Category Archives: Thought of the Week

Once-weekly posts on whatever nonsense crosses my mind.

What’s your favorite winter comfort food?

It’s solidly winter now, with temperatures here in New Jersey dropping to single digits at night and rarely rising above freezing during the day. (Okay, I have friends in Michigan for whom this is perfectly balmy, but for me it’s frickin’ freezing in here!) There’s been snow on the ground since December, and it’s dark every night when I leave work.

It’s a time of year that, for me, often coincides with a very deep depression, but this year I’m working hard on avoiding that pitfall. I’m still taking my medication, still writing, and still getting up every morning.

But sometimes, you need something that’s just a touch more, a little friendly—something comforting. It can be a favorite stuffed animal you carry with you, or, if you’re like me, a favorite food.

Last year for Thanksgiving, my wife bought a butternut squash. Admittedly, I didn’t really know what to do with it; I even had to look up how to prepare one online. We ended up turning it into a soup, probably because I mashed it anyway trying to get the damn thing open, and it became a instant hit: my new, favorite comfort food for the depths of winter.

We’ve made it a few times since, and it really couldn’t be easier. So long as you have a large pot and a stove, you’re set. Here’s how to make it.

First, gather your ingredients. You’ll need:

  • One (1) really big butternut squash
  • Three to five (3-5) potatoes
  • Two to four (2-4) carrots
  • One (1) small onion (or half a big one, or just a bunch – your choice, really)
  • Forty fluid ounces (40 oz) of chicken/vegetable stock.

Then, fry the onion in some olive oil or butter, chop everything else up roughly, and boil the shit out of it for an hour. Once everything is really, really soft, you can do one of two things:

  1. Somehow get it all into a blender, or probably into several blenders, and blend it until it’s smooth;
  2. Use a potato masher to mash the crap out of it until it’s smooth.

You can guess which method I prefer.

You could season it however you like, and my wife recently suggested roasting the butternut squash first, which will be tasty, I’m sure. As you’re reading this I’m probably sitting down to a bowl of this soup right now, so I’ll leave you with this: what’s your favorite winter comfort food, and how do you make it?

J.K. Rowling once again creates more than fantastic beasts.

I realize I’m a little late to the party on this one, but I just came back from watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Oddly enough, Little Satis didn’t particularly want to see it, though I’m not certain why; he’s loved everything related to Harry Potter for years.

In any case, I went in with deliberately low expectations, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s a spin-off. Spin-offs are rarely any good (in my experience). Second, it’s not a book. And whilst the Harry Potter series is certainly not without its flaws, J.K. Rowling clearly proved herself as a fantastic author of books. The films that followed were better or worse, depending on the movie, but they couldn’t compare to the books, simply because they aren’t books. Adaptations, by necessity, are abbreviated.

In my estimation, she’s outdone herself.

And I have to say, I found myself pleasantly surprised. Granted, Rowling had some practice with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in terms of writing for the stage, but this is, to my understanding, her first attempt at developing a fully-fledged screenplay, dedicated to being seen on film.

And in my estimation, she’s outdone herself. I just finished writing an article about character development for the review blog Girl Who Reads (look for it on Friday!), and I rather wish I had had this movie to talk about in terms of what that looks like as a success. Despite introducing us to an almost entirely new set of characters (even Gellert Grindlewald is only referenced in the Harry Potter books), Rowling has managed to create fully living, breathing characters for whom we feel empathy, concern, and—dare I say it—love. Newt Scamander (portrayed admirably by Eddie Redmayne) is hardly a great wizard, but holds a whimsical charm that I can only compare to Bilbo Baggins—a character of values, morals and oddities. Every other character is equally well fleshed-out, with hints of backstory that are never overdone, nor ham-fisted down our throats.

The pacing is equally excellent, perhaps even better than that of her novels: whilst there is plenty of action to entertain, there are also serenely calm and beautifully charming moments that allow us to breathe, take in the surroundings, and experience once more the wizarding world that Rowling has so deftly created.

If this is Rowling’s first attempt at a screenplay, I’m excited to see what else she has in store for us. Unlike the Star Wars universe (which I also talk about on Friday), this feels like a natural expansion of the universe that we’ve come to love so dearly. There are, of course, references for the fans, but again they are not overt or in your face, and fit in well with the overall plot and pacing of the story.

Little Satis was ultimately glad to have seen the movie, and my wife, who’s hardly the biggest Potter fan in the world, enjoyed it as well. It’s one I would gladly watch again, and will proudly sit alongside the previous eight films as part of what I hope will become an ever-growing world of wizards and witches.

Let’s go, 2017.

The past year has been … not quite so bad as I thought it might be. I spent five months of it in California on a work experience, where I met cool people and ate good food. I was able to get some writing done, though not, perhaps, as much as I would have liked. Most importantly, I’ve now made it a full year without any serious relapses in my bipolar disorder. I’ve been able to keep to my medications regularly, although I’m not exercising as much as I ought to, granted; but I haven’t slipped once into a crippling depression from which there appears to be no escape.

In this regard, I should take a moment to recognize some of the achievements I’ve accomplished in 2016. From publishing one novel to writing another, things have gone pretty well, and there are some that I’m not entirely ashamed of.

  1. In February, I launched the second book in The Redemption of Erâth series, Exile. I hosted a week-long Facebook party, gave out dozens of copies, and got several reviews in return.
  2. In April, I went to California for a five-month career experience, taking me away from my home and family for probably the longest period of time I can remember. And I survived!
  3. In May, I got to see The Cure live—they were phenomenal.
  4. In November, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time in five years. I didn’t win, but it’s the effort that counts!
  5. Throughout all this year I managed to struggle through possibly the hardest book to write so far in the Redemption of Erâth series, and I can happily say it’s almost complete—only one chapter left to write!

As you can see, all-in-all I feel pretty good about where I’m at right now—which is a distinct improvement from this time last year. So here’s to 2017, and whatever it may bring: the goal is to release the third book in the Redemption of Erâth, Ancients & Death, and hopefully see a few more reviews of my other books start to trickle in. Additionally, I’d like to try and post here with a little more regularity and frequency, and spent just a little bit of time reading what you all have to say, too.

Happy New Year!