Comfort Reading Continues

 

The title of this book gives you no reason to think of it as a comfort read, you just have to take my word for it.

I love this book.

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers • A New York Times “Readers’ Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century” Pick

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Table for Two, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

What's Cooking in Meat Camp?

Today I have two crockpots hard at work.

I may be retired, but I still rely (heavily) on my slowcookers.

I've heard people say they don't use/don't like crockpots because everything tastes the same.

To that, I'd have to say, "you're doing it wrong."

Today's menu - - -

https://showmetheyummy.com/slow-cooker-flank-steak/

Slow Cooker Flank Steak

This Slow Cooker Flank Steak is ultra tender and coated in a flavorful brown sugar chili powder rub. This easy weeknight dinner requires less than 10 ingredients!

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time4 hrs

Total Time4 hrs 15 mins

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: 15 minute prep, easy, slow cooker

 

Servings: 4 people

 

Calories: 511kcal

 

Author: Jennifer Debth

Equipment

• Crockpot

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 (1 oz) packet ranch seasoning mix
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper omit if you don’t like spice
• 2 pounds flank steak
• Honey mustard for drizzling, if desired

Instructions

• Grease a 6 quart crockpot with cooking spray, then pour in olive oil. Set aside.
• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together brown sugar, chili powder, ranch mix, paprika, salt, and cayenne. This is our spice rub.
• Rub a few spoonfuls of the spice rub onto the steak to fully coat it.
• Place steak into the prepared crockpot, then sprinkle on remaining spice rub.
• Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours.
• Remove steak from the crockpot and use a sharp knife to slice it into strips against the grain (this will basically shred your steak, but will prevent it from creating long and stringy pieces).
• Serve as desired - on a bun, in a quesadilla, over mashed potatoes, on top of Mac and cheese, as nachos, etc. with a drizzle of homemade honey mustard sauce, if desired!
• Take 5 seconds to rate this recipe below. We greatly appreciate it!

Nutrition

Serving: 1person | Calories: 511kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 49g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 136mg | Sodium: 1307mg | Potassium: 913mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 1731IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 87mg | Iron: 5mg

 

https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/slow-cooker-green-beans-bacon-potatoes/

Slow Cooker Green Beans with Bacon and Potatoes

Slow Cooker Green Beans with Bacon and Potatoes is a delicious Southern style side dish. Tender green beans seasoned with bacon, garlic, and onion makes the best crock pot green beans recipe!

Course Dinner

Cuisine American

Keyword crock pot green beans bacon potatoes recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes

Servings 6

Calories 283 kcal

Author Sandy Clifton

Ingredients

• 2 lbs Green Beans (fresh or frozen, ends trimmed)
• 1 sm Sweet Onion, sliced
• ½ lb Thick Cut Bacon* (cut in 1.5" pieces)
• 1 lb Potatoes (new or baby potatoes, or larger ones cut)
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt (or ¾ tsp table salt)
• ½ tsp Pepper
• 3 cups Chicken broth, low sodium

Instructions

1. Add all of the ingredients to the crock and stir gently.

2. Cook on High for 3-4 hours, or Low for 6-7 hours.

3. Serve with some buttered cornbread.

Recipe Notes

*You can use ham or smoked turkey wings or legs in place of the bacon.

And what will I be doing while dinner's cooking?

Reading  TABLE FOR TWO by Amor Towles.  Oh, how I love being retired.

Happy Reading

and

Bon Appétit!

What to do while suffering from a book hangover . . .

 Stay busy!

I stayed up way later than usual last night (this morning) so I could finish the ARC a friend sent me.

The new Amor Towles.

I love Amor Towles' writing.

A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my all-time favorite books ever.  

I loved Rules of Civility.

I've been impatiently awaiting The Lincoln Highway.

it was worth the wait.

It's not going to be a book for everyone.  I can already imagine some of the comments and where they'll be coming from - and why.

'Sokay, not everyone likes livermush or scrapple either.

So today, after sleeping late, knowing the search for the next book needs to be put off for a little while as I recover from this latest book hangover I decided to start cleaning out some kitchen cupboards.

