The Bean Book

 

Recipes from Rancho Gordo's acclaimed kitchen are included in The Bean Book by Steve Sando. It is embarrassing and regrettable that I had no prior knowledge of Steve Sando and Rancho Gordo Beans until I read The Bean Book. Now I'm hooked. When I saw this book was up for review, I was so excited. My knowledge of beans has grown tremendously and I have found many delicious new recipes. It never occurred to me that there was a cult following for beans! There was a waiting list on Rancho Gordo's website for their Bean Club. Hey Gordo, want to hook me up?

Bean lovers won't be disappointed with this collection of delicious, nutritious, and delectable recipes.

It's the dog days of summer in Texas, so I'm excited to see recipes for: Bean Salads, Beans & Grains, Baked Beans, Bean Patties, Sweets, Salsas, and Dips & Appetizers. Other recipes, such as soups and stews, will have to wait until cooler weather returns.

This book contains the following contents:

Introduction
50 Heirloom Bean Varieties
Bean Dips & Appitizers
Bean Salads
Bean Soups
Bean Braises, Stews & Other StoveTop Dishes
Beans & Grains
Baked Beans
Bean Patties, Fillings, Sauces & More
Sweets, Stocks, Salsas & More
Acknowledments
Index

Unlike many crops that draw nutrients from the ground where they grow, bean plants do not function in this manner. Nitrogen from the atmosphere is transformed into a biological form in the bean plant, which is essential to plant growth.

When making beans, there are many variables to consider:

• How old are the beans?

• How hard is your water?

• How do you store beans?

• What pot will you use to cook your beans?

• What is the weather like?

There is a Master Recipe for Pot Beans.

THE BEAN-LOVER'S PANTRY

• Dried Herbs and Spices

• Chilies and Chile Powders

• Vinegars and Oils

• Other Essentials

50 HEIRLOOM BEAN VARIETIES

1. Alubia Blanca

2. 2. Anasazi

3. Bayo

4. Black turtle

5. Buckeye

For all 50 beans there is a picture of the beans along with a write up on the bean. I will share with you about the Black Turtle bean.

BLACK TURTLE

In some regions of the world,
"beans" means black beans.
Black turtle beans have a rich,
fudgy texture and inky bean
broth that needs little more to
make a soup. It's easy to think of
them for beans and rice, Brazillian
feijoada, or Oaxacan enfrijoladas,
but they're also delicious in
salads or chilis.

Rancho Gordo's Midnight
Black bean is a classic, versatile
black turtle bean that hold its
shape through lots of cooking
yet retains its famous creamy
interior.

RECIPES: Norman Rose Tavern's
Black Bean Burger, page 231,
Midnight Black Bean Soup,
page 122, or Moros y Cristianos,
Page 186

After making a large pot of beans who doesn't love refried beans or hummus! There are recipes for Glorious Refried Beans and Simple Hummus.

ALL of the recipes look amazing!

I would highly recommend this book.

Kimberlee Gard Books

The Little i Who Lost His Dot is a whimsical children's book that tells the story of the lowercase letter "i" who comes to Alphabet School on the last day without his dot. Some of his lowercase classmates gasp, point, and stare when he arrives at school. It is only then that little "i" realizes his dot is missing. A substitute dot is offered by his friends in order to help. A gumball is offered by a lowercase "g" and a zero is zoomed over by a lowercase "z". How do you think things will turn out? Will lowercase "i" be able to find his dot?

In The Day Punctuation Came to Town children will be introduced to the Punctuation Family. Much like Kimberlee Gard's first book, The Little i Who Lost His Dot, punctuation marks are transformed into talking characters. There are four characters readers will meet: the very energetic Exclamation Point, the quite curious Question Mark, the dependable Period, and the unsure Comma. 

When the Punctuation's arrive at school all of the letters ask, "Who are you?" and "You don't look like letters." This is the day that everyone learns all about punctuation. 

The author gives each punctuation personality traits so that children can learn their significance and function. Poor Comma who has always felt lost finally sees his incredible importance in a sentence. 

What a fun and non-intimidating way to learn punctuation! I hope the author plans to write another book to introduce other punctuation marks.

Everyone remembers the game Red Rover, Red Rover. Kimberlee Gard has turned a children's game into a fun way to learn vowels in Red Rover, Red Rover, Send a Vowel Over. This book teaches children their vowels without them even knowing.

A game of Red Rover is decided upon by the consonants. The five vowels, a, e, i, o, and u, know how they stand out from the other letters. They are always intimidated by playground games. If little "i" runs too fast, he loses his dot. Little "o" rolls around quite a bit. If little "u" turns upside down, everyone thinks he is an n. Little "e" seldom says a word because he keeps quiet. Little "a" was always asked to lead the way.

