Book Club Recipe – T.S. Spivet’s Honey Nut Cheerios Bars

Poor T.S. Spivet – his brother died, his Father doesn’t understand him, his mother is self-absorbed.  I wish I could make it better for him – give him a cookie and a hug to make everything alright again.  His favorite food is Honey Nut Cheerios with which he says he has an almost “philosophical obsession”:

            “A dry bowl of cereal has a way of calling you.  I doused the Cheerios with milk and dove headlong into the delicious world of tiny crunchy doughnuts.  When I was done, I performed my favorite part of the ritual: the drinking of the leftover milk that had become lightly infused with sweet strains of honey, as if a magical honey cow had dispensed her milk right into my bowl.”        

-          from The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet

T.S. made me think about how I haven’t made any homemade goodies for my kids in a while (I think the last treat I made was at Christmas).  In order to feel I’m at least a smidge more nurturing than Dr. Clair, I decided to make some tasty (and easy) Honey Nut Cheerio Bars.  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

½ cup honey (or Karo syrup if you don’t mind corn syrup)

½ cup sugar

½ cup peanut butter (if you use crunchy, you can omit the almonds)

½ cup almonds

5 cups Honey Nut Cheerios

Grease a 13 x 9” pan with cooking spray or butter.  (I line my pan with foil, then spray it with cooking spray).  Put honey and sugar into a large saucepan, stirring and bringing to a boil.  Add peanut butter, and stir until melted.  Remove from heat.  Pour in HN Cheerios and almonds, and stir until the nuts and cereal are completely coated.  Spoon mixture into greased pan, patting it down until nice and even.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes.  Cut into bars.  (If you used a foil liner, lift foil out of pan and cut.  The foil method makes for cleaner and easier cutting.)

Serve to kids (or your book club) alongside a large glass of cold milk so they get that yummy magical honey cow taste.

What to Read? Part 1: The Literary Love Affair

So how to decide what to read next?  I always get excited about new releases, but when faced with the multitude of captivating covers and compelling blurbs – all at hardcover prices – I find myself paralyzed.  How to choose?  Frustrated, I browse a while, and my thoughts turn to all the unread books on my shelves, many of them classics I have the best intentions of reading and don’t, or the books my sister/mother/friend handed me with a overly enthusiastic and dubious testimony of their greatness.  Then there is the stack of reading I checked out from the slim pickin’s at my small town library, but I take them for granted because they are somewhat passé, or because they were free, or because I can always renew them if I don’t get around to them.

            I would argue that the reason most people don’t read (or don’t read more) is because the choices are too many, not too few.  When a book requires a commitment of time (and quiet space), we become stingy.  We don’t want to waste one minute on a book that tortures rather than titillates, erodes us rather than edifies, bores us rather than brightens us. 

We seem to forget that we can always put a book down if it displeases us, but it’s sort of like a bad first date or a disappointing relationship – we've invested in this book.  We asked around about it, reading reviews and taking tips from friends.  We spent a good while in bookstores looking at covers to see which were the hottest.  We read back cover blurbs like so much small talk…and then it happened.  We thought we found “the one”.  We “took it out”, forking over our money so we could get to know this book better.  When we got a chapter or two into the date, we began to suspect we made a mistake.  We kept reading, hoping the date would get better, but it didn’t. 

Book Phantom’s Ten Commandments for the Reading Life

1. Thou shalt commit thyself to the Reading Life.  Start now.  It’s easy.  Buy books, get a library card, put your butt in the chair and read the dusty volumes you already have but haven’t read.  Set goals to complete a target number of books each week, month, or year.  To help you stay committed, join Shelfari, a website where readers list books they’ve read, are reading, and want to read.  Shelfari tracks the number of books you’ve read during the year and tells you whether you are ahead or behind your pace compared with previous years.  It offers book synopses and reviews, and you can rate and review your own books, recommend books to friends, and join online book discussions.
2. Thou shalt put reading before all other diversions.  What I mean is, turn off that damn T.V.!  It’s not that television and other trivial amusements (PlayStation, Tweeting, mindless Internet surfing, porn, *ahem* blogging) don’t have a place in our lives – these just need to come after books if you are to embrace the Reading Life.
3. Thou shalt not idolize classics, best sellers, or prize winning works.  In other words, there is no place for literary snobbery in the Reading Life.  Canadian playwright Robertson Davies said, “Do not suppose…that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work. I have known people who have actually read all, or almost all, the guaranteed Hundred Best Books. God save us from reading nothing but the best.”  Wise words, eh?  Read anything and everything that interests you – graphic novels, tawdry romances, tell-all bios, children’s books, barbarian fantasies, trendy diet books…anything goes.