Nobody needs so many mugs.

But.

We all seem to have a gracious plenty, don't we?

Gifted mugs.

Mugs we picked up on vacation.

And the travel mugs!!

Time for them to go.

Some will go to our booth at Antiques on Howard  Some into the trash.  Some set out at the corner of the neighborhood container site where people drop off  "take what you want" items.

(Noooo, not everything on this table is leaving . . .)

while I was washing the dust off these long-unused mugs, I spent some time doing what I often do.

 Dreaming of Paris.  

Wishing there might be a chance in the near future that Don Barley and I might be sitting in green chairs in a Paris garden having coffee and a croissant.  

Photo in Tuilleries Garden by Landen Kerr

But selfish ignorant anti-vaxxers are doing their best to make sure that doesn't happen while endangering the rest of us; including the children. 

 Being the people responsible for so many deaths, wow, what a way to make a point.  

A point of stupidity. 

For shame.

Life goes on

 

Yesterday I had my annual Wellness Check-Up.  And we did it on-line - Yay!

I will still have to mask myself up, be brave and go to my doctor's office for blood work.  Ugh.

But, she assures me they're doing all the right things and well, it needs to be done, so I'll just pull up my big girl panties and get it done.  (Sadly, those big girl panties are a bit bigger than they were just a few months ago . . .  but that's a different story for a different day.  Or not.)

One of the questions that came up was concerning how I'm handling the level of isolation we're experiencing due to COVID.

And I answered truthfully that yes, I am experiencing some periods of anxiety, and some days when I feel depressed.  

And some days I cry.

But I'll be honest with you.  

People who are merrily living life as though nothing has changed?  

During a pandemic?!  

With a corrupt crazy man in our White House? ! 

THOSE are the people we should all be worried about.

If you're not depressed, you oughta be!  JMO.

Any normal person is going to feel effects of what we're living through right now.

We just all have to find our own way to get through it.

And vote.

(Teeshirt from The Bitter Southerner)

One of the things I'm doing is reading.  Of course.  It's what I do.  

But I've found that my concentration isn't what it usually is, so it's taking me longer to read a book than it normally does.

And, it's got to be a darn good book for me to stick with it.

I'm not one to continue with a book that's not holding my interest during the best of times, and right now I'm finding this to be especially true.

So I'm re-reading books I especially love.  

It's like a visit with an old friend that you know you can count on.  

I just finished re-reading a book I wish everyone in the whole world would read.  

Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow.  

I hesitated about reading this when it first came out because, truly, I have no interest in Russia - now or ever.  

But I remember that I also resisted reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for a number of reasons.  Big mistake.  It quickly became one of my favorites, and one I recommend often, even to complete strangers.

Anyway . . .

NPR said this about A Gentleman in Moscow:   " . . . new novel stars a Russian aristocrat, sentenced by the Soviets to permanent house arrest in a luxury hotel. It's a frothy romp that tends to overlook the reality of life under Stalin."  While I agree that there is some froth, there is also much in the way of philosophical thinking and introspection.  And gentle humor.

It's lovely.  The ultimate elegant, smart, beautiful book.  Each time I read it I'm hesitant to finish it and have to leave the world of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov; my book boyfriend.

The Count's supporting characters are as deeply drawn as he is.  One of my favorites is Nina.  "His boredom is alleviated a little when he befriends a young girl named Nina (Think Eloise in the Plaza), who is precocious, stubborn, and most importantly, adventurous. Her single father is temporarily posted to Moscow on state business, but as he did not enroll her in school, she spends most of her time exploring the hotel. Nina has acquired a passkey for all of the hotel’s doors, and she shows the Count its various rooms and passageways."

So now I've finished.  And I'm bereft.

I have a house, and a Kindle, full of books.

New books and old books.

But right now, there's not one that could soothe my soul the way Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov and his friends have.

So.

I think I'll go fix myself a cup of coffee, a bowl of ice cream and pout for a little while before trying to decide just what book might be able to step up and do its job.

Maybe a Louise Penny . . .