Cemetery Picnic

What do you pack for a picnic at a cemetery?

Okay.  I should probably back up. For Mother’s Day, I took my mother to a cemetery for a picnic. This is not a hint to my mother that she has one foot in the grave and not a me being dramatic and exaggerating the truth.  The truth is, I did take my mother to a cemetery.  The cemetery in question is about an hour away and is the cemetery that hold the remains of the first generation of our family in America.  Pretty exciting stuff if you are interested in family history/ genealogy.  Since the cemetery is about an hour a way, it makes sense to bring a picnic and refreshment, which bring me back to my original question. 

What do you pack for a picnic at a cemetery?

Do you go full funeral meal and bring cold salads and finger food? Do you liven it up and play off a Halloween theme? Do keep it to traditional picnic food? These questions rolled around in my head, until I did a mash up of all three.

Cemetery Picnic Menu

Chicken Salad on Onion Rolls with Cheese and Tomato

Deviled Eggs

Marinated Mushrooms

Mozzarella and Tomato

Strawberries

Dirt Cups. (Chocolate Pudding with crushed Oreo’s and Gummy Worms)

What would you pack for your picnic?

Random Thoughts

 It has been a while since I last wrote anything.  Most of the time the words won’t come out of my head or I am distracted by random thoughts.  

One of the most soothing things that I do is sew. My fabric addiction is becoming well known and my Pinterest board of inspiration is a little out of control. Sewing lets me think and not think at the same time. 

Here are some of the random thoughts that have come to pass:

• The Room of Requirement in Harry Potter is the wizard equivalent of the Holodeck in Star Trek.
• There should be a pizza donut for people that want something savory as an option in the donut box. 
• My cats stripper name would be Eviscerator
• Why don’t more people use the metric system
• In zombie movies they use wooden planks and plywood boards to block the windows and doors. Is part of being and adult mean keeping extra wood and plywood in the event of a zombie outbreak?

What are some of the random thoughts that you have?

The Chuck

A while back my dad asked me for ideas and what to make with cornmeal that was not cornbread.   I immediately suggested polenta, but somehow that failed to satisfy the hunger growling in his stomach.  Chatting with Gat, I was inspired to experiment with dinner.  I haven’t quite come up with a name for it, but it is basically an inside out enchilada or deconstructed enchilada.  I am still working on the name. Or perhaps I’ll just name it after my father.  

The Chuck

Ingredients

1 pound boneless skinless chicken chopped 

1 can of  red enchilada sauce

1 tablespoon minced Garlic

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin power

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 can of corn nuggets drained or 1 cup of frozen corn

1 box jiffy Corn bread mix

1/2 cup diced fresh chilies or 1 small can of diced green chilies

1/2 cup diced onions

1 can of diced tomatoes (I like the ones with habaneros mixed in, but you can really use any of them.)

1 can of beans  drained and rinsed (I use black or small white, but others will work.  Dealers choice)

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 egg

1 cup milk

Olive Oil

Tools

Large Skillet

Medium Bowl

Small bowl

9 x 13 baking dish (deep dish if possible)

Spoons

Spatula 

Tequila (just kidding, you don’t need this)

Instructions

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees

In a bowl mix chopped chicken, garlic, chili powder, cumin powder, salt, and oregano until chicken is evenly seasoned. Set aside.

In a large skillet, drizzle olive oil and heat. Once warm, add diced peppers and onions.  Cook until onions are translucent. Add  seasoned chicken mix and cook chicken until cooked all the way through.  Add diced tomatoes, corn and beans, enchilada sauce.  Cook until corn and beans are heated through.  Transfer contents of skillet mix into a 9x13 baking dish and set to the side. 

In a bowl open Jiffy corn bread mix, and mix according to the box. (This is where the egg and the milk come in from the ingredient list.) Once the mix is as smooth as corn bread mix can be, with a large spoon, ladle large dollops of  mix into the chicken mix. Think corn bread dumplings. Once all of the corn bread mix has joined the chicken mix, sprinkle the entire dish with the shredded cheese and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. The cheese should be nice and melty and the cornbread should be cooked all the way through. If the corn bread looks runny, put it in for another 10 minutes. 

The end product is a dish that makes me think of tamales, enchiladas and comfort food all wrapped into one.  Excellent for next day lunches.   While I haven’t tried it, I am sure the concept would work well with shredded beef, pork, or chorizo if you were looking for variety. 

