Oireachtas Coming . . .

Oireachtas practicing officially started today, and I have the aches and pains to prove it. Plus, after losing my beautiful old hard shoes at my last competition due to a mix-up and REALLY poor management by the feis committee, I have a brand new pair to break in which, as any Irish dancer can tell you, means I'm going through a torturous time. I mean, I have blisters on my heels. Blisters, Gandalf! And I never get blisters any more, or at least not for a good many years. It's sad :(

Dance itself, however, remains wonderful. Frustrating at times of course, but always well worth the effort put into it, and more. Blisters become calluses, with a little time. I'll be fine.

Books! I've already finished my Nathan Hale biography, the first of the O'Brian novels I borrowed, and am now happily devouring both "The Mauritius Command" and my book on the American Revolution. So there will be a real proper Book of the Month this month, as well as a good number of reviews, huzzah!

As to writing, I've been determinedly plodding along, and it's going splendidly, actually! I'm really excited to actually be making this much progress in my novel. In addition, I am just getting more and more excited about NaNoWriMo! I've written up a little blurb about the story I'm planning to write--the type you'd see on the back of a book--but nothing more than that, so I can have enough creative freedom to actually write the 50,000 words without hitting a block. I'm trying not to plot ahead at all, which is difficult for me, but hopefully will prove a helpful exercise. I'll post the blurb here once October hits.

I'm currently typing this with only half of my attention; I'm mostly absorbed with an animated short I'm watching on Youtube, "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello". Steampunk and silhouettes and adventure and creepiness, oh my! A friend recommended it to me, and I'm loving it so far.

Tomorrow I make a birthday card for my littlest brother, who will be turning five this week! And then I'll read some more, write some more, and attempt to make tapioca pudding with the contents of a really old box of tapioca I found in a kitchen cupboard the other day. Hopefully it'll be yummy, instead of poisoning me or something. We'll see, I guess . . .

PS: Just finished the film. Strongly recommend you check it out :)

It's September Already? Wow.

Hello again, everyone, it's been a while! Life's been keeping me busy--mostly battling off one infection after another, it's ridiculous--but I hope to start blogging more regularly again now. If I were back in Hawaii now, this would be my second week of my Junior year; as it is, I am keeping the brain cells busy by writing, dancing, studying for my driver's license, and, of course--reading!

Sadly, I have STILL not managed to snag any new reading material. An entire summer without one trip to the library--I just might explode with the frustration. As a result I STILL have no Book of the Month feature to regale you with. I will, however, list for you all the books that I have been reading. I've read them before, which is why they don't count for my list of new books read this year, but they were good enough for me to read them again--some for the second time, some for the umpteenth time--so perhaps you'd be interested to have a list of titles:

• The Shield Ring, by Rosemary Sutcliff
• The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
• Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
• The Pearls of Lutra, by Brian Jacques
• The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
• Watership Down, by Richard Adams
• The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander
• The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

So, as you can tell, I've been re-reading a lot, and mostly lighter books too. Perhaps that is what comes from being around kids 24/7 now; I lapse back into enjoying books written for young adults and children instead of centuries-old literature. This is in no way a bad thing, as all the above books are among my favorite books ever (or at least most of them are) and settled snugly on my shelf next to my Iliad and War and Peace and Moby Dick, but it's still interesting. I go through 'reverting back to obsessing over childhood favorites' phases at time. I guess this is one of those times.

Dance is going well, but I'm trying to figure out a design for my new competition dress; mine is about 4 years old now, and in a competitive arena where dresses go out of style in mere months . . . yep, I'm wearing a relic. My family and I always design and sew my own dresses instead of shelling out a fortune on designer dresses like most other people do, so my dress has lasted longer than most, but it does look old now. Sigh. I've also promised my little brother that I'll dress up as Toothless the Dragon for Halloween so he can ride on my shoulders as Hiccup, so I have that to figure out too!

(Absolutely not-relevant side note here: I'm currently watching Star Wars on my computer as I type this, and just realized that one of Vader's officers is the same actor who played that American rocket captain in "Tomb of the Cybermen"! The one with the annoying fake accent who kept calling Victoria 'Vic'! This just made my day.)

