Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

I think we everything to make a monthly special now!

Susan A wrote: "I think we everything to make a monthly special now!"

Woot!

I entered all of the qualifying foods into the spreadsheet. Now I'm going to binge the rest of my SH books and then move onto 500+ pg books and cram as many of those in as possible.

Susan A wrote: "I think we everything to make a monthly special now!"

I only found 5 of the 6 needed. Did I miss something? I found chicken, spices, rice, chili, tomato....

MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "I think we everything to make a monthly special now!"

I only found 5 of the 6 needed. Did I miss something? I found chicken, spices, rice, chili, tomato...."


◈ Fijian Chicken Curry (chicken, spice(s) (generic term or a specific type), tomato, coconut milk, chutney, roti, chilli, rice. Must contain chicken, spice(s) and rice. This dish has a minimum of 6 and maximum of 8 items.

So, we have the required items - chicken, spice and rice

The other 3 items just need to be items that make sense right?


So garlic would work. And peppers.

One of the books I have planned for the week has a ton of spices mentioned. We'll get 8 different ones from that book.

Susan A wrote: "MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "I think we everything to make a monthly special now!"

I only found 5 of the 6 needed. Did I miss something? I found chicken, spices, rice, chili, tomato...."


◈ Fi..."

I get it now. I have added it with 6 ingredients. When I googled it said potato so I added that. We can add more if we want to that or make another special. The book i'm reading now for sure has chicken and rice and we already have lots of spices we can use specifically instead of generic "spices"

MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "I think we everything to make a monthly special now!"

I only found 5 of the 6 needed. Did I miss something? I found chicken, spices, rice, chili, to..."

the one i posted had all the ingredients except chili i think.

also do i need to list them if they are mentioned multiple times? i didn't do that to begin with

Hayley wrote: "MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "I think we everything to make a monthly special now!"

I only found 5 of the 6 needed. Did I miss something? I found chicken, spices,..."

I think the harder to find ones we might want to list multiple times but based on the books we have done already I don't think we will be hurting for ingredients

I'm going to sort by Available and then Remaining and start using those ingredients with books over 300 pages.

The over 500 page books I'm going to concentrate on the drinks and desserts we find and use ingredients if we can't fill the other items. My 500 Page book should have about 10 drinks/desserts, outside of coffee and tea.

That sounds like a good plan.

I have a 500 pg book planned for this week. it has 12+ desserts/drinks but it also has 3 vinegar.

I probably won't have many 500+ books over the course of the challenge. I didn't find many I was interested in.

Susan A wrote: "That sounds like a good plan.

I have a 500 pg book planned for this week. it has 12+ desserts/drinks but it also has 3 vinegar.

I probably won't have many 500+ books over the course of the challe..."

The items from the 500 point books can be used at any time. So we can bank the Dessert and drinks for any round.

I'm checking on the items. so if we use 2 of the 3 vinegars in round 1, can we use the last in round 2?

I just finished Death on the Nile 352 pages -- so 8 spell or scavenger. I could not find 8 scavenger words, even including water, coffee and tea.

It has a milllion eligible characters, so it's good for spell out

I can spell PASTA and HAM with which would give us a complete pasta meal.

How do you want me to enter this? I can keep a a list of all the relevant letters in case you want to change it later, but I was thinking since this uses all 8, I'd just enter the relevant names. Do I put the character names in the same cells I'd use for foods?

Susan A wrote: "I just finished Death on the Nile 352 pages -- so 8 spell or scavenger. I could not find 8 scavenger words, even including water, coffee and tea.

It has a milllion eligible character..."

I hid the columns for author and character so I can unhide them or you can add them to the food area, which ever works best. Then make sure to change the one field to "Spell" instead of "Scavanger".

I can't seem to concentrate on a book to save my life. So, I've added a new tab to our planning spreadsheet with some choices of sandwiches and stuff to make. I looked at a few menus from my area for ideas.

okay...I cannot believe this. I don't recall ever reading a book about spices. But I have just started a book that is all about spices...so that will be 3 books for me this week in which spices is a theme. I didn't plan these books for this challenge. Weird coincidence. All 3 books are over 300 pages, so that's 24 spice items for sure. THey do have plenty of other food references as well.

