Rhubarb Pie - A Dave's Fave

One very important thing that meeting David has done for me involves introducing rhubarb to my eating/cooking/baking repertoire.  I'd heard of it before meeting him, but had never tasted the wondermousness that is this fruit/vegetable.  And when writing this post, I had to stop and look up whether or not it's a fruit or vegetable.  According to Wikipedia, it's both!  How funny and odd!

Anyway, other than coconut cream pie (for my recipe click here), rhubarb pie is David's absolute favorite.  Like most all fruits and vegetables, rhubarb has a harvesting season and is only available certain times of the year.  For the most part, spring and early summer.  I don't see it very often in the grocery store and almost never at the farmer's markets around here.  So, when I do see it, I snatch it right up!

Today was one of those days.  Lookie at my grocery store loot! 

If you've never looked for or seen this in your grocer, this is what it should look like.  A red celery, if you will.

So, with this delicious cruciferous veggie/fruit, I thought I'd share with you my favorite recipe (and David's)!  And extra bonus points, it's suuuuper easy!  Only four ingredients in the filling!!

Rhubarb Pie

2 recipe's worth of pastry crust (for my good ol' standby recipe, click here)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6ish cups of fresh rhubarb, sliced (I say 6ish because I usually just grab a bunch, like above, and whatever I end up with is what goes into the pie.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line 9-inch pie plate with one pastry crust.

In a large bowl, gently toss together the rhubarb, sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Do this until the rhubarb is completely coated.

Transfer rhubarb mixture to the pastry-lined pie plate.

Place second pasty crust on top.  Trim/crimp edges and slice openings in the top as desired.

Brush pastry top with milk and sprinkle additional sugar before baking.

Bake for 25 minutes.  Cover with foil and then bake for another 20-30 minutes. 

You could also do this opposite (cover with foil, then uncover and bake longer).  Whichever way suits you best!  I just like to get the proper amount of browning out of the way first, so that I don't have to worry about is so much at the end.  There's nothing worse than over-browning your crust within a few minutes of pulling it out of the oven.

Let the deliciousness begin starting...now!

This pie is best served with vanilla ice cream, but it still tastes great without.  I hope you give this pie recipe a go.  It really is worth the effort!

Cloud Atlas

I've waited quite a while to review this book.  I actually read this three months ago, but I didn't want to review it just yet.  Why?  Because I knew the movie was coming out on Blu-ray and I wanted to see it and review it after the fact.

I'll give a little background about why I read this book...it's listed on my "classics" list because it was on one of my "100 books to read before you die" or some such list, plus it was coming out in a movie.  Double plus, right?  It's won a bunch of awards and has some pretty positive buzz surrounding it.

This book follows numerous different generations all in the past, present and future.  The book follows one period of time, chronologically, in each instance.  Then, once you pass the center point, it goes backwards following the future and so forth until the last scene is with the distant past.  This book has a lot of fantastic morals and messages while embracing the concepts of karma, God and reincarnation.  It also delves into how one generation can affect another, then another, yet another and so forth...

And I hated it.  Literally.  The book is very discombobulated in parts and I couldn't figure out how one part connected to another.  It, mostly, made sense to me in the end; I understood the concept and what the main "points" I was supposed to walk away with were.  However, I didn't enjoy the writing style...AT.ALL.

So, I thought that if I watched the movie, perhaps this would be one of those jewels where the movie was better than the book?  Possibly?  Hopefully?  Maybe?

Well, the answer to that is...a little.  David sat down and started this movie with me.  And I was glad for that because I wanted to know if he would end up liking it or if it was just me.  One important tidbit about this movie: it's almost 3 hours.  Seriously. 

David was lost less than 10 minutes in and he gave up after an hour.  I continued to plow through simply because I understood what was going on; David had no clue and had lost interest.  I'm glad I finished it because I did have a greater understanding and appreciation for the book/story afterwards. 

