Halfway to Goal #3

I started reading Anna Karenina back in December, and I just hit the halfway mark. I've been reading a lot of other things in between, mostly because I was intimidated by the more than 800 pages that make up #3. on my list. And because I usually have one novel and one nonfiction going simultaneously, I've pretty much just been reading nonfiction for the last three months (Peter Hessler's latest book about China, Gabrielle Hamilton's memoir, Sarah Vowell's book about Hawaii's annexation, and about half of the Best Writing on Mathematics 2010, among others).

A few weeks ago, though, I got totally obsessed with The Morning News's Tournament of Books, and my fiction reading list exploded. So I picked Anna Karenina back up in earnest, and instead of reading 10 or 20 pages at a time, I've been diving right in. And loving it! I don't know what took me so long to get into it, but when I got over how long it is and how "important" it is, I can't seem to put it down. I'm pretty sure the second half will take me way less than the four months that the first half took. :o)

In other updates, I made the most beautiful black & white cookies last weekend:

A few of them looked perfect, just like you'd see in a professional bakery. The rest...well, there were the vaguely football shaped:

And then there were the sadly disfigured:

But they were all delicious. As are the macaroons I made this afternoon. They're not very interesting to look at, but tasty and surprisingly easy. Almond paste, sugar, egg whites, and a little bit of salt. That's it!

So the count:

Cookies Made - 24

Recipes to Go - 130