Five Favourites - Book notes, movie notes, recipes

I am in a blogging slump my friends! It's official. I felt someone stick a fork in me and everything. But in efforts to cheer myself up...blogging....linkups!

1.

Some book notes that were good but probably don't warrant their own posts -- First up:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I found this mystery novel with a spunky 11 year old girl heroine a treat to read. I hope it's not just because of my deep love of a good detective novel, but this one felt fresh, clever, and charming all at once. I especially appreciated how it was free of any gimmicks, be they bad writing or controversial immorality stuck into the 1950's like a sore thumb like so many contemporary writers desperately glob into otherwise historically accurate books. 

2.




A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter

I really wanted to love this one. As a devout Jane fan it wouldn't have taken much, and although I appreciated some of his insights, at other times I could not get over how pompously he thought of his own "discoveries" which seemed to me the stuff of high school boys. He errs HUGELY at time especially in regards to Sense and Sensibility. He also largely misses the point of Mansfield Park, like Haley talks about here. As a Northanger fan I feel he misses the bigger points there as well. But, if you're a Jane fan you've got to read it. 

3.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Oh look, I'm watching and writing about movies that came out months ago! Come July, I'll hit you with shockers like "Whoa, Noah! I loved/hated that crazy/controversial/Biblically inaccurate movie!" 

But I really enjoyed Walter Mitty. It's a visually beautiful movie, and I've been a Ben Stiller fan since the classic Zoolander. (My husband laughed when I listed that as a great Ben Stiller movie. Psshaa.) I like this take on the beauty of the common man, the importance of his work, his imagination/inner life, and it's lack of swearing is nice too.

4.

In my Lenten effort to eradicate frivolous snacking of the processed variety I've sunk to making my own mix of flavoured peanuts. I feel like this has to be hitting rock bottom. But here's my little recipe if you like chill/lime peanuts without scary stuff, I've modified it from so many recipes that I think they'd be offended if I mentioned them so I'll just list mine. 

Combine 2 cups peanuts(un-roasted and unsalted) and 1 tsp salt, 1 TB olive oil, and the zest of one lime and bake in a 350 degree oven until you can smell the peanuts. Around 20 min. Remove from oven and while warm season peanuts with chili powder to your taste, start around 1 tsp, and cayenne if you're feeling adventurous. Then very quickly, while peanuts are still fairly hot pour the juice of one lime over them all and mix well. Once they're cool they taste good and lime-ish which is always an important thing for me. Also, if you've got better chili powder than the regular kind by all means try that out, and be careful of the salt you add depending on how much salt in in your chili powder mix. 

It'd be really nice if I had an actual picture to post because this is a blog and all...maybe one day!

5. 

Have you been watching The Walking Dead? If so, I hope you've also been reading Cari's recaps which are the greatest. Cari has done a wonderful job fleshing out themes in the midst of zombie flesh. I'm still really a bit traumatized by that season finale. This season was so much better than last, and I didn't spend every episode verbally wishing for some character's (*cough*Andrea*cough*) death so my husband enjoyed this season a lot more as well. 

I'm toying around the idea of doing some Mad Men recaps here since the next season starts in two short weeks! No one may read them because Mad Men is much more morally ambiguous for the Catholic viewer than The Walking Dead, but my I love that show so darn much and really just want to comment on all the outfits I probably won't care. 

Visit Hallie for much more substance this week and Jessica for better books!

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