Tag Archives: fun

We Heart MN: Hotdish!

In this series, we’ll pick some of our favorite things about Minnesota and share some related book suggestions. (We’re open to your suggestions! Comment below or email us and tell us some of your favorite MN things!) 

Favorite MN thing: Hotdish! 
Whether you like to make it, eat it, or had never heard of it before coming to Minnesota, hotdish is a yummy part of being a  Minnesotan!

Hotdish Haiku: 50 Haiku, 30 Hotdish Recipes by Pat Dennis “Get this marvelous collection of 50 haiku that honor hotdish. As a bonus, the book includes 30 oriental-style hotdish recipes including Seven Samurai Five Can Hotdish, Mama San(derson) Hotdish and Buddhist Temple Basement Hotdish.”

 

Hotdish Heaven by Jeanne Cooney
Cub reporter Emerald Malloy is assigned to gather “church food” recipes from the owner of Hot Dish Heaven, a cafe in a small town in the Red River Valley. Upon her arrival, she learns of a local, unsolved murder. Confident that solving the case will catapult her from newspaper “gopher” to investigative reporter, she questions the locals while attending a benefit dinner-dance at the VFW. By the end of the night, she’s consumed lots of hotdish and bars while talking to everyone from the Irish, Catholic priest who lives among these Scandinavian, Lutheran farmers to the cafe owner’s eccentric aunts. She’s also met a hunky deputy sheriff and learned some tough lessons about herself. But the question remains, “Will she live long enough for any of it to matter?”

The Great Minnesota Hot Dish by Theresa Millang “Called casseroles in most parts of the country, the Minnesota hot dish really does come in more varieties than noodles, tuna and crushed potato chips. This best-selling cookbook will teach anyone how to master the one-dish-complete-meal system.”

 

Join CMLE’s online book groups in November!

We’ve got some great book picks for you this month in our groups on Goodreads, and hope you read along with us!

For our group CMLE Librarian Professionals, we will be reading Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy.

“Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.”

 

For our group CMLE Librarians Enjoying Books, we will be investigation the creepy myth of Vlad to Impaler by reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

 “What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed—and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe.”

Join us in learning and enjoying books! 🙂

Are you or your students/patrons doing NaNoWriMo?

Welcome to November! You survived Halloween and hopefully enjoyed some good treats or fun scares, if you like that sort of thing!(if you missed our Books and Beverages episode all about the genre of Horror, listen now!) If you are looking for an exciting and creative project to work on this month, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) may be for you!

What is NaNoWriMo? I first heard about it while reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, when she read the book No Plot, No Problem and was motivated to write a novel, (meaning 50,000 words) in thirty days. It’s really that simple!

From the NaNoWriMo website: “On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.”


I definitely recommend getting (or borrowing from your local library!) a copy of No Plot, No Problem to be your guidebook during this month of excitement, but of course there are tons of other resources available out there to help keep your creativity flowing!

And of course, a wonderful place to do your writing or connect with other participants is your local library! Great River Regional Library is hosting events at several of its branches.

If you, your students, or your patrons are taking part in this month long activity, let us know! We’d love to hear about your novel-writing adventures! 

Weekly Holiday Series: Reading, Literacy, and Bears

This week we have several important holidays for the library world!

This should probably be one of the major holidays in the library year of celebration: National Read a Book Day!! This year it falls on Wednesday, September 6. Orville, the Official Office Bear, is a fan of celebrating.

“Reading improves memory and concentration as well as reduces stress.   Older adults who spend time reading show a slower cognitive decline and tend to participate in more mentally stimulating activities over their lifetime.  Books are an inexpensive entertainment, education and time machine, too!

How To Observe: Sit back, relax and read a book.  Use #ReadABookDay to post on social media.”

Everyone join in on this holiday, and share it with your community!

 

September 8 is International Literacy Day! This is the 50th anniversary of the holiday from UNESCO.  “This year marks the 50th anniversary of International Literacy Day and UNESCO is celebrating it under the banner “Reading the Past, Writing the Future”. International Literacy Day 2016 celebrates and honours the past five decades of national and international engagement, efforts and progress made to increase literacy rates around the world. It also addresses current challenges and looks to innovative solutions to further boost literacy in the future.”

And our final holiday of the week is September 9: Teddy Bear Day! Clearly this is a day of significance to Orville! As our Official Office Bear, he has many important duties to fulfill, including greeting guests, working with Office Dog Lady Grey at CMLE office hours (every even-numbered Wednesday, from 11:00 to 1:00), and serving as our podcast mascot and logo! Does your library have teddy bears? Feel free to send us photos to  post to social media!

Weekly Holiday: National Peach Pie Day!

We love holidays here  at CMLE – and this week we are celebrating a fun one: National Peach Pie Day!

You can see Orville, the Official Office Bear for CMLE enjoying his own slice of peach pie! (Traditionally bears like honey, as we learned from Pooh; but you can definitely bake honey into your peach pie!)

 

 

 

Want to bake your own peach pie? There are lots of fun recipes to try! (And we encourage you to bring them to CMLE HQ to sample!)

Part of why I love peach pie in the summer time is that as a kid I attended the Cobden Peach Festival! If you have not heard of this festival, it’s not surprising. Cobden is a small town in Southern Illinois. They are famous for their apple and peach orchards, producing some great-tasting fruit! (They are also famous for their high school team, the Appleknockers, going all the way to the boy’s state basketball championships in 1964. Small towns always remember great stuff like this!!)

This year was the 80th anniversary celebration of the Festival, and while we are all probably disappointed we missed it, the photos live on! And it looks like a good time was had by all.

You can bring the fun of the Peach Festival to your end-of-summer celebrations, and let the spirit of the ’64 Appleknocker team inspire you to greatness, by making a peach pie yourself this week!We definitely encourage you to try something fun, and pie is always fun thing.

As library people, we are good at trying new things, and sharing information of all sorts – and food is one good way to share with others! Send us a photo of your pie!