It’s the time of year (at least in Minnesota anyway) when the gardeners are all in limbo. The cold crops can go into the ground but nothing else until May 15th! What do we do while we wait? We need something to make the time go by faster- something that has to do with gardening so we can be outside and at least pretend we are tending to our garden. Most of us have the soil prepped, containers, etc. lugged out, washed off and ready to go. What else can we do that has to do with gardening? Ah-ha! Let’s build something!

The Vegetable Gardener’s Book of Building Projects would definitely make a good Father’s Day present! Women that can swing a hammer will appreciate it’s simplicity but really it was the men in my life who, when found this book laying on their respective countertops, instantly picked it up and began thumbing through it. My dad said he wanted to build something over the weekend and decided to make the potting bench on page 58. He emailed me later in the day and said this:

This project was easy as pie.  It took about 1/2 hour to build the frame, and another 1/2 hour for the rest of it.  I substituted 1×6″ deck boards for the 2×6″ they called for and it still came out pretty good.  The instructions called for about 100 screws, but I bought a small box that had 80 in it, and I used EXACTLY 80.

Here are his photos of his potting bench:

The frame

Completed!

He used old boards from part of the deck he just dismantled. I think you can see that it turned out pretty good and you don’t even necessarily have to use all new materials!

There are some easy projects in the book and some that are more advanced. There are a lot of things in the book like the T-Pea Tower, Compost Bin, Raised Beds and Sifter are projects of things  that we already have and so we wouldn’t need to make them. But there are still plenty of things in the book that we don’t have yet (there are 39 projects included) like the A-Frame Bean and Pea Support, Window Box Planter, Welcoming Arbor and SOLAR DRYER!! Also, there is a even a blueprint for a Flower Press- something I have wanted for a very long time now! I’m sure this book could keep us busy for several years. It is well worth the price.

All of the projects have great photos and illustrations that accompany each description. It’s a very well thought out book and is not at all confusing. The phrase “Simple and easy to use” comes to mind when flipping through the book. I think my dad’s example of what he made in an hour shows how easy the book is to use. Granted he does have some power tool knowledge but is by no means a professional carpenter.

My son had his own project going on this weekend. He wanted a gate for his garden like we have on our garden (yes, he has his own garden). Luckily on pages 78 and 81 there are plans for a garden gate and gate latch. We used the plan for the gate latch since we had to make him a dude-sized gate.

Here’s the back of the gate:

And the front:

We already have some Adirondack chairs but they are plastic. I’d rather have some wood ones to go with the rest of the hand-made things we have around the yard. Maybe my husband will put some together using the plans in the book. They sure would make a nice Mother’s Day present!

Storey Publishing gave me a copy of this book to giveaway. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below sharing with us whether or not you have ever built anything for your yard or garden.

I will pick one winner at random next Sunday night, April 25th so the deadline will be April 25th at 5pm CST. Good luck! Contest is open to US residents only, sorry!

UPDATE: Congrats to the winner- Angela!

In some ways, the title Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life is misleading. When I first came across the book on Amazon, I didn’t know who Kim Severson was (I’m not really a foodie and I don’t regularly read The New York Times) so I pictured the author to be someone who had been raised by several nannies, private tutors, boarding school instructors, etc. The old television show Silver Spoons came to mind and honestly I thought this was about a woman who had been raised by other women, silver spoons in hand, spoon feeding her. I was very pleased when after reading the 3rd paragraph in the book my preconceptions were completely shattered. I smiled as I read Severson describe the agony of being passed by a fancy car as she chugged her  rust-bucket of a car up a daunting hill. I instantly knew this was the kind of woman I could relate to because I have definitely been there.

The book is a memoir and includes bites from childhood as well as a few nibbles from the college years, but most of the memoir takes place during the critical time in a woman’s life when she is just establishing her professional career. Severson, who admits to being in love with booze for a portion of her life, spares us the nasty details and coaxes us to trust her, that it was bad. Coming from that sort of tangled past myself, I was sort of hoping for a little more on the subject. However, now that I think about it, I’m not sure I would be willing to uncork that bottle in a tell-all book myself. In fact, as a woman working on establishing my own professional career right now, I know Severson was right to skip the gory details. It shows class.

The book is extremely interesting to me because I am pretty much obsessed with the city of Berkeley and San Francisco, the culinary scene there and Alice Waters in particular. Severson offers several juicy tidbits on what Alice Waters is like in person. I was somewhat afraid to read all of it because Alice Waters is currently my biggest hero. I was worried that I might read something that would bring that all crashing down. Did I? Not quite but it did get a little scary! Alice is after all just a person and this is one of the great points Severson makes in the book. No matter how high a pedestal you put someone on, no matter how much you look up to them or are intimidated by them, always remember that they are just people and that we all started somewhere. No use getting our panties in a wad over semi-celebrity broo-ha-ha when we meet these people. Most likely if your expectations are as high as Mount Everest you will eventually be disappointed. Nobody is perfect.

