The Wilder Life report

This month we met at Heather's house and discussed The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure.

Only one person finished the book, though about half of the group seemed to be enjoying it alright.  The other half found it annoying.  Generally the split did seem to be between folks who felt passion for the Little House Books, and those who did not.  The author was clearly obsessed, and a children's book editor herself, which for those of us familiar with the series found reasonably interesting.

But admittedly, this definitely did not have the feel of a well plotted researched non-fiction book, but rather a blog that got published.  And frankly, as a group, we are getting a bit tired of this trend. Also, the lack of recipes was disappointing, (but easily explained by the fact the author used the Little House Cookbook, as some of us did).

Heather hosted and made a tasty variety of treats for our meal including meatloaf with spicy bbq sauce, smoked oysters and crackers, mashed potatoes, and a yummy cabbage dish.

Dawn cooked Almanzo Wilder's favorite Fried Apples N Onions.

 




Laura made biscuits and cranberry jelly from the Little House Cookbook.

 

Katie W. made delicious apple dumplings with ice cream (which I apparently did not photograph).




 

Katie S. made Ox Tails with Browned Flour Gravy  (Liza Lou loved the leftover bones...thanks Katie!)

Next month we will be back at the church, and discussing Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton.  Sno-Isle Libraries doesn't have a ton of copies.  There are two copies of it on cd available, two downloadable audiobooks, and seven copies of the downloadable ebook, but no paper copies free right now.  If you want to buy it, you can get one pretty cheap on half.com, too.

Looking forward to discussing this with you on Wednesday April 10, 2013 at 6:30pm!