Summer Reading

It is pretty clear that Summer and the resulting mellowness of brain is here because I am utterly charmed by this series of mystery books:

I'm sure I'd like these in the wintertime too, but they really are the perfect Summer read--lovely characters, episodic writing (so you can put it down, rescue the kid who is dangling precipitously from the climbing wall your husband built in the back yard, and get back into the story without any necessary re-reading), and yet not fluff. There are numerous meditations on significant issues, from morality, to economics, to AIDS. And though it may sound foolish, I feel like I'm getting to know Botswana from the perspective of the three main characters. Mma Ramotswe's pride and love of her country is utterly convincing and is a refreshing break from the usual "superiority" of the West perspective in which I usually encounter any writing about Africa.

Here's a sample of the extremely gentle humor in favorite paragraph from The Full Cupboard of Life, number 5 in the series:

Mma Makutsi, sitting at her desk, looked down at her shoes, as she often did in moments of crisis; her shoes, always her allies, but now so unhelpfully mute, as if to convey: don't look at us, we said nothing. You were the one, Boss. (In her mind, her shoes always addressed her as Boss, as the apprentices addressed Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. This was right for shoes, which should know their place.)

Isn't that a lovely little interlude that shows how many of us look to inanimate objects to support our decision making processes and lend us emotional support? My toaster has the ability to calm me down when I'm having a lousy day--after putting in a piece of bread, I know that I have to stop and pause for a short period, just breathe a little while a mundane piece of bread is being transformed into the culinary glory of a good piece of toast. I swear, the support I've received from my toaster is not one to disregard and it is nice to know that Mma Makutsi's shoes serve a similar purpose for her.

I'm enjoying this mystery series much more than the contemporary "literature" novels I've recently read, among them:

Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad and

Maile Meloy's A Family Daughter.

I'm a bit surprised at my lukewarm response to the Atwood since her project with the book is something I normally love--retelling a familiar tale from a different perspective. In this case, she tells the story of Odysseus from Penelope's view of the wife left behind and the story is told with Atwood's trademark acidic wit. This Penelope is no sweet, obedient, loyal wife, but a keen thinker who has to strategize in order to survive. And I think Atwood's project is generally successful, but for once, I found the harsh humor a bit tiring; I wish there had been more moments of vulnerability, like the ones that briefly appear between Penelope and her maids who she enlists as her spies but which are hung by Odysseus when he returns as co-conspirators with the suitors. Her guilt and tenderness towards the maids is compelling reading, but keeps being buried under the next round of caustic commentary.

Maile Meloy's new novel is a follow up with a twist to her first novel Liars and Saints. In this novel, the main character is Abby who, in a sort of book-within-a-book reference, turns out to be the "author" of Liars and Saints; that is to say, we are to read A Family Daughter as the "truth" of the family events behind those told in Liars and Saints. I thought this was clever at first, but after a while the concept lost its novelty. By the end of the book there were too many characters packed in to keep track of (I kept forgetting the names of Abby's cousins which makes you wonder exactly what purpose they fill in the story other than adding bulk to the clan) and some of the characters had taken on charicature-like qualities. I found myself skimming the passages that were about Clarissa (Abby's mother) because they were so predictable and trite. Ultimately, I thought the book started out well but lost steam and petered out to something I was relieved to have finished, rather than regretful that it had ended.

So I'm off to the library in the next day or so to pick up In the Company of Cheerful Ladies and to continue my friendship with Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, my new summer pals.

Avoiding the 5 PM brain drain

Last week was a particularly bad week when it came to dinner time. Every evening around 5 PM I'd realize that I had no idea what to make for dinner. By 5 PM my brain is fried--numerous keepers of little people refer to the hours from 4:30-6:30 as "the witching hours" for good reason. When trying to ascertain what is in the refrigerator, I usually have to pry my 3 year old off of where she has wrapped herself around my leg and wack the 5 year old's hands away from the chocolate milk syrup for which he is lunging. And then frustration and low blood sugar levels lead to meals that are a hodgepodge of whatever I see first and can assemble or reheat with very little thought (at best).

