Homemade Lemon Cake

Artisanal Cheese

2012-02-13T06:05:00.000-06:00

Green Dirt Farm's Bossa cheese was recently featured on the vegetable menu at Per Se, Thomas Keller's upscale New York City restaurant. Keller is a phenomenal chef--his four cookbooks are works of art, and Per Se has three Michelin stars. So this is a feat, getting your cheese on the menu. It is like a stamp of approval from an internationally respected chef.So congratulations Green Dirt Farm!I recently visited the farm and saw the wonderful renovations they are doing on their cheese kitchen--it is incredible to me how much chemistry is involved in cheese making. The other thing I did there was tour the lambing rooms--at that point they had 150 lambs, and 10 were from that day--two were from the hour that I got there. Very cute, and also very well cared for. That is the thing I love about a place that is not a factory farm--the animals look happy. I left the farm with a good feeling. The hard thing is that they struggle to break even. The factory farm is the one that makes money. It is a sad thing, one that will hopefully reverse.

50/50 (2011)

2012-02-12T06:54:00.000-06:00

This movie is billed as a comedy, and there are definitely laugh out loud moments, all of them attributable to Seth Rogan--no surprise there. But it is essentially a very serious story told by a man who faced his own mortality in his mid-20's and retained a sense of humor about the ordeal.Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a writer for Seattle public radio. He has some nagging back pain, which he seeks care for and finds out that he has a neuro-fibroma-sarcoma-schwannoma. Not only is it a mouthful to say, no one knows what it means, but when he looks it up on the internet, he finds out that at best his chances are 50:50. His girlfriend is initially supportive, but a few too many nights of vomiting after chemo, and she is sleeping with someone else. She stays out of pity and guilt, and when Adam's best friend Kyle reveals her true colors, he kicks her out. She did get him a rescued greyhound, which was a good move, because the dog is definitely a comfort to him as he slogs through chemo--which doesn't work, and he needs to have surgery as his last chance at cure. Throughout the experience he is in therapy--with Katherine (Anna Kendrick), who he quickly susses out to be a rank amateur, and gets her to admit that he is her third patient ever. She makes every mistake i the book--including getting personally involved with him--so not a good example of therapy and what it can do, but a good source of hope for Adam.The mom is Angelica Houston and she is not a particularly sympathetic character here, but as the parent of a childhood cancer survivor, I did feel her pain. There were several tear jerking moments, but I have reason to be hit hard by them--others might sail right through them unscathed, but this is about the most uplifting movie about cancer that you could ever see.

Year of the Dragon

2012-02-11T05:57:00.000-06:00

I find the Year of the Dragon to be a bit of a divergence from the rest of the Chinese astrological animals--they are all real things, this is something mythical. And why is the pretend animal the one that everyone considers so lucky? I would think you would want to have the intelligence of the monkey, for example.Maybe I am just jealous. I was born in the Year of the Pig. Not exactly the sort of animal that conjures up inspirational thoughts, to be sure. But it is an adaptable animal, one that is purported to be smart. It is versatile, it can survive on anything, and so maybe not terrible, but certainly not awe inspiring to look at--more of a beauty-is-skin-deep kind of an animal.The dragon, on the other hand, is spectacular to look at. It has all the cool qualities of a snake, with the added panache of a fictional character--the flowing main, the elegant snout, and the whole fire-breathing aspect is very nice. The dragon is considered to be a very lucky year to be born in--in China, couples delay childbearing to have a child in the Year of the Dragon. I didn't know that when I was having children, so I just lucked out to get one. Time will tell what great qualities he will bring to the world, and to fellow Dragons.

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

2012-02-10T06:14:00.000-06:00

The title of this book refers to the people who were left behind. The story unfolds in the wake of an event very much like the Christian Rapture and revolves around those left behind. This Rapture — the simultaneous evaporation of an untold number of people — appears to have nothing to do with faith or goodness. It is not so much reward as it is an eeny meeny miney moe, you must go kind of event. This adds a layer of uncertainty to the world Perrotta describes. "As far as anyone could tell," he writes, "it was a random harvest, and the one thing the Rapture couldn't be was random. … An indiscriminate Rapture was no Rapture at all."The idea of a Rapture that may not be the Rapture is vintage Perrotta; he's a satirist who likes to poke fun at the vagaries of contemporary life. The response people have to it is predictable and yet very inviting as a story. There are those who ramp up their piousness, in the hopes of being chosen in the second go round. They are ever more convinced that their faith will bear fruit, and they are much more invested in proselytizing, as well as pointing out the sins of others. There are people who are just trying to cope. As you would imagine, husbands lose wives, children are gone, there is a lot of grief following such an event. The loss is enormous. And there are a lot of people who are suddenly single who didn't expect to be, so there are relationship opportunities. The possibilities are endless, and Perrotta does a good job of plumbing them.

Long Term Relationships

2012-02-09T05:59:00.000-06:00

Today is my anniversary.Three decades, three music formats, no matter how you you look at it, it is a long time. And for the most part, I don't think much about it. It just happens. Amidst the kids, work, friends, family, all the things we do together, and all the things we do apart, I don't usually pause to contemplate. But it is remarkable that you can meet someone when you are 20 who you will still enjoy as much when you are 50. The reasons change, the connections change, but the fact that I don't even think about it on a day to day basis amazes me when I do stop to contemplate it.

Slacklining at the Super Bowl

2012-02-08T07:32:00.000-06:00

Madonna brought Andy Lewis and the sport of slacklining to a mainstream audience at the Super Bowl half time show. The woman is incredible. Forget that she is 53 years old (I know, some people said she looked old, but as someone who is her age, she looked unbelievable. Not to mention the physical aspects of her act and how she sailed through them. Judging from a New Yorker article that interviewed her persoanl trainer a decade ago, the woman works out 6-8 hours a day--but still, it is impressive.Then on top of her glitz, she introduced people to the new hipster sport. My third son is a slackliner, so I knew what it was immediately, but I was not in the majority.What is this sport you ask? It is the new parkour. Slacklining is the act of balancing along a narrow, flexible piece of webbing that's low to the ground and usually anchored between two trees. Tricklining pushes it further, with professional athletes performing flips, twists and other students and competing for titles. But above all it is very cool (especially when people are doing it relatively close to the ground, as opposed to over great gulches, where the risk to life and limb is considerably greater). A big round of applause for Madonna, a middle aged woman bringing the latest to the rest of us.

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

2012-02-07T06:34:00.000-06:00

As is so often the case, this werewolf story has a lot of sex associated with it. Sometimes it is subliminal, but not so here. Jake is our hero, and at 201 years old he is quite vigorous. He has lots of sexual partners, and has only one rule--he pays for sex. Not because he is so desperate, but because he invariably kills his mate. He just doesn't want to take those kind of risks with someone he has had to woo. I can see that.Jake is the last of his kind--for some reason the bite of the werewolf usually turns the victim into a werewolf themselves, but it just hasn't been happening. And the problem is that vampires are in need of werewolf blood, so he is being hunted by the maestro of all wolf killers. He's perfectly willing to give it up without a fight. But that doesn't happen. Jacob is swept up by so many other plots — one of these involves an ancient book said to explain the origins of werewolves — that he can't get back to the simple business of dying. Best-laid plans of wolf and man go awry here.The book is so well written that you can quickly forget that it is werewolf literature and just go about the business of enjoying this clever, eloquent, elegant, darkly humorous story from cover to cover, and not catch the wave of the occult it is reflective of.

Planned Parenthood

2012-02-06T06:37:00.000-06:00

There has been a lot of hoopla surrounding Susan G. Komen for the Cure this past few days. I had been very impressed with their ability to successfully brand themselves, and become *the* name in breast cancer. It probably didn't hurt that breast cancer incidence was rising, early detection allowed more women to be successfully treated, and that up until them, cancer hadn't seemed very attractive. They dressed it in pink, made it their color, and mobilized money and brand recognition. They were a force to be reckoned with. When they made demands, policies changed. Even if they were not all that great an idea, medically speaking.And then, all of a sudden, they put themselves under the public scrutiny microscope in a big way. They abruptly changed their granting criteria, and announced they were withdrawing support for Planned Parenthood. It was a disaster in public relations. I think if they had rolled out a plan that had access to affordable health care for low income women that equaled that of Planned Parenthood, and explained their rationale, it might not have been so bad. But they did not. And it seems that isn't why they did it anyway. Instead, Planned Parenthood looked like the good guy--they had donations rolling in and the role they have played in filling the gap between the haves and the have nots made them look squeaky clean. The fact that they perform abortions, in addition to the myriad of other services they provide for women wasn't persuasive to a majority of people. That must have come as something of a surprise to the Komen people. They weren't expecting that. Pink was suddenly a dirty word. Unexpected scrutiny started to explode. All the while Planned Parenthood raked in good press and played the jilted lover. Lesson learned? Time will tell.

The Ides of March (2011)

2012-02-05T06:19:00.000-06:00

This is not about 21st century twists that have been added to the mix--there are no discussions about smear campaigns with commercial blitzes, how getting big money is the only way to make it in the modern political landscape. Nope, this is straight ahead politics that could have taken place 50 years ago.The central character is Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), who as a press secretary is required to more or less lie as a living. He does it very well. He works for Pennsylvania Gov. Mike Morris (George Clooney), an idealistic liberal. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Paul Zara, his seasoned campaign manager; Michael Mantell is Sen. Pullman, Morris' opponent, and Paul Giamatti is Tom Duffy, Pullman's campaign manager. Rahel Evan Woods plays a college student, the daughter of a powerful man, who is interning on the campaign, and she provides the opportunity for sexual scandal and she is the naive one who thinks that good will triumph over all. It is a very strong cast and the script does them justice. No matter how you feel about the message and the ending, you will be impressed by how well it came across. Clooney as a director brings a perfectionism to the final product that is very impressive. He is not just another pretty face.All of the men, except young Stephen Meyers, are realists. They're cynical, compromised and often underhanded, but all in the cause of something they believe in. The Gosling character believes mostly in himself. Like many staff members of powerful men, he confuses reflected glory for the thing itself and dreams not so much of Gov. Morris winning as of being able to rise in the staff ranks and take over Zara's job. The movie is kind of like the process of turning out a prostitute--once you get them to take money for sex, you have them well on the path to hooking, and this is about Gosling going through the political equivalent of that psychological process. What would you do?

Dance Marathon

2012-02-04T05:43:00.000-06:00

Dance Marathon at the University of Iowa is quite something. So many dancers, all giving their time and energy to a cause--childhood cancer--that no one really wants to talk about. I should know. I have a childhood cancer survivor, and there are so many things that I would rather talk about than the role that catastrophic illness in one of my children did to my world view.The money it raises is serious cash--over a million dollars to devote to research and making the lives of children with cancer better. Now that is a cause that is easy to get behind! Let's try to decrease the chance that it will happen to someone else, and in the meantime, try to make the lives of children who already have the disease a little better. It is an impressive undertaking. Not only do the dancers dance, they also spend a lot of their time fund raising. Which has the secondary benefit of raising awareness about childhood cancer. I know that there are a number of genetic cancers that manifest themselves in childhood, but the rise in children with brain tumors is something of a canary in a coal mine scenario in my mind. What we do with our environment, especially things that endanger our water supply, makes me think we should really pay attention to some of these warning signs.Another benefit of the involvement of many kids is that they know that people their age and younger get cancer--maybe it helps to raise their personal awareness and allow them to participate more in their own health.Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my son Tucker for the efforts he has made on behalf of children with cancer and their families. He has been a camp councelor at the summer camps for children who have had cancer and their siblings ever since he graduated as a camper himself. But this year he took the big step of being a part of Dance Marathon leadership. It has been a big time commitment, and he has done a great job at it!

Stormin' Norman at The Acme Oyster House

2012-02-03T07:08:00.000-06:00

We made a trip to New Orleans in late December, and while we only had 24 hours to get all our eating in, we managed to stop at the Acme Oyster House in the mid-afternoon for a dozen oysters and a side dish of red beans and rice.We have been going to the Acme for about 20 years now, and over that time it has become a place of some renown. In our early days there you would never see a line. The place is far bigger than it looks, and the turn over is at a dizzying pace. It is not at all uncommon to get a seat, place your order within 5 minutes, and 10 minutes after that your food has arrived. The wait staff move about at a brisk clip, refilling iced tea glasses and inquiring about whether you need something more, without seeming rushed.

Now it is a place of some fame, and on our recent visit we waited about 20 minutes outside just to get a seat at the bar--the upside of the bar, besides that it is a great place to sit when you are by yourself, is that you get to watch the oyster shuckers shucking. We were fortunate enough to be seated right in front of Stormin' Norman Conerly, who has been shucking oysters at the Acme for longer than we have been going there, and has been featured on the Food Network. We always enjoy the food at the Acme, and the company is usually pretty good too, but watching a master of his craft is an added plus. Later the same day we watched the oyster shuckers at Luke's and it was so clear who the artist really is. Norm, hands down (pun intended).

Maestro Empanadas

2012-02-02T07:38:00.000-06:00

I have loved empanadas my entire life. They are a recurring theme throughout the world--a portable meal, completely encased in a container of dough. They are called different things--pasty's in Cormwall, calzones in Campania, bao in China, samosas in India, pierogis in Poland, vareniki in Russia, the list goes on--but they share common features. The highly seasoned filling is one. I like it when there are a number of vegtables that have been cooked in with some sort of protein for the filling. A little bit of heat is also a good thing--a chile or something along that line. The crust is equally important and also varied. The best option for me is something that is browned but holds together well under being consumed. If multiple cultures have a variation on this theme, it is a food that has universal appeal.What is it about them? They are savory, often filled with something that is inexpensive (or better yet, if you are making them yourself, with leftovers), highly flavored, and transportable. My favorite empanada experience was buying them on the street in Bolivia. So delicious, and sold for a song.Now there are empanadas in Iowa City. An Argentinian, making empanadas of the type found in northern Argentina, has a business whereby they make five different kinds of empanadas (beef, chicken, pork, cheese and zucchini) that you can buy at the Farmer's Market, or with 24 hour notice, they will deliver (http://maestroempanadas.com/). Once I knew about this, I immediately ordered up the full assortment of choices and had my family over for dinner. We have children who eat only meat, some who are vegetarian, and so there was something for everyone. The cheese were the most popular with my offspring, although my least favorite of the five. The beef have a nice blend of vegetables and meat of the three meat varieties, the chicken are much moister than you might expect, and the zucchini are remarkably good--all of them could use a bit more spice, but we keep a bottle of hot sauce on the table and that was easily remedied. I would highly recommend this new dining option.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

2012-02-01T07:35:00.000-06:00

Stephen King wrote a butterfly effect book. In a doomed diner in Maine, there is a rabbit hole that takes you back to 1958. Every time you go down it, you are in the same place at the same time, and everything you did before is erased. Jake Epping is a burnt out teacher with an alcoholic ex-wife. When he is told about the time travel option, and encouraged to go back and save Kennedy from assassination, maybe change the world for the better, he agrees. It is intriguing. If Kennedy had lived, would we have ramped up involvement in Vietnam? Would the civil rights movement have gotten so out of hand? Would Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy have been assassinated? The book is not so much about who killed Kennedy but what would have happened if he had survived.On the other hand, it is not at all about that. The bulk of this very bulky book is about a man out of his time fully engaging in the lives of those who belong there. He manages to fully engage in the life of a small Texas town, fall in love, be good at his job, and have people care about him. If he didn't have the whole Lee Harvey Oswald problem hanging over his head, he could be happy there.But it not to be. First off, it is not easy to pretend that you don't know stuff. He gets caught in small but repeated errors that make people suspicious. And then there is the job at hand. Jake is not a killer, and so it is not all about just finding the guy and killing him. There is a process he has to go through to establish Oswald's probable guilt.The story takes several turns before getting to an end--it is well written, and surprisingly quick to read--don't be daunted by it's size (this would be a great book to get on Kindle--much lighter that way).

The Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine

2012-01-31T05:29:00.000-06:00

I just moved, and one of the things that I had to do was go through my fabric collection. This is something I haven't done in quite some time. I knew that it would be bad. My first hint was the summer that I decided to use up all my quilt blocks that I had made that did not end up in the final quilt. Things that just didn't work for a particular project, but I couldn't bear to just throw away, so instead I threw them in a box. Kind of like an intermediate step. Well the summer between the birth of my 3rd and 4th sons I got that box out and made baby quilts with these blocks until I ran out of them. I ended up with 70 baby quilts. That was a wonderful thing. The bad news? I only used up 2 boxes of fabric in the process. And I had about 30 boxes all told. That was the summer I stopped going to fabric stores. It was abundantly clear that I already had more fabric than I was going to be able to use in this lifetime.

I haven't quilted regularly over the past decade. There was only one thing my husband asked me to do as a result of this recent move and our having assessed all our worldly possessions. He asked me to quilt again. I have already planned my quilting space. It is in the room of my one remaining child at home's room. Once he moves out, I rearrange the room and make an area that I can quilt in. But getting back on the quilting horse is more complicated than that--one ingredient is taking classes again, and getting creative ideas and momentum back.A week ago, I was directed to a friend of mine's blog (http://pearlthesquirrel.blogspot.com/). It is a wonderful blog, full of great thoughts, ideas, and creativity. The blog post that I read when I first read it was about her new Singer Featherweight sewing machine, and I felt a real pang of jealousy. The Featherweight is a real thing of beauty. It was made by Singer from 1933 to 1964, and weighs in at 11 pounds. I have seen quite a few of them at quilting classes that I have taken over the years, and the appeal is very clear. When machine piecing, the fact that it only goes forwards and backwards is not a liability, and the weight of the machine makes it easy to transport. My Bernina requires some serious upper body strength to haul around, and the older I get, the less appealing that is.So I got on Ebay, found one that looked just right which had a sale expiring in an hour, so I bid on it, and before you know it, I had myself a Featherweight of my very own. It is just adorable, sews like a dream, and makes me feel like I am committed to getting back to quilting now that I have the perfect portable machine.

Blueberry Cobbler

2012-01-30T06:58:00.000-06:00

My husband does very little baking. He is good at it, but he prefers to make savory dishes, and he is very good at that, so we allow him to skip the baking. He has been cooking out of cookbooks that are written by New Orleans chefs since we got back from a short trip there (24 hours, 5 meals) which led him to Donald Link's Blueberry Cobbler. It is very good, and can be made with a variety of fruits (we were shy on the blueberries needed, so added enough sour cherries to make it work.Here is the recipe.Biscuit dough:1 1/2 c all-purpose flour1/3 c granulated sugar3 tsp baking powderpinch of salt1/2 tsp ground cinnamon1/2 c butter (cold)1 large egg, beaten1/2 c milkBlueberries:3/4 c granulated sugar2 Tbsp cornstarch1/3 c water5-6 c blueberrieszest and juice of 1/2 lemon1/2 tsp vanillaCrumble topping:1/3 c brown sugar, packed1/3 c butter3/4 c all-purpose flourPreheat oven to 400. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl or food processor. Cut in the cold butter until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and milk together, then stir into dry ingredients to form the dough. Set aside. Combine sugar and cornstarch with water in a saucepan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the blueberries, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Pour the blueberry mixture into a buttered 8 x 12 dish. Top the fruit with spoonfuls of the dough (it does not have to cover the berries completely). Mix the brown sugar, butter, and flour, then sprinkle over the dollops of dough. bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is lightly browned and the dough has cooked through. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before serving.