Mother and Royal Tea

I wanted to write a mothers day post, and then time got away from me.  So this is sort of a Mother's day post, or at least a post involving my mom.  That counts, right?

My mother and I don't agree on things. Not all things, obviously. Just the important things, such as whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza or if pears are really just a bland wet fruit rolled in sand. The fruit paired with meat argument has been going on for at least twenty years, and I don't see an end in sight.

However, there are some things that we do agree one.  One of those things is the Kate Pearl Tea Room. We can agree that we enjoyed our Royal Tea to a high degree. (Okay, that rhymed in my head and I couldn't quit giggling as I typed it.)  My mother and I met up with GAT and her mother for tea and socializing.  I absolutely loved that we were encouraged to dress for the part.  It isn't too often that I can play adult dress up, and seeing ladies in dresses and hats certainly sets the atmosphere.

Kate Pearl Tea Room is not my first foray into tea rooms.  I have been to several and the results have always varied.  The Royal Tea boasts of Appetizer, Scones with Clotted Cream and Spreads, Soup, Salad, Fluted Fruit Beverage, Tea Sandwich, Savories, Assorted Sweets and Sorbet on the website, and in person there is no way that a person could even be close to hungry by the end of tea.  The unlimited tea, excellent company, good eats and wonderful atmosphere has the Royal Tea on the list of things that I would want to do again.

The gift shop was stocked with a wide variety of tea, and several that made their way home with me.  I love the look of tea in jars. I reminds me of an apothecary and that tea heals the soul. In addition to Tea, they had a variety of tea companions, such as spoons, books, and stationary.  All things that I need when relaxing with a cup of tea.  If you every get the opportunity, I would highly recommend to check out Kate Pearl Tea Room.

Stephen Murderface Frogmonster

There is murder in that frogs eyes.  You can just tell that it is slowly plotting your doom as soon as it figures out how to get free.  My  brother has come up with a new way to torment me for the rest of my life.  He bought a Pyxie (Pyxicephalus) bull frog that can life up to 45 years.  In his infinite wisdom he has decided that if anything untoward were to happen to him, that I should be the caregiver of the ball of amphibian hatred.  This is not something that I am overjoyed with. 

I have tried to convince him that any of his children would be honored to be the keeper of Stephen Murderface Frogmonster if the end were to come sooner to him than his frog pal, but he just isn’t having any of it.  He feels that I would think of him every time I had to feed it and it would be the gift that keeps on giving. 

This frog can group up to nine inch big and eat small rodents.  Steven Murderface Frogmonster tries to attack and eat anything in his tank. I am pretty sure this is how monster movie start.  Knowing my brother it will probably break records in frog size and longevity. I am going to be fearful for my cats.  

I have started collecting southern recipes on preparing Frog Legs as a precaution. 

Experimenting on Old People

You are not to experiment on old people.

Say it again.

You are not to experiment on old people.

Say it one more time so it sticks.

You are not to experiment on old people.

Berating myself about using my grandparents for taste testers is not really going well.  It lacks sincerity. It isn’t like they left clutching their stomachs in agony.  That in itself makes it a successful brunch, right?

Truth be told I learned the art of experimentation on guests from my grandmother.  She would often have several experimental dishes when she would host holiday dinners. (And most of us have survived.)

After I lured them into the house with the help of the charming Dib cat, the real fun began. The food experiment this time was something that my grandmother loves and that would be baked oatmeal.  A traditional baked oatmeal typically tastes like an oatmeal cookie and you pour milk over it while it is warm.  The one I tried is from Five Hearte Home and is called Banana Nut Baked Oatmeal. 

Oh, my goody goody gumdrops is it good.  It tastes like a cross between an oatmeal cookie and banana bread.  The maple syrup in it and more to go one it adds the perfect amount of sweetness to balance the density that the oatmeal brings.    The best part is that it was easy to make and doesn’t need to bake for an eternity.  If you are looking for something different that is relatively healthy, I would certainly check it out. 

No grandparents were harmed in the making of the baked oatmeal. So far all participants have survived. Further testing will be conducted. 

Name That Sandwich

I am sure that I get the best ideas when I am on the tread mill or folding laundry.  My mind tends to wander and look for avenues to distract myself from what I am actually doing.  I was folding the endless supply of socks when some jingle on the radio made my brain take a left turn.My brain certainly picks odd things to get distracted over. Part of it could be that I was getting hungry, or that I have heard the same commercial for a Rueben on the radio over and over again and it made me wonder why it was called a Rueben.  

