February 14, 2014

Da Da Da Da Da I’m Lovin’ It — What makes a classic love story

By ritalovestowrite

[Image copyrighted: Bigstock.com ]

[Image copyrighted: Bigstock.com ]

Holy cow it’s Valentine’s Day! Put aside the snow shovel. Say no to the champagne and roses. X-nay on the chocolate-ay. Lets talk “Love”…STORIES.

Just in time for this years fondness feast Book Depository.com has come up with its comprehensive list of  “The Best Love Stories of All Time (As Voted For By Our Customers)” [Book Depository.com].  It is similar to one that Fly High by LearnOnLine put out in 2o12.

As I cradle my hot cup of tea on this cold and snow bound winter morning and contemplate this blog post, I realize that I could produce a score of comparable list, but I wont. I’ll just relish in the fact that my girl Jane  is so well represented here and make a note of the books I need to put on my Kindle. Here’s my combined chart of the Book  Depository and LearnOnLine lists — there was a lot of duplication. (you’re going to have to click on it to read it, sorry).

I guess a romantic lead doesn't have to actually be ALIVE at the end of a story, but for me its always a plus. I'm just happy no Vampires or Shades of Gray made the list.

I guess a romantic lead doesn’t have to actually be ALIVE at the end of a story, but for me its always a plus. I’m just happy no Vampires or Shades of Gray made the list.

It seems to me there are an awful lot of dysfunctional relationships and dead people are  on here. You can thank the Sisters Bronte for that, but they aren’t the only ones. Do we really need death or dysfunction for something to be romantic? I think not.

Do we need friction to make good fiction? Yes! And there’s plenty of that in P&P, North and South, The Princess Bride. But, does it have to tip the scale to melodrama and angst that Jane Eyre and Great Expectations does. Must it, further,  jump over the (heath)cliff into despair as  in Wuthering Heights?

Why does everyone assume that if I love Jane Austen that I'll love Charlotte Bronte too?

Why does everyone assume that if I love Jane Austen that I’ll love Charlotte Bronte too? Bronte didn’t like Austen. I think I can return the favor.

I try to like the Brontes, but whenever I read them (or watch a movie based on one of their works) I find myself wishing for Austen. I LOVE Austen. I never wish I was some where else when I’m with her. Strangely, I really like Elizabeth Gaskell, the author of North and South, Cranford, Ruth, and Wives and Daughters (and lots more). Gaskell was friends with Charlotte Bronte and her biggest advocate. [You can read her biography of Charlotte HERE.] But I find her (Gaskell’s) prose much easier to read.

And I’m not saying a romantic story can’t be sad or end in the death of 1/2 the couple. I think John Green did a lovely job with Hazel Grace and Gus’ love story. And I was glad to see The Fault in Our Stars made the reader’s list.  It just doesn’t have to be overwrought. Neither of those teens would put up with it.

Anyway I’m wondering what would make  YOUR top five romantic novels. (Feel free to cheat and lump all of an author’s love stories into one  pick — like ALL of Shakespeare’s love stories.)

In the mean time I’ll just leave you with this and hope that you’ll consider being my literary valentine…

Tolerable00

5 Comments | posted in Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Love Stories, Pride and Prejudice, Valintine's Day

February 13, 2014

Special Snow Day Muffins– Nutella Zucchini Muffins

By ritalovestowrite
A little Nutella surprise is hidden in side these zucchini muffins. The perfect way to warm up on a snowy day.

A little Nutella surprise is hidden in side these zucchini muffins. The perfect way to warm up on a snowy day.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 cup Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
  • 1 stick softened Butter
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/2 cup Milk
  • 2 tsp. Vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cup grated  Zucchini
  • 1/3-1/2 cup Nutella

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Prep 12 muffin cups by spraying with baking spray.
2. In a large bowl combine the Flour, Salt and Baking Powder.
3. In a smaller bowl cream the Butter and Sugar together.  Add the Eggs, Vanilla and Milk and mix until well blended.
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients with a spoon.
5. Fold in the Zucchini.

Add the Zucchini to the batter.

Add the Zucchini to the batter.