I've been writing a lot, and even though it's pretty hard considering I've got a spot of writer's block, this means my novel is coming along now almost despite itself, haha. Yesterday I baked banana bread; my six year old sister was disappointed initially, but now says she loves it, especially with cream cheese. My little four year old brother however loves banana bread, and basically was asking me if he could eat it every five minutes after it came out of the oven until it was cooled enough to be cut. I do like baking! And making soups, too. I really want to make this lentil soup from a recipe I found recently; I like lentils almost as much as I like baking :)

That's enough rambling from me from now, so I leave you now only with a promise that I'll try to post more regularly and interestingly this month. Oh, and I've been drawing and doodling a lot, so I'll start posting those too.

And I'm 19 1/2 today. I should have made a cake or something, haha. Does this mean I get a wish half-fulfilled today? Hm.

In the Kitchen, Mostly

Nothing much to report about the last few days. I baked biscuits today, and yesterday I made cream of mushroom soup for lunch. All my siblings of course didn't want to eat it, so I tried to think of a way to get them more enthused about it. My solution: Dye it green!

The end result was that half of them loved the colour change and ate it happily, while the other half only became more adamant in saying they didn't want it. So I guess the experiment was a success?

I was watching "Tombs of the Cybermen" today with Lathspell, who had previously never seen it before. He's enjoying it so far, which makes me happy. Oh, and I practiced dance for about forty minutes today, and would have worked longer, but my toe is really hurting me again, so I decided it'd be most prudent to go ice it instead. I hope I can compete in top form at the competition in a few weeks' time. My left ankle is also being a bit dodgy.

Nothing else to report, really. Life's just moving along at a nice pace, and I'm starting to study the DMV manual, and perhaps am thinking seriously about getting my driver's license at last, oh no! Yeah, I'm nineteen and don't drive . . . I happen to like the bus system in Hawaii, but now that I'm back home, where things are a lot more spaced out, I really do need to start transporting myself places under my own power. I just don't like the idea very much. Drivers are crazy here. The only other bit of daily life that could possibly pass as news right now is that I got distracted while adding sugar to my tea at breakfast this morning and as a result ended up with three heaping spoonfuls of it, haha! It tasted like tea-flavored candy . . . I was very energetic the rest of the day, and put that energy to good use by cleaning up the kitchen, the front hall, the living room, and most of the dining room. I have to learn to not talk about books while preparing breakfast; it never ends well!

Writer's Block?

Well, no, I don't really have a block in my way so much as a field of mud. Despite my best efforts, everything is going so very slowly, and so tediously, which makes me suspect that they are therefore not my best efforts after all. I'm planning on giving up Facebook for July to see if that makes any changes, but for now I'm just continuing my life as usual, just trying to write every day and get back into the swing of writing seriously every day.

Today I baked banana bread, which I have actually never done before. I just guesstimated how much nutmeg to use, and was terribly anxious the whole thing would come to pieces when I flipped it out of the baking pan, but it stayed together nicely and tasted great spread thinly with margarine. It made me very happy, and my siblings and parents liked it too. There's just enough of the loaf left to eat at breakfast tomorrow alongside my usual grapefruit, so I'm looking forward to getting a yummy start to the day!

My brother's currently reading "The Tempest" for the first time, and I think he's enjoying it. My nine-year-old sister is just starting in on "The Return of the King", how exciting for her to be reading that amazing book for the first time! I wish sometimes I could rewind the clock just to read my favorite books for the first time. There's a special feel to reading them a thousand times, a sort of worn and comfortable and happy feel, but the first read is always so exhilarating, and alas, it only happens once. At least I got to read LotR for the first time when I was six, completely unaware of what would be in store for me on the next page--She's grown up surrounded by LotR movie posters, books, movie books, art books, and a wall I papered entirely with newsclippings from when the films were being released, hehe. So she's known who Frodo and Gollum and Aragorn, etc., are since birth. That's got to make for a different reading experience.

I myself am reading--well, nothing really. It's very bizarre. I desperately need new books to read--Namely, Chesterton's "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", the next few books in the Aubrey-Maturin series, a long list of Sutcliff books, more works by Faulkner after "As I Lay Dying" whet my appetite for his work back in April, Silvius' "Achilleid", "Seven Against Thebes", and sundry other reads. I'm still reading "Le Morte d'Arthur", but the going isn't very fast, and I'd like to be able to leapfrog between five books at once like I usually do. I started "Guy Mannering" yesterday, but so far it's not really caught me, though I'm sure it will eventually--that's generally how Sir Walter Scott books go. I'm going to start reading to my sisters at bedtime again, but the problem is that we had just started "The High King" when I left for college two years ago, and never finished it, so they want me to finish it now, but I feel obligated to begin the entire Prydain series over again from "The Book of Three" because otherwise they won't understand everything that happens in "The High King", the best book in the series, because they'll only have fuzzy memories of who everyone is, especially side-characters like Prince Rhun and Magg. What a muddle.

