Weekend Cooking: Albondigas (Mexican Meatball Soup)

Weekend Cooking: Albondigas (Mexican Meatball Soup)

Even though we don’t seem to be having much of a winter here in Southern California this year, it still feels like it should be soup season, and this soup is perfect for cooking on the weekend. I grew up with an Italian interpretation of meatballs, served with macaroni and a red sauce (often on Sundays at my great-aunts’ apartment). The homemade meatballs in my husband’s family kitchen were served in the Mexican soup called Albondigas. His […]

What’s On in the (Sunday) Salon, 1/19/2013

What’s On in the (Sunday) Salon, 1/19/2013

What I’m reading in print I would like to report that I’m not still reading the same books I was last week, but that would be both inaccurate and untrue. I think I have a pretty good shot at finishing at least one of them this weekend, though…and I will not consider the fact that it’s a three-day weekend a cheat. on audio I’ve finished my first audiobook of 2014, but the second one will take me a […]

Sunday Salon: Thankfully Reading, and (Weekend) Cooking Too!

Sunday Salon: Thankfully Reading, and (Weekend) Cooking Too!

I didn’t officially sign up for Jenn’s Thankfully Reading Weekend, but I’m thankful that I have gotten some reading time in every day since Thursday, and hope to continue the trend today. I finished one very long e-book, my last read for Kim and Leslie’s Nonfiction November, and started on the two January releases I’ll be reviewing for Shelf Awareness (I’d like to start 2014 right on time over there, which means getting my reviews in […]

Sunday Salon: An Open Letter to Restless (Book) Bloggers–Don’t Forget Who Makes The Rules

Sunday Salon: An Open Letter to Restless (Book) Bloggers–Don’t Forget Who Makes The Rules

Dear (book) bloggers, I’m writing in response to posts I’ve come across recently from some of you. Like me, you’ve self-identified as “book bloggers,” but maybe you’re starting to feel a little hemmed in by the label. Maybe you’re itching to branch out in some new directions, but you’re not sure exactly how–or what sort of reaction you’ll get if you do. As Becca said, and I get the feeling she’s not alone: “I have […]

Gettin’ a Little Saucy (Weekend Cooking)

Gettin’ a Little Saucy (Weekend Cooking)

(NOTE: This is based on an exercise we did in my writing workshop this week, and I thought it might work as a Weekend Cooking post, although I don’t think I’ve ever participated in Weekend Cooking before! Weekend Cooking is a weekly blogging feature hosted at Beth Fish Reads.) I made a batch of family-recipe marinara sauce last weekend. The specifics of our recipe tend to vary–every cook in every generation of my mom’s family […]

2001: A Blogging Odyssey–Reflections and Projections After 2000 Posts

2001: A Blogging Odyssey–Reflections and Projections After 2000 Posts

It has taken 6 years and almost 7 months to accumulate 2000 posts on The 3 R’s Blog, but it happened yesterday. Post number 2001 seems like a good place to pause and consider how I got here, and where to go now that I am here. The last time I reviewed blog stats was the end of 2011 (I only looked at reading stats in 2012). I think this is a good occasion to […]

Sunday Salon: “One More Hour” Edition

Sunday Salon: “One More Hour” Edition

I hope y’all remembered to set your clocks back one hour last night! We are now back on Standard Time here in the USA–although since we actually only observe it for about ⅓ of the year now, it seems like the “standard” really should be Daylight Savings Time. But that would confuse things even more than they already are. Anyway, we have an “extra” hour today. Assuming you didn’t already spend it catching some extra […]

WW: Shelved!

WW: Shelved!

We’ve got a “wild card” week in our Wordless Wednesday linky group, so I thought you might like to see what we did with our dining room this past weekend. It gives a new meaning to the concept of “devouring books.” It may seem like an odd place to put them, but the dining room just happens to have one wall that’s the perfect size to line with bookcases. At intervals between Saturday evening and Sunday […]

Sunday Salon: "Moving Week" Edition

Sunday Salon: "Moving Week" Edition

Time: Sunday morning, in the seven o’clock hour Place: My side of the bed, with the iPad Eating and drinking: Nothing yet, but thinking about breakfast…and about drinking lots of water today. It’ll be another hot, dry one in Simi Valley. Reading: Most of the books are boxed and in the garage at the new house, where they’ll most likely remain until the bookcases are delivered a few weeks from now, but I did leave […]

Sunday Salon: Book Purge Day Edition

Sunday Salon: Book Purge Day Edition

Time: The first weekend of August, 2013–starting the draft of this post on Saturday evening, intending to finish and publish on Sunday morning Place: My side of the bed, with the iPad Eating and drinking: I have my bedside (nearly always at my side, wherever, to be honest) glass of water, and that’s it till breakfast, which will probably be Kashi cereal with fruit and a biscuit. Unless that’s not what I feel like eating […]

Thoughts on Thursday: Time and Tasks and Sites and Books

Thoughts on Thursday: Time and Tasks and Sites and Books

There are things I used to do here that I don’t seem to do any more, for various reasons, although the “various” seems boils down to “time,” or lack of it, in one way or another. It’s been a while since I’ve talked here about current events in the world outside social media and blogging (you know, the one where issues are real–where blogging and social media are just some of the tools we use […]

Audiobook Week 2013, All In One Day

Audiobook Week 2013, All In One Day

I found time to tackle the daily topics for Audiobook Week before I left for vacation, but since I found I didn’t have quite enough to say for any of them to warrant separate posts, I’m condensing it all into one. 2012-2013, Your Audiobook Year Are you new to audiobooks in the last year? Have you been listening to them forever but discovered something new this year? Favorite titles? New times/places to listen? This is […]