The Arlington County book sale was this weekend, which made me happy because it means that starting May 1st they’re accepting donations again. I stopped by on Saturday to check out a copy of Malinda Lo’s Ash for book club in a few weeks, and while I was there I wandered through the book sale. I managed to escape with only two books being purchased, thankfully. Three things that jumped out at me while was there, though:

Seeing Books I’d Donated
This got quite a few chuckles from me. Every now and then I see books I’ve donated on the shelves (for instance, the time I was walking through the Pimmit Hills Library and suddenly came across a run of fifteen volumes of The Prince of Tennis, which made laugh since I stopped after volume 15), but I always figure the books more often than not end up in the book sale. I think I must have seen a good twenty copies of books that I’d given them in one section alone; one in particular had the same little fold on the top of the cover that I remembered so well. (No, I’m not saying which books I donated and which ones I kept in my own personal library!)

Seeing Books I’d Wanted But Long Since Forgotten About
Do you have books that you thought about buying over and over again but never did? One of those books for me was Tea From An Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan, which I think I must have picked up and put back down on the shelves at the (no longer in existence) Borders around the corner from my apartment, years ago. I’d read some of Cadigan’s Wild Cards short stories, and I heard great things about the book. But I never, ever bought it. They had a lovely hardcover copy of the book for sale, and for $2 I decided to finally scoop it up. I suspect that once I read it, I will donate it back to the library and let the cycle continue for someone else!

Seeing Books I Didn’t Know Existed
I had no idea until yesterday that Food & Wine magazine publishes an annual collection of all the recipes from that year. There was a copy of their 2006 annual available, and a quick flip through showed off enough I was interested in that I decided it was worth a purchase. And once again, if I end up getting bored with it, well, back to the library! And if I like it, well, it looks like a lot of used copies of the Food & Wine annuals are available for under a buck.

That said? I am glad the big book sale only comes several times a year, for the sanity of my own bookshelves and wallet. After I had my two books, I decided to stop while I was still somewhat ahead and fled for the exit. I’m no fool. I know that path has disaster written all over it for me.

I freely admit that I am powerless when it comes to those little bites of deliciousness. Especially the Thin Mints and Samoas, although Tagalongs are a close third. (Or, if you’re in a different part of the country, those latter two might be called the boring names of Caramel DeLites* and Peanut Butter Patties.)

Every year, I tell myself that I’m not going to buy any. I don’t need them. (My waistline certainly doesn’t.) There are other snacks out there I can buy instead. And yet… and yet… Well, so far I’ve only bought one box of Thin Mints. I actually picked it up a week and a half ago as I was leaving the grocery store. The Girl Scouts were out, I walked past them, and then was almost to my car when I turned around and went back and bought the box. Their siren call was hard to ignore.

As soon as I got home, though, I threw them into the back of my freezer. Frozen Thin Mints actually taste better than regular ones, but it also means that I can promptly forget about them. This is a good thing because otherwise I run the risk of eating half a box in the space of about 20 minutes. And so they sat there, completely forgotten about, until someone on Livejournal mentioned selling cookies. *sigh*

So far, I’ve eaten five of them. Three at first, then two more a couple of minutes later. I’m hoping that by writing this up I can push past the craving. And I suddenly have sympathy for people trying to quit smoking.

That said, there is one kind of Girl Scout cookie that I can always pass by, and those are the nasty shortbread Trefoil cookies. I think I’d rather just eat sawdust. Bleah. Bring those into my house all you want, they are about as exciting as watching paint dry. At least I have immunity to one variety, I suppose.

How long until Girl Scout cookie season ends?

* — I don’t know who they’re fooling, there’s absolutely nothing “lite” about them.

(If you have a Flickr account, please make sure to click through and comment on its adorableness if you like it!)

If you’ve never had lingonberries before, it’s a tiny bit hard to describe them. They’re a little tart but sweet at the same time, and they’re an essential ingredient on swedish pancakes. (Places like IHOP actually offer a lingonberry syrup for their swedish pancakes.) As I’ve been on a pancake kick lately (and really, why not?), more lingonberry preserves was a must.

I actually picked up two other similar foods that I’ve never eaten before, though; cloudberry preserves, and gooseberry jam. I have no idea what either of them taste like, but how can I resist something called a cloudberry? It sounds like what Frodo and Sam would have picked off of bushes on their trip to Mordor. Or maybe something Mario would eat to get a temporary power-up while trying to save Princess Peach from Bowser. I, for one, can’t wait to try them. (A gooseberry doesn’t sound quite as interesting. But in the interest of trying something new I bought it.)

