THE BOOK:

The transformation that this woman underwent is astounding. Raised in a survivalist household, pretty much off the grid, the circumstances of her childhood were sometimes brutal, both in the physical environment and the way in which her parents raised their children. In addition, both of her parents were Mormons, but the type that strictly adhered to the Bible, which caused them to be outsiders, even in their own church community. Being a child, and never knowing anything different, Tara grew up sharing her parents’ beliefs. When one of her brothers left to go to college, Tara became interested in the things he was learning. He encouraged her to seek an education for herself. That was the good brother. There was another brother I seriously disliked, and couldn’t believe how easily he manipulated his parents, often to the detriment of the other siblings.  So when Tara attended Brigham Young University, her first time at school at the age of seventeen, it was against her father’s wishes, although he didn’t disown her. The transition was difficult because Tara continued to maintain her fundamentalist beliefs. It was the hardest though, on her freshman roommates because Tara’s practices (or lack of practices) offensive to them. So Tara led an isolated life that first year. To say that she is brilliant is an understatement. She got into BYU on a full scholarship never having attended any school!  When Tara went to Cambridge to study abroad for a semester, she read with Professor Steinberg for a month before writing an essay comparing Edmund Burke to Publius, the name under which James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay wrote The Federalist Papers. I started following Tara on Twitter so that I could ask her if she would ever consider sharing that paper with her readers. She said she doesn’t think she still has the paper! I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

THE BEAUTY: I chose this image not just for the beauty of the landscape, but for the beauty that an education brings to those lucky enough to have one. As a former educator, I truly believe that education broadens one’s world view, opening up the possibility to understand differences and recognize that there’s more that brings us together than separates us. This is the campus of Brigham Young University. The person that she was entering school was not the same person she became. Tara began to question everything she though she knew, ultimately putting her in a position to have to make the most difficult choice of her life.

from utahprophoto.photoshelter.com

THE FOOD: Tara was eating this dish at Aunt Debbie’s near Brigham Young University when she got a call from her mother, bearing news of the family.

Beef and Potato Casserole
serves 4

3 large white potatoes (1½ lbs),
pared and sliced very thin (⅛”)
1 T vegetable oil
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 large garlic clove, chopped
3 T all-purpose flour
1 10 oz packet frozen baby carrots, thawed, cooked to
just beyond al dente
1 14½ oz can whole tomatoes, broken into pieces
¼ C dry red wine or water
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt
½ C water
1 T butter, melted

In a 2-quart saucepan over high heat, bring potatoes to a boil in enough water to cover; cook 2-3 minutes until potatoes are crisp-tender. Drain, set aside.

In a 10” ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat add oil. Add beef and cook about 5 minutes until browned. Add onion, garlic and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently until onion is softened. Sprinkle flour over mixture; cook stirring until meat is well-coated with flour. Add carrots, tomatoes, wine, basil, oregano, pepper, salt and ½ cup water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Heat broiler. Transfer contents of skillet to a broiler -safe casserole dish (Le Creuset stoneware is broiler-safe) and arrange potatoes over the beef mixture to cover completely; brush with melted butter. Broil 5-6 inches from heat source, 8-10 minutes until potatoes are golden.

Forgot to take a picture of the casserole dish, so here’s what an individual serving looks like. Very filling and delicious.

THE BOOK:

Here is another book that’s been on my TBR list for awhile. Simon, of The Readers, loved it. I was a little unnerved by his comparison  to Flavia de Luce, because I didn’t enjoy the first book of that series at all, in fact, didn’t even finish. I think I was nudged into reading this now because Joanna Cannon’s new book (Three Things About Elsie) is on the Women’s Prize longlist. While I enjoyed most of the book, the ending was too pat, too quick, and ambiguous, although I did finally figure things out with the help of Goodreads. I also had trouble remembering all of the characters early on. Taking notes helped. The main character, 10 year-old Grace Elizabeth and her best friend Tilly, try and solve a neighborhood mystery during the very hot summer of 1976 in the East Midlands, England. They make their way through the homes in the estate under the guise of helping their neighbors in order to earn badges for Brownie Guides. One of the themes of the book is outsiders- those on the fringe of society, and how a community responds to them. There are many outsiders in the neighborhood, it’s just that everyone isn’t aware of it. When you talk about outsiders, you’ll also be thinking about social norms and codes of behavior, so that’s present in the book as well. People think that they know their neighbors, but everyone in The Avenue had a secret, and part of the plot is who knows what about whom. Some of the secrets are transparent, but many are alluded to and ambiguous. In this case, the ambiguity was kind of fun. I came to my own conclusions about the nature of those secrets based on the information I had about the characters.

Grace is an endearing and precocious child, who is trying to define herself and figure out what kind of person she will be. She’s not perfect, though, and I cringed and chided her (literally- “Grace, what are you doing!”) for some of the thoughtless things she said and did, but she is overall a likeable hero.

