Summary of Spring Days with the Moodys

[AuntCloud]

Miss Hane, will you share your sweet, precious recipe with us as an encouragement?

Passover is done with and I don't feel like making matzah-meal rum balls.

Blessings,

AuntCloud

Please tell me the Maxwells don't make their own tortillas - but with this family, it's never good to assume any path of logic is being followed.

[Joan of Snarc]

Why did you increase the quantities Jinger Cat? Are you having the Duggars over for bean burritos?

I can't figure out why they cook the bloody things overnight either. That's why I wanted to try it. And cumin is my favorite spice, I hate to leave it out....

[socalrules]

So we now know how the Maxwells pass the time when they are not cleaning. I wonder how long it takes to make a green smoothie.

[HoneyBunny]

That bean burrito recipe is the natural result of too many adults with too much time on their hands living with too much togetherness. It's just...too much.

[polecat]

Hane wasn't far off: In the book Mollie makes muffins. They are suppose to be choc chip but she puts peanut butter in then blends them for too long and OH NO, the choc chips melt and now they are chocolate muffins. Mollie to explain to both Mum and Mitch why they are chocolate and not choc chip.

The boredom !!! It hurts !!!

Do these people actually cook or do they just make it up as they go along?

1. That bean burrito recipe was absolutely nightmarish.

2. If you beat muffins too long, they get rubbery and holey. That's all.

3. Peanut butter muffins are actually pretty tasty. One of my kids lives for those mornings when I make pb muffins.

4. Chocolate chips are not just going to magically melt and spread throughout the batter. THEY DON'T DO THAT! EVER! This is how chocolate chip cookies were invented, btw. Someone chunked up some chocolate (can't remember her name, sorry) and mixed them in cookie batter hoping they'd turn into chocolate cookies. They didn't.

5. If you don't know how to do something, either don't put it in your book or research the heck out of it and learn to do it before writing about it and looking like a moron.

[treemom]

So obviously the maxwells have been to Lamberts. It is so sad what has become so notable she writes books about it.

http://www.throwedrolls.com/

Steve, since you read here let me tell you again you have ruined your children's lives.

[Hane]

polecat, what you said about the muffins. Times a zillion. And what you said about the chocolate chips.

[treemom]

Sorry, I realize now the Lamberts has been covered. I thought I was on the last page of the thread

[PennySycamore]

Do these people actually cook or do they just make it up as they go along?

1. That bean burrito recipe was absolutely nightmarish.

2. If you beat muffins too long, they get rubbery and holey. That's all.

3. Peanut butter muffins are actually pretty tasty. One of my kids lives for those mornings when I make pb muffins.

4. Chocolate chips are not just going to magically melt and spread throughout the batter. THEY DON'T DO THAT! EVER! This is how chocolate chip cookies were invented, btw. Someone chunked up some chocolate (can't remember her name, sorry) and mixed them in cookie batter hoping they'd turn into chocolate cookies. They didn't.

5. If you don't know how to do something, either don't put it in your book or research the heck out of it and learn to do it before writing about it and looking like a moron.

The woman who invented Toll House Cookies was Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. Or it may have been her chef. Accounts vary. You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_House_cookies

[Justme]

Aren't you just oh, so tempted, to fill the book with editors notes and mail it back to Sarah? :wink-kitty:

[browngrl]

Jesus checking the cake was fan fiction? How sad that fan fiction could very easily have been the truth about the Maxwells.

Also what is with all the blending blending in their bean burrito recipe? I don't know much about authentic Mexican or Tex-Mex cooking but that pasty texture kind of icks me out. I hand mash my beans when making burritos* and never puree the onions and jalepenos just to avoid that baby food like texture.

*also add a LOT more spices (because I'm Indian can not resist) and cilantro because that soapy texture thing is a genetic trait that thankfully I do not have.

[Bethella]

Miss Hane, will you share your sweet, precious recipe with us as an encouragement?

Passover is done with and I don't feel like making matzah-meal rum balls.