However, and this is a very big however, I would not read this book nor watch this movie again.  And I wouldn't recommend it either.  This was just not my thing.  I've noticed that the people that tend to like this book/movie are the more artsy and critic-type people.  I just don't fall within either of those categories, so I'm going to say this one was a bust for me.

The Light Between Oceans

Happy Friday everyone!   I haven't been pinning that much over the past couple weeks...not sure why, but oh well!  Because of that I thought I'd skip this week's Friday Funday, including pins.  And since today happens to be book club Friday I thought I'd share with you one of the books I'll be discussing with my club tonight!  Enjoy and I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

This book is one of my book club rotation books that I was super excited to pick up.  I borrowed The Light Between Oceans a couple months back and when it finally made it's way to to the top of my borrowed pile, it ended up affecting me more than I would have expected. 

The main premise of this book involves a young couple (Tom and Isabel) meeting and falling in love and living together on a tiiiiiiny island 100 miles off the southwest point of Australia.  This tiny island bears a lighthouse that Tom operates for the safety of shipping vessels.  Within the first year or so of their marriage Isabel becomes pregnant and loses the baby...then it happens again...and again.  She is, literally, on the brink of going crazy and Tom realizes it, but doesn't know what to do. 

Then, suddenly a small dingy boat washes ashore and aboard are a deceased young man and a crying baby girl.  The infant is no more than a month or two old.  Isabel, against his will, convinces Tom to not report this incident and simply keep the little girl.  Isabel had just miscarried late in her last pregnancy and they hadn't wired to shore about it yet either; so, it would be easy to simply claim that her baby came a little early.

The rest of this novel surrounds the raising of this little girl by Isabel and Tom on the island.  Then, also their realization of where this baby came from once they make a quick trip to the mainland not too much later.  Once they realize the origin of their baby, should they return her to her rightful place...or continue to keep her and pretend ignorance?

The moral questions that this book brings up are heart-breaking and real.  M. L. Stedman really does make you feel what these characters are going through and I'll admit that I cried more than once during this book.  I had to wait a day or so after I finished it to decide what rating to give it, simply because of the myriad emotions I felt upon closing the book for the last time.  I decided to give it a strong 4 out of 5 stars.  And I would definitely recommend this book, but have some tissues nearby just in case you need them (I sure did!).

Crystal's Crafty

 Today I thought I'd give you a little update on all that I'm working on up in the craft room.  Here's a peek at what my table looked like earlier this week.  I spent a lot of time this past weekend cutting fabric into the patterns I wanted to sew in the foreseeable future.  I also decided to start cutting some nine patches out of my scraps, hence the little stack of squares.  If you follow me on Instagram you might recognize the fabric on the top right pile...those two table runners turned out beautifully.

Remember last week when I showed you this pattern?  Well, I sewed all the blocks together...and Molly's not impressed.  At all.  But, it looks pretty good.  These aren't my favorite colors, but they look a lot better in person than they do in the picture.  There's something about this oriental fabric that just doesn't shine through in these pictures.

This quilt top turned out pretty small, but I think it might make a nice table topper or perhaps wall hanging.  We'll see...for now it gets to go in my to-be-quilted pile!

Next up, I decided to try out this pattern, which this style of quilt block is commonly referred to as "log cabin."  I have to say, I love these fabrics and how these blocks are coming together.  I can't wait to see them all together!

Here's just a small peek at my stash of pre-cuts.  I got a lot more the other day, but these beauties will be made into something pretty soon!  And Molly was dyyyyying to lay on them, in case you can't tell.  Naughty girl.

Don't worry, I haven't given up crochet...in fact, I might have went a little overboard the other day.  This top picture is all the clearance yarn I bought...I mean, cheap!  So, it only made sense that I snatch it all up, right?  The second pic is some baby yarn that I intend to experiment with very soon.  Maybe a new style of baby blanket is in store...

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little crafty update...hopefully, I'll have something super exciting to show you again in the near future.  Have a fantastic Friday Eve!