In no time, the consonants realize that forming words is impossible without vowels. It is then that Y asks the vowels if they want to join. There are so many words you can make with the whole alphabet together!

There is a fun message at the end of Red Rover, Red Rover, Send a Vowel Over that children will love. Check out all of Kimberlee Gard's books.

Water, Water

 

Billy Collins' collection of poetry Water, Water is 91 pages long. It was the book cover that initially intrigued me, depicting a rabbit racing across a meadow.

I highlighted some of the poems that I found particularly engaging.

Magical Realism

BC/AD

Turning the Pages of A History of Art the Morning After an Argument

Emily Dickinson in Space

Eden

Display Case

Zero Grannies

Margins

Reading the Guest Book

MARGINS

I cannot thank you enough

so I will thank you insufficiently,

for the book full of reproductions

of the whimsical drawings found

in the margins of medieval manuscripts,

which you gave me the last time we met for ice cream.

I love turning the colorful pages

and seeing the tiny scribal adornments,

especially of animals still around today ––

the robin, the frog, the spoonbill, and the hen,

not to mention the goose, the fox, and the partridge,

all surviving in our meadows, swamps, and barnyards.

I also enjoyed the half-boy blowing a horn

and the four monks rowing a rowboat,

but I would really like to meet the guy

who distracted himself one morning

early in the thirteenth century

from the arduous job of copying the Alphonso Psalter

by drawing a monkey doing a handstand

on the back of a comely mermaid

as she is offering a breast to a nursing baby.

I'd like to buy that man a few flagons

and a slice of venison to chew on

as we got to know one another in his favorite pub.

He would introduce me to his friends,

a ploughman, a merchant, and a wayward prioress,

and I would refrain from telling him

about motion pictures and moon landings.

After a while, light would leave the windows

and the ruddy publican would call the time.

Then outside under the sign, as we said goodbye

I would add "But in the end, of course,

life is not all hand-stand monkeys

and comely nursing mermaids."

"It isn't?!" he would shoot back with a booming laugh,

which would leave me nonplussed as I walked back.

past printing presses, guillontines, microscopes,

locomotives, radios, and ice cream parlors,

all the way up to the encircling arms of the present.

My mind can visually picture the manuscript drawings and the meeting between the two gentlemen. It would have been so hard to keep future events a secret. In the last stanza, the poet wraps up the poem beautifully as he journeys back to the present.

My style was definitely not reflected in some of the poems in the book, but I think everyone can find that in any collection of poems. I think Collins' poems capture life's paradoxes and everyday experiences. He captures both common and quite unusual events in his poems, such as children learning their ABCs and an astronaut reading Emily Dickinson in space. Water, Water is a book I enjoyed reading and I am sure you will as well.

ESV Expository Commentary: Hebrews - Revelation Vol XII

Crossway ESV Expository Commentary: Hebrews - Revelation Vol XII is authored and edited by top scholars and theologians. This commentary covers Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, and Revelation. The commentary is published as a premium hardcover in black. The wording is embossed in gold leaf.

The contributors include:
Dennis E. Johnson
Robert L. Plummer
C. Samuel Storms
Ray Van Neste
Matthew S. Harmon
Thomas R. Schreiner

Here is a brief overview of Revelation.

Revelation

In-depth discussions of exposition and application are provided in the following subtopics.

Overview

Title

Date and Occasion

Genre and Literary Structure

Theology of Revelation

• The Reality of Evil

• The Suffering of the Saints

• Call to Perseverance

• The Sovereignty of God

• God Protects His People

• God's Justice in Judgment

• The Deity of Christ

• The Cross of Christ

• The Centrality of Worship

• The Wonder of the New Creation

Relationship to the Rest of the Bible and to Christ

Preaching from Revelation

Interpretive Challenges

Outline (The outline is divided into eleven main sections.)

I. Introduction (1:1-20)

II. Letters to the Seven Churches (2:1-3:22)

III. Visions in the Throne Room (4:1-5:14)

IV. The Seven Seals (6:1-8:5)

V. The Seven Trumpets (8:6-11:19)

VI. Signs in Heaven and on Earth (12:1-14:20)

VII. The Seven Bowls from the Sanctuary (15:1-16:21)

VIII. The Judgement of Babylon and the Wedding of the Bride (17:1-19:10)

IX. The Triumph of God in Christ (19:11-20:15)

X. The New Heavens and New Earth (21:1-22:5)

XI. Epilogue

REVELATION

I. Introduction (1:1-20)

A. Prologue: (1:1-8)

The ESV Bible scripture text for each section is added.

Section Overview

Section Outline

Comments - This section provides a verse-by-verse commentary.

