My obsession with baked potatoes continues… This week it just happens to be sweet potatoes. Specifically, Tex-Mex Sweet Potatoes with beans and corn and jalapenos! I also realized that I never posted my May reading round-up, so I’ve added it down at the bottom, if you’re interested.

But first we’re gonna talk taters! Baked potatoes are so comforting and healthy and delicious and you get to decide how simple or complicated the toppings are. Here, for example, I went with:

1. A sweet potato, microwaved for about 5 minutes
2. Half a can of “chili seasoned” black beans
3. A heaping half cup of sweet corn, and
4. One jalapeno
5. Salt

Truly, that’s all that’s in there! You could make a bit more decadent, sure, by adding some vegan butter or cheese, but I was like eh, why bother? 

This potato was perfect in it’s simplicity, so why mess with a good thing?

There’s seriously no actual recipe for this one. Bake your potato (or be lazy like me and probably die someday of microwave-induced brain tumors, it’s your call), heat your beans and corn, and dice up some jalapenos. If you’re using the chili beans, the only seasoning you’ll really need is a little salt. If your beans aren’t seasoned already, I’d go with cumin and chili powder and salt and maybe a little garlic! 

I didn’t read a ton in April, but here they are!

• Loving Frank by Nancy Horan … I’m a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, and of his love story with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. There’s just something about star-crossed lovers that always gets me! I had read this book years and years ago, maybe when it first came out. It’s very sad. This time around it really made me wonder what the universe was up to with them. I don’t want to give away the ending… but it’s dark. 
• Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer …  This book was okay but I just didn’t love it the way I usually love his books. Very sad story though! Especially the fact that he was doubling back to save his own brother when he was shot!
• The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game by Mary Pilon … This was a great book! It’s not surprising that the board game business (being just that… a business) is a patriarchy, but I was surprised by the lengths these men went to screw over the woman who actually created the game – to steal the fame and money. It was maddening, but a great read.
• The People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry … I read a post of Jezebel’s Fly Girl about Tokyo’s sex industry, and the writer mentioned Lucie Blackman. A commentor pointed to this book as a great way to read more, which I did. She was a young British woman who moved to Tokyo with a friend to make some easy money being a hostess (basically a modern day geisha, not a prostitute) and was murdered. This book is the story of her life and the investigation and trial that followed. As someone who moved away at that same age and also made some questionable choices, I found the story very touching. 
• Gray Mountain by John Grisham … Living in an energy-producing state is great and all, but after reading this I’m really glad I don’t live in a state with mountain top removal. This was a pretty good book, although I didn’t much care for the end. If you like Grisham though, it’s a good sort of mindless read. 
• Stuffocation by James Wallman … Didn’t get to read it, bummer! It came available from the library at the exact same time as 3 other books and I just ran out of time. Maybe it’ll show up on the list again later in the year…
• The Murder of Marilyn Monroe: Cased Closed by Jay Margolis … Worst. Book. Ever. Don’t read. Awful. Blech.

Books for May 2015

• Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pamela Smith Hill … I am BEYOND excited to read this book. I’ve been withering away on the library waitlist for what feels like YEARS, but finally it’s in my grubby little hands 🙂 
• Revival by Stephen King … Yes. More mass market fiction. Stop looking at me that way! 
• Fingersmith by Sara Waters … After reading The Paying Guests a few months back, I’m excited to read more by Waters. This one is about a young girl, raised by thieves (“fingersmiths”) who takes off on a plot to rob one innocent victim blind. I’m guessing her morality stops her? 
• Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own by Kate Bolick … Ahh the pitfalls of being a single woman over 30. Being asked when you’re finally going to get married is sort of like us vegans being asked where we get our protein from. Ugh. This book has already raised quite a few hackles in the literary community, so I’m curious to see what all the fuss is about! 

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