1 x onion
1 x can chickpeas
1/2 x can sweetcorn
2 x celery sticks
1/2 red pepper, some left-over broccoli
some pasta
stock (I used a stock cube)
salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg, cayenne, paprika
fresh basil
I started frying the onion and celery, added the spices, then stirred in the veg, then the pasta and stock. Let it simmer until the pasta is done. Then added some fresh basil to garnish.
I've been going through all of our closets and cabinets looking for items to donate to the fire victims here in Sonoma county. I've needed to tackle this for years, but my health issues have made the task daunting. And it has been a really tiring job. I'm hoping I can keep up the momentum and get to several other projects I've been procrastinating about for far too long as well. There's nothing like a disaster to drive home the fact that being organized and prepared makes life a heck of a lot easier if the worst comes to pass.
Yummy looking soup and looking forward to your Suffragettes project. :)
That soup looks so good - I might have to try it for lunch today. :)
I haven't thought much about 2018 yet beyond fleeting moments of "I should try not to buy any books" which we all know is a setup for failure. I MIGHT try to do something along the lines of budgeting myself to only buying 5 fewer books than I've read in any given month, but I don't know if I can stick with the keeping track part.
As for new reading projects, I'm decided not to do any new ones. I have my classic crimes box to peck away at, and the flat book society, which is a nice balance between fiction and non-fiction. Then I won't feel stressed about playing any games that MR and OB might decide to do, or about doing any ad hoc buddy reads that come along. Of course this might all go out the window once the new yearly challenges start coming out. :P
Yeah, the old "I should try not to buy any books". We all know that is not going to work out. I like your idea of a ratio, tho.
As for reading projects, I hate being stressed out about reading, too. So, I might step back on the games a bit. As much fun as they are, I always end up with a few books that end up sidelined because they don't fit the game. This year The Suffragettes was one of them. Usually, it is one of the situations where I need to dedicate some more time to a book or want to follow up with some complementary reading.
So, between the Flat Books, Holmes, Agatha, and the new one, that should work out to a well-balanced reading diet, too.
I had soup today, too, it's such wonderful comfort food. Although mine was not as nearly yummy looking as yours - it was just plain old chicken and rice. I'll have to try your recipe.
My plans for 2018 is to continue on with attacking my physical TBR, but I'm going to loosen my rules on buying new books a little. I think I'm going with a 1:3 rule - I can add one more book for every three that I read from my TBR. Audiobooks excepted, of course. I'm also going to set some goals around my library ebook and bound TBR - books that have been on my wish list that I don't buy because they're available at the library. And I've already set goals for my Nancy Drew Project - to get through at least 6 books per year, which is reasonable, because it takes a lot of time to read and compare the original and revisions, match up the chapters, and write up a comparison that makes sense.
My recipe is as simple as they come. I just simmer some seasonings in a can of chicken broth - pepper, garlic powder, onion flakes, parsley - then add some chopped up leftover grilled chicken breast and cooked rice. I don't usually bother with veggies, since I usually have a small salad with it.
I love my library, and am conscious of the fact that I need to support it, since the city budgets it according to citizen usage, but I rarely think to go get a physical book from it unless there's a specific one that I want to read for a specific reason, because I am constantly trying to whittle down the ones on my shelves at home. But it's important to do so. Libraries all across the US are being underfunded or getting closed, and local governments justify it based on perceived need. I can afford to buy my own books, but lots of people can't, and they're an important community resource.
Exactly the reason I use it on a regular basis - to keep the numbers of active users up. Not sure it has an impact over here as many libraries have been cut over the recent years, but that's just more reason to use them now more than ever. (And of course libraries are some people's only access to internet and other resources...not just books.)
Also, libraries are great to get books that I would not want to buy myself either - like Gulp! Although, there have the odd book too that I "had to" buy for my own collection after having borrowed it.
That's true, too. Libraries are much more than just books. And I do the same thing, borrow books that I don't necessarily want to own or to spend money on.
That's one delicious-looking soup ... and some seriously crowded shelves!