Response

Lay readers will be able to easily understand Crossway's Expository Commentaries while still being able to get deep theological insights from them as well. Here are some examples.

"The title of the book comes from the first word in the Greek text: Revelation (Apokalupsis). The book is a revelation of Jesus Christ and from Jesus Christ."

"Apocalypse is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another supernatural world. Apocalypse was intended to interpret present earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future, and to influence both the understanding and the behavior of the audience by means of divine authority."

As I study Revelation this summer, the Crossway ESV Expository Commentary: Hebrews - Revelation Vol XII has been an invaluable resource. It is my intention to add more of the Crossway Expository Commentary series to my library in the near future. There is no doubt in my mind that I would recommend this Commentary series. 

Disclaimer - I received this book in exchange for my honest thoughts. 

Will We Still Be Here Tomorrow?

'Will We Still Be Here Tomorrow?' is a collection of poems and meditations by Ford Turrell. This book is aimed at children between the ages of 12 and 18. At 86 pages, this is a fairly short collection of poems.

As I read through the poems and meditations, I highlighted the titles of those I especially liked. Here is a list of those I highlighted:

• Stardust

• Resolutions

• Rainy Seasons

• What If...

• Blue Sky

• Your Own Mind

• Lab

• As It Should

• Ancestors

• Rituals

• Catching Up

• Light Years

• You Have No Flaws

• Bigger Boat

• Til Your Ship Comes In

• Death Weather

• Be-longing

• Symphony of Tears

• Models

• Tell the Truth

• Keep Pulling

The poem that I've chosen to share is 'Til Your Ship Comes In' because I believe we can all relate to it.

Til Your Ship Comes In

While you were waiting

for your ship to come in,

for your dear (blank) to come along,

for more money,

for a bigger, better (blank),

for your pain to subside,

for your depression to ebb,

your resentments to weaken,

and your karma to catch up:

the dishes and laundry have piled up,

the garden soil has been depleted,

the dog has gotten old,

your friends have moved away,

your children have grown and left home,

your eyes have drooped,

your skin has wrinkled,

your hair has greyed.

Yet, here you stand —

your hill to die on

nothing but a dream lurking elusively

beyond the horizon.

And while you've been lost in

watching for even the slightest flicker of

motion,

your real life, this ordinary life filled with

ordinary moments of

joy, and sadness, and fear, and pain, and

laughter, and love

has sailed right by.

This is a book I would recommend.

Not in My Book

'Not in My Book' by Katie Holt is a love story between two NYU students who are both pursuing careers as writers. Rosie, who is passionate and lofty, comes from a tight-knit family in Tennessee. Rosie leaves home to pursue her dream of becoming a romance writer in New York after leaving a toxic relationship. Aiden Huntington is tall, gorgeous, but obnoxious and distant. Aiden holds many secrets. He dreams of becoming a fictional writer and is quite talented.

What makes Aiden and Rosie enemies? Aiden believes that love and romance belong to fairytales. His patience with Rosie's romance writing is short. In their Writing Workshop class, Aiden and Rosie frequently battle each other. Every step of the way, Aiden criticizes Rosie's writing. Rosie has had enough of Aiden's cruel insults after a semester of them. Their professor reaches her breaking point with these two students. Their professor calls Rosie and Aiden into her office and tells them that she is kicking them out of class. It is only after pleading with the professor that she agrees to let them stay. Using both of their genres, they must co-write a novel.

The two decide to alternate chapters, with Rosie beginning with the first. It doesn't take long for Rosie and Aiden to find themselves becoming characters. It is soon impossible to ignore physical attraction. Despite her desire to hate Aiden, Rosie is deeply attracted to him, and she wants to know the real Aiden more than ever. The same is true for Aiden as well. It allows them to express just how they feel about one another as they write their novel together.

In spite of her belief in true love, Rosie has experienced a toxic relationship in the past, leading to hurt and reservations. It's not the case for Aiden. A messy divorce between his parents when he was quite young taught him that love was not real. It will take time and patience for these hurts to heal.

As all of this is going on, Rosie is also writing something for a highly prestigious scholarship opportunity. Rosie's life and ability to get through school would be changed if she received this award. She asked Aiden if he planned to apply. How would their relationship change if they both applied. Does the competition threaten to separate them?

This book is filled with so many layers.

It gets pretty steamy in the novel. It contains X-rated content.

It would ruin the book if I shared too much more.

It is important for me to state that I am not a reader of romance novels. The author does a great job weaving together all of the events, characters, backgrounds, etc. to make the story flow smoothly. This book keeps you guessing what will happen, which is always wonderful. The worst kind of storyline is one that is predictable. This is the author's first novel. I would say she did a fantastic job!