Just a Few More Questions

Earlier this week, John brought in two gigantic zucchinis that he said had been hiding under the leaves. I wish I had taken a picture of them, but they were at least 16-18" long and 12" or more in diameter. I wondered what to do with them, briefly considered leaving them on a neighbor's doorstep, and then thought about the chocolate zucchini bread recipes I've been wanting to try. 

I had several candidates, but eventually narrowed it down to this one. I wondered it it would be too moist or even gloopy as it calls for four cups of shredded zucchini and my tried-and-true regular recipe only uses two cups, but I threw caution to the wind and made it according to the recipe (with one small exception).

I did add about 1/3 cup of chocolate chips to the batter, just because. I think it was a wise choice. 

I like my regular zucchini bread and often freeze grated zucchini so I can make it during the winter. I may have to be careful not to make this too often as I think I like it even better.

John thought it smelled good, but wondered if it would be "too chocolatey". Ha! That description doesn't exist in my world and I thought it was absolutely delicious.

It's a bit of a reach here to relate this delicious new recipe to some questions, but I wonder if you've got any new/novel/delicious recipes that use zucchini? Or how about what is your favorite thing to bake? Your favorite thing to eat if you're not really a baker? Tell me anything about food, and I'll be glad to read it. (Bonus points if you include a recipe!)

Three on Thursday: More Questions

I'm joining Carole for Three on Thursday, with three more questions. I've been having fun asking my kids some of these questions, and I may have asked the clerk at the library the one about the best lesson she had learned from a work of fiction. 

A friend sent me this photo and said seeing the smiling sun hot air balloon fly
over her neighborhood was the best thing that happened to her this week. 

In the spirit of fairness, I've included my answers. 

1. What strange or uncommon food combinations do you really enjoy? 

It's not all that strange, but I love to dip pretzels in slightly melted chocolate ice cream. What I enjoy is the sweet/salty combination, but my father made a big deal out of it for some unknown reason and wouldn't let me do it when I was growing up. Now I'm the boss and I feel like I'm getting away with something when I dip my pretzels in my chocolate ice cream.

2. What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from a work of fiction?

He is not my favorite Agatha Christie character (that would be Miss Marple) but I've learned some lessons from Hercule Poirot. Because he is a detective, his primary traits were to be curious, seeking, and detail-oriented and this has validated my desires to be observant, stay authentic, and be comfortable with who you are. He believed curiosity feeds the intellect, and I agree. 

3. What was the best thing that happened to you this week?

It didn't happen to me, but it is still the best thing that happened this week. Over the weekend, Justin got a call from the HR person at his workplace that he had been exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid. He had a test scheduled for Tuesday morning and the best thing was that it was negative. He already had a vaccination appointment scheduled for tomorrow, so I'm very glad that that can proceed as planned.

Answer one, two, or all three questions, or make up your own. I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say!

Do You Mind?

Today I'm asking some questions that I've been wondering about for a while now. Do you mind foul language in a book? When is it warranted? How much is too much? Is the presence of swearing enough to make you stop reading? I rarely read reviews on Amazon, but I've looked at a few recently and was surprised at the number of people that objected to "the F-word" and seemed to judge the book solely by what they considered bad language, without considering characterization, plot, etc.

Here are a couple from A Big Storm Knocked It Over by Laurie Colwin: 

I personally love Laurie Colwin's non-fiction food writing along with much of her fiction, and had honestly never thought of her writing as containing much vulgarity. I don't think I would actually read Go the F*** to Sleep by Adam Mansbach to a child, and the book may just be a gimmick, but it clearly expresses what every exhausted parent has thought at some point in their lives. There are plenty of one-star reviews for it on goodreads:

There is an app called Clean Reader that will remove profanity from electronic text. It allows users to search the text, and “put a non-transparent ‘highlight’” over anything potentially offensive. The blanked-out word is replaced with one judged suitably safe. I respect readers' rights and personal preferences, but this sounds dangerously close to censorship to me. E.B. White wrote, “vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.” Holy motherforking shirtballs (this will make sense if you've watched The Good Place), sometimes a good swear word is just what is needed. 

I think that including expletives for their own sake is often a sign of poor, sloppy, or immature writing, but sometimes they are necessary to make a point or make dialogue ring true. I respect a reader's right to not read language that offends them, but I'm not prepared to discount a book solely on the basis of bad language. I'm much more offended by bad writing, poor plotting, and weak characterizations. What do you think?

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day to begin to catch up in MD, and it's also a day for questions. 

Carole encouraged readers to ask her questions, Kym asked her readers a week's worth of questions, and then Kat answered questions from comments. These posts have all been very interesting to me, so I'm borrowing/stealing the idea this week. I don't have big detailed plans for how this will work, and am just going to hope it evolves. 

Today I'll pose a possibly boring question, but it's come up because it's concerned with what I have to catch up on in MD - paying bills. I have always been the kind of person that wanted to receive a paper copy of bills in the mail, which I then put in a special place in my desk, and then paid with a credit card online. That system has gradually fallen apart as I'm not always where I need to be to receive a paper copy of the bill, several companies have even stopped sending bills and now send emails, and quite a few companies impose a surcharge for paying with a credit card. I've been gradually using my bank's Bill Pay features which allow me to receive "e-bills" that I can then pay easily through my checking account. They are very good at notifying me when there is a new bill, so I no longer have to worry about terrible mail service or being in MD/NJ to get the bill. 

Then there are still the bills that have to be paid by check. I hate writing checks, addressing the envelopes, finding a stamp, and going to the post office. Too many steps! Most of these bills are for quarterly property taxes in NJ, quarterly water and sewer bills in NJ and MD, and annual property taxes in MD. They all accept credit card payments, but the surcharges really add up, and I'm too cheap for that.

So my questions today are do you have any sort of system for paying bills? Do you pay them as soon as you receive them or wait and just pay them all at one time? Am I missing some wonderful function of Bill Pay that would make this all easier? Have you given up the illusion of control (one that I am still clinging to) and signed up for auto-pay for your bills? I'd appreciate your thoughts and ideas!

I would also like to say that if you have any questions you would like to ask me (about almost anything), please feel free to leave them in the comments. Knitting, reading, gardening, cooking, biggest pet peeve, family, mental health, biggest fear, things I'm proud of, things I regret - it's all fair game!

Thanks for reading and I hope your week is off to a good start!