Mastering My Domain (My Kitchen)

A couple months ago, I was lucky enough to snag a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking at the Book Barn before all the Julie & Julia hype hit full force. Last night, with all my good CT friends tied up with other plans and not really feeling great enough to go out (getting over a nasty summer cold), I decided to cook myself and Noe a restaurant-quality meal at home.


This was my first Julia entree. I've dabbled with some of the soups and side dishes, but this was my inaugural main course. I selected Coquilles St. Jacques a la Provencale for several reasons, not the least of which was it did NOT have a note anywhere commenting that it would take approximately three hours to prepare (it was actually a fairly short forty-ish minutes). I also picked it because the only thing I had to go purchase was the scallops - everything else (butter, herbs, cheese, etc) were more or less staples that I had on hand.

My chosen recipe

After swinging by Thames River for wine tasting (even though my senses were definitely still compromised from the cold) I picked up the fresh sea scallops and a baguette (this recipe looked pretty butter-rific and I figured the baguette could soak up some sauce) and headed home to work.

Of course, I started by pouring myself a glass of wine. I chose my current favorite white wine, the 2008 Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc. Not only is this sauvignon blanc extremely tasty to sip; I was planning on using some of it in the recipe. I had seen further down that the scallops would be simmered in "dry white wine", and I thought the minerality of the La Rame would add some nice flavor and the citrusy acidity might cut through some of that butter.

A great thing about Mastering the Art of French Cooking is that it breaks down recipes into sections and lists the ingredients you need for that section by the instructions - so you know what you need, when you need it. I began chopping a yellow onion, shallot, and garlic clove in preparation to heat them with some butter (I think every step of this recipe called for butter) in a small saucepan.

Onion, shallot, and garlic

After setting aside my fragrant stove top mixture, I dried my scallops (just patted them with a paper towel), seasoned them with some salt and pepper, and dredged them lightly in flour, shaking off the excess (cheater's note: I did NOT sift the flour as the recipe instructed. It was the only step I skipped).

Seasoned scallops

Lightly dredged scallops

While I was dredging, I was letting a skillet with some butter and olive oil get hot on the stove. After the final dredge, I threw the scallops in the screaming hot skillet and let them get a light sear on each side (this took maybe two or three minutes, tops), at which point I dumped in the aforementioned wine, some thyme, a bay leaf, and my onion mixture, threw a cover on the skillet, and let the whole mess simmer down for about five minutes.

Simmering on the stove top

When the five minutes were up, I took the cover off the skillet, brought the whole mixture to a quick boil to thicken up the liquid, then divided the scallops and liquid between a couple oven-safe Pyrex dishes. I covered each dish with some grated Gruyere and dotted them with pieces of cut up butter, then through them under the broiler until the cheese began to brown.

About to be broiled

WOW. Noe and I were knocked out first by the smell - this dish is heavily aromatic. But the flavor was out of this world. First of all, that much butter can never be bad. The wine's flavor had cooked down and concentrated, and it complemented the butter and seafood exactly as I had hoped. We had thought the dish might have a strong onion flavor with all the onion and shallot I had included, but it was a subtle, delicious flavor. The herbs added a delicate finishing touch.

The scallops themselves? Slightly sweet and not at all tough - in a word, perfect.

I didn't even make a side dish for this meal -we ate it with a simple salad and some cut-up baguette to soak up the excess butter mixture (which was almost as delicious as the scallops). I served it with more Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc.

Tumbler of wine; sliced baguette; finished scallops

This was quite possibly the best meal Noe and I have eaten in the past six months. He even gave me a high five when he was finished eating it. If you are intimidated by Julia's recipes, or by cooking seafood, or by the thought of eating six tablespoons of butter, I highly recommend getting over it. You won't be sorry.

Five Things I Love This Week

5) Pet Cameras
A Pet Cam can provide you with hours of amusement. If you do not believe me, check out my cat's blog, The Buns-Eye View. Seriously. Being lame gets more fun every day.

4) Zdeno Chara.
Why? Because his name starts with a "Z" and breaks the basic rules of spelling. Because he is 6'9" and people probably see him walking around T.D. Banknorth Garden and think he plays for the Celtics instead of the Bruins. Because he could hold someone at arm's length and let them swing and they would never touch him. What's not to like here?

3) Hockey Skates
I could never stand very well in figure skates, let alone actually skate in them. Hockey skates are God's gift to weak ankles and enable me to circle the Norwich Municipal Rink an infinite amount of times, dodging little children while "Careless Whisper" by WHAM plays over the loudspeaker.

2) Stop and Shop Frozen Desserts
Stop and Shop Frozen Desserts are among the most delicious desserts on the planet. If Noe and I ever get married, I seriously think I will forgoe a wedding cake and set out platter upon platter of Chocolate Cake Bites, Cheesecake Bites, and Chocolate-Covered Cream Puffs. I have never tasted any mini dessert - let alone a grocery store brand frozen dessert - so glorious. Stop and Shop even trumps Trader Joe's in the frozen dessert arena. If we move back to the midwest, I don't know what I'm going to do without these things.

1) Books that involve someone quitting/getting let go from their job and becoming wildly successful doing something they actually like, or if not becoming wildly successful at least getting a large enough severance to go to cooking school in Paris.
Yeah...this is probably not going to happen to me, but check out The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. Not that I think I could hack it for a second in French cooking school (or American cooking school, for that matter) but I can dream while I make cheapened versions of coq au vin in my crockpot that would make the Cordon Bleu chefs cringe, can't I?

Meatless in New London

No, I'm not going vegetarian. But I have been thinking lately that it would be better for my body - and the planet - to eat a little less meat. Or a lot less meat. It really does seem like every meal revolves around protein sometimes, doesn't it? (Of course, that is because meat is DELICIOUS.)

