Outside my Literary Comfort Zone
Last night I headed out to the first l meeting of the book club at Words Worth Books, a cool little independent book store downtown Waterloo. I joined for a few reasons, one of which was I wanted to read some stuff that was outside my comfort zone.
The first book that we’ll be reading is The Disappeared, by Kim Echlin. It’s supposedly about the passions and pains of a Canadian woman and her Cambodian lover. Not at all the type of novel I would pick myself, which is why I’m quite interested to read it.
We’ve been promised that even though it’s quasi can-lit, there’s not a prairie in sight. And from what I’ve heard, the writing is top notch. Which is good; I like writing that makes my own prose seem like it was written by a developmentally challenged chimp. It’s oddly motivating.
Next, I’ll be churning butter while wearing an attractive bonnet.
A few months ago a friend gave us a simple recipe for baking your own bread - no fancy mixers or machines required. Yeast breads can have a mind of their own in terms of their needs and desires, but this recipe seems fairly foolproof. I’ve made it close to a dozen times at this point, and while each time it’s worked, I’m now starting to get a feel for all of its eccentricities; little things that can make a difference.
I’m posting the recipe here not because I’m sure my trillions of followers (ha) will be interested, but because my current hardcopy is covered in flour and oil and I’m afraid I’m going to lose it. Hopefully one day I’ll be like one of those big-armed mennonite women who just know how to make bread, like they know how to breathe. Not there yet though.
Easy Bake Bread
Mix together in a small bowl or ramekin:
¼ cup boiling water
¼ cup cool water
Stir in 1 tsp of sugar
Sprinkle 2 tsp of yeast over sugar/water mixture. Set aside for 10 minutes.
While the yeast is activating, in a large-ish bowl mix together:
2 cups of warm water
1 ½ tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
1 ½ tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
Add the yeast – it should be nice and foamy.
Add 2 cups of flour
With a wooden spoon or your hands, blend the ingredients together to create an elastic batter.
Add an additional 4 cups of flour, blending in 1 cup at a time.
Once a majority of the flour is mostly combined, dump the mixture onto a floured surface and knead until all the flour is incorporated and the dough is an even consistency (slightly moist but not too sticky).
Place dough back in bowl and cover with slightly damp tea towel, or seal with plastic wrap.
Put your bowl in a dark, warm place. If it fits, I recommend the microwave.
Let it rise for an hour or until it roughly doubles in size. Punch it down gently a few times.
Let it rise for another hour. Punch again.
Let it rise one more time, for roughly 45 minutes.
Divide dough in half. Place each half in a greased loaf pan.
Let rise in pan for just a few minutes (as the oven preheats)
Put loaf pans into a 400F oven for 15 minutes.
Turn down temp. to 375F and continue baking for an additional 30-35 minutes
Transfer bread from loaves to cooling rack.
Cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.
At The Movies
I really, really want to see Watchmen. I’ve been excited about it ever since I saw the preview featuring that kickin’ Smashing Pumpkins song. It looks like a perfect tonic to all the cookie-cutter superhero movies we’ve all had to ingest in the last couple years.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t till it came out last week that I realized it was over 2 1/2 hours long. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a big deal, as I’m not 80 years old and arthertic. I am pregnant, however, and sitting for that long is just not feasible.
As a consolation, Dan and I went last night to see Fired Up! Yes, I know what you’re thinking - but it was the shortest movie playing locally, clocking in at a mere hour and a half. I wasn’t expecting much; in truth, I just wanted to see some previews and smell some popcorn.
Fired Up! is pretty much what you’d expect from a high school comedy. Cliche story, some attractive guys, some hot girls, and a few pretty decent jokes stuffed in amongst all the juvenile t&a crap. I laughed out loud at least twice, so I guess I got my money’s worth.
Plus, as an added bonus, we listened to The Watchmen soundtrack on the way home.
Fables: Thankfully, not for children.
I was hesitant to start this series. I thought the premise - fairytale characters like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty living a shadowed life in modern day New York - would be too gimmicky and the story would just be one big in-joke.
As it turns out, Willingham never goes for the obvious plot, and these well-known characters are more human (even the inhuman ones) then they ever were in their own stories. Snow White, for instance, is a put-upon workaholic who serves as the Deputy Mayor of Fabletown. She works side by side with Bigby (the reformed Big Bad Wolf) to fight the uphill battle of maintaining order amongst a group of otherworldly citizens who have been kicked out of their mystical lands by a threat only known as The Adversary. Snow and Bigby’s interesting relationship is just one of the reasons that the “Fables” universe gets deeper and more complex with every issue.
While the series features characters from stories we read as children, they are more along the lines of how the Brothers Grimm envisioned them rather than Walt Disney. This is a noir-ish tale, with plenty of blood and brutality. I know I’ll never think of Goldilocks in the same way…
As of now, I’ve only read the first five volumes, but from my experience, this tends to be the time in most graphic series when the whole world shifts on it’s axis and things start heading in unexpected directions. For this reason, I’m reviewing the series up to this point. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Seven Months of Growth
Not to give excuses, but I really have been busy. In a physiological sense. I’ve been going through an…expansion project, let’s call it. Observe:
I find it interesting that I stopped blogging right around the time I got pregnant. Don’t know why, really. Probably because it’s been a crazy time in general. I moved cities, bought a house and got a puppy. It goes without saying that the more you add to your life, the more time and effort it all takes to navigate. It’s all totally worth it, I’m learning. I’m sure that in a couple months, when the little hellraiser that’s currently resting on my bladder decides to make his way into the world, everything’s only going to get more crazy, but I don’t want to use it as an excuse not to keep up with life.
So maybe I’m writing for posterity, or maybe because I don’t want to get too rusty with them there words.
Either way, Hello again.