My second day of reading the book, I found myself using an analogy with my students influenced by a particular part of the book. My students are not culinary students but I think we can all learn many lessons from all thing cooking-related. Severson tells a story about tasting chocolates for four days so that she can write a review on boxed chocolates for Valentine’s Day. After tasting chocolates non-stop the staff has to take a break from their sugar comas to taste a little braised rabbit for another assignment. Severson recounts speaking up that she felt the mustard sauce served with the rabbit was much too strong. She feels proud as her fellow colleagues all agree with her. That is until her boss Michael pipes up that the rabbit needed to be retested in the morning. He tells them it’s not the sauce, it’s their palate. The sugar had altered it. In the morning the rabbit in mustard sauce tastes perfect.

This is a lesson we can all learn from. For my students who are training to be graphic designers, I proposed that their own body of work was the chocolate- their comfort zone. All day, week after week, using the same stand-by colors, the same fonts, all of it begins to taste the same. When they suddenly introduce something new without readjusting their palate or taking a step back, the taste can be shocking. Instead, I suggest they have a little chocolate, but be sure and lay off the chocolate every now and then. Take a break, step back, breathe. Introduce something new slowly. See if it works. Also, don’t judge a new idea blindly. Sleep on it, give it a fresh taste (or “fresh eyes”) in the morning. Don’t be so quick to judge- see what the more experienced people in the room think first. Learn from them.

I learn from the more experienced people in my life everyday. Back to Alice Waters, who inspires me to care about what we eat and more importantly what our kids eat, is a major force behind the White House initiative to get our kids to eat healthy. Severson gives credit where credit is due. As much as I admire the First Lady, it was really Alice that has pushed and pushed for our government to take responsibility for what our kids are eating at school. Before there was Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution there was Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard. I am grateful that so much of this book is dedicated to her and I encourage Severson to write an entire book dedicated to Waters.

Chapter 4 is titled Popular Girls. And what woman did not want to be a popular girl at some point in her life? Severson writes:

I had one brief, glorious run as a popular girl in the early 1970s, when life was all Pixy Stix and slumber parties. Me and my girls ruled Thornbranch Avenue, one of several cul-de-sacs that punctuated a new subdivision on the western edge of Houston. My mom had a tricked-out shag flip that approximated Florence Henderson’s in her later Brady Bunch period. . .I was fully engaged in the carefree life of a child in the 1970s, when a girl could travel without seat belts, play on the street until well after dark and purchase Tareyton cigarettes for her dad without one question from the man at the Stop-n-Go. We felt invincible, running out the screen door every morning with the kind of freedom I would crave the rest of my life. We climbed onto our banana seats, grabbed the chopper handlebars and rode without worry, leaving our bikes on the front lawns when it got dark, knowing they’d be there in the morning.

I’ve only read a few other authors who, when I read their words, a movie instantaneously plays in my head. Hunter S. Thompson comes to mind. Severson, here, is on the same level. Maybe it’s because I can relate (Severson is a good 10 years older than me but because I was raised in Nebraska, always a decade behind the times, our childhoods were similar). But the stories here are ones that make me nod my head, smiling to myself, and the lessons learned make me wish I would have read this book in my 20s and not my 30s.

I’m always on the lookout for stories coming out of post-Katrina New Orleans and there is one included in this book. Severson talks about Mrs. Chase and the 2-year shutdown of her famous restaurant, Dooky’s. To this day, I really don’t think people realize just how bad Katrina changed that great city. And what’s more heartbreaking is that I don’t think many people actually care about the aftermath or progress. Severson describes what it was like walking around New Orleans soon after Katrina happened. She introduces us to Mrs. Chase, an amazing woman who is the most “glass half full” person I have ever read about. she’s truly inspiring. Anybody that can see the positive in such a disaster is truly an amazing person. Reading about Mrs. Chase’s opinion on Katrina and its aftermath is incredibly inspiring.

Throughout the book, it almost seemed as if somewhere, somehow, my path must have crossed with Severson’s at some point. Maybe it was the day I walked past the San Francisco Chronicle when I was visiting my brother in 2002. Maybe it was when she was interviewing Miss Edna Lewis in Atlanta, Georgia and I was there traipsing around Buckhead on one of my day trips from Montgomery. Perhaps it was at the Minneapolis Airport when she was flying in to visit relatives up around her homeland of Cumberland, Wisconsin. Maybe that’s what I like so much about this book. We’ve been to a lot of the same places, have a lot in common and admire the same people. All it seemed except maybe one. . .

I was a fan of Rachel Ray for about a month. Then it seemed like she turned into this behemoth overnight- new show, lots of new books, cookware line, olive oil line, etc., etc. It’s hard for me to trust what someones motives are when it is so much so quick. I’m the last person to jump on a fad bandwagon. In fact, if something is popular I tend to resist it on principle. The somewhat “last straw” for me with Rachel Ray happened when I was watching her show and I noticed that every time something “exciting” happened on the show (look at how this dish turned out!) the same male voice would yell, “WOO!” or “YEAH!” and then the audience would follow. I immediately associated it with canned laughter and realized it was most likely a floor director or perhaps even a straight-up hired yelp man whose job was simply to drum up fake enthusiasm. I realize it’s TV and all but still, it seems a little dishonest, shallow or fake. I just couldn’t get over it and therefore stopped watching. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s an honest gal, I just don’t think the theatrics are necessary. But I guess I never realized where and what Rachel Ray came from. After reading her background in this book I have to admit, my opinion of her has changed. I think she deserves it all. She’s worked for it.

