a collection of tried and true
Saturday was my parents 50th wedding anniversary and they threw a great party at Pine Ridge Country Club in Willoughby. The party was great fun. It was awesome to see family and friends who we haven’t seen in a long time. The food was great, the venue was very nice and all had a good time. It was great to be able to celebrate my parents. CHEERS. I wish I took more pictures… I always do… here are a couple.
We had Christmas Eve at our house.
Menu:
A woman looks back at her summer when she was 17 and working at an old amusement park with one of her old friends. I didn’t get into this short novel as much as the one I read earlier from Moore. I enjoy her style and quirky characters though.
PJH Rating: ***1/2
I can’t believe Christmas is in only three days! We decorated sugar cookies today and decided to do all Christmas trees this year. We used our stand by sugar cookie recipe that is always great. They turned out nice if I say so myself.
Cormoran Strike is a down and out, ex-military private Investigator in London who is hired to investigate the death of a famous super model. With the help of his temp secretary they investigate the usual suspects to see if the death was a suicide or murder. Terrific writing and interesting characters make this a great read. I hope this turns into a series. This is the novel that was published under a pen name of J.K. Rowling – author of the Harry Potter books.
PJH Rating: ****1/2
Story of Tassie, a twenty year old who just started her first year of college. She finds a job babysitting for a family who just adopted a baby who has been in foster care for the past several years. The novel is told in first person by Tassie and goes back and forth between her personal life, her babysitting and her family back home on the farm. The novel is very interesting and I was hooked right away. The characters are great and the writing is wonderful. The story is interesting – taking on racism, sexism, and patriotism. The section that gives the back story of the adopted couple is truly frightening. Horrific. The author has a unique style that might turn some people off as not much happens a lot of the time, a lot of rambling thoughts… but again this is my type of novel. I’m excited to read her other books.
PJH Rating: ****1/2
A thirteen year old Chinese American boy falls in love with a Japanese girl in Seattle on the eve of World Ward II. The Japanese girl’s family is eventually sent off to an internment camp. It was interesting to read about the history of this time, of Seattle in the 1940’s and of the awful treatment of minorities. The book, although enjoyable, was a bit too sappy for me.
PJH rating: ***
We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving at my parents house this year. We made roasted root vegetables and The Best Ever Green Been Casserole (VERY good). We have been making roasted vegetables the past several years. No Recipe. Just roast what you want, roast them separately, fresh thyme, salt and pepper.
Dinner was great. We also had roast turkey, stuffing (Mom’s is always the best), gravy, mashed potatoes, rutabaga, Brussels sprouts, two kinds of cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and apple pie.
We celebrated Courtney’s birthday last Tuesday with a night out at Playhouse Square. We headed west after work. (thanks Mom and Dad for taking in Grace and Sophia for the night) and checked into the Wyndham where we were greeted with a glass of wine in the lobby, very nice, and quickly relaxed in our great room overlooking playhouse square. We walked across the street to Cowell and Hubbard around 6:00. Cowell and Hubbard is Zack Bruell’s latest that we haven’t been to so were excited. The restaurant used to be a high end jewelery store back in the day when Euclid Avenue was the place to be. After decades of neglect the space is beautiful now, very modern, casual, an open kitchen and totally packed and hopping on a Tuesday evening. Yea Cleveland! We were psyched to see Zack in the kitchen when we walked by when getting seated. In fact, after the hostess walked us to our table I asked if we could move to a different table where we had a good view of the open kitchen and Zack in action. Yes I’m a loser, but definitely got a better table. Dinner was great. Courtney had a kale salad with pistachios and prosciutto followed by shrimp linguine. I had a romaine wedge with blue cheese and then cod over pureed parsnips, spinach and beurre blanc. Everything was great… the cod was the star. We splurged and split a mocha creme caramel for dessert that was awesome as well. I highly recommend and am looking forward to going back. They were great at making sure everyone was on time to make their curtain time as well.
We had tickets to Once and enjoyed it very much. Courtney is a big fan of the movie and the sound track so was particularly excited. The set was great, the mood was casual, the songs were great. It’s hard to explain. Sort of the anti-Wicked sort of musical. Again…I highly recommend.
A Seattle woman, unhappy with her marriage and depressed from the death of her child two years prior, takes off on a whim to Alaska to visit where her Mother grew up. She meets someone there, deals with her past demons and becomes involved with the local folklore of the indigenous to look for closure for the death of her son. Not nearly as good as Stein’s previous novel, actually this was an old novel recently republished, but an interesting story nonetheless.
PJH Rating: ***1/2
Eat On Edgecliff 