Books Read - February 2025

The Time of the Child, Niall Williams, 4.25* Beautiful prose about people living in a rural Irish village in the early 1960s.  Social atmosphere and attitudes weaved through the villagers observations.  Quiet plot.

The Wedding People, Allison Espoch, 4.5* Jenna Book Club pick that I read quickly and and enjoyed.  Lost points for being somewhat unrealistic, but won points for overcoming that obstacle for me.

In France Profound, TD Allman, 4* First completed non-fiction of the year.  War correspondent Allman describes the history of his house and its surrounding French village, which he owned for thirty-four years until his death.  Great descriptions of history, LOTS of minute detail.  

The Frozen River, Ariel Lawson, 5* Best book of the year, so far.  Checked off many of my boxes: Realistic history, plot-driven, interesting, acknowledged back stories. Thank you to sister Sarah for recommending!

Three Days in June, Anne Tyler, 4.5* Read in one day. Love reading her prose. 

Beautyland, Marie-Helene Berlin, 4* Getting a lot of press.  I still enjoyed this, despite the main character being an alien.  The main character was exactly my age and lived in NYC.  Still didn't "get it".  

The Most, Jessica Anthony, 5* Devoured it. @elinhilderbrand recommendation. A novella, I read it in an afternoon.  Marriage drama.  

January 2025 Reading

 A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler, 4* - Kindle

This started as a 5, and ended on a 3. Thus, my 4 star rating. Tyler writes perfect prose and dialogue.  Her description of memory loss in the main character was stunning, in my unexperienced opinion. The end was depressing and maybe too realistic.   

From Here Til the Great Unknown, Riley Keogh, 4.25*

Bestseller. Interesting insight into a topic (Elvis) that I know nothing about. Lisa Marie Presley still seems like an enigma.  

The End of the Hour, A Therapist's Memoir, Meghan Riordon Jarvis, 3.5*

Well written. More description of her family might have given me a better perspective of the situation.  There seemed to be some added trauma she didn't touch on. She should have gone there. 

Peggy, Rebecca Godfrey, 4.25* - Kindle

Really interesting piece of fiction and history. Rebecca Godfrey sadly passed away before she finished this fictional take on Peggy Guggenheim's life.  It was finished by her friend and fellow author Leslie Jamison. I enjoyed the second author's prose better. Though Jamison buttoned up Peggy's life, she also left out some years I would have been interested in hearing about.  

All the Broken Places, John Boyne, 4.5* 

Exceptional Holocaust book from a different point of view.  I have read so many Holocaust books, that I thought I had had my fill.  Glad I took a chance on this one. Adding Boyne to my "Authors to Read" list.  

Wine Review: Spring in a Bottle - Wolffer Estate

 The boyfriend and I drove from vineyard to vineyard one hot August Saturday in our friend's cigarette reeking car.  It was 2009, and Long Island's North Shore wineries had jumpstarted as the Hamptons continued to grow, and the internet spread the word.  While all of these wineries had beauty and tasting rooms, one of the wineries we pulled into that afternoon seemed organized, clean, and smelled tobacco-free. It also had good wine. It was Wolffer Estates.  We left with two bottles of their signature $30 sauvignon blanc, which was no small sum in your twenties.  

Wolffer Estates hit the national scene in 2013 with their "Summer in a Bottle" Rose.  Now living in North Carolina with the husband, it was warming to see Wolffer Estate bottles on shelves, remembering our stop there years before.  

Now, moving with the times, Wolffer Estate is offering a non-alcoholic "Spring in a Bottle" Rose. While not partaking in Dry January myself, I decided to "spring" for the bottle and review. And $20 for non-alcoholic wine is quite a spring!   

The wine proved to be a lively pairing with meatball subs.  While it had lower acidity than wine with alcohol, it was more than made up for with the perfect bubbles.  "Spring" suggests floral notes, but there were none to be found, merely perfectly balanced slight red berry with grass.  It elicited the notes of the warm February Carolina day we were experiencing, and allowed our children to taste with us.  And at 36 calories a glass, allowed me to treat myself to dessert.  