What a week last week was. I just now sat down to add my book on this planning spreadsheet y'all talking about and I as coming up short. Found it now.

I really wish we had access to a bigger set of examples. The small sample doesn't help with all of my questions, and I'm not comfortable asking as many questions as I'd like.

MN Lisa -- your latest question -- is a burger a sandwich..the answer is answer is no. I was expecting the answer to be yes, which leads me to believe that I don't understand as well as I'd like -- that I can't just go with I think is the answer.

Anyway, this means we can stop tracking burgers right? They are just not useable. But, it was confirmed that fries can be used as potatoes. I was assuming they could, but some of my assumptions have been wrong so I'm happy to have that question answered.

Susan A wrote: "I really wish we had access to a bigger set of examples. The small sample doesn't help with all of my questions, and I'm not comfortable asking as many questions as I'd like.

MN Lisa -- your lates..."

Some of the questions I asked didn't get answers that I understood, so I'm just going with my gut.

We can stop tracking burgers, but we still might need the ingredients that are on the burgers. Like cheese, buns and tomato. That can help make sandwiches.

Maybe Vian can provide some assistance as they are the only ones that have played this before. Or we can just play as we think is right and see where that gets us.

Your question about wine --

I think it means if we find wine in a book 161-500 pages we can use it as an ingredient in fresh or frozen meals where appropriate.

wine in a book 160 or less pages, as an ingredient in fresh meals where appropriate.

Would toast be tracked as bread?

Steph wrote: "Would toast be tracked as bread?"

If fries = potatoes, then I would say toast (and roll) = bread

Susan A wrote: "Steph wrote: "Would toast be tracked as bread?"

If fries = potatoes, then I would say toast (and roll) = bread"

That was my thinking too. I'll change my notes then.

I did add a book to the overflow tab today.

Lisa, Hayley and Susan are we skipping this round of TART? I didn't know signups were up. I was messaged about joining another team but figured I'd check with you all before making a decision.

Steph wrote: "Lisa, Hayley and Susan are we skipping this round of TART? I didn't know signups were up. I was messaged about joining another team but figured I'd check with you all before making a decision."

I go with whatever the rest of the group wants for this round.

Susan A wrote: "Steph wrote: "Lisa, Hayley and Susan are we skipping this round of TART? I didn't know signups were up. I was messaged about joining another team but figured I'd check with you all before making a ..."
Me Too. Books we read for that would be able to be used for this too..... I was thinking about it, but whatever you all want. :)

I'm down to play if everyone else is!

Has anyone seen Hayley in other challenges or groups?

@Steph and @Susan: I'd do TART, but we need 4 and I haven't heard back from Hayley on the message I sent. Hope everything is ok.

I think Hayley is in Disney World this week

Susan A wrote: "I think Hayley is in Disney World this week"

Should we just assume she will say yes? Why does she always get to go on vacation? :)

MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "I think Hayley is in Disney World this week"

Should we just assume she will say yes? Why does she always get to go on vacation? :)"

It's probably easier to join the challenge now and cancel it if she's not interested, than it is to join late. I know she posted somewhere...let me see if can figure out if she will be back before the Amazing Race deadline.

Her vacation ends Sept 15

Amazing Race Info
Signups open until September 10, 2022 at 6 PM US EDT.
Remaining Teams Assigned after signups close on September 10, 2022.
First Task Assigned Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 6 PM US EDT.
Challenge Ends on Thursday, November 10, 2022 at Midnight US EDT,

I finished Assault and Pepper -- this book had 20 spices, multiple times and so many food items. I couldn't note it all it was just too much. However, if we are stuck on a item, I can go back and see if it is in the books.

There are 6 books in this series. If we get desperate, I'd be willing to listen to another one, but for now I'm going to cancel #2 from my TBR.

