The Susanne

Howards End by E. M. Forster is an absolutely enchanting read. I’m only about halfway through at the moment but I’m head over heels in love with the story, the characters, the language, the author.

A very typical Modernist novel, and published in 1910, it foreshadows right from the beginning the turbulent century which lies ahead of it. I’m not going to reveal too much about the plot, but seroiusly, you must experience this wonderful book!

Here’s the recipe for the cookies I wrote about, the ones inspired by the article from Cook & Eat on leftover-cookies. They’re non-dairy and incredibly sweet!

Makes about 24

• 100g margarine
• 2 1/2 dl sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 dl flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 dl shredded coconut
• 1 dl hundreds and thousands
• 1/2 dl dark chocolate (chopped)

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Mix the egg, lemon juice and vanilla in a bowl.

Use your mixer to cream the margarine and the sugar until it is really fluffy. Pour the egg mix over and beat until it’s all mixed and creamy.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, chocolate and the hundreds and thousands, and add to the egg/sugar/margarine mix whilst mixing, until it’s all combined.

Scoop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, and place in the oven, one sheet at a time.

Bake for about 10 minutes, but my advice is to keep a close eye on them from about 7 or 8 minutes as they turn brown really suddenly. You want them just golden!

I came up with this last night when I was craving pasta but also saw there were loads of vegetables in the fridge that had to be eaten. I even threw in a little cheese even though it makes me ill, just because cheesy pasta is so yum. This made one huge portion that I couldn’t finish, so I suppose it will feed two girls or one man.

• 1 portion spaghetti
• 1/2 capsicum (green bell pepper)
• 1/2 onion
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 8 small broccoli florets
• 1 dl grated Jarlsberg
• 10 slices cured ham

Slice the capsicum and the onion thinly (about 1-2 mm thick). Cut the tomatoes in half. Cut the ham slices into 1 cm strips.

Boil the spaghetti in 2 L water with a little salt and vegetable oil.

In a skillet, sauté the vegetables (except the tomatoes) for about five minutes. Add the tomatoes and sauté for another minute. You don’t want them to turn to mush.

When the spaghetti is done, drain and put it back in the pot. Add the vegetables, the ham and the cheese and toss. Serve immediately on deep plates.

Yum!

This is the only Sherlock Holmes story I have read. I read a Donald Duck version of the story once when I was little and liked it very much — reading the original story at 21 I loved it. It is only in later years that I have rediscovered my taste for mysteries; I used to love Jane Austen and contemporary American and Irish authors and didn’t even consider all the great mystery literature out there.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had to bring Sherlock Holmes back to life for The Hound of the Baskervilles, having apparently killed him off earlier when he tired of him. I can understand why he killed him: he was being constantly mistaken for his character by the hoards of adoring fans, and I suppose he missed having his own identity. In this story, Watson is given a chance to try his investigative skills. Commendable, yes, but then Sherlock didn’t really let go, did he, hiding out in a cave and keeping a watchful eye on his ‘trusted’ assistant.

The story is known to all I suppose, and if it isn’t known to you I strongly advise you to read this book. It’s so good.

Well let me just start off by saying that I have found my calling. My vocation. I’m going to be a librarian. I just love my job! It’s as simple as that. Now I do realise that it has very much to do with my co-workers. But I really enjoy the work as well. I can’t believe it hasn’t occurred to me until a year ago that this would be a perfect job for me! I, who have been a bookworm since before I could walk. Who used to recite poetry from my favourite book as soon as I could talk (I ‘read’ to friends and family. I held the book the right way up, on the right page, and ‘read’ the poems, which I had memorised because I loved them so much). Here’s the library where I’ve worked three out of the five days I’ve worked this week and where I’ll be working most days from now on as well:

I’ve been made ‘Facebook editor’ at the library because I was the only one who knew how to use it - now I’m not going to be working there all summer so I’ve started teaching the others how to do it. But today I expanded into making ‘pages’ so that instead of simply having a profile for the library we will now have two ‘libraries’ that people can become fans of. And I’m adding books to the library on each page, one by one. I have spent most of today on it, in between lending books. So far I’ve added just over 100 books to each library. I think I might even spend some time doing it when I’m not working, just because I enjoy it and I want the pages I’m making to be the best possible!

This is the first time I’ve had a job that I feel like I could do for the rest of my life. I think I would be incredibly happy as a librarian. Now, I’m not going to go to librarian school. I did consider it for a while. But it sounds so boring with all the cataloguing courses and all that. Plus I already had the cataloguing thing down after the first day on the job, it’s that simple! I’m going to finish my BA in English literature and then go for a masters in ‘litteraturformidling’ which translates to something like ‘literature mediation’ or ‘conveying literature’ or something like that. I’ve discovered that there’s not really any term for it in English which is  really right.

I know that more and more libraries are focusing more on getting people interested in literature and that I’m almost certain to get a job with that masters degree. And that way I can still go to university instead of the college crap which is librarian school with compulsory attendance eight hours a day, like high school. Oh no, I’m over that. I like the university system of lectures and seminars and responsibility for own learning. Yep.

Mum’s going away to Lofoten for a week, and I’m pretty happy about it. Not because I want her gone, but because when she’s gone I’ll be able to cook again. Yey! I’ll probably be pretty tired from work most days, but still. I can finally decide for myself what to eat again. And I can make it too. And…ohh! The excitement would be too much to contain if I wasn’t extremely tired. I’m definitely not used to working full days and full weeks! At least I’ll have Sunday off which is good as I want to tidy my room. My old room, where I grew up, and it shows the signs very clearly. All my clutter is still all over the place, so my plan for Sunday (except for cooking) is to go through all my stuff and chuck out the rubbish, donate old clothes and accessories to the Salvos and keep what’s left over tidy.

I’m excited about tomorrow as well. I’m working till two, then The Boyfriend’s family are stopping for coffee on their way to their cabin in Trysil, and then I’ve an airport-date with Maria. August is just too far away, I must get a Maria-fix now I have the chance.

Our Shakespeare tickets arrived this week and I stuck them on my mirror. We’re going to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe! Oh my goodness, I feel so privileged! I suppose it will be very touristy and all that, but frankly I don’t care. I’M GOING TO SEE  ONE OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS AT SHAKESPEARE’S OWN THEATRE!