I read a lot, and sometimes I read random things. A few months ago in an airport, I noticed a copy of the infamous diet book Skinny Bitch sitting unattended on an empty seat. No one ever came and picked up, so before boarding the plane, I swooped it off the seat and into my bag. I wanted to see what all the fuss over this book was about.

Basically, it was a "sassy tome" (publishing house marketing words, not mine) written by a former model and a former model casting agent about how cutting all meat, dairy, caffeine, and most alcohol out of your diet is the only way to be healthy and skinny. Needless to say, it's a little extreme, yet I think the basic principles outlined did have a point. We probably all should eat less meat - better for us, better for the environment, etc. And I get the majority of the book's points about dairy: I mean, we really ARE the only species on the planet that drinks the milk of another species (although I think cheese is the most glorious food on the planet).

However, I do not necessarily agree with the book's assertion that the only way to be completely healthy is to replace all of these things with vegan products made to simulate them. I mean, a veggie burger or crumbled tofu are certainly a good protein substitute for hamburgers and taco meat. But have you ever read the label of vegan "cheese" or vegan "bacon"? There's just as many scary-sounding unrecognizable ingredients as there are in a Kraft single (processed "cheese" food?) Instead of eating all this fake stuff, wouldn't we be better off maybe to cut drastically back on the meat but to fill that void with fresh fruits and veggies? To be fair, the book does advocate fruit and vegetables in a big way. But almost every recipe in the accompanying cookbook, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, contains multiple fake ingredients.

I decided to do a little experiment and but back on meat for one week to see how it went. I decided on lunch, a meal I normally fill with leftovers from the previous night's dinner (I figured we could eat the leftovers for dinner the next night and save me some cooking - two meals for the price of one). Just out of curiosity, I bought some of these vegan substitutes to see how they tasted.

My first meatless/dairy-free meal consisted of a Boca burger patty (which I have eaten before simply for the convenience of being a microwaveable food) with vegan bacon and vegan cheese (I got tired of typing to quotation marks around "bacon" and "cheese" - you guys know what I am talking about).

The vegan cheese - or Veggie Slice, as I believe it was called - looked exactly like a Kraft Single...which is something I never eat (I buy sandwich cheese from the deli counter). It was even encased in individual plastic sleeves (shouldn't vegan products be more environmentally friendly than that?)

The vegan bacon was pretty weird looking from the get go - first of all, it was maroon; second, it tore apart really easily. Also, the flat strips did not curl up or shrivel at all when cooked. It went from being a semi-soft maroon strip to a crisp maroon strip. I stacked the bacon on top of the burger and melted the cheese over the whole thing - it took longer than regular cheese to melt - and apprehensively took a bite.

It tasted like nothing. I mean, it tasted like Boca Burger, which if you have ever had one, you know has a pretty distinct taste. But not only did the vegan cheese and bacon not taste anything like cheese or bacon, they just didn't taste like ANYTHING. I was kind of disappointed - I was expecting more. Even more terrible would have been OK - totally tasteless, however, is just not worth it.

I ate the fake cheese and fake bacon on a ground chicken burger the next night purely to save some calories and found myself also saving taste as well. Honestly, instead of using these products to cut weight you should just skip them all together. I am more mad about ingesting 80 calories of tasteless cheese and bacon than I would be about eating a naked burger.

So...although I still am actively trying to cut back on meat and some dairy, the only fake products I am keeping on the menu are the Boca burgers, Morningstar Breakfast Patties, and Silk vanilla soy milk. I am willing to swap out meat for soy products occasionally, but I am done trying to substitute things like bacon and cheese. And since I hate real mayonnaise, I can safely say I will never try vegan mayonnaise.

Some things just aren't worth it.

Five Things I Love This Week

5. Kirk Herbstreit (Football Commentator)
I like a lot of the guys who commentate or anchor on ESPN - really, sports commentators in general - because it seems like they get to say pretty much whatever they want, and sometimes that includes making obscure literary references or lame jokes. College football commentators are my favorites because you can just tell that they wait all year for kick-off week. That being said, I especially love Kirk Herbstreit. He is cute and funny and he was a Big Ten quarterback. He's like the homecoming king of football commentating. If he asked me to the dance, I would definitely go.

4. Harper Connelly novels by Charlaine Harris
These books are even better than the Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels (at least writing-wise). Harper was struck by lightning when she was 15, leaving her with an uncanny ability to find corpses. Mayhem ensues. The third one was kind of icky (on several counts) but the first two were spectacular. Can't wait for the fourth. (If you're interested, check out Grave Sight - its the first one in the series.)

3. Cannoli
I always say tiramisu is my favorite dessert, but you know what? I lie. I'd considered cannoli a close second until this past weekend when my ricotta-chocolate chip cannoli from Mike's Pastry in Boston (see my last entry) vaulted the cannoli into first place. Besides, you've never heard tiramisu referenced in a mob movie (bonus points if you can quote the line and name the movie).

2. Soup/Stew/Comfort Food
I've gained a new appreciation for comfort food. I pretend that fancy food is my favorite to make and serve, but honestly, during a week that I have mixed up a pot of excellent onion soup and a most terrific beef stew, I beg to differ. The fancy stuff is good for showing off (which, let's not lie, I also love) but there's big-time satisfaction in stirring up a pot full of happiness. Plus, with the soups and stews, you can start out following a recipe until over time you have modified it into your own. These types of foods are perfect for fall and my favorite things to cook. Plus there's usually enough leftovers for lunch - an added bonus.

1. Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (Tuesdays, 10:00 PM EST, Travel Channel)
Zimmern tops the list of people whose jobs I wish I had. He travels around the world and eats all the time. I honestly can not imagine a better way to make a living. I watch his show as preparation for our eventual trip to the Philippines (even though Noe assured me I would not have to eat any kind of wood worm after we watched that episode). My dream is to go to an open-air market in an exotic country. Some of my friends prefer Bourdain, but I'll take Zimmern's true enthusiasm for the food and the people serving it any day.