South Riding (2011)

2012-01-29T10:21:00.000-06:00

The series is situated in the British drama sweet spot: between the first and second world wars, when classes started to mix like never before in Britain. Based on Winifred Holtby’s 1936 novel, it tells the story of Sarah Burton, a modern-minded woman who is one of the 2 million British women left without a mate because 2 million British men died in the war.Sarah (Anna Maxwell Martin) has returned from London to her little home town, the fictional South Riding, which sits by the sea in Yorkshire. Here, she persuades the town council — chaired by Mrs. Beddows (“Downton Abbey’s” Penelope Wilton and just as good here) — to hire her as headmistress at the decaying high school for girls. She gets the job after making an emphatic plea for preparing South Riding’s young women for a changing world.One of the more influential men in town, Robert Carne (David Morrissey), isn’t too impressed with her talk and would yank his daughter, Midge, out of the school except that Sarah has somehow gotten through to the nervous girl and brought her out of her shell. He’s a dour sort — hard exterior, soulful center — struggling to keep his estate afloat and provide the best care for his mentally ill wife, who is institutionalized with no hope of recovery (a problem significantly compounded by the fact that his angry actions put her there in a rather direct manner). He falls for Sarah, as does another man, which provides some of the requisite romance for the tale (which does not have an altogether uplifting ending). All the while the town's elders are trying to make a buck on a public housing project that they are ostensibly doing for the greater good. My quarrel with the series is not that it borrows broadly from Dickens--Dickensian England did not end with his death, and so that part is at least accurate--but rather that the emotional aspects of the time are not much explored. Sarah is adamantly single, Robert eschews intimacy, and maybe that is reflective of the place and the time, but a bit more would have made it seem more real. In any case, if you cannot quite satisfy your 'Downton Abby' addiction, this is a good place to turn.

Looking Out the Bathroom Window

2012-01-28T06:27:00.000-06:00

This is the view from my first floor bathroom window. My house has some spectacular views, and many of them are different from each other, but this is one of my favorites. It is very peaceful to look out, no matter what time of year it is, and see something that is both simple and beautiful. Which has led to my current dilemma. No curtains. To be sure, this is an exposed view--both inside looking out, but also potentially outside looking in. Granted, we have no neighbors. Not a one. So exposure hasn't been a reality up to this point. Various family members might be wandering about outside, you do have to keep track of them. But largely it has been a non-issue. So the view has won out over modesty. I can't yet put my finger on the quality that such a view imparts to my life, but I am sure that it is there. I just haven't been able to name it yet. The problem with a peaceful setting is that it is easy to not worry about it. Just to enjoy.

Macaroni and Cheese

2012-01-27T06:34:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I haven't posted something about macaroni and cheese in the 2+ years I have been blogging, because it is my signature dish in a lot of ways. It is at least my signature comfort food dish. I have marked many children's childhood's with my macaroni and cheese. My kid's school would have a fund raiser and I would make macaroni and cheese. I would make it for my youngest son's class for lunch. I would make it when I was doing a 50 person dinner because it is an easy, make-ahead side dish. The ironic thing about my macaroni and cheese is that it is a very old recipe in my repertoire, dating back to my college days, when I lived in a housing co-op with 19 other people. We had a small handful of cookbooks, all of them vegetarian (it was the 70's, after all), and one of the ones I loved most was Anna Thomas' "Vegetarian Epicure". My macaroni and cheese is an adaptation of her recipe. It really is best if you make it and serve it right away, but the real beauty of this dish is that it is pasta you can make ahead of time. And fast. I recently one, and it took about 20 minutes. The recipe is easy doubled or tripled and so long as you have large enough pots, it does not add to the preparation time. Here is recipe (and some tips) for making it to bake later:The first key is to make a bechamel sauce:Melt 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan. Once it is bubbling, add a 1/2 c. of flour. Stir vigorously, letting it brown a bit. This is making a roux (if you have a roux stirrer, use it--it really helps. If you make this and love it, get a roux stirrer. You won't be sorry).Now add a quart of milk very slowly and in batches. At first, milk should be added until the sauce is no longer thick. This is the only tricky point in the whole recipe, because it tends to lump up if you do it too fast and it sticks to the bottom if you do it too slow. Once the sauce is not longer thick, let it cook a bit. The warmer it gets, the thicker it gets. At the first pause in the action, add a bay leaf, some salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder and then grate as much nutmeg as you can manage into the sauce. This is the secret ingredient in the bechamel sauce--it has to be fresh grated, and it is best if you do a lot. Gradually add the rest of the milk, and turn off.Meanwhile have a large pot of water with salt in it boiling on the stove. once it is at a rolling boil, add a pound of macaroni. Give it a quick stir, put the lid back on, and set the timer for 5 minutes. It won't be done then, but if you are making the macaroni ahead of time, under cook it significantly. At 5 minutes, drain it.At this point, I put the macaroni into the contained I am going to bake it in, stir in the cheese, and then pour the sauce over it. If I am making this fancy, I use Anna Thomas' suggested cheeses: fontina and gruyere. Another option is to grate up cheeses that you no longer have another use for that are in danger of going bad in your cheese drawer. But what I usually do is use pre-grated cheese. My favorites are parmesan, sharp cheddar and Monterrey jack. I use enough that it looks cheesey and the sauce should look like it is way too much. As the pasta sits, it will absorb the sauce, and the finished product will be flavorful without the pasta tasting overcooked. Sprinkle with panko.For baking to serve: Try to bring it up to room temperature beforehand. This is not always possible, and it is not completely necessary. If you can, then bake it for about 45 min. at 350 degrees. If you can't, it is more like an hour, and turn it up to 375 it isn't looking brown on top by the end.

I Do (2010)

2012-01-26T06:25:00.000-06:00

Only the French could do a film like this and get away with it. Here is the basic plot. Luis Costa (Alain Chabat) doesn't want to get married. An introduction, at breakneck pace and in black-and-white, shows us why. He grew up surrounded by women. After the early death of her beloved husband Hercules, the matriarch Genevieve (Bernadette Lafont) instituted a family council in which Luis is always overruled by the woman in his life--his mother and five sisters. By 43, he's happily single, with a job as a mixer of perfume - and a gorgeous apartment that's as tasteful as it is tidy, eating at his mother's place regularly and having his laundry done by his sisters. The sisters vote and agree he should marry; they choose women for him. He rejects all comers, with increasing hostility, until he meets Emma (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the sister of his colleague. He has a plan. He hires her to be his fiance. Her main job is to get his family to adore her, and then to abandon him at the altar, leaving him so understandably heart-broken that he cannot consider marrying. Silly plan, predictably fails, and equally predictably, Luis and Emma fall for each other.Old-fashioned doesn't really describe it. At the same time, the film does have some contemporary resonance. They are alone without being loners. Emma's goal is to adopt a baby from Brazil, without a partner; Luis wants neither partner nor children. There's a strong sense that they're missing out, but don't see it. If you love French Romantic comedies, this is a good representation of the genre.

Paula Deen and Diabetes

2012-01-25T06:42:00.000-06:00

Frank Bruni's op/ed piece in the New York Times said it best. The "I told you so." response to her announcement at first blush seems warranted. But on closer examination, the same charges could be leveled at many a cooking show. The chef's involved peddle food that almost literally stands the healthy food pyramid on it's head, all the while living a different lifestyle themselves. They prepare a multi-course feast that is steeped in calories, only to take small bites of it themselves and then go hit the gym. If they are eating the food and look thin, bulimia is another possible explanation. Bruni had a dietitian take a peek at Deen's recipes compared to other chef's and found they were comparable, and at times even less caloric. Deen's announcement about her diabetes came off as self-serving (she should have tried for a lapse between sharing her diagnosis and her contract to promote an oral hypoglycemic medication. That might have helped a bit), but at least it was an honest portrayal of the consequences of eating the food she prepares--and she always looked like she ate food. I also bristle at the condemnation of someone for not making their personal medical history public information. It isn't actually our right to know. In any case, it allows for an open dialogue about food and contributions to obesity.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk

2012-01-24T06:54:00.000-06:00

Molly Stevens new cookbook, 'All About Roasting', is very good, but we remain faithful to her earlier cookbook, 'All About Braising'. This is NOT a kosher meal...and it doesn't look nearly as good as it tastes (the good news is that the kitchen smells fantastic and olfaction is very important in taste. I served this with pasta with pesto, and it was both simple and delicious. 4 garlic cloves, peeled - three slivered, one smashed1 tsp. dried sage1/2 tsp. fennel seeds, lightly cracked1/2 tsp. sea salt1/2 tsp. fresh-ground pepper2 1/2 lb. boneless pork rib roast, tied2 tbsp. olive oil1 1/4 C whole milkSqueeze of lemon juice2 tsp. half-and-half or heavy creamIn a small bowl, mix the slivered garlic, sage, fennel seeds, salt, and pepper. Poke one-inch holes all over the pork with a paring knife and stuff garlic slivers in the holes, then rub any remaining seasoning over the surface of the meat. Wrap the pork up and stick it in the fridge for a few hours, if you’ve got time.Heat the oven to 275° and locate a pot that’s not too much bigger than the pork. Melt the butter with the oil over medium heat, then toss the pork in there and brown it on all four sides. Take the pork out and put it on a plate. Pour off all but one tablespoon of the fat from the pot.Add the remaining smashed garlic and cook over medium heat until it’s fragrant, about thirty seconds. Pour the milk in the pot slowly, so it doesn’t foam up too much, bring to a boil, and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to dislodge the tasty brown drippings. Put the pork back in the pot, along with any juices that pooled on the plate, then cover and put the whole deal in the oven. After about ten minutes, check to make sure the milk isn’t boiling too much, and if it is, turn the heat down a bit. Braise, covered, for another thirty-five minutes, then flip the meat over and leave the lid slightly ajar so the steam can escape. Braise for another thirty-five minutes or so, until the pork reaches 150° on an instant-read thermometer. Remove the pork and let it rest on a plate or carving board, tented with foil to stay warm. At this point, your kitchen should smell heavenly and the liquid that’s left in the pot should look kind of curdled. Skim off as much fat as you can, then put the pot back on the stove and boil the sauce down until it’s caramel-colored and the consistency of a loose, curdled custard. Add the lemon juice and taste the sauce for seasoning. Finally, to make the sauce more attractive, add the half-and-half and zip with an immersion blender (or in a real blender). Cut the strings off the pork, slice it up, spoon the sauce over it, and serve.

Moneyball (2011)

2012-01-23T06:13:00.000-06:00

Moneyball is a sports movie, but you do not have to love baseball to love it. It tells the true story of Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt. Beane was a high school baseball star who never quite clicked in the big leagues and became the general manager of the 2001-2002 Oakland A’s, a small market team with a small market budget. The film opens with them losing their three biggest players. The team cannot win a championship, compete financially, and is losing momentum. Fast. Beane is good at what he does but his budget is too small for the quality of his work to make a difference. He has a team of scouts who are old school baseball and it is dawning on him that the old way of doing business is going to leave the A's near the bottom of the American League West, with no hope in sight. Beane stumbles upon young Yale graduate, Peter Brand played by Jonah Hill. Brand, a composite character based on Bean’s actual consultants, uses a system called saber-metrics to turn recruiting baseball players into an equation, replacing intuition with statistics and numbers. Beane and Brand calculate a seemingly laughable team, with no support from the other scouts, who are set in their old-fashioned ways, superstitious, and are wary of new trends (one memorable scene has them discounting a player because his girlfriend isn't pretty enough for them--what man with enough confidence to be a big league baseball player would date a 6?). Despite disagreements with the team manager Art Howe, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who doesn’t realize the genius of Brand’s math, Beane and Brand’s method establishes a legacy. You don't have to be a long time movie watcher to figure out early on that they are going to have success--but it is not over-the-top success. Other teams, teams with bigger budgets, pick up their methods and use them to their success. But the process that Beane went through to make the decision to turn down a college scholarship to Stanford and go directly to major league baseball--for the money--taught him something, and he uses that to chose things that matter to him over money. It is a good lesson, hidden in the folds of a sport film.

South Carolina Primary

2012-01-22T09:11:00.000-06:00

I like Barney Frank’s quote the best, where he said ‘I never thought I’d live such a good life that I would see Newt Gingrich be the nominee of the Republican party.’ Seriously, the guy is incredible. Incredible narcissist, incredible brass, incredible resilience. They called Reagan the Teflon man, but Newt has it all over him. Now admittedly, South Carolina is in his Southern stomping grounds and has a Conservative base that would resonate with what Newt has to offer. But still. Really? I am not sure what it is with Christian conservatives and adultery. As long as you are a Republican, then it seems to be infinitely forgivable. Perhaps it is because it is so common. If they didn't forgive there wouldn't be anybody left in politics.I am personally not supportive of adultery--if you want out of your marriage, just say so. Make the break. Adultery is hedging your bet. Having your cake and eating it to, with compulsory lying heaped onto the already unpleasant pile. It says that you are more important than your spouse (as well as your children, should you have them) and none of that is appealing to me.On the other hand, I don't expect or demand marital fidelity in my elected representatives. What I do expect is some consistency in values. If it is okay for you, then it should be okay for everyone. But that sort of logic is sorely lacking in Mr. Gingrich. And that has been successful for him, so maybe he is on to something. Do as I say, not as I do. I wish I didn't find him so irritating because it would be really nice to celebrate this win.

Miniature Trifle

2012-01-21T06:30:00.000-06:00

I have been in a bit of a baking slump. My spouse thinks that it is because I have not hit my baking rhythm in our new house. I know where everything is, I just don't know how I am going to put it together to bake with ease.The other factor is that for over a year we have been working on decreasing the volume in our freezers, and a lot of the build up was baked goods. I was not incentivized to bake, and therefore I didn't.So when I have been pressed to make dessert of late, I have been looking to options that do not require me to bake. I have had some leftover cake (someone else's creation--when you are not baking, the most common answer you give when asked what can be brought to dinner is 'dessert'. Sometimes that leaves you with leftover cake).I have always been a big fan of trifle, but I have recently been making it in smaller, individual versions. I made it last week in wine glasses and this week I made it in tiny ramekins for a dinner where there would be multiple desserts, so I wanted to give people more of a dessert bite than a dessert overdose.This version has small cubes of cake on the bottom, a dribble of liquor, then a tablespoon of nonfat vanilla yogurt (Brown Cow is my favorite), some sliced strawberries and a few blueberries, then topped off with whipped cream. They are best if they sit for several hours before served.

My Last Five Girlfriends (2009)

2012-01-20T06:41:00.000-06:00

We meet Londer Duncan as he decides to put an end to any future painful romantic experiences, which for him means he must end his life (that is the big leap here--why not celibacy? Well, he does answer that question at the end). Over the next hour or so, we learn how he has come to this point. He reveals the five causes leading to this tragic effect: his failed relationships. While, it might sound trite, MyLast Five Girlfriends is a captivating whirlwind of a tale, with hints of surrealism and wry quirkiness.As we witness each relationship in Duncan’s life promisingly unfurl and then painfully diffuse, the film cleverly drifts in and out of surreal imagery. For starters, as a transition to his subsequent female endeavors, he wanders through a fantastical theme park called "Duncan World." While each initially entice with the promise of quick thrills and endorphin boosts, things begin to excel too quickly or soar too high, and the landing becomes a painful splattering on the concrete. His relationships do tend to crash land in this way rather than just petering out.The thing about this movie is that our hero really pretty much screws up most of these relationships, either in part or full on, and while he voices an understanding of what went wrong, his assessment is completely out of synch with what we the viewer sees--so as he hurdles into the next relationship, we see all the pitfalls long before he does. It is classic British romantic comedy--you can see why their reputation as rather bumbling lovers comes from, and you can laugh with them, rather than at them, in this light movie.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

2012-01-19T05:45:00.000-06:00

This book answers the question of "Do people act rationally when they are engaged in spending lots of money--buying and selling stocks, getting mortgages, etc?" Economists think yes, but psychologists beg to differ. The author is a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in economics, so he has some street cred in this area. I really loved this book--it was 'Blink' with more data, and lots of examples of how you can break down the decision making process.Kahneman builds an understandable (for the lay person) framework for how, or why, the mind reasons as it does. There are two factors at play--which he calls System 1 and System 2 (which is my least favorite part of the book--it would have been nice if they were named in some way that related to how they operate). System 2 is your conscious, thinking mind. We conceive of this active consciousness as the principal actor, the “decider” in our lives. System 2 thinks slowly; it considers, evaluates, reasons. Its work requires mental effort—multiplying 24 by 17 or turning left at a busy intersection. We attribute most of our opinions and decisions to this thinking, reasonable fellow.For Kahneman, however, the main player is System 1. This is the agent of our automatic and effortless mental responses. System 1 can add single-digit numbers and fill in the phrase “bread and —.” It is equipped with a nuanced picture of the world, the product of retained memory and learned patterns of association (“Florida/old people”) that enable it to spew out a stream of reactions, judgments, opinions. System 1 can detect a note of anger in a voice on the telephone; it forms snap judgments about those we meet, Presidential candidates, investments that we might be considering. The flaw in this remarkable machine is that System 1 is faster, surer of itself, and it works with as little or as much information as it has. System 1 has no ability to say 'garbage in, garbage out'.Once these two ways of thinking are thoroughly explained, he spends the rest of the book showing us how and why that matters. He gives some great examples of how differently the same 'factual' information can be perceived, depending on how it is presented. It is wonderfully readable, and very thought-provoking.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011)

2012-01-18T06:36:00.000-06:00

First off, let's set the record straight. Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is a straight ahead Bollywood romantic comedy. There is the requisite romantic triangle, the impressive singing and dancing that occurs at every emotional decision point in the film that is so spectacular and a signature of the genre. As one critic said, it is a very pleasant movie to see once, but you will not feel compelled to watch it again. This is no 'Lagaan'.The reason that I bring it up at all, other than that it has been a year since I have seen a Bollywood movie that I have liked as much, and because there is a fair amount of English, so if you get subtitle fatigue, this is a movie that moves between languages freely, and while there are subtitles throughout, half the time you can understand the dialogue.The thing I liked about this was that it portrays an India that is betwixt and between, in a cultural sense. The lead female character, Dimple (Katrina Kaif), has grown up in London. She wears modern and very revealing clothes, is wildly flirtatious and salacious, but she is convincingly offended when a boy she has swung her hips at and thrown a beverage to suggests that she sleep with him. The crux of the story is a classic love triangle, Indian style. Kuhn and Luv are brothers--Luv is in London, Kuhn in India. Luv decides that it is time for him to marry, and while he would like his parents to be a part of the process, he assigns Kun the job of making the final decision--which he does brilliantly. So well, in fact, that he himself falls in love with her as well. But fails to tell her until after the engagement--so the rest of the story is how are they going to get both of their families out of this with them married to each other and their reputations intact.