So this week I am taking inventory--figuring out what is in that big white appliance, digging through the freezer to find out what I've stashed away in one of my hoarding phases and coming up with a list of dinners I could make. Then I can add any esoteric ingredients to the shopping list for the week and not be left swearing up a storm when one key element to a recipe is missing.

Being a person who sometimes gives herself a break, I do not see the following list as a "commitment" to make that dinner; instead the list acts as a defibrillator for my brain when it is flat lining.

This week's possibilities include:

Red Seasonal Salad
Pork loin cooked in milk, kale, sweet potatoes
Red lentil soup, salad, beef kofte with yogurt garlic sauce, pita
Chicken curry with potatoes, raita, rice, mango lassi

and should this week turn out to be more hellacious than I anticipate there's always the back up (a.k.a. Mama's Best Friend):
$5 pizza

Good as a side dish

Last night I made a dent in the arugula pile (only a dent despite using about 10 cups of the stuff) with this recipe:
Tagliatelle with Creme Fraiche and Arugula, except I used the slightly wider Pappardelle noodle.

According to the little clipping that I found in my Savory folder, the recipe came from the famous London restaurant, The River Cafe. Right now, any recipe that calls for 10 cups of arugula gets my attention and the result? It was OK.

I think my subdued reaction to the dish came from the way I served it, as a main course--Brian and I each had a heaping plate of the noodles and also each had a whole steamed and chilled globe artichoke with garlic vinaigrette for dipping. I can imagine this being a wonderful side dish with, say, a grilled steak. The sour and bitter notes would be a great complement to the richness of a good meaty dish, but as a main course the flavors felt out of balance and I'm saying this from the perspective of one who loves sour and bitter foods.

The recipe calls for both creme fraiche and a hell of a lot of lemon juice and I thought it took the sour note too far. I'd cut the juice back from 1/2 C to 1/3 C. And after tasting the finished dish and feeling it lacked something, I stirred in a squashed clove of garlic which definitely boosted up the flavor factor and gave the dish a little depth.

So if you are looking for a pasta side for a meaty meal, I can recommend this (slightly altered) recipe:

Pappardelle with Creme Fraiche and Arugula
adapted from The River Cafe recipe, printed in some food magazine in the last year or so
Serves 6 as a side dish

1 cup creme fraiche (1 cup heavy cream with 1 T buttermilk stirred in, left out in a warm place overnight)
2 T finely grated fresh lemon zest (use your microplane grater here)
1/3 C fresh lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, chopped or pressed to a paste
12 oz dried egg Pappardelle (Trader Joe's makes a good kind)
10 cups loosely packed, coarsely chopped arugula
2 1/2 Cups of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (again, use the microplane grater)
salt and coarse black pepper

1. Stir together creme fraiche, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic and 1 C of grated cheese.
2. Cook Pappardelle in a big pot of salted water until al dente.
3. Drain pasta and dump into a big bowl. Stir in arugula so that it has a chance to wilt a little. Stir in the creme fraiche mixture. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
   
4. Top each serving with a generous amount of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve as a side dish.
   

Salad days

The arugula and lettuce in my garden have been cooperating nicely/growing at an insane rate and we are up to our ears in fresh leafy greens, far too many greens to be consumed with a nightly side salad (the spinach, however, has been uncooperative. Most of the seeds didn't germinate.)

The record breaking heat this past weekend gave us the perfect excuse to usher in Salad Days. I have mentioned before that I am a great fan of the main course salad, the kind of salad you find in France listed as a Salade Compose. Top some great vegetables with a protein source and a good dressing and you have my definition of bliss-on-a-plate. Yes, I often crave this more than chocolate.

