September 2024

What I’ve been reading, watching, making, and otherwise doing for the past month!

In September, I didn’t have a ton of free time… and I spent most of that limited free time just watching videos and playing The Sims, TBH. September was a strange month for me, full of extreme highs and extreme lows. I’m tired.

Books + Media | Arts + Crafts | Food + Health

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Books + Media

Finished

Books

• Audiobook — Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, 1605
• Book series — Goredd duology by Rachel Hartman, 2012–2015
  Seraphina, Shadow Scale

Media

• Movie — The Bank Job starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, 2008
• Animated series — LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy produced by Disney+, voiced by Bobby Moynihan, Gaten Matarazzo, Tony Revolori, and Marsai Martin, 2024

In progress

Books

• Audiobook — Tevye the Milkman by Sholem Aleichem, 1894
• Book — Arabian Nights by anon. and transl. by Antoine Galland and Edward William Lane, ed. by Muhsin al-Musawi, circa 900

Media

• YouTube series — Ranked with Babish starring Andrew Rea at Babish Culinary Universe, 2024–TBD

Reviewed

• Feminist Cross-Stitch by Stephanie Rohr (Nonfiction)
• A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner (Fiction, Graphic novel)
• The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat (Fiction)
• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Fiction)
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (Children’s fiction, Audiobook)
• The Owl Service by Alan Garner (Children’s fiction, Audiobook)
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Children’s fiction, Audiobook)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (Children’s fiction, Audiobook)
• Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (Poetry)
• Poems and Fragments by Sappho (Poetry)

Arts + Crafts

Nothing this month!

Food + Health

Finished

Cooking

• Cookbook cook-thru project – Tasting History by Max Miller, 2023
  Nyumen
• Cookbook cook-thru project – The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt, 2015
  Green risotto with mushrooms
• Cookbook cook-thru project – Methodist Morsels by the FUMC of Lamesa, Texas, 1983
  Artichoke-cheese squares by Mary Lane Peterson
• Cookbook cook-thru project – Holiday Entertaining magazine special ed., 2018
  Pear upside-down cake by Karen DeMasco
• Magazine clippings cook-thru project
  Three-ingredient pretzel bites from Good Housekeeping magazine, recipe by Susan Westmoreland

• Egyptian barley salad from America’s Test Kitchen: Best-Ever Salads special ed.
• Wheat berry salad with figs and goat cheese from America’s Test Kitchen: Best-Ever Salads special ed.

Of the new recipes I tried this month, I especially enjoyed both salads from America’s Test Kitchen. Grain-based salads have become my latest obsession.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the artichoke-cheese squares from Methodist Morsels. The final product wasn’t terrible, but the squares had a boring texture and just tasted like artichokes with Cheddar… like, I may as well have just had a snack plate with artichokes and Cheddar, instead of doing all the extra steps to bake them together.

Dining + Drinks

• Wine tasting project – Wine Folly by Madeline Puckette, 2015
  Barolo Serra from Giovanni Rosso, 2018; Serralunga d’Alba, Piedmont, Italy
• Wine tasting project – Wine Folly by Madeline Puckette, 2015
  Chenin Blanc from Neethlingshof Estate, 2022; South Africa

• Dined out — Rudy & Paco in Galveston, Texas

Fitness

• Walking, 6.5 hours (16.75 miles)

Due to travel and other personal events, I did not do a lot of physical activity this month.

In progress

Cooking

• Cookbook cook-thru project – Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller, 2023
• Cookbook cook-thru project – The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt, 2015
• Cookbook cook-thru project – Methodist Morsels by the Cookbook Committee of the First United Methodist Church of Lamesa, Texas, 1983
• Cookbook cook-thru project – Bon Appétit + Gourmet Holiday Entertaining from Condé Nast Special Editions, 2018
• Magazine clippings cook-thru project

Dining + Drinks

• Wine tasting project – Wine Folly by Madeline Puckette, 2015

Fitness

• TBD

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