Mushroom Barley Soup

2012-01-17T07:47:00.000-06:00

There is nothing new about this soup--I have done nothing to make it new or different. But it is really spectacular in it's simplicity. It requires very little in terms of ingredients. Start with a chopped onion, saute it with a clove or two of minced garlic. Once they have softened, add a 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms. You can also add some thyme, but I didn't this time. Once the mushrooms have lost most of their moisture, I add 6 cups of excellent stock and 1/3 c. of barley. For some reason I cannot recall (nor can I justify), I have about 8 cups of barley. Since barley expands to about 12 times it's original size when cooked, this is enough barley to feed a soup kitchen. I should be making something with barley every week if I had a proper commitment to emptying out my pantry. I am not up to that task. Either task, actually--not the barley surplus nor the pantry turnover. But this soup, after simmering on very low heat for 45 minutes is fantastic in an earthy (and inexpensive) way. I tossed in some left over pot roast shredded, but it can be completely vegetarian and equally good.

Stephen Bloom: Satire, Parody, or Plain Old Mean-Spirited?

2012-01-16T04:37:00.000-06:00

Stephen Bloom alleged on NBC recently that he was misinterpreted by Iowans and others. He did not mean for his piece in the Atlantic to be taken at face value, but rather that it was a combination of parody and satire. We misunderstood him (or are too dense to see the skill of his work).So, what to make of this?First off, the article appeared in the Atlantic. This is not the Onion. The magazine is not widely renowned for parody, and therefore one could be excused for missing it. Secondly, Stephen Bloom is a journalism professor. Not a profession highly associated with satire--if he were to appear on The Daily Show, or better yet, The Colbert Report and make these statements, we might excuse it as satire. But those guys are not journalists--despite the fact that Americans who cite the Daily Show as their main source of news are better informed than their fellow countrymen, these guys are comedians. Smart, well informed, clever, and witty men, yes, but comedians. We get the satire.So the context is wrong. But how about the content? Well, the best of satire should deliver it's rapier wit with such subtly that the intended victim is unaware they have been wounded. That certainly was not the case here. Then there is the bottom line--that both satire and parody are poking fun at something. The author should identify the problem, offer a solution to the problem and be perplexed, annoyed, and perturbed that everyone else, or at least the object of the satire, is too dense to see the validity of such a brilliant solution. So in the end, Professor Bloom, while failing to be effective as a satirist, is still poking fun at Iowa. The piece he wrote wasn't clever. It exaggerated things that occur on occasion without the wit to show what solution he proposed. So it came across as bitter. And it seemed to me that it is he who is sad, not those of us who live here and thrive.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

2012-01-15T14:05:00.000-06:00

I had heard all sorts of great things about this book, but the title did not draw me in--if only I had seen the cover, because that is something that would have piqued my interest. But pick it up I did, finally, and it is one of the best books of fiction that I have read recently. Astounding, particularly in it's story line, which one reviewer I read called magical realism. Whatever you call it, it works. Ava, a 13 year old girl who has been raised and home schooled on a Florida island, is the heroine of this novel. She is introduced to us in her family's theme park, Swamplandia (which from the descriptions in the book is aptly named). Ava's mother, Hilola Bigtree, is a force of nature--she is what drives the family and she is the glue that holds them together. She is a famous alligator wrestler, beautiful, generous, and talented--and the star attraction at Swamplandia. Ava's father, Chief Bigtree, a working class guy who has big dreams for Swamplandia that are never going to happen. Ava's older brother, Kiwi, doesn't buy those dreams; he wants to go to a real school on the mainland, but is inexorably tied into his family of origin. Ava's older sister, Osceola, 16, believes she can communicate with ghosts, and seems prone to dangerous liaisons until she gets on proper medication. This strange but entertaining world is turned upside down when Ava's mother dies of cancer--swiftly and suddenly the amazing Hilola is gone, and just as quickly, so is Swamplandia--the various Bigtree offspring deal with the trauma differently, and it is a very good story indeed.

The Debt (2011)

2012-01-14T05:55:00.000-06:00

The Debt is a drama-thriller based on an Israeli film of the same name. It focuses mainly on the baggage that three Nazi hunters carry with them for 30 years before a turn of events puts into question their loyalty to Israel, each other, and the greater good. Helen Mirren stars as Rachel, the protagonist, who is seen throughout the film reflecting on her past as a Mossad (The National Intelligence Agency of Israel) agent during her team’s mission to capture a notorious Nazi doctor who performed atrocious experiments in concentration camps.Rachel is the only woman in the three-person team, and her emotions scream through the camera—her uncertainty and the tension she feels are everywhere. The team includes David (Sam Worthington, Ciarán Hinds plays him in the present-day) whose sorrowful expressions are hard to understand until we learn his whole family perished in the Holocaust. Marton Csokas is Stefan (Tom Wilkinson plays the older character), the cocky leader of the group who is very hard to empathize with as the film drives into complexity.The setting mostly goes back and forth between East Berlin (1965) and Israel (1997). Most of the events that occur are seen through Rachel’s eyes, played by Jessica Chastain (who I have seen twice before this month, in Tree of Life and The Help). The Mossad agents are easy to imagine as real individuals. Although they are determined to fulfill their mission, you see their anxiety everywhere and feel the past of the Holocaust haunting their memories. And although the film is not really a psychological thriller, the Nazi doctor (played by Jesper Christensen who captures the immense cruelty of the doctor so subtly) gets into all of their heads in a bad bad way. Very effective.This is one of those rare movies that will seize you and keep you guessing as the plot unfolds, slowly unearthing the meaning behind the title.

Daughter of the American Revolution

2012-01-13T06:03:00.000-06:00

Wave that flag, wave it high and wide.My grandmother was that kind of a daughter of the American Revolution. Our family has our roots in the religious freedom side of emigration to America, and were firmly entrenched by the time the Revolutionary War rolled around. They came initially to Massachusetts, but like many found the land quickly became too crowded and they went northward to find their fortunes, settling in southern Maine.The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, DC, is a volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting and preserving American history, and securing America's future through the education of children. Any woman is eligible for membership who is not less than eighteen years of age and can prove lineal, bloodline descent of an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence. I just read the Willard Sterne Randal biography of Ethan Allen, and his family history resonated with some of my own (except for the folk hero aspect of course--I resonate more with Ethan Allen's siblings and my Revolutionary fore bearers). His father and grandfather took the family further away from the center of Puritan civilization in search of greener pastures, and while they ended up in Connecticut, Ethan Allen went into the more controversial territory of what is now Vermont. My family stuck with less contentious land, but were made of that hardy stock that is associated with New Englanders of the 18th century. The weather alone was enough to distinguish them as long suffering. My grandmother was born into the end of the 19th century into a farm that was not unlike that of the 18th century--her mother canned fruits and vegetables. She embroidered and she made clothing. I left New England over a 1/4 century ago, and I did not grow up there, but some of those traits of my early ancestors resonate with me today. So while I don't entirely share the politics of a daughter of the American Revolution, I do share those genes.

Corn Syrup: How Much is Too Much?

2012-01-12T06:10:00.000-06:00

I was stopped at a train crossing with my husband recently and after 10 minutes of watching tanker after tanker of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) roll by, it got me thinking. What an awful lot of sweetener on the rails in Iowa.I am not one of those who thinks that HFGS is in and of itself the devil incarnate. I think it is a highly processed food by the time it is created--anyone who has gnawed on a corn stalk can tell that this is not edible as it grows out of the ground--and it then goes on to be added to highly processed food. It is the antithesis to some of the principles that Michael Pollan espouses in his book 'In Defense of Food'. Your grandmother would not recognize it. It is not found on the periphery of the grocery store. The fact that it is plant based is about it;s only saving grace.The real problem is not so much what it is, but that we ingest so much of it. On average, we each ingest 60 pounds per year--and since there are some of us who are not routinely eating mas produced highly processed foods, some people are getting more. Each of these tankers hold 67,000 gallons of HFCS, which is only enough for about 1,000 people each year. Wow, that is A LOT of sugar. Who is eating this? According to the CDC, quite a few of us. They state that 50% of the US population consumes a sugar drink on any given day, and 25% of us consume more than one. The problem is not related to eating out--half of these drinks are consumed at home, and only 1/6 are consumed in a restaurant. This cannot be good for us. As far as I am concerned, the debate is not so much is it worse than cane sugar, but rather that too much is just not good. How to combat this? Well, the first place to start is with the cost. The price is artificially low for HFCS, because of subsidies, and that needs to go away--poor people use HFCS products at a higher rate than middle income consumers. Time to look at food subsidies for healthier foods. As the cost of medical care continues to sky rocket with no end in sight, we need all sorts of health reform--not just making sure that people have health insurance, but also that they have access to food that is healthy. Prevent the disease so you don't need to treat it. Meanwhile we consume 280,200 of these tankers full of HFCS each and every year.

Sarah's Key (2011)

2012-01-11T06:23:00.000-06:00

This is the second movie made from a book that I loved that I have seen this month and felt that the film was up to the task of conveying the emotional content of the book.This is in part due to the exceptional performance of Kristin Scott Thomas as an American journalist living in Paris in the early 21st century. This is the second French film that I have seen her play a lead role in recently (the first being 'I've Loved You So Long')--she plays a woman whose first language is English in both films, and seemingly effortlessly moves between the two throughout the film. I love that about the movie--the Germans speak German, the French speak French, and The Americans speak English. There are subtitles. It feels real."Sarah's Key" goes back and forth between events in 2002 and what happened 60 years earlier during the city's infamous Vélodrome d'Hiver roundup of July 16, 1942, when French officials and police, not Germans, rounded up 13,000 of the city's Jews and herded them together for days in horrible conditions in one of the city's indoor bicycle-racing tracks before dispatching them first to a transit camp and finally to Auschwitz.The film on that July day in 1942 in the Marais district apartment of the Starzynskis, with the family being rounded up under frightening circumstances, 10-year-old Sarah (an exceptional Mélusine Mayance) impulsively instructs her younger brother to hide in the bedroom cupboard. She then locks him in, instructing him not to leave until she comes to get him (with unfortunate consequences). Thomas's character is married to a man whose great grandparents moved into the apartment after the Starzynskis are forcibly moved out--so that is the connection.The movie centers on Sarah, who miraculously escapes the fate of the rest of her family, and is raised in a family that both loves and protects her into adulthood. But she hasn't really escaped. She is hostage to her guilt, her remorse, and her losses. Thomas goes about finding her story, and breathing life into it, even at the expense of her personal life. The film is exquisite in it's attention to emotional detail, which is pitch perfect. In the final analysis, we aren't even sure what happened with Sarah but we recognize the devastating events of her childhood wore her out in adulthood. Jean Luc Godard said it best: "A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order."Sarah's Key is spectacular.

1962

2012-01-10T06:49:00.000-06:00

I recently read the blog of a colleague of mine (excellent blog. check it out: http://jajsamos.wordpress.com/) and was impressed by his up-front and continuous devotion to his wife. I, too, love my spouse. It is such a gift, to be able to live with someone you are still crazy about, after literally decades of sharing living space. But I have not been nearly as diligent as Dr. Amos in expressing those feelings.Shame on me.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of my husband's life on earth. He was born at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. There was rioting on University of Mississippi campus following African American student James Meredith's attempt to enroll, which ended with federal troops and U.S. marshals taking control.That same year Gregory Peck won Best Actor for his role in 'To Kill a Mockingbird', so we were starting to take the issue of racism into the popular media. There have been changes since then, but not as dramatic as one might hope. We were deeply embroiled in the Cold War. America is good at boots on the ground war, but we were less adept at secret wars that involved spies, indirect threats, and games of chicken. In the end, we out-spent them--game, set, match--it was a great strategy, and if you ignore the debt issue, it was spectacularly successful. Kennedy was president, and we got embroiled in that whole Cuban Missile Crisis fiasco that made it so impossible for us to go see a bona fide Communist country operating in the modern world. Technology's star was rising. John Glenn circled the earth. The photocopier was increasingly in use. The music that was on the rise then was the music we still listen to--the Beatles and Bob Dylan. It was a time of great change, and it hasn't stopped. So thank you, 1962, for delivering this man into the world. I won't forget it.

Dr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

2012-01-09T09:13:00.000-06:00

Mr. Fox is a modern day Gothic novel--a story that contains both horror and romance. Which is true of the front story, and then there is a retelling of the Bluebeard myth throughout that achieves a multifactorial Gothic tone.The surface story is that Mr. Fox, an acclaimed novelist and husband to fellow novelist, Daphne Fox, has a muse, Mary Foxe (the names are similar and it is not an accident). She is one of the characters in his books, but she is not two dimensional, at least not by the time we meet him. She is up and about, accusing Mr. Fox of serial murder. How so? He invariably kills off all his female protagonists. She insists he must stop, or she will do the job for him. Their interactions are witty repartee, fun to follow, well written, but only part of what is going on in the novel. Woven into the text are various retellings of the Bluebeard myth. Oyeyemi delights in turning the fairy tale on its head. She locates in the Bluebeard story not only female loss of identity but male emotional imprisonment – a locked room containing not the bloody cadavers of previous wives, but the elusive authentic self of the husband. Neither are free, both are in their ways captive. Mr. Fox and Mary Foxe are similarly interwoven with each other.There is a jumbled feel to the book--but it is enjoyable, funny, smart, well written and entertaining. Don't miss it.

Angel Biscuits

2012-01-08T06:22:00.000-06:00

We have been baking out of John Besh's 'My Family Table' cookbook, and these biscuits are marvelous--you can freeze them the next morning and bake them anytime you want--added bonus~ * 1 package active dry yeast * 5 cups all-purpose flour * 1/4 cup sugar * 2 tablespoons baking powder * 11/2 teaspoons salt * 2 cups buttermilk * 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 1. Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the buttermilk and dissolved yeast and mix well. Using a pastry knife, cut the butter into the mixture. 2. Since this makes a light, fairly wet dough, sprinkle 1?2 cup of flour on the counter before you roll out the dough. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Fold the two sides in, making a triple layer of dough. Cut the dough into 3-inch circles or squares. Place on a nonstick baking sheet, cover loosely, and refrigerate overnight. 3. The next morning, preheat the oven to 400 degree. Bake for 15–20 minutes, until golden brown.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

2012-01-07T09:15:00.000-06:00

This won the National Book Award for 2011, and it is not an uplifting read. Brace yourself. It is a fiercely poetic novel that takes place in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Miss., in the 10 days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. On one level, “Salvage the Bones” is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be devastated by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel powerful, though, is the way the author, without a hint of pretension, enmeshes us in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars and then evokes the tenacious passion and desperation that you would expect to find in a classic tragedy.The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is Esch, a pregnant 14-year-old girl, the only daughter among four siblings whose mother died during the birth of the last one. Precocious and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases that reflect the poverty that defines her community. Everything here is gritty, raw and alive. The book does not end altogether well, but people do survive, on many levels. Unique and compelling.

Lemon and Pink Grapefruit Marmalade

2012-01-06T06:59:00.000-06:00

My eldest son heard about this recipe and the cookbook it came out of, on a Splendid Table podcast, went to the public library, did not pass 'Go', and made this splendid marmalade. * 1 pound lemons (preferably Lisbon), cut into eighths * 1 pound seeded lemons, halved crosswise, each half cut lengthwise into quarters and sliced thinly crosswise * 3 3/4 pounds pink grapefruits * 5 pounds white cane sugar * 2 or 3 extra lemons, to make 5 ounces strained freshly squeezed lemon juiceInstructions * Day 1 * 1. Place the lemon eighths in a nonreactive saucepan where they will fit snugly in a single layer. Add enough cold water for the fruit to bob freely. Cover tightly and let rest overnight at room temperature. * Day 2 * 2. Prepare the cooked lemon juice: Bring the pan with the lemon eighths to a boil over high heat, then decrease the heat to medium. Cook the fruit at a lively simmer, covered, for 2 to 3 hours, or until the lemons are very soft and the liquid has become slightly syrupy. As the lemons cook, press down on them gently with a spoon every 30 minutes or so, adding a little more water if necessary. The water level should stay consistently high enough for the fruit to remain submerged as it cooks. * 3. When the lemons are finished cooking, strain their juice by pouring the hot fruit and liquid into a medium strainer or colander suspended over a heatproof storage container or nonreactive saucepan. Cover the entire setup well with plastic wrap and let drip overnight at room temperature. * 4. Meanwhile, prepare the sliced lemons: Place the slices in a wide stainless-steel kettle and cover amply with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then decrease the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain, discarding the liquid. Return the lemon slices to the kettle and cover with 1 inch cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, decrease the heat to medium, and cook at a lively simmer, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the fruit is very tender. As the fruit cooks, stir it gently every 15 minutes or so, adding a little more water if necessary. The water level should stay consistently high enough for the fruit to remain submerged as it cooks. Remove the pan from the heat, cover tightly, and let rest overnight at room temperature. * 5. Last, prepare the grapefruits: Cut them in half, squeeze the halves, and strain their juice. Cover the juice and place it in the refrigerator. Put the juiced grapefruit halves in a large nonreactive kettle and cover them amply with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then decrease the heat to medium and cook at a lively simmer for 5 minutes. Drain, discarding the liquid. Repeat this process, then return the blanched grapefruit halves to the kettle and add cold water to cover. Bring the halves to a boil over high heat, then decrease the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, at a lively simmer for 1 to 2 hours, or until the fruit is easily pierced with a skewer. As the grapefruit cooks, press down on it gently with a spoon every 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary. The water level should stay consistently high enough for the fruit to remain submerged as it cooks. When the grapefruit is tender, remove the pan from the heat, cover tightly, and let rest overnight at room temperature. * Day 3 * 6. Place a saucer with five metal teaspoons in a flat place in your freezer for testing the marmalade later.Remove the plastic wrap from the lemon eighths and their juice and discard the lemons. Strain the juice well through a very fine-mesh strainer to remove any lingering solids. * 7. Prepare the grapefruit: Remove the grapefruit halves from their kettle, reserving the cooking liquid. Over a large bowl, use a soup spoon to scoop the flesh from each grapefruit half. Then, take each half and, cradling it in one hand, use the spoon to gently scrape its interior of excess pith and fibers. Repeat with the rest of the halves, going around each one two or three times until its interior is smooth and its rind is a uniform thickness. Cut each grapefruit half into 5 equal strips, then cut each strip crosswise into thick slices and reserve. Strain the scraped pith and fibers, along with the mushy interiors of the grapefruits, back into the cooking liquid, letting them drip for several minutes. Discard the solids. Pour the liquid through a fine-mesh strainer. * 8. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, strained grapefruit cooking liquid, reserved fresh grapefruit juice, reserved grapefruit rinds, cooked lemon juice, fresh lemon juice, and lemon slices and their liquid, stirring well. Transfer the mixture to an 11- or 12-quart copper preserving pan or a wide nonreactive kettle. * 9. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Cook at a rapid boil until the setting point is reached; this will take a minimum of 30 minutes, but may take longer depending on your individual stove and pan. Initially, the mixture will bubble gently for several minutes; then, as more moisture cooks out of it and its sugar concentration increases, it will begin foaming. Do not stir it at all during the initial bubbling; then, once it starts to foam, stir it gently every few minutes with a heatproof rubber spatula. As it gets close to being done, stir it slowly every minute or two to prevent burning, decreasing the heat a tiny bit if necessary. The marmalade is ready for testing when its color darkens slightly and its bubbles become very small. * 10. To test the marmalade for doneness, remove it from the heat and carefully transfer a small representative half-spoonful to one of your frozen spoons. It should look shiny, with tiny bubbles throughout. Replace the spoon in the freezer for 3 to 4 minutes, then remove and carefully feel the underside of the spoon. It should be neither warm nor cold; if still warm, return it to the freezer for a moment. Tilt the spoon vertically to see whether the marmalade runs; if it does not run, and if its top layer has thickened to a jelly consistency, it is done. If it runs, cook it for another few minutes, stirring, and test again as needed. * 11. When the marmalade has finished cooking, turn off the heat but do not stir. Using a stainless-steel spoon, skim off any surface foam and discard. Pour the marmalade into sterilized jars and process--they recommend doing it in the oven.

