My first book review: "Bossypants"

I'm following in the footsteps of my good friend LD, who is an avid reader and much more regular blogger than myself (hers are short, to the point, and include lots of pics). She often posts reviews of books she reads on her blog, so I thought I would take a stab at it too.

Not too long ago I read Tina Fey's book, Bossypants. I actually read it on the October trip to the US…as in I read it on the plane ride from London to DFW. Yes, in one sitting. That's how good it is. And there were many, many times where I laughed out loud.

This is not my typical kind of book, and I honestly can't even remember what prompted me to download it. I have many friends who I like to say read "smart" books; books that are supposed to shift your world view and enlighten your thinking. Not me, I tend to stick to fluffy fiction that is written primarily about women, issues they encounter, relationships, jobs, etc, etc. I used to say this was because I got enough of the tough thinking in my job as a social worker, but I'm not really sure what my excuse is now. I guess maybe I just like this type of book. Judge me if you want, I'm not all that concerned and will continue enjoying my light, carefree books.

So, back to Bossypants. I loved this book. For me, Tina Fey's style of writing is very readable and sounds like she's having a conversation with each reader, telling them a story. The book is full of humor (not surprising), but also offers up insights about her journey in a predominately male industry that still kind of has to be broken into by women like herself.

I also appreciated her honest accounts of childhood, awkward teenage years (no matter how cool you were, I'm certain we all had them), finding her way in college, marriage and now motherhood. Her chapter on motherhood is There's a Drunk Midget in My House, and even though I personally have not had one of these in my house yet, I feel certain I will fully relate in no time when Baby K arrives. I think I liked it because she's very real about her experience, as opposed to making it this glorious, amazing thing that never has any downside. Yes, I appreciate that. 

Another chapter that I found particularly amusing was the one about her dad. It's not that her experiences with her dad reminded me of mine, but one thing in particular that rang true for me (and my sisters as well). One of her observations about what her father gave her, in relation to what she can give her daughter goes as follows:

"I only hope that one day I can frighten my daughter this much. How can I give her what Don Fey gave me? The gift of anxiety. The fear of getting in trouble. The knowledge that while you are loved, you are not above the law."

Maybe I hope BK and I will give this to Baby K? All I know is that it is well instilled in me. I swear every time my dad calls and says, "Call me back, I want to talk to you about something" I go into a mode where I know I've done something wrong. I am immediately doing a mental scan of things that I've recently done, maybe should have done, or perhaps forgot to do. What could I be in trouble for?

Seriously? I'm approaching 33, have a Master's degree, am married, own property, support my(our)selves monetarily, but still, when this phone call comes, I'm pretty sure I'm in trouble for something. My sisters agree as well. They are almost 20 and 28 and they still do it too.

All that said, I would highly recommend this book. And now that I've scanned back through the pages looking for some of my favorite parts, I think I'll read it again. I'm not sure if men will like it as much as women, but it will provide you with lots of laughs and honest, down-to-earth stories about her life.

I kind of hope she writes another one like it. I'm there.

Let the Christmas baking begin!

Tonight I started on my Christmas baking. It might seem a little early for this, but BK is only in town this week, so I need to get these holiday treats to his team by Friday if they're going to see them before the new year when he returns to the Swiss office. 

Tonight I baked gingerbread cookies, and as usual had to make a few modifications/adjustments due to living here in Switzerland. I can't recall that I've ever made gingerbread cookies, but I wanted to do something "Christmas-y" for the packages I'm preparing. I also can't really recall making Christmas goodie bags with baked goods before either, but I figure I have the time now, so why not?

I started tonight so that my cookies would have ample time to cool, then tomorrow I will embark on icing them. I'm not sure where that will take place, as I have another cookie recipe I'll be working on tomorrow to include as well. I'm guessing I'll take over the dining room table? I can't really think of anywhere else that they will fit…

I mentioned that I had to make a few modifications. I seem to have stumbled upon another ingredient that we can't get here in Switzerland: molasses. Not that I bake with molasses a lot, but sometimes I wonder how people bake over here…no brown sugar, no baking soda and no molasses. At least I remembered to purchase a large box of baking soda when I was in the US recently, so I did have that.

After reading a number of forums online, I decided to try and mix my own concoction of items available to try and come up with what we consider American molasses. It consisted of melasse, the German word for molasses, which is essentially a very diluted form of molasses. It tasted kind of like liquid brown sugar, if that makes any sense, and is sold by the honey. From the label, it appears that people may put this on toast? Not sure what I think about that. 

The other ingredient is British dark treacle. This is basically super-concentrated molasses. I tasted it, and I have no idea what to relate it to, but it would be something that doesn't taste all that great. My homemade molasses turned out great though!

Creating molasses, and yes, it looks like some sort of tar

One of the other first steps is to soften the butter to blend with sugar. My only problem? No microwave, and I forgot to set the butter out ahead of time. My solution? Turn on the oven and just set the dish in there for a couple of minutes. The key here is not to forget about it and let it become melted butter. Also, just for the record, nothing I make is diet. You should let that expectation go.

225 grams of butter (1 cup)

After everything is mixed up, you have to let the dough sit in the fridge for one hour (giving me time to take the boys to pick up BK from work and do some ironing), then you can roll it out on a "lightly" floured surface. I never really know how much to put on the counter, but I figure better safe than sorry. 

Rolled out dough with cookie cutters

Since we've been in Switzerland the dogs have obviously been a big topic in our life, with many people hearing about our ups and downs with them. I thought it was fitting to make gingerbread cookies with various dog shapes, such as a dog, a bone, a paw print and a heart. Hopefully BK's team finds this amusing.

Just before heading into the oven

Another good thing about this recipe is that the cookies take virtually no time to cook in the oven- about 7 minutes total. I was worried about the small cookies cooking faster than the bigger ones, but it didn't seem to be a problem. I was hoping to find a weenie dog cookie cutter while in the US, but no such luck. That might be a good stocking stuffer for me (hint, hint).

Cooling on the dining room table

The last thing for tonight was to let these guys cool. Like I mentioned above, tomorrow I'll embark on icing the cookies. The recipe says to work fast with the icing, as it dries fast, so my guess is that I'll have to do a couple of trial runs, which I have a feeling may be a little frustrating for me. BK will be working late, so at least I can be alone when I go a little crazy because my icing is not working as perfectly as I want. 

Think positive thoughts! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow :)

Frogs, frogs everywhere

Maybe a more fitting title for this post would be It's a small world after all.

BK and I just returned to Basel after about a week in the US for Thanksgiving. At the end of our trip we were able to catch our third TCU football game (in person) of the season, and a funny thing happened while we were sitting in our seats for the first time.

At the beginning of the game, I was kind of wondering if the people who sit in the seats near ours were wondering why various people had been cycling in and out of the seats. BK and I heard them talking with the people in front of them (they were all together), and they mentioned they had an 11 flight the next morning.

This peaked BK's curiosity, as we're quite familiar with 11 hours flights. So, BK leaned over to the husband and said, "I heard that you have an 11 hour flight tomorrow, where do you all live?" And what was the guy's reply…SWITZERLAND!

Seriously? 40,000 people in the stadium and BK and I are sitting next to the two people who also live in Switzerland. It was pretty funny to lean over to them and reply, "Us too." They were surprised as well. Turns out they have lived in Zurich for about six years, but are transferring to New York in January.

Moral of the story? No matter how global the world becomes, it remains a small world indeed.