I like to read… banned books

On July 21, 1998, the Radcliffe Publishing Course compiled and released its own list of the century’s top 100 novels, at the request of the Modern Library editorial board. The following list are said books.

In honor of BBW, as an avid reader, I’ll underline each of the banned books that I’ve read.

Of course there are lots more banned books, these are just the classic novels.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp by John Irving
38. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
41. Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia by Willa Cather
52. Howards End by E.M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Other banned books (some may be repetitive to the list above) that are more widely known. I’ll do the same as the list before by underlining the banned books I’ve read.

• A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain
• The Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follett
• Rabbit, Run by John Updike
• The Pigman by Paul Zendel
• Halloween ABC by Eve Marriam
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• How To Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
• Where The Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak
• Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by mark Twain
• All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
• American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
• The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
• Anastasia Again by Lois Lowry
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? by Judy Blume
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Black Boy by Richard Wright
• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolf Anaya
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Call of The Wild by Jack London
• Carrie by Stephen King
• The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
• Bridge of Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Christine by Stephen King
• Cujo by Stephen King
• The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
• The Face On The Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
• Women on Top by Nancy Friday
• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Collier
• Lord of The Flies by William Golding
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
• The Holy Bible
• A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein
• In The Night Room by Maurice Sendak
• Jay’s Journal by anonymous
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
• The Dead Zone by Stephen King
• A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
• Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
• Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
• The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice
• Goosebumps series by R.L. Stein
• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• Candide by Voltaire
• The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Howl by Allen Ginsberg
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
• Ulysses by James Joyce

Victory Star Quilt in the works

iPad case

It took a while, but I finally made a case for my bfs iPad 2. I let him pick out the fabric and endeavored to find a tutorial or pattern online that would suit his specifications. I follow a few dozen blogs of other folks who are handy with a sewing machine, but I couldn’t find one that was quite right. There was a request for simplicity (no quilting, no piecing, no ribbons/bows/ties). In the end, I created my own pattern by looking at the process that others used.

This is the end result.

Essentially I made one big piece of double-sided fabric with batting in the middle, folded it in half, and stitched it together.

Here’s the gist:

1. Figure out measurements. The iPad measures 9.5″ x 7.5″, so I figured I wanted my big double-sided piece to be 21″ x 9″ before folding. I added 3″ to the  total length for a flap. I cut two pieces of batting and both pieces of fabric 24″ x 9″. In hindsight, I should have been a little less lazy with my measuring because it’s quite a snug fit. I’d recommend cutting everything 24.5″ x 9.5″.

2. Cut the corners on the flap on all 4 pieces. I originally planned a half circle and would have used a plate or bowl, but decided to go with straight corners instead.

3. Layer the pieces: two fabrics right side together with two pieces of batting on top (From bottom to top: fabric face up, fabric face down, batting, batting)

4. Pin around the entire pieces, leaving a gap at the bottom (non-flap side) where you will turn it.

5. Sew around the entire thing with a 1/4″ seam, starting at one side of the gap at the bottom and ending on the other side.

6. Clip corners to reduce bulk. If you have a curved seam, notch little triangles out.

7. Press seam allowance at opening and turn right side out.

8. Press seams. Use two parallel lines (1/4″ and 1/8″) to stitch together the bottom straight edge. I had a bit of trouble with the bulk of the batting and had to trim it in order to fold the fabric under correctly/neatly. Perhaps I should have cut the batting 1/4″ shorter from the start. If I make another one, I’ll let you know.

9. Fold up the bottom edge and pin in place, leaving enough room for a flap, but making sure your iPad will fit inside. Stitch all around the outside edge 1/4″ from edge, including the flap. I stitched across the bottom too, but you wouldn’t need to.

Tomatoes, part 2

As promised, here are the final products from my tomato canning adventures.

7 (and a half) pints of salsa

4 quarts of crushed tomatoes- some of them separated, but I just shook them and they’re fine now. I left one separated so you could see what it looks like.

3.5 pints of yellow tomato and basil jam

2 quarts tomato sauce

Not bad for my first time canning tomatoes, especially since I got these at such a steal- only $6!

Stacked Birdies

I just finished hand-sewing the binding on my stacked coin quilt. I’ve wanted to make one of these ever since I started quilting two years ago, and I’m pleased that I finally got around to it.

I love the simplicity and the way the colors of the fabric pop on the white. I used a jelly roll to make the top, doing some simple math and using the pattern on moda bake shop. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to quilt it, but after doing a google search of others’ stacked coin quilts and seeing this one, I knew I wanted to do straight lines.

The back is just a simple single piece of a coordinating fabric.

I love the look of the birch trees along the binding.

Tomorrow this baby will be making its way to the Midwest to wrap up a new baby. We don’t know if it will be a boy or a girl, but I think it’s perfect either way.

Tomatoes part 1

I realize I never filled you in on what I actually did with all of those tomatoes! Here’s them before, a half bushel of red and yellow joy from Strite’s Orchard. I got lucky- they had a half bushel of “seconds” with minor blemishes for only $6!

