D is for...

 Donner Memorial State Park!

This was one of our stops on our vacation last summer - Reno, Lake Tahoe, Carson City... Donner Memorial State Park is up in that area too, and being the odd history buff I am, we had to stop by.  (Please note, that is one who has an interest in unusual or obscure history, not an odd person interested in history, though that might also be applicable...)

For those who aren't aware of the story, the Donner Party was a pioneer party traveling westward through the Sierra Nevada mountains who, after one delay and another, became snowed in at this particular lake.  They became stranded at the lake in October, the first rescue party could not reach them until February, and the final travelers were not rescued until April the following spring.  The party suffered heavy casualties (42 of the 90 travelers in the party did not survive), and the last survivors were forced to turn to cannibalism to survive.  To visualize that casualty rate, look at the plaque below on the right - four columns of names: the first two columns are those who did not survive, and the other two are the survivors.  Almost one-to-one.  The Donner Party story itself is an average one of a pioneer party getting lost or delayed while moving westward, but because of the accurate survivors' accounts of the hardships, the cannibalism especially, the Donner Party has some renown in the public mind.

 An interesting note:  The stone base is the height that the snow depth reached the winter that the travelers were stranded at the lake - 22 feet!! 

 

Of course, traveling to the lake in August, sunburn is more of a consideration than 20+ feet of snow.  The park itself is beautiful.  Besides the history center, the park has a few nature trails, a little bit of hiking trails, and a mountain lake nestled up in the hills make for a beautiful day in the summer.  And being a smaller state park, it's not overrun with people.  We were there on a gorgeous day in late August and didn't feel like we were stepping over people to do what we want.  Part of going to a park is wanting to be near nature, not other people, right?  That wasn't a problem here.

 

 

The other thing I really remember about the park were the ground squirrels.  All over the park!  And very brave too.  Imagine a critter as cute as a chipmunk, but as numerous and brave as a grey squirrel (brave, not brazen - key difference!).  Those were the ground squirrels at the park - the Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel, to be exact!  There were about three that kept us very entertained through lunch :)

So, yes.  Some interesting history, set in a pretty state park.  If you're up in the Reno/Tahoe/Truckee area at the CA/NV border, this is worth the day trip to visit!

Review: Perfect One-dish Dinners

This one came across the check-in desk at work, and while flipping through it before putting it back on the shelf, I saw too many recipes I wanted to try.  So had to check it out myself!  One of the perks of working at a library :)  So, here are my thoughts on Perfect One-Dish Dinners by Pam Anderson.

Plot?  Um, no, it's a cookbook...  

The premise, for lack of a better word, is to provide recipes cooked in one dish - something beyond basic casseroles - that you would serve for company.  The book is ordered into the main 'one-dish' recipes, accompanied by an appetizer, salad, soup, and/or dessert - a starting point for a full menu as host.  I say and/or, because not every meal has all accompanying recipes; if the main dish is very vegetable-heavy, there may not be a salad, for example.

Biggest complaint?  Not enough pictures.  A cookbook like this needs a lot of pictures.  There were a good number of recipes that didn't have pictures, even in the background of another dish.  And the pictures that are there aren't necessarily cleared designated.  A little confusing, when you consider the formatting of the book.

Second biggest?  No estimated prep time given with the recipes.  I admit, I'm not looking for Rachel Ray's guaranteed "30 Minute Meals," and I don't mind making everything from scratch like Anderson has you do, but at the same time, I'd like to know about how long it'll take me to get dinner on the table.  And that strikes me as especially odd for a book marketed for get-togethers.  Don't you want to know what time you'll be able to serve your guests their meal?

Final big frustration?  I couldn't figure out her organization of the recipes.  Yes, they were grouped as whole meals, but I spent a lot of time flipping through the book or looking in the index trying to find the recipe I was wanting to try.  Granted, in my own cookbooks, I use a lot of Post-It and 3M taps to mark my favorite recipes, so I didn't have that aid in this cookbook, but it was still a little irritating.