The good news is that I've FINALLY begun writing chapter one of my novel today. Remember I referred to my current authorial state earlier as a slogging through a field of mud? Well, it's coming along. I've been expending all my extra thought on the problem of this beginning for the past week, and I think I finally made a breakthrough this evening. I have written most of the first few chapters, as well as eighty pages all told of the actual novel, but the very beginning has always escaped me despite innumerable rewritings and has left me rather stymied. I think, however (although I have thought it before) that today I've begun the process of conquering it, which is a glad thing indeed. I'll try to get it all written tomorrow, and then on with the story! I'm determined to use this year off of school to write my novel, and of course NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching again! This time I'll be ready for it. I have a few ideas about what I wish to write, but I'm determinedly not thinking too much about it because I want to be free enough to write 50,000 words quickly without worrying about niceties of plot and things.

Any other happenings around here? Um, no, not really, other than "Vincent and the Doctor" continued "Doctor Who"'s winning streak for me that really began with "Vampires of Venice" and hasn't let up since, huzzah! In fact, "Vincent" might be my favorite of the new Doctor's stories so far, but I'm not sure. "Amy's Choice" was also excellent. And "The Lodger" looks to be nothing but more goodness. But "Vincent" made my eyes tear up a few times, and was all-in-all very well done indeed. Scenes like the one below were amazing (don't watch if you haven't seen it yet, of course!).



My only critique for this series really is its fondness of Earth. Very, very few stories have been set outside of Earth (Okay, "Amy's Choice" was kinda not Earth, but it kinda was still), and although I've loved the time traveling, which I felt wasn't done enough with Tennant, I miss the space traveling. And with the finale taking place at Stonehenge (yaaay, Stonehenge, I remember going there! It was very windy and very wet), it seems the series will be sticking with Earth until the end. At least it's broken out of the previous series' fondness of London, though, ha. Hopefully next season will have more planet-hopping action. And more aliens that are truly evil, too, not just misunderstood creatures :)

Oh, and I keep meaning to post some art on this blog again, but I keep forgetting, and though I have remembered now, it's late and time for me to be getting to bed, so it'll have to wait. Good night!

PS-I just realized that my last post was number 200. Wow.

Book Feast Pt. 1: Watercress Soup

And here 'tis at last, the long-anticipated Watercress Soup recipe!

First you need a little background information. Last year, when I was away at college, I planned to have a huge feast with my family when I returned home for Christmas break. Moreover, I determined that I would have the feast on January 3, which is JRR Tolkien's birthday.

Out of respect for the master of words, I further decided that my feast would be based on literature itself. That is, I would take recipes based on foods mentioned in books that all my family could recognize, and then serve them in one enormous meal fit for a bookworm!

Ultimately, this is what I did. I cooked all the courses on my own--which was exhausting but one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life, absolute madness--and searched books for mentions of food.

First course, naturally, was a delectable soup. I absolutely adore soup. And the soup to end all soups is, of course, the beautiful 'chicken and garlic and watercress soup' which plays such an important part in the beautiful story "The Tale of Despereaux".

This is the soup that Chiaroscuro pined for in the darkness of the dungeon, the soup that was so good it healed his broken heart (sort of). The soup that the Queen loved so much, the King outlawed it when she died. The soup that gave Despereaux courage and that Cook broke the law to brew. And it was the soup that everyone enjoyed when the story at last found its happy ending.

Now, it is also a soup that you can enjoy. Quite simple, and every bit as delicious as the soup you've dreamed about ever since reading Kate DiCamillo's novel. It has the chicken stock, it has the garlic, it has the watercress. This recipe is based upon one which I found on the internet, but I modified it a lot, and am very pleased with the result.

Watercress Soup

‘“Yes,” said Cook. “That is soup that you are smelling. The princess, not that you would know or care, is missing, bless her goodhearted self. And times are terrible. And when times are terrible, soup is the answer. Don’t it smell like the answer?”'