THE BEAUTY: You’ll have to draw your own conclusions about my choice for the beauty of this book, but the image below represents people coming together, and that’s beautiful. Read the book to find out more.

from the telegraph.co.uk

THE FOOD: There were so many references to prepared foods and candy and pastry that I was googling my brains out. And biscuits! There must be a million different kinds of biscuits. These people eat a lot of sweets! (Quality Street chocolates, toffee fingers, Garibaldis, Milk Tray, and the ubiquitous Angel Delight, are just a very few.) I chose this recipe because it represents the beauty of diversity.

Indian Tea Shop Butter Biscuits
Serves: 40

½ C butter at room temperature
½ C confectioners sugar
1 C all-purpose flour
⅛ tsp salt
½ tsp pure vanilla extract

Sift sugar over butter and cream until light and fluffy.
Add the flour, salt and vanilla at once and mix until
combined.

Transfer the dough to a cling wrapped surface and make a
log. Cover it with cling wrap. Refrigerate the dough for an
hour. In the meantime preheat the oven to 350º.

Cut the dough into half inch thick cookies. Bake in a
preheated 350º oven for 22-25 minutes, rotating the pans
halfway through. When they start to brown, they are done.
They can go from brown to burnt very fast!

Transfer to a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes.

Tasty little buggers!

THE BOOK:

What an endearing book. It took me awhile to warm to Eleanor, but when I did, her status in my literary hero catalogue ascended to join Don Tillman, Celine, Florence Gordon, and Veblen Amundsen-Hovda, to name just a few of my favorite literary iconoclasts. They’re all different, but share a unique view of the world that allows them to march to beat of their own singular hearts. Eleanor is a serial loner until a chance meeting with a co-worker changes her life. At it’s core, the book is about friendship, forgiveness, and finding one’s own way. Eleanor was very funny, although she didn’t usually intend to be. After assessing that the congregation in church were not enthusiastic enough in their rendition of a hymn,
Eleanor threw herself more spiritedly into the singing, and observed: “Quite a few people turned around to look at us, presumably because they had enjoyed our vocal tribute.”

Eleanor had a house plant that she loved, a parrot plant, called Polly, which was given as a birthday present in her childhood. Eleanor unashamedly admits that she sometimes talked to Polly. Another interesting thing about Eleanor is her computer password at work: Ignus aurum probat,” meaning “fire tests gold.” The rest of the Seneca quote is “and adversity tests the brave.” This is the perfect motto for her.

                                Parrot plant

THE BEAUTY: When Eleanor was presented with a mylar balloon, she said, “What is it supposed to be? Is it … is it cheese?”

“It’s SpongeBob, Eleanor.” he said, speaking very slowly and clearly as though I were some sort of idiot. “SpongeBob Squarepants.”

“A semi-human bath sponge with protruding front teeth! On sale as if it were something completely unremarkable! For my entire life, people have said that I’m strange, but really, when I see things like this, I realize that I’m actually relatively normal.”

THE FOOD:

This was the perfect recipe for reasons that will become clear to you when you read the book.

Langues de Chat (Cat’s Tongue)
36 servings

9 T butter, softened
½ C white sugar
2 T white sugar
3 egg whites
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1½ C all-purpose flour
6 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 400º F. Lightly grease baking sheets.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons
sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg whites one at a time until batter is light
and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla. Mix in the flour just until blended. Dough will
be a little stiff.

Using a cookie press or a pastry bag with a medium star tip, press dough
onto prepared baking sheet into 3-inch lengths, like a ladyfinger.

Bake cookies in preheated oven until straw-colored, about 10 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

When cookies are cool, dip one end of each cookie in melted chocolate
and place on wax paper until chocolate hardens. (I had to use twice as much chocolate to coat all the cookies.) Store in a cool place.

*Note: After making these, I have decided never to pipe again, unless I can find an online tutorial or someone to teach me how to use a pastry bag. I never remember having a problem with the old fashioned pastry bag that you had to clean after each use. I used a disposable bag first, and had to give up because the dough wouldn’t come out the tip, and the bag was forming goiter-like bulges that threatened to explode! So I switched to a non-disposable bag and still couldn’t get the dough out.  Next, I put the dough in a plastic storage bag and cut off the tip. No luck with this method either, so back to the disposable bag. Without a tip on at all, I was able to make the sloppy cookies you see pictured below. Also, this recipe was very messy: the kitchen had dough everywhere and I had it in my hair, my eyebrows, my fleece and who knows where else? Though not beautiful, they were delicious at tea time with a blizzard roaring outside. Knock wood, we still have power, although the storm reportedly has hours to go.

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THE BOOK:

 I put off reading this book because I had heard that it was filled with brutality, but I was finally drawn to it because its Goodreads rating is 4.28. It was difficult reading, and I skimmed some of the more graphic violence. It’s very similar to many of the books I’ve read in the past year about man’s inhumanity to man. The difference however is that I cared more about the characters in the other books than these characters. From what I read in the introduction by the translator, Deborah Smith. “Born and raised in Gwangju, Han Kang’s personal connection to the subject matter  meant that putting this novel together was always going to be an extremely fraught and painful process. She is a writer who takes things deeply to heart, and was anxious that the translation maintain the moral ambivalence of the original, and avoid sensationalizing the sorrow and shame that her hometown was made to bear.” I’m trying not to feel shallow in my reaction to the book, but for me, it’s the emotional attachment to the characters that makes all of the historical horror urgent and intolerable, and meaningful.