An Invisible Thread

An Invisible Thread was recommended to me by one of my aunts.  This particular aunt has only ever really recommended to me two books: A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  Needless to say, these two are favorites of mine...in fact, the second is my all-time favorite non-fiction.  So, I wholeheartedly took her advice to pick this book up.

This book is exactly what the subtitle says it is...the true story of an 11-year-old panhandler, a busy sales executive, and an unlikely meeting with destiny.  This book is written by Laura Schroff, the busy sales executive, and the book starts off with her walking on the streets of New York City one day and seeing a young boy asking for money.  She keeps walking on past him, but a few paces later, inexplicably, she decides to turn around and offers to take him for a meal.  After this first meeting the two develop a relationship over time and are still close today.

This is one of those books that makes you feel good, while wishing that you did more in your everyday life to help the less fortunate.  I really liked this book, but I wouldn't say it's a new favorite.  If you're looking for a quick, feel-good read, then I would recommend it.  But, don't expect anything earth shattering; it's just a good, solid mini-autobiography.

Weekend Wrap Up and 1984

I hope everyone had a fantastic (rest of last week and) weekend.  This past week I took a mini road trip down to the southeastern part of Oklahoma.  It was one of my bestie's birthday and because David was out of town for work, I thought I'd give her the best present I possibly could...ME!

Here are a few pics from my few days visiting.  She had a cute hot pink and zebra print themed home party.  She also took me to this awwwwesome pizza place in Broken Bow (a little bit of a drive from her house), Grateful Head Pizza.  If you're ever down there...seriously, try it.  And don't forget to take a pic next to the bear carving.  I drove my car around while I was visiting so that we could enjoy the weather with the convertible top down.  Overall, I'd say it was a good visit.  Can't wait to see her again soon!

Now that I'm back to "regular programming" I thought I'd share a book review with you on this Monday afternoon.  Since Monday's never seem to make anyone feel that fantastic...I'll share a book that I would describe as a classic Monday book...1984.

OK, so I never had to read 1984 in school.  I remember hearing about it and I knew the general premise.  So, I decided that now would be a good time to try this one out...I needed a classic for this past month, so why not?

This book was the first dystopian book ever written.  So, if it weren't for 1984 we might not ever have had The Giver series, the Hunger Games trilogy, the Divergent trilogy, the Matched trilogy, the Maze Runner series...well, you get the idea.

This book follows the main character of Winston Smith, a very average man all around.  You follow Winston throughout his middle-aged years in a society where "Big Brother" is constantly watching you.  There are cameras everywhere and absolutely everything is monitored.  Towards the end Winston gets brought in for an "inquiry" type meeting and is detained.  There is definite mind control exercises and pain is used as a negative reinforcement.  It's rather disappointing that Winston succumbs to the torture in the end. 

This is a rather not-feel-good book and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I can appreciate why it was written and understand that it's books like this that mold our future in ways that people think "let's not do that."  I gave this book three out of five stars, simply for the classic and appreciation value.  However, I'm not sure I would recommend it or ever read it again.

Death on the Nile

I'm starting to get why everyone was so enraptured with Agatha Christie.  She really does know how to write a good book!  I really enjoy that her books are short, quick reads that also have a decent complexity in both character development and plot progression.

Death on the Nile is one of Christie's more popular books, it's even been converted into play and movie form.  The main premise surrounds the death of the young Mrs. Linnet Doyle, who is on an Egyptian honeymoon with her new husband.  Linnet's husband is the former fiancé of one of her best friends...who happens to be "stalking" them throughout their honeymoon.  The infamous Hercule Poirot happens to be onboard the same Egyptian cruise and sets to investigating this intriguing case.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this one.  Even more than The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.  I never knew who the murderer was up until the very end and, honestly, I was a bit surprised by the end result.  Needless to say, I would highly recommend this Agatha Christie mystery.  Though, I will admit that I feel a little bit like an old lady while reading these Agatha Christie books, haha!