Into the Whirlwind is the most recent book I received to review for Bethany House through their blogger review program.

The book centers around Mollie Knox, the owner of a luxury watch company in Chicago in the 1870s. Her company provides watches to an upscale department store and, out of the blue, the enigmatic lawyer of that company comes to Mollie with an offer to buy her operation. But, before she can make a decision, the Great Chicago Fire happens, thrusting her relationship with Zack (the lawyer) into a whole new light as he helps her rescue her watching-making equipment and essentially saves her life.

One of the reasons Mollie is hesitant to sell is that she employs numerous Civil War veterans at her watch company. Her father had been a soldier and brought members of his squadron who might not have been employable anywhere else on at his company. Mollie is worried about what might happen to them if someone else were to be in charge of the company.

As Mollie seems to be falling for Zack, the child of Polish immigrants who has made good for himself, of course another hero has to swoop in, this time the commander of her father’s Civil War battalion. He is wealthy, powerful, and straightforward, and Mollie’s head tells her he is the right choice for her. But the requisite struggle with her heart ensues.

That’s the gist of the book and, honestly, it was rather mediocre. It’s on the long side–377 pages–and while I found the story intriguing it did not suck me in. I kept having to remind myself that I should go read it, which, for me, is a sure sign that I’m not engrossed in a book.

I will say the parts about the Chicago fire were fascinating and well-researched. (The author is a research librarian, so that makes sense.) I love historical fiction, and this was an event I knew next-to-nothing about, so it was interesting to read an on-the-ground account of that night and the following days, even if it was fictional.

I was surprised that Mollie’s role as a businesswoman was so widely accepted during the time in which the book was set. I would have thought a woman being in charge of a business would have been frowned upon, or at least rather uncommon, and thus making it a topic of conversation, but that did not seem to be the case. I guess in order for the conceit of the book to work we couldn’t question that, but it stuck out to me.

The characters were likable enough, and the relationships between them were well-constructed.

Bethany House is a Christian publishing house, so I always expect that faith will play a role in the books it publishes, and I was surprised by the subtlety with which the author brought up faith in Into the Whirlwind. Mollie prays a few times during the fire, and afterwards she occasionally makes mention of relying on strength from God or hoping that someone will go to church. At first I felt like this element was so subtle as to be unnecessary and wasn’t sure it added anything to the book, but the more I read the more I felt like it was actually extremely realistic. In real life, very few people go around spouting about their faith all the time. If they are believers, it’s just a part of their psyche, something they bring up in conversation and that informs the decisions they make. So in that way, I thought the appearance of faith in this book was well-done.

All in all this book was only okay, but if you’re interested in historical events like the Chicago fire it might be worth adding to your historical fiction repertoire.

Until recently, I was extremely perplexed by mangoes. I often saw them at the grocery store--big lumpy globes on sale for $1.00. I was tempted by their price tag, but the few times I bought one, trying to slice it turned into an ordeal that was not worth my time, and I ended up with slimy shards of fruit that were hardly enjoyable to eat.

But then, in a flash of brilliance, I decided to go at it with my handy vegetable peeler, et voila! A beautifully sliced mango. So without further ado, let me share my method.

First of all, you need a good vegetable peeler. The little plastic guy you got for $3.99 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond just isn't going to cut it for this job. (I know because I tried.)

 

I have a Wolfgang Puck peeler that I got from one of my former co-workers who had a friend that sold them through some sort of direct sales company (a la Pampered Chef, except it wasn't Pampered Chef). It's something like the one on the far left in this listing from HSN, though I can't find the exact one I have. But it's heavy-handled and the blade is sharp. It gets right through that tough mango skin. (Also be aware that some people have allergies to mango skin--I've known several people who, if it touches their mouth, get puffy, itchy lips from it. So maybe wash your hands after you've peeled.)

Anyway, I love my peeler.

Once it's peeled, stand it up on one end and start slicing flat-ish sheets off of it all around. Warning: peeled mangoes are slimy! So be careful and don't slice off any fingers in the process.

