Runaway Reading List
I am sitting here staring at two stacks of books and the word "why" keeps coming to mind. Why did I bring all these books into my home right now of all times? Why did I think I had enough time or energy or interest to get through these books and glean something useful from them NOW? Hm. Good question.
It's actually one stack of books, divisible into categories in two different ways. One is the source - library or Amazon; and the other is the subject - food alleries or toddler entertainment. I'm not even considering, for purposes of this post, the fun reading material like New Yorker magazines or the Sunday paper; and there is one other book that's somewhere near the top of my current reading that is worth mentioning, and will lead me into some of the answer to the "Why" questions.
Sitting on the kitchen table is a copy of Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon. Joe and I both read it when I was pregnant with Julie, found it immensely helpful and motivating. If you've ever wondered why a woman would choose to give birth without pain medication, this book will explain it all and then help you understand how to do it. It's a great book, and when Joe asked me a couple weeks ago if I could find him a copy I checked the library website (they didn't have it) and then clicked on over to Amazon to buy a copy. It's a good book to have around anyway - in case a friend is interested in borrowing it - but when Joe shows any interest in supporting me better in the childbirth process rather than simply whimpering when I tell him how many more weeks till my estimated due date I choose to support that interest full throttle. Now it's sitting on my kitchen table, and I've been reading a few pages here and there while Julie and I eat a meal.
Well, you go to Amazon to buy one thing, and you can't get away with just that one simple book. First, there's the super-saver shipping. It makes no sense to buy one book for $12.92 and then pay something like $6 in shipping charges when you can just go pick out another book for about the same price, arrive at your $25 minimum, and get shipping for free. Those sneaky Amazon marketers know what they are doing! So I started poking around.
I picked out a book or two off my wish list. I remembered a recent conversation about toddler-activity books on an e-mail list to which I belong. Of course, I couldn't just go ahead and BUY those books outright. First, I checked the library's online card catalog to make sure I couldn't borrow them for free. For some the answer was yes, others no. The other thing that tends to happen when I go shopping at Amazon is that those suggestions they make after you choose an item are all-too-tempting. Clever marketers again. So you look at a few more books, check the library, go back and decide to buy another, maybe stick a couple more on your wish list - it's a vicious cycle really.
Before I knew it, I had ordered an additional four books from Amazon and placed holds on three more books and a CD from the library on top of the two books and three CDs I had already checked out. Yowza! Well, I've already returned three of the CDs. They were more children's music that I can live without owning. We listened to the other CD today. It was pretty good - good enough for me to recommend it. Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes Little & Big: Animal Folk Songs by Pete Seeger. So those are out of the way.
On to the toddler activity books. The only one I've actually looked at so far was "The Wiggle and Giggle Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner. It would be great for someone planning a toddler party or who runs a daycare, but most of the activities in it require several kids or require several props that you either have to buy or spend significant non-kid time to prepare. Not quite what I was looking for, and it's going back to the library. The great joy of borrowing books and music from the library is finding one you don't like. So easy to return them with no regret for having spent money on something you'll never use but will have to either store on your precious shelf-space or find someone else who wants them.
The other two books are "Games to Play with Toddlers" by Jackie Silberg and "Montessori Play and Learn" by Lesley Britton. The former is a library book due in a couple more weeks and the latter is mine. I'll go ahead and at least skim the former soon-ish and if it's good, perhaps it will go on my Amazon wishlist. Anything that I own at this point can wait till after the baby is born and the wee-hour nursing sessions that I remember from Julie's early days. I managed to read several very long novels while nursing Julie, and although I will be a bit more distracted and a bit more experienced with nursing while asleep, I bet I'll have some time to peruse a book or two.
On to the allergies! Any time I talk about allergy cookbooks, I have to start by mentioning The Food Allergy Survival Guide, which is far and above the best one I have found so far. The big problem I've run into is that we have multiple allergies to deal with, and that it's pretty easy to find a book that avoids *one* of the problem foods like dairy, wheat or eggs - but that they tend to rely heavily on substitutes involving soy or they throw a lot of cheese in to cover up for whatever else is missing, or they use nuts and seeds in everything, or that the recipes just sound disgusting. I've tried several of the recipes from the FASG and they've all turned out really well. Every recipe is truly free of the eight major allergens (which thankfully Julie's pretty much fall under). The one tiny problem with this book is that the recipes are all vegan, and we are a decidedly non-vegan family. But the baked goods RAWK!
I took a few minutes this morning to skim through one of the library cookbooks. I am SO glad I didn't buy this book. It's called the "Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook", and promises "More than 150 recipes that are Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Egg-Free and Low in Sugar". Well, there are some recipes that fit each of the single ingredient-free promises in the book but not very many that were free of all those things. There was dairy over half the recipes, the author substituted spelt for wheat in a lot of cases (spelt is just a genetic variant of wheat!), and there was NOTHING in this book that I would want to cook for Julie. NOTHING! Can you feel the hate coming off the screen? I was pretty blown away with the stinkitude of this book.