Library Love

I haven't checked a book out of a library since I was at least 13 years old. I never once checked a book out of my high school or college libraries - although my college did have an absolutely beautiful library completed only a year or two before I started there.

It's not that I was anti-library; I used to check out quite a few books as a kid. However, the Ypsi library's rather poor selection (this was pre-brand new Ypsi Township library, by the way) combined with the fact that I read more and faster than the average person made the library sort of an inefficient option. Plus, I generally like to re-read my books.

Lately though, I noticed I was spending a LOT of money on books. Like, as much as I used to spend when I worked at the Earle and went to Border's every Sunday (and the Border's Rewards program not only gave coupons but holiday savings bucks. Probably the reason they don't do that anymore is because I got almost seventy dollars worth of free books between Thanksgiving and New Years.) Even the discovery of the Book Barn wasn't helping much because I was seeking out specific books and they were not necessarily available in used form.

So I turned to a solution that at the time seemed quite desperate: the New London Public Library.

To be honest, the only reason I even gave the library a chance was because it is a block away from work, meaning I can walk there, browse the books, and walk back on the average half-hour lunch break. Also, I was reading the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books and had not yet decided if I liked them enough to buy all eight, and no way was I buying just one.

I wasn't expecting much from the New London Library, and my expectations were met. It is somewhat small and most of the books are old. They often have the middle of a series but not the beginning or end. I was about to give up without ever checking anything out until my coworker told me about what I considered to be the library's redeeming feature (besides proximity to work).

It turns out that all the area libraries are linked up to one online database, which you can search not only from the library computers but also from your home computer. As long as the book you want is in that database, you can reserve it and select which library you want to pick it up and drop it off at. The library will then get it for you and call you when the book comes in.

I have now done this three times (all with Charlaine Harris books, no less) and am finding it an extremely agreeable system. And I have yet to wait more than a week for something that I have put on reserve. Plus, all that going back and forth to the library on my lunch hour resulted in me finding another redeeming quality: the kids section. Yes, most of those books are also old, but I want those books to be old because I want to find the ones I used to read...hence the fact that I re-read Bunnicula last week (hey, I had to check it out - Noe didn't believe that Bunnicula was a real book).

If you have given up on your local library, I am urging you to give it another chance. I know it is saving me money, which, let's face it, we can all use to do these days. Plus, some libraries have really great community programs, book discussion groups, or show neat movies. I know I'll never give up Border's and the Book Barn (or Amazon - damn internet) completely (or even really remotely, if we want to be honest) but for the books I am only going to read once or am not sure that I'll enjoy, the library is a fantastic option.

Due South

Last night I was watching TrueBlood, the television offshoot of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels I have blogged about recently. TrueBlood is set in steamy Bon Temps, Louisiana. As I was watching a scene where the townspeople drink lemonade on a front lawn while watching the coroner carry a body out of a duplex, I started to wonder what makes the deep south such an appealing setting for legal thrillers, crime stories, and supernatural fiction.

I realized that many, many of the books I consider my "literary crack" (mostly paperback legal thrillers and the aforementioned vampire novels) are set in Mississippi, Alabama, or Louisiana. I have never visited any of these places. The closest I have been is Tennessee, and then I was in Nashville - great for music history but not exactly a hotbed of incestuous small-town criminal activity.

As an ode to the territory of the country I have oft read of but never visited, here are my top picks for literary crack deep south novels:

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
The sixth Sookie Stackhouse novel features an inbred community of werepanthers, a New Orleans party barn fit for a vampire queen, and an action-filled chase through a Bayou swamp. Now that's what I call atmosphere. Really, the whole series is worth the read, but four, five and six are my favorites so far...

The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client by John Grisham
I can not pick just one of John Grisham's novels from what I call his glory period (anything from A Time to Kill to The Rainmaker), but I can pick three. These are great books. Once again, skip the movies - although they are actually pretty well cast, the scripts are terrible. Every time I think The Firm is my favorite (love those Cayman Islands scenes where they drug Avery Tolar) I remember how cool Darby from The Pelican Brief is (holding hands with an internationally wanted assassin right before he is shot!) Just when I think PB is my favorite, I remember the digging-up-the-body-in-the-middle-of-suburbia scene from The Client. It is simply impossible for me to pick a favorite Grisham novel, or even narrow it down to two.

The Quiet Game and Turning Angel by Greg Isles
If Greg Isles would write more Penn Cage novels, we would have a John Grisham situation on our hands. Isles is sort of my new Grisham (since Grisham's gotten lame), except he's naturally a little darker and edgier. And Penn Cage makes my list of fictional characters that I'm sort of in love with - he's like a modern-day less goody-two-shoes Atticus Finch (not that I don't love Atticus.) Seriously, try these out if you're looking for a good legal thriller. Technically The Quiet Game comes first, but you don't need to read them in chronological order.


Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
This one technically shouldn't qualify for the list, as it is non-fiction and while as readable as the literary crack, is actually critically acclaimed with a journalistic bend. But it is one of my all-time favorite books and in a weird way, makes me like that fictional stuff even more because it sort of convinces me that the south actually is THAT weird.

What about you? What's your literary crack? And on the off chance that any of the eight people who regularly read this are from the south, do you ever read any books about us weirdos in the northeast or midwest?

Five Tings I Love This Week

5. Yul Brynner

I watched The King and I on TCM last night and was reminded of how much I adore Yul Brynner, although I really have only paid attention to two of his movies: the aforementioned Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (he originated the role of the King of Siam on Broadway as well) and The Ten Commandments, one of only two videos that my poor Catholic elementary school owned and therefore I watched at least twice a year between first and sixth grade.

