We’ve had a week of beautiful weather in Boston. Last weekend we took Charlotte to the pumpkin patch and hay maze. I had the goal of going apple picking (something I hope to turn into an annual tradition), but being nine months pregnant meant I didn’t actually have the energy to motivate, mobilize, and then actually pick and carry all those apples around a farm. There’s plenty of farm-fresh apples available elsewhere, and I’m looking forward to making that fantastic applesauce bundt cake from last week again.
Here’s what I’m eating and reading this week:
WEEKLY MENU PLAN (IN CASE YOU NEED IDEAS OR INSPIRATION):
Sunday: Whole wheat pasta with cabbage (from Back Pocket Pasta) and adapted brassicas bowl
Monday: Leftovers (as always, for my late night at work)
Tuesday: Not-boring lentil soup and garlic bread, roasted Brussels sprouts
Wednesday: Ground turkey & spinach over rice
Thursday: Spaghetti pie via Food and Wine magazine (we just skipped the mushrooms)
Friday: Leftovers (the spaghetti pie reheats beautifully)
Saturday: Minnesota Farmhouse turkey hot dish from Food & Wine (as a native Minnesotan, I couldn’t not make this. It was a bit of a project, which isn’t in the true spirit of MN hot dish. The flavors, however, were fantastic, especially the leeks, fennel, and tarragon. I feel Food & Wine usually takes a recipe and makes it ever-so-slightly more complicated than it needs to be, but the flavor profile is always solid).
A few links and articles I’ve enjoyed this week:
People who look like the art they’re viewing in museums
Ellyn Satter on Halloween
Title: Magpie Murders
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Date: 2017
Format: Audiobook
My first thought after finishing this book was that I really like mysteries, and I don’t read enough of them. The last ones I really got into were J.K. Rowling’s Galbraith series. I think I took a bit of hiatus when Charlotte was really little because I didn’t have the time or energy to stay up all night and finish out an exciting ending. I’m glad I made it back this fall with Magpie Murders, and much of my my October reading list has a good dose of mystery, atmosphere & ambiance, and the gothic.
Also, I’m finding mysteries tend to play well in audiobook format, which was certainly the case here.
This one was an enjoyable mystery, though it had a bit of an unusual format that threw me for a bit of a loop about halfway through the book. It’s a mystery story within a mystery: the first half of the book is literally the text of a mystery novel written by an author, whose death becomes the focus of the second half of the book. When the book switches between the two narratives, there was a lull in my interest, and I debated going on to finish the novel (with a book on tape, it’s competing against an ever-renewing list of podcasts vying for my attention during my commute). I kept at it, and I’m ultimately glad I did. An enjoyable mystery, but necessarily one that’s got me hooked on the author or hankering to read more (though it was actually nice to have a book satisfy my interest in reading a mystery without getting pulled into a whole series).
