Books

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, Alan Bradley


This is actually the second book in the series starring Flavia de Luce, girl detective, snark, and chemist extraordinaire. The series is set in an idyllic English village circa the 1950's. Flavia de Luce, who is eleven and the narrator, is brilliant, well educated, obssessed with poisions, and lives in a rambling mansion with her chemistry set as well as a burning desire to know EVERYTHING. This series should be tooth-achingly sweet, but it's not.

Flavia is a very well drawn eleven year old girl. For all her brilliance and clever deductions, she still has moments in which her thoughts are very much those of an eleven year old child. She's also manipulative and brash and has a dark streak running through her soul. Actually she really, really reminds me of Courtney Crumrin.

Flavia's dark streak is what keeps me going in the series despite it being very, very formulaic and predictable. That and the books are just so darn charming. I think I like them because they're cozy and a little silly and remind in tone of James Herriot's books, of all things, well, except for the murder and whatnot.

All in all, very enjoyable and I'm surprised I like them so very much because I really don't usually read mysteries. I am looking very much forward to the third installment in the series, A Red Herring Without Mustard. (Plus, Bradley has the best titles. The first book in the series was called The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which was actually the reason I picked it up. That and it was a lovely green color and had a bird on the cover.)

I love eating at Aladdin's

and because I love eating at Aladdin's but find myself strapped for cash, I can rarely eat there*. But, thanks to the magic of the interwebz and the fact that mamma taught me to be a pretty okay cook, I have successfully made Mujadara! The Mujadara plate is my favorite dish at Aladdins and it's more than ten dollars when you add the garlic sauce, which is also a must. BUT, BUT for about 7.39, I have not only made enough Mujadara for the next like week, I have also successfully made the garlic sauce*!



*okay, let's be honest, I can rarely eat out period.

**this turned out pretty damn tasty, but, I will admit, Aladdin's is still better. Probably because the yogurt I used was the plain Dannon's on sale. I probably should have bought the Greek yogurt, which is tastier and thicker, but I have no monies.