Another thought is about how it's presented - not a frustration like the ones above, but more like an observation.  Though it's marketed as "easy" and for "readers [who] are new to cooking or simply looking for new ideas for meals," it's more complex than I would have thought for a beginner's cookbook.  More advanced beginner or intermediate, I'd say.  Everything's made from scratch, biscuits and pie crusts and all, and most recipes have a good long list of ingredients to find.  I don't consider myself a beginner cook anymore and (like I said above) I don't mind making things from scratch, but I do like shorter ingredient lists.  Living way out in the middle of nowhere means that if it's not available on post, it's most likely at a store nearly 1 1/2 hours away.  The longer the ingredient list, the more likely I'll have to drive into Town to find something, or trying to find a suitable substitute.  And not that being a more advanced cookbook is a bad thing - just that it should be marketed that way.

There are a lot of inspiring recipes, though, and I liked how the main dishes had accompanying recipes to create a whole menu without much fuss.  We tried a few of the recipes, and here are our thoughts (no recipes provided here, obviously, just my thoughts on the ones we sampled)

• Salsa Verde Chicken with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings - Chicken'n'Dumplings gets spiced up!  I liked it, but...  One of those recipes that I'd make again, but with heavy alterations.  I liked that it wasn't plain chicken and dumplings, but it was very onion-y for me.  I guess I'm not that big a fan of salsa verde.  If I made it again, I think I'd use less salsa verde in the chicken, or not use the scallions in the dumplings, but another spice instead.  Not that it was bad, just a little strong for my taste.  I guess I like other seasonings better than onion.
• Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans - this one I used the actual recipe only as a starting point.  I altered this one a bit to fit the ingredients and equipment I had (I don't have a large roasting pan yet, for example).  Basically, though, I just wanted to cut the quantity in half, since it says it serves 8, and I didn't want to be eating the same leftovers all week - there are only 2 of us, after all!  This was one I wanted to try - Zach wasn't as impressed by the picture.  But, it came out well!  To quote him, Zach was "delightfully impressed" with the outcome. 
• Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats - great success!  I also want to try them with peanut butter chips, to see if it makes a choco-peanut butter snack, like Reesie Rice Krispie Treats!
• Perfect Cupcakes with Pineapple-Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting (pictured below) - these I made for Valentine's Day for my pineapple-addicted valentine.  I know the combination of flavors sounds very odd, but it's actually pretty good.  The cupcakes are worth a repeat - a light  butter-and-vanilla flavor, like pound cake, but not so heavy.  Zach's opinion, though, was that it's not pineapple-y enough :)

Overall:  3 of 5.  There are some good recipes in there, and some inspiring ones, but not enough to make me spend $32 to purchase the book myself.  If you get a chance to borrow it though, it's worth a look-see!

C is for...

Calico!

And, no, that's not the fabric, but the little ghost town between post and Barstow just off the highway. Zach and I went there soon after we arrived here, as it's the nearest 'site to see' where we now live.

If  you look closely at the building above, it also says Calico, across the upper part of the wall.  That particular house was actually built in the 1950's, to show a possible construction method of houses at the mine. Those are bottles embedded in the house walls to give it support and insulation.  It's the desert, so wood was (is!) scarce and therefore expensive, so miners, who weren't going to be there long and didn't want to invest in a more costly house, used whatever they could to construct their houses.  The bottle remnants were one method.  At least, all this is according to the sign on the building:

See?  :)

You can really see  in this picture below (the view from the town looking across the mine entrances) where the town and the surrounding hills received their name.  The land was very mineral-rich, and this gives the ground color.  Copper-laden mineral, for example, create those green patches.  The hills around the town are the Calico Hills, and that's what gives the town its name: someone at some point thought that the mottled colors across the hillside looked like calico fabric.

And if you're wondering what the town was during it's prime, it was a mining town.   A lot of those minerals giving the hills their color were worth something.  There were a great many mining towns around Barstow and up north into Death Valley, that were once mined for silver and borate minerals, among other things.  But, as the mines dried up, so too went the town, nowadays just a historic detour off I-15.

