Archive for March 30th, 2008
Sunday, March 30th, 2008Soup’s On - A Culinary Reading Challenge
April 1, 2008 - March 31, 2009
Sharon at Ex Libris is hosting this one - and although I tried to resist, I have discovered I am a hopeless addict when it comes to certain reading challenges…and this one combines cooking (which I LOVE). What’s a girl to do? So, I’m joining in the fun. Here are the rules:
Select six cookbooks to read (you don’t have to read each individual recipe…just enough to give an overview of the book) and make at least one of the recipes. These can be any cookbooks of your choice - brand new ones, old stand-bys that you can’t live (or cook) without, or even heirlooms. You do not have to decide on the cookbooks ahead of time (unless you want to, of course). Then post your reviews either here or on your own blog. If you want, you can even post pictures of your creations along with your reviews!
I have my favorite cookbooks of course:
- Beth Hensperger’s Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook
- Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking (which is more of a series of vignettes with recipes interspersed)
- Ranck and Good’s Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook
- Rosso & Lukins The New Basics Cookbook
- Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (my old standby from my early 20s when I didn’t know the difference between a saucepan and a fry pan)
I might give you a review of those…but I decided since this was a challenge, I should pick cookbooks from my shelf that I’ve bought but never read, nor from which I’ve made a thing. I found five (which means, I guess, I will need to buy a new cookbook before the challenge is over *sly grin*):
Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger(reviewed April 20, 2008; rated 4/5; read my review)Smith & Hawken - The Gardeners’ Community Cookbook, by Victoria Wise(reviewed April 13, 2008; rated 5/5; read my review)- Best Recipes from American Country Inns and Bed & Breakfasts, by Kitty and Lucian Maynard
- Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan
- Great Good Food, by Julee Rosso
What Kind Of A Flower Are YOU?
With Spring in the air, I couldn’t resist this. I am a Sunflower: “When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can’t find something good about the world and your fellow human.”
Sunday Salon - March 30, 2008
March 30, 2008
8:00 AM
Good morning, Saloners! I hope you are all enjoying your last Sunday in March. It looks to be a gorgeous day in sunny California, albeit a little chilly.
Several lit bloggers are commenting on their best books of the first quarter of 2008, so I thought I’d join in. I catalog my books at Library Thing, and one of my tags is Best of 2008. I’ve been a bit more selective this year than I was in 2007. So far, six books have made their way onto the bests list:
- Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood
- So Big, by Edna Ferber
- The Translator, by Daoud Hari
- Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell
- Belong To Me, by Marisa de los Santos
- Resistance, by Owen Sheers
Which books are the best you’ve read so far this year?
This week I finished Belong To Me, by Marisa de los Santos (read my review), and loved it (as you must have surmised from my list above). Then I read Jackfish, The Vanishing Village (read my review) which was a tough, literary novel. My thoughts about it changed as I read it - from wanting to put it aside to not being able to stop turning the pages. There are readers out there who won’t appreciate this book because it is not a feel good book, it is difficult and heartrending and just…well, sad in many ways. But, the writing is wonderful; and if you stick with it, I think you’ll find it is a book which is hard to forget.
In between novels, I re-visited my childhood by reading a couple of Dr. Seuss books (read my post) in honor of this amazing author’s birthday. I managed to salvage some books from my youth - and these were two of them…well worn and loved. I cherish them more than the newer books on my shelf!
Last night I picked up Embers, by Sandor Marai. Written and published first in 1942, the novel has been recently translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway. Marai was a gifted writer who was driven from Hungary after WWII because of his anti-fascist views. That alone makes me want to read his work. Last night I stayed up late and read 100 pages into this 215 page book. The writing is amazing - I feel like I’m there in a castle between the mountains of Austria and Hungary. I think I’ll finish this one today without a problem.
That’s all for now. Have a wonderful Sunday!