It’s so nice to be in the middle of a long weekend. I’m loving this unstructured time with my family. Daycare was closed Friday, too, so it’s been a four-day weekend for us. We’d originally planned to visit my family in the midwest, but that felt like just too much to wrap my head around (especially a few weeks ago, when Will’s sleep was all over the place and he was up for hours at a time in the middle of the night). He’s still an early riser now, waking up at 5:30 or 6:00 for the day. This weekend, we’re taking advantage of the pleasant weather to take walks along the river and pickup doughnuts for breakfast.
The water fountains are also on for the season. While it’s chilly today, yesterday was warm and sunny, so we all went to the splash pools.
Here’s what I’m eating and reading this week:
WEEKLY MENU PLAN
All the options below are dairy-free and soy-free recipes now that we’re managing a dairy- and soy-protein intolerance in our little one.
Sunday: Sausage, pepper and quick drop-biscuit skillet
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Pan-seared salmon, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli
Wednesday: Ordered pizza
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Shrimp lo mein
Saturday: Ginger-garlic fried rice with eggs
WHAT I’M READING AND ENJOYING THIS WEEK:
Missing immigrant children — so horrible I almost can’t believe it’s true. I can’t imagine how painful this is.
My sister and I were just talking about Netflix food documentaries, how they can be fear-mongering and problematic, and that there are still problems in our food system. And then there’s this article on the veracity of the health claims in Supersize Me.
The new lineup of Food & Wine’s best new chefs, which includes more women and diversity than I’d expected, though that’s probably a reflection of how low the bar is in terms of how these lineups usually shake out.
BOOK REVIEW
Title: Manhattan Beach
Author: Jennifer Egan
Date: 2017
Format: audiobook
This very likely will be in my top ten books of the year. While I wasn’t a huge fan of some of her earlier novels (though I did read both The Keep and A Visit From the Goon Squad), Egan’s latest novel was absorbing and enjoyable throughout.
I tend to not like gangster or mob stories, in part because the layers of loyalty demanded and power leveraged through hints and threats feels oppressive rather than intriguing. This book, however, managed to grab and keep my interest, even when the power structure of New York’s crime syndicate was front and center.
The book weaves the intersecting stories of Anna, her father Eddie, and gangster Dexter over the course of a decade or two, but centers around America’s entry in to World War 2. There were so many well drawn subcultures. In particular, I liked Egan’s treatment of Anna’s time as a diver, working on ships for the war effort (which detailed both the science of the dives and the gender barriers), Eddy’s time on a merchant ship, dodging hostile fire from enemy submarines, and Dexter’s complicated relationship with the wealthiest elites of the city, including his father-in-law.