Yul as either the Pharaoh or the king is a commanding presence. As the Pharaoh he is scary; as the King he is hilarious. I'm sorry Deborah Kerr, but I hardly pay attention to you when you're sharing songs and scenes with Yul (my favorite of which is the "Shall We Dance" scene - "We do it again!")

(Also, while we're talking about The King and I, can I just throw out there how much I love, love, love that Uncle Tom's Cabin dance sequence?)

4. Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Novels

As if Twilight wasn't bad enough, the Trifecta has become enamored with a new vampire series...well, actually it is an older vampire series. Charlaine Harris started writing her southern vampire detective series in 2001 and is currently on the eighth installment. We became aware of it when HBO developed it into a show staring Anna Paquin called TrueBlood. Naturally, we started reading the novels.

Well, now I am on the fourth book and let me tell you, these things are pretty damn addicting. This is not intellectual or thought-provoking reading. And these books definitely have more of an...um, adult bend than the Twilight books. But if you like mystery or suspense (or even trashy romance novels - heavier on the "trash" than the "romance") you might find these an enjoyable light read. Start with Dead Until Dark - it's the first one in the series. The show isn't half-bad, either.

One major complaint: Bill is a stupid name for a vampire.

3. CoffeeMate Italian Sweet Cream coffee creamer

Normally I am not one for flavored creamers. I am strictly a plain half-and-half kind of girl. If it's iced, most of the time I'll drink it black. But when Stop & Shop started carrying these new flavors of CoffeeMate, I could not resist picking up the Italian Sweet Cream flavor.

It is the most delicious substance I have ever put in a cup of coffee - including Bailey's.

Just a hint of sweetness and rich creaminess combine for the perfect antidote to a dreary cup of coffee. It even masks the slight bitterness of work coffee, a miracle in itself. It might be slightly overbearing if you make your coffee on the watery side. But as long as Stop & Shop keeps carrying it, I will never go back to regular half-and-half again.

2. The Wii Fit

Noe bought me the Wii Fit for my birthday. He tried to get it for me awhile ago but it was sold out, no doubt due to legions of overweight people hoping to transform their lives with a video game.

If that sounds too good to be true, well, that's because it is. The Wii Fit is not going to help anyone lose mass amounts of weight. What I wanted it for was the strength training and yoga programs. I never lift weights or do strength training at the gym because I feel stupid and I am impatient, and yoga classes are WAY expensive. So I asked Noe to get me the Wii Fit to sort of inspire myself to do this stuff at home.

This thing is seriously cool. The balance board and some data you input calculate your BMI and you can chart progress and set goals. Some of the exercises are really good, and I love the yoga segments. The aerobic segments, while not incredibly tough or calorie-burning, are definitely enough to get your heart rate going between strength or yoga segments. Plus, the hula hooping looks so stupid that you will burn extra calories watching yourself or someone else attempt it (go on YouTube and search it and you'll see what I mean).

1. Fall

I realize that I am probably in the minority here, but I do not love summer. As much as I do love things like flip flops and dry rose, which are definitely summer things, I'd take fall any day.

I like the crispness in the air, the cool nights, campfires, and wearing long sleeves. We've finally started to have some fall-like weather, which has made me extremely happy. You can still do a number of summer things - ride your bike, go on walks, have campfires and cookouts - in the fall, and I think those things are even better when it's not gross and humid and you're not covered in sweat. Plus, fall brings one of the most fun holidays - Halloween, for dressing up - and one of the best eating holidays - Thanksgiving (though granted, that comes so late it is more like winter). I even like cooking more in the fall. Although I love the grilled foods we eat all summer, soups, stews, chili, and hearty pastas are my favorite dishes to make. I can't wait to make a batch of hot cider and throw our pumpkin-carving party this year...

Things I like that I used to dislike

Over the course of the past few years, I have changed my position from not favorable to favorable on a number of things, most notably:

Tomatoes
I used to hate tomatoes. Not tomato-based products - I have always loved marinara, salsa and ketchup - but a slice of tomato on a burger was enough to make me gag. I think much of this has to with the fact that 1) I was very unadventurous when it came to food until I began working in restaurants (not that tomatoes are adventurous, but I wasn't eating any place that was serving fresh tomatoes) and 2) the few tomatoes I had been exposed to were disgusting, thick, light pink, not-in-season slices of nastiness.

My feelings toward tomatoes began to change when I quit eating Pace salsa (which I now think is gross, to be honest) and started eating chunkier salsas where you could actually see the vegetables. But it was my summer in the Upper Peninsula living with Aunt Missy (to whom I owe a great, GREAT deal of my food appreciation and current passion for cooking) that really changed my mind about tomatoes. Aunt Missy made the best BLTs. She made them with really good, thick-cut bacon, crisp iceberg lettuce (iceberg lettuce DOES have a place in the food community, and that place is on a sandwich), and deliciously fresh, juicy, in-season tomatoes. Because of Aunt Missy, the BLT is now my favorite sandwich, and I like tomatoes enough to grow them in my backyard (see the next thing I used to dislike, gardening, below). FYI - Aunt Missy is also the reason I started making my own pesto.

Gardening
I thought gardening was a lame, old lady hobby. My gardening consisted of growing one pot of mint and that was only so I could make mojitos.

Once I got together with Noe, however, I started getting slightly more into it. Noe's mom was really into flowers and plants and Noe definitely picked that up from her. He had really cool houseplants, and he and I worked on the front flower beds and the big deck flower pots at the old house.

Then we moved to Connecticut and not only did I inherit an awesome front flower bed (complete with a Japanese Maple) but I inherited a back garden patch as well. Since I am in to food and fresh, local food has slowly but surely been becoming the "in" thing, I decided to give it a try.