Some were sliced up and dehydrated. There were some casualties when the power was cut, but I got lots of them into the freezer. Aren’t they pretty?

After: Significantly smaller and sweeter and delish! I’m enjoying some of them on my Sweet Pepper and Collards salad right now. Stay tuned for another post tomorrow on my ventures into eating Raw on a budget with Brandi Rollins.

Some were made into salsa, with all of the lovely peppers from my CSA at Joshua Farm. I used vidalia onions because they were on their last leg and needed to be used up. This may have been a mistake. It definitely had an effect on the taste, making the whole thing a bit sweeter than I’d prefer, but overall it still turned out pretty good. I think I’ll add more heat next time. I’m a bit wary of jalapenos after my experiences making jelly, but I think I was too cautious and ended up with a rather mild salsa.

Look at all that yummy goodness! The onions, garlic, cilantro, and jalapenos are from the CSA too. I used this recipe.

Some were peeled and squished whole into jars. And I cooked some down into tomato sauce that is the best darn thing I’ve ever tasted. I used onions, oregano, basil, and garlic from our CSA. Inspired by the lady at www.growitcookitcanit.com, I decided not to peel or seed the tomatoes for the tomato sauce. I have to admit that I don’t like to eat the tomato peels, but they come off and roll up, making them easy to avoid when eating.

And all of those yellow ones (sungolds and larger ones) were made into tomato jam. This stuff was so good that I made another, bigger batch. I was skeptical of tomato jam, but I’m being adventurous in my canning and I was rewarded. You can find the recipe over at Food In Jars.

All in all not bad for $6 (plus the initial investment in some more jars and lids). Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of the final products.

Shrimp Rolls

Every once in a while I impress myself in the kitchen. This was one of those times. This meal took all of 20 minutes and had me saying “WOW!” over and over again. It was so good that I wanted to eat it again for lunch and dinner the next day, but that seemed a bit excessive. Plus, I was too lazy to grill the shrimp and Chris wasn’t home. The best part about this meal is that it’s flexible. Start with the basic recipe and then add and subtract ingredients according to taste. We didn’t have capers (and they kind of creep me out for some reason) so I omitted them. The original recipe called for 1 zucchini, but I wanted more, so I used two. I don’t like onion, so I halved the amount. Also, I forgot the tomatoes. I’m surrounded by tomatoes, but I forgot them. Like I said, it’s flexible.

Adapted from Rachel Ray’s recipe for New England Shrimp and Lobster Lettuce Rolls from 30-Minute Get Real Meals

Shrimp Rolls

1/2 lb peeled and deveined shrimp (we used pre-cooked frozen, but raw is probably better)

1-2 medium zucchini/summer squash, sliced lengthwise into long 1/4″-1/2″ thick slices

*Drizzle these with olive oil and salt and pepper, then grill for 2 min on each side.

Tartar Sauce:

1-2 celery sticks, finely chopped

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 – 3/4 cup mayo (just eyeball it)

1/4-1/2 small yellow onion, grated

Several dashes of hot sauce (if you like)

1 large dill pickle, finely chopped (I used the refrigerator pickles I made myself)

2 T/3 sprigs fresh or 1 T dried tarragon

1 handful fresh parsley, chopped

handful of grape tomatoes, halved (unless you forget them)

S&P

*While your shrimp and zucchini are cooling, combine the tartar sauce ingredients. I recommend adding the lemon juice last, as you stir, to get the consistency you want. I must have had a really juicy lemon because I had to add a lot of mayo to thicken it up.  Let the flavors meld for a few minutes while you chop up the shrimp and zucchini into bite-sized pieces. Then toss it all together and pile on toasted kaiser buns (or roll up in Boston or Bibb lettuce, if you’re avoiding carbs).

Susquehanna Flood – 2011

One block from our apartment.

I have to be honest. I was a bit worried there for a while. It was hard to drive away from the apartment, not knowing if it would be under 2 feet of water when we returned. Not knowing if our things would be damaged, how much clean-up there would be, which things we would have to replace and which things we wouldn’t be able to.

To make matters worse, Chris had left for work and I was convinced he would get trapped there and I would have to figure out what to do on my own. I was certain I was going to be one of those crazy people who refuses to leave the house until the last possible minute when the police and knocking on the door from a boat. Luckily (??) Chris couldn’t make it to work because his route was already flooded, so I had someone to corral me out of the apartment to higher ground.

This is what the river looked like at 9am on Wednesday. It was at 19 feet, and the experts were predicting it would crest at 28 feet. Before the rain started, the river was at 8 feet, and even then it was high because of Hurricane Irene dumping rain upstream. At 28 feet the river would spread to 3-4 blocks back (that’s 2-3 blocks past our apartment).

Above at the bottom of the photo you can see just barely see the top of the path that Barley and I take to get down to the lower river walk.  Let’s look on the bright side, this will clear away some of the goose poop. On the downside, the sidewalks will probably be covered in mud and debris for quite a while.

Our apartment. Plants still in place on the stoop- a good sign!