If you were to have a sandwich named after you, what would it be called and what would be on it?

With no rush to get back to matching white socks with a logo in one spot to other white socks that have the logo in a different spot, I texted a dozen friends to find out what would be on their sandwich.  The results amazed me.  I feel like I have enough good recipes to open my own cafe.  Can you guess who suggested what as a sandwich? 

Creators: Faye, Nic, Hannah, Barbie, Erica, Ken and Teresa

• The Outcast
• Ingredients: Chocolate M&M Cookies with dark chocolate ice cream filling rolled in black sprinkles
• The Irish Gal
• Ingredients: Slices of Corned Beef, Dubliner Irish Cheese on homemade white bread
• The Descendant
• Ingredients: Capocolla Ham, Genoa Salami, Aged Sharp Provolone, Roasted Red Peppers on a yeasty roll
• The Gaia
• Ingredients: Freshly mashed avocado with scallions and caramelized onions mixed in, sautéed portobello mushrooms, dijon mustard, roasted red peppers with Mediterranean spiced sea salt on Boston Bibb lettuce on a gluten free Texas toast that as a thin smear of basil pesto
• Don't Heat Up the Bacon
• Ingredients: Sliced turkey, bacon, tomatoes, spinach, red onions with chipotle mayo  on toast
• PB on PB
• Ingredients: Creamy Peanut Butter with Strawberry Jelly on a Potato Bun
• The Sea Pig
• Ingredients: Tuna Salad with sliced hardboiled eggs, thin sliced Black Forest Ham and thick slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese with a slice of tomato and hand pull of spinach and couple of spicy pickles on toasted sour dough bread 

Thank you every one that gave me a sandwich order. It sounded delicious and I apologize for not being able to use everyone’s response. I was somehow was able to finish the laundry despite the grumbling of my stomach and now I have a bunch of new sandwiches to try!

Peanut Chicken Rice

I just came back from a lovely trip visiting friends in Texas and I should be ashamed of all the food I ate.  There is so much good food out there, that I wanted to sample everything, since who knows when I will be in Texas again.  Once the rush of traveling wears off and I am ready to settle in and have some quality time with my husband and cats, I want some comfort food.  Traveling is great and I love trying new things, but there is nothing like home.  

 One of the favorite comfort foods in my home is Peanut Chicken Rice.  It is a filling dish that is easy to make, and is a cross between a fried rice and Thai chicken on stick with peanut dipping sauce. 

Ingredients 

2 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Chili Oil

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

1-2lbs chicken breast cubed

3 cups cooked white rice

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup shredded carrots*

1/4 cup peas fresh or frozen*

1/4 cup frozen sweet corn*

 1 cup Chunky Peanut Butter

1/3 cup Soy Sauce

1  tablespoon Minced Garlic

2 teaspoons Chili paste

1/2 teaspoon Ginger Powder

1 tablespoon of Sriracha

1 teaspoon of Hoisin sauce 

1/2 Cup Water or Vegetable Broth

In a large sauté pan heat the oils and add the chicken, onions,garlic,ginger powder and chili paste until chicken is cooked and the onions are translucent.  Add the rest of the vegetables and soy sauce until veggies are cooked through.  Add the chunky you peanut butter, Sriracha, hoisin sauce and water/vegetable broth.  The peanut butter will melt as you stir everything together and will become a loose sauce.  If the sauce is thick, you will want to add a little more water or broth until it is smooth and loose .Add the rice and stir it together until it is all mixed well together.  Once the rice is coated in the peanut sauce, and the chicken and vegetables are mixed in, it is ready to serve.  

 *It may look like a bunch of ingredients, but most of the vegetables can be found frozen or you can use a frozen soup mix if you aren't opposed to green beans being in it.  Some people in my house do not like green beans, which is why I try not to use the frozen vegetable soup mix.

Ramen For Dinner

I am thinking about deleting my Pinterest boards and starting over again. I know that this sounds crazy, because Pinterest is just a fancy way to collect ideas and store them.   I think half the fun of Pinterest is finding the new idea or trying the new recipe, but then I think about how I have almost 9K pins and I don't think I have actually used 1% of them.  Why should I look for more idea's if I am not using the idea's I already have pinned?  First world problems, I know. I am still on the fence as to if I should or shouldn't.

