Friday Five

Let’s not be ponderous this week… let’s aim for short for once, eh? How about…

1 Working on…

I just found a haystack and decided there’s a needle in it that would be really satisfying to find… My mother-in-law worked at Eaton’s for about 7 years, and Eaton’s published their own newsletter, complete with photos and news about their staff. Wouldn’t it be funny if she were mentioned in one of those editions? I’m itching to get back to the Internet Archive…

2 recommending…

I’m having a lot of fun making a list of recommendations on various subjects in various media forms of things I’ve most enjoyed reading, listening to and watching over the years. Check it out here: https://www.jacintapalud.com/recommended

3 Baking

I didn’t make a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but the can of pumpkin purée has served for pumpkin cinnamon rolls, loaf and cookies and all three recipes have had high approval ratings in this household.

4 Viewing

Last Friday, a friend took me to Bruxelles, Manitoba for a tour of the region, just as she was treated to its discovery by a local family who welcomed her to Manitoba a few decades ago… It is a little magical to visit land and be gifted a closeness to someone’s attachment for it. And really… the view on that fall day was stunning…

Happy Friday!

Friday Five

It's Friday and the dreary weather here is pushing us along towards accepting that summer is coming to an end and school is about to begin. Somewhere I read advice about "writing what you would want to read" and since I love finding useful resources online, here are a few...

1. Newsletters

Understanding oneself is a funny thing because one can be nearing 40 and still learning that transitions are tough... I think that's why I appreciate McKinley Valentine's newsletter The Whippet, where, besides learning about stuff, I can come across an observation like "I sometimes think the biggest difference between super-successful people and the rest of us is how easily they transition" that makes me think long after I've left my e-mail. 

Austin Kleon's newsletter today linked to a quote by Lauren Groff who explains why I sometimes have trouble sitting down to write even this measly little post: “The ‘fear of imperfection, which can be combatted by a writer carefully training herself to let her work be messy and impermanent.’”

And Recommendo lead me to Mari Andrew's delightful list of "100 Things I Know".

2. Clothes

Between the statements "I need clothes" and "I want to develop my sense of style" lays a canyon of advice (trails), marketing (views) and contradiction (you could get lost). Having the authoritative voice of a friendly guide like Becky Malinsky means the venture might be (kinda?) feasible (i.e. I think I'll buy some Levi's this fall...).

Also, it made me chuckle to see this headline "Packing Light? Not for me, thanks" after having read Ann Mashburn's essay "Take It or Leave It"

3. Movies

Christian and I turned the summer's blockbusters into a date night scheduled every Tuesday over three weeks. We brought our own drinks and snacks and participated in the pop culture moment along with the rest of the audience and delivered our star-ratings to our kids next morning. Fun!

4. Eating

I made corn fritters this week, from a cookbook I've had for a few years now. It sometimes takes me awhile to get around to things, but this picture of a note scribbled on top of the recipe title stuck in my mind. I'm not sure if I could call it a haunting... Catherine Newman's scribbled "so f-ing good" never left my mind... When I went back in her blog archives to find it I realized this mental note had been hanging on since 2018. Good grief. (As an aside, I've often turned to the Ben and Birdy blog for gifts or entertainment ideas. The recommendations are perennial.) 

5. Seen around here 

This is our garden... it has yielded beans, cucumbers and zucchini, and lately, carrots! Funny squat carrots that we've mixed into lamb ragu and pulsed into Muhammara.

These are our dog’s nacho-smelling paws.

This is a neglected bouquet turned still life.

This is a fun children's book I found in the University of Manitoba's Icelandic collection.

Oh! And the drama last week of seeing a building on fire:

Year-end

I love year-end retrospectives, and so, joining in like a guest unafraid of water at a pool party, here’s mine!

I read about thirty books this year, some from a list of classics, including La Cousine Bette and Desperate Characters, and some specific self-help books including The Highly Sensitive Person, The Actor’s Life and The Business of Being a Writer. Some books went together, like Wuthering Heights and Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of the author. I got immersed in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle in March but came up for air after the first two books and decided not to plunge back in. I stuck a toe in graphic novels, including Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Light reads included Theft by Finding and Brunch is Hell. Because I liked Carol Shield’s advice on writing, I read Stone Diaries. I liked Sally Mann’s book Hold Still, a choice influenced by Austin Kleon’s advice. University course subjects lead me to read Halfbreed by Maria Campbell and a collection of biographies on and writings by Nellie McClung. 

On a whim I like to take out cookbooks at the library. These included How to Cook a Wolf, Six Seasons, Love and Lemons, My Kitchen Year, and Repertoire. I follow a menu plan for the year that is flexible enough to allow for new recipes and improvements, like when Jessica Battaliana’s Pork Saltimbocca surpassed all previous Chicken Saltimbocca attempts. And we’d probably adopt Jeanine Donofrio’s Vegan Carrot Waffles forever were it not our son’s aversion to carrots even in their sneakiest form. Food 52’s Fasoolya Khadra was deceptively delicious. We also liked their Rosy Chicken paired with Joy of Cooking Baked Polenta. Another delight was Cauliflower Ragu from Six Seasons. I’ve upped my salad repertoire thanks to the New York Times list of 101 Simple Salads of which the in-season peaches and tomato salad is a tasty memory. An August brunch stands out for its Plum Poppy-Seed Muffins and Mushroom and Shallot Quiche. Deb Perelman is a go-to for so many good recipes. Marie-Hélène’s birthday supper request was her Everyday Meatballs with fresh pasta. The Ice Cream Cake Roll was an impressive birthday dessert. Fresh strawberries still make Strawberry Shortcake one of my favourite desserts. In the summer we make Tomato Corn Pie. Around Christian’s birthday, we look forward to Butter Chicken. His favourite dessert is an Apple Crisp without oatmeal in the topping.

Still-young children make for a lot of nights in, but we did try out The Mitchell Block, Passero, and Nuburger at the Common on dates out. On weekends we’ll make a treat of a drink and Netflix. After watching Mindhunter, Rectify, Charité, Halt and Catch Fire, Ozark, Better Call Saul, the rest of Suits and most of Fargo, we’re looking forward to new seasons! On regular television Life in Pieces makes us laugh the most. 

And you? Do you have any recommendations?