Last week I made a version of a Nicoise salad--lots of greens, cucumber, hard boiled egg, olives, radishes and blanched green beans topped by a grilled piece of albacore tuna then drizzled with a garlic red wine vinaigrette. And Monday we had (pictured above) a Vietnamese style salad with fresh mango, grilled chicken, thin rice noodles, peanuts, mint, cilantro, vidallia onion and blanched green beans topping the greens/radishes/cucumber pile; the dressing was a nuoc cham sort of concoction (I didn't have quite enough lime juice so I added a splash of rice wine vinegar).

The nicest thing about these salads is the flexibility--the Nicoise lacked potatoes and tomatoes (no potatoes in the house, no worthy tomatoes available yet). The Vietnamese salad lacked fresh basil and shallots and the mango probably shouldn't have been there. Some asparagus or sugar snap peas would have been terrific in either salad. Roasted beets would have been great to add to the Nicoise. But it didn't matter because these salads cry out for improvisation.

My next attempt to deal with the onslaught of arugula (I picked another entire shopping bag full of the stuff yesterday--yikes!) comes tonight. I have a recipe for tagliatelle with creme fraiche and arugula that looks to be a good way to use a sizeable quantity of arugula without having to eat a salad as big as a pony. Report on the success (or failure) of said dish will be coming soon.

Center Schmenter

My latest knitting related learning disability has to do with what is known as the "Center Pull Ball."

Very occasionally I've had success sticking a finger into the center of the ball and fishing out the end that is tucked inside. For you non-knitters, the reason you want this end rather than the easily accessible one on the outside has to do with ball twirlage (that's a technical term). If you use the outside end, every time you pull on the ball to advance more yarn, the ball takes off across the floor, providing much delight to cats and toddlers in the general vicinity. If you find that elusive inside end, your ball of yarn will stay where you put it and not collect all the dust bunnies under the couch as it rolls away from you.

I believe that I am uniquely disabled in my inability to find the inside end. I am further hampered in my efforts by memories of the old BBC/PBS series All Creatures Great and Small (based on the James Herriot book of the same title.) My mother hails from Yorkshire, where the series is set, so watching the show was a family requirement and we all got to know the folks at Skeldale Veterinary Surgery rather well. In particular, I have vivid memories of the actor playing James, the young Christopher Timothy, with his entire arm up a cow's or horse's birthing canal trying to help a stuck calf or foal to be born (I'm pretty sure this scene happens more than once in the series.) That's right, up to the shoulder, groping around for a grabbable part of the baby animal.

I can't shake that image from my head every time I go grabbing for the center pull yarn end.

Up to my knuckles in Patons Merino.

Unlike that talented James, what I pull forth is not what I was groping for:

Big wad of yarn. No end in sight.

It would be as though James gave a tug and pulled out the placenta and left the baby animal inside. Since no blood, organs or even living things are involved in my dilemma, I end up stuffing the wad back in and once again, resigning myself to being the great-cat-entertainer and using the outside end.

So, help me out here folks. Is there some secret to yarn end retrieval that I don't know about? Does anyone have advice or a quick and easy method to get the damn end out of the middle?

Even Healthier Muffins

We have a little trouble in our house with blood sugar fluctuations (well, not all of us. Brian seems to be able to go for hours without food and stay sane where as I very quickly become the Kate-Monster and start losing major functions--stuff like thinking and walking--when my blood sugar drops.)

Ian has inherited my blood sugar issues but not my love of food so it becomes tricky to get the right kind of foods into him to prevent the appearance of the Ian-Monster (who, believe it or not, has a louder scream than the Kate-Monster...). Recently I modified my earlier recipe for Healthy Banana Muffins to have more protein and whole grains which can help we glucose-challenged folks stay stable. Now I call them "Even Healthier Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins". They are a little darker brown than the original version but still taste damn good. And they freeze really well. After they cool, put them in a ziplock bag and shove it in the freezer. Then when you want a muffin, pop it in the microwave and nuke for about 20 seconds--this has the added benefit of making the chocolate chips all gooey.