On the other hand, Kang tackles a very important question in a thoughtful and sensitive way and that is, of all the variety of human acts that are performed daily, why are we as a species, so prone to brutality, cruelty and violence? I find it difficult to believe that the desire for power is the answer. And maybe I’m kidding myself, and that under the right circumstances I, too, could perform one of these heinous acts, but I don’t feel a connection to that at all.

An artist’s job is to report or illuminate all variety of “human acts,” with the goal of bearing witness and ultimately, change. But why is change so slow? Why can’t we as a country recognize and admit that racism is very much alive and well and embedded in our culture? How many more books need to be written until real change happens?

The book succeeds in raising important questions, and is just one more example of a world that is both beautiful and cruel.

THE BEAUTY: Since violence is the primary image that comes to mind when I think about this book, I needed to find something to completely counteract that. I first looked for pictures of beauty in the natural landscape, and they were abundant, but I kept coming back to images of the temples. What Buddhism represents is the antithesis of the cruelty described in the book. It’s interesting to think about the first precept,  “resolve to refrain from destroying living creatures.”

THE FOOD: In a chapter called “The Prisoner, 1990,” the prisoner spots Kim Jin-su, whom he had known in prison. It was late at night and the prisoner was making his way home after a long night of drinking. Kim Jin-su, also drunk, was eating a bowl of hangover soup. It’s really a thing! Apparently, Koreans are known for their capacity to consume alcohol. They drink twice as much of their cheap rice wine (drink of choice) as Russians drink vodka. And, according to the article I read, Americans are lightweights in the drinking department, consuming way less per week than either the Russians or Koreans.

Hangover Soup 
Serves 4 to 6

2 heads of baby napa cabbage (about 1 pound each)
3 T of doenjang (soy bean paste)
2 T of gochugaru (chili paste)
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 T of soy sauce
1 T of sesame oil
¾ C of bean sprouts
½ C of sliced zucchini
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 Korean red chili pepper, thinly sliced
1 Anaheim chili pepper, thinly sliced
5 C of beef stock

Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Fill a large bowl with ice water and set it nearby. Blanch both whole cabbages for one minute, then drain and drop them into the ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and cut each into 2-inch pieces.

In a large bowl, combine the doenjang, gochugaru, garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil. Add the blanched cabbage, bean sprouts, zucchini, scallion and chile peppers and mix well. Allow to marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes.Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl back to the emptied blanching pot and add the stock. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a simmer for 10 minutes. Serve.

I could tell this might not be pleasing to my palate when I smelled the soy bean paste, and that, indeed, was the case. My husband wasn’t home when I finished making the soup, so he wanted to warm a bowl for himself later. When he smelled it, he decided against it. I think this is an acquired taste.

THE BOOK:

This is my first Ishiguro. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to start. Recently  I googled something like ‘which Ishiguro should I begin with?’ so when this title came up, I immediately put it on hold at the library. I also read that I shouldn’t read any reviews, or even the blurbs on the book itself, to go into it completely blind about its content. I’m so glad I did that. It was interesting trying to connect the dots without any hint of where the narrative was headed. I might try that more often with other books. In the end, this wasn’t what I expected from this author, but I wasn’t disappointed, just surprised. The writing was understated, so much so that I really didn’t pay attention to it, but it was very easy to read. Having finished reading it four days ago, I find that the details haven’t dimmed at all in my memory. I’m still very much connected to Kathy and Tommy and Ruth and their story. The central theme that impresses me now is what does it mean to be human?  Ironically, I had just finished reading Han Kang’s Human Acts, which asks the same question, but in a completely different context, loosely based an historical events.

On a completely different note, Ishiguro is British, so there were references that I  didn’t get. My favorite was when they crossed the street at the pelican. I’ve been to London several times, and never heard that expression. A pelicon (note the spelling) is a blend of other words. Pedestrian light controlled crossing. There are also panda, Pegasus and toucan and puffin crossings!

THE BEAUTY:

While the three protagonists were at Hailsham, their boarding school, they heard repeated references to Norfolk, the lost corner of England. In the students’ minds, this quite literally meant that all the things people lost wound up in Norfolk. There was a particularly sweet moment that Tommy and Kathy shared in Norfolk, when they visited years laters as adults, out on their own. To say more would spoil the story.

The town they visited in Norfolk was unnamed, but it was seaside, had cliffs, and some quaint shops, so I chose Mundesley after looking at photos of several other seaside towns.

THE FOOD:

When Tommy, Ruth and Kathy left Hailsham, before they began their donations, they lived at a place called the Cottages with people who were slightly older than them, and had attended a different boarding school. One of the women, Fiona, made a huge stew, to feed the small crowd who lived there. Here is a crockpot version of a beef stew that is so convenient to prep when you use frozen vegetables.

