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My favorite purchase in 2011

 

My favorite purchase in 2011, by far, was the black-out curtains that we got for our bedroom. Wow. These curtains have made an amazing difference in my quality of sleep. The total pitch blackness of them induces sleep rapidly and deeply. Who knew how much difference any light shining in the room impacts your sleep?

The picture to the left is what our bedroom looks like in the daytime with the curtains drawn and all the doors shut. You can imagine what it's like at night.

I gasped a little at how expensive the blackouts were, at the time, but now, I regret not getting them years ago.

 

My Favorite Kitchen Gadget

Without a doubt, my favorite kitchen gadget is a tofu press. It is such a mess-free and effective way of draining water from tofu. The tofu comes out so dense and easy to slice and marinate. Before then, I'd used paper towels (lots of them!) to soak up the water. It was almost not worth the time and trouble. When I saw the tofu press price tag ($40!), it was a little shocking for something that has only one single purpose, but I went ahead and took the plunge.

In the photo at left, I've been pressing the liquid out for about an hour. Notice all the liquid! 

I got it on Amazon. Just search on TofuXpress.

As far as my favorite ways of making tofu: by far, it's plain-old fried tofu. It gives it the best texture. But, I'm always looking for good recipes to shake things up a bit.

Before I Forget...

I read some memorable books last year and wanted to list them before I forget!

The best three books that I read were Sarum, London and New York by Edward Rutherford. Sarum is set in southern England near Salisbury, and the other two, of course, set in the respective cities and surrouding areas. Well-written historical fiction as these are is such an easy way to learn a little more about the history! And, talk about history: Sarum and London start thousands of years ago when man first happened upon these parts. In each book, Rutherford takes a hand full of families down through the generations all the way up to the late 20th century. New York begins when it was still in Dutch hands in the 1600's and was called New Amsterdam and ends with 9-11. Believe it or not character development is quite good, as families pass along traits from one generation to the next, and conveniently there is a lot of relationships and marriages amongst the families. Rutherford has a silky way of starting chapters off with a little history and then before you know it, the story is happening. I loved all three and recommend all three. In fact, I just checked out another of his books, The Forest, and can't wait to get started on it.

I also read some Ken Follett last year, including Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca. Both were set during World War II and both kept my attention to the very last page. I'm currently reading The Man from St Petersburg, set during World War I.

My sister-in-law had given me The Hunger Games for Christmas in 2010, and I read it last year and could not put it down. It was much more compassionate that I expected.

My cousins recommended Charles Martin to me and I read When Crickets Cry and The Dead Don't Dance. Quite good, but as far as Christian fiction, no one compares to Jamie Langston Turner. 

Finally, I read Finding Salvation at the Dairy Queen, set in Ringold Georgia about a girl coming of age who has to come to Atlanta before she figures out that everything she wants and needs and loves is back home in Ringold. It wasn't bad; mostly predictable. There was, however, a plot twist at the end that was so unreal it left a strange taste in my  mouth.