"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

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes and Olive Oil Gelato

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes
by Maureen Johnson

I am much more excited about this recipe than I am about the accompanying book, but I'll stick to form and start with the book anyway. It may just be me, but I couldn't suspend imagination enough to really enjoy “Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes.” The protagonist, 17-year-old Ginny, gets sent on an unchaperoned European tour by a recently deceased aunt. Moreover, she is not supposed to contact anyone from back home. I don't remember a single instance in which she calls her parents to let them know she's okay. (Maybe she does—I listened to the audio book and can't go back to check!) She does “break the rules” and message her best friend via the internet, but...that's it. Add to this the fact that Ginny seems basically clueless, and it's a wonder that everything turns out as well for her as it does.The whole time, all I could think was “What the heck was this aunt thinking?!?”

What I did enjoy about the book, though, was that it lets the reader take their own European tour. From exploring Harrods in London, to the house of the vestal virgins in Rome, to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, this book would be a fun resource for anyone seeking to become a little more familiar with some of the more famous sights of Europe, or for a middle-to-high school student preparing for a trip. I've been to Europe a few times (England, Italy and Holland), and it brought back good memories in addition to bringing some other sights and cultural events to my attention.

In conclusion, “Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes” was both fun and slightly cringe-worthy (but I'm getting old).

Now, this olive oil gelato is purely delicious. I found the recipe on Food 52 and was a little suspicious because it uses water and no cream. But then I read the author's notes, which said that she had had similar reservations when she first encountered the recipe. These were put to rest as soon as she tasted the end product. So I stuck with this recipe because it only uses six ingredients, including the water. AND IT WAS AMAZING! So creamy! So unique! I would love to make it again with different varieties and even flavors of olive oil. The only downside is that this recipe makes a very small batch. I just made it last night and, three small ramekins later, it is all gone. :( 

I chose to pair gelato with this book because, out of all the delicious foods Ginny eats in all of the fascinating places she visits, I most felt like making gelato. Ginny eats gelato for the first time in Rome. Overwhelmed by all the flavor options, she goes for the easy choice of strawberry. But it's not strawberry season, and I wanted to try something new. So here it is! 

Link to the book on amazon: Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes

Olive Oil Gelato

3/4 c. coconut sugar (this is what I used, but it does turn the gelato light brown. The original recipe

           calls for regular sugar)

1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. water

3/4 c. whole milk

Large pinch salt

4 egg yolks

4-6 Tbsp. olive oil 

1. Make sure you have pre-frozen the bowl for your ice cream maker! 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy. 

3. In a medium saucepan, heat sugar, water, milk and salt over medium heat until just before it 

     simmers. 

4. Pour the warm mixture slowly into the eggs, whisking the whole time. Pour that mixture back into 

     the saucepan, and return to heat. Heat until the mixture begins to thicken, about 185 degrees. 

5. Remove from heat and pour into an airtight container. Cover and refrigerate several hours. 

6. Pour the chilled mixture into your ice cream maker, and churn/freeze as directed by the machine. 

7. Enjoy immediately, or freeze. 

Here is the link to the original recipe: Olive Oil Gelato