As a result of pulling books off shelves for my Halloween Bingo book pool and my recent classic mystery buying craze -- not to mention my two vacation book hauls -- I have somewhere around 15+ stacks of books sitting in various parts of my apartment, mostly on the floor and on the chest of drawers next to my bed, so there is going to *have* to be a major bout of shelf organization sooner rather than later. And, of course, I'm vowing to myself that I will go on reading the books that I pulled for the bingo / bought this year regardless of what's coming up in terms of Booklikes games and group and buddy reads. Though it sure would be nice if I could fit them into whatever is happening here ... without buying even more books. (Yeah, right.)
Yeah, I noticed we were all playing havoc with your TBR. LoL.
What are you going to do with the stacks? Is Teddy playing with them or does he just ignore them?
Some of the ones on my shelves are read, I just need to sort them out and pass them on (friends, Oxfam, etc.) I might ask Books and Beans if they do swaps, too, which of course would not help the TBR but would be fun. Maybe they swap books for coffee??
Oh, wouldn't that be great? I guess it doesn't hurt to ask ... and you could be sure they'd find appreciate new homes that way. (Though obviously donating to Oxfam might be the slightly more, um, socially virtuous way to go.)
Teddy learned to ignore my book stacks when he tried to rub along them and promptly made one stack topple over. None of the books hit him -- he jumped away quickly, but it was a healthy scare! :)
Well, um, the plan is actually to restore (optically anyway) the status quo ante ... only while managing to fit about twice as many books into the same amount of shelf space *without* doing double rows (those are a no-no on my shelves). So the funny bit isn't going to be the end product but the process of organization and attendant head scratching ...
Double rows are a no-no on my shelves too. So what it sounds like you're trying to accomplish is a Harry Potter spell? If that works out please share with the rest of us? I could totally use that, lol. All I've got at the moment is a somewhat artful combination of vertical stacking on my shelves of completed series. It helps, but it's not cutting it in the long run. :P
Hahaha, that's probably even true. Hmm, they're doing major work on our main train station, too, at the moment ... (and if this city is good at one thing, it's making things vanish. Preferably public money, into Houdini fairytale schemes involving Wizard-of-Oz-type princes from the Far, Far East ... sigh.)
I have ~30 sonnets, "various poems", "A lover's complaint", 2 full plays and most of Cymbeline to go. I could probably do it if I dropped everything else I'm working on but I don't really feel like doing that.
Looks delicious. I'm moving back to Spain early next year, so I'm going through the books and trying to decide what to do. Of course, I always find one that either I haven't read or I can't remember anything about, and the ones I can't get rid of and... I should really read more books in Spanish...
Ooooh, I hope you'll be able to take all, or at least many, many of your books. I hate having to make this sort of choices!
(Not to play scaremonger and apologies for saying what may sound obvious, but if you decide to store any books instead of taking them to Spain, store them as far away from waterpipes as you possibly can. The place where my books were stored while I was living abroad was flooded as a result of a broken pipe, and I lost almost all of my "pre-move" collection.)
Thanks. I will take the ones I can't bear to part with, but I'm moving away for good (or at least for the foreseeable future, so leaving them in storage wouldn't work). It's too expensive to send too many things (I don't know about the furniture yet, but there are the paintings and paperwork that I'm definitely taking with me). They are not rare editions and most of them are easily replaced. As I'm expecting to spend a lot of time going from there to there paper books are no longer practical. I'm sorry too that I got many copies of the books I've written, in English, and it would cost too much to send them away again (I already paid for the books and the postage once), so I'll leave those with a friend who has a big house...
I was a student at Sussex University when Lewes was flooded, many years back, and the university library had storage room there, and they lost some irreplaceable books, so yes, I know...
I'm donating the books I'm not taking with me, so I hope they'll find good homes.
1 x onion
1 x can chickpeas
1/2 x can sweetcorn
2 x celery sticks
1/2 red pepper, some left-over broccoli
some pasta
stock (I used a stock cube)
salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg, cayenne, paprika
fresh basil
I started frying the onion and celery, added the spices, then stirred in the veg, then the pasta and stock. Let it simmer until the pasta is done. Then added some fresh basil to garnish.
That's all.
Yummy looking soup and looking forward to your Suffragettes project. :)
The Suffragettes project will need a bit more tweaking but it should be fun.