If I had been going directly home I suspect I would have bought stuff out of the frozen section, too, but I was saved by warmer temperatures outside this weekend. Perhaps next time I’m up in the area…

The dinner was, needless to say, ultra-delicious. My mom’s side of the family is populated with great cooks and the food we had this year was no exception; ham, scalloped potatoes, carrot souffle, scalloped pineapple, green beans, asparagus, and probably something else that I’m blanking on. Plus three desserts; banana pudding, a carrot cake, and lemon bars that I’d made and brought with me.

The bars turned out pretty good overall. Next time I need to make sure I really push all of the crust out nice and flat; it was a little high at one end and those bars had to get thrown out because they were almost all crust and no lemon. Also, I need to buy a lemon zester before I make this again because using a cheese grater is a real pain in the butt. Still, overall, they were good. (Jim, I’ll edit in the recipe under a jump when I get home tonight.)

This morning I finally got off of my butt and went lap swimming for the first time in approximately 20 years. So yes, I did indeed survive. If my counting was correct (and it may very well not be) I swam 20 laps (or 40 lengths) of the pool, which comes out to 1000 meters. With little rest breaks between each lap, mind you, with which to confer with Julie and Laura. It was a nice time, although I clearly need to get some goggles because everything is now a tiny bit blurry. Also, need to find my rubber flip-flops. It’s been a while since I’ve had to do the whole shower-at-the-gym routine. (My current gym is all of 5 minutes away, my old gym was a 2 minute walk around the corner.)

I’d originally wanted to use this spring to tackle a triathlon, but missing Philly back in November put a hold on that. But I might give one of the mini-triathlons from Tri It Now a stab. If I get the bike serviced I am pretty sure I could handle that right now with no problem. (Famous last words, I’m sure. I can hear Moose cackling at my naivety.) In the meantime, though, I just need to keep at it. Practice makes better…

Lemon Bars Recipe

Crust

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup confectioners’s sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Topping

• 2 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 6 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 12 x 18 jelly roll pan.

In a large bowl, on a low speed of a mixer, combine all the crust ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Form the dough into a ball. Spread crust evenly into prepared pan. Use a large piece of waed paper to firmly and evenly press down crust. (If it’s not even, wherever it ends up too high will end up being all crust and no lemon!) Bake the crust for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool for 15-20 minutes before proceeding.

While the crust is cooling, in a medium-sized bowl, on the low speed of a mixer, beat the sugar, eggs, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour over slightly warm crust. Return to oven. Bake 18-20 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Allow to cool to room temperature, or overnight, before cutting and serving.

Some people eat to live, but I have always lived to eat. For this I “blame” my mother, who at an early age taught us the joys of eating amazing foods through her cooking. (Somehow I’m a-ok with this.) After tonight’s cycling class at the rec center, the last of my homemade garlic, pasta, and prosciutto soup tasted so good I can hardly even begin to describe its deliciousness.

Incidentally, if you want to feel especially silly, or perhaps merely ungraceful, try and take pictures of yourself eating. Oh good lord, the horrors that little photo session produced…

(I got the recipe from Sally Schneider’s A New Way to Cook, which my friend Ev gave me for my birthday a few years ago. Sooo tasty!)

But right now, at the start of the process of making the soup, I’m at another one of the reasons. When I put the dried black beans in a container and fill it up with water, I actually get a little giddy when a few hours later, almost all the water is gone (even though the beans were originally submerged by several inches of water) and there’s just a cascade of beans staring at me. Inevitably I add more water, some more of which will get absorbed. And tomorrow morning, when I dump the remaining water out, it’s going to be indigo colored and make me grin as it goes down the drain.

Easy to please, that’s me. (The recipe is after the jump at the bottom of the post.)

On an unrelated note, with the marathon in three weekends (my ankle feels much better today, by the way!), I’m trying to see how far ahead I can get with my reviews for Read About Comics. Now normally I’m writing a week ahead, so that this weekend I wrote reviews for November 10-14. For this weekend and the two remaining weekends before the trip up to Philly, though, I’m going to try and write one extra review that gets held in reserve. That way, when the marathon actually hits, I’ll be so far ahead that I can take a full week off from writing and there won’t be a blip on the schedule at all. We’ll see how that goes.

Spicy Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

• 1 pound dry black beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
• 4 teaspoons diced jalapeno peppers
• 6 cups broth (the original recipe said chicken, but I use vegetable)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Combine everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours. (Alternately, cook on high for 4 hours, then low for 2 hours, or until ready to eat.) I then prefer to take my immersion hand blender and puree it all; it forms a thick, creamy texture that will have people swearing you put cups of cream or whole milk into the recipe. Sooo tasty. Sometimes I put a little dallop of fat free sour cream on top, or stir in some oyster crackers, but it’s just as good without either.