B is for...

Boston!

I have to say, that of all the major American cities I've been in, I think I liked Boston the best. I was lucky enough to be sent there in February 2007 for a job site nearby, so I took advantage of the time and saw a few highlights.  Please note - I'm saying I was lucky to be sent there, not that it was in February particularly.  It was freakin' freezin' while I was there, honestly, but I was determined to get out and see the town.  I missed the worst of the cold front though - 7 degrees in Boston the morning I flew back home!

I liked that the town was eclectic architecturally.  One of the things I liked about San Francisco too, actually.  In Boston, it wasn't just interesting architecture, but also the very old and the very new.  About as close as I've seen to London (my favorite major city) in the US.  Being a history buff, I like seeing the 300 year old churches and halls tucked away amidst the modern office buildings and townhouses.  And the parks and green spaces too (like the Boston Common, where I'm standing above).  A nice mixed city, not just an overwhelming oppression of skyscrapers.

I also liked that the town was so very walker-friendly.  There was a lot downtown on The Freedom Trail which was very easily accessible.  I know I only saw a tiny portion of the Freedom Trail, but the points on the trail were all within just a few miles of each other.  Tons to see, with good sidewalks to get there.  Granted, it was very chilly too, so it wasn't as crowded as it could have been, but it was still pretty convenient.  And it wasn't just the history that I walked through, but the North End (Boston's Little Italy) as well, as I was headed to Old North Church.  So many restaurants - the whole neighborhood smelled of garlic!  Awesome!

 

I realize that I'm saying that I liked the city based on a two and a half day business trip, but I did like what I was able to see.  And I know I still have tons to see too!  Fenway Park, of course, and  Harvard (yes, I  do know it's in Cambridge, not Boston, but they're adjacent towns, and I gotta see the 'competition' at least once...).  And the rest of the Freedom Trail, and Bunker Hill.  The Boston Public Library was the first large municipally funded library in America, so a professional interest there ;)  The New England Aquarium is one of the very acclaimed ones, and I am a sucker for a good aquarium.  The Boston Pops would be fun, and the Mapparium (a 30-ft globe you can walk inside of) seems like something Zach, the lover of maps, would enjoy too.  And the famous Duck Tours, and the Science Museum, and the MFA, and... I'm sure I could go on for ages.  Yes, yes, still much to see in Boston.  Gotta make it back there one of these days!

A is for

Appomattox!  Or, as my husband and his family drawl out, "Ap'mad'ox."  Location of Zach's family's farm!

I don't know if this really counts as "travel" since it's also considered Home for us, with Zach's folks still living there, but seeing as it's not where I grew up, I still think it counts as travel for me.  Certainly almost a foreign country sometimes to my little suburban self  ;)

 

And, strangely enough, I have yet to be to the Appomattox Court House, the town's (county's) whole claim to fame!  When we make it back east, we're too busy with family stuff (like learning to drive the tractors, as shown in the pictures above, Aug 2009) to spend time playing tourist!

Review: Goodfellas

For my Valentine's Day movie review, we have a syrupy-sweet romantic comedy.  Nope, not here.  How about a tragic romance?  No again.  Instead, I present you my thoughts on Goodfellas.

Plot:  Based on a true story, Goodfellas follows the rise and fall of Henry Hill, a small time gangster in 1960's and 70's New York, along with his friends Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito.  Jimmy and Tommy, more unstable and more ambitious than Henry, gradually climb the ladder from petty crime to bigger and more violent ventures.  After an extended jail sentence, Henry begins to sneak around the back of the local mob boss, Paulie Cicero, venturing into the drug trade and starting on the slippery slope to his downfall.  

I also liked the IMDB summary provided by Dustin B.  

