January Naptime Notes

Cook books, Eustace Scrubbs, and Yelling

I’ve been in a meal cooking rut for a while. We have a few recipes that I could make in my sleep (including

Emily Stimpson Chapman

’s cranberry chicken salad) but each week, I dreaded meal planning and grocery shopping. And branching out to try new recipes felt a bit like playing roulette—would I like cooking it? Would anyone like the taste of it?

This hasn’t been helped by the fact that I’m pregnant (due in July!) and cooking anything was nauseating for weeks. The smells! The hot kitchen! The texture of raw chicken! It was an act of the will to put a meal on the table.

Our little crew survived on Aldi Red Bag Chicken sandwiches and Little Caesars pizza, and I knew I’d turned a corner around sixteen weeks when I wanted to cook a meal. But planning out seven dinners, grocery shopping for ingredients, and making a meal every evening was still daunting.

Then a friend (hi Kylie!) recommended Tieghan Gerard’s cookbook, Half Baked Harvest Super Simple. I’ve cooked with Half Baked Harvest recipes before, so I was excited to give it a try. I picked up a copy from the library, planned out a whole week of dinners using only recipes from Tieghan’s book, and had the most amazing night of dinners our family has had for years—and I’m not exaggerating.

Butter-roasted tomato soup with honey’d brie grilled cheese. French onion soup. Schnitzel and oven roasted broccoli. Spinach and artichoke mac-and-cheese. Creamed bucatini. Parchment-baked greek salmon and zucchini with salty feta. Dinner every night looked like something I would order at a beautiful, sit-down restraunt on a date night.

And even better, dinner tasted like the meal I order on date nights. Tieghan’s pressure cooker beef bourguignon has become my favorite winter comfort meal. The recipe combines red wine, stew meat, mushrooms, bacon, carrots, and from-scratch potatoes and the results are amazing. I made this meal two weeks in a row and then Joseph took me to a local french restraunt for our anniversary (8 years!). The menu included coq au vin and the sauce tasted just like the sauce in the beef bourguignon that I make at home!

But it’s not just that the recipes are golden—I’ve only had one flop from over twenty recipes I’ve cooked. It’s that cooking from a cookbook has totally redeemed cooking dinner for me.

Meal planning doesn’t involve staring at a computer screen for an hour anymore. Instead, I pull out this cookbook and look through it with the kids, choosing our meals and talking about what tasted good last week. It’s also stopped the analysis paralysis of meal planning each week. I no longer browse Pinterest, Google, All Recipes, and a variety of food blogs for the perfect recipe—how do I pick? There are 10,000 to choose from! Instead, I have a few categories to pick from and a few recipes in each category. I want to make soup? Great. Which of the six options sounds the best?

Then there’s the actual cooking itself. I pull out the book, put it on my cookbook stand in the kitchen and work through the recipe. There isn’t a food blog that takes forever to load on my phone. I just read the recipe notes on each page and slowly work through each step.

The results? Unbeatable. I love how Super Simple has a picture for almost every one of the recipes, so I know exactly what I’m aiming for. And almost every time, the dinner on our table looks exactly like the photo from the cookbook. I look forward to cooking dinner, and Joseph and the kids have all found new favorites in the meals I’ve made.

Every step of meal planning has been redeemed over the past month. And I can’t wait to revisit this cookbook in the summer when I can cook with the cherry tomatoes, arugula, and basil from our front yard garden and our trips to the farmer’s market.

I’ll continue rechecking Half Baked Harvest Super Simple from the library as long as I can, but if you have a cookbook you love cooking from, I’d love to check it out! Tell me about it in the comments below!

Read on for book recommendations after a month full of reading, a few songs that I’ve loved listening to over and over on the drives to preschool, and a lovely nautical poem that captures the imagination of childhood perfectly.

Songs I’m listening to on repeat…

The books I’ve read this past month….

The Father’s Tale by Michael O’Brien. This was my February book club read for Well Read Mom! Given it’s 1,000+ page count, I started reading it mid-December and was pleasantly surprised at how the book moved. This modern retelling of the prodigal son had some truly beautiful moments in it—especially during Alex’s reflections on contemplation and prayer during his time in Siberia. This was my first time making it through a whole book by O’Brien since my failed attempt at Father Elijah back in early college. I’m excited to talk about it with the women in my book club!

The Ratzinger Report by Vittorio Messori. Even though I was alive for all of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy, I didn’t know a lot about him until recently. I’ve loved reading through this interview by Vittorio Messori and getting to know Joseph Ratzinger and his work as the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Not only has this book given me a new appreciation for Pope Benedict, it’s also reignited an interest in Church history and the nuances of Church life. I’ve found myself reading

The Pillar

again and listening to their weekly podcast with Joseph in the evenings, too! I’m excited to read the other book-length interviews with Pope Benedict written by Peter Seewald.

Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas. I love reading what

Sally Thomas

writes on

Poems Ancient and Modern

(a daily look at poetry that she writes alongside

Joseph Bottum

). When I discovered her debut novel, I immediately purchased a copy and read it in a matter of days. The book follows Kirsty Sain, an aging housekeeper for the new parish priest. She keeps to herself and is content in her loneliness. But through encounters with a motley crew of characters (including a blind cat, a large family who sits in the back of church, and Father Schuyler), she slowly rediscovers love and finds her own wounds broken wide open. I particularly loved Kirsty’s lifelong love of the poet-priest Robert Southwell, whose Mary Magdalen’s Funeral Tears provides the backbone for many evenings of quiet reflection.

