Books – Page 2 – The Creative Salad

I Think We’re in Trouble

Our five year old has discovered the infinite joy that is Calvin and Hobbes.

She even found my all-time favorite comic strip (shown in the middle):

When David and I were preparing for the arrival of our firstborn, I read a dozen pregnancy and baby development books, while he read Calvin and Hobbes. Looking back, we joke that he was better prepared than I.

That being said, we already had The Talk with our daughter: she is to resist the temptation to mimic any of Calvin’s antics. We’ll see how it goes.

Diversifying Our Cookbook Collection

Being a vegetarian for over two decades means I have amassed a fantastic vegetarian cookbook collection:

The downside to this is that we own very few cookbooks that actually contain meat recipes.

That’s been okay until now though because I have a confession to make: I may have been eating meat over the past two months, but I haven’t actually cooked any meat yet. Two close friends have made me bone broth that I’ve incorporated into recipes, but other than that I’ve been eating out every other day or so to get my meat ration.

So I figure it’s high time to get my elbows dirty and cook meat. To do that, I feel the need to invest in some scrumptious meat-heavy cookbooks for inspiration in the kitchen. I’ve checked some great ones out of the library and plan to slowly buy some for us to own from our local used bookstore.

I need your help. What are your favorite cookbooks that I need to check out?

In the meantime, here are some recipes I want to try:

Pasta and Easy Italian Meat Sauce from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart Living Magazine and

Venetian Lasagne from Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson (love her! I’ve so been enjoying this latest book).

Now the question remains, will I have the guts to cook meat or will I cry all over the dish?! We shall see.

The Perfect Gift for this Mama

I never thought this day would come.

My husband and I, as avid readers, love being surrounded by books.

But in our very small house,
and with our limited book budget,
it doesn’t make sense to accumulate any new books.

And so when I learned about ebook lending from our library, I jumped on the Kindle bandwagon.

And here we are.

Reading has never felt so light or comfortable. (Yes, I am one of those readers who typically reads really long–i.e. heavy–books.)

Heart!

Shown above: Kindle Touch 3G, BUILT Kindle and Kindle Touch Slim Neoprene Sleeve, Verso Clip-On Reading Light for Kindle, and Pegasus by Robin McKinley.

Paper Fun with the Toymaker

This past weekend we attended a fantastic paper craft workshop with artist, illustrator and author Marilyn Scott-Waters of the award winning Toymaker website.

Remember these adorable paper dolls? They came from her site!

I’m excited to have discovered that the instructions for many of the fun projects we did in our class are also featured on her website, so you can do them too!

We made and decorated: fairy books, koi kites, mini books, and paper butterflies.

We even learned how to transform a single sheet of paper into a circle big enough to jump through! (More on that another time.)

Marilyn’s Toymaker website contains a wealth of other fun paper crafts. Check out her Hanukkah Crafts for a gelt box, menorah lighting activity, coloring pages, gift boxes, and more. There is also a fun filled Christmas Crafts page including beautifully illustrated gift cards, paper balls, boxes, and stars to print out and enjoy.

You can also find Marilyn’s affordable books at your local bookstore. She is the author of The Toymaker’s Workshop: Paper Toys You Can Make Yourself and The Toymaker’s Christmas: Paper Toys You Can Make Yourself, two beautifully illustrated books containing hours of paper-crafting entertainment. We’ve had such fun assembling toys from The Toymaker’s Christmas, which she kindly autographed for us!

Be sure to subscribe to her fantastic, FREE newsletter for monthly updates on new paper toy projects. We also highly recommend picking up her books, which feature punch out paper toys (no scissors involved!). We are hooked!

Winter Books

We’ve pulled the winter books from our shelves and placed them in easily accessible locations. With them always out, we remember to delve in and treasure these holiday reads during this time of year (the holiday season passes so quickly, doesn’t it?!). We have baskets overflowing with tales about late night owling walks, first snows, short days, and holiday treats.

Here are some our favorite winter and holiday books as we head into December.

First, books our daughter loves, then some special ones that mama’s particularly fond of to get us excited and ready for the holidays.

Wintry books for kids:

Winter Is the Warmest Season, full of hot chocolate, warm snuggles, and thick layers of blankets and clothes, reminds us that winter doesn’t have to feel cold.

The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice explains in lyric prose what the winter solstice is and how it has been observed by various cultures throughout history; additionally it shows how many contemporary holiday traditions were borrowed from ancient solstice celebrations.

Poppleton In Winter, from the beloved series by Cynthia Rylant, this Poppleton story is full of new friends, birthdays sleigh rides and winter art projects.

Henry and Mudge In The Sparkle Days, Henry and Mudge and a Very Merry Christmas, and Henry and Mudge and The Snowman Plan, three other tales by Cynthia Rylant celebrating holiday traditions such as caroling, feeding the birds, baking cutout cookies, and snuggling in front of the fire. Such simple yet joyous activities that resonate with kids.

Owl Moon, a beloved tale from my childhood, about a little girl on a late night winter walk with her father in search of owls. (We’ve been reenacting this story in our living room all week, but in our version there’s an owl baby too!)

Apple Tree Christmas tells the tale of a family celebrating Christmas on a small farm in rural southern Michigan in the late 1800′s.

Jan Brett’s classic re-tales The Mitten and The Hat feature her beautifully detailed illustrations that convey a story in themselves!

The Snowy Day just because we live in a place without snow doesn’t mean we can’t go on a snowy adventure with this classic winter tale.

Yaroslava’s beautiful, stylized yet simplistic illustrations make Alvin Tresselt’s rendition of The Mitten a must buy for the artwork alone (even though I prefer Jan Brett’s version, above, more overall for the quality and clarity of the story).

Two beloved Angelina Ballerina books, Angelina’s Christmas and Angelina Ice Skates, both of which our daughter adores and we find ourselves reading all year, not just in the winter.

I Spy Christmas: A Book of Picture Riddles for hours of eye candy and riddling for kids of all ages.

Snow a simple, beautiful poem about winter by Cynthia Rylant.

We love them all!

Seasonal books for the mamas:

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More is full of tips about creating a more eco-groovy holiday, including gift ideas, tasty recipes, and many holiday projects relying on recycled materials. One of my favorite holiday books for sure!

The Farm Chicks Christmas: Merry Ideas for the Holidays contains many creative, festive and repurposed projects; I especially love the idea of stuffing packages and cushioning your presents with individually wrapped mints or candies.

Country Living Merry & Bright: 301 Festive Ideas for Celebrating Christmas contains lots of eye candy and easy decorating ideas to celebrate Christmas Country Living style.

Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts: 225 Inspired Projects for Year-Round Celebrations, a compilation of the best Martha Stewart Living Magazine holiday crafts for celebrations all year long. This book contains two fantastic sections focusing on Hanukkah and Christmas crafts! (For my sneak peak inside this book, click here.)