Ah, the Foodie Memoir

Thanks for all your comments and support last week. That was a low point for me and I actually thought about deleting the personal part of the post but decided in the end to let me be me. Starting on Friday I had backup - Daddy - and we all went to Iowa where I was able to see how a holiday meal for guests can be prepared entirely from processed food. Three varieties of canned soup were involved.

Speaking of food, if you know me, you know I love food, I love cooking, and I love reading about it. The food memoir is one of my favorite genres and I'm always on the lookout for what's new.

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard

This is the story of an American Woman who has married a Frenchman and how she acclimates to France and her new family. This is one of those books that is easy and breezy to read, fun, cute at times, yet in the end sort of forgettable. It was fine, if you know what I mean. Throughout the book the author muses about her lack of clear career goals for herself, and it seemed as though someone suggested to her 'hey, food memoirs are popular, Americans in Paris stories are popular, you should write a memoir!', thus a career in writing blossomed. The food is not necessarily central to the book and there weren't any recipes that I was drawn to make. Reading over this, it seems like I'm being pretty critical of this book. It's more that I feel ambivalent about it, and you might love it whereas I thought it was okay.

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove



Cathy Erway has taken a different direction with her food memoir. Erway was in her early 20's and living in Brooklyn when she wanted to start a blog. She came up with the idea of eating only food prepared at home - a huge anomaly in New York City - for an extended period of time. This book is based on that time and on her blog as well, though from looking at her blog my sense is that this book is not just reprinted posts, but a new way of looking at this period in time.

The Good: I found the subject matter of this book interesting and Erway's voice is appealing. She's intelligent and curious, and I appreciated how involved she became with the local food scene. She cooks both off the cuff yet still enjoys much more involved preparations and techniques.

The Not as Good: I felt old when I was reading this book! Erway's youth really shows in her lifestyle and behavior. There are several instances that involve heavy drinking and getting 'wasted'. She writes about the trials and tribulations of dating. Erway sometimes finds herself in situations in which she was perhaps over-extended. Dinner parties where dinner was not served until 10pm. Preparing food for hundreds of people yet not testing your recipes or picking up ingredients until the morning of. It's crazy, but I was actually getting stressed out reading these accounts.

Overall, this was a fun and good read, but I'm left wondering if I'm not the target audience for this book. (And folks, I'm under 40.) There were a couple recipes I've flagged to try and I was curious enough about Erway to check out her blog.

P.S. Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway - see below!

Spotlight on: Elizabeth Cadell

Who?

Before we get to that, can we talk?

We are on Spring Break here, otherwise known around this house as Spring-drive-your-mother-up-a-wall-because-you-have-opposite-temperaments-week. Oh, my goodness friends, I am feeling like A Terrible Mother.

I, a tried and true introvert, gave birth to one of the strongest extroverts I've ever met. As a baby she cried and cried when I turned my back to cook something and as a toddler stood next to me and screamed for about a year and half while I blew my hair dry. Now it's mom?...Mom?....MOM??....MOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! about every 4 minutes. She talks unceasingly. She climbs on me and touches and pokes me and talks in my face and tries to lick me (sorry). She cries and pouts and whines when she's not winning a game. She badgers me and argues about anything and everything. I faced an hour-long onslaught on why I wouldn't take her to dairy queen for lunch. She even hand copied text from their website about how delicious their food is.

"Mom they have wraps! And sandwiches that use waffles instead of bread!!"

"Someday you will understand why that is not a good thing."

**tears**

When I took the car to Tires Plus:

"Bring a book in case they ask us to wait."

"What do I need a book for? If we have to wait I'll just talk to YOU!!!!"

God help me. I love her more than anything, I'd lay down right now and give up every organ or drop of blood for her. But I wish she would just 'find something to do!' that didn't always involve me. Thanks for listening. She's now on a play-date so I am thrilled to be able to string two thoughts together without interruption.

Back to the books!





So, Elizabeth Cadell. Have you heard of her? This is the author I teased you with a couple posts back whose vintagey looking books I came across at the library. As you can see, I chose The Corner Shop written in 1966. This book definitely fits into that same sort of category as D.E. Stevenson though this book in particular is a little edgier, more mysterious, funnier, and rather a farcical comedy of manners.

Take for example our first meeting with our heroine, Mrs. Lucille Abbey, on a train:

'she had her own method of dealing with burly gentlemen who pushed; her capacious handbag....could in cases like this become a lethal weapon. One jab from the brass-bound end, and the gentleman, like all his pushing predecessors, gave way. As always, her quiet, deceptively mild air lulled the victim's suspicions and led him to conclude that it had been an accident.'

'She was aware that she was slim, blonde, and beautiful-but her looks, though they might be alluring, were also misleading and raised hopes which she was constantly constrained to crush. She had a clear brain, sound common sense and a capacity for hard work; why these sober attributes had been encased in so fancy a package she had never been able to understand; she knew only that she looked far warmer than she felt.'