-The Tale of Despereaux

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

4 cups sliced onions

4 cups sliced potatoes

8 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 bunches of watercress, thoroughly washed and coarsely chopped

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced (NOTE: I think this is how much I used. I improvised at the time of cooking once I realized the recipe had no garlic in it! Anyway, just put in how much you think would be good.)

Procedure:

In a large saucepan with a lid, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in onions, cover, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft but not brown. Stir in potatoes, stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover pan, and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes. Add watercress for last 5 minutes of simmering. Serve while hot!

. . . And that's it! Easy! The original recipe called for you to add milk, cream everything in a blender, and then chill. Pah! Keep it with all the ingredients whole, don't add milk, and serve hot. Seriously.

To further whet your appetites, here's a (fuzzy) photo of the

 finished soup. And please realize the above recipe serves A LOT of people. It fed my family of . . . nine. Nine who were old enough to eat the soup, anyway. So just adjust the recipe to fit your needs.

Happy chefing!

Next Recipe: Pasta Puttanesca

A Farewell to 2008

. . . Which was a good year in many ways. Here's my summary of what new books, films, and television I found outstanding in year 2008. Of course I did many other things in 2008 besides stare at pages and a screen, but that would get too personal. Anyway, I like making lists ;)

(Note: My 'top-5's' are certainly my favorite five of the year, but not in any particular order. That'd be too hard.)

Books: 

1) The Last Unicorn: I adore this book, in case none of you had guessed already, and I've already made sure to try to pass along that love to numerous acquaintances and family members. I have loved the film since I was a child of three years old, but the book is even better. The closest thing to real magic, I think, that I have discovered this year.

2) War and Peace/Les Miserables: W&P doesn't really belong in the list, I suppose, because I started it a couple of years ago, but I finally finished it this summer. So I believe it deserves a mention. When my favorite character died and there was still a couple of hundred pages left, I wasn't sure I would be able to finish the story. It is a great credit to Tolstoy's writing powers that I was able to finish, and not only finish, but enjoy the remainder of the novel. And Les Miserables is a beautiful read. I've probably got more dog-eared pages on that book than any other in my collection besides The Lays of Beleriand. If everyone could develop characters on the page like Hugo can, the world would be a happier place.

3) The King of Elfland's Daughter: Like a bright, clear wind, invigorating and wondrous. This year has been a fantastic year for me regarding he discovering of authors I never read before, and Lord Dunsany is one of the jewels of the collection. Whenever I get discouraged by too much browsing in the fantasy section of the library, somebody always comes along to restore my faith in imaginative powers. Dunsany did the job for me this year.

4) Howl's Moving Castle/Fire and Hemlock: Okay, so these tie. Both kept me up past my bedtime reading and lost in a refreshing fantasy world. Both also worked together to make a Diana Wynne Jones fan of me, and isn't Andromanche pleased? Though I still don't understand the swimming horse at the end of F&H. Meh.

5) The Once and Future King: I think I read this for my seventeenth birthday, not my sixteenth . . . oh, whatever. I get my book timeline confused. But this book is incredible, just . . . incredible. It's got some of everything, and though in turn hilarious, biting, heart-breaking, and epic-ly glorious, it's always thought-provoking, and always just right.

HM: That Hideous Strength, The Deerslayer, The Pathfinder, Emily's Quest

Biggest Letdown: Inkdeath (Dustfinger just isn't Dustfinger!) and Mutiny on the Bounty (When there's 'mutiny' in the title, there should be a mutiny in the book. Sheesh).

Films: Ah, 2008, otherwise known as The-Year-Of-Disappointing-Films-In-Theatre. Yeah, I wasn't really impressed by many new releases this year. In fact, I think I went to the movies only . . . thrice, for Wall-E, Prince Caspian, and then when I was compelled by a friend to see The Dark Knight with her. Which, for the record, I feel is nowhere near as good as everyone says it is, and does NOT make my top-5 film list here. Ha!

1. Prince Caspian: I know this one will be controversial with Tolkien fans--I expect Laura has bones to pick with it--and I know it was different from the book. But I still really enjoyed the film, and though Barnes isn't blonde, he makes for a good Caspian. The story was well-told and the acting excellent (with the possible exception of Susan?). I am eagerly awaiting VotDT, which I have very high hopes for, considering Reepicheep, Caspian, Edmund and Lucy will be the stars.