Well, those of you who have read the blog know that this experiment ranks as a success. I have in the past week alone eaten cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, beans and countless herbs that I have grown myself. They are not as pretty as the vegetables in the store (some of my cucumbers look downright alien) but I think they taste better. The garden is here to stay.

Knitting
Another thing that I thought was strictly for old ladies and people with too much time on their hands. Really, I thought pretty much all "crafty" hobbies were hopelessly lame. Even pictures of celebrities knitting on movie sets couldn't sway me.

When my mom starting knitting I was sort of horrified. Except that she turned out to be really good at it. Seriously, she graduated from fun-fur scarves to sweaters within like, months.

Mom tried to teach me several times, but I did not have the patience or the temperament for it. Plus, it took too long to make any noticeable progress.

One day though, I got really bored and started looking through Mom's copy of Stitch & Bitch (the cool knitter's bible) and found a pattern for a simple scarf knit on huge needles with chunky yarn. Apparently you could make this scarf in a time frame that could be measured in hours rather than days. My interest piqued, I bought some yarn and taught myself (from the pictures in the book) how to cast on and knit a basic garter stitch. Two hours later, I had my black and white scarf.

This scarf is by no means pretty, and if you look closely, the squares of black and white are totally different sizes because I was too lazy to really count rows. But it was a stepping stone on the way to much better scarves. As for other projects, well, I am still trying to build up enough patience for those. We'll see this winter.

Gwyneth Paltrow
For some inexplicable reason, I used to hate Gwyneth. The mere sight of her on a poster was enough to make me not want to see a movie. I didn't want to buy magazines with her on the cover. I have no idea why I was so anti-Gwyneth; perhaps because - even though I loved Shakespeare in Love - I thought she stole an Oscar that belonged to Cate Blanchett?

However, I have begun to warm to Gwyneth over the past two years or so. First of all, the woman can actually act. Second of all, she has AMAZING style. (Seriously, if I were tall and skinny and had legs that were 10 feet long, I would dress just like her.) Third, once I started watching all those Gwyneth movies I had been ignoring, I found that she has been in some great flicks - most notably Emma and Sliding Doors. (Honestly, I don't know why I waited so long to watch Sliding Doors. If you haven't seen it, rent it.) Now instead of studiously ignoring Gwyneth projects, I am counting down days to the premiere of her PBS series with Mario Batali where they eat their way through Spain. Yum.

John Steinbeck
I don't know what Steinbeck book you had to read in middle/high school, but if it was The Pearl then maybe you hated Steinbeck, too. My distaste for The Pearl was pretty much enough to convince me I wanted nothing to do with the rest of Steinbeck's literary repertoire (plus, I read the last few pages of Of Mice and Men and it sounded really sad).

Later on in high school and college, when forced to read Mice and The Grapes of Wrath, I started to grow lukewarm towards Steinbeck. He wasn't so bad. I'm not sure what convinced me to buy East of Eden. It could have been that I had just taken that bible as literature class (which was incredibly cool, by the way) and Eden is more or less a modern-ish retelling of the book of Genesis. Or...it could have been that I just liked the name. (Anyone ever notice how these guys - Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc - wrote the best titles?)

Anyway, Eden was a literary life-changing book for me. It immediately earned a place among my all-time favorites. I have re-read it twice and can pretty much open it to any page and start from there. I am not sure why I like it so much; it is certainly not a happy book, and it contains one of the most truly evil women ever to grace the pages of fiction. But it is storytelling at it's best and most epic. Plus, it made me like Steinbeck which in turn made me read Cannery Row, which is a delightful little book itself.

"Weaves a Sinuous Spell"

I have talked about books a fair amount, mostly in reference to my discovery of the Book Barn and the Twilight series. I have also taken the opportunity to sing the praises of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (if you haven't read it, will you please give it a try?)

However, as I was sitting down to write a blog that was originally going to be about my frustration with Cormac McCarthy (I LOVE the plot and story line of No Country for Old Men, but seriously, Cormac - can't you use quotation marks?) when I realized I have been completely neglecting one of my favorite contemporary authors - OK, probably my flat-out favorite contemporary author - Jeffrey Eugenides.

I admit, my relationship with Eugenides started out a bit dishonestly. I fell in love with The Virgin Suicides, but it was not the book I fell in love with - it was the movie. That's right, I said it. I'm very open about the fact that I was completely enraptured by Josh Hartnett's best performance ever as Trip Fontaine, the school heart throb. Yet more than Josh and his groovy seventies look, I was positively entranced by the whole feel of the film - which, upon reading the book three days later, I realized Sophia Coppola totally got.

See, The Virgin Suicides could be a hard book to get, at least on film. It is heavily atmospheric - the late seventies, suburban Detroit setting is almost a character in itself - plus it is all at once gothicly romantic, darkly comedic, and fantastically tragic. It is no way realistic , yet you don't entirely believe that the events couldn't happen. The collective and somewhat distant male narrative seals the deal for me - this book is something special.

(The movie is none too shabby either - check it out. It is so well done, in fact, that I may never dis Sophia Coppola for her awful performance in Godfather III again. I am also willing to overlook how over-rated Lost in Translation was on the basis of the fact that she did such a great job with this source material.)

Middlesex - Eugenides' Pulitzer-winner - is a totally different book, but similar in certain ways. Once again, it paints a picture of a Detroit from another era. Actually, it paints a picture of Detroit from several different eras, from the immigrant 1920's right up to the race riots of the '70's. The themes, however, are totally different, as is the narrative. Instead of this somewhat distant and removed third-party observer, we have a first-person narration begun before the first person even is a person. The themes of Middlesex are more complicated and less superficial than The Virgin Suicides, but it is just as juicy and satisfying a read.

(Personally, I prefer Suicides just a tiny bit over Middlesex, but that may be based solely on the fact that I read it first and it has a killer movie and soundtrack. Honestly, they are both amazing books.)