Summing up what I’ve read is easy. It’s an excellent book. Juicy tidbits, great story-telling, yummy recipes as an added bonus at the end of each chapter. . . it’s everything I desire in a book. Most importantly, it’s about strength. The strength to get over these hang-ups we women sometimes face. For example, I was completely nervous when sitting down to write this review. I worried about reviewing a book written by someone who writes for The New York Times. Then is dawned on me that if I was nervous about that then the entire point of the book was lost on me. I was forgetting what Severson was saying so clearly- quit worrying about being good enough. Stop trying to keep up with the Jones’. No more comparison between you and that person you really admire! You will only drive yourself insane! You look up to them and they look up to someone else and them to someone else and on and on . . break the cycle! Be yourself, be free and you will be happy.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I really like finding and supporting smaller publishers. You have to respect what they do. By publishing lesser known writers, they are providing us with a true cross-section of what our world is like. More opinions= a freer society in my opinion. I came across Storey Publishing a few months ago. I love their mission statement:

To serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Storey Publishing publishes a lot of well-known gardening books but I wanted to find something a little different. I found Don’t Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps and knew I wanted to give it a try. Free plants from scratch? Yes, please!
My first impression of the book was that from a design standpoint, it’s well done. The use of color,  illustrations, typography and layout is top-notch. That being said, I wish they could have incorporated at least some photographs. I would love to see what a Meyer Lemon tree looks like when grown indoors. In a way, it almost makes it seem unbelievable that these seeds can be grown indoors without the “proof” of pictures. This is a minor complaint but I am always a sucker for good color photography.

The book is 150 short pages and divided into 6 chapters. There is a little how-to basic gardening in the beginning and then the book is divided according to vegetables, fruits and nuts, herbs and spices and the regions of Latin America and Asia. The author warns in the introduction that most seeds grown outside of the US that have been imported have gone through an irradiation process, killing the DNA and therefor making the seeds sterile. In my neck of the woods, we don’t have a lot of fruits available for purchase that are not grown outside the US so my options are a little limited.

There are some tips I’ve heard before such as growing and eating your own bean sprouts (yummy and cheap) and then some I have not heard before (sweet corn sprouts, anyone?). There are plenty of plants discussed in the book that I have never heard of before (loquat, litchi, daikon, etc.) so it is educational, however, I’m not sure how I would ever get my hands on something like that in my region.

Who this book is for:

• People in urban areas who want to grow a few houseplants for free.
• People who have children and are very interested in teaching them about how plants grow but don’t have a garden.
• Retired folks with a lot of time on their hands who want to grow something exotic.
• People with patience, space and access to a lot of interesting fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts and spices (non-imported).

I definitely want to get my hands on a Meyer Lemon and grow one of those indoors. It would be neat to take it outside in the summer and bring it indoors over the winter like we do our 5-year old Habanero.  According to the book, it may bloom in its 4th year. Wow- that’s a long wait. But I think it would be worth it!!

Storey Publishing was very kind in providing me with a copy of this book to giveaway on my blog.

Because I am mailing the book myself, I can only open the contest to U.S. readers at this time. The winner will be announced Friday morning, April 9th. Deadline to enter is Midnight, Thursday night.

To enter, please leave a comment below telling me if you have ever started anything indoors from seed with kitchen scraps. (If you haven’t, just tell me what you would like to try to grow indoors from kitchen scraps.)

Good luck!

**Update** The winner of this giveaway via Random.org is #3, Jessica. Congrats!

I ordered a couple of new gardening books this year as I usually do every year. It seems like I am usually disappointed with the books I’ve received in the past because the books never really say anything new or maybe it’s just that the pictures aren’t as good as they should be. Mostly it’s probably because the style the book is written in doesn’t fit me. But I have finally found a gardening book that fits me perfectly and it’s put together beautifully!

Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces is a great book for beginners or intermediate gardeners geared towards those who want to do it organically and are working with smaller spaces. But even if you have the space, the book still applies to you- it’s just a bonus for those of you that want to do it on your deck. There are tips on what to grow, how to grow it, troubleshooting and oh yes, even recipes and long-term storage. The pictures will make you swoon first, and then make you jump online so you can order up everything from various seed stores so you can grow what she’s growing.

The author, Gayla Trail (@yougrowgirl on Twitter) won me over instantly in the introduction when she began talking about sustainability and urban farming in Cuba. I’ve known about this for a while now but I don’t think most people would have guessed how good the Cubans have it. She writes, “Right now, all over the world, urban gardeners are successfully contributing to local food economies in inspiring ways. In Havana, Cuba, a reported 50 to 80 percent of the city’s fresh produce is grown in urban gardens- all of it organically grown!” Think about that! The people of Havana, Cuba are eating better than most people in the U.S.! I don’t know about you, but I want to give my family the best and that is why we garden.

