Summer Reading List: 2015

I love reading, and while this is going to be a crazy busy summer, I wanted to make a list and try to get through a few books this season.

• JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
• I read this book in college and really enjoyed it, even though it was the complete opposite of a quick light read. So far it's proving to be just as long as a read as it was 10 year ago, so I will filter through some other books when this one gets to be too much.
• Jen Lancaster: I Regret Nothing
• I LOVE LOVE LOVE her memoirs, and this one was no different. This book takes us through Jen's bucket list and her journey to make her life more fulfilling.  It's hilarious and inspiring. I love how her writing style makes me feel like I'm having a conversation with a friend, not just reading a stranger's story.
• Dorothea Benton Frank: The Hurricane Sisters
• I'm going to be honest, I don't really know what this book is about but I love her novels.  They're real and full of life and her characters spring from the pages.  I laugh, I cry, and I get angry when I read her books.
• Gillian Flynn: Dark Places
• Reading Gone Girl last summer made me a fan of this author.  She's creepy and entertaining, and I couldn't put that book down, so I'm excited to pick this one up.
• Sara Gruen: Like Water For Elephants
• I saw this movie years ago, and have wanted to read it for years before that.  I never got around to doing it before, so this is the summer to do it.
• Anne Rice: Memnoch the Devil
• I read this book when I was 15 and camping in Yosemite. There were times I had to put it down and walk away from it because parts of it seemed so wrong and opposite from the world I knew.  I'd like to take a look at it through my adult eyes and see what I think of it now.  I've read Rice's entire Vampire Chronicles and the first time through this was my least favorite of the series, I'd like to give it a second chance.

So this list isn't as long as some of the ones I've seen online at other blogs, but I feel like with what I have on tap over the next couple months (moving, a mini vacation for my birthday, a 40th birthday blow out for my BF, and whatever else life might bring) it's something that is doable (well, I may not finish LOTR, it took me 3 months to read it the last time I picked it up).

What's on your summer list?

Stay Stay Stay

Dear Friend,

I heard a rumor that you're struggling.  That you're having a hard time hanging on and that you've been thinking that maybe we're all better off without you.

You're wrong.

Hearts heal, and our minds lie to even the best of us.  You need to give yourself the time to sort things out.  The only way to not let time work its magic is if you cut yourself short, so please don't.

The world is a brighter better place with you in it.  Your talent, your intelligence, they're things that need to be shared with the world, and if not the whole wide world, the tiny one here in our community.  Your loss would be greatly felt.  You might feel like an insignificant pebble on the beach sometimes, but if you drop that pebble into a pond it's ripples go on and on and on.

I know that life can feel impossibly hard sometimes, and that the light at the end of the tunnel is often tiny and flickering, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.  Not to sound trite, but things DO get better. It won't be easy, all the best things require work.  Life will never be absolutely perfect, but that only gives you the opportunity to find the beauty in it's imperfections.  There is no magic greater than our ability to adapt and grow, even in shadows.

I feel like we can learn more from failures than successes, we have to teach ourselves how to be better, and our only real competition is the person staring back at us in the mirrors.  You don't have to be better than the person next to you, you have to be better than you were yesterday.

Find an outlet that isn't self destructive, whether that be art, helping others, exploring the world around you, read a book, lose yourself in a movie you've never watched before, spend some time in the great outdoors just watching the world spin around you, look for shapes in the clouds, whatever it takes to calm the voices in your head.

I know you may not be ready to read this, or that it might sound like someone who has no idea what you're going through is just throwing a lot of cliches in your face, but I've treaded shark infested waters myself and was able to swim to shore.  I just want you to know you have someone on your side ready to throw you a life jacket when you feel like you're going under.

You are loved, you are important, the world needs you.

Please stay.

Lauren

Meghan's Grandma's Stuffed Mushrooms

This is the dish that taught me to try foods that scare me.  No really... it's a true story.

Mushrooms have always squicked me out, they make me feel like the other creature in Green Eggs and Ham.. the one who says "I do not like them in a box, with a fox wearing socks."  But much like that creature, after trying them at the urging of my best friend, my palette exploded and I discovered that they aren't so bad, they might even be better with a fox wearing socks.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds of round white mushrooms (I used 2 14oz cartons of "white stuffer mushrooms)
• 16 ounces of cream cheese
• 3 garlic cloves
• 0.5 pound crispy fried bacon (made into small crumbs)
• 0.5 cup of Italian Breadcrumbs
• 3-4 stalks of green onions, chopped
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Wipe the mushrooms and remove the stems
2. Put cream cheese (it mixes better if it's softened slightly), garlic, green onions, salt and pepper into a bowl and cream.
3. Stuff the mixture that you just made into the mushrooms (I transferred the goop into a gallon sized ziploc bag, cut a tip off, and used it as a piping bag).
4. Dip the mushroom (the goop end) into the breadcrumbs
5. Place on a foiled cookie sheet and set the oven to 350 degrees
6. Bake at temperature for at least 20 minutes (depending on the size of the mushrooms)
7. Remove from the oven and top with Parmesan.

shared with permission from Meghan Field, for more of her tasty recipes check out her blog "Life of Two Fields"