Now, you may think that I love these books because they are set in Michigan, where I am from. However, while they reference several points that I am geographically familiar with - the old Hudson's department store, Belle Isle, the Renaissance Center, Detroit Country Day, etc - these books are about a Detroit I never experienced. It is no different than reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and wanting to go to Savannah or Summer Sisters and wanting to go to Martha's Vineyard. I may know where Detroit is, yet I don't know this Detroit - but I wish I did.

Anyway, if you are looking for something to read, I hope you'll give Jeffrey a try. Trust me, he's less intimidating than other Pulitzer winners and ten times more readable. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Are You My Mother?

Does anyone else remember the children's book Are You My Mother? it's about a baby bird trying to find it's mother. Along the way it questions other animals and even some pieces of machinery.

This kind of reminds me of that book:



Poor baby whale. I hope it turns out OK.

Favorite Things for Today

5. 2007 Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc. Too bad I just drank the last glass of it and the wine store has no more. At least that last glass was delicious.

4. Greg Iles Mystery Novels. Well, not all of them - just the Penn Cage ones (The Quiet Game and Turning Angel). Good legal thrillers are literary crack for me, and these are particularly suspenseful and juicy - like John Grisham before he got lame (which was after The Rainmaker, in case anyone was wondering).

3. Sour Cherries. The best fruit on earth. Want to make a cherry even better? Make it sour. I could eat a pound of these things. I've now bought them twice at Stop & Shop and I dread the day they disappear.

2. Rescued Seal Pups. We have three of them at the aquarium in the rehab pool. If you've never seen baby seals, well, they are cuter than puppies. These little guys are getting re-released on Friday morning and I hope to go watch before work. I'll try and get some pics.

1. Gardening. There is nothing as satisfying as eating something you've grown yourself. Even when it's just fresh herbs you use to season your chicken (and trust me, store bought thyme and rosemary have nothing on home-grown) or mint you use to make your mojitos, there is a definite sense of accomplishment. Tonight I picked our first tomatoes, and the peppers will be ready to go soon, too. The basil plants have exploded and I can't wait for some homemade pesto. Bonus: weeding is a great way to get rid of excess aggression - take it out on the crabgrass!

I'm not cool.

I officially joined the ranks of the nerds today - I purchased a graphic novel.

Actually, I joined the ranks of the nerds a few years ago while working at the Earle in Ann Arbor. One of our line cooks, Curtis Sullivan, happened to be the owner of Vault of Midnight, the comic book store downtown. My day job at the time was at the Ann Arbor News, and sometimes on my lunch hour I would get bored and go hang out at the comic book store.

Curtis was the one who introduced me to the Sin City graphic novels. Since I had thought the movie was incredibly cool, it wasn't a hard sell. I collected three of them, all of which I lost in my breakup with Randy.

Anyway, I hadn't really given graphic novels much thought since then. Sure, I see all the comic book movies and would even go as far as to say that some of them (the first two Spiderman movies, Iron Man, and the recent Batman movies come to mind) have a ton more plot and character development than a lot of other source material. But I didn't really think about reading any more graphic novels until we went to see Dark Knight and saw the trailer for something called Watchmen.

I have to admit, I was baffled by trailer. I could tell it was supposed to be big, and important, and I thought I saw Denny from Grey's Anatomy in there. But I didn't get it, and I didn't really care - I was 100% invested in the Batman hype.

But later on when I was looking up Twilight coverage from Comic-Con (I told you I was already a nerd), "Watchmen" tidbits kept popping up.

It took being bored at work - I mean, bored on my LUNCH HOUR - to really investigate. I Googled "watchmen" to see what I could come up with and found out that it is apparently the most important graphic novel of all time. Amazon gave me a brief and totally unsatisfying synopsis, so I turned to Wikipedia. I knew comic fans wouldn't let me down on a medium like Wikipedia, and they didn't. I not only found incredibly detailed plot synopsis, but all kinds of character information and back story. (Main "Watchmen" Wikipedia page here.)

By the time I had Wikipedia'd each of the main characters, I pretty much knew I was going to end up buying the book. Curiosity got the best of me. So I ordered a used copy from Amazon and it should be here in a few days.

I'll keep you updated as I descend into nerdiness.

(And I don't really think that there's anything wrong with reading graphic novels - I just needed a catchy opening line.)

Summer Reading List

I read a LOT. This is no secret. I've always been this way. I was the kid who brought books to the dinner table - even when we ate in restaurants. I also read fast - my parents would have to buy me three paperbacks to get through a drive from Ypsilanti to the U.P. I actually read every book I was ever assigned in school (with the exception of The Scarlett Letter, which I am fairly certain that NO ONE in my honors English class actually read and should be removed from required reading. That book sucks.)

Anyway, when you are always seen with a book in your hand, it goes without saying that people ask you for recommendations. I've been asked several times to post my "must read" list on the blog, but I've refrained from doing so because I know the minute I hit "post" I'm going to think of four or five books I should have added and by the time I'm done the list will have forty-seven books on it.

However, I have decided that there is no harm in posting some recent recommendations from time to time. So, for those of you who have requested it - Amy's July Reading Recommendations. Let me know if you like them! And by the way - I am always looking for recommendations myself, if you have any suggestions...

For Foodies/Restaurant Employees/Home Chefs:
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl came from L.A. to the east coast to take over as the food critic for the New York Times - which, you find out from this book, can be a pretty thankless job. After her first review she became more or less the most hated woman in New York City. She was also fairly recognizable, thanks to her mane of curly hair and the fact that the NYT put her picture on a billboard prior to her arrival. In order to experience restaurants as an average customer, Reichl enlists the help of an older acquaintance and a wig shop owner. Reichl's accounts of her various disguises are amusing and her food writing is nothing short of delectable. You'll also thank her for steering the NYT dining section away from reviewing only stodgy formal restaurants and toward exploring smaller neighborhood places and ethnic offerings. Reichl may have left the paper to be the editor of Gourmet magazine, but her influence is still all over the dining section.