2. Master and Commander: Far Side of the World: A surprise favorite. Of course I hated this film fiercely when it was in theatre, because it had 10 Oscar nommies when Return of the King had 11. But now that RotK is safely basking in the glory of its record sweep, I finally felt curious about the film and bought it when I saw it on sale at Target. And boy am I glad I did. It is breathtaking. Crowe's acting is excellent, but Paul Bettany really carried the film for me, as did the wondrous cinematography and music (when the music shows up, that is, which is rare).

3. Edward Scissorhands: Okay, I expected to enjoy this one. And I did. I also nearly cried, which I am embarrassed about, but oh well. It's an enchanting fairy tale, with more heart than I've observed in other Burton movies, and Depp's performance is heartbreaking. This is a film I took to HI with me :)

4. Peter Pan (2003): Another surprise. I never thought much of the theatrical poster for this film in 2003, and so I never watched it. Again, I bought it on a whim. And again, I was blown away by the film. Much truer in tone to the source material than the Disney classic is, I also loved Sumpter and Hurd-Wood's portrayals of their characters--teetering between play and seriousness. Jason Isaacs' Hook, however, was a definite highlight of the film. My only quibble is that I didn't much like the woman who played Tink.

5. Howl's Moving Castle: Yet another surprise (good grief!)! I am so not an anime person, and I had not yet read the book . . . but I really loved the film. And even after reading and liking the book, which is very different, I like the film. The animation is beautiful, but the storytelling even more so. And that soundtrack doesn't hurt, either!

Biggest Letdown: Gah, where to begin? There were so many films this year that I thought had potential when I heard about them, and which I never went to see because the trailers and reviews for the end product were so horrid. Tale of Despereaux ranks very highly here. I mean, I adore the book. Millions of people adore this book. So why change it for screen? *mutters nasty things about Hollywood people*

Television: So I don't watch much television, and therefore won't really have much of a list for you. Mostly this is television on DVD, which . . . I guess counts. But it also means that I don't watch it regularly.

1. Doctor Who (Amazing)

2. 1 Litre of Tears (Inspiring)

3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (Russian)

Heh, and that sums up my media absorption of 2008. As to my activities of 2009--I'm keen on reading more of Beagle and Dunsany, am terrified of the Sherlock Holmes film which is being released, and am dreading Tennant's departure from DW. Oh, and I'm taking up knitting again. I haven't knitted anything in many years, though I've sewed a good deal, but the habit is appealing to me, so I've decided to try my hand at it once more. My New Year's Resolution is to receive my first official rejection letter by a publication agency. Might as well start my collection now, eh?

Also, tomorrow I will bake lembas. I'll try to get photos for you.

And this is absolutely the longest post I've ever inflicted upon you poor readers! Well, I hope that's not a bad sign for the upcoming year . . .

You Know How I . . .

. . . Always have virtual lembas for my virtual birthday parties?

Well these people claim they have an Elven Lembas recipe. So I'm going to try it out. I can't resist. Some of their recipes are just hokey ('Merry's Chai Tea' or something like that) but a few of the mushroom dishes sound good. . . . And 'Rosie's Shire Pie' sounds definitely yummy.

I should start planning my birthday menu. Hey, I also found a shrimp 'n' hotroot soup recipe online. Anybody else read the Redwall books and come away with an intense desire to try the stuff? Here's the recipe, found on this great website, which has just about every Redwall recipe you ever craved, including 'Unny Moles and Mint Pancakes and Abbot Durral's cake . . .

Hotroot SoupIngredients:
3 pounds watershrimp (shrimp) cooked,shelled, and deveined
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons bacon fat
Hotroot powder mix (a tiny bit of cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon arrowroot)
1/2 onion, chopped
4 cups sliced okra
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh or canned tomatoes
2 teaspoons basil, crumbled
1 cup cooked rice

Procedure (by Ruddle) Boil watershrimps. Melt bacon fat in large skillet and brown watershrimps lightly. Remove from pan and set aside. Add onion, okra, hotroot powder mix, and pepper and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for five minutes. Stir in tomatoes, basil, and three cups of boiling water. Mix in watershrimps and about a teaspoon of salt. Cover and simmer 30-40 minutes. Add cooked rice, mix well, and cook 5 more minutes to heat through. WARNING: this otter recipe is very spicy!! Serves 4.