Author 8: Brenda Haugen celebrates Halloween

Brenda Haugen has written dozens of books for Compass Point Books-many of which are biographies. She has a few books written in the series "Holidays and Celebrations" of which Halloween is one of the titles. The book focuses on the origins of Halloween in Ireland and England and mentions some traditions such as that of Christians going house to house for pieces of soul cakes and they would in turn promise to say prayers for the families that fed them. She mentions that bonfires were lit to scare away bad spirits and they did make lanterns out of carved vegetables. We will celebrate Halloween in a couple of days!

To find more books by Brenda Haugen visit compass point books.

October Food co-op

Half share for $14: 1 lb. lean ground beef, 4 4oz. cubed steaks, 1 loaf wheat bread, 16 oz. lentils, 2 avocados, 5 Golden Delicious apples (Utah-grown), 5 pears, 4 bananas, 1 head cabbage, 2 lbs. carrots, 1 eggplant

Farmer's Market Share: Assorted winter squash, onions, potatoes and basil. This is the last of the Farmer's Market share for the season. It's nice to buy local and nice that it's organic. We love squash so this assortment will be enjoyed in the winter months to come.

We could have also gotten a standard or harvest share.

Standard Share for $23:
2 lb. boneless, center-cut pork loin roast, 2 lb. split chicken breast (boneless, skinless), 1 lb. lean ground beef, 4 4oz. cubed steaks, 1 loaf wheat bread, 16 oz. lentils, 2 avocados, 6 Golden Delicious apples (Utah-grown), 6 pears, 5 bananas, 1 head cabbage, 2 lbs. carrots, 1 eggplant, 3 lbs. yellow onions (Utah-grown)

Harvest Share for $14:
1 loaf wheat bread, 16 oz. lentils, 4 avocados, 10 Golden Delicious apples(Utah-grown), 9 pears, 8 bananas, 1 head cabbage, 2 lbs. carrots, 2 eggplants, 3 lbs. yellow onions (Utah-grown), 2 spaghetti squash (Utah-grown)

For more information visit the foodco-op site. The order for November is due Friday, Nov. 6 with food pick-up on Saturday, November 21st.

Author 7: Jeff Brumbeau writing about quilts

These two are among our favorites! We check these books out of the library over and over again. First is The Quiltmaker's Gift followed by The Quiltmaker's Journey which is a prequel. Fabulous illustrations, beautiful stories-what's not to appreciate, learn from, and love?
In the first book we meet a selfish king who wants a quilt-but he's asked to earn the quilt despite his attempts to just take a quilt.

The quiltmaker wasn't always the woman making quilts on the mountain. Once she was a girl with everything living in a sheltered town that did not know poverty or want in anyway other than the unhappiness that she felt of having everything and not helping those less fortunate. She leaves the town through a hidden passageway out to the world beyond. When she returns to the town she tells them of her discoveries at which they scoff and she chooses to leave. But, she must leave with nothing except her clothes she is wearing and her mother's ring. She wants to help but finds she can't help some people because she does not know how. At last she finds a mother and child sleeping out in the cold and she knows what she can do. Thus starts her work of making quilts.

Author Jeff Brumbeau and the illustrator Gail de Marcken have a website at http://www.quiltmakersgift.com At their site you can find more books about quilting along with stories inspired by the books.

Quiche and Caramel Apples

Sarah's lovely quiche with homemade crust. Filled with cheddar cheese and a bit of Parmesan, it was a lovely light dish for Sunday supper. Find the recipes at recipezaar. Thanks for the quiche recipe #86516 and the quiche crust recipe #18185 (we found we needed to add more flour and next time we might cut down the oil just a little).

Another recent endeavor was the making of caramel apples-an appropriate activity to discuss for the month of October. D1 chose to put chocolate sprinkles on her apple, D2 just wanted plain caramel and DM just wanted to eat the caramel plain with not an apple in view.

Author/Illustrator 6: Simms Taback makes something from nothing

An oldie but a goodie-Joseph Had a Little Overcoat was first published in 1977 and redone in 1999. An overcoat goes through many different transformations to eventually become a story. We've read this one many times along with other books written by and/or illustrated by Mr.Taback (pronounced tay-back) including his other Caldecott winning book: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.



The three r's of recycling consist of reduce, reuse and recycle. There's a good government website with ideas for each of the r's at http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/recycle.htm Some of the ideas for reduce include using cloth bags at the grocery store and trying to buy at least some items in bulk. Under reuse one can both donate and buy from charitable institutions such as goodwill or DI (Deseret Industries is a nonprofit, vocational rehabilitation facility thrift store sponsored by the LDS Church with 46 stores in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.) The final "r" of recycle includes a list of things that should be recycled. A few of these include: newspapers, batteries, aluminum cans and yard waste.