One of the things that I do like about Pinterest is that I can look at several recipes or ideas and then combine it together into something that I want. A perfect example of this is my ramen recipe.  I took the elements from  a Simple Sesame Noodles Recipe by The Pioneer Woman and bastardizing some elements from Half Baked Harvest's Crockpot Crispy Caramelized  Pork Ramen Noodle Soup w/Curry Roasted Acorn Squash  to come up with an easy ramen soup recipe that takes maybe 20 minutes to make and is now my go to recipe when I have no idea what I am making for dinner.
If all else fails for dinner, soup is always the answer.

I normally would try and have a picture of what ever I am talking about, but I can never seem to remember to take a picture before I have already started to devour it.  Instead here is a picture of the Dib Cat.  The internet needs more pictures of cats.

 My Ramen Recipe

1/2 C Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Hoisin Sauce
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Chili Oil
2 Tsp Sesame Oil
2 Tbs RiceVinegar
1 Tbs Red Chili Sauce
1 Tbs Korean Hot Sauce or Rooster Sauce
1/2 Tsp Powdered Ginger
1/4 Tsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbs Minced Garlic

Mix all these things together and set to the side.  The oils may separate, that is okay, you can stir it back together.


In a Wok or frying pan on medium heat cook:
1/4 C Diced Onions
1/4 C Shredded or Diced Carrots
Hand full of shredded Cabbage
1 medium to small cubed pork chop
Splash of Soy sauce and oil to keep things from sticking
(You can add mushrooms, but my husband hates mushrooms, so I don't)

When this is done set it to the side. Cook your noodles. (I use Soba, but I am sure you can use other types. Noodles are just a vehicle to get soup from one place to another.)   Keep the water.  Divide noodles out into bowls. Add your meat and cooked veggies on to each pile of noodles.  Pour your sauce over your bowls of noodles.  Add some of the retained water to make it more soup like.

This is where I top each bowl with a fried egg and sprinkle it with sesame seed and some times spring onions if I have them.  I know it seems like a lot of steps, but really it is just throwing a bunch of stuff in bottles together to make the sauce and tossing it with what ever veggies I have on hand with noodles.  The fried egg is because ramen is always better with a fried egg on it,  much like hamburgers.   Enjoy!

Fall CSA: Week Two

Week Two of my CSA is trying to make my brain explode. I had barely finished typing out my thoughts on Week One, when Lizzy popped over with my Week Two box.  She was kind enough to pick up my box when she picked up hers, but had not yet had a chance to look inside. Lifting off the white box lid, I was flabbergasted.   The first things that I saw were giant leaves that looked like they came out of the Jurassic period.  Lizzy helpfully informed me that they were collard greens, as we sifted through the rest of the box.

Week Two: One Spaghetti Squash, Two Heads of Cauliflower,  half dozen apples, a bunch turnips, collard greens

I can tell that  I am not from The South. I have no idea what to do with collard greens, much less how to fix them.  Part of me wants to take the foliage and build a roof to a Tiki hut with them, and hope for warmer weather. I am sure my cats would love to have a little handmade hut for the holidays, which makes me wonder if cats eat Collard Greens.  

Collard Greens is going to take some research to be able to prepare into something that I won’t need liquid courage to try. As if the Collard Greens were not enough of a challenge, I had a passel of turnips.  My only real knowledge of what to do with a turnip has to do with something not so real, which is to say that you leave them out for The Hogfather.  My husband is not enthused about turnips, and I have no practical experience with them. I also don’t think that The Hogfather is going to stop by our house.  This week’s box is going to require research and asking good friends for some advice on what to do with the items in my box. I do know one thing for sure, and it is that this week is going to be interesting. I can only wonder what week three is going to bring. 

“The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as "Things just happen. What the hell".” 
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Fall CSA: Week One

November has come and gone, and I for one am thankful. I love November. It is the one month where I purposely drive myself a little nuts and spend hours obsessing over imaginary beings. Every November, for the past six years, I have participated in NaNoWriMo.  I laugh, I cry and I debate on killing off characters, just to move the story along, and when all else fails I write about food.  This year’s story had me working on my word count until the second to last day, which means I was remiss in my blogging duties, along with a lot of other duties.  The first week of December is my catch up week, and then the rest of life resumes and I realize how behind I am in everything else and start to panic. Deep breathing exercises are wonderful.