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. I cannot describe how much I love this book, but it’s been since early college that I read it all the way through. It is another 1,000+ page book, but after reading through O’Brien in under a month, I decided to revisit this fourteenth-century Norwegian epic. Gracious, I spend the entire book (on audiobook this round via Audible) yelling at Kristen to MAKE HEALTHY, INTEGRATED, FUNCTIONAL DECISIONS. But she doesn’t listen to me (or many in her life who are shouting the same thing) and continues to pursue her own desires. I also recently discovered that the Diocese of Oslo and the Dominicans in Norway started the initial steps for investigating and opening a possible sainthood cause for Sigrid Undset!

Books the Langr littles adored this month…

Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey. We’ve been longtime fans of Robert McCloskey’s books like Blueberries for Sal and Make Way for Ducklings. But this book is in a league of its own—it invites the readers to imagine a summer in Maine with their family. My girls listened intently through the entire book and talked about it for days.

Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming. A beautiful historical read! My girls wanted to send everyone they knew care packages after we read through this together.

The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen. Chris is the beloved illustrator of the Mercy Watson series, which gets a lot of read time at our house. This book that he wrote and illustrated is so much fun to read—and my kids stop me at the menagerie page to just stare for minutes on end.

The Giant Jumperee by Julia Donaldson. The first read through this book terrified Ada and William. But once they discovered who the Giant Jumperee really is, they asked for me to read this book over and over. We love anything by Julia Donaldson, and this book is no exception!

Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox. Harriet is a bit of a “pesky child”. She doesn’t meant to be, it just happens. Harriet’s mom doesn’t like to yell. But sometimes it just happens. This is such a great read about regulation, patience, and repair after the yelling happens (because it does. Lots and lots of yelling).

Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild! takes it place alongside my other favorite picture book of all time, The Seven Silly Eaters, also illustrated by Marla Frazee. My children love the story, but I love reading it because the mother in the book, Mrs. Peters, is so relatable. Look at her in all of her disregulation in the kitchen over her children’s’ eating habits.

“Peeling apples by the peck, Mrs. Peters was a wreck.” Me too, sister. Me, too. Also, all of Marla Frazee’s mothers are my fashion inspirations.

Letters to Women episodes that launched this month…

🎤Meg Hunter-Kilmer has been on the podcast so many times -- sometimes sitting at my table, sometimes from someone else’s home, this time from her own home! I first met Meg ten years ago at a Kansas Catholic College Student Convention and her love for Christ and his Church is such a joy to witness. When I started putting together the shows for this Letters to Daughters season, I knew I wanted Meg back on the show to talk about what living her daughterhood looked like.

In this conversation, we’re talking about the saints, Meg’s recent trip to South Korea, what it’s like to write about the hard parts of saints stories so even the littlest can meet these Heavenly friends, and what it’s like for Meg to OWN a home after years of life as a hobo for Christ.

🎤My guest in the final episode of the Letters to Daughters season is Brya Hanan. She brings her Catholic tradition, professional and personal insights, and understanding of trauma to offer accompaniment and tools for interior integration and wholeness.

In this conversation, we’re talking about Brya’s own healing journey, who our inner child is, how to embrace them, and how this approach to healing is integrated and Catholic!

An eclectic list of things I’ve loved this month…

This jumpsuit that makes me instantly feel put together // This mocktail is so tasty // Last month, almost all of my holy grail curl products were discontinued and I have not had the energy to attempt a new routine. So I’ve been using this one-step air brush by Revlon from my pre-curly-girl days in the morning and I love how I can almost recreate a blowout look at home // It’s taken me years to figure this out, but last week I started getting the kids up at 7am on school days instead of waiting for them to get up and leave us a small margin of get-ready time before preschool. We get up, get ready, and then come down for breakfast. This has been a total gamechanger! After a week of the routine, Maeve got herself up this morning and got totally ready before coming to find me for breakfast // All of Laura Wifler’s poetry is beautiful, but this reflection on two morning routines has been on my mind a lot lately // We still have too many toys that I’m slowly donating and gifting, but this toy organization system that a neighbor in our Buy Nothing Group gifted us has made pick up time in the evening simple // This sweet big brother with Down syndrome and his new little sibling makes me so excited for this summer

A quote I’m pondering…

Saint John Paul the Great, and latterly Pope Francis, have revelled in crowds. Benedict spoke heart to heart. John Paul was the pope of popes—the man who drew multitudes of the curious and hungry to be uplifted and enthralled; Benedict was the envoy, interpreter, diplomat, persuader, prophet, the one who attracted people one at a time in the fragile hope of having their questions answered. Wojtyła was a town crier to the world, warning of amnesia concerning God and the annulling of his laws. Ratzinger was the fireman who climbed out on the ledge to talk the world down, heart by heart.

- John Waters

A poem to leave you with…

I loved how Michael O’Brien wove poetry throughout the (many) pages of The Father’s Tale. Gerard Manley-Hopkins’s work was mentioned many times, but it was this sweet, child-like poem by Robert Louis Stevenson that captured my attention. I love the image of this little boy climbing into bed with a slice of cake and his favorite toy. Enjoy My Bed Is a Boat:

My bed is like a little boat;
Nurse helps me in when I embark;
She girds me in my sailor's coat
And starts me in the dark.

At night I go on board and say
Good-night to all my friends on shore;
I shut my eyes and sail away
And see and hear no more.

And sometimes things to bed I take,
As prudent sailors have to do;
Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,
Perhaps a toy or two.

All night across the dark we steer;
But when the day returns at last,
Safe in my room beside the pier,
I find my vessel fast.

That’s all I have for you this month! I hope your last day of January include some quiet moments for reflection and a cup full of something warm to drink!

In His Sacred Heart,

Chloe