Wordless definitions: bliss

Really no explanation needed here, right? Face it, if you weren't afraid of hurting your back, you'd be rolling around in front of the fire this winter, too.

Photo of the Week--2/7/10

When we passed by St. John's Hospital, now a museum, in the beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium, I couldn't resist this picture. The hospital dates at least to 1188, when it was more a hostel for pilgrims that took in the occasional non-contagious sick person. I'm guessing that back then the water levels in the canal were a lot lower than they are today, judging by the half-doors and incomplete arches just above the water line. Or else there are aquatic people living in Bruges who walk along the floor of the river to their underwater houses, where they live in harmony with their air-breathing friends.

Photo of the Week--1/31/11

Now, that's what I call a castle! Yes, if you look at the very top of the photo, you see a little square section of the rock that isn't as rough as the rest. That's Dumbarton Castle in Scotland, and yes, we walked up to the top of this very tall hill to visit it. It was only accessible by a very narrow staircase, and we could imagine how easy it would have been to defend the castle from attackers. Why someone would want to attack ... that was a little harder to imagine.

Cookie of the Month: Raspberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

A bake-sale fundraiser was coming up, which meant a chance to bake cookies without eating them all. (Not that I don't like eating cookies, but I really shouldn't eat all of them.) I was still thinking fruit and white chocolate, and maybe adapting an oatmeal cookie recipe to include some of my stash of white chocolate chips and some dried cranberries or cherries. Except I didn't have many dried cherries, and when I looked in the recipe book, I came across a recipe for oatmeal bar cookies instead.

If you're like me, you may think that making "bar cookies" is cheating. Like brownies, you make bar cookies in a single pan, then cut them up into individual bars. That doesn't really seem like cookies, which I think of as individually baked, but I was pressed for time, and who am I to argue the definition of "cookie" with the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook? That's an "old faithful" of recipe books, so if they say bars are cookies, I was ready to go. I adapted their recipe for Apricot-Oatmeal bars to include my own favorite flavors. Here are the ingredients I used:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup butter or margarine
1 cup raspberry jam/all-fruit
1 cup white chocolate chips

First, mix the flour, oats, brown sugar, and baking soda together in a bowl. Then you cut in the butter/margarine with a pastry blender until you have very fine crumbs. This takes a lot of elbow grease, cutting until there are no big chunks of butter left. You can't warm the butter, or you won't get crumbs, it will be more like batter. (So it's a no-batter butter battle to get your crumbs.)

Next, take about two-thirds of the crumb mixture and press it into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13" pan. Spread the jam on top (it doesn't have to be even at this point) and bake in a preheated oven at 375F. Take it out and let it cool for a few minutes. You can see the result of this step, plus the texture of the leftover crumbs, in the picture to the right.

After the base has cooled slightly, smooth out the jam so it is evenly spread, then sprinkle the cup of white chocolate chips atop the base. Cover with the remaining crumbs and bake for another 15 minutes, until the top crumbs are a lovely golden brown. Take out of the oven and let it cool for quite a bit before you cut them into bars and serve. You can see the result is very gooey, so cooling makes them a little easier to handle.

So how did they taste? I actually found them a little sweet for my taste, which is very improbable if you know me and my sweet tooth. If I were to make these again, I might cut down on the brown sugar in the crust, reduce the amount of the raspberry jam, and/or add chopped walnuts to the top crumbles. (I thought about it here, but I try never use nuts in bake sale items.) I've made a similar item to this with caramel filling and semi-sweet chips and nuts which is super tasty, but I don't think I'll make this variation again, at least not with both white chocolate and jam.

Final verdict: Nom nom nom (three of five noms).

Photo of the Week--1/24/11

I thought this photo was particularly apropos this week because Tunisia has been in the news because of its recent revolution and I figure not a lot of Americans know much about the country except that they filmed bits of Star Wars there. Maybe you know Tunisia is on the north coast of Africa, that part that sticks out  in the Mediterranean towards Sicily and Malta; it's less likely you know that Tunisia was once part of the Roman Empire. This photo is of the amphitheatre at El Djem, which dates from about 3rd century AD and held about 35,000 spectators. The Colosseum at Rome only held 10,000 more, and El Djem's floor is in better shape (meaning it has a floor).

We visited in February 2000, and we got the feeling that they didn't get a lot of American tourists there (plenty of European tourists, especially from Germany, but not Americans). During our "safari" to El Djem and the natural beauties in the south (including the Sahara), TSU remembers having lots of conversations with our guide, who was curious about American-style democracy. We had a great visit there and the people were friendly and accommodating to our group, and I wish them success in creating a more open government.

The Printz Award Winners: 2009

How nice to have a little break for the holidays. I got quite a bit of reading done, so I'm ready to give you my latest report on the books the American Library Association deemed "exemplify literary excellence in young adult literature" in 2009.