With this book, there are no excuses. Trail even has examples of things you can grow inside. One of her ideas is growing earthy sprouts indoors on a windowsill in a recycled container. I planted the seeds Sunday. . . it is now Tuesday. . . I am not even kidding you- look what happened in 48 hours:

I’m so excited! Soon I am going to have micro-greens to just snip and toss into my salad. Yum! Super easy and super healthy.

The author takes a lot of the guessing work out of it for you and makes numerous suggestions on what things to plant together. One combination I will be trying for sure is a suggestion shown on page 21: violas, strawberries and “Purple Ruffles” basil all in a strawberry jar. The look is very antiquated which I sometime like to go for but if that isn’t your style she has plenty of contemporary suggestions as well.

She tells you how to make new plants from cuttings (very easy), how to harden your seedlings off, how to grow an edible windbreak, how to understand light, and on and on and on. I guess what I like best about this book is she tells you the basics in plain English and then moves on. There aren’t entire chapters dedicated to each and every single pest problem, disease, etc. imaginable complete with Latin translations and all that other boring stuff. I get bored with that sort of thing. If I have a problem I Google it. I don’t dig out my gardening encyclopedias and search page after page. Also, I didn’t major in Latin or Botany for a reason- I have a short attention span!

This book is great for people who are creative, want to learn the basics or a little more about gardening and appreciate Rage Against the Machine and other musical references (there’s a section in Chapter 6 titled Know Your Enemy).

This is definitely going to turn into my worn-out “old stand-by” gardening book. I really do love it and highly recommend it. Now get growing!

I’ve always been interested in the Amish way of life. There is definitely something very appealing to me about this or any other minimalist approach to life so I was very interested in receiving The Amish Cook’s Baking Book.The book is co-authored by Lovina Eicher (who lives in an Amish community and learned to bake from her mother) and writer Kevin Williams. Eicher provides the recipes and a little back-story and Williams provides commentary on Amish history and way of life. Together, they have written this and other cookbooks that feature recipes from Lovina’s mother and other Amish women.

The first thing I noticed about this book when I received it from Andrews McMeel Publishing was the size. It really is the perfect size for setting on your counter while you bake. Call me picky, but I don’t care for cookbooks that lack pictures and I have a hard time liking cookbooks of odd shape and size- such as tall and skinny. This one is short and long, so the pages lay flat no matter if you are reading a recipe at the beginning of the book or at the end. The pictures are nice and the overall layout of the book is well done.

The recipe titles are charming and invite you to give them a try. Cookies named “crybaby cookies” or “$250 cookies”. Unfortunately, for a lot of these names, Eicher is unsure how the names came to be. Williams mentions this in his introduction and uses the analogy of the “telephone game”. Because the Amish are such eager recipe swappers, sometimes the name gets lost in all the eager trading! As I kneaded my dough, I daydreamed where the names came from.

There are a lot of books popular right now on the subject of baking bread fast. I’m not interested in that. I enjoy the kneading and long rise times. I enjoy watching something transform in my sunny little window. Amish women have a lot of time to dedicate to baking and so their recipes for baking are not rushed. This appeals to me. I like to make a day of it when I bake bread! Also, I don’t own a Cuisinart, a KitchenAid or any other fancy motorized gear which most Amish do not use either. So many times I have bought cookbooks and then I read through the recipes and have to skim past the ones that say, “In the bowl of an electric mixer . . .” or I have to adapt it to my own way of baking. I didn’t run into that problem with this book.

What I did run into with this book was an ingredient problem. A lot of the recipes call for lard or vegetable shortening. Normally, I do not use either although I have been known to throw some bacon lard in a brownie recipe (not a fan) out of frugality. I am new enough to baking that I am unsure if butter can be substituted in all recipes. It would have been nice to see a side note or two mentioning substitutions for those ingredients since a lot more people are getting away from using shortening.

I tested 2 recipes from this book. The first was the recipe for Sweet Breakfast Rolls. Eicher says her husband likes a cinnamon roll or sweet roll in the morning with his hot chocolate or coffee. And so do I! In fact, cinnamon rolls are one of my all-time favorite treats and I am constantly on the lookout for the be-all end-all of cinnamon roll recipes. Unfortunately, this one is not it. But ironically, it was the quickest cinnamon roll recipe I have ever made. There was no 2nd rise- only a quick initial rise. This is a good recipe for someone who wants to be eating homemade cinnamon rolls within an hour. Perhaps if I let them rise a little longer they would have puffed up a bit more, but by following the recipe I found them to be quite dense. It may have had something to do with the weather. The frosting recipe is fabulous and I will definitely be using that again.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to try one of the kid-friendly recipes with Andrew in the kitchen. Two desserts in one day, it’s a work hazard, I know. We made the 10-Minute Cookie Bars and they did indeed live up to their name, but they were a bit crumbly and didn’t come out of the pan very well. I hope to try several more of the recipes in this book (Honey Bars will probably be first up). There are several recipes that certainly look interesting.