6. Split the batter between the two bowls. Divide half the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups. (They will be about halfway filled.)
7. Using a small scoop or teaspoon put a dollop of Nutella onto the top / center of each half filled muffin.

To put a bit of Nutella in each muffin I used my small melon baller. (I could have used a teaspoon -- probably would have licked the spoon then too! What was I thinking! OK -- You should totally use a teaspoon!)

To put a bit of Nutella in each muffin I used my small melon baller. (I could have used a teaspoon — probably would have licked the spoon then too! What was I thinking! OK — You should totally use a teaspoon!)

8. Divide the remaining batter to cover the rest of the muffins.

Action shot of me covering the muffins with the rest of the batter.

Action shot of me covering the muffins with the rest of the batter. I’m employing my larger melon baller here.

9. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on the tops. You can try the toothpick test but you’ll likely hit the center of Nutella. (Of course you could then lick off that Nutella before discarding the toothpick. So… maybe.)

 

baked

These would be delightful as just zucchini muffins. The addition of Nutella puts them in a whole new category of wonderfulness. Why haven’t I made these before?

6 Comments | posted in Muffin Monday, Muffins, postaday, Thought of the Day

February 12, 2014

Judy Blume 2.12.14 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully and yell for help if you need it.”– Judy Blume

Judyblumepor

Judy Blume was born on this day in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1938. Today is her 76 birthday.

She was always an avid reader and remembers making up stories in her head as a child, but didn’t really start writing until her own kids were in preschool.  Her first book was The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo.

Bored with suburban life, she developed a creative outlet in writing and illustrating children’s stories. She published Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), Blubber (1974), Tiger Eyes (1981), and several other novels for teenagers that dealt frankly with sensitive issues. [Biography.com]

She found a new audience in 1978 when she began to publish for adults. Blume hit the New York Times Best-Seller list with Wifey in (1978) and Smart Women (1983). She continues to score big. Her latest novel, Summer Sisters, sold over 3 million copies and  5 months on the NYTimes Best-Seller list.

More than 82 million copies of her books have been sold, and her work has been translated into thirty-two languages. She receives thousands of letters a year from readers of all ages who share their feelings and concerns with her. [Judy Blume.com]

 

Judy Blume at NPR (Image Courtesy NPR.)

Judy Blume at NPR (Image Courtesy NPR.)

1 Comment | posted in postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Writing

February 12, 2014

Abraham Lincoln 2.12.13 Thoughts of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

Reblogging my profile on Ole Abe (because he’s that awesome.)
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax” — Abraham Lincoln

ritalovestowrite's avatarritaLOVEStoWRITE

President Abraham Lincoln was descended from S...

Abraham Lincoln was born on this day near Hodgenville, Harden Co., Kentucky in 1809. Today is the 204th anniversary of his birth.

I’m going to assume that you are all familiar with the 16th President of United States — the man who grew up in a log cabin, was a simple country lawyer and  went on to become president during this country’s darkest days. [For more information on his life might I suggest the White House.gov biography, Lincoln’s write-up on Biography.com , or the article on History.com ]  Frankly, there is little I can bring to the table that you don’t already know or couldn’t read about on more lofty websites… so instead I thought I’d bring you my favorite Lincoln quotes.

LIncoln logo

  • Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
  • Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side…

View original post 359 more words

Leave a comment | posted in Thought of the Day

February 12, 2014

Muffin Tuesday: Pineapple Citrus Fig

By ritalovestowrite

out of the oven 2

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup softened Butter

1/2 cup Stevia (Sugar substitute)

1 Eggs

1 tablespoon Orange Peel

1/4 cup Lemon Juice

8 oz crushed Pineapple (plus 2 slices of Pineapple divided into eighths — 16 pieces)

1 cup chopped Figs

Dicing the figs

Dice the figs with a small knife.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare 6 large muffin cups with cooking spray.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.