While we had initially thought we would have to open another bottle, the husband and I declared this wine a "buy again," and declared the wine fully satisfying.  Wolffer Estate has given us another way to make memories.  

The Aldi Wine Advent Calendar - December 2024

 I arrived at the local Aldi right after tennis, November 6, 2024, the day after the US election, and the day that Aldi's Wine Advent Calendar landed on its floors.  The truck bed had lowered the giant cube of  advent cartons probably two hours before, and there were only about ten left.  I convinced two other women to buy them as I lifted mine in my cart. "I told myself that today would be a disappointing day no matter how the election turned out, so I decided to buy this today - the day it comes out," I told my fellow shoppers, "It will sell out fast." 

I had been given a heads up about its arrival from X, my addiction to the platform finally giving me a benefit.  Very few in my social circle shop at Aldi.  Aldi shoppers tend to be true bargain hunters, either because of necessity or a desire for value.  Aldi stores tend to be under overpasses, across train tracks, and have sketchy birds lingering in their parking lots.  Needless to say, I have more time, and live closer than others to occasionally scout Aldi for organic produce, dairy, meat, and other products. 

I am also a "value" wine seeker.  I have a wine certification.  Aldi has a reputation in the "discount wine community" (such as it is), as a purveyor of good value wines.  On its shelves, it carries basic wines made in a basic manner, that are self-explicit. Examples are:  Century Road Chardonnay and Elementalist Pinot Grigio, California Heritage Pinot Noir, and Adventure Series Chianti.  

In 2024, Aldi bucked national trends by having its sales of adult beverages double as shoppers sought out  bargains at $4 less than average.  I hadn't bought wine at Aldi in ten years.  

My exploration into value wines began during my official wine tasting classes.  Our instructor bought her sample wines from the grocery store.  They were reasonably priced, traditional examples of wines from every region. And they were good.  She was a Master Som who was buying inexpensive wine at the grocery store. This sung music to my bargain hunter ears. With two babies under two, in a new house, in a new city, learning and writing about wine bargains seemed to be a lifestyle fit, and I could start with my instructor's picks. 

Since starting over 10 years ago, my research of "value" wine has been a mishmash of intermittent wine reviews on social media, searching online for quality wine recommendations (shout out to the now retired Wine Curmudgeon and his $10 Hall of Fame), and using discernment when trying to buy wines at the Harris Teeter ("Does the goat on the label mean it's worth buying?").  My few forays into Aldi wines did not suit my taste, or the Wine Curmudgeon's, or my picky husband.  I didn't even try to pawn an Aldi bottle on a friend.  Thus, why the Aldi Wine Advent Calendar?!  

I felt like I had been let in on a secret when I heard its drop date.  I needed hope for a good holiday season, and 24, 150 oz bottles of wine from around the world for $69.99 demonstrated that hope.  It would also put my taste buds as a certified wine educator to the test. Knowing Aldi wine's reputation for simple bottles of plain grape, I knew the daily tastings would give my palate the vindication it deserved.  

Instead of choosing each wine in Advent order, reading the label, and tasting the wine, we decided to guess each wine blindly. My husband would randomly chose a wine each evening, red, or white, depending on the the dinner menu, and he would hide the label with a paper cover as he pulled the wine from the box. We would then taste and discuss.  

Our first night of Advent, we had salmon, so my husband pulled a white wine from crate. We confidently guessed California chardonnay, and smugly sipped it down.  This was going to be easy! We had years of expertise in value wines! Our second night, we had meatballs, so my husband pulled out a red. We sniffed, swirled, tasted, and sniffed some more.  "It's a Chianti," I said. "It's a cabernet sauvignon," he said.  The grand reveal showed us, "Spanish blend." BLENDS! This was a glitch in the exercise. How do you guess a human grape creation?  But, we thought, that's okay.  How many blends could there be in the advent calendar? The wine stores have only one small section titled "red blends".  There are 24 days of Advent.   

The third night we misidentified an Australian shiraz ("Well, that's okay, we never drink those. Ever").  The fourth night the calendar put forth an Italian merlot ("There are merlots in Italy?). The fifth night we got a Portuguese blend ("It did have a darker red than others."). We continued surprising our tastebuds (misidentifying) with South African blends, Chilean blends, Austrian blends, Zinfandel from France, and a Hungarian blend. Not one Chianti in 24 wines from around the world.  When we did finally pull a generic California Cabernet Sauvignon, it was promptly misidentified and poured down the drain.  We popped open a quality bottle of Cabernet to soothe our scorned egos. Wasn't Lent the period in the church calendar for learning experiences?  

By Christmas Eve, our tongues were confused, our noses were bereft, and our children were mocking us.  We had guessed two out of 24 wines - thank you Rose for being pink.  We acknowledged Christ's birth by opening a bottle of Chateaneuf-du-Pape that paired beautifully with our gourmet burgers.  We toasted to our good fortune of tasting exquisite wine.  We toasted that we had made it to Christmas, that the presents were wrapped, the table was set, and we were ready to relax into the holidays. 

We were hopeful about the future, and we were going to buy better wine.    

Reflecting on Cooking - 2024

 This is perhaps the first year that I cooked with no exact goals in mind.  But, I did try some new ways to ramp up the daily cooking schedule.  

For many years, I have pretty faithfully followed this meal schedule

Monday: Chicken

Tuesday: Justyn Sports/Kids, Mac and Cheese, me: grazing

Wednesday: Fish/Vegetable

Thursday: Pork (Lamb was also on the schedule - but I have maybe made it twice in 10 years).

Friday: Ground meat 

Saturday: Steak

Sunday: Pizza - mostly homemade.  

This year, I tried to be more flexible and:

1) Continued to cook in ways that leave as little food waste as possible.  

2) Changed pizza to pasta night. Years of making pizza from scratch has not made it better. I could not stomach it anymore. As a result, kids ate more, ate the leftovers, and the pasta could be made vegetarian for veg night.  I am the only person who wants to avoid pasta in my family, so too bad for me it is such a hit.  

3) Incorporated more ground meat - because the kids eat it.  Meatballs.  

4) Tried freezing some food/meals, and it never really took.  I don't like eating reheated/previously frozen items, and neither do my children.  

5) Made bread from King Arthur recipes.  I was inspired by my trip to Britain to make better bread, and I did. It was good! No one ate it/appreciated it. I don't need to eat more bread.  I guess I will continue to buy Killer Dave's White Bread Done Right for the kids, and not eat bread. 

Cookbooks I cooked from:  

What to Cook when You Don't Feel Like Cooking - Caro Chambers.  My sister Sarah introduced me to her  (in person!) this year and treated me to the cookbook.  Favorites have been the Chicken Chili, and the Ground Meat/Peanut recipe.  Have made about 15 from the book, and have repeated 2, which is always a good sign.  

I purchased Jenny Rosenstrach's Weekday Vegetarian 2: Everyday (I think).  Haven't cooked anything from it, and haven't tried. I do continue to receive (paid) and use her sub stack newsletter. 

Modern Proper is also a cookbook I have not written about in the past, and have utilized a ton.  Probably bought it in 2022 - and thus not mentioned.  The meatball chapter is phenomenal, and I need to cook more from.  Hopefully these ladies come out with another book this year! 

Cooking Goals for 2025 

1) Only buy what I need in order to lower food waste.  

2) End buying greens and that I will just throw away 2 weeks later - I see you arugula, cilantro, parsley.  

3) Make meals that the girls can pack in their new thermoses the next day: Pasta, Chile, and will think of something else.  New thermoses are a hit! Make more soups they will eat

4) Eat less dairy and gluten - preferably not together.  Drink less.  I might incorporate me some of these in my all over goals of 2025 - which I will write tomorrow.