We spent a weekend away at Dodge Ridge. It’s probably the closest ski resort to us and it’s a slightly less than 3 hour drive. The husband and I took ski lessons and the kids did snowboard lessons. The 5yo didn’t last the full class but the 7yo loved it! I discovered I’m not a big fan of skiing but at least I tried it and I’m glad I did!

We also did lots of eating.

At The Pie Pizzeria in Sierra Village, a tiny place run by just two people, a really scrumptious pizza with salami, Italian sausage and artichokes. I tend to prefer thin-crust pizzas but this one, though a thicker crust, was nice and crispy underneath and not too bready.

 Also a nice breakfast at the very friendly Sweet Pea’s Bakery in Mi-Wuk Village.

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

 

The Plotters – Un-Su Kim

 

Watching:

 

Listening:

Just finished Beastie Boys Book and wondering what next!

 

Eating:

 Sushi for dinner

Drinking:

Lots of water

Last week:

I read:

Sabrina – Nick Drnaso
Half-Hazard – Kristen Tracy
My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
I posted:

Library Loot (March 13 to 19)

Standalone books that need a sequel #toptentuesday

National Geographic’s 100 Dives of a Lifetime – Review

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo is an enchanting read

 

 

 

Happy Monday you guys!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

 

 

 

We took the kids to the optometrist and it turns out the 7yo’s prescription has increased! Luckily the 5yo is still spectacles-free.

We tried a new-to-us ramen place and I gave the spicy ramen a try. It was more peppery than I would have liked though! But I liked that they had lots of grilled pork belly.

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

Half-Hazard – Kristen Tracy

My Sister, The Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite

All You Can Ever Know – Nicole Chung

 

Watching:

Season 2 of The Big Family Cooking Showdown

Listening:

Beastie Boys Book

Oh wow this is such a great audiobook! The cast of narrators is amazing! From Rosie Perez to LL Cool J to Jarvis Cocker.

Eating:

Homemade whole wheat walnut bread – recipe from Ruby Tandoh’s Crumb

Drinking:

Yorkshire Gold with milk

Cooking:

Maybe this crispy spinach pizza from Smitten Kitchen. Although I may reduce the number of cheeses and keep it to mozzarella and gruyere and then add some bacon!

I made a lemon-butter-garlic salmon pasta a couple of weeks ago and still have the other part of the salmon (I bought that really large piece of salmon from Costco) and so I may make that again.

 

 

Last week:

I read:

Magician’s Land – Lev Grossman
The Perfectionists – Simon Winchester
The Night Tiger – Yangsze Choo
The Cloud Roads – Martha Wells

 

I posted:

The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester

Book Beginnings/Friday 56 with The Night Tiger

Library Loot (March 6 to 12)

2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Let me know in the comments!

We had a bit of a wet one. But still did our usual swim class, tennis sessions, lunches out. We also met up with the husband’s cousin who had just flown in from Singapore for the week for work.

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

 

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

 

 

 

 

Watching:

The Grand Tour

Listening:

The Perfectionists – I’m almost done!

Eating:

Waffles

Drinking:

Yorkshire Gold

Cooking:

Browsing:

Much as I love peanut butter, I haven’t actually eaten a peanut dessert of the western variety, at least none I can remember. But this salted peanut tart has me considering!

A great post on book recommendation sites and whether they work

Just learnt about Serial Box from Jenny at Reading the End

Last week:

I read:

Witch Boy – Molly Ostertag
Golden Tresses of Dead – Alan Bradley
The Wedding Date – Jasmine Guillory
I posted:

 

Golden Tresses of the Dead

#BookBeginnings #Friday56 with Why I Wake Early

Reading notes (February 28, 2019)

Library Loot (February 27 to March 5)

Top Places In Books I’d Like to Visit #toptentuesday

 

 

 

 

 

It was a take-it-easy kind of weekend as the husband had to do some work. We did manage to do the usual weekend things like swim class (it was sunny for a change!), tennis, and go out for some meals.

 

I also did some baking. I made financiers for the first time and although I didn’t manage to get that characteristic dome, the financiers did taste good!