Blessings,

AuntCloud

Please tell me the Maxwells don't make their own tortillas - but with this family, it's never good to assume any path of logic is being followed.

Oh but they do make their own tortillas, corn and flour. They even grind their own flour for the flour ones. :lol:

blog.titus2.com/2012/04/02/cooking-with-the-maxwells-corn-tortillas-101/

blog.titus2.com/2011/02/09/tortillas-101/

[twin2]

Why is Melissa throwing peas at Mr Gibson when they were having green bean casserole? And who has peas or GBC with their pizza?

Very good points. Salad and pizza makes sense. Salad and green bean casserole, not so much. And yeah, the peas, not sure where that come from?

[Trynn]

I... probably would have salad with my green bean casserole, because I am strange like that. However, greeb bean casserole and pizza? No way man.

(also haven't found a good way to make a mushroom free and vegan green bean casserole without tomato soup.)

ETA: I am SUPER sensitive to spices. I heard jalapenos aren't spicy if they're picked while not quite ripe... is that true? If so, I wonder where I could buy them like that... because I got ahold of a jalapeno once and... my friends were wondering if I'd need the hospital. At work we have cherry peppers, and when someone opens a jar I stop breathing.

It's.... fun.

so, I'd consider trying the maxwell's recipe (albeit adapted; I'd probably just throw it all in the crockpot and then blend it) but I can handle neither jalapenos, chili powder, or black pepper.

[sparkles]

Oh but they do make their own tortillas, corn and flour. They even grind their own flour for the flour ones. :lol:

blog.titus2.com/2012/04/02/cooking-with-the-maxwells-corn-tortillas-101/

blog.titus2.com/2011/02/09/tortillas-101/

The burrito paste recipe sounds truly one dimensional (says the woman with an entire 3-shelf cabinet filled to overflowing with spices) and a whole lotta overkill cooking-wise, but I'm kinda with them on the grind your own flour, homemade tortilla front--I made blue corn tortillas just last weekend and spelt tortillas on Wednesday. Not that I do it ALL the time but freshly ground flour and just made tortillas really do taste better, and it's neither time consuming nor especially difficult. I'm also a serious bread baking hobbyist and grinding my own flour was the next step in my baking education. I also make pasta and cheese from scratch--again, not all the time--and grind my own spices but it's a labor of love because I've made an idol of cooking because I enjoy it so much, not because it's a time filler or to prove how godly I am.

The Maxwells' cooking skills and food preferences seem to be just as unimaginative, uninspired, and repetitive as everything else in their lives.

[socalrules]

I understand spending days cooking for Christmas, Thanksgiving, a wedding or other special occasion. I just don't understand that much time on bean burritos. I understand that it makes enough to last awhile but it just seems like such a waste of time for such a boring food. I bet they don't even add the good stuff like sour cream, sauce and extra cheese. Why not soups, or stews or casseroles? A little variety is ok in the normal world. Everything they put out is always so bland. It is though they may sure to beat or puree the flavor out of all facets of life.

[knitwit]

Well, I'll have to remember that these are available on Kindle the next time I'm unable to sleep at 3 in the morning. I'm sure half a chapter would send me right off.

Seriously, the lack of anything interesting happening in these chapters is mind boggling. I know this is written for children, but that's really no excuse; there are children's books that are loved by adults as well, both on their own merits as well as because we read them in childhood. While I could see these being somewhat similar to the Little House series (I'm thinking mainly of Little House in the Big Woods here), in Little House things happen and characters have personality, and even when discussing the mundane things, Big Woods is interesting for its perspective on a certain time period and place. This is just...monotony.

And the dialogue just sounds so stilted. Seriously I have a hard time reading that exchange between Mitch and Dad Moody in the restaurant and actually imagining that coming out of a real person's mouth.

Sorry, Sarah, I'll stick with Avengers fanfiction. (And this is still tempting me to write an update of Snow White with a fundy girl as the heroine getting the fuck out...preferably with the help of a nice, young, non-fundie man which eventually leads to sexytimes.)