3. In a medium bowl coming the butter, sugar, egg, orange peel, and lemon juice.

4. In the bowl of a blender put the Pineapple and blend until crushed. Add the other liquid ingredients and pulse.

5. Add the liquid to the dry and stir until well mixed.

6. Divide evenly into 6 super-sized muffin cups.

7. Top with the segmented Pineapple.

8. Bake for 30 minutes until muffin are golden brown and they pass the toothpick test.

out of the oven

9. Let the muffins cool 5 minutes before enjoying.

These are nice and fluffy and super tasty.

beauty sliced

Leave a comment | posted in Muffin Monday, Muffins, postaday, Thought of the Day

February 12, 2014

Secondary Character Saturday: Flynn Rider (Tangled)

By ritalovestowrite

Tangled-flynn-rider-photo3

WHO: Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert)

FROM: Tangled

BY: Dan Fogelman (Story), Alan Menken (Music), Glenn Sather (Lyric)

PRODUCED: 2010

250px-Tangled_rapunzel_poster_20

PROS: Although you don’t see all of Flynn’s good characteristics at first, he’s funny, down to earth, master of the “smolder”, charming, romantic, good-hearted, compassionate, chivalrous, sensitive, kind — and of course he has “superhuman good looks” .

CONS: When we first meet him he’s a conniving thief who is only out to save his own skin … and steal a valuable  crown.

BEST SHINING MOMENT: Toss up: Taking Rapunzel to see the festival of lights, and cutting off her hair to free her from her “mother.”


LEAST SHINING MOMENT: He’s pretty much a rough through the first half of the movie.

Here’s Flynn trying to get out of a sticky situation by giving Rapunzel the “smoulder”…

Flynn-Riders-Smolder-GIF

WHY I CHOSE HIM: Well… when I did my Disney Princes profile last week I had several people tell me I simply HAD to see Tangled because they just loved Flynn. So I did, and I do. He’s a charmer, I admit.

Flynn-Rider-flynn-rider-33691405-500-600

Flynn/Eugene and Rapunzel get married at the end. She’s been restored to her place as Princess, so technically he becomes a Prince. The cute couple even make a cameo in the latest Disney blockbuster, Frozen.

——————————————————————————

All images on this post are courtesy: Disney.

Leave a comment | posted in Disney, Flynn Rider, postaday, Secondary Character, Tangled

February 5, 2014

Iced Me

By ritalovestowrite

Like most residents of the Mid Atlantic region I woke to a world covered in ice. There was a good 1/4″ of the stuff on the trees… the cars… the streets.

Image 1

This is Winter’s job… to make us feel cold, yes, but brittle too. Winter puts us in our place and lets us know that we are one good wind away from breaking, snapping clean,  and being brought down to the ground.

Winter bleaches the color out of the landscape and blows at us until us until we can only see in the simplest, meanest terms of black and white.

trees 2

Winter throws everything it has at us and dares us to be optimistic enough to think that anything will change. “LIFE IS HARD!” It laughs in its cold, harsh, bellowing voice. And it defies us to find anything beautiful or hopeful in the long cold day.

Image 2

But it has forgotten that we can see beauty in all things… all we have to do is  slow down and look. We know, despite what a cute little ground hog may or may not have said a few days ago in Pennsylvania that Spring and Easter are on the way…
And damn if we aren’t resilient enough to hold on for a few more snow storms.

Image 4

Hope you’ll have a safe, uneventful drive home (where ever home is).

Here’s a Robert Frost poem to celebrate the crack of branches and common things.

An Old Man’s Winter Night

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him — at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; — and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man — one man — can’t keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It’s thus he does it of a winter night.

Robert Frost

4 Comments | posted in postaday, Thought of the Day, Winter, Writing

February 4, 2014

Muffin Tuesday: Blueberry, Carrot, Oatmeal

By ritalovestowrite

single

Blueberry, Carrot, Oatmeal Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 1/4 cups Oatmeal
  • 1 1/4 cups Flour
  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • 1 tablespoons Baking Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 cup Skim Milk
  • 1 Egg White
  • 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt
  • 3/4 cup Blue Berries
  • 1/2 cup grated Carrots

Topping:

  • 2 tablespoons Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep 12 muffin cups by spraying with baking spray.

2. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients; Oatmeal, Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder and Milk.

3. In a medium bowl stir together the Milk, Egg White, and Yogurt..

4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix.

