This week we are joined by author (and literary festival director) Jael Richardson to reframe all things kid lit! We talk about competition, faith, families, self-acceptance in our forties and, of course, books.
Jael is the author of the YA hit Gutter Child and the memoir The Stone Thrower, which was so popular it was eventually reformatted as a children's picture book. Her most recent book for kids is Because You Are. She is also the executive director of two literary festivals: The FOLD, and The FOLD Kids, which celebrate diverse authors and storytellers. These festivals are changing the literary landscape in Canada for the better.
Links:
The Stone Thrower (and the illustrated version with pictures by Matt James)
Gutter Child
Because You Are
The FOLD
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
The Break and The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
For more from Jael, check out her website and give her a follow on Twitter and Instagram
Easy Comfort Food Salad Dressing
After a long week filled with a few challenging professional encounters and too much of my son’s Halloween candy, I am turning to my ultimate comfort food for some internal care: Salad! Below you’ll find my ultimate salad dressing in five easy steps. It’s been vetted as “delish!” by Bec - who I have served salad to a few times this week. There are some amazing dressings out there that I love but many have a long list of ingredients and require tools like knives, blenders, aka emotional energy!! My dressing is the one you make when you’re done with complicated and simple is where it’s at! All you need = good salad tongs!
Ingredients:
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Dijon mustard
Salt & pepper
How to:
My quantities here are for two hungry sisters. Adjust accordingly! I make this dressing by starting with lettuce (often Romaine but I did one salad this week with Red Leaf lettuce) and maybe some chopped green or red onion in a large bowl. The rest of my salad ingredients I’ll add AFTER I toss the dressing in with the lettuce.
I swirl a tbsp. of olive oil and then two tsps. of Balsamic vinegar atop the chopped lettuce. Then I squirt about a tsp of Dijon mustard into the bowl. I crack some salt and pepper in there and then, using my favourite salad tongs, the salad tossing begins! Once the lettuce looks glossy and coated I’ll add more ingredients (golden beets, goat cheese, pumpkin seeds is a great combo) and then give one more gentle turn in the bowl to combine.
It’s important that you DON’T add those secondary ingredients for the first vigorous toss because they’ll all end up at the bottom and - if you’re working with soft goat cheese, for example - things can get mushy.
Simple, one bowl, limited effort. Enjoy!
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