There was just so much food talk, and so many descriptions that went on and on.

I really want to like these cozy mysteries with the cute titles and covers...but on the whole I don't like them. Usually I just find the MC that is doing the investigation to be an annoying person who makes ridiculous decisions and seems to lack intelligence. I guess this is a requirement for this genre.

I messaged Kat about TART. She said we can sign up as our group of 4, but if for some reason Hayley says no, we can continue as a group of 3. Sound good?

MN Lisa wrote: "I messaged Kat about TART. She said we can sign up as our group of 4, but if for some reason Hayley says no, we can continue as a group of 3. Sound good?"

Sure...just we're not in to win? I have another challenge I'm already committed to...those books would have to come first.

Susan A wrote: "MN Lisa wrote: "I messaged Kat about TART. She said we can sign up as our group of 4, but if for some reason Hayley says no, we can continue as a group of 3. Sound good?"

Sure...just we're not in ..."

Just not be last. That's my motto

Sounds good!

MN Lisa wrote: "I messaged Kat about TART. She said we can sign up as our group of 4, but if for some reason Hayley says no, we can continue as a group of 3. Sound good?"

That works for me too! :)

That sounds good to me too.

I'm back! Labor Day is always a crazy weekend that rolls into the week, and the holiday + unexpected work stuff made this a longer away than I thought it would be.

I should be back. I just added my book Under the Rainbow and a bunch of ingredients. I'm also working on my audiobook.

I'm going to scroll back up the thread and catch up. I can also start putting some meals together with what we have on the planning page.

I added 3 books to the spreadsheet. I have another one to add but I started tracking pages instead of actual food items. It'll take me a while to go back in. I also have a couple 500+ page books (including one that gave me MAJOR ick from earlier this year but I think I remember it having a bunch of drinks and deserts in it so for the game I'll reread it) I'm trying to work in. Just need to finish the last month of SH before I can dive into those.

Vian wrote: "I'm back! Labor Day is always a crazy weekend that rolls into the week, and the holiday + unexpected work stuff made this a longer away than I thought it would be.

I should be back. I just added m..."

Great. Let us know if we should change our process at all. :) Welcome Back!

I just read a book that had absolutely no specific food in it. They ate Pizza or went out to dinner. I'm shocked. They had lots of booze, but the book was too short to use.

MN Lisa wrote: "I just read a book that had absolutely no specific food in it. They ate Pizza or went out to dinner. I'm shocked. They had lots of booze, but the book was too short to use."

I was really surprised that I had to use spell out Death on the Nile. I couldn't find 8 things including water and tea.

I just finished a mini challenge - -20 books in 48 hours. I just couldn't keep track of the food items or the character names. Most of the books were in the 161-300, with 1 over 300. Since we currently have over 50 books on the sheet, I plan to add only a few of these books to our sheet.

However, if we are stuck for an item or a letter, I can definitely go back and check.

Lisa -- do you want help making meals? It seems like too much work for one person and too much work to wait until the end of the month.

Susan A wrote: "Lisa -- do you want help making meals? It seems like too much work for one person and too much work to wait until the end of the month."

I probably do need help making meals, but I thought Vian, who has done this challenge before, was going to help. I was going to start on Thursday since we will probably have 60 books by then, starting with the highest page count books.

Susan A wrote: "I just finished a mini challenge - -20 books in 48 hours. I just couldn't keep track of the food items or the character names. Most of the books were in the 161-300, with 1 over 300. Since we curre..."

I think this is a fair plan.

There are hella characters in a couple books I've put on the spreadsheet. If y'all would rather use them for spell let me know and I'll get a list of characters.

MN Lisa wrote: "Susan A wrote: "Lisa -- do you want help making meals? It seems like too much work for one person and too much work to wait until the end of the month."

I probably do need help making meals, but I..."

Sounds good. Let me if this changes. My kids are all back in school, my oldest surviving as a first year teacher so far, and husband is away on business for two weeks, so I have lots of free time during the day.