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

 

 

Watching:

The new season (or at least it’s season two according to Netflix) of The Big Family Cooking Showdown

Listening:

 

Eating:

Homemade Chinese bakery-style sausage buns

Drinking:

Yorkshire Gold with milk

Cooking:

Browsing:

“She was two things at once. Bodily she was a matron, jowly, bosomy, bottomy odd. At heart she was a gamine. Her smile was like a baby’s, full of joyful elan. You believed you had caused it. You felt felled by a stroke of luck.”

31 YA books by black authors that you can’t miss this year 

The locked-room mystery is back

Last week:

I read:

Front Desk – Kelly Yang

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – Laurie R King (reread)

I posted:

Book Beginnings/Friday 56 – The Calculating Stars

Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong

Library Loot (February 20 to 26)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I loved with <2000 Goodreads ratings

 

 

 

 

So we had these great plans to go up to Tahoe with friends and all four kids would take ski lessons together. But then this storm decided to stretch into Sunday and various agencies were warning against travel up to Tahoe and so we decided to cancel. We didn’t want to risk the drive (the I-80 was closed for most of Thursday night and Friday because of whiteout conditions) and realized that it probably wouldn’t be the funnest of first ski classes if it was in freezing weather (it was forecast as -15/-4C or 5/25F).

Oh well, we’ll just have to try for another weekend.

Meanwhile, in our part of the Bay Area, it’s been a very rainy week and super windy too. The elementary school is in a neighbourhood lined with towering palm trees and boy is it dangerous to live near palm trees on a very windy day. There’s always branches and leaves clattering down!

Anyway lots of baking this week – baguettes and mixed berry muffins.

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

 

 

Watching:

The Bodyguard. Or rather I just finished binge-watching it. I decided to give the first episode a try and it was so exciting I watched two episodes. Then the next day, another two and then the next and that was it. It was so thrilling!

Listening:

 

Eating:

Looks weird but this was a raspberry swirl pound cake in the making

Drinking:

Nespresso with milk

Cooking:

We had lunch at Buca di Beppo and they’re known for their large portions and so we have a lot of leftovers!

I was thinking of cooking taco rice

Crafting:

An Erigeneia shawl in a rectangle

Browsing:

This earthquake-proof, climbable bookshelf (My Modern Met)

Look at all these beautiful illustrations for Howl’s Moving Castle

I did not know that Yiyun Li’s latest, Where Reasons End, is about a mother’s grief, and that her own son took his life.

I always bookmark posts by Bake For Happy Kids and here’s another one – a pineapple chiffon cake!

Last week:

I read:

I posted:

#WeekendCooking Chinese New Year celebrations

#BookBeginnings #Friday56 – No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

Family Trust by Kathy Wang

Library Loot (February 13 to 19)

Favourite Couples in Books #toptentuesday

 

 

 

 

 

Good Monday to you.

 

It’s the seventh day of the Lunar New Year and that means it’s 人日 (ren ri). In Chinese mythology, it was on the seventh day that human beings were created (various animals were created first, starting with chickens!) so today is considered everyone’s birthday. So happy birthday to you and you!

This weekend I must have caught the bug that’s been going around. But luckily not the full-blown version that my kids were hit with – they had fevers, runny nose, lingering cough. For me, it’s just a cough and runny nose. I’m plying myself with green tea, lemongrass tea, avoiding snacks if I can, and staying warm. I know it’s not as cold here in California as plenty of other parts of the country (and world), but it’s been a chillier February than usual.

The rest of the week was fun though. It was quite rainy and we actually had snow on our hills and mountains! I’ve only seen snow on the very top of Mission Peak twice since I’ve lived here so to see so much snow was quite exciting.

The skies cleared up for the school’s first New Year carnival. Previous years, the mandarin immersion programme kids put up performances for the school. But I guess that’s too much work for the teachers and takes away from class time (also the teachers are currently on work-to-rule) so this year there were carnival-style booths and lots of parent volunteers. I helped out with a booth that had kids use chopsticks to pick up marbles and some of the older kids were so competitive. It was a little bit crazier than I expected! But everyone had fun. And there was a lion dance after along with kungfu demonstrations.