The inside of a mango is bizarre, which is why I've had trouble with them before. Check out the cross-section of a mango on this site (I'll be here when you get back!). 

The core is a really odd shape and, apart from the actual seed, there's also another few layers of weird, hard flesh. So listen to your knife--if it doesn't slice easily through the flesh, you're probably trying to cut a part of the fruit that you don't want to eat.

Once you have your "sheets" of mango cut off the core, slice each one into strips.

                            

You might feel like you're leaving a lot behind. If you don't believe me that the middle is not edible, try nibbling on it. I did. And I proved to myself that I really HAD gotten all the edible parts off!

Plus, this $1.00 mango divided nicely into 4 snack-sized ziploc bags. I'd say getting 4 snacks out of one fruit is pretty good--cheaper than chips from a vending machine, and much healthier! You could also further chop the strips into cubes for a fruit salad or a smoothie. But I've really been enjoying just eating them on their own. This method of slicing a mango works for me!

I'm linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at WeAreThatFamily.com!

I signed up for a half share of a CSA that recently started delivering to my apartment complex, and last week was my first box pick-up. I honestly completely forgot about it and didn’t plan very well for the influx of produce. :-/ SO, some of this week’s recipes are inspired by items that were in it. My shopping list this week is really small because I’m using a lot of things I have on hand, and somehow have a fair amount leftover from last week! One thing I always, always have to buy, though, is yogurt, because Andy eats it like it’s going out of style.

Sunday leftover navy bean soup (so delicious! I used sweet potato greens from my CSA box in lieu of the spinach.) sliced salami and cheese

Monday oven-roasted potatoes and sausage (CSA potatoes!) steamed broccoli salad

Tuesday slow-cooker gumbo-esque stew over rice (CSA okra!)

Wednesday Laura eats at Rails Girls meetup (Andy eats various leftovers.)

Thursday meat pies (that I didn’t make last week after all) frozen vegetable of some sort

Friday quinoa salad with Chinese eggplant (CSA again–hope it’s still okay by Friday!)

 

I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan!

My beloved book club gathered this past Thursday for the first time since May. We didn’t necessarily plan to, but we ended up taking the summer off. One of our founding members has moved out of town (sniff, sniff), but the two people she invited to join us have stayed on, which is great! I love that this group has given me an outlet to talk books AND given me a great way to get some female company. We have yet another newcomer who has expressed interest in joining us next month, which is exactly what I hoped would happen when I started this group: that we would grow organically and build relationships within the group that helped use feel comfortable bringing other friends into the fold.

For August we read And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.

You’ve probably at least heard of (if not read) one or both of his other books: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. As for me, I read The Kite Runner a couple of years ago and found it far too graphic for my taste. It was very well-written, but I just remember feeling stunned at the end of it and swearing I would never read another book by Khaled Hosseini again.

Well.

A fellow book club member who loves his books convinced me that this one would be different enough that I should give it a try, and in the name of keeping an open mind, I dove in.

Here’s the Amazon synopsis in case you’re not familiar with it:

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

My experience with the novel was that it felt a bit choppy. With so many characters and settings, each chapter left me wanting more about that particular storyline (which you might argue means it was doing its job), so I felt a little unsatisfied. All of us in the book club found it nearly impossible to keep up with all the names, especially since they were unfamiliar ones to our Anglo ears. That made discussion rather interesting! :-) I was emotionally involved enough to feel twinges of sadness for various characters, but not to the extent that I cried. All in all I liked the book, but I didn’t love it. One book club member did, though, so I think we would all recommend giving it a read.

One thing that I found interesting was that I printed out some discussion questions before we met and highlighted a few that I particularly wanted to touch on, but in trying to skip around we ended up inadvertently addressing most of the other questions in the reading guide, as well. I guess those question-writers were on to something!

The epigraph to the book is a from a Rumi poem, and it reads, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing / there is a field. / I’ll meet you there.” We talked about how this related to actions taken by characters in the book and whether it is possible to be all good or all bad. Several of the characters in the book made choices that could be read as “bad,” but in the context, it’s much more grey. This question of intent is central to the reading of this novel.