Beef Stew
Serves 6
Cooking Time: 9 to 11 hours on Low or 5 to 7 hours on High

2 C frozen chopped onions (or 2 onions, minced)
3 T tomato paste
2 T vegetable oil
1½ tsp garlic powder (or 6 garlic cloves, minced)
2 tsp minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 C low-sodium chicken broth, plus extra as needed
1 C beef broth
8 oz. baby carrots
¼ C soy sauce
2 T Minute tapioca
2 bay leaves
3 lbs. beef steak tips
Salt and pepper
1 pound frozen roasted potatoes
1 C frozen peas

Microwave onions, tomato paste, 1 tablespoon oil, garlic powder, and thyme in bowl, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 5 minutes; transfer to slow cooker.

Stir chicken broth, beef broth, carrots, soy sauce, tapioca, and bay leaves into slow cooker. Season beef with salt and pepper and nestle into slow cooker. Cover and cook until beef is tender, 9 to 11 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Transfer beef to cutting board, let cool slightly, then shred into bite-size pieces. Let stew settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using large spoon. Discard bay leaves.

Microwave potatoes with remaining tablespoon oil in bowl, stirring occasionally, until thawed and warm, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir warm potatoes, shredded beef, and peas into stew and let sit until heated through, about 5 minutes. (Adjust stew consistency with additional hot broth as needed.) Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

THE BOOK:

I loved this book: the cover, the end papers, the writing. And I wanted Jenny Lawson to be my friend. (Next best thing- I’m following her on Twitter, and thank fully, she posts regularly.) This was one of those books that I was reading at night, shaking the bed with my silent laughter while trying not to wake my husband. So the next morning, I asked, “Could you feel the bed shaking last night while I was reading this book?” He said, “No, but I heard you laughing.” So much for my lame attempt at late night bedroom etiquette.

The book is a memoir, and shouldn’t be funny because it’s about mental illness and physical pain, but Jenny Lawson’s unique way of looking at the world  and the way she describes it is hilarious. Here is the book’s dedication:
“This book is dedicated to my daughter, the giggling witness to the strange and wonderful world her family has created out of insanity (both real and hyperbolic). God help us when she’s old enough to write her own memoir.

Amid the insanity and hilarity are many truths. Lawson ruminates on her adequacy as a parent, worrying about whether or not she makes the grade, as most parents do. In this context, she observes that her daughter, Hailey, was often bored, not having her life scheduled from moment to moment by her parents. Lawson’s views on this particularly resonated with me, because I couldn’t agree more:
“… boredom is good. It makes up most of your life and if you don’t figure out how to conquer it when you’re a kid then you’re sort of fucked as an adult.”
At some point earlier in my adult life, I thought about things that I was grateful for, and one of them was that my parents had let me be bored, to figure out how to amuse myself, because I never would have survived my summer jobs through college if I had a low threshhold for boredom. Four summers on an assembly line! And later, correcting papers for 34 years!

                 The endpapers. Midnight Cat Rodeo. You’ll just have to read the book.

THE BEAUTY: Meet Rory the Dead Raccoon. He’s the reason for the cover and the end papers. When she was little Jenny had Rambo, a rescued, orphaned raccoon. Her father was a taxidermist, yada, yada, yada, and Rambo lived on. In adulthood,  Jeremy Johnson, Jenny’s friend who was also a taxidermist, made Rory so awesome. Jeremy not only made Rory, but a smaller version, Rory Two. So Jenny has two furiously happy raccoons who never let her down. They’re always glad to see her and give her high fives to celebrate her accomplishments, big and small. I want one. Really. Only one. What a more perfect visual expresion of “furiously happy” could there be?

THE FOOD:

Jenny expresses her opinions on food in “An Essay on Parsley, Wasabi, Cream Cheese, and Soup.” On parsley, “not a fan.” In fact, she reports that seeing it less on her plate in restaurants nowadays tells her that Americans are eating more sushi and less “Americn food.” (The quotes are mine, not hers.) That of course segues neatly in wasabi. “No one ever finishes it.” (Italics and words are hers.) Cream cheese? I’m not going there. You’ll have to read it yourself. Jenny was at a patio party once where she heard they were serving soup as an hors d’oeuvre. Wondering how that was even possible, she spied the waiters handing out flat-bottomed spoons with one slurp of soup in them. And it wasn’t even warm soup. It was gazpacho!

Gazpacho

2 cucumbers, halved and seeded, but not peeled
red bell peppers, cored and seeded
8 plum tomatoes
2 red onions
6 garlic cloves, minced
46 ounces tomato juice (6 cups)
½ C white wine vinegar
½ C good olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess.

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

I am a lifelong tomato lover. When I was little and we went on family vacations, my poor, shy, father would have to order a BLT for me for breakfast because I didn’t like traditional breakfast food. He wasn’t always successful, but he always tried. Talk about being a good parent! So I love pretty much all food that centers around tomatoes. Had I known about gazpacho when I was seven, I would have loved it for breakfast.