Funny stuff! Lucille runs a business that sends secretaries out on jobs and when one client goes through three perfectly good secretaries in odd circumstances Lucille decides to find out whatever is the matter. She finds herself in the country where the rather odd 'professor' is sorting through his deceased father's papers and mother's things. A series of events puts Lucille in the middle of an art heist after which she travels to Paris to help her aunt and meets a bunch of quirky people. There's a lot of running around in Paris then and the plots become briefly complicated and intertwined and eventually we see how all the pieces and characters come together. It's really well done for a humorous book that reads quickly, and I told my husband that if I were move clever I would try to write a screen play based on this material.

I still don't know much about Elizabeth Cadell, thought I did find this fan site. She was writing books from the 40s to the 80s! I'm definitely going to be reading her again.

The Season of Second Chances (Giveaway Below!!)

Joy Harkness moved to New York City to teach at Columbia years ago. The life she expected she'd have in New York - the one with a social life and excitement - never really materialized. At age 48, Joy is given an opportunity to teach at a small college in Massachusetts and participate in an exciting new project. Joy makes this huge life change, complete with an old Victorian fixer-upper. She feels a bit like a fish out of water in her new life. She is unused to dating, or even cultivating friendships yet as she is drawn out of herself, into new situations, she slowly finds her place.

Diane Meier'sThe Season of Second Chances: A Novel
is the sort of fiction I don't find myself reading a lot of. So many books that are geared towards women today and set in the present seem to have the same few story lines that often don't appeal to me. The Season of Second Chances felt different. A smart female protagonist that is an educator and teaches literature can only be a good thing. Diane Meier's career up until now has been one full of style and creating beautiful things. That is apparent in this book as she writes about the makeover of Joy's home and all the bits and pieces that go into it. She writes about personal style and the delicious food being cooked and eaten. I liked the cozy feeling of this book and experiencing Joy's house becoming a home.


I really enjoyed reading this book and was drawn into it right away. I found Joy to be a compelling character, though at times I wanted to yell at her! For such an intelligent woman she sometimes made really bad decisions, particularly about men. I thought about this and realized that was probably because she had kept inside of herself for so long. Dealing with adult emotions and motivations was something she needed practice with.

The Season of Second Chances is being released today. If you are interested in learning more about the author, Diane Meier, here is a link to her blog. It's interesting reading what she has written lately about her upcoming book release. I can only imagine how nerve-wracking that would be.

Now for the good news: Interpersonal Frequency LLC has kindly offered to send a signed copy of The Season of Second Chances to one lucky reader! Not only is this book a really a good read, it's also a gorgeous book. I saw a finished copy today and am in love with the endpapers. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite book of 2010 is so far, and make sure I have your email address. I will draw the winning name on April 7.


Many thanks to Interpersonal Frequency LLC for providing this review copy.

Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes

David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City

More and More

Still reading D.E. Stevenson here, though I think I'm going to take a break for awhile. I may try another older and seemingly similar author whose books I came across at the library the other day. This female author wrote from the 40s to the early 80s and was very prolific. The library had a whole shelf of these books with their vintage looking covers. Anyone want to take a guess at the author's name?



The Baker's Daughter, written in 1938, was my least favorite Stevenson book so far, so let's get it out of the way here. This is the story of Sue Pringle, daughter of the baker in a small village/town in Scotland. She is trying to get out from being underfoot at the home of her father and stepmother so takes a job as housekeeper to an artist and his outgoing wife. Sue arrives and the wife vanishes - she wants to be in London, not the wilds of Scotland! Sue gets close to the artist, people think it's not appropriate and try to encourage her to take an interest in the local young men and on and on it goes. I thought the story was a bit flat, and there were a bunch of side stories (too many) that weren't any more interesting. Next!

Listening Valley (1944)is sort of a companion book to Celia's House which I read and enjoyed. It's not a sequel, but many characters from Celia's House make an appearance here. There are many themes in Stevenson's writing and that was very apparent here. This tale begins in a similar fashion to Amberwell (1955), complete with little girls being raised by negligent parents. As in Amberwell, the more socially challenged sibling is left at home when the other marries. This is Antonia, and she becomes friendly with a much older man, older even than her father, who happens to be a wealthy business associate of her father. They marry. I'm not a big fan of this storyline, the young girl of 17 or 18 marrying the 60 something older gentleman. I find it rather creepy. Anyway, they are very happy and move to London and work in the war effort which invigorates him and makes a woman out of her. Eventually he becomes sick, passes away, Antonia moves back to Scotland to live in a house left to her by a distant relative, and she finds a more age appropriate love interest. Antonia becomes friendly with some airmen who are flying on nightly missions to Germany. There is really quite a lot of talk about the war and the reality of these missions so if you're interested in how the war was handled in a very domestic 1944 novel, this might interest you. Overall I wound up really liking this book, all the sorts of things I like about Stevenson are here.