5. Fold in the Blueberries and Carrots.

IMG_6977

6. Divide evenly into the muffin cups.

7. In a small bowl stir the Sugar and Cinnamon together. Sprinkle on top the muffins.

with topping

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Muffins are done when the tops turn golden brown and they pass the toothpick test.

9. Cool for 5 minutes before eating.

baked

These are nice and moist. They are sweet from the Blueberries and the sugar, but hearty from the carrots and the oatmeal. Its a nice combination.

2 muffins

Leave a comment | posted in Muffin Monday, Muffins, postaday

February 3, 2014

Snow Day fun

By ritalovestowrite

IMG_6976

I know its Monday and I should be making Muffins, but it snowed, again,  and I had other things on my FROZEN mind. Since I knew I would be spending some quality time outside shoveling the driveway I decided to make it fun AND make it all part of my blog today.

Ice marbles in the process of freezing in the snow.

Ice marbles in the process of freezing in the snow.

One thing I’ve wanted to do since the weather turned colder is try my hand at making ICE MARBLES. This is an idea I stole from Facebook and Pinterest.

What you need:

  • Round balloons
  • Funnel
  • Food dye
  • Bowls
  • a water faucet

Blow the balloons up as far as they’ll go, then release the air. Insert the small end the funnel into the neck balloon and put the food dye into body. Carefully take the neck off the funnel and put it on the end the faucet. Put a bowl under the balloon.  Hold the balloon’s neck in place around the faucet as  you slowly fill the body with water (it will come off if you aren’t careful).

Filling up Mr. Yellow, with a red bowl underneath, ready to catch the balloon.

Filling up Mr. Yellow, with a red bowl underneath, ready to catch the balloon.

Keep filling the balloon until it is totally full. You should only have a little space a the top of the neck to tie off. (This is messy — heck the entire procedure is messy!)

Mr. Rd in a white bowl. Tied off and ready to go outside to freeze.

Mr. Rd in a white bowl. Tied off and ready to go outside to freeze.

I kept the balloons in their bowl on the porch until I was ready to transfer them to their snowy location.

When the snow slowed down I went outside and shoveled the driveway and sidewalk. Today’s snow is the first one this winter that is really snowman worthy. So with thoughts of Olaf dancing in my head I considered how to best make my own little frozen guy. I used sand castle method and packed the snow into forms instead of rolling balls. (I’m a kid at heart, but I’m not getting on my hands and knees and rolling snow balls). I got what I needed from the garage — a clean trashcan was perfect for the base, a 5 gallon bucket for the body and a potted plant pot (starter pot) for the head. A little galvanized bucket made the perfect hat.  I found some sticks for his arms.

"Olaf" in the works.

“Olaf” in the works.

Then I brought my ice marbles over from the porch and placed them around my snow man.

When I’m doing a blog I tend to take a LOT of process of pictures. It kind of drives my family crazy. Like WHY do have to take a picture of EVERYTHING? Well today’s a good example of why I need to take tons of pictures, and document every step of the way. Because life doesn’t come with a Command Z button. That’s why. If something goes wrong you can’t go magically backward and do a mulligan. So today when I realized that I’d put the Ice Marbles down the wrong order (they were mean to be in ROYGBV order) I SHOULD have taken a photo before moving the balloons.

But I didn’t.

I picked up the Orange one and moved it.

No problem.

Moved the Yellow one. Piece of cake.

Picked up Mr. Red and SPLAT!!!

It exploded!

Cold, red water all over my nice white snow. (And my coat and gloves and pants.) It looked like my snow man had died.

That’s today’s lesson for you kids… let freezing latex balloons lie!

I covered up the snowman blood as best I could and moved the yellow balloon (still in the bowl because it had a pin sized hole at the top) over instead. I’m trying not to let improper color order bother me too much. I don’t think Olaf will mind.

IMG_6971

With a little luck it will snow just enough more to really cover up the rest of that red.

I was hoping to surprise the neighbor kids when they got home from school. … And I mean surprise them in a fun-snowman-ice-marble good kind of way, not in a creepy-bleeding-snowman kind of way.

 

 

This blog goes out to: Maggie, Jenny and Hope — who keep  me young at heart.

4 Comments | posted in Olaf, postaday, snow