavenlies and Gingerbread Cookies. Shortbread is the easiest in the world and slightly scary if you’re the calorie-counting type. If you hadn’t picked up on it before, I am not.

For Shortbread Cookies: cream one cup of softened butter with 1/4 cup sugar. Gradually add 2 cups of flour. Mold to desired shape (chilling the dough helps) and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 13-15 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes before removing to cooling racks. You can vary these anyway you like; I press raw sugar into the edges or mix in mini chocolate chips or mini M&Ms. If you like nuts (my hubby does not) then add one cup of chopped pecans. So yummy and so versatile. Butter is a testimony to the birth of Christ so don’t begrudge it!

First up is the easiest, fastest and most productive recipe. Peanut clusters. All you need is one package each chocolate and vanilla flavored Almond Bark and one package semi-sweet chocolate chips. Melt together in a large double-boiler and add two cans of Planters Spanish Peanuts. Do not buy generic, bulk or off-brand peanuts. They taste like smooshy rubber. After everything is mixed together spoon out on wax paper as fast as you can. Small spoonfuls are best since they make bite-size candies but you will need acres of wax paper because this makes somewhere around five pounds of candy.

Next on the list is another super-easy one. Also be forewarned that a double batch is in order because it will go fast. Peanut Butter Fudge mmm… Mix together 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter, 1/2 light corn syrup, 1/2 cup softened butter, one teaspoon vanilla and 4 cups powdered sugar. Press into lightly buttered 8×8 pan.

I’ll post cookies tomorrow or Friday…

I only read 3/4 of what I should have but hey, busy with kids, Christmas and church should count for something right?

I’ve promised this recipe to two friends so I better get it out there. This came out of a Gourmet magazine from last year.

Saute in large skillet together 2 tablespoons butter, one tablespoon olive oil and 3 chopped cloves of garlic. After about 2 or three minutes on medium add a cup and a half of coarse bread crumbs and stir together to cook for about 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl. Meanwhile cook one pound of thin spaghetti (whole wheat is the best) in boiling, lightly salted water. After it is cooked al dente (firm but tender), drain reserving one cup of the water. Then heat 1/4 cup olive oil in skillet just until it shimmers (only a minute or so) and add two teaspoons each chopped, fresh sage, rosemary and thyme. Cook for about 2 minutes then add drained pasta, the cup of water and 1 cup chopped fresh parsley. Serve and top with breadcrumbs.

This is a great vegetarian dish or it can be made meaty with the addition of some shredded cooked chicken. The fresh herbs are only 2 bucks each at Winco (for you Boiseans) and the package will last a week or more. You can use the leftovers for other things as these herbs are great just about anywhere. My leftover herbs ended up in a pizza crust and a stirfry. Jared was a huge fan of this dish and it made the house smell great too.

On the reading front, I started the Collected Stories of Kafka and a trilogy of novels by R.K Narayan. Kafka is disorienting and, well, Kafkaesque. Narayan is just great and fascinating.

And it is snowing outside. The boys are going to have a fun, wet, messy day!

Ahem.

On a less adulistic note, we decorated the house last night for Christmas (minus the tree which we won’t get until Saturday) and it is lovely to see Christmas on it’s way. We have a small purchased Advent calender, a bowlful of candy, cable-car ornaments from San Francisco, lights and our Christmas stockings. The Christmas stockings are kind of amazing. My grandmother knit them and they are huge! They are as big as your leg if you weighed 300 pounds. Tall and fat they hold a lot of loot. My family’s one enduring tradition was to fill our stockings with fun, useful and jokey gifts. Oranges, beef jerky, new socks, pens, bullets, you name it. My grandmother got her needles out after I got married and made stockings for my new family so we can carry on the fun. Unfortunately I think funds are a little too tight this year to stuff them with anything but love…

Speaking of traditions my mother-in-law alerted me to some of the things they did when Jared was little. They used to put small Christmas trees in the kids’ rooms and they could decorate them however they wanted and with their own ornaments. They also used to put Christmas lights in their rooms and Jared said it was fun to have the “nightlight” reminding them of the approaching presents. I think we’ll use these but save them for when the boys are a bit older. Luc would still try to eat the tree so next year at the earliest.