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THE BOOK:

A friend whose taste in books is similar to mine recommended this book, and I’m so glad she did. Some of my favorite books have been YA recently, (young adult) as is this. It really transported me back to my own high school experience, although, I truly don’t remember the drama as it appears here, but I know it’s true to form. It has to be. I read it in a book. Five students arrive at detention one September afternoon, the usual suspects and some unlikely transgressors, but only four make it out alive. This is not a spoiler, it’s on the the inside front cover summary. The book continues from there chronologically, from the point of view of each of the characters involved. I have to admit, I did have an inkling about the who and why-dunnit, but it didn’t spoil the ending for me at all.

THE BEAUTY: One of the characters plays piano, and this piece, “Variations on the Canon,” represents a touching scene in the book. You’ll see. The piece is meaningful to me because when my husband and I were dating, we once heard this playing in a store or restaurant. He turned to me and asked, “Who wrote this?” I replied, “Pachelbel.” “Taco Bell?” he exclaimed. And believe it or not, because of this lovely piece of music, we actually went to a Taco Bell for the first time. Also, I came down the aisle to this music at our wedding.

https://youtu.be/hydo5gJP22o

THE FOOD: It had to be something with peanut oil, so I had very wide latitude in selecting a recipe to represent this book. Through this blog, I’ve become fond of homemade Indian cuisine.

Vegetable Pullao
Serves 4-6

For the garam masala
1 T cardamom seeds (if you can’t buy the seeds then buy cardamom pods and shell them yourself)
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp black cumin seeds (you can use regular cumin seeds if black aren’t available)
1 tsp whole cloves
1/3 of a whole nutmeg (you can break a whole nutmeg by placing it on a cloth and               bashing it with a meat mallet or rolling pin)
a medium stick of cinnamon, about 2in-3in, broken up into 3-4 pieces

For the pullao
1 C basmati rice
thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
3 T peanut oil
½ tsp brown mustard seeds
1 hot green chili, finely chopped
4oz potato, peeled and cut into ¼” dice
¼ carrot, peeled and cut into ¼” dice
1½ oz green beans, cut into ¼” segments
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1¼ tsp salt
1 pint water

For the garam masala, put all the garam masala spices in a clean coffee grinder
or other spice grinder and grind as finely as possible. Store in a tightly lidded jar,
away from heat and sunlight. This makes about three tablespoons.

For the pullao, wash the rice in several changes of water then drain. Put the rice in a bowl, cover with water and leave to soak for 30 minutes, then drain
again.

Peel and finely grate the ginger. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan (with a tight
fitting lid) set over a medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the mustard seeds. As
soon as they begin to pop – a matter of seconds – add the chilli, potato, carrot and
green beans and stir. Add the turmeric and garam masala and stir for one minute.
Add the ginger and saute, stirring, for another minute. Drain the rice and add it to
the pan.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir the rice very gently to mix it into the
other ingredients and coat it with the oil and spices. Cook this way for two
minutes.

Add the 1 pint water and the salt and bring to the boil. Cover the pan with a very
tight-fitting lid (if you don’t have a very tight-fitting lid then cover the pan with foil
then a lid) then turn the heat to very low and cook for 25 minutes. After this time
try a grain of rice to see if it’s cooked – cook for a few more minutes if necessary.

Once it’s cooked you can leave it with the lid on and the heat turned off for up to
half an hour before serving. Or serve at once on a serving plate. I served this as a main course, but it woud be good paired with a simple protein like grilled chicken.

THE BOOK:

This was one of those “highly anticipated” novels of 2018, coming out on January 2. A debut novel, it was #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list its first week on the market. In the fall of 2016, an 8-house bidding war was going on over the rights to this book. In the end, William Morrow won out, as did A.J. Finn, with a $2 million, 2 book deal. In addition, 37 international publishers are interested, and the film rights were secured by Fox 2000 Pictures before the book was even published. William Morrow may have had an unfair edge on the other houses, as Finn is the nom de plume for Daniel Mallory, who was a Vice President and Executive Editor at Morrow until five days before the book’s publication.

The reader is introduced to Anna Fox, a middle-aged woman living alone in a big house on the upper east side of Manhattan. This woman has a drinking problem, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  As we learn more about Anna it becomes glaringly obvious that something catastrophic has caused Anna’s agoraphobia, but we can only guess as to what that is. This truly was a page-turner and I finished the book in one sitting. (Yes, I am aware of  how blessed I am to be be able to do this.) There were many references to old, black and white noir films, like The 39 Steps, Double Indemnity, Gaslight, The Vanishing, to name a few. Anna spends her days, and nights watching them, and her neighbors, and therein lies the plot. I have to say, I did not see the ending coming at all, and in that regard, it was very satisfying. And somewhat scary. I look forward to seeing what A.J./Daniel writes next, now that he has left his day job. After his book tour, he claims that he will find a larger apartment in Manhattan, and buy a French Bulldog.