Even Healthier Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 C White whole wheat flour (King Arthur Flour makes white whole wheat)
1/2 C teff flour (Bob's Red Mill teff flour is available at Arbor Farms)
1/4 C honey or white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C wheat germ (I like the toasted kind)
1/2 C fine ground almonds (you can grind your own in a clean coffee grinder, or buy the Just Almond Meal from Trader Joe's)
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 medium sized bananas, mashed (3 if you want really moist, heavy muffins)
1/2 C milk
1/4 C canola oil
2 eggs
3/4 C chocolate chips

(You can also add 1/2 C dried fruit: raisins, currants, cranberries, etc. and can substitute 1/2 C ground flax seeds for the wheat germ, and also can substitute soy flour, brown rice flour or sorghum flour for any of the above flours--the recipe is very flexible and, so far, has always turned out well. I've even made these gluten-free for a friend.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Measure dry ingredients into bowl and stir well.

Combine wet ingredients in a bowl and mix until blended.

Add wet to dry all at once, stir just until all the dry stuff is incorporated, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Spray muffin tins with non stick spray or line with papers, fill 2/3 full. For small muffins, bake 15 minutes, for big ones between 20-25 minutes.

Muffins freeze well--once cool put in ziplock bag and freeze. To eat, nuke 1 frozen muffin for 20 seconds.

Duty called

I've been sorely remiss in attending to my gelato duties. Zingerman's has been making gelato for at least a few years now and the only taste I've had of it was a wee scoop of melon gelato that came in a little prosciutto cup at a dinner at the Roadhouse (nice combo, by the way). Tonight, duty called in the form of Brian taking the kids out and no rain (it's about bloody time) so I walked down to Zingerman's and tried their gelato for the first time.

This is what remains:

I thought about tearing the paper cup open and licking the residual drips, but I was walking home through my neighborhood at the time and decided that maintaining some facade of sanity would be a good thing. Don't want to be known as the neighborhood paper-licker.

I tried the Chocolate Heat: a dense dark chocolate base with fragrant cinnamon mixed in. It was very good--perfect texture and temperature, not overwhelming in the creaminess department, strong punch of flavor. My only critique is that it says that this gelato contains a little cayenne and ancho chile powders which were so faint as to be undetectable. Were I the gelato mix-master, I would up the heat factor so that it would more closely resemble my darling Vosges Red Fire chocolate bar (and my imitative spicy hot chocolate).

The flavors available are limited; also in stock at the deli today were lemon, raspberry, coconut, chocolate, vanilla, and hazelnut. I'd like to try the Cajeta (goat milk caramel and cinnamon) and burnt sugar flavors which I'm hoping they have regularly at the Creamery; the other two flavors that tempt me (ginger and espresso) are sadly not available until the autumn. I'm also hoping that there are other flavors that appear occasionally that aren't listed on their webpage (like that scoop of melon gelato). I'd love to see a peach gelato (yes, I can wait until August when Red Haven peaches are in season) since one of my fondest memories of Italy involves eating peach gelato on a Ligurian beach at sunset. I'd also like to see added to their standard flavor line up some of the Italian regulars like Stracciatella (chocolate chip) and Torrone (honey nougat).

For you local folks, Zingerman's Creamery website has some gelato dates to note:

June 3--opening day of gelato season and free mini-cones at the Creamery. Bring the small people! (Kids love small cones. Kids love big cones, too.)
Every Wednesday--buy 2 get 1 free gelato.
Every Sunday--free tours of the Creamery.

For the last item, any food-obsessed local friends want to meet up for a tour some upcoming Sunday? Remember, it is more fun to groan about the pleasures of abundant butterfat with friendly witnesses who can mock you later.

Green

We are on what feels like day 300 of perpetual rain here. (Note: if I had wanted perpetual rain, I would have moved to the Northwest where you can counter your lousy mood with lots of fresh seafood.) Beneath the dripping sky is a very, very green world. We haven't been able to mow the lawn in about two weeks since the grass is too wet and Fiona suggested that we tie the larger clumps of grass into pony tails--a new look in landscaping.

On a more positive note, last Thursday my bookgroup got together for our green meal to discuss our green book, Wicked.