My mother especially liked looking through this book and hinted she would like it for Mother’s Day. A lot of the recipes are similar to ones made by older generations. The Rhubarb Custard Pie jumped out at her as well as the recipe for Sugar Cookies which she says is the sugar cookie recipe she has been looking for for ages. This particular recipe uses vegetable oil and cream of tarter. She says they are very soft and delicious! My mother also said, “Boy, if you like to bake pies like I do then this is the book for you!” Personally, I hope to bake more pies than cupcakes this year!

In conclusion, I think this is the kind of cookbook that would be best-suited for someone who has some experience baking. A few of the recipes are a tad vague, calling for “enough bread flour to make a stiff dough”, etc. instead of an actual measurement. I think this will frustrate baking newbies. However, for the experienced baker, the book offers a fresh perspective. I really appreciate that this book teaches both how to bake and encourages us to live more simply by giving us a peek at the Amish way of life.

I am giving away a copy of this book to one random reader.

To enter, leave a comment below answering the following question:

When you bake bread, do you measure the flour exact or do you add a little here and there until the dough looks like it is the right consistency?

For a second chance to win, you can tweet the giveaway. Please leave an additional comment below telling me that you did so. I am mailing this book out myself and at the time am only able to mail to U.S. residents. The contest will close Sunday, March 14th at midnight. One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org. Good luck!

UPDATE:  Congratulations to #4 Amy!

People who live in big houses have problems too. This is what I tell myself every time I start to feel cooped-up in this little 700-square foot house the 4 of us share. Sometimes we need to be reminded why we live the way we do and sometimes it’s good to remind others that quality of living doesn’t have to be compromised when we make a decision to reduce spending.

I have often been asked, “How do you live in such a small house?” But then I tell them what my mortgage is every month and the look of shock on their face usually makes me feel a whole lot better. I know they are considering their own mortgage versus mine and maybe even wondering to themselves if it might not be worth it after all. Other people are content to live in debt up to their eyeballs in order to have the things they have. Personally, I enjoy living without all that stress.

I think most Americans are trained to want the big house, big car, big boat, etc. and so when they find themselves struggling to pay the bills they are confused because really, this way of life has become so ingrained in our culture that we don’t know any different. It’s necessary to take a step back every now and then and really evaluate what is a need and a want, to evaluate frugality, our commitment to our health and well-being and our stewardship of the land. If we need a little reminder (or the education in the first place), we can turn to books. One of the more recent books I’ve read on this subject is The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better By Chris Farrell.

According to Farrell, being green and being frugal are synonymous. I couldn’t agree more. Farrell encourages us to make choices based on what is affordable and sustainable. For example, my husband and I reduce our use of the car significantly during the Spring, Summer and Autumn months. We tote ourselves and kids around on bikes using a bike trailer. It made sense for us to shop for a bike trailer that was inexpensive yet safe and durable. Taking the time to research the right choice rather than jump in the car and run downtown to buy the biggest, fastest, flashiest model falls in line with Farrell’s ideology that frugality should also be sustainable. The item purchased needs to be inexpensive, yes but it also needs to last. Otherwise, what’s preventing us from having to go down and buy a new one when the cheap one falls apart after one summer of heavy use? Having to buy two cheap ones in two years costs more than buying one durable one in the long-term and is better for the environment because there is less manufacturing and shipping involved. Has anybody else ever wondered if certain companies make their products flimsy and crappy on purpose so that we HAVE to buy more?

Here’s a little secret that a lot of people don’t know. Once you get used to living frugally, the smallest things then become “big deals” and happiness comes easier. This is where the Live Better part of the title comes in. Think of a child who gets ice cream everyday. After a while, is the ice cream a treat or is it just routine? What then needs to be done to give that child a treat, to bring happiness? A banana split? Triple-decker cone? When does it become enough? By limiting some of the things that were once considered “special” (a time before people just busted out the credit card out of habit), we are able to allow ourselves that happiness in a more frugal way and the stress is gone. It may sound difficult at first, but by adopting the new frugality mentality you can really improve your quality of life. Reading Farrell’s book is extremely motivating. After reading it, I want to see how much I can save and challenge myself to be as frugal as possible.

The book does have useful information for people from various economic classes but the majority of advice seems to be directed to those in the upper classes. I do not fit into those classes but it doesn’t mean I can’t learn from the same book. It is a little frustrating to read that an ideal savings would be the amount one would need for an entire year’s living expenses. I can’t even fathom saving up that kind of money, and if I could I would probably consider moving someplace warm and third world but I guess it is an ideal I should strive for someday.

Really this book is for anyone just starting out that knows nothing about finances or for the person with a larger net worth but who knows nothing about living frugally and wants to start. For people who have been living green and managing their own finances (people who understand what a Roth IRA is) for years now, it might not be the right book. I only say this because I let my dad read this book and he fits the latter profile and said as much to me in a quick paragraph.

Who this book would be perfect for:

-People like my brother who make a fairly good chunk of change but have no clue what to do with it and have never thought much about sustainability.

-People like my husband and I who need a reminder every now and then why we need to keep saving and keep living green.

-People like the folks down the street who are newly retired and thinking about becoming more green but want a little more motivation, resources and information.

-People that I work with whom have enough money they can consider paying for their kids’ college with cash, charitable gift annuities, make major investments, etc.