The Blue Sapphire, written in 1963, is one of Stevenson's last 10 books. It's so interesting to see how as time passes Stevenson's writing changes and the landscape of course changes as well. This is the story of Julia Harburn, she is engaged to an overbearing man, Morland, yet somehow finds herself suddenly friends with young Stephen who has just come back from Africa bearing - guess what? - a blue sapphire. Julia wants to get out of house for just the same reasons as Sue in The Baker's Daughter. She takes a room at a boarding house and a job at a hat shop which is quite humorous. There is an interesting flirtation with the stock market here which left me wondering if someone might be evil and the obligatory flight to Scotland where Julia nurses an elderly uncle. There was a little more angst than usual here, but all ends well.

Finally, we have Fletcher's End, the sequel to Bel Lamington.




I cannot say much about this one or it might spoil Bel Lamington for you! Bel has already found her true love and she and her fiance buy a run down house called Fletcher's End and make it their own. Much of the book is about Bel's life in the country and getting the house redone. The romantic part of the story involves Bel's friend Louise. I really liked this one!

Here is a blurb from the dust jacket about the photograph above:

The picture of Fletcher's End on the jacket is an actual drawing of the house owned by the author's son in the Cotswolds, which served as an inspiration for this book.

How about that?

Several people have written and asked me what Stevenson book to start with or what my favorites have been. Of the 10 or so that I've read, my favorites are, in order:

Amberwell
Bel Lamington
Fletcher's End
Celia's House
Vittoria Cottage

In nonbookish news, my new PC is on the truck for delivery today! We are so excited. This computer I am on has been a lemon since day one and I'll be so glad to see the last of it. Wheee!

Books and a Meal

It's been some time since I've shown any cooking photos. The truth is, the cooking around here has been pretty boring lately. I've been cooking a lot of my house 'standards' over and over and let's face it, they aren't' very interesting. Last night I decided to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with an Irish themed meal.

Sort of.

Here is 'Irish' stew and colcannon.



The stew could have been more Irish had I used Guiness, instead I used an English nut brown ale. This was yummy! Now that I've found out how easy it is, I'm wondering why I never made stew before. I practically just threw everything into the pot, cooked it for 3 hours and voila! Dinner. Gotta love that. I used Jamie Oliver's super easy technique from his latest US release, Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. I think I've mentioned this book before, but I will again just because I think it is so good. I'm a pretty experienced cook and I like it, yet it's aim is people who are not used to cooking. Oh, and do you know what colcannon is? Cabbage combined with mashed potatoes. I sauteed the cabbage for a long time in butter, until it was soft and sweet. Want to guess what I'm having for lunch?

Here are a couple things I read recently:

Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth

The is the final book in Worth's trilogy about her experience as a midwife in the East End in the 1950s. I am sad there will not be any more installments. This book is very similar to the first in the series in that it focuses on specific experiences the midwives had. They are graphic birth stories, and the subject matter of many of them will surprise and shock you. There are also stories of Worth's life in the convent where she lived while working as a midwife. These stories I found not as compelling, but they do provide some comic relief from the intensity of the rest of the book. I recommend this series highly and while the first book is my favorite of the three, this is a close second.

The Spare Room: A Novelby Helen Garner

Unexpected.

That's the main word that keeps coming to mind whenever I think about this book. The Spare Room is the story of two women who have been friends during their adult lives. One of them, Nicola, is ill, she had cancer, and she asks her friend Helen if she can stay with her for a few weeks while she undergoes therapy. I think I was expecting lots of heartfelt conversations and tears. Perhaps thoughts of end-of-life regrets and tender moments. That was not the shape this story took. These characters aren't any cookie-cutter depictions of people dealing with cancer. Cancer doesn't suddenly make everyone a saint. The story of Nicola and Helen is authentic. How difficult is it to care for someone with cancer? How does it affect the caregiver and the relationship? Recommended.
This book was provided by Librarything's Early Reviewers Program.

New To Me

The Kitchen House: A Novel
I heard great things about this one and no one around had it in stock. Thank goodness for amazon.

Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love, War, and Survival
A spontaneous purchase while I was reading Child 44. I want to know more.

George Gissing's The Odd Women (Oxford World's Classics)
Read about this one here (check out this blog, I'm in love). Also loving these Oxford editions in general.

The Joy of Eating: The Virago Book of Food
Not sure where I read about this one, but had to have it immediately. I thought it would be a book of essays. Instead, it's more a book of 'blurbs' arranged by topic. Good for dipping in and out of.




These arrived for review.

Beatrice and Virgil: A Novelwas a surprise.

Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman
Received this thanks to the Librarything Early Reviewer program. Sounds like just my sort of book.