First the food, since good food and drink always loosens the tongue. (I am amazed when people tell me they have book groups where there isn't food or alcohol--Whhhaaaaa?)

We started off with Lea's cheesy warm artichoke dip.

Garlicy, gooey, yum, yum, more.

Then we moved to the table and had Jen's beautiful asparagus soup. Jen has long claimed that she can't cook which we now all realize was just a confidence issue. The soup was excellent--velvety, warm and comforting on a chilly damp day.

Then we loaded our plates with Sarah's spinach pasta with pesto, Marilyn's salad with avocado and asparagus and bread flecked with (green) rosemary.
And to wash it down, those of us not on powerful antibiotics (sigh) drank a good deal of wine (in a green bottle, of course).

Sarah, looking thoughtful. Drink up, Sarah!

For dessert I made a key lime pie with whipped cream. Ok, so key limes are yellow, but I didn't have the heart to add food coloring to it.

And now, the book. There were a number of expressions of frustration about the book. I think we all agreed that the first half, from childhood until Elphaba finishes college was very compelling and that after that the book lost focus. The second half didn't measure up to the promise of the first half, in part because the most interesting relationship in the book is between Elphaba and Galinda and Galinda hardly makes an appearance in the second half.

I can't understand why a good editor didn't advise Maguire to limit the story to the two witches in their college days. There were so many elements, particularly in the second half, that were undeveloped, as though the author was trying to examine way too many themes, many of which he would mention and then drop. It seems to me that the contemplation of the nature of good and evil is a complex enough topic to demand complete attention, without lots of side topics to distract the reader. This left us with lots of head scratching--what the heck was the Yackel character about? She kept popping up which makes one think her appearance must be significant, but why she was there was never clear. And all the dragon references (was Elphaba supposed to be part dragon somehow, even though the book implies she is the Wizard's daughter?) were pointing towards something, but exactly what, I can't say.

So on a global examination of the book, people enjoyed reading it, but were pretty frustrated with the decisions the author made. I think that some of the pleasure was on a paragraph level--even if it had nothing to do with the trajectory of the book, there are some ideas and emotions that are really well expressed. It is just a pity that they didn't serve the plot better. We found ourselves looking up favorite lines and picking through scenes, which makes for great conversation and once again, found that a flawed book (though not a horrible book like The News From Paraguay which everyone wanted to forget as soon as possible) can yield an excellent discussion.

Jen, in one of her moments of dry wit, drew our attention to the following sentence which is about Elphaba and her group of friends at college.

"Perhaps every accidental cluster of people has a short period of grace, in between the initial shyness and prejudice on the one hand and eventual repugnance and betrayal on the other." (p.146)

We all looked at each other. Our book group has been together now for almost 6 years--are we on the brink of repugnance and betrayal? Thank god, no! So we poured another glass of wine, ate some pie and relaxed into the comfort of each other's company.

I may have pneumonia but...

I finally went to the doctor yesterday after 13 days of low fever and 4 days of a cough so horrific that I though a piece of my lung would come flying out of my mouth at any moment. She said my lungs were "rattling" and I have pneumonia. But hey, severe coughs are terrific toners for any floppy abdominal muscles you may have! I may have pneumonia but I now also have abs of steel! And a husband who makes me sleep in one of the kids' beds until my cough stops sounding like a dog barking in his ear all night long. I have come to realize that Thomas the Tank engine sheets are about as soft as sandpaper. Never noticed that before!

To continue in this vein, I may have pneumonia but I managed to finish the back of the red sweater last night while watching Lost:

A vast field of red, guarded by the mandatory toy robot...

Yes, actual knitting content! I haven't looked too closely (because denial is a big word in my life) but I think that all the cables are twisting the correct direction. If they aren't well, this is the back of the sweater so at least I won't have to look at any goof ups. Whoever gets stuck standing behind me in a line can amuse themselves counting errors. When it came time to cast on for the front, I couldn't remember which size I was making because, despite the proliferation of many instruments of writing in this house, I neglected yet again to circle the size I decided on when I began. So I had to count across the stitches a few times until I was cross eyed. Seed stitch combined with Codeine does funny things to the brain.