Above you can see how close the water came to our apartment. The water that filled the streets and was creeping up the sidewalk left a muddy trail. Luckily there’s no water in the apartment, but our storage space in the basement is under 2-4 feet of water. The electric and gas companies cut off services, and they are expected to be off until Sunday or Monday.

 The sidewalk in front of the apartment. Nice and sludgy. 

Seneca and Front Streets

Fortunately for us, and many of our neighbors, the river crested earlier and lower than expected at 25.17 feet on Saturday night. This means less damage, sooner clean up, and the folks on Green Street can breathe a sigh of relief as the narrowly dodge disaster. It also means gas and electric might be turned, and we might be able to go home sooner.

Mr. Snapping Turtle

This guy was probably very tired after a long swim. He was the size of a dinner plate, or a small pizza.

At least someone is enjoying all of the puddles! This is the view looking North on Front Street from Seneca. This is the route Barley and I usually take on our morning walks.

Exercise anyone?

Puddle Jumping

This is the closest I can ever remember being to a natural disaster of this magnitude. I grew up in Missouri (tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods, oh my!), so I’m no stranger to the power of mother nature, but this is the first time it’s hit so close to home; the first time it’s impacted my daily landscape. All in all we were pretty lucky. We had a warm, welcoming, safe place to stay. Our home and belongings are mostly in tact (I’ll get back to you after we can get into the basement).  It could have been much worse.

The damp air in the apartment caused my peaches and tomatoes to begin rotting, so I performed some emergency canning measures today. Stay tuned for info on my creations!

Let’s make some Pesto!

Step 1: Obtain a freakish quantity of basil. It just so happens that my CSA is pulling out a lot of basil next week to make room for a final push of spinach and various lettuces, so this part was easy for me. I recommend going to a local farm for yours too. I may have picked too much. Yeah, I definitely picked too much. I picked three different kinds- Italian, lemon, and Thai. What you see in the photo below (lemon basil) is less than a quarter of the total picked.

Step 2: Toast the nuts. Traditionally pesto is made with pine nuts, but they are so expensive that it’s becoming common to use walnuts instead. I used a mix of the two, because my awesome beau bought them for me, not realizing how special they are. I tried one batch with the toasting and one without the toasting, and I regretted the non-toasting, but it was too late. It’s best to toast in a pan that does NOT have a non-stick coating. You can also do it under the broiler in the oven, or a toaster oven.

Step 3: Get yourself lots of garlic. Pound it with the knife and take off the peel. No need to chop it up- the food processor will do all the work.

Step 4: Take all of those basil leaves and blanch them. A chef friend of mine recommended adding 1 part spinach to 3 parts basil, to help it stay green, and hey those vitamins can’t be bad for you either. I’m no expert on blanching, but here’s what I did: pull off all of the leaves, put them in a mesh strainer (see below) dunk them in the boiling water for 30 sec to a minute (or until you get bored, like me), then dunk the strainer, leaves and all, into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Drain thoroughly (I squeezed the water out, again, because I’m impatient).

Step 5: Chuck everything in the food processor. I’d recommend pulsing the leaves a bit first, then add the nuts, pulse, then add the garlic, pulse. Next, with the blade spinning, drizzle the olive oil in. When everything is incorporated, add the cheese and give it another pulse. I like to do it this way because I like the cheese to be big and chunky when I bite into it. You’re going to want to put some salt and pepper in there at some point, probably at multiple points, tasting it until you get it right. Just remember, you can always add more, but you can NOT take it out! Add a little at a time.

Step 7 : Taste, and adjust the flavors to your liking. More garlic? Toss it in! More nuts? Toast some more and toss them in too. Don’t skip the toasting. It really makes a difference in the flavor and doesn’t take that long.

Ste[ 7: Store your yummy, vibrantly green pesto. I made enough to freeze and have always heard that ice cube trays are a convenient way to go, so that’s what I did with most of it. I wrapped them in plastic wrap to keep the color and avoid freezer burn.  If you don’t want to freeze it, just put it in your favorite storage container and pop it in the fridge. Or, boil up some pasta and pour it on! We ate some right away, though I have to admit I was already pretty full from all the tasting.

 

 

Ingredients: Think of these as a guideline, not hard and fast rules.

3 cups (packed) basil

1 cup (packed) spinach

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup walnuts

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp pepper

 

Crack Pie

Oh my goodness. You have to try this pie! Or maybe you should stay away-it’s dangerous! They call it “Crack” pie because once you’ve had your first bite, you can’t stop. Seriously. You will NOT be able to stop. In an evil twist, you are supposed to let the pie cool overnight (!!!) but then it tastes better warm, so you have to take it out and let it warm up to room temperature. So much waiting! (You may remember that I like instant gratification, a la refrigerator pickles)

Waiting proved difficult, as evidenced here:

I know it’s not much to look at, but man is it YUMMY! The best I can describe it is like a combination of at oatmeal cookie and creme brulee with a caramel sauce. That doesn’t do it justice, but it should get your mouth watering.