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Weekend Check-in: April 20

What I'm Cooking
I've been on quite the cooking spree recently. Mostly just baked goods, though, which doesn't actually help me get dinner on the table. :)

Homemade mayonnaise (using the immersion blender I got for Christmas from my mom)
Graham crackers (used all whole wheat flour)
Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bread (made into muffins. I don't love the oats, but they're not awful.)
Whole wheat pita bread (stuffed with tuna salad made with my homemade mayo!)
Pesto-cream tortellini (using homemade pesto I keep in the freezer)

What I'm Reading
I finished the Harry Potter series early last week. The last third of the last book drags on a bit, I thought -- too much flashback, too much waxing eloquent about the power of love -- but the final victory is quite, well, victorious. After devouring all seven books, I went through the little bit of withdrawal that often happens at the end of good books. The series came out while I was in high school, and I remember my parents debating over whether my youngest brother was old enough to read them, so I found myself pondering the same question. "Young adult" literature or not, I probably wouldn't let my kids at these until high school, when we could be having good conversations about good and evil and the futility of imagining real good without God.

Yesterday I started What's It Like To Be Married To Me? by Linda Dillow. I picked it up for free for the Kindle and have only read the introduction, so I don't have any thoughts on it yet. Dillow is the author of Intimate Issues, which I haven't read but have heard excellent things about from women I trust.

I'm also working my way through last year's Cook's Country magazines. A dear friend and colleague who subscribes gets the year's worth in a bound book at the end of each year, so she passes on the paper copies to me. I like reading about the science and testing behind good recipes.

Weekly Snapshots:

Silas is sitting on his knees quite regularly now, and pulled himself to standing just this morning!

Owen is just plain cute. (This is at Krohn Conservatory.)

Across the street from Krohn is a huge clock set into the hillside. Levi watched the minute hand creep along for literally five full minutes.

Favorite pin: Bacon candy. That's right, folks: BACON CANDY.
Favorite blog post: I try not to do two food posts in this section if I can avoid it, but this time of year (and, let's be honest, all summer long), I crave strawberry shortcake all the time. And no healthy version will do: I want Bisquick, trans fat and all. But these, made with Meyer lemons, sound positively heavenly.

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