"It's Kind of a Funny Story" and Baked Chicken Nuggets

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Ned Vizzini

Craig Gilner accomplished his life goal by getting into the most prestigious high school he could, Manhattan Executive Pre-Professional High School. Impressive! How did he do this? By spending his middle school years (or at least the last year) doing nothing but studying for the entrance exam. By giving up friends, extra-curricular activities, hobbies—everything that would distract him from his goal. Now that he's in high school, Craig feels inadequate and ill prepared, like he got in by mistake. He falls behind in classes, which makes him worry about not only classes, but his entire future. College...job...lifestyle... All this anxiety leads to an on-going depression that leads to Craig calling the suicide hotline one night and (somewhat accidentally) checking himself into the adult psychiatric ward of the nearest hospital.

Despite having given up everything important or interesting in order to study flashcards, Craig is a likable character who realizes that, although he's depressed, he actually has a pretty good life. His family loves him, he has a home in a good neighborhood, plenty of food (when he can manage to eat it), etc. Craig reaches out to others and tries to help them as he can, and accepts help when it is offered.

“It's Kind of a Funny Story” is the perfect title for this book—there are plenty of humorous and touching moments, but ultimately, it's only kind of funny because it not only focuses on Craig's depression, it points out that depression is a disturbingly wide-spread problem. Craig isn't the only one in his peer group who suffers. He gradually realizes that possibly a majority of his acquaintances see a therapist or take medication.

As I alluded to earlier, Craig has difficulty eating. He throws up a lot when he does manage to get food down, and other times he can't even do that. However, he gets pretty excited when he realizes that the hospital serves the two foods he can usually manage to eat: chicken nuggets and broccoli. So, for my “It's Kind of a Funny Story”-themed meal, I made baked chicken nuggets with homemade honey mustard and steamed broccoli. I won't include a recipe for steamed broccoli because I didn't do anything fancy (Well, here it is: boil water, put broccoli in a steamer, and let steam over boiling water 6 minutes, or however long you like. Eat with salt and pepper.) The chicken nuggets are more flavorful than what I imagine you'd get in a hospital, but...if you want to be really authentic, you can just buy a bag of frozen nuggets. These ones are actually really delicious, fairly healthy and very simple.

Baked Chicken Nuggets 

Original Recipe Here

1.15 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders, cut into 1 1/2” chunks

1 c. seasoned bread crumbs

½ c. grated Parmesan cheese (the really fine, shakable stuff!)

1 tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Dried basil

A few shakes of poultry seasoning

½ c. butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Mix bread crumbs, cheese and seasonings in a small bowl. (I only ended up using about half the mixture, so I recommend setting aside half. That way, you won't get raw chicken all over the whole mix, and can use the leftovers another day!)
3. One by one, coat chicken pieces in melted butter, then coat in bread crumb mixture. Lay on lightly-greased baking sheet.
4. Once all of the chicken pieces have been coated, bake for about 20 min.

Homemade Honey Mustard 

Original Recipe by Martha Stewart

Whisk together:

¼ c. Dijon mustard (I used Grey Poupon country-style.)

3 Tbsp. Melted butter (because the butter starts out melted, it can get chunky after awhile. But my

husband said it still looked okay to him!)

2 Tbsp. Honey (I used agave because we were out of honey—still good!)

1 tsp. Apple cider vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Welcome and Introduction to "Scarlet" by Marissa Meyer

Welcome to BiblioNibbles, a books-and-food blog. Here you will find brief book reviews followed by recipes mentioned in or inspired by the books. This blog will highlight books from multiple genres, so be ready for anything! 

Scarlet 

by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet is the second book of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, a series that mixes classic fairy tales with science fiction. Start with book one, of course (Cinder), but this blog wasn't on my radar when I listened to it a couple weeks ago.

Scarlet is a French farmer/produce supplier whose grandmother is missing. Receiving no help from the authorities, Scarlet decides to find her grandmother herself with the help of Wolf, a mysterious fighter who is somehow connected with her grandmother's disappearance.

The best thing about Scarlet is how the reader, even knowing the plot of Little Red Riding Hood, is drawn to trust Wolf. He has a shady past, and we all know better than to trust the wolf, but...Wolf is appealing. The reader wants to trust him. Scarlet struggles with this question, too. She is no dummy and can take care of herself—unlike the original Little Red. Nevertheless, her decision to trust Wolf creates a lot of nail-biting tension! 

Link to Cinder  on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cinder-Book-One-Lunar-Chronicles/dp/1250007208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453833425&sr=8-1&keywords=cinder

Link to Scarlet on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Lunar-Chronicles-Book-The/dp/1250007216/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0E6PS1611RCREYWVHST0

Simple French Tomato Tart

No one eats a tomato tart in Scarlet, but I believe it is an appropriate accompaniment. This recipe is adapted from David Lebowitz's French Tomato Tart, found here: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/05/french-tomato-tart-recipe/

In addition to being French, this recipe is fitting because Scarlet first meets Wolf while delivering produce. Bullied into doing a little waitress work while waiting, Scarlet busses Wolf's table and teases him for removing the tomatoes from his sandwich. Wolf has never eaten tomatoes—doesn't hardly know what they are. Scarlet cajoles Wolf into trying them (she did, after all, grow them herself), and they are a hit.

I cut out the most time-consuming part of the original recipe—the homemade crust. Feel free to make your own crust, but if you use a store-bought crust, the tart only takes about seven minutes to throw together(!). Very simple—my husband says that it would probably be good with the addition of anchovies or olives.

Finally, it is the middle of January—and I can only imagine how much better this would be in the summer with some farm-fresh tomatoes, herbs and goat cheese. But you can always play around with it now, figure out what you like best, and—when the farmer's markets open up again—you'll be all set to make your ideal Simple French Tomato Tart.

Simple French Tomato Tart

Ingredients (enough for two):

1box (contains 2) Pillsbury pie crusts

Dijon Mustard

4 small tomatoes

8 oz fresh goat cheese

olive oil

Herbs to taste (I used fresh chives, tarragon and a hint of oregano)

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Unroll pie crusts and lay out on baking sheet.

2.Spread a generous layer of mustard over the crust, stopping about 1 ½ -2” from the edge.

3. Slice tomatoes and arrange to cover mustard. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle half of your herbs on top.

4. Slice goat cheese into rounds and place on top of tomatoes. Sprinkle with remaining herbs. 

 5. Pinch the edges of the crusts so that they overlap the very edge of the toppings and will stay in place as it bakes.

6. Place tarts in oven and bake for 25-30 min, until cheese starts to brown. Let cool briefly before serving.