I am looking forward to at least skimming through "Food Allergies and Food Intolerances" by Jonathan Brostoff - It's not really a recipe book, but more of a guide to what they are, how to identify them, and strategies to identify and treat them. If it's any good and my fried little brain can handle it, I may end up having to buy this one, or at least renew it at the library to get through it. Also from the library is "Cooking Free" by Carol Fenster, and it claims that its recipes are for people with multiple allergies.
Finally - the two cookbooks that I bought and am almost afraid to crack open out of fear that they will compare with the dreck I mentioned above - "The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook" by Marjorie Hurt Jones - she claims to include Over 350 natural food recipes free of all common food allergens, and god bless her if she is telling the truth. "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread" by Bette Hagman - and I will be satisfied with my $12.24 investment if this book contains ONE recipe for a decent daily table bread that Julie can eat. Again, I'm afraid to look. I have all bits crossed that she hasn't used dairy products and/or eggs in all her recipes. I suppose I'll have to look one of these days.
My biggest motivation in my recent cookbook shopping-spree is to find bread to make for her. The rice bread we buy in the freezer section at the co-op is expensive, and since it's frozen, the slices tend to stick together making it almost impossible to pry them apart without breaking them. My darling MIL suggested leaving the precious loaf out on the counter to thaw so that they would come apart more easily, but the whole reason the bread is frozen is so that it won't go stale. Once thawed, it would be useless if not eaten within a day or at most two. Julie is the only person in the house who eats this very-expensive stuff, and I'm sure as hell not going to feed her an entire loaf of it in two days!
I find it extremely amusing that I've decided to go on this recipe search - and don't get me wrong, I'm also always in the market for main-dish recipes that the whole family can and will eat. But that I've gone looking for recipes NOW. Now that my freezers are finally crammed full of meals for us to eat after the new baby is born because I know I won't have my act together enough to plan and prepare fresh meals every night for the first little while. And - hahaha - isn't it funny and cute that I think I'm going to find time and energy to try making something NEW and different - what a hoot!
Well, that's the long and long and longer of my story. I'd much rather be reading blogs and discussion groups on the Internet, I'd much rather be staring at a Sudoku puzzle or catching up on those New Yorkers which I love to read but do come every single week whether you've finished the last one or not.
It's actually one stack of books, divisible into categories in two different ways. One is the source - library or Amazon; and the other is the subject - food alleries or toddler entertainment. I'm not even considering, for purposes of this post, the fun reading material like New Yorker magazines or the Sunday paper; and there is one other book that's somewhere near the top of my current reading that is worth mentioning, and will lead me into some of the answer to the "Why" questions.
Sitting on the kitchen table is a copy of Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon. Joe and I both read it when I was pregnant with Julie, found it immensely helpful and motivating. If you've ever wondered why a woman would choose to give birth without pain medication, this book will explain it all and then help you understand how to do it. It's a great book, and when Joe asked me a couple weeks ago if I could find him a copy I checked the library website (they didn't have it) and then clicked on over to Amazon to buy a copy. It's a good book to have around anyway - in case a friend is interested in borrowing it - but when Joe shows any interest in supporting me better in the childbirth process rather than simply whimpering when I tell him how many more weeks till my estimated due date I choose to support that interest full throttle. Now it's sitting on my kitchen table, and I've been reading a few pages here and there while Julie and I eat a meal.
Well, you go to Amazon to buy one thing, and you can't get away with just that one simple book. First, there's the super-saver shipping. It makes no sense to buy one book for $12.92 and then pay something like $6 in shipping charges when you can just go pick out another book for about the same price, arrive at your $25 minimum, and get shipping for free. Those sneaky Amazon marketers know what they are doing! So I started poking around.
I picked out a book or two off my wish list. I remembered a recent conversation about toddler-activity books on an e-mail list to which I belong. Of course, I couldn't just go ahead and BUY those books outright. First, I checked the library's online card catalog to make sure I couldn't borrow them for free. For some the answer was yes, others no. The other thing that tends to happen when I go shopping at Amazon is that those suggestions they make after you choose an item are all-too-tempting. Clever marketers again. So you look at a few more books, check the library, go back and decide to buy another, maybe stick a couple more on your wish list - it's a vicious cycle really.
Before I knew it, I had ordered an additional four books from Amazon and placed holds on three more books and a CD from the library on top of the two books and three CDs I had already checked out. Yowza! Well, I've already returned three of the CDs. They were more children's music that I can live without owning. We listened to the other CD today. It was pretty good - good enough for me to recommend it. Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes Little & Big: Animal Folk Songs by Pete Seeger. So those are out of the way.