THE BEAUTY: I thought this was going to be more difficult that it was, seeing as how there was a lot of darkness in the book. On the roof of Anna’s home, her husband, Ed, had a roof garden built for her. So, I googled roof gardens in Lenox Hill, New York, and found this lovely piece of property for sale by the Corcoran Group, a steal at $936,000.

The condo is a one bedroom, but I think I could sublimate my dream Manhattan penthouse for this modest little gem. I ❤️ New York.

THE FOOD: Anna isn’t much of an eater. She’s so dedicated to her red wine that she doesn’t have the time, or the inclination, to cook. But she did reminisce about a chicken tagine at a restaurant called The Red Cat. There’s a Red Cat in Chelsea near the Highline, but they didn’t have tagine on the menu. Nor did they at The Red Cat Kitchen on Martha’s Vineyard. I had made a chicken tagine once, yeas ago, but didn’t keep the recipe. So I combined a couple to come up with this.

Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olive
Servings: 4

¼ tsp saffron threads
2 T warm water
2 large yellow onions, chopped
½ C coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, plus
more for garnish
½ C coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley,
plus more for garnish
4 T fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp. salt
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
6 T olive oil
6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1½ cups cracked green olives
2 preserved lemons, thinly sliced
½ C chicken broth

In a small bowl, soak the saffron in the warm water for 10 minutes.

In a food processor, combine the onions, the 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup parsley and 2 Tbs. of the lemon juice. Add the cumin, ginger, turmeric, the saffron and its soaking liquid and the salt. Process to a pulpy puree. Transfer to a large resealable plastic bag. Add the garlic and 3 Tbs. of the olive oil. Add the chicken thighs, seal the bag and massage to coat the chicken with the mixture. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.

Put the olives in a large, heavy fry pan and add water to cover. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, then simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the olives and set aside. Thoroughly dry the pan.

In the same pan over medium-high heat, warm 1 Tbs. of the olive oil. Add the lemon slices and sear until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil to the pan. Remove the chicken from the marinade, shaking off the excess and reserving the marinade. Working in batches, sear the chicken, skin side down, until golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to another plate.

Pour the broth into the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the pan bottom. Stir in the reserved marinade and add the chicken and any juices. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the chicken is opaque throughout, about 40 minutes.

Add the olives, the reserved lemon slices and the remaining 2 Tbs. lemon juice to the pan with the chicken. Cover and simmer until the chicken is falling-off-the-bone tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Garnish the stew with chopped cilantro and parsley and serve immediately. Serves 4.

Quick Preserved Lemons
Yield 1/2 cup (serving size: 1 teaspoon)

Preserving lemons typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to acquire the right consistency and flavor. However, this quick method bypasses the lengthy preservation time and is a great substitute for the real thing. Use the rind to accent a variety of dishes, from seafood to vegetable stir-fries.

1 C water
2 T kosher salt
2 lemons, washed and quartered

Combine water and salt in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Add lemons; cook 30 minutes or until liquid is reduced to ½ cup and lemon rind is tender. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.

*Notes
Mash the pulp in a sauce or a stew, or use it to baste chicken or lamb. These can be made several days ahead and stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. To distribute the flavor, chop before adding to a dish.

THE BOOK:

If there are readers out there who don’t have a vague inkling of what this book is about, I’d be very surprised, so I’ll spare you the tedium of a detailed summary. Suffice to say that this murder mystery takes place during the maiden voyage of the Aurora, a super-luxury liner traveling through the fjords of Norway. It’s all about food and drink, spa treatments, with the occasional lecture about the aurora borealis, and rubbing elbows with the very rich, if not so famous. It put me in mind of Agatha Christie’s, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. A murder has been committed – or has it? The only person reporting the murder is Lo Blacklock, a journalist for a travel magazine, who views this trip as a career-promoting opportunity to advance in her company. That is, if she doesn’t blow it. After an investigation by the Johann Nilsson, the ship’s security officer, it seems that Lo is the only one on the ship who saw and heard anything out of the ordinary. Nilsson reduces Lo to a modern- day Cassandra by intimating that a combination of the drugs she takes for anxiety/drepression, plus excessive alcohol consumption and a recent traumatic event at home, has rendered her an unreliable witness at the very least, and more likely, a full-out hallucinating, hysterical mess of a woman. Ware has laid out boldly, a mental health issue that women have been dealing with since way before the drugs to treat these conditions were invented. A pharmaceutical industry that ignores the condition and assigns blame to the individual on the basis of gender. Hallucination is not a side effect of depression. Just because a woman suffering from depression says she saw something that no one else has seen, doesn’t mean that the woman didn’t see it, it means, in this case, anyway, that the investigator in charge of security needs to ignore his underlying prejudice, and ask more questions, in short- do his job. There are twists and turns that set me off the trail of whodunnit, and that, aided by skillful writing, kept me reading non-stop, until I reached the conclusion. I wish all books did that for me.