Each of the characters in this book is connected to another in some way, and it was fascinating to make my way through and start to untangle the threads. Some connections were explicitly drawn and were major plot elements. Others were softer; discovering them just made the reading a little bit richer. We had mixed feelings about whether or not it worked that Hosseini included so many different characters, so if you don’t like complexity in a novel this one may not be for you.

Finally, we talked about the William Blake poem that evidently inspired the title.

I’ll leave you with it here and just say that reading this poem in light of having read the novel was quite poignant.

WHEN the voices of children are heard on the green, And laughing is heard on the hill, My heart is at rest within my breast, And everything else is still. ‘Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, And the dews of night arise; Come, come, leave off play, and let us away Till the morning appears in the skies.’ ‘No, no, let us play, for it is yet day, And we cannot go to sleep; Besides, in the sky the little birds fly, And the hills are all cover’d with sheep.’ ‘Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, And then go home to bed.’ The little ones leapèd and shoutèd and laugh’d And all the hills echoèd.

Have you read And the Mountains Echoed? Meet me out in that field (er, in the comments) and let’s chat!

When you pour yourself a bowl of cereal, how much do you pour? A bowlful, right? But what size bowl? And what portion of the box are you consuming?

I recently started portioning out my coffee creamer in an effort to wean myself off of it. I started by cutting down to one Splenda because I wanted to stop using the fake sweetener, and in conjunction I started measuring an actual serving size of the creamer. And you know what I noticed? My bottle of creamer is supposed to provide 32 servings. Before I started measuring it, I just went by the color of my coffee. Now that I know what a serving looks like, I’m sure that to get that color I used far more than a serving. Now, sure, I purchased that bottle on sale and with a coupon, but that’s no reason to waste it. In fact, my pursuit of frugal strategies makes me want to make it last even longer!

I started reading the nutrition label on other things and trying to measure out a serving. I know that serving sizes are somewhat arbitrary, but on most things it ends up being a smaller portion than I would have consumed otherwise. It turns out that for most cereals, the serving size is between half a cup and a cup. (And conveniently, the bowls I got from my parents that are what I have eaten cereal out of my entire life are just about the perfect size!) This means most boxes of cereal contain 10+ servings of the correct size. Wow! If I get a good deal on my cereal and spend around $2.00 per box (my buy price for cereal), that’s giving me a lot of bang for my buck.

Not only is this a good way to make your foods last longer, it’s also a healthy choice. It is SO easy to eat far more than a serving size, and thus far more calories than you really need. Ideally each of your meals should be 400-500 calories, with snacks coming in at about 200 calories. Guess what? My serving of cereal, with about a cup of milk, plus a piece of fruit clocks in just about perfectly. So someone was paying some sort of attention when they typed out those nutrition facts. Many weight loss success stories I’ve read have started with the person simply deciding to pay attention to portion size. I’m not going to bust out a kitchen scale, but I’m willing to measure out a few things. And once you start measuring, you learn what the various measures look like (especially if you’re using the same size plate or bowl every time), and you eventually don’t have to be as precise.

I’ve noticed that a serving size of snacks like trail mix and nuts is MUCH smaller than the amount I usually eat. These are great snacks to have in your diet, but nuts are high in fat, so you have to be a bit careful. A serving of mixed nuts is about 1/4 cup, which looks pretty tiny when you put it into a ziploc bag.

http://instagram.com/p/crTwsYobHZ/

But nuts are high in fat, so they satiate you really well.

Now, sure, there’s a time and a place to throw serving size to the wind and just enjoy yourself. I just ate an entire bag of popcorn which was undoubtedly meant to serve more than one. But if you’re trying to be healthy and save money, paying attention to what constitutes a serving is a great place to start.

(This can also apply to personal care and household goods. I especially think about it with laundry detergent–if I measure it correctly, one bottle bought for under $3.00 can last me more than 30 loads, which is 3-ish months in my household!)

Do you measure out servings of your meals or snacks? Have the serving sizes of any foods surprised you?