The lowly, blue-collar side of New York's Italian mafia is explored in this crime biopic of wiseguy Henry Hill. As he makes his way from strapping young petty criminal, to big-time thief, to middle-aged cocaine addict and dealer, the film explores in detail the rules and traditions of organized crime. Watching the rise and fall of Hill and his two counterparts, the slick jack-of-all-trades criminal Jimmy Conway and the brutish, intimidating Tommy DeVito, this true story realistically explores the core, blue-collar part of the mob. 

A perfect date movie, right?  

I like crime movies, but this one was so-so for me.  I dunno, I liked it but I don't think it's one for the shelf.  It's definitely one to see, though.  There's just so many quotes that come from this movie!  Most notably the famous " I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh?" scene, which has been referenced by everything from Hannah Montana to MST3K.  But the narration and some of the camera work too have been referenced and imitated by movies to follow.  I guess that's really the biggest reason to see it, to see the starting point for so many movies to follow.

For the acting, overall it's very solid.  Robert DeNiro is a little heavy handed, but that's been known to happen.  I still think my favorite movie of his is The Godfather II, but his Jimmy is another memorable character.  Ray Liota's transformation from wide-eyed petty crook to paranoid drug addict is very well done.  Henry has an innocence and often tries to play mediator between regular people and his more violent acquaintances, but at the same time, fits the darker world there, like when he beats up Karen's neighbor.  Liotta does a very good job balancing the two.  And it is his narration which holds the movie together.  As a negative note, I do have to say, I don't like his laugh.  Nothing he can help, I know, but it just bugged me...  But it's Tony DeVito, Joe Pesci's character, he of the "Am I funny?" fame, who's really, really worth watching.  I really liked the scenes with Spider, especially the second one.  The way he doesn't react at first is colder, scarier, creepier than some of his other outbursts.

Like Scorsese's other crime movies, this isn't an 'upper' of a movie (think The Departed).  The mafia and violence isn't glamorized. It starts out that way, as Henry starts out as a teenager and twenty-something.  He has backstage passes to clubs, the airport is "just like Citibank," and anything they want, they take.  But as Henry ages and sees more of The Business, you get to see as well how dirty it all is, and how dirty he becomes.  Especially by the end, when he's paranoid and strung out... certainly not an image to aspire to.

Thinking about it, I think there needs to be at least one or two relatively sane characters in the dark movies I like.  Here, I just didn't like any of the characters enough to want to revisit them often.  Violent psychopaths, uncharismatic drug addicts, murderous thugs... just nothing drawing me back to this world again.  I think that's really why I don't see this one on my shelf anytime soon.

Overall:  3 of 5.  I liked it, and it's well done, but not one for my shelf.  I liked The Departed and the Godfather trilogy better for my serious gang movies :)  Still, it's very well done, well acted, and if nothing else, you need to watch it to see the original source of so many pop culture references.

A little belated, but here we go again!

Am tackling the ABC-along again this year - I just have too much fun with it!  It's a little belated start, but January kinda got away from me, so we'll have a few letters squeezed in quickly and then back on schedule :)  Again, the goal is to try and stay on track (I know I had a bunch of back-dated posts to the end of last year, as the holidays closed in on me!).  

This year, my theme will be travel!  Very appropriate as we finish up our time in CA this year and head to a new state this summer!

A January 1 -January 14

B January 15 -January 28

C January 29 - February 11

D February 12 - February 25

E February 26 - March 11

F March 12 - March 25

G March 26 - April 8

H April 9 - April 22

I April 23 - May 6

J May 7 - May 20

K May 21 - June 3

L June 4 - June 17

M June 18 - July 1

N July 2 - July 15

O July 16 - July 29

P July 30 - August 12

Q August 13 - August 26

R August 27 - September 9

S September 10 - September 23

T September 25 - October 7

U October 8 - October 21

V October 22 - November 4

W November 5 - November 18

X November 19 - December 2

Y December 3 - December 16

Z December 17 - December 31

Well, that's the schedule.  Since we're already in February, though, A-C will be posted in the next few days, and then rest, following as planned :)

Off we go!