In my enlightened creative state of mind of the NaNo zone, I agreed to be part of a fall CSA that started in December.  Every week for the next several weeks I will be receiving fall and winter produce. In my brain this sounded like a really good idea.  I would get a bunch of root vegetables that I could use at my leisure.  At least that is the way that it played out in my head.  That is not the case.

Week One- Two Red Onions,  One bigger than my head Chinese Cabbage, one Acorn Squash, winter greens, a baker’s dozen of sweet potatoes and a half dozen red apples.

While there were potatoes in the mix, I had completely forgotten that squash is a winter supplemental, and Acorn Squash is a new territory for me.  I don’t consider myself a chicken when it comes to trying new food, but I sometimes need a little bit of prodding. I like squash for the most part, or at least that is what I told myself as I chopped it in half, scooped out the seeds and baked it until it was squishy, and then ate it. It was good.  I would not have guessed that it would be a cross between a sweet potato and a butternut squash; I was expecting a nuttier flavor, like Swiss cheese. I hate Swiss cheese, and a Swiss Cheese flavored squash sounds horrible to me. Thankfully Acorn Squash doesn’t taste like that.  I feel like I passed a week one challenge, by eating the Acorn Squash and am now ready for the Week Two box.  Or at least I think I am ready.

And That is What Fennel Tastes Like

Chocolate Fennel Pudding

 I blame my mother for a good amount of my cookbooks, and I think that she would be alright with that sort of blame.  I don't think that the blame that I have multiple books on how to prepare food to sustain my life is going to leave her with too many sleepless nights. In fact, I think she would be rather proud that I am not living off of Ramen Noodles and hot tea.  

When I was in the early stages of living on my own for the first time, my offered me some cookbooks that she had no use for, and I took them. Then I never got rid of them, because I have problems getting rid of books in general.  In the mix of books that my mother gifted me were three Food & Wine cookbooks.  They are also one of my favorite cookbooks, which means I had to go out side of my comfort zone to find something that I had not ever made or modified.  That something ended up being Chocolate Fennel Pudding out of the Quick from Scratch- Herbs & Spices Cookbook.

I want to believe that anything in chocolate is wonderful. I really want to believe that. I feel a little bit like XFiles when I say that.  However, fennel might be pushing that theory.  I do no like fennel, anise, black liquorish, horehounds or anything else of that ilk.  I want to like fennel, because it is used in Indian Food and Indian Food make me happy, and tastes like an explosion of awesome in my mouth every time I have it. My sense go in to overdrive, and the rich heady flavor of Indian Food makes me believe that peace can be found in a bowl of sauce and rice. I sincerely want to have affection for  fennel, which is why I tried this recipe. As a side bonus, I have never made a pudding from scratch, which sounded a little bit like alchemy according the the recipe.

I didn't know you could do such things with just cream and eggs and chocolate. It was amazing. It was fabulous. It actually turned into pudding, which had me hopping around my kitchen like a deranged rabbit celebrating that my stove top pudding actually looked like a pudding, in all of its pudding glory.  The final test was how did it it taste. Can I love fennel?  This question could only be answered with a spoon. Bravely I dipped my spoon into the hot pudding and tasted it. It wasn't bad. It didn't kill me. I could eat it warm and ignore the fennel aftertaste. Scooping the pudding out of the pot, I concealed it in a container and put it in the refrigerator.  Pudding is meant to be cold.

Pudding is like alchemy. Once the pudding cooled, it revealed its true flavor.  Holy Fennel, Batman!  It was like a black liquorish nightmare. It was strong in flavor and overpowered the mighty chocolate flavor.  Fennel was not happy being a byline to chocolate and stole the limelight of the pudding. The flavor of fennel demanded to be front and center like a prima donna. I couldn't consume it in pleasure, the force of the fennel was too strong for me.  Thankfully my husband, who is immune to the fennel stepped up and saved me from the pudding of doom.

While I was not able to conquer the fennel in this round, I was able to made a pudding, which I have since duplicated minus the fennel. It was a delight.  I am pleased to with this new ability, and some what ashamed of the amount of pudding I intend to make in the future.

I Am All Ears

There is something magical about good food. It brings people together.  Memories happen, and stick with you in a way that you will never forget.  Recently I had the pleasure of making freezer corn.  Freezer corn is not where you buy the corn from the grocery store,  and toss it in bags and call it a day.  Freezer corn is so much more than that. Really good freezer corn is a taste of summer at its finest.