Jerusalem: A Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore

2012-01-05T07:42:00.000-06:00

This book takes the history of the old city from its beginnings as a fortified village through every conquest or occupation – Canaanite, Israelite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, Ummayad, Abassid, Fatimid, Seljuk, Crusader, Saracen, Tatar, Mamluk, Ottoman, British, Jordanian and finally Israeli. There is a welcome dispassionate approach to the constantly shifting occupation of a city that is arguably the spiritual center of three religions--and has the battle scars to show for it. How power transferred hands and what effect it had are laid out chapter by chapter, chronologically, so that centuries pass in a matter of pages. So what happens? Pretty much everything you can think of. Rival places of worship were destroyed and new ones constructed with the stones of earlier buildings, thus making Jerusalem the most complicated archaeological site in the world. Populations were slaughtered or sold into slavery, then later replaced by new waves of immigration. Montefiore's book, packed with fascinating and often grisly detail, is a gripping account of war, betrayal, looting, rape, massacre, sadistic torture, fanaticism, feuds, persecution, corruption, hypocrisy and spirituality. Which is true but makes the book sound gruesome--it is not. it is a wonderful read, and I would especially recommend it if you are going to visit the city.

The Help (2011)

2012-01-04T06:16:00.000-06:00

First off, I think it is very challenging to successfully adapt a popular book to the screen. This is particularly challenging when the novel has a high emotional content, because there are so many more ways to demonstrate that in written form than in film--and this movie is an excellent adaption of the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. The book revolves around the lives of African-American's in the South at the dawning of the Civil Rights movement. Racism is considered normal--it is so rare to be treated equally that when it happens there is profound distrust of the situation. When will this blow up all over me is on the tip of the tongue of every black person treated with decency. That is a bad bad situation, and the film doesn't lay it on too thick, but it is in every scene. The novel and the movie focus primarily on the day to day lives of domestic help. Maids are routinely talked about as if they are not there, treated like they are indentured servants, and as if they have no ambitions beyond their current demeaning jobs. When a maid is fired for using the indoor bathroom rather than going out in the middle of hurricane strength gales it is not unsurprising. The South in 1960 was that bad, the movie states. The stories of these women, what it feels like to be them, is a story told by a young white woman, and it is potent stuff. Medgar Evers is killed in the middle of the book (which happened June 12, 1963), and this is a tipping phenomenon. Women who were too afraid to tell their stories started pouring them out, and because civil rights was in the national news, what these maids had to say was newsworthy. Despite what sounds like it would be a complete downer of a movie, it is really very uplifting, and not just because the maids got mad, and they got even. The actresses who portray the maids do a fantastic job of making lemonade out of lemons, supporting each other, and enjoying life despite all the negatives they are surrounded by.

Red Beans and RIce

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-06:00

One of the many things I like about New Orleans, besides the food, which is obvious, is the cab drivers. The last few trips that I have had excellent stories in the cab. On my most recent trip, when the driver asked me if I did any shopping, I replied that I bought some spice mixes because I just wasn't happy with my recreation of red beans and rice--so he proceeded to offer me up some tips, all of which are contained in this recipe from 'The Homesick Texan'16 oz. red beans, soaked1 tablespoon of bacon grease (can substitute canola or olive oil if you prefer)1 bell pepper, chopped1 medium yellow onion, chopped2 celery ribs, diced6 cloves of garlic, minced1/4 pound of andouille sausage, cubed1/2 cup of parsley, minced2 bay leaves1 teaspoon of dried thyme or 1 sprig fresh1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano1 teaspoon sweet paprika1 tablespoon WorcestershireCayenne, salt and black pepper to taste2 smoked ham hocks8 cups of chicken broth or water4 green onions, green part chopped (save the white for another use)6 cups of cooked riceMethod:After cleaning and sorting, soak your beans in water overnight.In a large pot on medium heat, sauté in bacon grease the onion, celery and bell pepper for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sausage to the pot and cook for two minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot except for the green onions.Turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 20 minutes and then turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for 40 minutes.After 40 minutes, take off the lid, stir the pot and continue to let it simmer for two hours. You might check back on it every once in a while to make sure there’s still enough liquid in the pot.At this time, test your beans—they should be soft, but if not, continue to cook on low until they are.When the beans are ready, with a wooden spoon smash a few of them against the side of the pot—this will make your beans extra creamy.Pour the beans over rice, and garnish with the green onions. A few shakes of some Louisiana hot sauce such as Tabasco or Crystal is a good addition as well.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

2012-01-02T07:40:00.000-06:00

I have been a big Steve Jobs admirer ever since we got our first Mac, back in 1984--we were in the first APple wave, which was amazing for it's time, and foretold of what would come with the second Apple wave. But I wasn't looking forward to reading the biography--all the press I read and heard about it really focused on what a difficult person Steve Jobs was. I would agree with that assessment. I wish I had had diner with him but I wouldn't want to spend much more time than that--he was not a genius who if you spent more time with him you would have learned how he did it. He was impatient with things that didn't suit him, and he wouldn't hesitate to let you know that. Ok, fine, but not something that makes for social fun. He was a guy who you would never have to guess what his opinion was==he would let you know. His genius was in seeing what technology bent to it's limits would do right now, and then forcing it into a pleasing package. He wouldn't settle for something that didn't work smoothly and elegantly. Close was not enough, it had to be perfect.

Well, you could see how tiresome that could be on a day in day out basis. He lived for a long time in a house that was essentially unfurnished because he would rather live with no furniture rather than furniture that wasn't suited to him--which made him inherently monastic. The only time I thought I might have something in common with him was when it came to wearing a uniform. He traveled to Sony in Japan, and all the workers were wearing the same outfit. It was a nice outfit--Issey Miyake designed them. When Jobs brought the idea back to Apple, his employees absolutely hated it, but it struck a chord with him, so Miyake designed the black turtleneck he always wore for him, and gave him a 100 of them. After that, it is all he wore--black turtleneck with jeans--which is definitely the phase of my life that I am in--black shirt, black pants (my shirt is not Miyake, it is L.L. Bean, but then I am a child of Maine, where as Mr. Jobs was a billionaire--different budgets, different backgrounds).There were several surprises in here for. One was that Jobs was seriously involved with Joan Baez (he is a huge Dylan fan, so this is ironic at best), but given their age differences and the fact he wanted more children, it was not to be. Another was that he had a liver transplant--I did not know that (he was kind of fanatical about privacy around his health and I am not at all good at keeping apace with gossip, so not doubt this was widely known, but it surprised me).Lastly, I had an impression of him as socially awkward based on all the sound bites about him--but that is not the impression that the book conveys--he was charismatic in a single minded kind of way, and very consistent. What he loved he loved, and you could count on that.A complicated man, and a well written and entertaining biography.

Iowa Caucus Thoughts

2012-01-01T07:38:00.000-06:00

What are we looking for in an early caucus state?Stephen Bloom characterized Iowa as a white, rural, economically depressed, methamphetamine addicted, Bible thumping state, where people don't leave their isolated communities, are out of touch with the country at large, and are essentially mired in a bygone era that makes their opinions on presidential candidates irrelevant.But it assumes that we know what we want in an early primary state, that we are all agreed on those criteria that make a state ideal. I'm not so sure we are. Iowa is not representative, and it is arguably not ideal, but what characteristics are we looking for? One is probably a state that is neither reliably Republican nor Democrat--you want to see what the independents are going to do. Iowa has a senator from each party, and has the entire 20 years that I have lived here. The Governor switches pretty regularly between parties, and in the 5 Presidential elections we have had since I moved here, we have gone for the Democrat in three, the Republican in 2, and most importantly, we have gone for the winning president in each of them.Another important trait is that there be diversity--ethnic, economic, religious diversity, as well as rural v. urban diversity. Iowa has some disadvantages there--it is more white than the country as a whole, and it is older. Older might be an advantage. Older people are more likely to vote in the election than younger voters.Lastly, an early state has to be open to the candidates. They need to participate actively in the process. Iowa takes this part very seriously. Professor Bloom accused Iowans of being from a bygone era, and it is true in this sense--they take civic responsibility and engagement very seriously. It also needs to be a place where candidates are safe entering people's homes and dialoguing with them. We are a state where it is still possible to leave your front door unlocked and not regret it. You might find that either backwards or refreshing, but it does tend to make people feel unthreatened. I think one thing we don't want to do is to narrow the race too early. 'Winning' in Iowa is often a matter of getting 25% of the vote--if you get 2% you have no traction, but if you can muster 15-20%, you have a shot. Landing in the top three is a good showing, and a surprise winner can get a lot more attention and a shot at the brass ring. Next, let's look at how a caucus functions. It is really different from a primary, where everyone just goes into a booth and marks a ballot and leaves. In a caucus, you all have to show up at the same time--usually at a school, a church, or a public library, and usually it is pretty cramped space. That is a big hurdle right there--you can't just drop by on your way to or from work and get it done. Then you have to be prepared to spend 2-3 hours to complete the process. The Republicans and the Democrats do it differently--for the Republicans, the vote is a secret ballot, but the Democrats have you huddle around the candidate of your choice. Then all the voters are counted, and a total is arrived at, and then the tally for how many supporters for each candidate is done. You need at least 15% of the total voters in order to have your vote count--so after the first alignment, caucus goers have the opportunity to try to get voters for candidates that do not have 15% to come over to their camp. There is dialogue about why voters have chosen a particular candidate. You stand up in front of your neighbors and say who you are voting for and why. There is nothing private about it. So, what does such a process tell us? One thing it told us in 2008 is that a largely white state will stand up in front of their neighbors and vote for a person of color. And that guy went on to win.

Reflections of the Way Life Used to Be

2011-12-31T07:30:00.000-06:00

Year end reflections are prone to being maudlin and exaggerated--neither of which is a particularly attractive trait But 'tis the season and far be it for me to buck those trends. 2010 was a tough year in our household, and by comparison 2011 was positively blissful.The biggest change is that I moved out of the house I raised my children in and lived in for 16 years (the longest that I have lived in any one dwelling--and prior to that was a house I lived in in medical school and college...I did not have one of those stable upbringings that revolved around a childhood community). I moved into a smaller, more manageable sized house. The whole process took the whole year. Overkill? Perhaps, but in my defense, we are not a family to shed superfluous belongings easily. Sports equipment that was long ago outgrown and unused for at least a decade was not an anomaly in our garage. And the new house does not even have a garage yet. Our old house had a prodigious amount of storage space and exceeded it. So downsizing meant shedding 75% of our belongings. No small task. So for literally months I spent 2-3 hours each day sorting through closet after closet, choosing what would go--it was an exhausting endeavor and it was not graciously performed. I was literally bruised and battered by the process, but on some level that helped the emotional aspect tremendously. I had some significant trepidation about leaving a home where we had bee so happy and which held so many memories. By the time we moved into our smaller home, I was ready to be done with the whole process, house and all.The end of the story? The 'new' house (which is 150 years old) is home. No question about it. No regrets. And if we did have regrets, we could go back. We still own the other house. But 2011 heralded our move into the adult children phase of our lives. Hurray!

Ode to Delicata Squash

2011-12-30T12:39:00.000-06:00

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.Okay, it is not that intense of a feeling, but as squash goes, this is the best. Better than Butternut.And it is simply prepared-- cut it in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and slice about a 1/4" thick. You will have dozens of smiles. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, then roast in a 400 degree oven until done. It is delicious and simple, just this way.

Catherine The Great by Robert Massie

2011-12-29T06:59:00.000-06:00

Ok, I admit that I know essentially nothing about Russian history, and less about the czars and how they came to power. What I knew about the empress Catherine was even more suspect, and fell into the category of titillating rather than historical--multiple lovers, died having sex with a horse. Well, if Robert Massey is to be believed, this is not the case. She did have a series of lovers throughout her adult life, but fewer than most college students rack up these days, and she appears to have been more or less serially monogamous. Robert K. Massie's thorough and readable biography, Catherine the Great, draws a complex portrait of the often-misunderstood empress. Relying on primary sources (including Catherine's diaries and letters) and firsthand accounts, Massie unveils the personal and private sides of one of Russia's strongest leaders--she fashioned herself as the heir to Peter the Great, and sought to further his gains in bringing European sensibilities to the Russian culture. This fascinating and accessible narrative transports us to heart of the eighteenth-century Russian court, providing an intimate look at the people, places, and events important to Catherine during her half-century tenure in her adopted country.She was born of a mid-level German prince, a disappointment to him and a project for his wife. She managed to get her insinuated into the house of Peter the Great (his daughter was childless, but had adopted a nephew as her heir)--that is the good news. The bad news is that the her spouse was an immature (probably impotent) cad. Her life with him was at first a friendship and then a misery. But she is a woman who knew how politics operated, and the throne of Russia was at least as much about political alliances as it was about heredity. She made and nurtured her friends and it made her empress. Without much fuss. In typical Russian fashion, all others with a claim to the throne were quickly disposed of and she began her reign of bringing Enlightenment to Russia--or at least as much of it as the countryside could tolerate.A well written and enjoyable biography.

Grilled Cheese with Poblano Chilis

2011-12-28T11:56:00.000-06:00

* 2 slices of excellent bread
* 2 ounces chevre or other spreadable cheese--I like fresh sheep milk cheese
* 2 slices crisp-fried bacon (optional)
* 1-2 grilled poblano chilis
* 1 tablespoon apricot preserves
* 2 tablespoons butter

Method:

Slice each poblano in half lengthwise, and remove stem, ribs and seeds. Place cut-side-down on a baking sheet, and broil until skins blacken and blister, about five minutes. Remove poblano from broiler, and transfer immediately into a plastic bag or other sealed container. Seal and let steam until cool enough to handle, about 10-20 minutes. Remove blackened skins by pinching them between your thumb and forefinger, and discard.

Spread one of the slices of bread with the chevre. Top with roasted poblano peppers, then bacon. Spread the other piece of bread with the apricot preserves, and add to sandwich. Butter each side of the sandwich, and toast in saucepan over medium heat until bread is toasted, about 3-4 minutes a side--until a nutty brown color. Closer to black than tan is best--the bread is then both crunchy and chewy and the butter is nutty, which is the key to a successful grilled cheese.

The Absence of TV

2011-12-27T12:54:00.000-06:00

Before I moved into my new house I was not a big consumer of television. The TV might be off days, sometimes a week at a time, with great regularity. But somehow I was convinced that I needed it. And I paid dearly for that belief--with the high definition cable package and the DVR that went with it, about a $100 a month--which over the course of a year adds up to real money.
So I survived, even thrived. I cut my cable umbilical chord, and entered the world of what the internet has to offer those who seek it. We know so much more about what is streaming free of charge. Lots, it turns out. In the six months that I have lived a television free existence I have no regrets. No one has mentioned anything that I wish I could have seen. I have completely missed the inevitable ad blitz of the 2012 caucus run up, and that alone is something to be thankful for. But most importantly. I have discovered other sources of film and media that are far less costly than what broadband commands to have the privilege of having it enter your home. On the cost side, I am paying under $50 a month to have a combination of DSL and Netflix streaming--plus I get a landline to boot--so I can give a phone number to those who require one for their records, and keep my cell phone number for those who are really important to me. At a fraction of what I was paying before. But it isn't just the money.I am happier being disconnected from the things that TV brings with it (I will have to find a streaming video source for the 2012 Olympics, to be sure--I do have my weaknesses, after all).

Shards by Ismet Prcic

2011-12-26T16:21:00.000-06:00

This book is about Bosnia, the Balkans, war, and trauma. It is more uplifting than it sounds, but not by a mile.The novel is constructed in a series of fragments — shards — seemingly written by its main character, Ismet Prcic. Ismet grows up in Tuzla, Bosnia and manages to flee shortly before his induction into the “meat grinder” of the Bosnian infantry. He has survived and made his way to America, but is fractured by what he left behind. The novel comprises mostly segments from his memoirs and excerpts from his diary.The fragments are roughly organized into three strands. One consists of a diary Ismet (now called Izzy) keeps after he moves to America. Prcic, who immigrated to the United States in 1996 at the age of 19, has acquired a fluency in English that enables him to assimilate convincingly--on the surface--scratch that surface and you find damage.The second of the strands is Ismet’s memoir of growing up in Bosnia. Much of it is told in a lively and compelling adolescent voice, sensitive but also full of American pop-culture references from the 1980's. Ismet is loved, particularly by his mother, who has a muse-like quality that is combined with the tragedy that she knows war is coming. Ismet (the author) is perceptive and brings his readers the experience of the war in small human details, especially effective in this strand.The novel’s third strand revolves around a Bosnian called Mustafa. Unlike Ismet, he fights in the war. Eventually, all three strands meld together. Figuring out how they corroborate one another or not, and how to reconcile the various versions of Ismet’s story, is one of the pleasures of reading this ambitious and deep novel.Ismet experienced the war in real life, but he also experienced it through television and the movies. He explains some of the factors associated with PTSD--saying that “movies don’t do it justice — that’s all I’m going to say about the thought-collapsing, breath-stealing sound a spinning shell makes as it pierces the air on the way down toward the center of your town.” Finally, he doesn’t register his experience of a massacre in Tuzla until he sees it on the news later. It reminds us how strange it is that people now watch their own wars on television, and how this seems to compound the trauma. The book is not solely about trauma and it's effects, but those elements are there, and it is eye-opening to read about them in this very interesting novel.

