Another Turn of the Page: The Summer Reading List

Remember when you looked forward to summer because you were out of school, you were free to sleep late, do nothing and read whatever you wanted to read. That was me. I loved to read and still do. However now I don’t have to look forward to summer to read whatever and whenever I want.

Just for fun I asked my book group members to each compose the list of books they were hoping to read this summer. I had no restrictions. It could be anything. Maybe it was the next new book coming out in the next three months by an author they love. It could be one book or 20.

Well, I wasn’t sure I’d get anything but many indulged me and put together a list. Some said they really didn’t have any plans. Once they finished the current book they would start looking for the next. Others remarked that when they were in high school summer meant required reading lists for the fall semester and that was no fun. They didn’t want to revive bad memories.  So if you are looking for the next book in your reading life, or you are just curious,for better or worse, here is our:

SUMMER READING LIST. Sorry, no annotations but you have Amazon. Look them up. Also if you want to see the list larger just click on it.

 

Wow! It Suddenly got Quite Fragrant Here

I’ve been upstairs in the office working on various projects.

Catching up on emails, monitoring the weather, drafting a blog post (not this one) and working on a woodblock design, when what to my wondering nose should appear the smell of onions closely followed by curry and other smells I couldn’t identify.

My husband is downstairs experimenting in the kitchen.

I immediately had to investigate the source of all this olfactory stimulus. It was Vadouvan, a spice blend recipe. So what I was smelling was a combination of onions, shallots, garlic, fenugreek, curry, cumin, cardamom, brown mustard seed, turmeric, nutmeg, cloves, red pepper flakes and vegetable oil. By the time I arrived it had all been ground and combined and placed on parchment paper and was now in the oven browning.

Curt had seen one of the home cooks on the Masterchef television show use it and Mr. Curiosity had to know more. Basically it is, or will be, a ready-to-use blend of spices that is a French derivative of a masala. A masala is a South Asian spice mix. If it is a success we will be enjoying it on our chicken thighs tonight with a side of cilantro/vinegar/oil dressed potatoes.

For now, with the house closed up because of the heat and the impending storms, I feel like I am living in a spice market somewhere between France and South Vietnam.

Where Does the Time Go?

End of May we got together with an old friend. He lives in Maryland but was going to be in Wisconsin for a funeral. I estimate it has been over 30 years since we have all seen each other face to face.

We met Jon, and at that time, his wife Molly, when we were in graduate school at Northern Illinois University. Curt was a Graduate student in Ceramics and Jon was one of his ceramics professors. The unusual part was Jon and Curt were the same age, separated by 25 days, Curt being the older. A friendship and a mutual respect developed between the two of them. I got to know Molly better and the four of us became friends. Once we graduated, we left Illinois. There was no email then, no Facebook so  but kept in contact with each other through letters and Christmas cards. Jon and Molly visited us once in Green Bay and we visited them once in Maryland.

Then: Curt and Jon

But over the years the cards and letters got fewer, life happened, as it does, and we lost track of each other. A few years ago I found Jon (or he found me) on Facebook. Our mutual interest in birds, love of food and Jon’s connection to Wisconsin (he was born here) brought us together. He was going to be in LaCrosse in May and then planned on doing some camping in Door County, so we knew this was the time to rekindle an old friendship. In the intervening years there has been homes in 5 states, 3 children raised (He-2, Us-1), careers built, a divorce, less hair, gray acquired and a couple of retirements. But here we were again eating and talking and laughing.

Now: Curt and Jon

Funny thing with good friends, the conversation picked up like we just saw each other yesterday. And with that many years gone by we had a lot of catching up to do.

Peru comes to NE Wisconsin: Pisco Mar

Back in November, our friend Carol shared a newspaper clipping with us about a new Peruvian restaurant opening in Appleton (WI), a nearby city. Always on the lookout for new culinary adventures this was a possible contender. My first impression was that there was lots of fish, not my favorite. But we all agreed that maybe we should give it a chance sometime. Then the article got shuffled into a pile of papers and was moved and kicked around until last week when we and our friend planned a trip down to Appleton (about 45 minutes away) for a museum exhibit. Carol said, Why don’t we go later in the afternoon and then try that Peruvian restaurant for dinner? So destination ‘Pisco Mar’ was on.

