Category: Food

March Diversions

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day.  The theme for 2021 is Women in Leadership:  Achieving an Equal Future in a Covid-19 World.  IWD was started in 1910 at the suggestion of a woman named Clara Zetkin at a conference of working women in Copenhagen.  In 1914, Germany marked the day on March 8 because it was a Sunday.  Ever since, IWD has been observed on March 8, Sunday or not. It focuses on women’s rights.

It’s also worth noting that in the United States and several other English-speaking countries, March is Women’s History Month.  This month is a time to celebrate and appreciate women’s contributions to events in history both recent and past.

OUTING

Yesterday, just to get off our little island, the Chief Penguin and I went to downtown Sarasota to shop at two of our favorite stores.  It wasn’t a wine and cheese expedition, but rather one for books and cheese….and fancy butter and crackers.  Although Sarasota did not extend their mask mandate, both shops required masks, sanitizing, and social distancing.  (Not so the restaurants we passed which were packed with patrons cheek by jowl.)

Happy book buyers BEFORE Covid! (Mapquest.com)

Bookstore 1 this year is celebrating its 10th anniversary.  They have a wide selection of current fiction and nonfiction plus cookbooks, mysteries, and children’s books.  I think they are stronger on picture books than middle grade readers, but I found several volumes for a granddaughter.  I have missed buying note cards in museum shops and so was pleased to find both blank cards and greeting cards to add to my collection at home.  And I succumbed to a new biography for myself—not that I need any more books right now, but how can I resist?

Louise and two assistants (herald tribune.com)

Artisan Cheese Company, helmed by Louise and her band of knowledgeable young women, has survived the pandemic and continues to stock a wide range of distinctive and unusual hard and soft cheeses.  The C.P. goes for the soft stinky ones (Oma, for example). I’m always on the lookout to try a new cheddar with bite or another variation on gouda, gruyere, or manchego.  And the store stocks imported butters, crackers, jams and spreads both sweet and savory, as well as a variety of homemade soups, pot pies, and sinfully rich mac and cheese.  Plus wine!  Needless to say, we never leave empty-handed!

WHAT I’M READING

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell

This is a highly touted first novel published in 2019, but it’s also a challenging read.  It’s the March selection for my book group and long.  It brings together three intertwined families and the history of Zambia from the early 20th century to present day.  I found the first section about one of the grandmothers slow going, but I am now getting a bit more into it and have read about twenty percent.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll report back after the book group discussion.

Movies, Mystery & More

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WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEK!

The inauguration of Joe Biden as U.S. President and Kamala Harris as Vice-President was marvelous and memorable in so many ways. A reset in tone, a return to competence, a series of firsts, and the beginning of an administration more representative in gender, race, background, and experience than the previous one. Hooray!

ON THE SCREEN

SPACE EXPLORATION MEETS EARTH’S FRAGILITY

The Midnight Sky (Netflix)

Iris & Augustine (commonsensemedia.org)

George Clooney both directs and stars in this film about Augustine, a terminally ill scientist holed up at an Arctic Circle outpost. Simultaneously, a team in space is trying to return from an exoplanet, but there’s been a catastrophe on earth.   

There’s another story within the story about the young Augustine and a failed relationship that overlaps the present when a little girl is inadvertently left behind with him.  The visual effects are amazing, the space station elaborate, and the sense of hurtling through the universe quite real.

Given the risks faced by the astronauts, it’s surprisingly unsuspenseful and too slow moving.  Nonetheless, we watched it to the end and were rewarded with a slight twist which brings everything together.  Overall okay, not great.

HEAVY METAL VS. DISTORTED SOUND

Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime)

Riz Ahmed (apnews.com)

This film about a drummer in a heavy metal band who is losing his hearing can be painful, painful for the ears.  The entire film is captioned (for good reasons) and, the soundtrack sometimes is distorted and muffled as it conveys how Ruben experiences the world around him.  Initially refusing to accept his situation, but nudged by his girlfriend Lou, Ruben reluctantly agrees to become a resident of a deaf community.  I found this portion of the film with all of the sign language fascinating and an insightful look at how deaf culture can work.  Riz Ahmed, a British Pakistani actor, is superb taking on the challenging role of Ruben.  Recommended! 