Holiday Habits

2011-12-25T06:56:00.000-06:00

There have been very few Christmas Days in my life that I have not spent with my parents--this, above all other days, is the one that we choose to share. This year they became acutely unable to come to my house, and since I had volunteered to participate in holiday coverage, I am unable to go to them. So we are involuntarily separated this year. My children will be spending the holiday with them at their house--my parents will not be alone and sick for Christmas, but it is an unexpected change.Which is cause for reflection. I almost always work the Christmas holiday weekend--only twice in the last 20 years have I not done so. But I also have always had a Christmas dinner (which is essentially a repeat performance of the Thanksgiving meal--it has always been that way, since my childhood--and since the Thanksgiving meal is my absolute favorite meal, I saw no reason to mess with that tradition in my adulthood). My parents have been coming to my house for this since 1985, when I was an intern. In 1986 I had a brief period where I hosted my mother's extended family every year for the holiday, and I believe that I have hosted as many celebrations of Christmas as my mother (to be fair, she had more siblings, and they used to rotate the honors when I was a child). It has been a decade since I have really participated in any way in the hoopla of the season--I can barely get around to wrapping my presents, I have not been able to get holiday cards out the door consistently in recent years (I made New Year's cards, to be on the safe side, this year), and while I always have a good assortment of cookies on hand, that would be true any day of the year--it is not holiday baking per se that I am involved with. But not having my parents here is a blow.So surprise, surprise. Here I am, in my 50's, and it is the first time that I am unexpectedly faced with a holiday without my parents--so all told, I have been lucky to have them both alive and well up to this point--they are fiercely independent, and more than a little stubborn, so I know that not coming this year and admitting it was too much was a struggle, and indicative of how hard this past month has been for them. Time to reflect on the gifts we have, rather than the obstacles, because we could get mired in those. Best of all, my children have had the gift of having them in their lives up into adulthood. So there is much to be thankful for, even though we cannot be together this year. Enjoy the day with the family you were born with and the family you choose.Peace be with you.

Soup Made From Leftovers

2011-12-24T09:50:00.000-06:00

I am a home cook--I am not someone who is running a restaurant kitchen. I have to cope with what is in the refrigerator, rather than shopping for each menu that I have planned. One of my real skills as a home cook is the ability to transform leftovers into something else entirely, something that will be eaten without any thought of what it's first life was like. The impetus is born of Depression era parents, who knew food shortages and are loath to waste anything. Transforming wilted vegetables into something both nutritious and delicious was a part of their upbringing, along with foraging and fishing.The single best way to transform leftovers is to make a soup. Starting with homemade stock is a big help in this endeavor, but not entirely necessary (we have a bag of poultry parts and bones in the freezer that we add to, and when there are enough of them to produce a stock, we empty it out and start again--the whole waste not, want not philosophy I grew up with rearing it's head again). I often take two or three leftover dishes that have lost their appeal (a vegetable side dish or two, and any meat that is leftover) and transform them into a soup--occasionally adding additional ingredients. The latest version was leftover turkey, some pasta with pesto, and assorted sauteed vegetables that had outlast their welcome in the refrigerator. Delicious!The one problem with this is that while the soup is often delicious, it is often not reproducible. I always say, "Love it or hate it, you will never have it again." On the other hand, you don't get tired of it. Here today, gone tomorrow.

London Train by Tessa Hadley

2011-12-23T09:40:00.000-06:00

The London Train is another Tessa Hadley novel about family relationships--the main characters are sandwiched between their adult children and their infirmed and then dead parents. Middle-age dilemmas sprinkled with matter-of-fact sexual infidelities are the name of the game in this novel.In the novel's first part, we follow Paul, a writer who lives in Wales and is well into his second marriage, though still picking up the pieces from his first. He is searching for, and finds, his 'missing' daughter--she is not so much misplaced as she is avoiding her parents, and it is her father, not her mother, that she chooses to share what is going on in her life that she has left school and left them.In the second, shorter part, we follow Cora, wife of a senior civil servant who has fled back to her hometown of Cardiff following the failure of her marriage, in which the same Paul played a starring role. This folding structure suggests a symmetry that the novel eschews: it is not clear, for example, how the relationship between Paul and Cora affects, if at all, Paul's story of searching for his adult daughter who has gone missing. But I would count this asymmetry among the novel's more mature virtues, which include absolute lack of predictability and scrupulous sincerity.Cora and Paul are decidedly upper middle class--in their life-styles, in their prejudices, and in their world view. The problem is that someone forgot to tell Paul's daughter to follow those rules, and she does not. The book is strongest (for my taste) in the telling of Paul's story, but the interweaving of two tales is well written and well done. The London Train is a novel of convalescence, in which its middle-aged characters are recovering from their parents' deaths, and this convalescence reveals to Cora that "to treasure up relics from every phase of her life as it passed, as if it were holy" was "a falsely consoling model of experience". Now she feels that the "present was always paramount, in a way that thrust you forward: empty, but also free". She may be onto something.

Bless His Blooming Heart

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

Why Iowa? In this season of debates, caucuses, and primaries,it is a valid question to ask. Stephen Bloom's 'observations' in The Atlantic do not even start that conversation. Worse still, it panders to those who already deride the state with broad sweeping generalities that belie my personal experiences in rural Iowa, and are certainly not applicable to where Professor Bloom and I live, which is a city with the largest per capita population of PhD's and MD's in the country. No, we did not check our educations at the state line. There are good reasons why we were awarded the UNESCO 'City of Literature' moniker (the only city in the United States to be so designated, and one of the few cities in the world to be so recognized). We are not afraid to leave our community, and we are not backward, drug addled illiterates.Which gets to my major beef. There are out and out lies in the article. For one, it is inconceivable that he has been asked on more than one occasion, much less every time, if his Labrador retriever is a hunting dog in the upper middle class neighborhood in which he resides. Professor Bloom in no way resembles a hunter and I suspect his dog isn't looking ready to track down hapless birds shot out of the air. Iowans know their hunting dogs as well as their hunters, and he smacks of city boy, top to bottom. In addition, while there are more hunting dogs per Iowan than in other places, the vast majority of dogs in Iowa City are pets, pure and simple. The list of inaccuracies goes on. There are so many in the article that the very valid points he makes are drowned in the river of exaggeration. The man may not know where his elbow is but he is clearly in touch with his ass. So why make these wild allegations?

Hard to say. Here is Raygun's response. It is up to their usual brilliance. Take the patently ridiculous things that Professor Bloom alleges in his article and poke major fun at it--and by reflection, him. I immediately bought four of them and was lucky to get them. They are selling rapidly, and for good reason. It is a way to trumpet our indignation without seeming churlish. To laugh at the charges leveled at us. And to make the man who leveled them look patently ridiculous, using his own words to do so. Many of us in Iowa City are transplanted Iowans, but we have come to love the state, despite it's foibles--which are not those that Professor Bloom illustrates, sadly. Hard to believe he has a journalism career. Those who can't, teach it appears. As a teacher, I have shied away from that characterization, but when it fits, it fits.So what about western Iowa, one might ask? Is that where he got his material? Not if he spent any time there. I agree with Kurt Friese's response to Professor Bloom, published on The Atlantic web site--including his recommendation that anyone who wants to experience small town Iowa take a week and join RAGBRAI (The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). Small towns generously open their communities to 10,000+ strangers each summer (which is often a number that is larger than the town itself). Churches open their doors and you can attend a church supper every night of the ride--what you will experience is tremendous hospitality, food that would be recognizable anywhere in the country, and the famously wonderful pies that Iowa is renowned for. Finally, why has Professor Bloom lived in Iowa for 20 years. Why would anyone who has such scathing derision for his home state remain there? Why not leave for a place he respects? Is he cursed with bad judgment, poor perceptual abilities, poor choices, all three? Perhaps Professor Bloom has a balanced personality--a chip on both shoulders--and the weight is holding him hostage. Perhaps it is simply that he can't find such a place.

One Day (2011)

2011-12-21T17:08:00.000-06:00

Anne Hathaway (Emma) and Jim Sturgess (Dex) pair up to portray the couple depicted in David Nicholl's book of the same title. I loved the book, which makes it difficult to love the movie, but I like both actors, and I was not disappointed.The story is that two friends, who have shared a bed while in University, but choose to go forward opting out of the sexual side of their friendship over a lengthy period of time, only to change their minds down the road. She has a major crush on him from the beginning, and not hard to see why early on--he is handsome and confident and charming. She is shy and not completely in touch with her beauty. She hides underneath glasses and ill-fitting calico.The story unwinds through a series of view of one day each year--St. Swithin's Day--and it turns out that Emma is talented and beautiful, while Dex turns into someone that is really unlikable--even his father can't bear him. So he gets less successful as she gets more successful, and as Dex has to deal with various realities (he is not a talented TV performer and he is a serious drunk), he is better able to see that Emma is his one true love. Or at least she is his one true friend, and he manages to see the value in that.The story takes a left turn near the end, which is much harder to take in the movie than when you are just reading about it--but the take home message--don't let the good one get away, and live for the moment because you don't know what tomorrow brings--is well delivered.

This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

This is a there go I but for the grace of God kind of story. This was on the 100 notable books of 2011 list, and I am grateful for that, because otherwise I would have missed this book, and that would have been a shame. I do not always agree that those books are the best of the year, but they are usually very good at the least, and since I am not completely steeped in the book world, I would mis many of them. Liz and Richard Bergamot are upper middle class everyday parents. He is the reason they are newly moved to Manhattan and she is the one staying home to make sure the transition goes well, resenting every minute of it, which leads to day time drinking and the occasional joint (ok, that is perhaps not the norm, but it doesn't lead to the central problem in the book). They have two kids, one adopted and young (Coco) and one biological and a 15 year old teen (Jake).Jake goes to a party where there is lots of alcohol, no parents, one night hook-ups and while he turns down sex with a 13 year old, she sends him a graphic video of herself via email the next day. He had a response to it that confuses and overwhelms him, so he sends it to his best friend, who sends it to two people, and then it goes viral. By Monday, everyone has seen it and Jake is sitting at the epicenter of the storm he has unleashed.The writing is outstanding, the story is well told, the consequences for both teens involved is heart breaking, and the narcissism of their parents is frightening...and a cautionary tale.

The Tree of Life (2011)

2011-12-19T16:01:00.000-06:00

"The Tree of Life," Terrence Malick's 1950s-set drama that ruminates on questions of family, faith and the universe, was named best picture of the year last Monday by the African-American Film Critics Assn.Roger Ebert thought it was the autobiography he would do in film if he were as talented as Terrence Malick. One thing we know is that the director is more about quality than quantity--this is only his fifth film in 38 years.The film takes place largely in the past--Sean Penn does a brief but interesting job as a grown up son, Jack, in the present, but that is it for current events. The rest of the film takes place in small town Texas of the nineteen-fifties. That is almost the only traffic; children play, on tranquil streets, under skies of perpetual fluffy clouds. Among the kids is Jack (played by the excellent Hunter McCracken), a boy growing up with his younger brothers, R.L. (Laramie Eppler) and Steve (Tye Sheridan), under the wing of their parents, Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt) and his wife (Jessica Chastain). The parents are of contrast--Pitt is stern, rigid, quick to anger, and frustrated. His wife is ethereal, serene, and in the absence of her husband, quite playful and child-like.The imagery throughout the film is spectacular, the message is deep, but I think you have to be more engaged in semiotics than I am to really appreciate the film. It is pitch perfect, smoldering with emotion and short on answers.

Almond Financiers

2011-12-18T11:40:00.000-06:00

This was a surprise favorite from the 8 cakes my friend Ivy and I made to try for my eldest son's wedding. The recipe is from Sherry Yard's 'Secrets of Baking' cookbook, and it is divine
* 1 cup (8 oz/227 g) unsalted butter
* 1 plump vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
* Nonstick cooking spray with flour
* 1-1/4 cups (3.8 oz/108Flour) g) almond flour or ground almonds
* 3/4 cup (3 oz/85 g) spooned and leveled cake flour
* 2-1/2 cups (10 oz/283 g) confectioners' sugar
* 1/8 teaspoon (pinch) salt
* 8 large egg whites (8 oz/227 g), room temperature
* 1 cup (3.2 oz/92 g) sliced unblanched almonds
* 3 tablespoons (1.5 oz/43 g) butter, melted
* 3 tablespoons (45 ml) melted and strained orange marmalade, for glaze

1. Place 1 cup (8 oz/227 g) butter in a heavy saucepan. With the tip of a small knife, scrape some of the inside of the vanilla bean into the butter and add the bean to the butter. Heat over medium-low heat until the dairy solids settle to the bottom and begin to brown to a deep gold, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, take out the vanilla bean, and allow to cool to room temperature. The butter needs to be melted, but not hot.

2. Arrange a shelf in the lower third of the oven with a baking stone on it and preheat the oven to 350°F/177°C. Spray small round or rectangular pans, miniature savarin rings, or small barquette pans with nonstick cooking spray with flour.

3. Spread half of the almond flour in a baking dish and roast until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes.

4. With a mixer, beat together on low speed for at least 30 seconds the almond flour, cake flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt. Add the egg whites all at once and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Dump in all of the melted vanilla butter, scraping the bottom of the pan to get all of the browned bits. Beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and across the bottom of the mixing bowl at least once.

5. Pour into the prepared pans. In the photograph insert we used fluted individual tins. Place on the hot baking stone and bake until the small cakes are lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes.

6. In a small skillet, toss the almond slices with the melted butter and heat with constant stirring until lightly browned.

7. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans on a rack for about 5 minutes, and then carefully remove from the pans and place on the rack to cool completely. Invert the little cakes one at a time out of the pan and place the cakes on a baking sheet. Brush the cake bottoms (now tops) with strained marmalade for a shiny glaze. Sprinkle with the toasted almonds and glaze the top of the almonds too.

8. This batter keeps in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. It is actually better made a day ahead. Before using, stir the batter well, scraping the bottom, and beat for 1 minute by hand or with a mixer to warm up and blend together well.

Tortas Frontera, O'Hare Airport

2011-12-17T10:15:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that there is an airport restaurant that I actually look forward to eating in. Last month I had a fly in, fly out trip to DC and I ate there twice. In fact, the only food I ate all day was from Tortas Fronteras. And it was the highlight of the day (not much of a challenge, of course, when the day entails getting up a 4am to catch a 5:30 flight and not getting home until midnight. The challenge is having any kind of highlight at all). I have been a fan of Rick Bayless' food for a long time. I had already discovered Mexican regional cooking--in two ways. One was by being in various regions in Mexico, which exposed me to the food, but didn't teach me anything about it. The other is Mr. Bayless' cookbook 'Authentic Mexican', which taught me how to cook the food I loved. The recipes are a balance between authentic and possible. A variety of kinds of dried chilis are required for the sauces--you can't get away with shaking a few spices into a blender and hoping for the best. But on the other hand, the food is possible to make. You can actually get the ingredients without living in a major metropolitan area.

So,what do I like here? Everything. I am serious about that. The salads are fantastic--big and flavorful. The poblano corn crema is fantastic. The guacamole is unbelievable (get it fully loaded). But the tortas are a must. They take a few minutes to prepare, but they are all good. I know, because I have tried every single one of them--I love coming with a group, because then you can try more than one. I have recreated the mushroom one at home it is so delicious. The garlic shrimp torta is the best shrimp sandwich I have had. The restaurant is located near B10 in Terminal 1--don't miss it--it is worth the walk from far away, and definitely don't walk by it without trying something!

Foyle's War

2011-12-16T10:14:00.000-06:00

I rarely write about my addiction to BBC murder mysteries. I freely admit the failing, but I am not particularly interested in trumpeting it far and wide. It is a quiet addiction. I am making an exception for 'Foyle's War' because there is a bit more to it. The thing that sets it apart isn’t the detective stories, which are as average formulaic as those in any other British period mystery and sometimes hard pressed to seem even plausible. It excels in it's historical time setting--World War II in the south of England. It has the astonishing level of historical detail and atmosphere that the show’s creator, Anthony Horowitz, and his team have brought to the show’s milieu — the town of Hastings (I have some historical connection to the Battle of Hastings, so I am fond of the setting), on the south coast of England, during World War II. Not to mention that the script is smart and brisk and beezy in all the ways you would hope for.I have just finished the 5th season, which is when the war is wrapping up. The character's in the series are what make it. Michael Kitchen’s quietly compelling performance as Christopher Foyle, the extremely buttoned-down but testy police inspector whose passions for justice and tolerance animate the stories, and the easy chemistry among him and his two foils, Anthony Howell as Sergeant Milner and especially Honeysuckle Weeks as the steadfast driver Samantha Stewart. The three of them allow us to see the problems that war presents. Half the population is off fighting the war--the half that are left at home are a mixed bunch, and stressed by their situation. The bombings are frequent, unpredictable, and people are burnt, maimed, killed, and left homeless by them. Women who have never worked are now in the workforce in droves. No one is sure how they feel about that. And then to top it off, despite the fact there is a war going one, people insist on behaving badly--some of them it is just business as usual, some are taking advantage of the situation the war presents, and some are unaware that the behavior they used to know as bad is now treason. It is a great medium for thinking about the emotional aspects of WWII, all the while enjoying the drama.

Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

2011-12-15T12:17:00.000-06:00

Malcolm has finally received the book that his unique role in black and global resistance culture deserves.Long before multiculturalism entered the language of political discourse, Malcolm was busy exploring its logical endpoint of ethnic and cultural separation. He ardently believed in separation of the races up until almost the end of his life, believing that blacks could never be treated equally by whites, so he said different things to different people. He was adept at tailoring his message to different audiences, often blatantly contradicting on a Thursday what he had clearly and emotively stated on a Monday--he wouldn't have fared nearly as well in the age of Youtube and 24/7 news. The Daily Show would have shredded him.

Yet despite, the man who emerges from this book is in many respects admirable: brave, loyal, self-disciplined, quick-witted, charismatic, acutely intelligent and a public speaker of quite awesome power. While Malcolm correctly predicted that black culture would assume a central role in American life, he would never have foreseen the election of a black president.Manning presents a strong case that there was some form of FBI collusion in his murder, if only to the degree that the bureau, which had spies all over the NOI, failed to prevent the plot. He also floats the probability that at least one of the killers was an FBI informant.Whatever the truth, there is no disputing that Malcolm was shot dead by men who largely shared his beliefs.The book does not speculate much on how or why Malcolm X became the man he did--the book tells the story in a matter-of-fact manner, up to and including his murder, and what happened soon thereafter. A very good read.

A Christmas Carol

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

I spent a wonderful Sunday afternoon watching the City Circle Community Theater's production of 'A Christmas Carol' at the lovely Coralville Center for the Performing Arts--and I highly recommend it--the performances yet to come are this Friday-Sunday. It is a fabulous space, and there is something really cosey about community theater. Those are people we know up there doing such a great job performing classic stories for our entertainment.The Dickens tale, set in Victorian England, still resonates today. Why? It is a classic redemption tale, and we Americans are complete suckers for redemption. What does that mean?Here is a general definition:A redemption theme is a story paradigm for fiction that centers around a fundamental moral arc within the main character from bad to good. At the start of the story the character will be deeply flawed in a way that reverberates throughout the story, reflected by the character’s choices and actions. By the end of the story the character has undergone a “trial by fire” that results in a Phoenix experience of rising from the ashes, a totally new, more powerful and more whole person.Yes indeed. This story fits that to a tee. In fact, Scroodge has become a big name over the past 100 years. The story is well known, and has been told a number of different ways in recent years ('Scroodged' is my favorite modern verison of the story). The scare tactic is the central agent of the change from bad to good--plus a gentle reminder in the midst of it all that at one time Scroodge was in love himself, that he gave that up for the pursuit of wealth, and perhaps he has some regrets about that.The story seems particularly poignant this year, as the gap between rich and poor is as great as it was in Victorian England and the Occupy Wall Street and others have reminded us that the rapid accumulation of wealth by a few has come at the expense of many in the middle class. And it has been remorselessly acquired. Sound familiar? Time for the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future to start paying some visits to the robber barons of our time.

