The Plaid Pladd

I did surprisingly great on my goals for 2019! The key was aiming low. Or maybe just being realistic about what is doable (see: Steven thinking he could cook 214 recipes in one year)

1. Cookbooks Cook Through: 100%

On January 1, 2019, I went through all our cookbooks and marked the recipes I’d never made but wanted to. There were 71 in all, and I made them! My favorite was probably this cinnamon bread from Bread Toast Crumb. I love it so much:

This was a good goal in that it forced me to actually make some recipes I probably would have put off forever, and some of them became favorites! It also inspired me to prune my cookbook collection if I didn’t find many recipes to mark or the ones I tried weren’t great.

2. 50 States of Reading:  100%

See my previous post on all of the books. This was a fun goal that led me to some cool books (and some TERRIBLE ones), but my methodology for choosing the titles could have been better.

3. Read One Book a Month I Already Own: 100%

Here are the books I read and how I reviewed them on GoodReads:

January: A History of Histories by J.W. Burrow (2 stars: “This book needed more analysis and less summarizing.”)

February: Uprooted by Naomi Novik (5 stars: “I read this in one day and literally screamed out loud at one point. This feels like the spiritual successor to Howl’s Moving Castle. Give me more books where practical, powerful women roll their eyes forever at drama-queen wizards, please.”)

March: River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (4 stars: “This book fully lived up to the promise of its premise”)

April: The Saga of the Volsungs trans. by Jesse L. Byock (4 stars: “This would be a good thing for HBO to adapt after Game of Thrones is over”)

May: What If? by Randall Munroe (4 stars: “Really interesting and funny”)

June: The Epic of Gilgamesh trans. by Andrew George (3 stars: “Gilgamesh and Enkidu are just Excellent Friends who hold hands all the time”)

July: Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod trans. by M. L. West (3 stars: I literally wrote nothing lol)

August: The Histories by Herodotus trans. by Aubrey de Selincourt (3 stars: “I wish my edition had included a map”)

September: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank by Phil and Kaja Foglio (2 stars: “This is kind of a weird mess. The story seemed interesting, but our main character is just Cathy from the comic strip Cathy. The art style is annoying, ESPECIALLY when it came to female characters, and all of that was just too distracting for me to enjoy the mad science/steampunk plot that I would otherwise have gotten into.”)

October: Lysistrata by Aristophanes trans. by Douglas Parker (3 stars: “It’s hard to know how to rate this, because the work itself is interesting, but this particular translation is incredibly bizarre. It’s weird to have Ancient Greeks speaking in 1960s slang. I wish there had been more historical notes, too.”)

November: Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley and Roy Adkins (4 stars: “I didn’t realize this was a literal encyclopedia, but I still liked reading it all the way through. I learned a lot, and the diagrams and pictures were very helpful.”)

December: The Secret History by Procopius (2 stars: “I think the translator could have done a better job. Why were the currencies translated into “modern” (1960s) English pounds? This means just as little to me as whatever the original units were. Also some truly yikes-worthy passages about women in the Introduction.”)

Obviously a lot of these are Steven’s. I enjoyed this goal, and I want to keep reading books I already have on my bookshelves, although I don’t know how many Ancient Roman translations I can really read in a row.  I learned from this that Steven owns way more books than I do.

4. Transcribe my Grandmother’s Diaries: 100%

I finished this back in October, and am now in the process of going back and rechecking everything, especially things I’d marked as illegible on my first run through. I’m also making a list of all the books, movies, and foods she mentions. In 2020, I hope to scan them all!

5. Take a Picture of Everything I Make: 90.96%

I did pretty well on this goal, considering. There were 17 things in all I didn’t take pictures of, 16 of those being food that got eaten or given away before I remembered. The majority of those were towards the end of the year, when I was making a lot of cookies and just kind of tired in general. Most, but not all, of the pictures are on Instagram. A few I didn’t post because they were Christmas gifts. Overall, this was a good goal, but I did get sick of taking pictures of breakfast bars, which I make like once every 2 weeks.

Total: 98.19%

Good job, team!! I am skeptical if I can maintain this high percentage rate in 2020.

Previously: 2018 Goals

1. Cookbooks Cook Through: 90.14%
I only have 7 recipes to go! Some of those are waiting for seasonal produce. One of my favorites I’ve made so far this year is this cinnamon swirl bread:

If you’re curious, Steven is at 23% lol

2. 50 States of Reading: 78%
Since my last post, I’ve been through 17 states, and I’m currently working on South Dakota.

The most unexpectedly good one was:

It’s a modern YA retelling of Henry VIII set in a high school, and it goes HARD. The best book set in Indiana? Probably.

Here’s everything else I read for this since my last update:

3. Read One Book a Month I Already Own: 50%
In March I picked:

I got this as a gift when it first came out, and can’t believe I waited so long to read something so obviously awesome!

In April:

Steven has kept a lot of his texts from different college courses, and I’ve been taking full advantage with this project. This one was a soap opera, and I wish HBO would adapt it right now.

In May:

Another book that it’s weird I didn’t read when it first came out.

This month:

I’ve read excerpts of this before, but never the whole thing–or as much of the whole thing as we currently have access to. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are Excellent Friends, if you know what I mean.

4. Transcribe my Grandmother’s Diaries: 78.33%
I’m currently in 1988. Here’s a quote from An Historic Day:

September 26, 1981
Cleaned. Put up summer shoes. Washed hair. Frances by say “pot” growing on their land. Red up there with shot gun–foolish.

5. Take a Picture of Everything I Make: 100%
ALTHOUGH not all the pictures are on Instagram, since some of them I made as gifts and don’t want to give them away. Here’s my fave of the things I can share:

Total: 78%

Ahead of the game, for once!
Previously: February

February is the shortest month, but I haven’t slowed down on my yearly goals. Which is good, because you know I’ll slow down come summer, when I plan to spend all my time lying on the floor under a fan.

1. Cookbooks Cook Through: 46%
This month I made 10 recipes I’d marked. I’ve really gotten into making my own bread, so I’ve completed all the recipes I marked in my bread book this month! These cinnamon biscuits were probably my favorite:

If you’re curious, Steven is at 10% and has 194 more recipes to go.

2. 50 States of Reading: 37%
After a strong start, I only completed three states this month: Georgia, Florida, Alabama

Next stop: Tennessee

3. Read One Book a Month I Already Own: 17%
This month I read:

It had been on my TBR for a while when I saw a nice copy at a library book sale, so I got it and continued to not read it until right now. Why did I wait so long?? It was so great! Basically the emotional successor to Howl’s Moving Castle. Give me more books where practical, powerful women roll their eyes forever at drama-queen wizards, please.

4. Transcribe my grandmother’s diaries: 50%
This month I got through 1963-1970. Here is An Historic Day:

July 20, 1969. Sunday. Up late. Washed and cleaned–put up table and put things back in place. Man landed on moon tonight. Watched T.V. until 11:00PM.

Unimpressed, as always.

5. Take a Picture of everything I make: 100%
This has been the hardest one to remember to do. I’m hoping soon it will become a habit.

Total: 50%
Previously: January