Also, I may have pneumonia but I managed to squeeze the juice out of this pile of wee citrus today:

Now that's a lot of little limes.

My book group is meeting tonight. I may have pneumonia but I'll be damned if I miss a good book group meeting, even if my appetite is pretty pathetic and I can't drink with the antibiotics I'm taking. This month we read Wicked so we're having an all-green dinner in honor of Elphaba, the main character. I'm determined to remember to bring my camera tonight, so photos of the spread and some commentary on the book will appear tomorrow. Or the day after (after all, if you didn't hear me say it already, I have pneumonia so I may cut myself a rest day).

Corn People

In an attempt to appeal to my incredible picky eater son, we have been having food-theme days. I try not to bitch too much about my kid's general suspicion and dislike for most foods since I figure this is my cosmic payback for my regular sin of gluttony. But I also can't just stand by while he passes up the pleasures of many a fine kid-friendly food (I'm not crazy enough to, say, plan on having "Mackerel Day!") So I've had to get a little creative.

Last week we had Corn Day and the end result was that Ian discovered he loves corn on the cob! I know, corn is only barely a vegetable (actually it is a grass...) but we are working on versatility more than just nutrition. To get to this point required a good deal of extra work on my behalf.

First we had to dig through the house and find as many directly corn-based foods. (I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma right now and the first section describes how Americans are corn people since pretty much every meat and processed food we eat is dependent on some corn based product. But for the purpose of Corn Day, I thought we'd stick to the recognizable ones.) We found canned corn, corn chips, corn meal, crunchy dried corn, frozen corn and some fresh corn on the cob that he helped me pick out the day before at the store.

Since my picky eater is also a reluctant writer (though not a reluctant reader, thank god), we did some corn-themed writing practice. He wrote "Today is Corn Day" and other such relevant sentences. He drew a picture of some corn in a bowl. We sampled some corn products throughout the day, but the culmination (and great success) came at night.

We took our corn on the cob out on the deck to shuck it. The kids helped pull the husks and silk off of the cobs and then before attempting the eating portion of the evening, we made a Native American-style corn husk doll.
(Instructions here; one is supposed to used dried corn husks rather than fresh because by the next day our doll had dried a bit and was pretty loose limbed. But making the doll with the husks of the corn they just shucked themselves holds a pretty big appeal for the small people).

Here she is in the hands of the gentler child:
After Fiona got hold of her she lost a lot of her corn-silk hair and her arms were yanked from side to side until they were dramatically different lengths.

Doll dismemberment in progress...

I proposed to take the shucked corn inside and give it a quick boil to cook it. But the kids decided that before I cooked it they should see what it tastes like raw. Ian took a tentative little bite:
and declared it delicious! Fiona was much more energetic in her corn attack. Here she is getting some good leverage on the cob:
and here is the end of that bite:
I think she has a future in baseball if we practice on enough corn cobs.

Both were eating the raw corn so enthusiastically that I couldn't pry it out of their paws to cook it. And since it seemed like a waste to boil water for just my cob, we all sat outside and ate it raw. It was surprisingly good corn for this time of year--a little starchy due to the raw state, but very, very sweet. The next day we tried cooked corn on the cob and they liked that too.

Now I'm wracking my brains about what other food "themed" day (or days) we can come up with. I'm thinking that a pea week would be good--I've planted my peas in my garden and when they are close to being ready to pick we could do a week of pea themed activities. Since Ian is so into science, I thought we could read about Gregor Mendel's principles of genetics that he figured out with pea plants. Ian has already been asking about dominant and recessive traits (why he has blue eyes and Fiona has brown, for example) so this could appeal to him. We could also do some seed sprouting so he can watch the seed turn into a plant. Whether this will actually get him to eat a fresh pea is questionable, but I'm sure as hell hoping that making the food theme into more than just eating will help.

Now, anyone have ideas of things I can do with strawberries?