Joy is my middle name

As a scientist, I find it very difficult to venture into the subjects of literature, politics, philosophy and such, without becoming either very confused or very bored. In an effort to alleviate those confusions, I have decided to attempt to broaden my horizons by reading 50 literature classics in 1 year. It sounds crazy I know, especially since most of the novels I read are short in comparison to novels like The Brothers Karamazov, but I am determined to accomplish this feat. The list of novels I have is a compilation of various ‘50 great.. ’ lists so if anyone would like to recommend some interesting reads I would be very appreciative. Here is my list in no particular order:

1. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

4. Emma by Jane Austen

5. The Odyssey by Homer

6. Ramayana by Valmiki

7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

9. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky

10. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

11. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

12. A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

13. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

14. Medea by Euripides

15. 1984 by George Orwell

16. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

17. Othello by Shakespeare

18. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

19. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

20. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

21. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

22. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

23. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

24. Candide: or Optimism by Voltaire

25. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

26. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

27. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

28. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

29. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

30. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

31. Common Sense by Thomas Paine

32. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

33. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

34. The Three Theban Plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus and Colonus, and Antigone by Sophocles

35. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

36. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

37. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

38. Tales from the Arabian Nights by Richard Francis Burton

39. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

40. Allen Quartermain by Henry Rider Haggard

41. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

42. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

43. Utopia by Thomas More

44. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

45. Hamlet by William Shakespeare

46. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

47. The Aspern Papers by Henry James

48. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

49. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

50. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

……… wish me luck!

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

RIP Amanda, you are missed and loved.

Chicken parmesan is one of Elliot’s favorite foods, so I decided the make it for him last night. The recipe is pretty simple and the chicken came out perfect- crunchy, cheesy and delicious! We’ve misplaced our camera charger so I don’t have any pictures (hopefully I’ll add them later when I make this dish again) so here is the recipe for now. Enjoy!

Things you’ll need: chicken breasts or thighs (I used thighs), 2 eggs, Panko breadcrumbs, shredded parmesan cheese (I bought mine, but I highly recommend buying high quality cheese and grating it yourself), salt and pepper.

Place the eggs in a shallow dish and scramble with a fork. Place the Panko breadcrumbs in a separate shallow dish and lay it out enough to completely coat one side of chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the eggs and coat both sides, then place in the Panko, coating both sides and repeat. Heat a frying pan with olive oil on medium high heat. Place the chicken in the pan (with whatever side you want to put the cheese on down first) and brown one side. Flip the chicken and reduce the heat the medium. Place a handful of parmesan on the brown side and cover. Let this side of the chicken brown slowly. When the cheese is completely melted it should be ready. Remove from the pan and serve with your favorite pasta or salad!

This past week I was watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay featuring the chicken fried steak. I’d only eaten it once before at a breakfast cafe and watching Bobby and Paula Deen make it on the show, I decided to give it a test run. Elliot (my co-chef) helped out and we used the Bobby Flay recipe from the food network. We used top round steak cuts, and we didn’t pound the meat out, which is usually done. The recipe involved dredging and while we did get a nice crust, I would definitely add more of the seasonings than the recipe specifies. Also the ‘crust’ was a little separated from the steak so next time I think we’ll try to use a batter instead. Here are some photos from the meal! Enjoy!

The steak and bacon frying up!

Mmmm.. looks tasty!

The finished meal!

Say what you want about Taylor Swift, but I love her music. She has an amazing way of channeling those feelings every girl feels in her music and I find myself relating to her completely. This is a song from her new album that I can really understand right now.

Ours

Elevator buttons in morning air
Strangers’ silence makes me want to take the stairs
If you were here we’d laugh about their vacant stares
But right now my time is theirs

Seems like there’s always someone who disapproves
They’ll judge it like they know about me and you
And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do
The jury’s out, my choice is you

So don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
The stakes are high, the water’s rough
But this love is ours

You never know what people have up their sleeves
Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me
Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles
But I don’t care ‘cause right now you’re mine

And you’ll say
Don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
The stakes are high, the water’s rough
But this love is ours

And it’s not theirs to speculate
If it’s wrong and
Your hands are tough
But they are where mine belong and
I’ll fight that doubt and give you faith
With this song for you

‘Cause I love the gap between your teeth
And I love the riddles that you speak
And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored
‘Cause my heart is yours

So don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
Don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
But they can’t take what’s ours
They can’t take what’s ours

The stakes are high, the water’s rough
But this love is ours