The more I see about these books and read Sarah's writing on the blog, the sadder it gets that she is in this little box and may or may not realize just how much else there is outside it.

[uber frau]

Seriously, the lack of anything interesting happening in these chapters is mind boggling. I know this is written for children, but that's really no excuse; there are children's books that are loved by adults as well, both on their own merits as well as because we read them in childhood. While I could see these being somewhat similar to the Little House series (I'm thinking mainly of Little House in the Big Woods here), in Little House things happen and characters have personality, and even when discussing the mundane things, Big Woods is interesting for its perspective on a certain time period and place. This is just...monotony...

One of the (many) things in life that pisses me off: Ppl who think that writing children's fiction can be done by just anyone. Just because most kid's books contain less words or a simpler story line doesn't mean they're less crafted than adult fiction. It takes serious skill to write a book that has engaging, well-formed characters and has something to say while being appropriate and approachable for children. And Sarah Maxwell is even more lacking in that skill than the average celebrity who decides to give writing for children a try. (That's not to say she is completely untalented. It's just we probably will never know; every ounce of potential those Maxwell kids ever had has been squashed out of them.)

[kpmom]

I understand spending days cooking for Christmas, Thanksgiving, a wedding or other special occasion. I just don't understand that much time on bean burritos. I understand that it makes enough to last awhile but it just seems like such a waste of time for such a boring food. I bet they don't even add the good stuff like sour cream, sauce and extra cheese. Why not soups, or stews or casseroles? A little variety is ok in the normal world. Everything they put out is always so bland. It is though they may sure to beat or puree the flavor out of all facets of life.

Exactly. There are all kinds of make ahead recipes they could freeze and eat on Sundays. Why only, ever burritos?

[WonderingInWA]

Exactly. There are all kinds of make ahead recipes they could freeze and eat on Sundays. Why only, ever burritos?

Because it's on the schedule.

[Justme]

They cannot make an idol out of food. If they enjoy it to much, it would be an idol.

[Handmaiden of Dog]

Because Steve has a mental illness? Because he has settled on bean burritos for Sunday and now that is the only thing he will eat?

[Handmaiden of Dog]

I wonder what the fall out would be if someone, Mary perhaps, decided to forgo the bean burritos and had a salad instead. Would there be (Max)hell to pay? Come to think of it how does Steve treat dissent in the ranks? There must be some slight disagreements sometime, some tiny rebellions when his family is not 100% behind his ideas. I'm sure he squashes that sort of thing instantly but how? Does he cry? Does he lash out? Does he give them a look that terrrorizes? Does he send them to their rooms without dinner? I would really love to know how he keeps his entire family in line at all times, jumping through his hoops.

[16strong]

I wonder what the fall out would be if someone, Mary perhaps, decided to forgo the bean burritos and had a salad instead. Would there be (Max)hell to pay? Come to think of it how does Steve treat dissent in the ranks? There must be some slight disagreements sometime, some tiny rebellions when his family is not 100% behind his ideas. I'm sure he squashes that sort of thing instantly but how? Does he cry? Does he lash out? Does he give them a look that terrrorizes? Does he send them to their rooms without dinner? I would really love to know how he keeps his entire family in line at all times, jumping through his hoops.

I think that by now, they are all robots, trained to do exactly as daddy says. I don't think they have a concept of anything other than strict obedience. I doubt any of those "children" could function without a strict daily routine. By this point, they would all be worse than useless in the real world. I think they are too programmed to ever escape and have any type of life outside the compound. :cry:

[slickcat79]

Because Steve has a mental illness? Because he has settled on bean burritos for Sunday and now that is the only thing he will eat?

He was the one who decided that there was NO DIFFERENCE between burritos with meat and without meat, so the whole family was going to go with beans only from then on :? I always wondered how that was possible, but I guess if everything is blended to baby food consistency, it really might all taste the same.

I'm actually amazed they use any jalepenos at all in the recipe.