Beginners (2011)

2011-12-13T09:35:00.002-06:00

The movie is seen through the eyes, the sensibility and the inevitably somewhat ambiguous life experience of Oliver (Ewan Macgregor), a 38 year old single man. When the film opens, the year is 2003, and Oliver's father, Hal (Christopher Plummer), a retired museum director, has just died of cancer at the age of 79. Who is gay. Something Oliver did not know until his mother died when his father was 75, and came out. He was married to Oliver's mother for 44 years but that wasn't the real him. As Oliver tells us, Georgia checked in her Jewishness and Hal his homosexuality at the altar. Now that she is gone, he is ready to be really truely out there in your face gay. And he does a brilliant job of it.
When Hal comes out of the closet he shocks his easily shocked son with his frankness. Hal finds a younger lover, Andy (Goran Visnjic), through an encounter column, and throws himself into the gay community and its politics. He then enjoys a remarkable Indian summer of happiness before stoically living with cancer in his final months, which Oliver nurses him through, all the while taking in this new father image.
In the midst of the grief he is feeling for the loss of his father, he is trying to bring what he learned from his father into his new relationship with a woman (Mélanie Laurent), which makes you cringe and laugh at the same time.
Beginners is funny, moving, and it draws you in. The acting is beyond reproach, with Christopher Plummer bringing delightful wit, compassion and unsanctimonious grace to the role of Hal. In its quiet, unostentatious way, it's one of the best films I've seen about the World War II generation's experience of living through and responding to the profound social changes of the past 60+ years.

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco

2011-12-12T10:02:00.003-06:00

The publication of Umberto Eco’s latest novel, The Cemetery of Prague, has created controversy in Italy. The criticisms are interesting, as they touch upon two themes that are particularly current in criticism these days – usually applied to less sensitive topics than antisemitism (which is prominent in the book): how to deal with the boundaries between the real and the fictional, and the need or otherwise to empathize with a novel’s characters. Additionally, the very public criticisms voiced by the Vatican backed Osservatore Romano newspaper, and the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni have raised eyebrows as well.

Eco, an academic, takes on freemasonry, conspiracy theories, forgery and the unification of Italy amongst other things in this latest novel, but at its core is anti-semitism and perhaps the most famous – and certainly the most pernicious – forgery in the world: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The main character of Eco’s novel, the fictitious* Simone Simonini, whom he describes as ‘the most hateful man in the world’, is a master forger in the employ of various secret services. Fueled by anti-semitism, he concocts the ultimate conspiracy theory, where a mythic meeting of the elders of Zion takes place in the Jewish cemetery in Prague, detailing their nefarious plan to rule the world.
It’s not the first time that Eco has examined conspiracy theories, or indeed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but this time the focus in particular on the most famous anti-semitic conspiracy theory, and his choice of a convinced anti-semitic protagonist has raised objections. I found it disturbing--both the text and the numerous lithographs that he includes in the book. it is just hard to read that much vitriol from a character and have it left unbalanced by anything else. There is no real opposing view--the reader is left to that job.

Must We Be Different?

2011-12-11T09:38:00.002-06:00

I was moved to quarrelsomeness this past week. The provovation was relatively minor. A friend of mine posited on his Facebook wall that a child raised by same-sex parents who trumpets his normalcy is undesirable--that we should hope for better.
The video on youtube of Zach Wahls testifying before the Iowa legislature against an amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman in February, 2011 went viral, and continues to enjoy elevated popularity, as does the man himself.
He describes himself as being a regular guy--a straight guy, with academic accomplishments, community invovlement, and he is clean cut good looking to boot. The point being that being raised by two women didn't change anything about who he was. They raised a child you would be proud to call your own. And that really resonated with people.
My friend, who has been a long time proponent of marriage equality as well as raising an openly gay child, was unhappy about that. His main objection is why should the focus be on normalcy? Why not celebrate differences. if kids raised by gay parents are different, if they don't fit our preconceived ideas of what is a 'good kid', is that a bad thing? Would that mean that we should be against gay marriage?
Well, I see his point, I do. But I am not the audience you need to convince. That audience is a group of people who are not well known for valuing differences, and for them, Zach Wahls is hard to reckon with--he is an Eagle Scout, for goodness sake. So I was moved to defend ordinary and normal as acceptable and perhaps even valuable attributes, especially for someone who might feel different to begin with. But it will be nice when no one is surprised that kids raised by gay parents have all the pluses and minuses of kids raised by straight parents. That will be a good day.

Cookie Decorating Short Cut

2011-12-10T09:42:00.002-06:00

I love the technique that I learned when I decorated some of my cut out cookies this year. In order to get this kind of coverage with royal icing, you need to pipe the outline around the cookies edge, then flood the cookie and spread it out to fill up the space. It takes about 5-10 minutes per cookie, depending on it's size, and the speed and dexterity of the person doing the decorating.
As an alternative, you can make the royal icing a bit thicker (the rule of thumb is that it should take about 6-7 seconds for a drop of the icing to meld back into the bowl. I am not a big fan of royal icing--sweet and boring--not a great flavor combination--but kids love it. You put enough royal icing in a pie plate to a thickness of about 1/2" . Using gel icing coloring, put about 4-5 drops of coloring into the pie pan--one at a time, in a circle about halfway between the middle of the pie plate and the edge.
To decorate, dip the cookie into the royal icing at a colored drop--when you pull the cookie up, that motion alone creates the swirls of color. Because the icing is a bit on the thick side, you have to kind of shake the excess icing off the cookie, then lay it on a cookie rack to dry completely--in a dry environment it takes 1-2 hours for them to dry enough to put them into cookies containers.
I decorated 6 dozen cookies in about 30". Hard to beat that!

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

2011-12-09T09:34:00.004-06:00

The kids in this book have been raised by wolves. Wolves who smoke pot. Wolves who turn on, tune out, and the drop out. Hippies who never got over it, but decided to bring kids into the picture. They leave behind children who are emotionally not able to cope with the 21st century. They have grown up with poverty, drugs, poor sexual boundaries and then are cast adrift into a complicated and problematic world.
The book revolves around the lives of four characters: Jude, Teddy, Eliza and Johnny. Jude's father left when he was nine, after telling the young boy that he was adopted. Nice parting shot. Later someone tell shim that he has the physical signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, that the 16 year old who gave him up for adopHe left him with his mother, who makes glass bongs for a living. She has some very lax rules about drug use in the house, as you might imagine. Jude's friend Teddy has a mother who is a drunk and a drug addict and leaves town on the day we meet him, which is also the day he dies. Jude and Teddy are best friends, both fifteen and doing every reckless drug they can get hold of— marijuana, cocaine, mushrooms, alcohol, petroleum distillate, turpentine and Freon, which is the one that kills Teddy.
But not before Eliza, the daughter of Jude's father's girlfriend, comes for a visit to their Vermont town on that New Year's Eve and makes love with Teddy in the bathroom of a party house just hours before he dies. And gets pregnant. Which rocks the world of Jude, and Teddy's brother, Johnny. The book is about the dysfunctional way these three teenagers deal with Teddy's death and Eliza's pregnancy, against the dysfunctional way that their parents deal with them, and with their lives in general. Well written and recommended.

Paintings by Stan Fellows

2011-12-08T11:48:00.003-06:00

I have been so happy in my new house that I have been hard pressed to find a reason to leave it. On the one hand, great to love you environs, but on the other, it is good to get out and mingle with the rest of the world on occasion.
So I am particularly happy that some friends driving by my house called and offered to take me to see Stan Fellows' art showing. He is an immensely talented artist, and he has recently moved to a rural setting in River Junction, where he has gotten a lot of the inspiration for his recent paintings.
I mentioned to Stan that I didn't get out much these days, and he laughed and said the same charge could be leveled at him--he doesn't even have to leave home to work, and he has no more neighbors than I do (although I did see someone walk by his living room window while I was there, and that has not happened at my house).
What is his solution? He paints at Hope House, a place where patients and their families can stay while they are getting cancer treatment at the hospital. He says it is a win-win for everyone. The patients love to watch him work, and talk with him about everything you can imagine. He gets regularly scheduled time to paint, and lots of feedback on his work.
People who are diagnosed with serious life altering illness find that lots of their friends and family tend to pull away from them. Consciously people do not think that these illnesses are contagious, but a natural reaction is avoid contact with people who are undergoing things that are too painful for one to deal with. So besides having a scary illness, you are isolated and all alone. Stan is not only a great painter, but he is counterbalancing that phenomenon. He is choosing to enter people's lives when they are sick, and he is providing entertainment, comfort, and beauty, all in one fell swoop. Check out Stan's blog (click on the title to get to it) and see what wonderthings he is painting

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear by Seth Mnookin

2011-12-07T09:31:00.003-06:00

I just saw Seth Mnookin speak at a national meeting about this book, which I read in preparation for his talk. He tackles the topic of vaccine safety, focusing primarily on the alleged connection between vaccines and autism as the center of his exploration, but does cover other reasons people avoid vaccines, and then closes with the consequences of not vaccinating children--both for those who chose that route, but also for those who are innocent bystanders--like children who are too young for a particular vaccine.
Mr. Mnookin is impressed that so many well-educated Americans are so deeply skeptical of established power. Whether the target is agribusiness, Big Pharma or the government, citizens who benefit most from "the system" are concluding not only that it's broken, but also that it's out to harm us as well. He became intrigued with this paradoxical social phenomenon after attending a dinner party in 2008. At this gathering he listened to a first-time father explain that he was delaying his infant's measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine on the grounds that he felt it was unsafe. According to what system of logic, Mnookin wondered, would an otherwise sensible man with absolutely no medical authority feel vaccination was unsafe? And why were so many intelligent people who "lived in college towns like Ann Arbor and Austin" eschewing standard pediatric procedures based on gut feelings rather than hard evidence?
That and subsequent conversations led him down the path to this book, a meticulously researched investigation into the popular belief that certain vaccines can cause autism. Combining narrative talent (so you can actually enjoy and understand the facts you are presented with) with assiduous reporting he explores "a manner of thinking" that not only runs "counter to the principles of deductive reasoning," but also threatens those of us who vaccinate our kids.
It takes guts to write a book informing a group of aggrieved parents that they're wrong about the source of their child's disorder. While Mnookin is consistently respectful of the emotional pain that autism can cause, he pulls no punches. Balancing sensitivity and science, he makes a devastating case that parents who reject vaccines for fear of autism are "casualties of a war built on lies." And he has become a target of zealous parents who passionately believe he is wrong, and has damaged their world with his assertion that there is no connection.
Mnookin tells his story from an impressive number of angles, but his primary emphasis centers on the social-psychological processes underscoring the widespread misperception that vaccines cause autism. At the core of his analysis is a basic scientific truism, one that we tend to forget: It's virtually impossible to immunize millions of people without experiencing a small percentage of random adverse reactions. Put simply, some kids are always going to react badly to their "jabs." Sometimes very badly. But overall the risk is greatly outweighed by the benefit, and Mnookin includes several heartbreaking stories of people whose children died as a result of not being vaccinated.
The story is a good one, and it is well told. In his talk, Mnookin admited that there is no convincing those who adamantly believe their children were damaged by vaccines, but does have some suggestions to help battle the growing number of parents skeptical about vaccines--one good one, I thought, was to have information groups for parents prenatally where they could talk about vaccines, their concerns and address them before they are incredibly sleep deprived and have to bring their infants into the doctor's office at 2 months of age for the first round of immunizations. The book is a great contribution to public health.

Spice Cookies

2011-12-06T13:43:00.000-06:00

I like this recipe from King Arthur for a less intense spice cookie. I started my holiday baking and these were amongst the first round favorites.
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
* 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or ground cloves
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 large egg
* 2 tablespoons molasses
* 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 3 tablespoons cornstarch

1) In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, shortening, sugars, baking powder, spices, and salt until light and fluffy.

2) Add the egg and molasses, and beat well.

3) Mix about half of the flour into the butter mixture. When well combined, add the cornstarch and the remaining flour.

4) Divide the dough in half, flattening each half slightly to make a disk. Smooth the edges by rolling the disk along a lightly floured work surface. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour (or longer), for easiest rolling.

5) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

6) Take one piece of dough out of the refrigerator, and flour a clean work surface, and the dough.

7) Roll it out as thin or thick as you like. For slightly less crisp cookies, roll it out more thickly. We like to roll these cookies 1/8" to 1/4"inch thick. Use flour under and on top of the dough to keep it from sticking to the table or rolling pin.

8) Alternatively, place the dough on parchment, and put a sheet of plastic wrap or another piece of parchment over it as you roll, pulling the plastic or parchment to eliminate wrinkles as necessary when rolling; this will keep dough from sticking without the need for additional flour.

9) Transfer the cookies to baking sheets.

10) Bake them just until they're slightly brown around the edges, or until they feel firm, about 10 to 12 minutes.

11) Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool on the baking sheet for several minutes, or until they're set. Transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Yield: 3 to 4 dozen 2 1/2" to 3" cookies.

The Swerve--How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

2011-12-05T11:03:00.001-06:00

Greenblatt makes the argument that Lucretius’s “De rerum natura” (“On the Nature of Things”), unearthed, after centuries of being lost, in an unknown monastery by the book hunter Poggio Bracciolini in 1417, allowed European civilization to edge away from the religiosity of the Christian Middle Ages and move into a world view that is increasingly secular. Or at the very least it influenced people who made the 'swerve' away from a stalwart belief in the supremacy of the Church to a belief in science.
The book-length Latin poem, written in the 1st century B.C. by the Roman poet, is so remarkably beautiful and gripping, without being any less a didactic work of Epicurean philosophy, one that sets forth a resolutely materialist view of “the nature of things.” According to Lucretius, the gods may exist, but they are utterly indifferent to humankind. Atoms — very much like our modern idea of atoms — are the sole building blocks of the cosmos. Because the atoms occasionally wobble or swerve as they fall through space, collisions result, and from these collisions various complicated, sophisticated agglomerations are created, including people. Souls do not exist, and there is no afterlife. When we eventually die, our atoms disperse and our particular selves utterly disappear. Consequently, it is foolish to fear death since, in effect, we’ll never know we’re dead. Instead, we should simply enjoy this world and relish its pleasures (of which sex is a prominent example). The most truly wise, advice Lucretius makes is for the quiet enjoyment of plain but good food, the conversation of friends, an existence far removed from ambition.

Sushi Sundays at Konomi, Coralville, IA

2011-12-04T13:25:00.004-06:00

We are blessed with a variety of Japanese and Asian fusion restaurants in our area, and while many of them are very good, this is the one we choose to go to for Sunday dinners, with or without our kids. Why? A couple of reasons. The first is that this is the most consistant Japanese restaurant in the area. What do I mean by consistant? I mean that when you order the same item off the menu, you know exactly what you are going to get. You can expect the dishes that you order on subsequent visits to be recognizable from the dish you had on your first visit. That is a plus, especially when you are dining with children that are not all that flexible. WHich you might not have a problem with but I do, in so many different ways...one won't eat fish, one will only eat fish, one will eat the rice, the miso soup, and the salad, but all bets are off about anything else. Restaurant choices that match each and every one of them that also meet my needs are not necessarily an easy find.
Why do we like to go on Sundays? First, it is the end of one week and on the cusp of another--if we haven't seen our out-of-the-house kids all week, it is a nice day to catch up with them. We usually cook a dinner on Sunday at our house, but we will occasionally go out--especially if we have been cooking aall week for other events. But our choice of Konomi on Sunday is simple--that is when they have a discount on sushi rolls. An added plus for a restaurant we already enjoy.

1493 by Charles Mann

2011-12-03T13:39:00.003-06:00

I loved this book that gives a longitudinal view of what effect Columbus' discovery of the Americas had on the world at the time, and then going forward. He picks a few things that are American to illustrate his overall point that this was a major turning point in civilization. I spent all last year helping my high school tenth grader with AP World History, so I had the nuts and bolts down ahead of reading this, but the way Mann fills in the gaps is wonderful.
In the four major sections of the book, he takes us around the Atlantic (with tobacco and malaria), the Pacific (with silver, piracy and corn), Europe (with potatoes, pesticides and rubber) and Africa (with race and slave rebellions). It is that sweeping, even using a limited number of examples. The conclusions he draws may not be universally agreed with, but his perspective on how each thing covered had an immediate effect, and then what the longer range view might be is a wonderful--and not dry--way to view historical influences that might be functioning today. The role of China on the world stage has waxed and waned over the past three thousand years, and to be able to see the recent re-emergence as part of a pattern over centuries rather than coming out of nowhere is very interesting.

Blind Wine Tasting

2011-12-02T13:49:00.003-06:00

I have done this several times over the last couple of years, but over Thanskgiviing weekend we did a blind tasting of 3 white wines, 2 rose, and 4 red wines that we might serve at my eldest son's wedding nest summer.
The key element is to disquise the wine--the best is to take wrapping paper and cover the bottle from top to bottom. This is critical because it eliminates any preconceived notions that you have about the wine and allows you to really focus on the elements that you like and don't like about each wine without using previously awuired knowledge in the mix. Prior to the wraping, mark each wine label with the number or letter you are going to assign to the bottle on the outside of the wrapping, as well as the price. Put the idenitfier on the outside of the wrapping (bt not the price) and proceed with tasting. If you are going to be serving the wine with food, have some variety of things to nibble on with the wine, so you can get a sense of what it will taste like on it's own and with a meal.
Since you may not have an idea of the character of each wine, it is nice (but not bnecessary) to have someone else weigh in on the tasting order. We tried the whites together first, followed by the roses, and then the reds. We did not find a rose we liked (we all agreed we had better ones in the past, and would need to repeat this process down the road--oh dear :-). We found a white we were ok with but not in love with, so the search may continue there as well. We found two reds we loved (one of which, when unwrapped, was a perennial favorite--but it won, fair and square), and our work is done there.
Once the tasting has been done and discussed, and a consensus has been reached, unwrap the bottles. Then you can go about tasting them further, seeing whether the favorites hold up to further tasting. It is a great process for choosing mid-range priced wine for an event that is very fun for the hosts of the big event to get input from others, and have a little mini-party to boot.

Chicken Piccata

2011-12-01T13:29:00.002-06:00

We had a wonderful dinner to try potential wines and desserts for my eldest son's wedding next summer, and in between the two, we had an Italian meal of risotto and chicken piccata--both are simple foods, easy to prepare, and delicious.
* 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
* salt and pepper
* All-purpose flour, for dredging
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1/2 cup chicken stock
* 2 Tbs. capers
* 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Pound the chicken to about 3/4" thick. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, butter and olive oil. When they start to sizzle, add 2 pieces of chicken and cook for 3 minutes. When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer to plate.