It’s a pretty wide cross-section.

Perhaps my favorite section of the book is the one titled, “Investing in Yourself”. Farrell writes, “Our most important investment is in our education and career, skills and knowledge- what economists call human capital.” He goes on to explain that we are only worth as much as we are able to create, produce or otherwise bring to the market. He emphasizes with a quote from Fischer Black, “A raw human being has about as much economic value as an uncultivated piece of land in the wilderness.” This isn’t depressing to me, it’s motivational!

I am giving away one copy of this book.

In his book, Farrell mentions the benefits of renting over owning in today’s market. For example, when one rents, it is much easier for one to “pick up and move” in order to chase after a particular job.

In order to win, please leave a comment below answering the following question:

Do you believe it is better to rent a home than to own in today’s economy?

You can enter more than once by tweeting this giveaway (please let me know you did so in a separate comment below).

Good Luck!

Fine Print:

Winner will be chosen via Random.org. The book will be mailed to you from the publisher, however the review here is the sole opinion of mine and was not influenced in any way by the publisher. They simply allowed me to read and review the book and have agreed to provide one copy to a lucky winner at my request. The contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.  The contest will close at Midnight on March 10th. I will contact the winner and announce it here.

UPDATE:  Congratulations to Devona, winner of this giveaway!

I love this book. I love it for the Dr. Strangelove reference in the Table of Contents. I love it for the cover art. I love it for the countless tips that are actually incredibly useful and not just more of the same ol’ same ol’. But most of all I love it because I truly believe this country would be a better place if more people got over the idea that they have to go into debt to have an “amazing” wedding and actually started their marriage off honestly, frugally and yes, a little offbeat.

I’m probably going to piss a lot of people off here, but I feel like I need to say it. You don’t NEED the big gigantic wedding, okay? You don’t NEED to put your parents in debt and whine like a baby that you need a bigger budget so that you can have surf and turf instead of chicken and salad served “family style”. You don’t need to have the 5-tier cake. Cake is cake, okay?

I’m glad I got that out of the way. Now, if you’re thinking you don’t want to read this book because you don’t need another holier-than-though liberal telling you how to plan your wedding, don’t worry. The author is NOTHING like that. In fact, she explains ever so sweetly in the introduction that she wants “to encourage you to craft a wedding that’s honest and authentic- not to tell you there’s anything wrong with coveting a white dress or recognizing your faith in your ceremony”.  So relax! This book is inspiring and encouraging and something a little different from the traditional book on the topic of weddings. I think any bride could glean a multitude of inspiration from this book, not just the tattooed and mohawk-sportin’ ones.

Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides is the 2nd edition by Ariel Meadow Stallings. She also has a killer blog on the same topic (as well as a blog for offbeat mommas!). The author is hilarious and the structure is appealing. One can read it cover to cover and get a chronological account of the author’s own wedding extravaganza, otherwise one can jump around from chapter to chapter (there are 43 mini chapters).

There are countless tips in this book that will really save you. For example, the author mentions that using evite.com might sound like a brilliant idea to manage RSVPs but to keep in mind that the comments cannot be moderated. Something like this is huge! You don’t want someone saying anything ugly or inappropriate online in front of your entire guest list. Something like that could seriously stress you out and you have enough stress as it is!

But there is more than just e-advice. There is real hands-on advice featuring ways to get crafty and pull off a stunning frugal wedding. The author interviewed several people across the country who were offbeat brides or grooms and include their advice, tips and stories on almost every page. I wish I would have known about this book when I had my own frugal and offbeat wedding 5 years ago!

One of my favorite pieces of advice is on page 43. The “smidge above” rule. When it comes to makeup, says the author, “. . .bridal beauty preparations should, at the most, be only a smidge more than your typical beauty routine.” So true! I don’t know how many times I have looked at wedding pictures from various brides who don’t normally wear makeup in everyday life (as I know them) but then went buck wild and hired a professional makeup artist to “glamour shot them up”. I always look at those pictures and think, who is that? A lot of the times, too much makeup can be distracting and look really plastic. To think some people pay all that money to have makeup applied that is practically dripping off come reception time in scary to me. Be who you are! You are the same person when you wake up tomorrow, you don’t need to be transformed to have a good wedding. He’s marrying you for who you are. If heavy makeup is an everyday occurrence for you, then by all means- go for the airbrushed-on glitz fest!

Remember, the average couple in America spends $30,000 on their wedding. Is it worth it for one day? It blows my mind how so many people happily accept that kind of money from a parent to spend on their wedding, almost expecting the parent to take out a second mortgage on their house just so they can have their “dream wedding.” I think that if you read this book, you might have a new perspective. You might see that a beautiful wedding is possible with less money. Remember, I am just as married (my wedding budget was $1,000) as the person who spent $100,000 and I hate to say it but I think my chances of staying together are higher. We have a hell of a lot less stress on us financially.

Now for the FUN PART! Seal Press is giving away 5 copies of this book!

All you have to do to be entered to win is post a comment below answering the following question:

Which season do you think is the best to get married during? Are you a fan of the fall? Are summer weddings at the lake a blast? Does Spring say “new beginning” for you?