I haven't thought much about 2018 yet beyond fleeting moments of "I should try not to buy any books" which we all know is a setup for failure. I MIGHT try to do something along the lines of budgeting myself to only buying 5 fewer books than I've read in any given month, but I don't know if I can stick with the keeping track part.
As for new reading projects, I'm decided not to do any new ones. I have my classic crimes box to peck away at, and the flat book society, which is a nice balance between fiction and non-fiction. Then I won't feel stressed about playing any games that MR and OB might decide to do, or about doing any ad hoc buddy reads that come along. Of course this might all go out the window once the new yearly challenges start coming out. :P
As for reading projects, I hate being stressed out about reading, too. So, I might step back on the games a bit. As much fun as they are, I always end up with a few books that end up sidelined because they don't fit the game. This year The Suffragettes was one of them. Usually, it is one of the situations where I need to dedicate some more time to a book or want to follow up with some complementary reading.
So, between the Flat Books, Holmes, Agatha, and the new one, that should work out to a well-balanced reading diet, too.
My plans for 2018 is to continue on with attacking my physical TBR, but I'm going to loosen my rules on buying new books a little. I think I'm going with a 1:3 rule - I can add one more book for every three that I read from my TBR. Audiobooks excepted, of course. I'm also going to set some goals around my library ebook and bound TBR - books that have been on my wish list that I don't buy because they're available at the library. And I've already set goals for my Nancy Drew Project - to get through at least 6 books per year, which is reasonable, because it takes a lot of time to read and compare the original and revisions, match up the chapters, and write up a comparison that makes sense.
The ND project is brilliant and I already look forward to more about the different versions.
Libraries are phenomenal places, but I always feel a bit guilty when I pick a library book over one on my physical stacks at home.
I love my library, and am conscious of the fact that I need to support it, since the city budgets it according to citizen usage, but I rarely think to go get a physical book from it unless there's a specific one that I want to read for a specific reason, because I am constantly trying to whittle down the ones on my shelves at home. But it's important to do so. Libraries all across the US are being underfunded or getting closed, and local governments justify it based on perceived need. I can afford to buy my own books, but lots of people can't, and they're an important community resource.
Also, libraries are great to get books that I would not want to buy myself either - like Gulp! Although, there have the odd book too that I "had to" buy for my own collection after having borrowed it.
As a result of pulling books off shelves for my Halloween Bingo book pool and my recent classic mystery buying craze -- not to mention my two vacation book hauls -- I have somewhere around 15+ stacks of books sitting in various parts of my apartment, mostly on the floor and on the chest of drawers next to my bed, so there is going to *have* to be a major bout of shelf organization sooner rather than later. And, of course, I'm vowing to myself that I will go on reading the books that I pulled for the bingo / bought this year regardless of what's coming up in terms of Booklikes games and group and buddy reads. Though it sure would be nice if I could fit them into whatever is happening here ... without buying even more books. (Yeah, right.)
What are you going to do with the stacks? Is Teddy playing with them or does he just ignore them?
Some of the ones on my shelves are read, I just need to sort them out and pass them on (friends, Oxfam, etc.) I might ask Books and Beans if they do swaps, too, which of course would not help the TBR but would be fun. Maybe they swap books for coffee??
Teddy learned to ignore my book stacks when he tried to rub along them and promptly made one stack topple over. None of the books hit him -- he jumped away quickly, but it was a healthy scare! :)
I did a little bit of shelf tidying tonight and now also have a bit of a skyscraper theme going on. :)
Mine will probably be extremely boring -- outwardly not much different from the shelfie images already linked in my blog's sidebar ...
@TA, but the stacks in your HW Bingo updates were awesomely impressive!
Btw, I'm not a fan of the double-stack either, which is why I need to do something about my current TBR situation...
(Not to play scaremonger and apologies for saying what may sound obvious, but if you decide to store any books instead of taking them to Spain, store them as far away from waterpipes as you possibly can. The place where my books were stored while I was living abroad was flooded as a result of a broken pipe, and I lost almost all of my "pre-move" collection.)
I was a student at Sussex University when Lewes was flooded, many years back, and the university library had storage room there, and they lost some irreplaceable books, so yes, I know...
I'm donating the books I'm not taking with me, so I hope they'll find good homes.