Ellie@Home by Nicole Kapise-Perkins

     I have to say: I love my job. I am an administrative assistant at an assisted living facility, and I love what I do. I work with great people (including the best boss EVAR!!!) and work for some truly wonderful seniors. I do however, have one issue with my job. I can't read there. I mean, I have to work. Not read. Well, we can't have it all, I suppose. On to the Reading List....      We left off with me beginning Brenda Wineapple's White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginso n. The saddest thing, I think, is that the work Emily Dickinson left behind was 'edited' (many say butchered) by Mabel Loomis Todd before Higginson was able to arrange it in book form to present to the unsuspecting world. That being said, of the more than one hundred poems Dickinson personally sent Higginson, they survived intact, and thanks to Higginson's correspondence with Emily Dickinson, readers are able to read the very same words th...

     One night a week my oldest son cooks dinner. My husband and I started this tradition a few years ago, realizing that if our children didn't learn to cook while they were teenagers living at home, they would wind up moving out and living off icky things like ramen noodles. In the beginning, my son and daughter would each pick a night, and through the summer would choose a recipe and give me a list of ingredients, and I would let them loose in the kitchen on their designated night. Once school began again in the fall, they were off the hook. Now that Henry is an adult college student, he doesn't get any breaks. Especially now that I know I can look forward to food like this every Tuesday.   One Sheet Pan Parmesan Crusted Salmon with Roasted Broccoli Yield: 4 servings Ingredients Broccoli 1 1/4 lbs broccoli crowns, stems cut and reserved for another use, florets chopped into bite size pieces 2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced...

While I haven't been having a 'summer of leisure,' (what is that, exactly, anyway?) I have had ample opportunity to read. (Not having cable is an enormous help, I might add.) I also have every Saturday and Tuesday off, so amid family time and the usual round of chores and writing commitments and writing class I've been working my way through my list. A week or so ago I posted the Kick-Off, with Orchid Fever ; today I have three others for you.   This book was less about Gudrid the Far-Traveler herself, and more of the study of Viking-era Iceland, Greenland and North America, which I find fascinating, and so was not disappointed. More of Gudrid's life would have been a bonus, but we are talking the Viking era of exploration here. Much of her history is tied up in legend and saga, but what is known is that she crossed the Atlantic Ocean 7 times. 7. I haven't even crossed it once. She also made a pilgrimage to Rome in approximately 1025.    The descriptions of...

It's SUMMER!!!! Summer means lovely luscious fresh fruit!! I would be perfectly happy eating fruit for every meal, but my darling husband and sons would not appreciate that quite so much. So while at work today I was so terribly busy that I had plenty of time to scour the internet for something to jazz up tonight's chicken. Here you go:         I used chicken breast, and swapped basil for the tarragon, but otherwise didn't play around with it. Pan Roasted Chicken with Peach Blueberry Sauce Recipe Ingredients For the Chicken: 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 teaspoons dried tarragon, or parisian bonnes herbes salt and pepper, to taste For the Peach Blueberry Sauce: 1 tablespoon butter 2 peaches, peeled, pit removed and diced 1/2 cup blueberries pinch sugar 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, minced 1/8 teaspoon salt Directions For the Chicken: Heat oven to 350°F. In an oven proof skillet, heat olive oil over high heat unt...