First impressions were good. It was nicely decorated, warm colors, Peruvian art on the walls. Good variety of seating and even some outdoor tables.

Pisco Mar, outside and inside

After ordering drinks (pisco sours) we perused the menu. Lots of appetizers, small plates and main courses. In order to maximize our first time here we all decided it was going to be a dinner of sharing from the first two sections. If all was good we would try main entrees on the next visit.

So first choices were Crab Cakes w/baby arugula aji aioli, rocoto sauce and Beef Carpaccio w/ lemon vinaigrette, baby arugula capers, shaved Parmesan.
Both were excellent. The two Crab Cakes were softer than I like but the flavor was very good. Rocoto is a red chili pepper that is a staple in Peruvian cuisine. The sauce is a combination of a paste from these peppers combined with mayo, lime, vinegar and dry mustard. I loved the Carpaccio, beef sliced super thin. Frankly I was sorry I had to share this one.

While we were enjoying these and deciding what to order next our waitress brought a complimentary bowl of crispy homemade potato chips with a chili mayo dip to the table. She said they were from blue potatoes that are white inside. Really good.
Feeling the need for some greens we ordered a Kale Salad. Quite nice with radishes, cherry tomatoes, avocado, shaved Parmesan and pine nuts tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. It was a pretty large bowl, easily shared by three, or four. Pictured is just a serving on my plate.After more discussion we decided to go with two more dishes, Peruvian Ceviche Mixto (fish, shrimp, octopus, scallops) and Empanadas Criollas. The Ceviche came with plaintain chips (very tasty) and large corn (interesting). This was a huge plate of food and could have served as a main. Maybe all three of us could have finished it but since I am not a fan of octopus or fish there was some leftover. Carol and Curt liked it, there was just too much after already having four previous small plates. Empanadas are a puff pastry with a filling; we went with ground beef. These came with a chimichurri sauce. The pastry was a bit soft but at the same time very flaky. with very nice preparation and an interesting combination of flavors.

By now we were pretty full so when our waitress arrived with the dessert menu I was ready to pass. Just coffee please. But Carol wanted to try it all and thought we should have dessert just so we could make a full report on the dining experience. One order of Doughnuts please.

Ping pong ball sized doughnut holes, light and fluffy inside, vanilla sugar coated on the outside and served with Peruvian sweet cream.

There were six and yes, I ate two and loved the sweet cream as well. My advice, leave room for dessert.

Before I end, just a little background on the co-owners. Laura Saintgoers has previously operated restaurants for 11 years in Appleton and Miami. While in Miami she met and joined up with Hugo Torres, a native of Honduras, who spent five years learning and cooking Peruvian cuisine under a chef from Peru. Lucky for us they decided to come up to Wisconsin instead of trying to insert themselves into the overcrowded restaurant scene in Miami.

Here is a peek at the main entrees on the menu. We definitely want to go back. Want to join us?

 

Another Turn of the Page: Books, Books, and more Books

“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.”
― Arnold Lobel

Hello Dear Reader, reader of books and reader of my blog. I have been remiss in my posting of the books my Attic Book Group has been reading. A little vacation here, a little road trip there. House guests, a Birdathon, gardening..that, and more, has taken priority over my blogging. Have the book posts been missed? Maybe not but I still feel like it is important to report on actual books being read by serious people. Not matter if the book is a history of WWII or heart-warming family saga, they are all important to the life of the reader.

Now the problem I run into is two sessions are a lot of books and if I reported on them all this post would go on for days..or it may seem that way, so I have chosen to publish the most recent meeting, May, and just post pictures of April’s list. Hope that works for those of you ( probably 2 or 3) who enjoy the book posts. I promise June will be on time and awesome.1. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict (2016) 304 pages. This fictional biography is the story of Einstein‘s wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the Theory of Relativity is hotly debated. She may have inspired his discovery by her very personal insight but her contribution has been lost in Einstein’s enormous shadow.

2. Orphan Number Eight by Kim van Alkemade (2015) 416 pages.This historical novel, inspired by true events, is the story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage years before.

3. Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles by David Thomson (1996) 463 pages. An intriguing no-holds-barred biography of Orson Welles, who produced, co-wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane at the young age of 26.

4. Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben Macintyre (2016) 400 pages. According to the author, much of this book has been held in secrecy for 70 years. He had full access to the WWII archives of the Special Air Service, better known as the SAS.

5. Last Bus for Wisdom by Ivan Doig (2016) 480 pages. This is a coming of age novel and the story of a journey, in more ways than one. It’s 1951 on a ranch in Montana, an orphan boy gets sent to his grand-aunt and uncle in Wisconsin while his beloved grandmother is having an operation.
During the bus trip across Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota on his way to Manitowoc, eleven year old Donny, decides to ask his fellow passengers to sign his memory book in the hope of making the world record for the largest collection of autographs and ditties. Note: Ivan Doig died shortly after this book was published.

6. Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer (2016) 288 pages. True story. To save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven. ” Librarians are the secret masters of the universe.” – Spider Robinson

7. A Curious Mind: The Secret of a Bigger Life by Brian Grazier (2015) 320 pages. ‘Grazer has been holding what he calls “Curiosity Conversations” for much of his life with people he finds interesting. What he presents in this book are chapters praising the various virtues of curiosity mixed with stories about trying to meet people for these conversations.’ -Goodreads  Reviews of this book are definitely mixed.

8. Where the Wind Leads: A Refugee Family’s Miraculous Story of Loss, Rescue and Redemption by Vinh Chung (2014) 368 pages. This is a true story of the author’s life in South Vietnam. His family was wealthy, controlling a rice-milling empire worth millions; but within months of the communist takeover in 1975 they lost everything and were reduced to abject poverty.

9. Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (2016) 240 pages. A contemporary version of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.

10. Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy (2015) 416 pages. A post-apocalyptic re-imagining of the Lewis and Clark saga. Years after a devastating super flu and a resulting nuclear fallout from unattended power plants, Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark leave the failing St. Louis Sanctuary in search of hopefully an uncontaminated area. Expect monsters and unexplained science.

11. Orphan’s Tale by Pam Jenoff (2017) 368 pages. Set in WWII, this is the story of Astrid, a Jewish woman hiding and sheltered in a traveling circus, and Noa, a younger Dutch woman who was cast out from her home when she became pregnant by a Nazi soldier. When Noa stumbles into the care of the circus the two women forge a special relationship.

12. Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller (2014) 304 pages. When 82-year-old American widower, Sheldon Horowitz goes to live with his granddaughter, Rhea and her Norwegian husband, Lars, in Olso, the last thing he expects is to find himself on the run from the police with a small boy in tow. But the ex-Marine, suffering dementia, has witnessed the murder of the boy’s mother and feels compelled to keep the boy safe.

 Below find April’s books. Sorry, no annotations but you know how to use Google. Click on picture for larger view of covers.

The Attic Book Group’s April selections

If only…

If only we had seen a pigeon. (we checked every silo and barn in seven counties) +1
If only the peregrine falcon flew into her nest. (They are nesting on the local power plant. One can see them almost every day but we stopped three times this weekend and they were a no-show) +1
If only we had better hearing. ( Birders with good ears and song identification skills have a distinct advantage.) +10
If only we could function on less than 6 hours of sleep. ( Getting into the field at 4:30am is just impossible for us). +10

Yes, If only we were 30 years younger and didn’t have to stop to pee a lot or get something to eat we might have seen over 100 birds. But instead, this past weekend, after 14,000 steps/6 miles walking, 360 miles driving, at 9 locations in 7 counties we saw 83 bird species for the Big Bay Birdathon. Sponsored by our local Audubon chapter, we have competed in 4 of the 6 birdathons and they have all been a challenge in one way or another. Last year the arthritis and bone spurs in my right knee hobbled our team which included my son. Too bad, since Nathan is a great asset with young eyes and ears. This year I had a new knee which worked great, so the walking and exercise was a plus. But there were just some things we couldn’t overcome or plan for. However that’s the nature of birding.

If only they would just stay put or be more predictable.

The Big Bay Birdathon is supposed to be a fun, friendly competition (it is) but also a fundraiser because we are asked to find pledges per bird or people who just pay a flat amount. We regularly come in last in bird numbers, (only missed not being last this year by one bird), however we usually come in first for pledge money. This year we repeated in the most pledge dollars netting over $300 for NE Wisconsin Audubon chapter.

After all is said and done, all the teams get together to share our numbers, get prizes ( bird feeders/bags of seed), eat pizza, drink beer and share our highlights:

•We came upon at least 10 or more Bobolinks zooming around Killsnake NWR.

•One team witnessed hundreds, maybe thousands of tree swallow and barn swallows coming into roost at the end of the day at Mack WR.

•Another team tried calling down a Barred Owl and was really surprised when it worked and he/she flew past.

• I also managed to get a shot of a Black-crowned Night Heron at Horicon Marsh. cool.

Black-crowned Night Heron

It’s a lot of fun…if only…..

 

 

Revuelto, a spring Migas of sorts

This week David Tannis, food writer for the New York Times reprised a recipe for Spanish Asparagus Revuelto from an article originally published in 2014 titled Asparagus, Spanish style.  The inter-web tells me that revuelto is Spanish for scrambled eggs.  So, Spanish asparagus and scrambled eggs.  Sounded good to me.

In reading through the recipe, it struck me that this revuelto sounds a lot like a variation on Migas, which we wrote about several years ago.  A comparison of that Migas to this Revuelto reveals a similar approach in preparation but with more vegetables, without the chickpeas and with eggs scrambled in rather than cooked separately and presented on top of the other ingredients.

I followed Mr. Tannis’ recipe but roughly cut it in half except I used 4 times the amount of pimentón that he called for and double the amount of chorizo.

The end result was very tasty but the eggs didn’t exactly scramble, rather they formed more of a sauce that coated the other ingredients.  I think the asparagus brought a lot more moisture to the dish than I had anticipated, making for the sauciness.  Yummy none the less.

Asparagus Migas

1-1/2 Tbs. olive oil
2 peeled garlic cloves, whole, plus 1 small clove, minced
1 cup day old bread (baguette or ciabatta), torn into 1/2″ pieces
Salt and pepper
2 oz. Spanish chorizo, cut into matchstick pieces
3/4 pound thin asparagus, cut into 1″ – 2″ pieces
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
4 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp. pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika)
2 Tbs. Italian parsley, roughly chopped

Saute the whole garlic in olive oil until lightly browned, remove and discard.

Saute the bread in the oil until lightly browned and crispy.  Remove from the heat and add a pinch of salt, some pepper and 1/2 tsp of pimentón.  Remove from the saute pan and allow to cool.

Saute the chorizo a minute or two to release some of its oil, add the asparagus and saute for several minutes until the asparagus is tender but still firm.  Add the green onions and saute an additional minute.

Beat the eggs with 1/2 tsp of pimentón and a pinch of salt and some pepper to taste.  Add the eggs to the asparagus mix and cook, stirring until the eggs are just soften and creamy.

Divide the revuelto onto two plates, top with parsley and croutons.  Serve immediately.

Another Turn of the Page: Hail to Librarians! It’s National Library Week

“Libraries raised me.”
― Ray Bradbury

“Librarians…possess a vast stone of politeness. These are people who get asked regularly the dumbest questions on God’s green earth. These people tolerate every kind of crank and eccentric and mouth-breather there is.”
― Tatyana Eckstrand, The Librarian’s Book of Quotes

“Nonsense,” said another voice-Dr. Rust. “We’re librarians. When we don’t find what we’re looking for in the first place we look, we don’t give up.
We keep looking.”
― Polly Shulman

“That’s how librarians are. They just can’t help it.”
― Carla Morris

“It’s still National Library Week. You should be especially nice to a librarian today, or tomorrow. Sometime this week, anyway. Probably the librarians would like tea. Or chocolates. Or a reliable source of funding.”
― Neil Gaiman

Calvin and Hobbes copyright, Bill Watterson

Yes, it is National Library Week and being a retired librarian I have a soft spot in my heart for libraries and librarians. That’s why I just couldn’t stop with one quote for my header this month. Every librarian I have known is described accurately by Polly Shulman’s quote. They not only keep looking for the answer, they keep looking till they find the perfect answer. The internet stops as soon as it finds something that satisfies the question.

The hunt, the chase, to find an answer was one of my favorite parts of being a librarian. It was like solving a mystery or getting the answer to riddle. Especially when the question was one like this,

” I need that book that’s called Shakespeare, but it’s spelled with a “Ch” and the author starts with M…”
This wasn’t one of mine but the librarian who actually got this question figured out the patron wanted the book Chesapeake, written by James Michener. Fiction questions like that always depended on the librarian being well-read and knowing how to question the patron. Even today the internet would be hard-pressed to answer that one.

Today fact based questions are much easier to answer with Google. Before the internet I got a question I’ll never forget, “How do you get the smell of a dead body out of a car?”

Back then, instead of calling the cops, after finding some material on cleaning and disinfecting, I referred the person to the health department but today you can get 41,000,000 hits if you ask Google that same question. Still, you might need a librarian to find the answer that most suits your particular odor and situation. In the reference interview a good librarian would have to find out whose body it was. The dog? The cat? The neighbor?

So here’s to those Masters of Information! Bring yours a nice gift this week like Neil Gaiman suggests. And here’s the books we read last month, many, thanks to librarians.

 

1. Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford (2016) 384 pages. The Great War is over, and change is in the air, in this novel that brings to life the exciting days of early British radio…and one woman who finds her voice while working alongside the brilliant women and men of the BBC. –Goodreads
2. Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy (2016) 513 pages. A history about how the Romans were able to maintain a fairly stable empire for so many centuries with only a handful of notable rebellions. The term “Pax Romana,”  literally means “Roman peace,” and refers to the time period from 27 B.C.E. to 180 C.E. in the Roman Empire.
3. The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles (2009) 349 pages. Set in North Texas, this is the fictionalized version of, Britt Johnson, a slave freed immediately following the Civil War. His wife and children are kidnapped by Kiowa Indians and he rescues them single-handedly. Contains some graphic and bloody scenes.
4. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans (2014) 284 pages. A heartwarming story about a ten-year old boy called Noel orphaned and evacuated from London to the small town of St. Albans during the blitz after the death of his guardian.
5. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (2007) 394 pages. First in a series, this mystery is set in medieval Cambridge; its heroine, Adelia, is a “medical expert” or what we would term, a coroner. In this one she is called to examine the death of four children who the locals believe were victims of Jewish sacrifice.
6. Tradition of Deceit by Kathleen Ernst (2014) 360 pages. Chloe Ellefson Mystery #5. A nice combination of  three different storylines. Roelke is in Milwaukee, and out of his jurisdiction, trying to find out who murdered his former partner. Chloe is in Minneapolis helping a fellow curator and restoration expert with the old Washburn Flour Mill, when the body of one of the local historians is found in the abandoned mill. Finally there is a flashback story to the late 1900’s of a Polish immigrant family, who worked in the mill. All three intersect in the end.
7. A Separation by Katie Kitamura (2017) 231 pages. The narrator in this novel has separated from her cheating husband, Christopher, but her in-laws are still in the dark about their new status. So when she gets a call from her mother-in-law saying Christopher has gone missing while researching a book in Greece, she feels obligated to go looking for him. This has been touted as the next ‘Gone Girl’, but our reviewer didn’t find any similarities. She also found the book a bit slow.
8. Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell (2015) 228 pages. Ruth Rendell has written mysteries for years and has been well liked, with a huge following. This is her last book before passing away in 2015. The publisher describes this book as “…an intriguing cat-and mouse-game of blackmail and murder. From diet pills, homeopathic cures, a desperate man who needs cash, a tenant, a friend, an opportunist, and a jealous neighbor. ” Unfortunately our reviewer found it disappointing.

Pharma-Scrabble

I’m sure you’ve noticed the proliferation of advertising for prescription drugs on the TV in recent years. Gone are the days when the name of a drug might give you some understanding of what it does. The names are often a meaningless and atypical grouping of letters (with frequent use of “bohemian” letters like J, V, X, Y & Z) that are intended to make the drug name stand out but instead makes them all start sounding the same.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been keeping track of the drugs (mostly prescription but a few over-the-counter) advertised on broadcast TV during prime time. I’ve come up with 31 different drugs although I’m sure I’ve missed some.

In looking over the names it occurred to me that many of them would be great Scrabble or Words-with-Friends words (if proper names were allowed) so I tallied the scores each would bring, not counting any double/triple letter/word bonuses.  Any thing above 15 is a respectable score but some drug companies are just not trying very hard to win the game and use too many low scoring vowels and consonants in too short names.  A few load the deck, using hardly any vowels and extra “bohemian” consonants.

Of course, their scoring potential aside, I doubt you could tell me what more than a handful of these drugs are for.

The addition of the X saves the day with a score of 19

Score = 8    Too short, too many low scoring vowels

Score = 13

Score = 20

Score = 17

Score = 16

Score = 18

Score = 11

Score = 13

Score = 15

Score = 18

Score = 16

Score = 15

Score = 16

Score = 11

Score = 17

Score = 21

Score = 15

Score = 12

Score = 12

Score = 12

Score = 14

Score = 14

Score = 14

Score = 10

Score = 21

Score = 14

The winner at 39 points. Too bad there aren’t two Xs in Scrabble

Score = 24  Good job of packing the high scoring letters into a short name

Score = 17

Score = 20

Not Dead Yet

I can’t believe it has been almost a month since I last posted any recipes, book notes, inspiring stories or general ramblings. What have I been doing? A friend of mine emailed me wondering if I was well since she hadn’t seen any postings. Well, let me rack my brain, what have I been doing?

Since we last talked on March 8…

• I have attended two different book groups.
• Sold two journals, one was a custom order so I had to build that one.
• Brushed the cat
• Worked on a brain hat for the March for Science. ( I made Pussy Hats so I know I can  make Brain hats)
• Got the taxes done
• Worked the Big Book Sale at my library
• My son was home and he brushed the cat.
• Raked lawn (we had one warm day)
• Baked a batch of ‘They Might Be Breakfast’ cookies (from Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan)
• Baked Raisin Bars (same as above)
• Continued at the Health Club 2x a week exercising and strengthening my new knee
• Brushed the cat.
• Got on an embroidery craze. (Worked on my Stitch a Day project and finished one auxiliary project and started another)
• Binge watched season 3 of Grace and Frankie.
• Binge watched Season 3 of Chef’s Table
• Brushed the cat. (Damn! She should be bald by now.)
• Read or listened to 8 books (3 graphic novels, 3 audio books, 2 book books)
• Got my hair cut
• Went to the chiropractor
• Did a little birding, (added grackle, cowbird, sandhill crane, black duck, hooded merganser, northern shoveler, killdeer, redhead duck, lesser scaup, song sparrow, ringneck duck, coot and white pelican to my 2017 list)

Starting upper left: custom journal, Chef’s Table, Raking, Stitch a Day, The Cat, Cookies, Hooded Merganser, Book Sale Boxes, Knitting brains, Leg Press, Embroidery 1, Embroidery 2, Reading, The Cat again!

And then when you add in all those pesky weekly and daily chores like washing dishes laundry and grocery shopping…well, I guess I’ve been busy. So to my friend in Colorado, I’m alive, sort of busy, but nothing too exciting. Unless you count filling up a grocery bag with cat hair exciting. Hmm, I think we can build a new kitten from all that hair.