Alvah’s Books

For those who don’t follow me on Twitter (and shame on you, if you don’t) that’s my handle. However, this post isn’t about Twitter or me (well, a little about me, but really more about books). It’s all about that favorite pastime that many bibliophiles have and that’s the beach read or the pool read, or the cabin read. We’re five days away from the Summer Solstice and it’s time to do some thinking of what might be good reads for the summer.

For yours truly, I have an esoteric list that might make some eyes glaze over or maybe roll up to the ceiling–that’s what my husband does accompanied by a muttered, “Fun stuff, Boo.” But then again HE’s reading a book about the Romany (which does seem fascinating).

For  the next three months, my reading will focus on the Spanish Civil War, the history of Communism and two classics, but don’t fret I do have some “fun stuff” thrown in between the serious subjects. So here’s a rundown of my Beach Reads:

June (fun stuff in italics)

Men in Battle, Alvah Bessie

The Un-Americans, Alvah Bessie

A World I Never Made, James LePore

If the Buddha Came to Dinner, Hale Sofia Schatz

July

The Spanish Civil War, Hugh Thomas

A Passionate War, Peter Wyden

The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction, Helen Graham

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

From Where the Rivers Come, Terin Tashi Miller

The Last Dickens, Matthew Pearl

August/September

The Rise and Fall of Communism, Archie Brown

The Roots of Amercan Communism, Theodore Draper

The Communist Party of the United States, Fraser M. Ottanelli

Black Boy, Richard Wright

Stardust, Joseph Kanon

Fun stuff,eh? I think so…

At the last moment, before settling in to finish off Alvah Bessie’s Spain Again, I decided to check my email and see if I needed to anythig urgent. Usually, I never get many emails on a Sunday evening, but not tonight.

I received a notice from GoodReads that I had an email, letting me know that I won Books on the Nightstand’s Beowulf on the Beach contest and won Beowulf on the Beach by Jack Murnighan.

In addition to winning the book, I’ll be participating in my first reading challenge and that’s to read one of the classics mentioned in Beowulf on the Beach.

I am so excited to have been selected as one of the five winners and to participate in the challenge. Thank you Books on the Nightstand!

Until I was in grad school, I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker. I drank mostly Lipton’s tea with milk and sugar until one day the red Twinnings tin of loose English Breakfast tea caught my eye and I thought I would try it. Well, I’ve never touched Lipton’s since then.When I spent a semester abroad in France, I became very friendly with a Canadian fellow who was an avid tea drinker and enjoyed formal afternoons teas. One afternoon, we discovered a little tea shop that had a little restaurant that served “Afternoon Tea” to the British ex-pats. I always looked forward to 4:00 pm when we’d make our jaunt, settle in to have tea, and try all the assorted sandwiches and pastries. It was such a civilized way to spend the afternoon.

When I returned to the States and told my mother about my love for afternoon tea, we decided to start our own tradition and stock up on different types of tea, which included, Early Grey, Irish Breakfast, Ceylon, Jasmine, Orange Pekoe, Oolong. Every afternoon, we’d take out our good tea set and sip that day’s choice and savor the tiny sandwiches and pastries we made.

In one of my weekly forays to our local independent bookstore, I discovered Having Tea by Catherine Calvert, and I knew that I had to buy this book just by looking at the cover. I’ve had this book for 22 years now and it’s still one of my favorites.

Having Tea: Recipes & Table Settings
By Catherine Calvert, photographs by Keith Scott Morton
Clarkson. N. Potter Inc./Publishers, 1987
87 pages, $22.50

If you want to go beyond dunking a teabag in a mug and enjoy a civilized “cuppa,” Calvert’s book gives you five option on how to be civilized and a slew of recipes. And chuck away that all chipped mug, because you’ll need a proper tea service if truly want to enjoy tea.

If I had to pinpoint what I like so much about Having Tea, I’d have a hard time. As I leaf through the book, I ooh-and ahh at the tea services that have been photographed. These range from traditional white porcelain sets to 1930s Art-Deco geometric designs. Others include delicate flowered porcelain sets (we had those, my mother was partial to egg-shell thin porcelain with an ornate flower design), to Asian-inspired services.

But my oohs soon change to stomach grumblings  as I read through the recipes, I suddenly get a hankering for “Brunch in the City” which consists of the following:
• Toasted Cornmeal Muffins with Apple Butter
• Slow-Scrambled Eggs with Cream and Chives
• Pan-Fried Tomatoes with Fresh Tarragon
• Honey-Dew Melons Wedges with Lemon
• Bloody Mary’s and English Breakfast Tea.

Now that’s how you kick off a Sunday!

What if you’re in the mood for a picnic? Try “Summer Harvest Picnic” which includes:
• Honey-Glazed Chicken with Rosemary
• Red Potato Salad
• Vine-Ripened Tomatoes with Fresh Basil
• Crusty White Peasant Bread
• Old-Fashioned Peach Pie
• Fresh Peaches
• Mint Iced Orange Pekoe Tea

In addition to the recipes, Calvert includes a section on tea tasting and lists the major types of tea and their individual characteristics. Like wine, the qualities in tea reflect the region they’re cultivated, the soil, the altitude, and the climate.

Once you’ve decided what teas you like, you need to stock your tea larder. Some items you might want to consider:
• Crystallized Ginger (sweet, but with a little kick)
• Honey
• Lemon
• Preserves (stir in the preserves in your cup in the fashion of the Russians or Hungarians)
• Sugar

Short on tea sandwich ideas? Calvert offers the following:
• Stilton Cheese crumbled over pear slices on oatmeal bread
• Asparagus spears with lemon mayonnaise on wheat bread
• Smoked turkey with raspberry mayonnaise on cracked what bread

Next time, when you need a pick me up of sorts, skip the Starbucks. Instead, have a nice cuppa with a few shortbread biscuits and enjoy your tea time.

It’s Friday and here are my latest book review blogger discoveries

Chaotic Compendiums

Rose City Reader

Fresh Ink Books

Fleur Fisher reads

Passages to the Past

That’s it for this week. So much reading to do for both books and blogs!

I’m following J. Kaye’s example of discovering new blogs and I found quite a few this week. Apart from content, I also look at how each blogger organizes the reviews and the site’s design. Below are my discoveries. Check them out. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading and following them as I did.

• The Contemporary Reader
• A Reader’s Respite
• The Tome Traveller
• she reads and reads
• As usual, I need more bookshelves

As I previously posted, Sundays have become a day of fancy cooking and I thought that this would be an appropriate introduction to a new category: Cookbooks.

I love my cookbooks as much as my other books, and I’ve separated the ones I use often and keep them on a shelf, within easy reach, in the kitchen. My favorite one is an Italian cookbook that I was introduced to at a dinner party nearly 20 years ago. And that’s Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table.

The name might be familiar to you if you’re a listener of NPR. Kasper has a radio show with the same title.For readers who don’t know Kasper, she was named one of the twelve best cooking teachers by the James Beard Foundation. Her research for the books began in the 1980s while Kasper was living in Europe. She explored Emilia-Romagna, working with home cooks, chefs, historians, and the culinary artisans who still prepare traditional foods
in the old way

The Splendid Table:Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food
by Lynn Rossetto Kasper
William Morrow and Company, 1992
530 pages, illustrated with 24 pages in full color
$39.95

I’m departing from third person reviews since cooking and eating is such a personal venture. I can emphatically state that The Splendid Table is my favorite cookbook. And becasue I love it so much, I’ve given it as a gift for Christmas, birthdays, Mother’s Day, anniversaries, and wedding showers.

If you like pasta then you’ll flip over the 56 recipes that are included in this book. But if you’re looking for more than just pasta, you’ll find something for meat, game, poultry lovers, and even vegeterians. Not sure what wine to serve? Kapser offers some terrific suggestions, as well as menu recommendations. Like some history to go with your meals? Kasper provides wonderful historical anecdotes about the Borgias, Rossini, Verdi, Toscanini, and Napoleon’s Empress Marie Louise and their devotion to the region’s food.

The first recipe I tried almost 20 years ago was Garganelli with Roasted Peppers, Peas, and Cream. As Kasper writes,

There is a lovely play of sweet, flavors here–roasted peppers, peas, cream and prosciutto. The dish is made in no time. By not reducing the cream, but merely heating it, the pasta maintains an unexpected lightness.

In terms of flavor and texture, it is very light. However, if it does become a favorite and you make it often–as I did years ago, don’t be surprised by your expanding waistline.

In recipes that require butter, olive oil or cream, Kasper doesn’t skimp or substitute with margarines or non-fat yogurts. Sometimes, she writes that you can subtitue butter with olive oil, but, in general, she always sticks to the traditional recipe.

And that’s the beauty of The Splendid Table–the ingredients. I love going to the green market and getting fresh herbs and vegetables (organic is even better). and I’m in absolute heaven shopping at specialty gourmet stores for cheeses, prosciutto, and pancetta.

When the book was first published, some of the key ingredients were difficult to find if you didn’t live in or a near a metropolitan area, but now just about every supermarket carries Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese or balsmaic vinegar. If you have questions of how to select ingredients, Kasper includes, “A Guide to Ingredients” that shares the secrets of how to select, use, and store fresh herbs, mushrooms, prosciutto, olive oils and much more.

Some of the recipes can be a challenging to make. I’ve shied away from the ragus, making fresh pasta, and the
desserts mostly because of time-constraints (but let’s face it, none of these recipes are waistline friendly)

As for tonight’s dinner, it’s one that I’ve made on several occasions: Salad of Tart Greens with Prosciutto and Warm Balsamic Dressing and Spaghetti with Anchovies and Melting Onions. Here’s what Kasper has to say,

From Ferrara’s Po delta, this in one of those easily-put-together dishes, a typical Sunday-night supper of the area. I have found that even those who claim to dislike anchovies enjoy their mild flavor, where their assertiveness is tamed by the sweet carmelized onions. Traditionally, pastas with fish are served without cheese. In this dish a few spoonfuls of olive oil season the pasta just before serving.

Later this evening, I’ll post photographs of the finished dishes. If you want the recipes for the dishes mentioned, leave your name and email in the comments section.

Victoria Mixon emailed me to let me know that she’s posting the  literary mash-up submissions. If you’d like to read them along with three essays on “Making FunnyFunny,” please visit www.victoriamixon.com.

 Due to a strong response on the subject of literary mash-ups from Victoria’s essay, Victoria is inviting readers join her in a Literary Mash-Up Extravaganza.

Please use two (or more!) literary sources to come up with titles and brief descriptions for possible literary mash-ups. She’ll post as many as possible of the ones that make us laugh the hardest on her website, www.victoriamixon.com in about a week. She’ll consider posting entire flash fiction pieces if she gets one or more that totally knock us out.

Below are examples of mash-ups:

Don Juan S.S. Valdez Quixote: A slightly mad coffee merchant spends 800 pages attacking windmills and making love to women all over Spain. Then he spills thousands of gallons of oil in an Alaskan sound.

Brokeback to the Future: Doc and Marty experience a love they never knew was possible. In the sequel, they do it in the Old West, but no one watches it.

Leave your mash-ups in the comments section or email them to gotheca@mcn.org. We look forward to hearing from you!