Winner:
Melina Marchetta, Jellicoe Road
Honor books:
M. T. Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 2: The Kingdom on the Waves
Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Terry Pratchett, Nation

Anderson's Octavian Nothing, Vol. 2: The first volume in this historical pair was an honor book in 2007, and was one of my favorites that year for its unique perspective on the American Revolution. The first book recounted Octavian's journey from coddled experimental subject to escaped slave, and in this book he decides the road to freedom is best achieved by joining Loyalist naval forces. His experiences are sometimes harrowing and always interesting, as he develops into a young man and tries to decide what freedom means to him. The "discovered journal" format continues to serve the story well, giving us a somewhat ambiguous ending that seems true to history. Together these two books were one of my favorites I read last year.

Lanagan's Tender Morsels: I'd really enjoyed Lanagan's Printz-honor collection from 2006, so I was looking forward to see what she'd do with the novel form. She started with the Snow White-Rose Red fairy tale, sprinkled in a strange mountain ritual involving bearskins, and came up with this astonishing fantasy in which an abused girl is transported into her "heaven" with her two baby daughters. As the two girls grow up, they get glimpses of the real world they left behind; when one accidentally returns to the real world, her mother and sister are forced to follow. They must leave "heaven" behind, and the three women's differing reactions to a world that—unlike their heaven—contains danger and violence along with opportunity and real love is fascinating to read. This is fantasy with real depth, but it's for more mature readers; the abuse the two girls' mother suffers is heart-wrenching to read.

Lockhart's Disreputable History: This book was a lot of fun, falling into the boarding-school genre established in that first YA, Catcher in the Rye, complete with a pranks and a secret society. What I loved about this book, though, was that Frankie's involvement with school pranks was more about her exploring her role as friend/girlfriend/clique member and what it means to try to fit in. So yes, this was a fun story about boarding school life among the rich people, but it had a real depth to it that would appeal to any teen (or older reader struggling with identity issues. (Disreputable History was also a National Book Award nominee in 2008.)

Pratchett's Nation: I've enjoyed several of Pratchett's works for adults, including his "Discworld" fantasies and the apocalypse satire Good Omens; he has that British flair for wordplay and dry humor I enjoy so much. This book seemed very different to me; not only was it "alternate history" rather than fantasy, it had a sincerity and earnestness I don't really see in his satires. There's still the same sense of wordplay, though, as the young island boy Mau struggles to unite the survivors that arrive on his island Nation in the South Pacific. The first survivor he meets is Daphne, who doesn't know that a plague has made her father the King of Great Britain instead of a very distant relative. (This is where the "alternate" part of the history comes in; Queen Victoria and most of her brood were still alive and kicking around 1860, when the novel takes place.) Although Mau's struggles for survival are engaging, as is his resourcefulness, the novel is really considering bigger issues, like are there gods? What is our duty to them, to ourselves, and to each other? What makes a nation? Although these are huge themes, they never overwhelm the book, owing to Pratchett's lively humor and intricate plot. Another book with an inner depth underlying an entertaining surface.

Marchetta's Jellicoe Road: And another Australian storms the Printz Awards! Although this is another book set inside a boarding school (this one in the Australian countryside) with its own rituals and battles, it is more of a family mystery—and what a mystery Taylor Markham has facing her. Abandoned by her mother at age 11, Taylor has grown up at the school, semi-adopted by Hannah, a young woman who lives on the school grounds. When Hannah disappears with no word, Taylor uses the manuscript Hannah left behind to try and decipher what has happened to her. She is aided by school chums and by the leaders of the townies and cadets who battle for territory around the school every year. As the story shifts between present, Taylor's shared past with the cadet leader Griggs, and Hannah's story of her own tragic youth, Taylor learns to open up emotionally even as the puzzle facing her becomes more complex. (Sorry, not going to be more specific and ruin the mystery for you.) This book was a little confusing to get into, what with all the shifting accounts, but it was worth it to get involved in an intricate mystery with a very satisfying resolution. It's nice when an author can take multiple threads and tie them up neatly at the end—good plotting is tough and it's fun to see it done well.

So all in all, another extremely good year for Printz books, maybe one of the best. And when I look at some of the books that didn't make it onto this list but onto the National Book Award list—like Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains, another wonderful historical novel set during the Revolution—you'd be safe to say it was a great year overall for YA books.

Photo of the Week--1/17/11

This was just too cool not to feature on the blog: the Prague Orloj, or Astronomical Clock. First of all, it's scientific, with one dial showing the position of the sun and the moon in the sky, along with other astronomical details. Second, it's historic: the first part built around 1410, with a calendar dial added around 1490 and moving statues of the Apostles sometime in the 17th century. Third, it's shiny! Beautiful design, gold details, just pretty to look at. And it managed to survive Nazi shelling during the Prague Uprising of 1945, although several portions had to be repaired. And last, of course, we saw it and took pictures! It's part of Prague's Old Town City Hall and by visiting in January low season, we got a shot without tons of tourists in it. Hope you enjoy it too.