My friend Lizzy let me experience what it really means to make freezer corn happen.  We drove out to the middle of Amish Country, where I saw more horse and buggies than gas stations, and through some family connections, I found myself in a field of corn that was ready to meet its destiny.  I have never been in a corn field. I have lived near plenty of them, and remember them to be full of poison ivy and corn flowers.  They were a thing of beauty and danger to me. Mostly because I have a high allergy to poison ivy and think that cornflowers are pretty. This field had no poison ivy, and was full of ears.  The ears have probably heard it all. I know for a fact it heard me trying to figure out the best way to harvest corn. I may have plucked 25 out of the 200 ears that we left with.  I am absolutely amazed at the speed that some people can pick corn. All 200 ears were in the car with in 20 minutes.  Complete with corn bugs.


 When you have 200 ears to husk and silked, you learn to find a rhythm quickly. You also learn really quickly that corn is a sticky. Not a little sticky, but very sticky. The reason sweet corn is sweet, is because of the amount of sugar and starch at is nestled in each kernel.  I am pretty sure that if you were to juice corn, it would be a type of cement. They type of cement that you would never really be able to get off your hands with a single washing and multiple washing will only make your hands smooth. I wouldn't recommend using corn to smooth your hands. It is not an efficient way to exfoliate.

Once corn has been husked and silked, it gets cooked in a pot. Thirty ears of corn at a time, is still a lot of corn. Once the corn is cooked it had to be cooled. Not just on the out side, but all the way down to the hot molten core. If I had a portal that I could zap the steaming buckets of corn to the middle of the arctic tundra to cool it off faster.  Since I do not have a portal to transport corn to a cooler climate, I got well acquainted with well water. Well water is cold. Cold water and hot corn in a bucket doesn't make the corn cold immediately. Lots of water was used in cooling corn down and  a good bit of it got dumped in my shoe.

I think it might be a tool of magic that was used to take corn off the cob. It resembled a knife stuck in a piece of wood that you run the corn against it like a mandoline. Only there is a higher risk of chopping a finger off if you aren't paying attention.   After the kernels of corn are separated from the cob, you are left with the gold delicious taste of summer.  Tossing it in bags, labeling them and putting them in the freezer for the future, makes it worth all the work that was done.

I feel like I am a better person for having taken such time to put good food on the table, and I feel a lot more appreciative of the work that  it takes to get food to the table. I don't think that most people when they buy a bag of frozen sweet corn in the grocery store, truly know the amount of time it takes to get it there. I already looking forward to thawing a bag of corn in the middle of winter and enjoying of moment where summer dances across my taste buds and reminds me that with great work comes great pay off.

Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Review

I received The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman as a gift for Christmas. I wasn't sure what to expect, because I had not heard anything about it.  I have to say that it was one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever received.  If you haven't read the book, you should.

I love to read, so I could completely relate to the main character who had a deep love for books and found them as his solace as a child. The way that Ocean at the End of the Lane is written reminds me in a lot of ways of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine.  There were moments in both books  that made me fall in love with good food all over again. The descriptions of food made me relish those moments in life when you taste something that brings an inner balance to you.  It made me long for the collard greens by Dr. Jolly, and miss the days when my mother would take the time to make haluski.  The memories of fresh peaches from my childhood, so juicy there was a trail that ran down my arm with every bite rang solidly in between the words.

The Ocean at the End of Lane is not about food. It is very much a book that gives you food for thought. Part of me wishes it was, because food plays an integral part in memory and I would love to have a meal at the Hempstocks table; however I think that what the book is really about is finding yourself. There was a good part of the book that made me want to cry, and I had utterly convinced myself that Neil Gaiman couldn't write anything cheerful ever. Every childhood has horrors that there is no escape from, and it is part of the journey one must make to reach adult hood. When I finished the book, I dried more than a few tears and was really grateful for the fact that Neil Gaiman doesn't write bubble gum fiction. He writes good solid fiction that knows how to ping the recess of your mind and bring forth emotion that you didn't even know was bottled inside you.

The book reminds me of what it was like to be a child and to have to deal with grown up things much sooner before a person is ready to.  It reminded me of how hard it is to learn those lessons and that looking back and understanding what you are seeing is even harder to do then most people would believe. It reminded me that the outsides and the insides of a person very rarely match.  I am grateful for this reminder.

“Nobody looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. People are much more complicated than that. It’s true of everybody.” 
― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane