October 01, 2012

faves of late

My favorite book lately?  That's easy. The Fault in Our Stars.  It is a bit irreverent, and theologically incorrect, and definitely PG13 (at least), but the book absolutely rocks.

My favorite movie lately?  Again, that's easy.  Warrior, with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton.  Best Gladiator-type movie to come out since Gladiator.  It's that good.

My favorite movie soundtrack lately?  The Lucky One soundtrack, especially this song. 

My favorite snack lately?  Youzi!!!  Also known as pomelo, it is a large, citrus-type fruit that the street vendors are selling around here.  John and Alisa got me hooked on the dang things.  I am eating one right now in fact, making the keyboard a little sticky.  Here is a picture I took of my youzi this morning when I was messing around with the manual focus setting on Daniel's camera instead of cooking the kids' breakfast.

My favorite new habit?  A yogurt a day.  It is an effort to improve my tummy health, but it really just makes me happy.  Not to mention, it gives me something else to look forward to, each and every day.

My favorite new home school toy?  Typing Instructor for Kids. My 7-year-old and 5-year-old sons know their home row and quite a few other keys after just three weeks, and they beg me to let them do their typing.  It's like video games that teach them to type.  So cool.

My favorite recipe lately?  Home made cream of chicken soup!  I'm whipping up batches of this every week for my casseroles.  Let's face it, cream of chicken soup is the staple of all families with small children (unless you're vegan or on the GAPS diet), and the home made version is so much more natural and delicious.  Here's how you make it:

CREAM OF CHICKEN (or mushroom) SOUP, equivalent of 1 can condensed
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. chicken or mushroom bouillon powder*
1 cup milk

Melt butter over low heat in a saucepan.  Add next four ingredients, stirring with a whisk.  Cook and stir until mixture is smooth and bubbly; boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Gradually whisk in milk.  Return to heat and bring to a boil; boil and stir 1 minute.  Set aside until ready to use in a recipe.

*I use bouillon powder that is local to where I live.  If you live in America, you might have to adjust the amount of bouillon powder a bit, but probably not too much.  Just a heads up on that.

Happy Chinese National Day, by the way!