On to the toddler activity books. The only one I've actually looked at so far was "The Wiggle and Giggle Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner. It would be great for someone planning a toddler party or who runs a daycare, but most of the activities in it require several kids or require several props that you either have to buy or spend significant non-kid time to prepare. Not quite what I was looking for, and it's going back to the library. The great joy of borrowing books and music from the library is finding one you don't like. So easy to return them with no regret for having spent money on something you'll never use but will have to either store on your precious shelf-space or find someone else who wants them.
The other two books are "Games to Play with Toddlers" by Jackie Silberg and "Montessori Play and Learn" by Lesley Britton. The former is a library book due in a couple more weeks and the latter is mine. I'll go ahead and at least skim the former soon-ish and if it's good, perhaps it will go on my Amazon wishlist. Anything that I own at this point can wait till after the baby is born and the wee-hour nursing sessions that I remember from Julie's early days. I managed to read several very long novels while nursing Julie, and although I will be a bit more distracted and a bit more experienced with nursing while asleep, I bet I'll have some time to peruse a book or two.
On to the allergies! Any time I talk about allergy cookbooks, I have to start by mentioning The Food Allergy Survival Guide, which is far and above the best one I have found so far. The big problem I've run into is that we have multiple allergies to deal with, and that it's pretty easy to find a book that avoids *one* of the problem foods like dairy, wheat or eggs - but that they tend to rely heavily on substitutes involving soy or they throw a lot of cheese in to cover up for whatever else is missing, or they use nuts and seeds in everything, or that the recipes just sound disgusting. I've tried several of the recipes from the FASG and they've all turned out really well. Every recipe is truly free of the eight major allergens (which thankfully Julie's pretty much fall under). The one tiny problem with this book is that the recipes are all vegan, and we are a decidedly non-vegan family. But the baked goods RAWK!
I took a few minutes this morning to skim through one of the library cookbooks. I am SO glad I didn't buy this book. It's called the "Kid-Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook", and promises "More than 150 recipes that are Wheat-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Egg-Free and Low in Sugar". Well, there are some recipes that fit each of the single ingredient-free promises in the book but not very many that were free of all those things. There was dairy over half the recipes, the author substituted spelt for wheat in a lot of cases (spelt is just a genetic variant of wheat!), and there was NOTHING in this book that I would want to cook for Julie. NOTHING! Can you feel the hate coming off the screen? I was pretty blown away with the stinkitude of this book.
I am looking forward to at least skimming through "Food Allergies and Food Intolerances" by Jonathan Brostoff - It's not really a recipe book, but more of a guide to what they are, how to identify them, and strategies to identify and treat them. If it's any good and my fried little brain can handle it, I may end up having to buy this one, or at least renew it at the library to get through it. Also from the library is "Cooking Free" by Carol Fenster, and it claims that its recipes are for people with multiple allergies.
Finally - the two cookbooks that I bought and am almost afraid to crack open out of fear that they will compare with the dreck I mentioned above - "The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook" by Marjorie Hurt Jones - she claims to include Over 350 natural food recipes free of all common food allergens, and god bless her if she is telling the truth. "The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread" by Bette Hagman - and I will be satisfied with my $12.24 investment if this book contains ONE recipe for a decent daily table bread that Julie can eat. Again, I'm afraid to look. I have all bits crossed that she hasn't used dairy products and/or eggs in all her recipes. I suppose I'll have to look one of these days.
My biggest motivation in my recent cookbook shopping-spree is to find bread to make for her. The rice bread we buy in the freezer section at the co-op is expensive, and since it's frozen, the slices tend to stick together making it almost impossible to pry them apart without breaking them. My darling MIL suggested leaving the precious loaf out on the counter to thaw so that they would come apart more easily, but the whole reason the bread is frozen is so that it won't go stale. Once thawed, it would be useless if not eaten within a day or at most two. Julie is the only person in the house who eats this very-expensive stuff, and I'm sure as hell not going to feed her an entire loaf of it in two days!
I find it extremely amusing that I've decided to go on this recipe search - and don't get me wrong, I'm also always in the market for main-dish recipes that the whole family can and will eat. But that I've gone looking for recipes NOW. Now that my freezers are finally crammed full of meals for us to eat after the new baby is born because I know I won't have my act together enough to plan and prepare fresh meals every night for the first little while. And - hahaha - isn't it funny and cute that I think I'm going to find time and energy to try making something NEW and different - what a hoot!
Well, that's the long and long and longer of my story. I'd much rather be reading blogs and discussion groups on the Internet, I'd much rather be staring at a Sudoku puzzle or catching up on those New Yorkers which I love to read but do come every single week whether you've finished the last one or not.
posted by Shelly Kang at 9:15 PM
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