Into the pan add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Return to stove and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor, and reducing the sauce by half. Check for seasoning. Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to sauce and whisk vigorously. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.

Information: The History, The Theory, The Flood by Jaes Gleick

2011-11-30T13:05:00.003-06:00

THe book opens with the history of communicating information. The first chapter is about 'drum talk', which is a drum language used in a part of the Democratic Republic of Congo where the spoken language is Kele. European explorers had been aware for a long time that the irregular rhythms of African drums were carrying mysterious messages through the jungle. Explorers would arrive at villages where no European had been before and find that the village elders were already prepared to meet them. What they were slow to understand was why. In 1938, John Carrington became the first European to get why. Kele is a tonal language with two sharply distinct tones. Each syllable is either low or high. The drum language is spoken by a pair of drums with the same two tones. Each Kele word is spoken by the drums as a sequence of low and high beats. In passing from human Kele to drum language, all the information contained in vowels and consonants is lost. In a European language, the consonants and vowels contain all the information, and if this information were dropped there would be nothing left. But in a tonal language like Kele, some information is carried in the tones and survives the transition from human speaker to drums. They needed to add additional 'nonsense' words to make the meaning of the drumming clear, but it was essentially mimicking spoken language.
The second historical example is from France, when Claude Chappe developed a coded communication that could be viewed through telescopes--which came into being right around the time of the French Revolution. Chappe was a patriot who developed coded communications that were viewed through telescopes.
The book then segues into modern history, which begins with Samuel Morse, who made it possible to communicate almosttantaniously over long distances-=-at a time when it had taken days if not weeks to do so. Unlike Chappel, Morse was not interested in secrecy--his was the communication of business and he was wildly successful.
The theory refers to the work of Claude Shannon, the father of the science of information theory. In 1945 Shannon wrote a paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Cryptography,” which was stamped SECRET and never saw the light of day. He published in 1948 an expurgated version of the 1945 paper with the title “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” The 1948 version appeared in the Bell System Technical Journal, the house journal of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and became an instant classic, at a time when the greatest leaps forward in communication were happening in the Bell Labs. It is the founding document for the modern science of information. After Shannon, the technology of information raced ahead, with electronic computers, digital cameras, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Which is the 'flood' part of the book. All three sections are equally good, but the first two sections were less known to me. Excellent read.

The Value of Thanks

2011-11-29T13:55:00.003-06:00

The easiest way to happiness is one where you spend some amount of time every day reflecting on what you have to be thankful for, focusing on those positives, and appreciating them. The converse of that to let go of the things that are unchangable and not have that cloud over what is good and great in life. Easier said than done.
Thanksgiving is a time for doing just that--giving thanks. Families and friends get together to celebrate what we have. And the thanks giving does not have religious baggage involved. I heard a piece on 'This American Life' this weekend about siblings who are not able to have a meaningful sibling relationship because she is a non-religious Jew, and her brother has become a born-again evangelical Christian. They can't find a common ground upon which to meet because he believes she is damned. So religious holidays are out for them--too much tension. And in this example maybe they won't have overlapping things they are thankful for--maybe what they are grateful for are things other than each other. But I think it is brilliant to have a secular day of thanks.
I spent the weekend doing a mixture of what my everyday life contains: time with my nuclear family (some collegial conversations, some bickering), cooking, working, reading, cleaning up, and so on. In other words, nothing special, other than the fact that my child at college away from home was with us for the holiday. But that is what is great for me--that it is not a time to go overboard with specialness. It is a time to savor the ordinary and be grateful for it.
I am watching a BBC series set during WWII, which was a time that was not ordinary. Bombs were raining on the civilian population, young men were dying in droves, and food was scarce. Yet in the midst of it all, people were trying to do ordinary things--get married, get to work, get dinner on the table,. they would have loved to have nothing but ordinary things happen. It was hard to maintain moral standards in a time when bombs are dropping on children and you didn't know where your next meal would come from or what it would consist of. The Chinese curse of 'May you live in interesting times' comes to mind. I am thankful that despite all the challenges we face, that a global war is not a current problem.
So, moving forward into the end of the year festivities, I am trying to ride the tide created by an intense focus on thanks. May we all be able to live the serentity prayer: Please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Cherry Mustard

2011-11-28T20:01:00.000-06:00

I had a wonderful condiment when I ate at Luke in New Orleans--cherry mustard. It was served with a chocon de lait sandwich, and was a wonderful balance of sweet and tart. John Besh included the recipe in his cookbook, and since I am going back to New Orleans next month, I started thinking of some of the great food I had last summer there.
* 1/4 cup cherry juice (no sugar added)
* 1/4 cup ground mustard, such as Colman’s
* 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
* 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 large egg
* 1 large egg yolk
* 2 tablespoons finely chopped dried cherries
1. Combine the cherry juice, ground mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and Worcestershire sauce in a medium heatproof, nonreactive bowl and whisk until smooth. Add the egg and egg yolk and whisk until evenly combined. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Fill a medium saucepan with 1 inch of water and bring to a bare simmer over low heat. Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl of mustard and place the bowl over the simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mustard has thickened to the consistency of olive oil, about 10 minutes. (Check to make sure the water isn’t boiling by periodically removing the bowl from the saucepan using a potholder or dry towel. If the water is boiling, reduce the heat so the eggs don’t curdle.)
3. Remove the bowl from the saucepan, add the dried cherries, and stir to combine. Transfer the mustard to a nonreactive container with a tightfitting lid and cool completely.

The Adults by Amy Espach

2011-11-27T13:27:00.004-06:00

This book is Emily, aged 14 up to her late 20's and the relationship she has with a man over that period of time. There is a lot more to her story than just one guy, of course. Her parents divorce, she makes and loses friends, her father moves out of the country and in with another woman, having fathered a half-sister with yet another woman. It is not the fairy book childhood. But the realtionship that defines her life is one with her high school teacher, Johannes--who she calls Mr. Basketball. She begins sleeping with him when she is 15 years old, and she does so ardently, enthusiastically, and the teacher loves he back, no question about it. He is not just bedding an underaged girl, he is falling hard for her. Why? Well, he is one of those men who is not much more than a teen himself, in maturity if not age. He is 24 when the affair begins, and he still doesn't have sheets on his bed--it is like he was orphaned too early to learn the ecoutrements of a civilized life--like how to make your bed and cook your dinner.
The two meet up several times over Emily's subsequent life--she move on from Mr. Basketball, but when he shows back up, she is her 15 year old self again. Just a horny as before and unable to stop herself from literally jumping his bones. it is a story about how those first loves are intense loves--maybe not all that good for you, but very intense. And they don't fade away--those memory tracks about how you felt when you were with that person are hard to stamp out and intensely written. Be careful. That is how the story goes.

Brussel Sprouts with Marjoram and Pine Nuts

2011-11-26T13:27:00.003-06:00

I got this recipe from my wonderful friend Chris, and I changed it a little bit, but it is a keeper. A great side for the Thanksgiving table.
* 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
* 1/4 cup pine nuts
* 1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, halved
* 1 cup broth
* 2 shallots, minced
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram
* 1/4 cup half and half

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Preparation

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add nuts and stir until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer nuts to small bowl. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in same skillet over medium heat. Add sprouts; stir 1 minute. Add broth; cover and simmer until sprouts are almost tender, about 7 minutes. Uncover and simmer until broth evaporates, about 5 minutes. Using wooden spoon, push sprouts to sides of skillet. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in center of same skillet. Add shallots; sauté until tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in marjoram, then cream. Simmer until sprouts are coated with cream, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and chill. Stir over medium heat to rewarm.)

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

2011-11-25T12:29:00.000-06:00

Wow, I really loved this book. I am already a huge Ondaatje fan. It happened long ago, when I read 'In the Skin of a Lion'. His way with words is spectacular, and from the very beginning of every story he tells I am immediately wrapped up in, and then once I am done, I am enfolded in the cocoon of the story for days afterwards. He is thought provoking, but not directive about how you should react. It has been a long time between books--'Anil's Ghost' came out about a decade ago, so savor this one. It has to last a while.
The story takes place in the 1950's and the narrator is an 11-year old boy, Michael, who is for much of the story on a boat en route from Sri Lanka to England, where he reunites with his mother. he is traveling with his uncle and family, but he is equally influenced by two boys his own age on the boat, Cassius and Ramadhin. The title of the book, The Cat's Table, refers to the worst table on ship--it is diametrically opposed to the prestige of the Captain's Table, and it is physically as far from the coveted table as is physically possible. On the one hand, prestigious passengers are dining with the highest ranking member of the crew--on the other hand, the least prestigious passengers are dining with his cat. But Michael and his friends discover that there are some interesting characters indeed at the Cat's Table. The other key element of the book is the time the journey takes. This story could not take place in present time, because the boy would have been put on a plane and within 12 hours time he would have seen 6 movies and be at his destination, having interacted with no one along the way. In this tale, the 21 day journey is life changing for the boys, and how that unfolds is the story. Wonderful to read, even better to reflect on.

Happy Turkey Day!

2011-11-24T09:41:00.000-06:00

We love the Thanksgiving meal. We try to have it at least twice during the Thanskgiving weekend, and a few more times throughout the year. It is an easy meal to prepare, but full of comfort foods and not all that pricey to put on for a crowd--especially if you get a few turkeys at the bargain basement prices that abound this week.
All the Kline boys are home--not all of them are eating turkey these days, but to have everyone around the same table is very nice. My best tip for the day is to brine your turkey. Always. Never fail to do this step--it makes the turkey taste sublime. In the interest of full disclosure, I never make the turkey (in fact, I rarely cook meat--I leave that for my spouse, who does such a reliably excellent job of it that I have never felt the need to learn). But this is the easiest and most practical method, taken from Alton Brown.
He fills a large Igloo Cooler with 6 quarts hot water, 1 pound salt, 1 pound brown sugar, and stirs until well mixed. Let it cool it for 15-30 minutes. Add 5 pounds of ice to the brine mixture, and submerge the turkey. Make sure the turkey is covered with the ice water, and let sit for 8-16 hours. Because of all the ice, it's not necessary to refrigerate as long as the water remains cold and there's still ice in the cooler. If the ice thaws, place the bird in the refrigerator for the remainder of the time. That's it. Now you can smoke it or roast it or deep fry it or grill it--whatever you want, but brining helps make the turkey juicier and more flavorful throughout.

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuko

2011-11-23T12:34:00.009-06:00

Julie Otsuko, who wrote 'When the Emperor Was Devine', a book about a family interned during WWII, follows that book with this one. The Japanese American themes continue, although this one is more of a collage than a story. She tells the stories of picture brides, women who came from Japan to America, having seen only a picture of their intended husbands. The marriage was brokered by a middle man who had no hesitation about lying--the men were farm hands, rather than the professional men they were presented to the girls and their families as, and they wer older and coarser than what their supposed pictures revealed. Otsuko proceeds to tell us all the fates that befell these women. They fell in love on the boat, they were raped by their 'husbands', they were sold or stolen as prostitutes, they were shunned by their new communiteis, they labored in the fields--but rarely did they live the life they were trained for or promised. These are not happy stories, so maybe it is better to tell them as a whole rather than to dwell on the individual misery--and the book is moer of a novella, something you can sit down and read in an hour or two, so as to minimize the pain that each individiual woman endured. Nicely done and recommended.

Crazy, Stupid Love (2011)

2011-11-22T09:54:00.002-06:00

Ok, to start off, it is a dumb title for a movie, but it is also a movie that is aptly named--you know what you are getting into right off the bat. No secrets. But it worked for me.
At it's heart, it is a study in the varieties of masculine sexual confusion--from start to finish (ok, there are no geriatric love affairs, so the waterfront is not completely covered, but it has all the rest). Steve Carell plays Cal Weaver, an average guy with a family, a suburban house, and a white collar job. He is reported to have a bad haircut and terrible fashion sense. Jacob (Ryan Gosling), who is an adept pickup artist in a local bar tells him this and then volunteers his services as coach in the game of seduction. Cal accepts the offer because his wife of more than two decades, Emily (Julianne Moore), has told him that she wants a divorce, and that she has cheated on him with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon) only slightly less nebbishy than Cal himself (she is not going way out of her comfort zone for her mid-life crisis). Nursing his self-pity at a sleek local bar, Cal meets Jacob, who finds him so pathetic he is motivated to help him, if only to shut him up. Jacob definitely does not see this guy as a threat--something that comes back to bite him later in the movie. In a determined, half-pathetic attempt to even the score with Emily, Cal sets out to score with as many women as he can. Complications, as the saying goes, ensue, but they are not necessarily the ones you might expect. This is unrealistic in many ways but very enjoyable, with all sorts of good actors.

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum (1900)

2011-11-21T12:25:00.003-06:00

I know, this book is old--written in 1900, it chronicles a trip that began five years before, and what travelogue withstands a century's test of time? This one. It is a remarkable volume that reads as modern as anything being written today, and is a good deal more entertaining than most travel tales.
It has been said that Joshua Slocum’s autobiographical account of his solo trip around the world is one of the most remarkable — and entertaining — travel narratives of all time. Agreed.
When he set off alone from Boston aboard the thirty-six foot wooden sloop Spray in April 1895, Captain Slocum went on to join the ranks of the world’s great circumnavigators — Magellan, Drake, and Cook. But by circling the globe without crew or consorts, Slocum would outdo them all: his three-year solo voyage of more than 46,000 miles remains unmatched in maritime history for courage, skill, and determination. And the scariest part of all is his journey from Boston back home at the end of the trip, so it is a thriller to the end.
Sailing Alone Around the World recounts Slocum’s wonderful adventures encountered along the way: hair-raising encounters with pirates off Gibraltar and savage Indians in Tierra del Fuego; raging tempests and treacherous coral reefs; flying fish for breakfast in the Pacific; and a hilarious visit with Henry (”Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”) Stanley in South Africa. A century later, Slocum’s incomparable book endures as of the greatest narratives of adventure I have ever read. Truely wonderful and highly recommended.

Everything Must Go (2011)

2011-11-20T21:56:00.001-06:00

'Everything Must Go' is a dramatization of a Raymond Carver short story 'Why Don't You Dance?', with Will Ferrell playing the central character. Two things about that. I like a movie that only tries to cover the material in a short work of fiction. Short stories have to make their mark in a limited number of pages and so the action is swift and the message is straightforward. Second, Raymond Carver, while not a man I would wanted to even share a meal with, judging from his biography, is a singularly gifted short story writer. Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts', also based on Carver's short stories, is a masterpiece. And finally, Will Ferrell is a gifted dramatic actor--while I rarely find him even palatable as a comic actor, his serious roles have yet to fail to intrigue and entertain me.
Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, a man who drinks his way out of a job and a marriage, all on the same day. He isn't one of those flamboyant drunks, nor is he a happy drunk, or a charming drunk. He is a guy whose drinking has become the priority in his life. A sad and very common story. Nick wouldn't say that drinking is more important than his wife, but because he pays more attention to that than anything else in his life, it becomes the king of his existence.
It isn't true that you need to find your bottom before you're likely to stop drinking but that is the case here. Every bottom is different. Nick finds his on the front lawn of his house. His wife has moved all his belongings out of their house, changed the locks, alarmed the house, emptied their bank account and cancelled his credit cards. He deals with this by buying some beer and settling into his La-Z-Boy recliner.
Into this situation comes the muse. In this case it is an African-American teenager named Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace), a nice kid who rides up on his bike, asks the obvious questions and enters into a tacit understanding to become Nick's business partner in the selling off of all his worldly goods. This character is very well handled. He quietly but precisely shines a light onto Nick's circumstnances in a way no other person in Nick's life can. His timing is right. He also allows for Nick to shine through as more than a drunk who can be a bit of an ass. Through their friendship, Nick is able to find a possible path to redemption. Thisis not a feel good movie, but it is packed with meaning, and the occasional laugh. My favorite is when Kenny says to Nick that black people don't play soccer and Nick's response is "What do you mean, black people don't play soccer? Whole continents of black people play soccer." Indeed they do. Nick helps Kenny and Kenny helps Nick. The story is not overplayed and it works.

The Orient Express

2011-11-19T12:06:00.002-06:00

The Orient Express conjures up images of stylish relaxation, a luxurious ambiance and wealthy rail travel among exotic European destinations. It is on a lot of people's bucket list, but I never thought much about the cities that the train went through. I was more focused on the luxury of the mode of transportation. Now that I have spent time in both Belgrade and Istanbul, I have been thinking about the other countries that the train went through. I focused more on the opulence in the setting of fairly mundane travel--the train. But I think I was missing the point.

Travel in the Balkans was incredibly scenic, and you really miss that if you fly over the places that you visit. I largely do that--I have less time to travel than I would like, and so often, the journey is more about getting there than how that travel is accomplished. This year I managed to be on a train for relaxing travel. I took a train from London to Glasgow, and it was delightful. For us, the English penchant for driving on the left makes driving high stress and if avoidable, that would be the preference. We had first class seats, which provided not just relaxing views, but also food, drink, electricity at your seat and wireless internet. And an assigned set, so you didn't have to scramble to sit down in a choice seat.

While the English countryside is quite lovely, the Balkans were spectacular, and the trip there made me quite eager to see more of Eastern Europe--the Orient Express whisks you through Romania and Bulgaria--which should perhaps be next on my list of places to visit sooner rather than later. The world is changing quickly. It was astounding how many people in the Balkans spoke English--almost everyone in the under 30 year old crowd, and overall, it was quite impressive. Not that sharing a common language is essential--we have managed with a dictionary, a smile, and a good map in the past. It requires flexibility on the part of the traveler, and being comfortable with not getting everything that you want. But communication is not over rated--it really helps, and maybe it is time to retrace the steps of this famous train in a modern way.

Creamy Chicken and Greens with Roasted Poblano

2011-11-18T09:24:00.002-06:00

From Rick Bayless' Fiesta cookbook--this is for tacos, but we served it over rice

2 fresh poblano chiles
3 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Salt
1 medium white onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
3 garlic cloves, minced
5 cups (lightly packed) coarsely chopped, stemmed greens
1 cup chicken broth
A little fresh thyme, if you have it
1 cup Mexican crema, or heavy (whipping) cream
Directions

1. Roast the chiles. Roast the poblanos directly over an open flame or 4 inches below a broiler, turning regularly until blistered and blackened all over, about 5 minutes for a flame, about 10 minutes for the broiler. Cover with a kitchen towel and cool until handleable. Rub off the blackened skin, then pull out the stem and seed pod. Briefly rinse to remove any stray seeds or bits of skin. Slice 1/4- inch thick.

2. Brown the chicken. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Generously sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt on both sides and lay them into the pan in a single layer. When browned underneath, about 4 minutes, flip them over and reduce the heat to medium. Cook on the other side until browned and medium-rare (a little slit in the thickest part will reveal a rosy interior), 5 or 6 minutes more. Transfer to a plate.