Buy it here on Amazon.


For History Buffs/Royal Watchers/Tabloid Readers:
Sex With Kings and/or Sex With the Queen
Eleanor Herman

Written in a dishy, gossipy style, these accounts of European monarchs and their sordid affairs is at times hilarious, outrageous, and eye-opening. The amount of influence a royal lover could have over political procedure is almost appalling. Honestly, Charles and Camilla are the most boring of the bunch. I thoroughly enjoyed both books, but actually prefer Sex With the Queen - often there was more at stake when a queen was keeping a lover and these relationships were generally carried out with more secrecy. Today's celebrities and politicians don't even know the meaning of the term "sex scandal."

Buy it here on Amazon.

Classy People/Travel Buffs/People with ongoing home improvement projects:
A Year in Provence and Toujours Provence
Peter Mayle

A British writer and his wife buy a house in the French countryside. Doesn't sound that interesting, does it? Well, Mayle's accounts of adjusting to the French timetable (projects begun in the summer often don't end until the next fall), the French lunch hour (make it two hours five courses) and a more or less totally unstructured lifestyle is fascinating. Mayle has a dry British wit that I find incredibly appealing on paper, and his descriptions of the characters, the scenery, and most of all the food will have you lusting after his lifestyle. You will cringe when his English friends infringe on his hospitality and drool over every meal description. Enjoy this book with a glass of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Buy it here on Amazon.


For Everyone - I can not recommend this book highly enough:
Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen

This is not exactly a recent recommendation - I read it last summer while house-sitting in Kalamazoo. Those of you who know me know that I NEVER cry at books/movies/etc. Well, the staff and patrons of Water Street Coffee Joint would never believe that because they watched me cry on and off through this whole book (not like, SOB or anything - just get a little teary-eyed). Water for Elephants is the best book I have read in a long time.

Set in depression-era America, Water for Elephants tells the story of Jacob, an aspiring veterinarian stripped of his resources by an unexpected tragedy. Jacob hops a train in the middle of the night, not realizing that he has accidentally hopped the train of a traveling circus. Before long, he is drafted into duty as the show's vet. Jacob finds himself caught in a love triangle with a beautiful horsewoman and the schizophrenic ringmaster amidst dealing with the everyday cruelties of the circus lifestyle.

Gruen's research and attention to detail are amazing. The notes in the back of the book are as fascinating and as sad as the fictional narrative (FYI if you read them - be prepared to be VERY upset with Thomas Edison). Men might be tempted to stay away from this one because it sounds like a sappy love story, but I promise you, this is historical fiction at it's best.

Buy it here on Amazon.

I hope these brief synopsis' encourage you to give some of these books a try. I'll post some more recommendations in August, and please let me know about any good books you've read as well!

Gatsby Update

I blogged about Doyle's Great Gatsby Party in the post below this one, but I had to update with a few more pics. These were taken by Brian Samas, who says photography is just his "hobby" but he's pretty damn good at it!

Samas made me look like a movie star...I AM Jordan Baker!

Noe looked freakishly appropriate in 20's wear.

My hair got bigger as the night got more humid

"The Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe"

"Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?"

I personally don't, but Daisy Buchanan, the main female character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby always watched for the longest day of the year and missed it every year. This year, there was no way I could miss it because Kevin Doyle, our own history buff/literary enthusiast, decided to become Jay Gatsby for a night and host a spectacular solstice party, complete with 1920s costumes and prohibition-era cocktails.

Theme parties can be a bit of a gamble: you can never tell if people will actually embrace a theme or not. Doyle felt pretty confident with this party that at least five people would go all out: himself, me, Amanda, Dr. Mark, and Charlotte, all of whom are fans of the novel and enjoy playing dress-up. Much to our delight, every guest but one showed up in some form of a costume.

We picked Jordan Baker as our inspiration for the evening

Most impressive was how the boys stepped up to the plate. None of them went as far as Doyle (who donned a seersucker suit and a straw boater during the day but changed to a full tuxedo when darkness fell) but almost every man there had on some variation of the striped pants/bowtie/old-fashioned hat combination...and they all looked fantastic.

There are no bowties left in New London

Girls costumes are a little bit more elaborate, of course. The easiest thing to do is probably wear the fringed flapper dress commonly found in costume shops. And while that is a very fun costume, Amanda and I were going for a slightly different vibe, the Daisy Buchanan or Jordan Baker vibe - more society girl than flapper.

Mingling with costumes and cocktails

Well, thanks to Amanda's extensive googling, we were able to do it right. We ordered our dresses from Unique Vintage, which specializes in reproductions of vintage clothing. It's a little more expensive than buying the flapper costume, but these dresses are beautiful - good quality fabric, exquisite bead work, and if you follow the measurements on the sizing page, they fit really well. Accessories were collected through a couple trips to Peacock Feathers (the vintage store here in town) and Kohl's, of all places (which is actually where most of the guys bought their hats).

Finding headgear to go with a gold beaded dress took a little work. Amanda lucked out and found a great hat at Peacock Feathers, but while we saw a lot that were period-appropriate, none really matched my dress. I settled for making a sequined headband. One glue gun and a few cheap feathers later, I ended up pretty satisfied with the results.

I have to give mention to Dr. Mark's friend Charlotte for putting together a beautiful costume of mostly vintage pieces. Charlotte looked more like Daisy than any other other girl at the party. Her hair and makeup were perfect as well.