THE BEAUTY:

It was so obvious that some image of the Norwegian fjords would be the image for beauty, that it’s almost embarassing how quickly I found and posted this image. I can feel my blood pressure going down as I gaze at it again. Now that’s powerful medicine.

THE FOOD:

I find it somewhat odd that in a book about luxury cruising, finding mention of specific foods would be so hard. The first multi-course dinner onboard the Aurora began with “beet-pickled razor clam with a bison-grass foam and air-dried samphire shards.” Not making that one! Samphire is a succulent associated with water bodies and is reported to be rather salty, so air-dried samphire, I’m guessing, would be very salty as well. Also mentioned was fugu, the pufferfish that when consumed might possibly kill you because of its toxins. Not making that one either. The third, specific food was a sandwich that room service left for Lo in her stateroom when she missed lunch in the main dining room. It was “prawn and hard-boiled egg on heavy rye.” Hmmmm. Not making that one either. So I was left with a dessert that the guests enjoyed in the lounge after their second dinner on the ship. Petit fours! I know. It’s ambitious, but I am always up for a culinary challenge, even if it is in my weakest area of expertise: baking.

Petit Fours

Overview: The first step is to make the pound cake. After the cake has cooled completely flip it onto another piece of parchment paper. (Remove the baked parchment paper.) Cut it in half horizontally. This is called torting. You can find YouTube videos that will show you how to do it without expensive kitchen tools.

Once the cake is in two pieces, spread the bottom layer with raspberry or any other jam.(Ingredients in bold print are not listed in the ingredients, so you will have to lan to buy them if you plan to use them.) Then spread a layer of Buttercream Frosting on top and return the top layer of cake to cover the bottom layer. Frost the top layer, smoothing it out so that the fondant will cover smoothly in the next steps. Cut off the edges so that all of your squares will have smooth sides.

To prepare the now-assembled cake for freezing, lift it by the parchment paper and place it back in the sheet pan. Cover with another pan, and place in the freezer for an hour.

Prepare the Petit Four Icing and another baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Place a cooling rack that is larger than the baking sheet on top.

Take the petit four sheet cake out of the freezer and slide onto a working surface. Cut it into squares, around 1.”  Use a ruler to mark the edge of the cake and gently drag a knife on the icing to make cutting lines using a straight edge to get them perfect. Move the now cut petit fours one by one to the prepared cooling rack.

Butter Pound Cake

2¾ C sugar                       3 C all-purpose flour
¾ C salted butter, softened 1tsp baking powder
¾ C shortening                      1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract             ¾ C evaporated milk
5 eggs                                       ¼ C sour cream

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Cream together the sugar, butter and shortening until smooth then beat in
vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, until fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk
together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). Add this flour
mixture and the evaporated milk to the original mixture alternately. Beat for
2 minutes on medium speed, then fold in the sour cream. Pour the batter
into a prepared half sheet pan. (Parchment on the bottom, spray sides with
cooking spray.)

Bake at 325°F until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean –
approximately 25-35 minutes. Check on it after 25 minutes.

For The Buttercream Frosting
Yield: 4.5 cups

1 C salted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
½ C Crisco shortening (just under 4 oz. on a kitchen scale)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 T of vanilla extract
2-4 T of milk (add to get consistency to pipe or spread)

First, cream the butter and Crisco in a mixing bowl. Mix on low speed for a
couple of minutes until smooth and creamy. Add in the vanilla and cream
cheese and mix again until very smooth. Gradually add the powdered
sugar until it’s all combined. It will be very stiff. Then begin adding milk until
you reach the desired consistency for decorating (2-3 tablespoons.)

Petit Four Icing (Poured Fondant)

6 C powdered sugar, sifted
½ C water
2 T light corn syrup
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ C white chocolate chips

Start by bringing water in the bottom of a double boiler to boil. In the top of the double boiler, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, water, corn syrup
and extracts.

Continue whisking or stirring the until the mixture becomes smooth and
consistent. It should be thin enough to drizzle from a spoon, but not so thin
that it all runs off the cake. When the temperature reaches 92° F, it’s good.

When it’s ready, add in the white chocolate chips and stir until melted. Turn down the heat but keep the water steaming underneath to keep the icing from setting up.

Put the frozen petit fours on a cooling rack set over a cookie
sheet that is lined with wax paper. Spoon the icing over the top to cover the
cakes. Decorate by piping icing in floral, or other shapes on each petit four,
or sprinkle edible mini shapes (stars, sprinkles, etc) on each one.

This recipe was way too much work, so I won’t be doing this again. The hardest part was covering the cut cakes with the poured fondant, even though I had watched several YouTube videos of people demonstrating how to cover them. I am not a confident baker, so my technique was wanting. Jim liked them better than me- they were too sweet. Also, I bought the fancy tool for torting, but couldn’t use it because my sheet cake wasn’t thick enough. I cut a couple of cakes in half and spread raspberry jam between the layers. Really made a difference, so don’t skip that step if you can help it.