3. Finishing. To the skillet (still over medium heat), add the onion. If there isn’t enough oil to lightly coat the onion, add a little more. Cook, stirring regularly, until richly browned and sweet, 8 or 9 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the chicken into 1/2-inch cubes. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook 1 minute, then add the greens, broth and thyme (if you have it). Raise the temperature to medium high. Cook until the liquid is nearly gone and the greens are almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add the cream and cook until it is noticeably thicker (it’ll be a rich glaze) and the greens are fully tender, about 5 minutes more.

Taste and season the mixture in the skillet with salt, usually 1/4 teaspoon. Stir in the chicken, let heat through for a minute to two, scoop into a serving bowl, and enjoy.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

2011-11-17T14:09:00.002-06:00

Let's be clear--while this book focuses on a baseball layer, and there is a lot about the game in the book, you do not need to have wither an interest nor an understanding of the game to enjoy this book. the author chooses not to center the book on strategy or on gamemanship. Instead he puts the spot light on making an error. The book takes place in an imaginary northern Wisconsin private school and its baseball star-in-the-making Henry Skrimshander. Henry is shy and awkward--not quite Asperbergers, but he is in the neighborhood, if not on the block. To make up for, or maybe it is at least partly because of his social stupidity, he is a gifted and disciplined shortstop and also a disciple of a handbook for middle infielders that gives the book its name. His single-minded pursuit of perfection leaves him as something of a cipher in the early going. He's a repetitive motion machine full of workouts and rituals custom-built by his teammate and flawed mentor Mike Schwartz, determined to become bigger, stronger and more obsessed with the game than anyone else. And he largely succeeds, doing so without causing much of a fuss because he is so dedicated. People respect his success because it comes as a result of hard work. He ends up almost error free as a result. But not quite. he makes a big one.
The issue of the book--and for Henry and the characters around him, is how recovery from our errors on and off the field gives shape to people's lives. There is a lot of texture to the story that I am leaving out, but that is the jist of it.
The characters in this book remind me of John Irving, and the story has shades of Richard Russo--it is spectacular.

Potato Gnocchi

2011-11-16T14:51:00.004-06:00

1 pound russet potatoes
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon gray salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting board and dough
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Bake potatoes until a bit overcooked, about 45 minutes. Let sit until cool enough to handle, cut in half, and scoop out the flesh. Reserve the potato skins, if desired, for another use. Let cool further to reduce moisture.
Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer or grate them on the large holes of a box grater. You should have about 2 cups. Make a mound of potatoes on the counter with a well in the middle, add egg, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Mix in the potatoes and mix well with hands. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the flour over the potatoes and, using your knuckles, press it into the potatoes. Fold the mass over on itself and press down again. Sprinkle on more flour, little by little, folding and pressing the dough until it just holds together, (try not to knead it.) Work any dough clinging to your fingers back into the dough. If the mixture is too dry, add another egg yolk or a little water. The dough should give under slight pressure. It will feel firm but yielding. To test if the dough is the correct consistency, take a piece and roll it with your hands on a well-floured board into a rope 1/2-inch in diameter. If the dough holds together, it is ready. If not, add more flour, fold and press the dough several more times, and test again.
Keeping your work surface and the dough lightly floured, cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 1/2-inch in diameter. Cut into 1/2-inch-long pieces. Lightly flour the gnocchi as you cut them. You can cook these as is or form them into the classic gnocchi shape with a gnocchi board, ridged butter paddle, or the tines of a large fork turned upside down. Rest the bottom edge of the gnocchi board on the work surface, then tilt it at about a 45 degree angle. Take each piece and squish it lightly with your thumb against the board while simultaneously pushing it away from you. It will roll away and around your thumb, taking on a cupped shape -- with ridges on the outer curve from the board and a smooth surface on the inner curve where your thumb was. (Shaping them takes some time and dexterity. You might make a batch just for practice.) The indentation holds the sauce and helps gnocchi cook faster.
As you shape the gnocchi, dust them lightly with flour and scatter them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or waxed paper. Set gnocchi filled cookie sheet in front of a fan on low for 1/2 hour (turning gnocchi after 15 minutes). If you will not cook the gnocchi until the next day or later, freeze them. Alternatively, you can poach them now, drain and toss with a little olive oil, let cool, then refrigerate several hours or overnight. To reheat, dip in hot water for 10 to 15 seconds, then toss with browned butter until hot.
When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Drop in the gnocchi and cook for about 90 seconds from the time they rise to the surface. Remove the cooked gnocchi with a skimmer, shake off the excess water, and serve as desired.

Monogamy (2011)

2011-11-15T12:36:00.005-06:00

I was on a long plane trip, one where it is entirely possible to watch six movies, and saw both this and 'Hall Pass'. In the later, two married men bombard their wives (who are quite attractive) that they are still actively gawking at women and thinking about what could be--to the point that their wives become fed up and give them a week where they can do whatever they want, sleep with whoever will have them. In that movie, they come to see that sex isn't as simple as all that.
In “Monogamy,” it is matter of watching what is essentially a sexworker having sex in public, and wondering why your sexual partner isn't up for that--all the time. The unrealistic expectations that can be born of too much porn. Why isn't your lover trying to jump your bones 24/7? Well, because she isn't being paid to pretend you are that hot.
Here's the story--Theo (Chris Messina), a wedding photographer, lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend, Nat (Rashida Jones), and has carved out a somewhat unlikely side gig of sneaking shots of strangers for pay. Calling himself a Gumshoot, he takes photographs of paying strangers while hidden from their sight. The idea seems to be that clients will fork over dough to see what they look like in their everyday life.
This professional voyeur angle takes a turn for the kinky when a woman calling herself Subgirl (Meital Dohan) hires Theo to take photographs of her in a park. On the appointed morning he lies in wait with his camera while she shows up in tennis whites, oversize sunglasses and a bad blonde wig. Then the little lady sits on a bench, takes a few quick looks around and begins to openly masturbate--and then she is having sex in public places on a regular basis. Theo gets more and more wrapped up in it, preferring to watch pictures of Subgirl to spending any time with Nat, to not picking fights with Nat when she won't have sex with him in her hospital bed, to losing the relationship. We watch Theo unravel, we know what is happening and we are begging him to come to his senses. But he doesn't.
It reminds me of a 'Friends' episode where Joey and Chandler find out they have the porn channel and are watching it every spare moment, but when they are surprised when the pizza girl comes to the door and doesn't offer to sleep with them--not even offering up a blow job, that they come to their senses and realize they are watching too much porn. Theo never wakes up.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

2011-11-14T12:45:00.005-06:00

I have been a loyal fan of the Man Booker prize, and I have read at least a handful of the long-listed books for several years. The prize has traditionally valued exceptional writing over plot line. It is not at all uncommon for a short-listed book to meander aimlessly but beautifully to a less-than-satisfying ending, all the while dazzling the reader with the quality of the prose employed. This year the judges were criticized for valuing plot--but I would defend that choice, because the nominees that I have read to date have been excellently written.
So I have a quarrel with the winner, 'The Sense of an Ending'. Maybe it is just about finally awarding Julian Barnes with the prize--this is his fourth nomination, and maybe they just felt it was time. In my humble opinion, this fell into the bottom 50% of the short-listed books.
Why? Maybe it is because I found the protagonist, Tony Webster, entirely unlikable. Maybe it is because I am dangerously close to the point that he is in life and I don't want to think that I might be so pitiful in 10 years. But I was happy the book was so short, because I didn't want to spend any more time with him. the book is at once an idealized depiction of sexual performance and ones command of ones life, and a pathetic lack of insight, even in hindsight, of what one did that led one on a particular life path.
Maybe I missed the point--maybe when you make poor choices as a young adult, you look back on that time as the point at which you took the wrong fork. But in reality, life has many forks, and there are quite a few points where you can turn around. It requires being able to say you were wrong, but often you can get a second chance. But Tony is not a guy to reassess his choices and try to reconcile what would bring happiness and turn his bitterness around. Which is why felt so little sympathy for him at the end, when he finds out the true ending of his first love story.

Red Bean Stew

2011-11-13T10:28:00.002-06:00

2 cups red beans, soaked for 6 hours or overnight in 2 quarts water
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 bell peppers, cut in small dice
2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
Salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley, or a combination of parsley and dill
1/2 cup drained yogurt for topping
1. Place the beans in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Measure the soaking water in the bowl, and add enough water to it to measure 2 1/2 quarts. Add this to the pot with the beans, turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a gentle boil, then turn down and cook for an hour.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onions, carrots and peppers. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender and fragrant, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add 2 of the garlic cloves and continue to cook for another minute or so, until the garlic is fragrant. Season to taste with salt, add another tablespoon of oil and add the paprika. Cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes, until the vegetables are well coated with paprika and the mixture is aromatic. Add 1/4 c. of simmering water from the beans to the pan, stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan to deglaze, then stir this mixture into the beans. Add the tomato paste and bay leaf, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.
3. Add the oregano, the remaining garlic cloves, salt to taste, cayenne, vinegar and sugar, and continue to simmer for another hour, or until beans take on a creamy texture and the liquid is thickened.
4. Just before serving, stir in the parsley. Serve over noodles or rice or thick slices of country bread, topping each portion with a large dollop of drained yogurt.

Super 8 (2011)

2011-11-12T10:26:00.002-06:00

This is a difficult to categorize movie. But enjoyable none-the-less. The reason is an engaging group of young actors who make us want to watch. Joel Courtney plays Joe, a sensitive boy whose mother has just been killed in an accident at her factory job. He and his newly widowed father (Kyle Chandler) are figuring out how to get along with each other without her while dealing with their grief. Joe's group of friends help distract him from his home life, as they make a movie for an amateur film festival. When they're filming a climactic scene near the train tracks, they watch — and film — an intense accident that has some pretty distressing repercussions. The rest of the kids are as follows: there's bossy director Charles, firework-loving Cary, hopeful actor Preston and wide-eyed Martin. Their all-boy dynamic is unsettled when they add a girl to the cast, and Alice (Elle Fanning) shakes up the screen with her sophistication and impressive acting skills. She also represents an element of growing up; the boys are on the verge of discovering girls, but the movie doesn't push it any farther than the first blush of a crush. It's very innocent in that way; ultimately, Alice, Joe's mother's death, and the ensuing crisis become key factors in the boys' coming of age. Not to mention a whole lot of stuff blows up and flies through the air. But with a plot.
Super 8 fails to choose a distinct genre; it wavers between coming-of-age tale, a monster movie, and then a family drama. But, this is still a highly entertaining movie. It's worth it to see for the buoyant sense of humor and the jaw-dropping, spine-chilling moments, even if it doesn't quite live up to expectations.

Veterans Who Are Homeless

2011-11-11T14:04:00.003-06:00

It is not a simple task to figure out who is homeless. First of all, it is not like the census,--you can;t go door to door. That is the whole problem. The homeless lack a fixed address. So you cab start with shelters and temporary housing, but then you miss all the people who are living off the grid--the people who live in tents and under overpasses. And you also miss the group who are essentially homeless but who haven't burned all their bridges yet--people who are sleeping on friend's couches and in parent's basements.
So not an easy number to arrive at, the total homeless population. We do know that as the economy has remained tanked, there are more homeless. Ironic, because owning a home has never been cheaper, but with unemployment at a steady 9% and mortgages harder than ever to get (talk about closing the barn door after the horse has escaped...), more people are without a reliable roof over their heads. And a full 25% of them are veterans, people who have served their country, many of them in the most recent wars that are still going on. A veteran of the current war has often been in combat more than any American soldier since the Revolutionary War. Whether or not the stress of combat directly or indirectly leads to homelessness, the fact is there are a lot of veterans from this conflict either at risk to become homeless or actually without shelter. It is time to do better. To create a culture where everyone pays their share, and everyone has a roof over their heads.

A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvette Edwards

2011-11-10T14:17:00.003-06:00

A Cupboard Full of Coats allows those of us who have trouble understanding how the cycle of violence is perpetuated. This booklets the reader into the mind of Jinx, a young woman born into a violent household and clinging to violent men, even while she professes to cower from it. It is a tale of anguish and guilt as well.
Jinx' mother is killed by her boyfriend--the mother does what many abused women do--she escalated the violence so as to get the beating over with and get to the part where the man professes his undying love and starts to try to make it up to the woman. Only the last time that didn't happen. Jinx' mother is killed instead.
After her mother’s violent murder, Jinx’s prolonged struggle beneath the weight of the blame herself puts her in danger of driving away the little family she has left. She seems incapable of breaking the chain of hurt that was forged many years before and risks shackling her infant son within the same painful confines which she inhabits.
An unexpected visit from Lemon, a man who played a prominent role in the most miserable period of her past, forces Jinx to explore the causes of her anger and self-loathing. Lemon, in spite of his faults and confessions of wretched jealousy, charms (and at the same time repels) Edwards’ reader and heroine with his honeyed patois, his talents in the kitchen, and his silky swagger.
Edwards presents the sharp and paradoxical nuances of human nature as well as the ironies of intimate relationships that resonate and terrify. Could this happen to me? Please say no. The characters are complete, compelling people and the narrative that that contains them unfolds in a slow and enjoyable manner.

Slavic Dragons

2011-11-09T13:58:00.001-06:00

In Slovenia, a dragon is called 'zmaj' (there are slight differences in terminology between Slavic languages), although an archaic word of unclear origins, pozoj, is sometimes used as well. Dragons in Slovenia are generally the bad guy, and usually appear in relation with St. George (ergo slayed). Other folk tales relate stories of dragons defeated by feeding them with sulphur stuffed sheep (really? THis seems somewhere between far fetched and cartoonish). However, the dragon is not always harmful to man. The best example of this is the Ljubljana Dragon, who benevolently protects the city of Ljubljana and is pictured in the city's coat of arms.
All slavic dragons, good or bad, are considered "extremely intelligent, wise and knowledgeable" creatures of "superhuman" strength and proficiency in magic, very rich (usually described as having castles of enormous riches hidden in distant lands) and often lustful for women, with whom it is capable of making offspring (not sure what the offspring look like or do). Dragons often breath fire and are generally highly respected, and while not always benevolent, are not an entirely evil creature. Legends were spread about many historical and mythical heroes that they were conceived by a dragon.
We loved the dragon themes that abounded in Ljubljana, and I would like to go on a dragon tour of the city next time I return.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

2011-11-08T12:27:00.001-06:00

This is classic Woody Allen, with a touch more whimsy thanhe usually delivers. This film does not fall outside his usual repertoire of issues--life crises, marital issues, creative anxiety, and the like, but the backdrop of Paris adds a hint of romanticism into the mix.Our hero is not Allen himself, as is so oftent the case, but Owen Wilson, who plays Gil Pender, an erstwhile Hollywood scriptwriter, comes to the city with his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents. After years of hackdom, he wishes to write his first novel, but his neurotic self-flagellation gets in the way, especially when faced with a friend of Inez' they run into, the aggressively-intellectual braggart Paul (Michael Sheen). It is Paris that inpires him--he can barely step out of the hotel before he is excitedly cataloguing the city’s rich artistic past. "Imagine this town in the 20s!" he marvels, as Inez rolls her eyes and shops for furniture, with her equally disapproving parents. It is clear early on that the relationship is in trouble, and soon, Gil’s alone, wandering the streets and dreaming of the past. At which point, a church bell strikes midnight, and a vintage car stops nearby, ready to whisk him away on a jazz age adventure. His post-midnight adventures include all th ePairs icons, from Hemingway to Gertrude Stein. The transition from present to past is seamless and fun.Indeed, the film is carried by Wilson, who is an easy target for those seeking the ‘Woody Allen character’. Although, while Gil fulfils the familiar checklist of insecurities, it is his dopey, naive outlook that sells the film, Wilson is pitch perfect as the lovable fool. His bewildered reactions provide the foil to the broad performances of the rest of the cast, both in the past and the present.Midnight In Paris is warm and delightful. It’s testament to the solid, evocative ideas that form its backbone--exploring the character’s crisis in such an expressionistic, fantastical way.

Snowdrops by A. D. Miller

2011-11-07T10:48:00.006-06:00

I picked this novel out because it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2011, and I usually enjoy that cohort of novels. The judges for this years prize have beencriticized for picking books that are enjoyable stories--I am not so sure about that--two of the ones that I have read involve murder and mayhem, and this is one of them.
A quote that adresses Russian novels in general aptly describes this book. 'There are no politics stories. There are no love stories. There are only crime stories." Russia's position on the world stage is such that you can say whatever you like about it, thanks to a widespread willingness to believe the very worst.
This is a crime story, as its title suggests: "snowdrop" is Moscow slang for a corpse concealed by snow, revealed when the thaw comes. Surprise! At the start, though, the narrator, Nicholas, is naive enough to think it might be a love story--he is apparently unfamiliar with the above stated paradigm. The plot charts his slowly dawning realization that this is no romance, along with his downscaling of hopes and ambitions, with chilling efficiency.
Here is the basic scene. It's boomtime in Russia, and Nicholas is an expat lawyer working on behalf of foreign banks that want to lend money to Russian businesses, especially in the oil industry. In his own words, his job is smearing "lipstick on a pig" – sanitising dodgy deals with covenants and sureties no one involved will respect anyway. He has money to spend, so he enjoys Moscow's exotic decadence. He's 38 and rudderless, terrified of suburbia and of ending up in a boring, loveless marriage like his parents'.
One day, travelling home on the metro, he fights off a mugger, "a noble deed in a ruthless place". The intended victim was not him but Masha, an alluring femme fatale who is invariably accompanied by her younger sister, Katya. Masha and Nicholas become an item – he genuinely thinks he's in love – but it's obvious he's been caught in some type of honey-trap. The question is: which type?
We find out which type as the story rolls out. A very good read indeed.

Slovenian Salamander

2011-11-06T21:58:00.001-06:00

I loved the cave in Postojna. It was magnificent to be in. But I also saw one of the most unusual things I've ever seen--a salamander that retains it's gills into adulthood. Postojna has the most number of cave-dwelling species of any cave, logging in a 84 species, but most of them are of the insect variety. The salamander is odd man out. And not attractive. At all.
The Olm, or Proteus (Proteus anguinus), is a blind amphibian endemic to the subterranean waters of caves of the Dinaric karst of southern Europe. It lives in the waters that flow underground through this extensive limestone region including waters of the Soča river basin near Trieste in Italy, through to southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina. The olm is the only species in its genus Proteus, the only European species of the family Proteidae, and the only European exclusively cave-dwelling chordate. In Slovenia it is also known by the name močeril, which translates as "the one that burrows into wetness."
What is most notable (aside from it's profound homliness) for its adaptations to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat. Darwin used it as an example of a reduction in features through disuse in 'The Origin of the Species'. The olm's eyes are undeveloped, leaving it blind, while its other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are acutely developed. It also lacks any pigmentation in its skin. In contrast to most amphibians, the olm is entirely aquatic, and it eats, sleeps, and breeds underwater. It has 3 toes on its forelimbs, but 2 toes on its hind feet. It also exhibits neoteny, retaining larval characteristics like external gills into adulthood, like the American amphibians, the axolotl and the mud puppy--so it is an unusual feature, but it is not alone.