For a second chance to win, you can tweet this giveaway (but please let me know you did so in a separate comment).

The contest will close at midnight, March 6th. I will post the winners on March 7th. Books will be mailed directly from the publisher. I will contact you for your shipping address if you are a winner.

The contest is open to anyone living in either the U.S. or Canada.  Also, you do not need to be a bride-to-be to enter. This book would make a great gift!

Update: This contest is closed. The winners were:

#16 Red

#98 Lauren Dixon

#74 Kelly

#30 Gabrielle

#89 Victoria

An email has been sent to the winners with instructions. Please check your spam folders if you do not see it, it may have gotten stuck there. Thanks everyone for commenting!

My husband and I are always looking for ways to merge education with everyday activities. It’s one of the reasons I do so much cooking around here- you can incorporate math, chemistry, nutrition and reading all into one activity. But cooking from The Astronaut’s Cookbook takes it one step further by letting you join astronomy, history and more. Our son is three and while many people think that may be too young to learn about space, I would have to disagree. Never underestimate the power of young minds! Andrew can tell you that Mars has two moons- Phobos and Diemos. I didn’t know this before. My husband taught my son and my son taught me while we were looking through this cookbook! The book serves several purposes- it is a cookbook for me, an educational tool for my son and an interesting book of tales my husband enjoys reading with my son.

The book includes something for everybody. If you are vegetarian, check out the Kidney Bean Burgers on page 192. But don’t let that scare you away if you are not into healthy eating, there are plenty of recipes for those of us that eat meat like Paula Hall’s Chipotle-Lime Marinated Grilled Porkchops or SS Sliced Beef With BBQ Sauce. There are recipes for those that like Southern food like Linda and Dick Gordon’s Crawfish Etoufee and Gloria Mongan’s Kahlua Grilled Shrimp on Angel Hair Pasta. Emeril Lagasse and Rachel Ray have collaborated with NASA to come up with tasty recipes that are compatible in microgravity and those recipes are in here as well. I’ll probably end up trying Rachel’s Spicy Thai Chicken with Red Peppers and Basil first.

The cookbook isn’t what I expected, it’s better. It does tell you how to make astronaut ice cream if you’re interested (although it was actually unpopular with the astronauts) but it certainly does not focus on dehydrated or freeze-dried meals only. There are several, several recipes in here you can make for your family without special equipment. The book also explains the how and why behind food consumed in space, such as what is safe (anything with an excessive crumb factor is not ), but also includes interesting and funny anecdotal information about various astronauts’ tastes, complaints and desires. Not only do you get the recipe, but you also get to know the various astronauts through reading this book.

The book is excellent for parents but educators will find this cookbook useful and interesting when it comes to lesson planning as well. For example, microgravity can be explained while demonstrating various ways the astronauts eat in space. That is what I did with my son today. First I went to the store and got a few things- zipperlock bags, labels, Velcro and various space-okay snacks. Then we made a little “space shuttle snack station”.

We used dehydrated apricots, yogurt covered almonds, alphabet cookies (there is a recipe for butter cookies in the cookbook but we need to eat these up first) and alphabet cereal. I explained to Andrew how the astronauts eat cereal with powdered milk and a bag in space. You’ll have to read the book to learn how they do this, I don’t want to spoil all the surprises! We used Velcro tabs to attach the bags to the snack station then put Velcro tabs on his shirt so he could attach the snack packs to his body astronaut style! I suppose I could have made it a little more realistic if I had a vacuum sealer but I’m dealing with what I have. Andrew really enjoyed it regardless!

I really encourage your household to invest in this cookbook especially if you are space fanatics! You will really like it. If you are an educator, I think you will find plenty of source material in here for class projects, activities, etc. and plenty of recipes you can cook for yourself at home. I think anytime you can buy a book that serves a dual purpose, it’s a good investment. In this case the book serves more than a dual purpose in my opinion. History buffs, sci-fi enthusiasts, gastronomical cooking whizzes and more will be inspired by this one-of-a-kind cookbook!

Although I do not think I am suffering from a midlife crisis yet, I have a little confession of my own. I love finding publishers that go where other publishers won’t and Seal Press is one of them. Seal Press publishes books written by women for women. This book is definitely for women. Unless any of you men out there want to read about menopause, mother-daughter relationship stuff, what we fantasize about at 2am, etc, etc. On second thought- you might want to know that! Yeah, maybe not.

Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis by Amy Ferris (a name that sounds young to me, but she’s not that young, she’s going through menopause after all) is a collection of essays. Basically, it’s what she thought about at 2am when she was lying awake suffering through hot flashes and insomnia. She had a lot on her plate at the time, her mother was falling deeper into the depths of dementia, her brother and her were not on speaking terms, friends were coming and going as she became more honest. I can relate to some of it. Not all of it. . . yet. I’m sure that day is right around the corner for many of us though. Reading this book sort of helped me to prepare for it.