Doyle, Charlotte, and Mark

While we did not receive five crates of oranges and lemons from a fruiterer in New York (nor does Doyle have a juice machine in his kitchen) we did mix up some delicious prohibition-era cocktails and served them in fancy glasses. (We were almost sidelined by the fact that Doyle did not own a zester, but that problem was eventually solved.) One particularly delicious drink Amanda made was the Monkey Gland (weird name, I know) - a version of the recipe appears below:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz orange juice
• 1/4 oz grenadine
• 1 dash absinthe

Shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, then strain into a martini glass. We garnished with maraschino cherries, but you could probably use an orange slice or peel as well.

It's pretty yummy. If you can't get absinthe, Pernod would probably work.

Of course, elaborate cocktails get to be kind of pain after a while, so after a couple we switched to gin and tonics or similar simple beverages.

As far as entertainment, Doyle set up a croquet set in his yard and we had bocce ball. He also downloaded some jazz-age music in case anyone knew the Charleston (no one did). But most of the enjoyment came from wearing awesome costumes, exclaiming over other people's awesome costumes, quoting lines from the book to the people who hadn't read it, and just enjoying the company in general.

I hope Doyle makes this party an annual event, because I will be watching for the longest day of the year from now on and I'll be very sad if I miss it now that I know how fun it can be!

Me and Amanda

Amanda, Kevin, Noe, me

Interview with a vampire novel-reading maniac

I was sitting in bed on Sunday morning, drinking a cup of coffee and catching up on a stack of Time magazines when I came across an article about a young adult author named Stephenie Meyer.

Meyer, a Brigham Young graduate, mom of three young children and well-behaved Mormon, writes vampire novels - pretty sexy vampire novels, according to the article.

"Hmm," I thought. "Sexy young-adult vampire novels? I may have to check this out."

Later that day at Borders, I remembered the article and searched out Meyer's books. I didn't have to search far - they were displayed on their own table at the very front of the store, and I realized I had seen the striking covers (black backgrounds with one central contrasting image) before.

I picked up Twilight, the first book in the series (three have been published so far; the fourth and final is due in bookstores August 22) and the only one so far to have been released in paperback. It was $9.99 and I had a 30% off coupon (thanks, Borders rewards!) so I figured even if I didn't like it that much it wasn't too high a price to satisfy my curiosity.

What I was NOT expecting was to devour it much like I did volumes five, six and seven of Harry Potter (coincidentally, it was Eclipse - the third book in the series - that knocked the seventh Harry Potter out of the number-one spot on the best-seller list).

I haven't read something that I literally could not stop reading since I read Water for Elephants last August. I could not put it down. Noe had to tear it out of my hands and force me into the car to go to the driving range.

This book is insanely readable. Yes, it's about high school students, and yes, it is also about vampires, but shallow it's not. And it is sexy, but not in a gratuitous, Anne Rice-way (which is really more erotica than sexiness).

Basically, what you've got is Bella, a 17-year old outcast from Phoenix who moves to the tiny town of Forks, WA to live with her father. Forks is one of the rainiest, dreariest places in the United States. On her first day of school, she notices the Cullen family, a group of freakishly good-looking (if somewhat pale) siblings who seem to keep to themselves. When Edward Cullen is assigned as her lab partner in biology, things start to get a little weird. The first day they meet, he won't even look in her direction. He sits completely tense at the edge of his chair with his hands gripping the lab table. By the end of the week, he wants to know everything about her.

It is slowly revealed that Edward is a vampire. However, Edward and his family have made the (unusual) decision to go "vegetarian" - they live off animals rather than humans. Because of this, they are able to mingle somewhat normally with the townfolk. A few caveats, however: 1) They can't go in the sunlight without drawing immense amounts of attention to themselves (they sparkle), which is why they live in Forks; 2)They have to go "camping" every other weekend or so to hunt big game and quench their thirst; and 3) They are the sworn enemies of the local Indian tribe (for reasons revealed slowly over the first two books).

There's one other problem: although Edward is immensely attracted to Bella, the smell of her blood drives him insane. Like, wants-to-drink-it insane. It's really quite the paradox.

I realize how cheesy and stupid this sounds as I type it out, but I am telling you, these books are weirdly and incredibly readable. I blew through all three in a weekend, which now means I am stuck waiting until August 22 to find out how things turn out. I may even be a real geek and pre-order it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read some Ayn Rand so I can feel like an intelligent and well-read 26 year old again.

A few items of interest...

First of all: THERE WILL BE A NEW POST TOMORROW! There is a good reason for my lack of posting; I picked up some freelance copywriting work from a design firm in Norwich and that took up my evening writing time/creative energy. But I have finished my assignments for the time being, so it's back to blogging.

I have also been too swamped at work to even scan the headlines to find news items to blog about - my fallback when I am feeling a lack of creativity. This is doubly disappointing because I love current events. (I did hear a good NPR interview the other day with a guy who trains dogs on movie sets, but unfortunately didn't retain enough info to blog about it.)

Also, for those of you who don't know, my house was toilet papered this weekend. The last time I TPd someone's house I was just out of twelfth grade and I thought I was too old for it then. It may have been humorous had the perpetrators not known that Noe was already in a terrible mood. He did not find it at ALL humorous, as the perpetrators have since realized. Lesson learned: Don't poke Noe when he is in the zone!


On the good side: I attended New London's first annual Saint Patrick's Day parade on Monday and will be writing a blog about it as soon as I get some pics from Doyle. Also, I signed up for golf lessons, which should provide some excellent blog fodder. AND I am almost finished reading The Six Wives of Henry VIII and am planning to highly recommend it.

So tune in tomorrow, where you can also see my NCAA tournament bracket! I was a third-place winner last year, pushed out of the top two spots soley by my hope that Michigan State could get out of the second round. Unfortunately, I have not been paying as much attention as I usually do to college basketball leading up to the tournament, so I have no idea how my bracket is going to fare this year. Stay tuned and find out!