It is Now Safe to Turn on Your Portable Electronic Devices (but we don't want to do so)

On the international flight home today, I was completely surrounded by people reading.  It was the quietest flight I have been on in ages.  The enrapt passengers were evidently hooked on their titles.  The most fascinating thing to me (besides this noiseless ascent to 10,000 feet) was that everyone was reading a paper copy.

Across the aisle, a woman was reading about altruism.  A woman at the window was skimming the latest issue of Cosmo.  I saw a book in Spanish, a book on math, and my little novel that I've carried around (despite the fact that I was also flying with five electronic devices*).  Just to my right, the woman who accidentally left a dozen banana muffins cooling on her stove** instead of packed in her bag was reading Jame Bowden's gem, A Street Cat Named Bob.  The scene was refreshing.


*  The author acknowledges this does seem excessive.  
**Not to worry, her father will pick them up.

Icing on the cake

It's been a cake month.

Various celebrations have landed a number of desserts on my table (which means extra miles on my shoes). This NPR segment left me wanting cake for breakfast, for purely scientific research of course.

Happy birthday to you.

Le Weekend

We had absolutely gorgeous weather this weekend.  Warmer sunny days, one crisp clear night, and one amazing thunderstorm (so I heard as I managed to sleep solidly through the night).  I've just taken a cranberry bread out of the oven and am gearing up for a little reading before slumber and that oh so early siren call for the gym.

The next GBC read is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and I might just have enough time to finish it before next week's discussion.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Gone and the Wind

You've had an extremely busy day yet you managed to get a lamb and eggplant casserole in the oven.  You splurged for a very nice bottle of wine when picking up the groceries because it's your last for the next 30 days.  You have two book options waiting for you:  a literature classic and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  It's Saturday night...what do you do?

I opted for the novel with the same initials as my car.*  Over the course of the last day and a half, it has become one of those books where I've said to myself:, "I have four minutes, I can read a bit."  It's been a little while since I've stood over the electric kettle with a book in hand squeezing out a few more sentences.  GG is a title that has had a fair bit of press and lots of my friends have already read it.  I resisted it for that reason and until the kindle price dropped to the level where I could optimize my book budget for the month.   Now I'm devouring it like the chocolate cookies with nuts I did not anticipate I'd like either.  

Januaries can be so unexpected.  Hope your week is off to a brilliant (and warm) start.  

*Admittedly not sound logic, but it did sound more like a you-don't-have-a-date so read a fun book choice.

The Final Frontier

Because Saturdays are really for:

    Sleeping in [down comforter]
    Space Interviews  [Chris Hadfield via The Guardian]
    Singing [Space Oddity by Chris Hadfield via David Bowie]
    Starbucks [triple venti]

and six weeks later moving finally unpacking the 23 boxes that somehow are supposed to fit in your galley kitchen so you can make your first proper meal which doesn't use [oven + a screwdriver].

Happy Saturday folks.  Hope you've got your ground control.

"Out of Darkness Comes Light"

While on the West Coast, I saw a sign which said "Jerusalem" which was just enough to get this song (with the same title) playing as background music in my head the last two weeks.  [If you like reggae, trust me, it's catchy.]  I had not watched the video until tonight but many of the scenes reminded me of my trip there a few years back.  [It even jogged my memory to the little note I left in the wailing wall during my visit.]  

No surprise then to be drawn to this Guardian review for the Observer Food Monthly Awards best cookbook for 2013.  There's an entire section on hummus.  

I'll let you guess the title.

Love and a Saucepan

I had never heard of Marcella Hazan before Sunday's obituary in the New York Times.  Kim Severson's description assures me I would have liked her.  She studied biology, was opinionated about risotto, and drank Jack.  She moved to the US with her husband in 1955, learned English with the help of baseball, and didn't have a great first impression of cranberry sauce (solidarity!).  She didn't cook but wanted to take care of her husband.  She had lunch with him every day.  (The article includes a great photo of Marcella and Victor on their first date.)

I loved this quote from the obit taken from her biography:

“Cooking came to me as though it had been there all along, waiting to be expressed; it came as words come to a child when it is time for her to speak."

Grazie, Ms. Hazan.

Boxed In

I've been practicing the art of improvisational cooking:  four ingredients and no heavenly idea where a knife could be.  For people who like to have the odd cookbook (Hotdish for 100?,  The Pleasures of Cooking for One, Eggs and that ever popular Potato), might I suggest a cookbook for the week before and four weeks after you've moved?

It could well include chapters like:

* Philipps or Flathead for your Stand In Spatula?
* How to rescue food from burning with your brand new oven
* You need wine
* Throw away those condiments
* What to with six packets of yeast
* Eat everything in a bowl
* Your gym towel as a stand in oven mitt (if you haven't been to the gym)
* Ensure - it's the drink for the aged and people who move frequently
* How to sterilize your box cutter if you need to cut a bagel
* Aren't you glad you have three dozen wine glasses?
* Have your Dad bring tomatoes

Just a thought.  I'm sure there must be others suffering through a corral of boxes.

Right?

Owl Call You Later

Sometimes the weekend slips by just like those sands in the hourglass and you're left looking at the empty bulb wishing someone would turn it over just again.  A few more hours would be nice.

Sometimes you get a case of the Sundays where Lucinda's song plays in your head on repeat.

Sometimes you cook your cheesecake on the wrong temperature so it tastes perfectly fine (excluding that ring of fire charred around the edges).

