Life in August

View from my window including flowers that friends brought me.
I enjoy the view but I am not yet going out of the house.

In My Kitchen: August 2025

It’s been a difficult month as I started it with a major medical procedure and I am still recovering. All the cooking in my kitchen was done by Len, Evelyn, Tom, and Alice. Obviously this means we ate many delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. And although I am getting better, I still don’t have the strength to comment on other blogs. I have enjoyed some of the posts by Deb Nance and a few others. I’ll be back!

One example of Len’s great cooking: French toast on the griddle.

Dinner: French toast, sautéed apples and nectarines, maple syrup.

Tomato-Basil-Feta-Prosciutto Salad.

Meatball Dinner

Peaches in Season

Our neighbor Mary brought us a beautiful basket of peaches from South Haven, MI.
We love peaches!

Evelyn and Tom were at Costco while Mary was bringing us the peaches.
We lived up to the challenge: not one peach wasted!

Peach Cobbler

Peach jam

 

Late-August Reading

All the gods became very modern for this detailed story.
Nice book but it should be half as long!

The plot of this book is based on real events that took place in Ann Arbor years ago.
The author is a good writer but not very good at inventing a plot.

Reading now: Katabasis, brand new novel from R.F.Kuang.
After 100 pages: disappointed.
UPDATE: After 200 pages bored. Gave up.

Photos by Len and Alice

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Happy Birthday, Len

 

Visiting family brought take-out from Satchel's BBQ!

A cake from Tous les Jours, a bakery that is now a favorite.
“Mango Cloud Cake.”

Happy Birthday!

I’ll be back to reading blogs soon…

Photos by Alice © 2025.

Recently

A walk along Mill Creek in Dexter, Michigan, around 10 miles from Ann Arbor.

Ice cream at the Dexter Creamery.

Sunday lunch at Bao Space in Downtown Ann Arbor.
Sesame balls are a treat! Filled with mochi and a dab of red bean paste.

An egret and ducks at the Botanical Gardens.

A turtle on a log in the Huron River at Gallup Park.

Turkish Pida at Carol’s house.

Photos © mae sander 2025

 

July Reading

Back home in my garden 

While we were on the ship in the Mediterranean in July, I didn’t have time or energy to read. We were busy seeing ancient ruins, modern villages, beautiful island scenery, and just watching the water. Long plane trips are a good time to read, though on the two 9-hour trips between Boston and Athens, I mainly slept — one book each way including airport time! 

Since we returned, I have read a few books — especially my chosen follow-up to the trip, which was to read Homer’s Odyssey. Here are the books I’ve read recently.

Airplane Reading

Gary Shteyngart’s latest book, Vera, or Faith is different from his earlier books.
Vera is a ten-year-old girl with some symptoms of Asberger’s like flapping her hands,
and being very very intelligent, perceptive, and socially uncomfortable.
But there’s no medical theme, you have to diagnose her as you read. She’s a person. Good book!

During the trip I read two detective novels by Anthony Horowitz.
I’ve enjoyed the Susan Ryland dramatizations, as well as the third, newest one in the series.
I also liked one with another detective at the center. I suspect I’ll read more.

After the Voyage

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s horror novels are (oddly) relatable.
I think I like the others better than The Bewitching: it’s too conventionally a horror tale,
with evil monsters and a naive smart girl to defeat them. It was just published.

When we came back, I wanted to read a book about traveling around the Mediterranean.
Odysseus was in a slightly different area, on the other side of Greece,
but nevertheless I found many of Homer’s descriptions very easy to picture, based on experience.
Notice that I read my old, dog-eared version of this ancient classic.

Detective Tom Janssen is entirely new to me.
I enjoyed One Lost Soul by J.M.Dalgliesh. It even has some pretty good food scenes.

Before the Voyage

Autocorrect: Stories by Etgar Keret is an interesting book by the Israeli author.
I read it and a couple others before we left, and I reviewed it July 9.

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

In My Kitchen in July

Not Much Cooking!

New Utensils

Olive-wood servers from Turkey and a new basting brush.
The only new gadgets in my kitchen in July.

New Magnets 

I removed many magnets to make room for my new ones.

New magnets from Greece and Turkey.
You can see what I found: mainly images of birds, especially owls.
You can also see that my little plant survived my absence.

A Few Meals Before the Big Trip

Cheese toasts.

Cabbage salad.

Pre-dinner July 4 snacks

Barbecue.

Summer fruit salad.

The Ship's Kitchen

The door to the ship’s kitchen.

“My kitchen” this July means not only the kitchen where I live in Ann Arbor, but also the kitchen of the National Geographic/Lindblad Orion where we spent 10 days while visiting Greek islands in the Mediterranean and three ancient sites in Turkey.

A peek down the stairs towards the extensive storage areas for food and equipment.

Just before breakfast: the waiters would bring the food from the kitchen up to the dining area on the rear deck.

What Kitchen Did this Come From?

Not-bad airline meal while flying home.

Not Food: Toadstools

Life follows art. A ceramic toadstool surrounded by live ones.
(Do not eat this!)

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Shared with Sherry’s In My Kitchen for July