 

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

No Fond Return of Love – Barbara Pym 

Loving this!

Why I Wake Early – Mary Oliver 

I’m still slowly dipping into this one!

Watching:

On Sunday morning we went to see the Lego Movie 2. I love that the kids are excited to see movies in the cinema.

Listening:

How to be a good creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals – Sy Montgomery

Eating:

We had Blaze pizza for lunch. I topped my pizza with kalamata olives, artichokes, roasted red peppers, pepperoni and bacon. Also I like to have gorgonzola and mozzarella.

Drinking:

Lots of green tea to help soothe my ticklish throat

Cooking:

Shepherd’s pie

Noodles of some sort as always!

Browsing:

It’s DWJMarch / March Magics!!

7 true stories to add to your reading list (Beth Fish Reads)

Saving this recipe to try out once I get my hands on cream – soft egg white and cream sandwich bread (Bake for Happy Kids)

These coconut mochi cake muffins sound good! (I Am A Food Blog)

I’m looking forward to reading The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo (The Illustrated Page)

Last week:

I read:

Family Trust – Kathy Wang

Fifth Chinese Daughter – Jade Snow Wong
The Magicians – Lev Grossman
Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl – Issa Rae (technically I began this last year but time ran out on the audiobook loan, so I just finished listening to it!)

I posted:

Book Beginnings/Friday 56 Family Trust

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Library Loot (February 6 to 12)

Upcoming releases I’m on the fence about #toptentuesday

Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year Eve! Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year and since I live in the US, it’s not a public holiday, and the kids are in school. But since they go to a Mandarin immersion programme (it’s in a public school and makes up half the school population), there will be a celebration on Wednesday, with a carnival of sorts, a lion dance performance, and a class party after.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy cleaning house, tidying up, doing lots of laundry, and putting up some New Year decorations – lots of reds and golds and lucky symbols. I don’t have any Pig Year-specific decor though.

I also made some pork floss cookies (recipe from Bake with Happy Kids). Delicious sweet-salty shredded dried pork is added into this buttery cookie mixture along with sesame seeds. So good.

Also, this wasn’t a great week health-wise. First, on Wednesday morning, the 7yo came down with a fever, cough and runny nose. So he was out of commission for two days. Then on Friday morning, the 5yo got the bug and he was home while the 7yo went to school. So this weekend was a stay-home weekend, where I got more cleaning and baking done. And the kids watched TV, read books, played video games. It was a rather rainy weekend anyway, so I guess if there was a weekend to be sick, this was it.

 

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

 

 

Watching:

More West Wing. And also, I got tired of hearing Octonauts and other kids shows so together we watched The Great British Bake Off. Luckily the kids are ok with watching cooking shows with me!

Listening:

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

 

Eating:

You tiao or Chinese-style dough fritters with condensed milk

Drinking:

Water

Cooking:

We always do a hotpot for reunion dinner (Chinese New Year eve, when you’re meant to return home and have a meal with your family). See my How To Hotpot post from last year for more details.

And the soup is always even tastier the next day! So we keep aside some ingredients and cook them again (this time on the stove) and serve it with noodles or rice.

Browsing:

It’s Reading Ireland Month soon on 746 Books. It sounds lots of fun!

Powell’s book buyers recommend 22 books of 2019

I’ve seen the #6degrees meme before but haven’t joined in yet. I like this month’s starting book!

Added to my TBR:

The Frangipani Tree Mystery and The Betel Nut Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (via TBR313)

Seventeen by Hideo Yokohama (via Dolce Bellezza)

 

Last week:

I read:

Fruit of the drunken tree – Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Likely Stories – Neil Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, Chris Blythe (Illustrator)

Shutter Vol 1: Wanderlust – Joe Keatinge, Leila del Duca

Roughneck – Jeff Lemire
Master Keaton Vol 5 – Naoki Urasawa

 

I posted:

Comics reviews: My Brother’s Husband, Roughneck

Reading notes: George; The Lowland; The Clothing of Books

Library Loot (January 30 to February 5)

10 additions to my #TBR list