When I am reading essays, I look for wit and this book has a lot of it. If you can handle the excessively used f-word you will have no problem with this book. If not, pass on it. I guess I was a little shocked with the language. Not because I’m that prude (although I can be when it comes to books) but I just wasn’t expecting it. The title threw me off for one. Marrying George Clooney. Really? Isn’t that who good girls fantasize about? The way Ferris writes, a title like Marrying Glenn Danzig or Hunter S. Thompson seems more appropriate. I suppose neither of them is really all that attractive (and Thompson is dead so that wouldn’t make sense). Okay then, at least maybe Brad Pitt. The other thing that threw me off about the language is her age. I don’t know many people over 50 that cuss like a sailor. I know plenty over 50 that frown on it though. I suppose living in the Midwest makes a difference.

The age and the language and the attitude make for good reading though. I couldn’t stop laughing earlier in the book when she talks about her and her husband’s arthritis flaring up after having flipped each other off too many times. Likewise when she writes that an addicted menopausal woman looks like “Rosemary’s baby from inside the womb” at 3am. I like a nice visual like that when I am reading. Good stuff.

I can relate when she talks about the danger of a quick tongue. She writes, “Please raise your hand if any of you have turned into a devil doll on a dime. You know what I’m talking about- that moment when your husband (or wife or partner) says or does something trivial, innocuous, a casual throwaway, and without a moment’s hesitation you respond by burning a whole in their heart with your tongue.” Yeah. I have to raise my hand on that one. And now that I have a phrase for it, burn a hole in your heart with my tongue, I will be more aware of that. Tread a little lighter. This is good stuff for self-awareness.

Ferris says what a lot of women don’t have the guts to say and I really appreciate that. I almost said “YES!” out loud when she called out Oprah’s O Magazine for always putting Oprah on the damn cover. Yes, that is annoying as all get out and I have always wondered why they do that. It seems so . . . narcissistic! You are supposed to be about helping the rest of the world, Oprah!

Now, a little on the physical book itself. The picture on the cover is great. Again, I judge books by their cover and I am not afraid to admit it. I chose to read further about this book because of that picture in fact. The title didn’t appeal to me but the photo made up for it. Domini Dragoone is credited with doing the cover art but I didn’t find a website for her. Only a Facebook page (need a website?).  The book is 289 pages long but I think if they wouldn’t have used so much italicized text, bold text, large text, exaggerated spacing, etc. It would have been more like 200 pages. It’s annoying to me because it reminds me of the papers my students hand in that are supposed to be 3 pages long but are only that because they used 18 point type. Annoying. . . So it’s a short collection of essays, okay. Don’t try to stretch it out by getting all crazy with the type.

It’s a good book. If you like humor and are okay with a little rebel yell give it a shot (if you like a quick read). If you are not fond of the quick read, essay-style MY LIFE book then look a little deeper, especially if language bothers you. I do urge all women to check out Seal Press for other titles even if this one doesn’t appeal to you. They have something for everybody and especially for progressives.

Lately it seems everyone in this house has gone a little book crazy. We have all been reading more than ever. I’m not complaining! In fact, I was just telling my parents I didn’t mind winters in Minnesota. It gives us time to get caught up on all the reading we want to do. It also gives us time to snuggle with our young ones. This afternoon, my son got to snuggle with grandma after a big day of sledding. Andrew has been on a polar bear kick lately and so we want to feed that curiosity with the right kind of media as much as we can.

This particular book is part of series called My Animal Family. Each book comes with a DVD and a card containing a code. The DVD has educational, actual footage of the animal in their habitat. The code is for a special website that links with the series. Our code links up t0 the polar bear games since that’s what book we have. It’s quite a bit of bang for your buck considering many children’s books retail for more than what this media package retails for.

As far as the illustration goes, it’s not the most artistically impressive book we own but it is far from unimpressive. We have books with exceptional art but that is a separate category. A lot of the artistic ones lack in the educational department. This one is however one of the most educational books we own and that is what we are looking for more and more now that Andrew’s little brain is in sponge mode and he is soaking up all the information he possible can. He is learning his letters and all about space and various natural habitats. There is a window open and we are trying our hardest to keep the information flowing. One of the ways we can do this is by getting him the books he likes, on the topics he is interested in as well as letting him watch A LIMITED amount of video production that is educational.

The title of this post is My Little Readers (plural). My daughter is only 8 months old but already LOVES books. We aren’t going to limit her to board books for babies. There’s no reason she can’t sit along with Andrew and listen to his stories. I think when we had Andrew we just assumed he needed age-appropriate books but that simply isn’t necessary. Any reading is good reading early on. It gets them familiar with our language and encourages bonding among so many other things. I just know she is going to treasure her books like the rest of the family!

The Nanuq book won a  Mom’s Choice Award which takes the guessing out of it if you are a mom and debating if you should buy the book or not. The founder of PBS’s Reading Rainbow is on the panel of judges for the awards. As a kid I used to look forward to that show. I think I can trust her opinion. They have a store on Amazon that links to their other reader’s choice award winners. It’s okay to have books that are not of this genre in your collection, but try to mix some into your library if possible. The more your kid learns from reading the more they will reap the benefits.

Once your child realizes they can travel to another world or learn something they had never imagined before simply by reading, they will be off in their own little worlds. . . and I mean that in a good way.