• Cold Turkey

    With the recent passing of Thanksgiving, I was reminded of a peculiar phrase which has often perplexed me, but I’ve never taken the time to ask about it or research it. My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal is the assortment of sides. I love green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, hash brown casserole, macaroni and

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  • Advent and the Christmas season is probably my favorite time of year. I love Christmas for all the normal reasons–the decorations and lights, the food (especially cookies and sweet, hot beverages), the giving and receiving of gifts, the time spent with loved ones, and the instinct to huddle up inside together to shield against the

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  • Flexipes: Ramen

    Ingredients per serving: Directions The Story I prefer to cook without a recipe. Recipes slow me down, and the constant back-and-forth of moving between the stove, instructions, and ingredients feels clunky and burdensome. It can already be a chore to every day have to prepare food to sustain myself (and my family), especially if I

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  • Hobbit Day

    Our lives are marked by ritual. From your morning cup of coffee (or tea), to Sunday morning church services or your weekly book club, to getting your car’s oil changed every few months, for most of us, these regular, recurring events and actions give us a sense of time and structure. They can be mundane

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  • Sequel to How to Solve Your Own Murder, which I reviewed about a month ago, How to Seal Your Own Fate follows protagonist Annie Adams a few months (or possibly a year) after the events of the first novel in the series. The final installment in the Castle Knoll Files trilogy, How to Cheat Your

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  • A Sorceress Comes to Call is a novel by T. Kingfisher, inspired by the fairy tale The Goose Girl by brothers Grimm, though it bears little resemblance to the original story. It is not something I would typically choose to read, but is the current focus of a local book club in which I am

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  • Several weeks ago, my home was subject to an invasion–nay, an infestation. I can’t pinpoint what caused it, but before I knew it, the entire house was overrun with fruit flies. These pesky little creatures began to drive me insane. My husband and I would be sitting on the couch, trying to enjoy a show

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  • It was mid-November, just starting to get chilly where I live. The sky was cloudy and gray, so that the room was dimly lit even through the large windows, and despite only being afternoon, it felt as though the sun had set already. I sat across from my boss’s boss, as he peered at me

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  • I recently attended an event at my local library, called Book Bingo. It was just like regular bingo, but the prize table full of popular books, and it was free to enter. There were enough prizes that most participants would get one, including myself. I like to have a plan for everything, so I browsed

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  • One of my favorite musical albums is Listen to the River by band David Wimbish and the Collection. I’ll be honest, I haven’t listened to much of their music outside of this album. When my husband played the first song, though, I was hooked. I spent a good portion of last summer listening to it

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