On those nights before chasing sleep, you need David Sedaris talking about a stuffed owl.  You need to know about a taxidermist who says,

"What we've done," he boasted, "is stretch a chicken over an owl form."

It's a read I highly recommend, and I think it works just fine for Monday.

Do You Have To? Do You Have to?

Today's Friday pic one last nod to the winter season from the comfort of my stainless steel pot.

Cranberries
Thanksgiving 2012

"If you could return, don't let it burn, don't let it fade." 

- The Cranberries "Linger"

A Day Off but On

Yesterday was a day of prepping, tasting, adjusting, cooking, sipping a glass of reading water or two, and being thankful for family and friends.  The highlight of the day included a special visitor from the GBC.  We spent most of the evening chatting so I hope you'll forgive my miss to post anything yesterday.

So this morning, both GBC P@1ge and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving weekend.  True to club form, we both have our cup of coffee (cafe con leche); she's reading a book and I'm thinking about reading while typing.  In this calm moment, I think I can say that we're both happy and thankful.  I hope you are as well.

I'm Smitten

I'm already a fan of her blog, so I'll go ahead and endorse Deb Perelman's new book, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  For an introduction to the book, check out this NPR interview from November 1st.

Hope your Sunday was filled with a bit of cooking or, like mine, finding a shelf (or several) for all your cookbooks.

Up See Daisy

I didn't see a chicken, so I'll go with the eggs.

Daisy eggs and butter in cast iron
July 2012
Rocket City

This is the Friday photo one selects if they have had a really long day, are drinking a glass of reading water to unwind and are still awake on Friday when their day started early Thursday.  They may also be trying to manifest eggs and toast which, when made, would not set off a smoke detector.  Sadly, the eggs have not yet appeared.

Hope you have an egg-sellent Friday.

If you Can't Stand the Heat...

The heat and the lingering summer illness has evaporated my writing creativity along with my water.  I'll pause today in an attempt to gain momentum on In Cold Blood while also baking a batch of cookies.  Batter Up.

A Trifle of Truffle

Sunday evening.

Reading recipe books with reading water.

It's the type of combination which makes me try Julie Child recipes for the first time for a group of unknowing strangers.

It also leads to discoveries of Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms by Eugenia Bone. The New York Times has a review here of this "beguiling book".

I hear it's a fun(gi) read.

Never Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

After a weekend which seemed a little heavy, a walk in the moonlight this morning left me in search of something beautiful to begin the week. Many of us in the GBC are cooks as well as readers. Even if you are not, this selection would be worthy as a conversation piece for your shelves. The Great Food Series published by Penguin Books is a collection of 20 titles with covers rumored to have been inspired by ceramics. The cookbooks span approximately 400 years of recipes with subjects ranging from simple meals to infantry cooking. The complete paperback set lists for £139.80 with each book sold separately at £6.99 and will be available in the US beginning October 25 from Amazon. The Well-Kept Kitchen by Gervase Markham is shown below; click here to view the entire set.

Potato, Potahto

There are moments in a single person's life that one learns too late that an item has been improperly stored. In that moment of realization, the organic principles that you did not pick up during your undergraduate degree somehow manage to come to the forefront of your mind, and the most avid of recyclers will toss containers without a moment's thought in order to bring their abode back to a more normal olfactory state.

In this vein, I offer Annie Nichols' potatoes as a way to avoid a counter of offending tubers. Her small book is full of tasty nuggets such as potato gratin made in a springform cake pan and whose accompanying photo makes this dish look like a collection of delicate layers just waiting for a fork. Roti, curry, stew, hasselbacks and a chile potato tart are a few of the other recipes which round out the book and give me reasons to use those obscure pans I have amassed over the last ten years of baking.

Mr. Potato, I've got my eyes on you.

[A link to the book can be found here, however there appears to be numerous variations on the 2003 printing. My copy has delicious crispy fries on the cover which I cannot seem to find for you.]

He's Got a Nice Grill

For a period of years, I was fortunate to live in a household where a man did most of the cooking. This coincided with a time where work and school hit a frenzied crescendo, so there was little better than sitting down to a beautifully plated meal (he was very particular about plating) at the end of the day, especially after having received a glass of reading water upon entry to the house.

I am fairly certain it was this experience which led to me to pause on this NYT review of Man with a Pan by John Donohue. The authors list, including Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding), Paul Greenberg and Steven King (?!), alone has me intrigued. Reading about what it is like to cook for a woman and/or a family? This book has definitely made my list.

Fork It Over

My recent adventures have provided some culinary delights. Chicago is a city in which one can very happily eat. It is fitting that my reading has taken me to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (continuing the trilogy/not a trilogy) by Douglas Adams.

My advice for the next week? Order something different from the menu. You might find that you really like Oxtail soup or that you can eat a fried soft-shell crab using chopsticks with a bit of grace.

Don't Turn Back

Always one for the odd and unusual, this book is worth its salt. [pause for bad pun]

Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes is available for the cook who has everything. Thanks to the generosity of a Williams Sonoma employee when I was buying my new coffee machine, I received samples of a variety of salts. I had thought "salt is salt" but oh how wrong I was! Black Truffle Sea Salt to finish a spinach salad with fresh mozzarella and tomato makes my heart sing. Hawaiian black salt, well, it makes everything groovy. [I shall stop here lest I continue keep the song to salt ratio even at one.]

I do recommend the book with the badly placed comma in its title and emphatically suggest you add a black, pink, red or at a very minimum, kosher sea salt to your culinary adventures.