Find the official website of Simms Taback at www.simmstaback.com. Simms Taback was born in New York in 1932. He was a founding president of the Illustrators Guild which merged with the New York Graphic Artists Guild where he was a founding member and president. For 28 years he worked with Mr.Reynold Ruffins who was a founding member of the Push Pins Studios. Mr.Reynold Ruffins says that Simms Taback "is genetically programmed to be generous." Mr.Taback worked for many years to organize illustrators to help them get in touch with one another and current business practices to help "raise the standards and protect the interests of the freelancer, and in fact, of all art professionals." He mentions that Mr.Taback does have a consuming interest (he jokingly claims addiction!) in the consumption of chocolate. Mr.Taback has also created a number of wonderful posters that can be viewed and even purchased on his website. There's even a poster for pumpkin cookies!

Matzo Ball Soup-Jewish penicillin

For a homemade recipe of Matzo Ball Soup, please go to http://www.jewfaq.org/food.htm which also has more information on Jewish cooking and other aspects of Judaism. Matzo balls are often of two varieties: floaters or sinkers. The causes of sinkers v. floaters are actually the results of the amount of oil, the cooking temperature, the cooking time, and whether or not the lid is lifted off the pan during cooking.


We like Matzo ball soup from the mix. I admit we haven't compared the two brands-we just mix them together to make a big pot of soup.


It's really easy to make-just combine the mix with oil and eggs and let sit for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, make the broth with the other packet and bring to a boil. Form the balls into walnut sized portions and drop into boiling broth. Cover and cook on a simmer for about a half hour and you've got a comforting and easy chilly day dish.

Author 5: Lynn Plourde with school days

Do you have book fairs at your school? Dewey Booker can hardly wait for his class to go to the book fair but they are the last class in the school to go! Will there be any books left? What about the new Amazing Explorers Atlas? Or mysteries and histories? Will he have enough money in his bookworm bank?



We've read Lynn Plourde's book before such as School Picture Day and Wild Child. Mrs. Plourde writes a varied selection of books from simple verse to more complex stories for older children. I like the quote on her homepage: "...a better job title for me might be 'word player. I love playing with words....I just spill them onto paper, stack them up, move them around, and see what I can create.'"



Mrs. Plourde has over a dozen wonderful pictures books out in print with a number addressing issues with Mrs. Shepherd's class. She is a wonderful example of never-giving up. It took 13 years before her first book was accepted and that was after hundreds and hundreds of rejection letters. She emphasizes that it is better to write well than to write long. For more information, visit Lynn's website at www.lynnplourde.com

Potato Salad-mmmm.....po-ta-toes: boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew

We recently made potato salad.



Some ingredients are diced pickles, diced celery, and diced sweet onion.















Then there's cubed, cooked potatoes and hard boiled eggs.

















Combine with dressing and seasonings to get potato salad!

















Only one small flaw.......the potatoes were still a bit hard. Thank you dad, for still liking my slightly crunchy potato salad!

Update: After microwaving a little portion, the potatoes softened up and the salad improved greatly in texture!

Author 4: Robert D. San Souci and fairytales

Princess Rosamond keeps the kingdom running smoothly but when an evil stepmother won't let her see her ailing father Rosamond must go fetch healing water. The water is obtained from the Well at the End of the World and along the way are deeds needing to be fulfilled through kindness or rudeness with the dues earned from each. This particular story is a retelling of a British tale, "The King of Colchester's Daughters" and was a traditional story in Elizabethan times. A similar story comes in the version of The Talking Eggs featured below.

"One big rabbit played a banjo, and the old woman hummed along with it. Blanche kept time by clapping along. The rabbits did a square dance, a Virginia reel, and even a cakewalk." Combine a young girl, an old woman, a mean sister and mother and put them together from a Creole folktale and you have The Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci. There are indeed talking eggs in the book and it's wise to obey the talking eggs.

Mr. San Souci has written many books, with a large portion being the retelling of traditional tales from all over the world. The Talking Eggs comes from Louisiana with other books finding origins in the Caribbean, Ireland and Armenia. Find more information about Mr. San Souci at his website: www.rsansouci.com You'll also find a link to a pdf to print your own autographed bookmark listing his many books!

Mr. San Souci says, "Books were always important in my family. My parents read continually, and our house was well supplied with books of all sorts." He has written over ninety books and likes spicy food. We've enjoyed these two books as part of some recent fairytale readings.