THE BOOK:

This book reminded me of the film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, in its lavishness, eccentricity, and cast of low-key, but idiosyncratic characters, most notably, the Count, Alexander Iliyich Restov, or “Sasha” to his friends. This book truly had everything I love in a novel: interesting, actual locations, introspective musings by characters I like, lots of food, literary, historical and art references, and an underlying moral to the story, that is uplifting. And of course, a love story, in this case, underplayed and unexpected. As a fan of Rules of Civility, I expected the writing to be impressive, and I was not disappointed. The following excerpt (the Count is enjoying his lunch in the grand dining room of the Metropol hotel) encapsulates a lot of the things I loved about Towles’ writing, although it is a bit long. (But then, so is the book!) The Count’s impeccable taste buds are legendary in his little universe:
“Turning his attention to the okroshka (cold soup), the Count could tell that any Russian in the room might have been served by his grandmother. Closing his eyes in order to give the first spoonful its due consideration, the Count noted a suitably chilled temperature, a tad too much salt, a tad too little kvass, but a perfect expression of dill – that harbinger of summer which brings to mind the songs of crickets and the setting of one’s soul at ease.”
I frequently find myself casting the movie version of the books that I read, and this one was no exception. One of the hotel’s semi-permanent guests is a 9 year-old, enormously precocious girl called Nina Kulikova. In the movie she would be played by a twelve year-old Saorsie Ronan, the age she was  when she was in Atonement. Now that I think of it, she was in The Grand Budapest Hotel, too. I had trouble casting the Count. The best I could do was Henry Cavill, although I did consider Hugh Jackman for a time.

THE BEAUTY:

When I did a search of sights to see in Moscow, this was the image that immediately caught my eye.

St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square, begun in 1554, was built by Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar of Russia. It has 9 chapels within it, the 9th of which was dedicated to St. Basil, who was buried in the cathedral in 1557. What a unique and beautiful building.

THE FOOD:

It had to be okroshka, but not just because of the excerpt above. Truth is, I wanted to make kvass, which is a fermented drink that Russians reportedly drink like Coke. The most fun recipes to make are those that take me far from my comfort zone.  It’s an adventure for me. Granted, it all takes place in my kitchen, and there’s very little danger involved, but it’s still an exciting journey.

Bread Kvass
Serving: 20-24

2.5 gallons or 10 qt of water
1 lb or 9 slices of classic black, dark or rye bread
1 handful of raisins
1.8 lb (4 cups) of sugar
1.5 tablespoons of active dry yeast
6 large plastic soda bottles

DAY 1: (best if prepared in the evening)

Fill a giant stock pot with 2.5 gallons of water (or divide it into two large pots)
and bring to a boil. While waiting, toast the bread slices twice on the darkest
toaster setting. Darker bread makes darker kvass.

When the water starts to boil, remove the pot from heat. Add a handful of raisins
and the toasted bread to the pot, cover with the lid and let it stay overnight or at
least 8 hours.

DAY 2:

Carefully remove the toasted bread and discard it. Quickly warm up the kvass on
the stove, until it is around 95°F. Don’t use water hotter than 110°F, or it will kill
the yeast. If the water is cold, the yeast won’t activate.

In a medium bowl, mix together 4 cups of sugar and 1.5 tablespoons of yeast,
add them to kvass mixture and stir.

Cover with plastic wrap or lid and leave the mixture on the counter for another 6
hours, stirring every couple hours.

Using a strainer lined with cheese cloth, pour kvass into a Pyrex 4 cup
measuring cup, then pour the kvass from the measuring cup into the bottles.
Squeeze some of the air out of the bottle before loosely covering with the lid.
Refrigerate overnight. Check the bottles to release air if they expand. The
following day once the bottles are completely chilled, you can tighten the lids.

DAY 3: enjoy

It’s best to store kvass in plastic soda bottles since they are designed to hold
pressurized drinks.

  
1. Double-toasted bread      2. Yeast and sugar working       3. Kvass!
in boiling water.                     their magic.

Okroshka with Kvass
Serves 2-4

3 C of okroshka kvass not sweet kvass, chilled
4 oz ham steaks, finely cubed
2 medium potatoes peeled, cooked and finely cubed
2 hard boiled eggs, cubed
½ long english cucumber finely cubed
5-6 radishes finely cubed
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sour cream to dollop when serving
2 green onions sliced
bunch of dill chopped about 1/4 cup

Hardboil the eggs and cook the potatoes until cooked, but not overcooked
and soft. Peel and cut into small cubes. Cool the eggs and cut into cubes.

Cut the ham, cucumber, radishes into the smallest cubes you can.

Slice the green onions and dill and set aside for when you are garnishing.

Place eggs, potatoes, ham, cucumber, radishes and salt in a large bowl.
Add the chilled kvass and stir together.

It’s best to refrigerate for an hour to allow the soup to get really cold, before
serving with the sour cream, dill and green onions. When mixing the sour
cream, stir quickly so it doesn’t curdle.

We had this for lunch in February when it was 20º outside, and it was delicious- like nothing I’ve ever tasted. I can imagine how refreshing this would be on a hot summer night.

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