ON THE PAGE

MYSTERY FUELED BY PODCAST

Conviction by Denise Mina

This was my first exposure to this author. I selected it for my book group because it was touted as one of the year’s best mysteries by the Washington Post, NYT Book Review, and Publishers Weekly.  It’s a quirky book and much of the way, I didn’t much like it.  But several in the group loved it.

Anna McDonald’s husband leaves her for her best friend.  Devastated, she becomes obsessed with a true crime podcast that concerns a man, Leon Parker, whom she once knew slightly. Leon died when a yacht he and his family were on exploded.  Convinced that not all is true or right with the podcast, Anna goes on a quest to find answers.  She is joined by her neighbor Fin, a failed musician and her friend’s husband.  

They fly hither and thither across Europe checking out stories and interviewing possible relatives and suspects. All the while Fin is creating podcasts in response to the original one.  Anna is not who she has claimed to be, and her multiple identities unravel as they get deeper into their research.  

IN THE PAN

RECIPE REVIEW

Saucy Chicken Puttanesca

A plate of food Description automatically generated with medium confidence

(bonappetit.com)

Since the start of the pandemic, the Chief Penguin and I have eaten many more meals at home.  That’s meant a reprise of favorite entrees from the past plus trotting out new dishes to try.  Most recently, I cooked this chicken puttanesca from the February 2021 issue of Bon Appetit.  

It’s fairly straightforward in that chicken legs or thighs (I used boneless thighs) are browned on the stove and then transferred in a skillet to the oven.  It combines some of my favorite ingredients: olives (black ones for us), capers, lemon zest, and tomato, with garlic and anchovies, to make a dish that’s greater than the sum of its parts.  The flavor is robustly bold and deeply satisfying.  I served it over egg noodles dressed with a bit of butter and some truffle oil.  A definite keeper, I will make it again.  Bon appetit!

Note: Header photo of Kamala Harris taking the oath of office from wionews.com

Tidy December Sunrise

December Diversions

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ON THE SCREEN

Holiday Cooking Class 

The other evening, we enjoyed a cooking demonstration.  Clarkson University, the Chief Penguin’s alma mater, invited alumni to see and join their campus chef in the preparation of several dishes.  They included a colorful cranberry and whiskey cocktail, baked brie, baby potatoes wrapped in bacon, and julienned root vegetables with pistachio butter.  

One example of baby potatoes (serious eats.com)

The ingredient list was shared ahead of time and full recipes after the event.  The chef was very well organized, moved efficiently through the steps, and we could almost taste the results!  This was a different kind of viewing experience and a very successful one!  We haven’t yet bought any ingredients, but we will likely try at least one recipe.

The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

Young Beth (Netflix.com)

The Queen’s Gambit, the name for an opening chess move, is a suspenseful seven-part series, even if you don’t play chess or understand the intricacies of the game.  It’s the 1950’s and when Beth Harmon’s mother dies in a car crash, the eight-year-old is sent to a very strict orphanage.  Lonely and feeling out of place, she lingers in the basement where the custodian plays chess by himself.  Observing and later learning from him, she demonstrates a real aptitude for the game.  

As a teenager, she is adopted by a childless couple. With the encouragement of her new mother, Beth enters a state chess championship, mostly to earn the prize money. As the 1960’s advance, Beth’s prowess takes her across the country and around the world.  She stands out as female in a very male world  One wonders if and when she will stumble.  

At first, I thought her character was based on a real person, but this is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Walter Tevis published in 1983.  Good entertainment!   

RECENT READING

CHILDHOOD IN POSTWAR BRITAIN

This Time Next Year We’ll be Laughing by Jacqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the popular and award-winning Maisie Dobbs mystery series.  She has now put her hand to writing about her childhood growing up poor in rural Kent.  Born in 1955, when asked if she considered herself more a child of the 50’s or the 60’s, she reflected that her childhood was really Edwardian.  Steeped in nature and the countryside, she and her brother John spent summers spent picking hops with their parents.  They also lived for many years without indoor plumbing or a telephone.  It was a spare life based on hard physical labor of all sorts.  

In sprightly prose, Winspear shares her delight in being outdoors in all weathers and her love of stories, stories told by her mother, but also by her many aunts and uncles.  Her parents started married life as vagabonds of a sort. Later, her father established a business as a home contractor while her mother rose in the civil service as a prison administrator.  The memoir is a collection of stories and reminiscences, many grounded in the horrors of WWI, with only a bit about how Winspear became a writer.  More than anything, it is a loving and candid tribute to her parents, both deceased, and to a way of life now gone.  (~JWFarrington)

A NOVEL FOR LIBRARY LOVERS

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

Writers of historical fiction often settle on a particular period and then create multiple works set in that era.  Fiona Davis focuses her novels on notable historic buildings in New York.  Earlier works highlighted the Dakota apartment building, the Barbizon hotel for young women, and the art school housed in Grand Central Terminal.  Her newest, The Lions of Fifth Avenue, takes place largely within the New York Public Library’s grand edifice.  In the early years of the 20th century, an interior apartment for the library superintendent was tucked away out of sight.  

Lion sculptures outside the New York Public Library (nypl.org)

In 1913, Jack and Laura Lyons, the superintendent and his wife, live in this apartment with their two children Harry and Pearl.  Jack is responsible for the safety and security of the building including its rare books.  When books go missing, he is a prime suspect.  Fast forward to 1993.   Sadie, a special collections librarian, is organizing an exhibit of rare first editions and other works in the Berg Collection, when several volumes go missing.  How the thefts in 1993 are linked to the events of 1913 make for an intriguing story of family relationships and the world of books.  

Davis has done her research, and it shows in her knowledge of the NYPL and the trade in stolen books.  She also brings in changing sexual mores and the constraints faced by women who desire more than just housewifery and motherhood.  The reader can assume there will be a happy or satisfactory ending, but how the author gets us there keeps us engaged.  (~JWFarrington)

Escaping the Pandemic: Reading & Eating

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Covid-19 has limited activities for most everyone to some extent.  Those of us who are more vulnerable are spending more time at home, not dining out, and not going to concerts or plays.  What do we do?  If you’re an avid reader like me, then you might tackle several of those tomes you’ve always been meaning to read—or delve into a thriller chiller.  This week I did the latter.  And if you like to eat, then you may be spending more time cooking for yourself and your spouse.  The Chief Penguin and I have trotted out old favorites like Pierre Franey’s emince de veau a la crème (veal in cream sauce with ham), only this time replacing the veal with strips of chicken.  And we’ve tried new recipes like a hearty lentil soup and the pizzas described below.

ESCAPING IN A BOOK

Atomic Love by Jennie Fields

This novel about a female scientist set in 1950 is a wonderful change of pace from the corona virus.  Rosalind Porter was a lone woman among the many men who worked on the Manhattan Project.  Beset by doubts after the dropping of the bomb, she is now working the jewelry counter in Marshall Field’s in Chicago.  An FBI agent approaches her and asks her to get back involved with Thomas Weaver, her former lover and a scientist suspected of passing secrets to the Russians.  

Agent Charlie is persistent, and Rosalind becomes immersed in a game of tell me, don’t tell me, surveillance, and even danger.  Mixed in are loner Roz’s complicated relationship with Louisa, her much older sister, and her devotion to her niece Ava.  Roz and Charlie have both been damaged by the war, physically and mentally, and come to recognize each other as kindred spirits.  A page-turner of an historical novel!

Fields is also the author of a novel about Edith Wharton entitled The Age of Desire, which I enjoyed several years ago.

IN THE KITCHEN

Explaining how to work the pizza dough

But, not with Dinah.  With the Chief Penguin, who also happens to be an experienced baker.  Multi-grain and oatmeal breads, bran muffins, and now—pizza!  He’s made pizzas from scratch before, but recently he purchased a bag of Italian 00 flour.  It’s the preferred superfine flour for thin crust pizzas. Now he’s in his element.  First experiments were traditional margherita pizzas (tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil).  

Into the oven

The other evening, first out of the oven was a pizza of chicken on barbecue sauce with red onion. Next was a pizza with the luscious combination of gorgonzola (thank you, Publix!), caramelized onions, and walnuts, topped with arugula leaves.  Yum! 

Finished product—ready to eat!

After that, who would need dessert?  Not a serious question since it’s fall, and apple crisp is perfect.  His apple crisp was made with Granny Smith apples and maple syrup instead of brown sugar.  Double yum!

THANKFULNESS

Next week brings Thanksgiving Day.  In this strange time of staying at a distance, I am especially thankful for continued good health, great friends, and a loving family!  May your Thanksgiving holiday be a safe and healthy one however you may spend it.

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).