My Summer Reading List 2010

With Memorial Day weekend ahead of us, I wanted to share a list of a few books I intend to check out this summer, either in book or audio form. The summaries are adapted from Goodreads. Feel free to share your comments if you have suggestions or have read any of these! What's on your reading list?

Sister of My Heart: Set in Calcutta, this novel follows two "sisters", beautiful Sudha and passionate Anju, bonded together by love yet torn apart by a family secret. This one was recommended by a dear friend and I am already reveling in the author’s gorgeously lyrical prose.

School of Essential Ingredients: Highly rated by a fellow foodie on Goodreads, the plot of this novel is set up as follows: "Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class... Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian's cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious." Sounds delightful!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Murder mystery set in Britain, anyone? "In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home..."

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Or how about a trip to a hot, steamy Southern city? "John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil has been heralded as a "lyrical work of nonfiction," and the book's extremely graceful prose depictions of some of Savannah, Georgia's most colorful eccentrics... "

Prodigal Summer: I recently found a copy of this one at Goodwill. It seems to be the sort of literature that asks to be read in the seasonally appropriate period. I haven’t read anything by her since Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but I’m excited to revisit this author. "Barbara Kingsolver's fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, this novel's intriguing protagonists face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place."

Madame Bovary: I need to read another great work this summer, as my goal was to read three this year. This classic French novel sounds a lot like Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, which I found very interesting in school. Furthermore, it's so famous that I feel obligated to see what all the fuss is about. "One precious quality distinguishes Flaubert from the more or less exact observers who pride themselves on conscientiously reproducing reality, and nothing but reality: he has style." --Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

Like A Julia Child Recipe, Only Easier

Is there anything more tantalizing than a good cut of meat roasting in the oven? Methinks not. I found a quirky cookbook in small used bookstore in Mendocino called Once Upon a Tart. In it, the French owner of said café shares his recipe for a simple roasted pork loin. It is delicious on its own with an arugula salad and vinaigrette, or sliced and eaten on a baguette for lunch.

French Pork Loin

2 lb. boneless pork loin
2 cloves garlic, sliced
½ c. good-quality Dijon mustard
3 T. herbes de Provence
2 T. kosher salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.

Take the pork loin and cut slits all over it, inserting slices of garlic in the slits. Spread the mustard liberally all over the meat, then sprinkle with the seasonings. You may want to use a spatula to spread the spices evenly over the meat. Place the meat in a roasting pan on the rack.

Bake for about an hour or until meat is thoroughly cooked. Remove from oven and let the meat rest for 10 minutes. Slice and serve.

My Favorite Black Bean Soup (so far....)

We are always thrilled to find tasty meatless dishes, and this soup was a huge hit for us. Not only is it quick to prepare (ready in under 30 minutes) and delicious (great combination of spices), but the colors are just gorgeous. Black, yellow, green, red juxtaposed together make this dish beautiful and healthy as well. What more can you ask for? Besides a side of corn bread...

My Favorite Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained (or substitute cooked dried beans- we did)
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
½ green bell pepper, chopped
½ red bell pepper, chopped
14 oz. can low sodium chicken broth
14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. pepper
dash red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Cook onion and garlic in oil in a large soup pot until tender. Mash about half of the beans using a fork, and add to the pot, along with the remaining whole beans, corn, bell pepper, chicken broth, and tomatoes.

Stir in seasonings. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer the soup for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove bay leaf and serve. Serves 4-6

Napa, Sans Wine

What do you do in Napa when you don't drink? A lot! We took a trip with some friends recently and began at Round Pond in Rutherford with an olive oil tasting. It was actually a lot more than that - arrayed before us was an impressive spread of cheese, fruit, baby tomatoes, organic mixed greens, and lots of freshly baked bread.

These goods were sampled in a variety of pairings along with the estate-made extra virgin olive oils (Italian, Meyer Lemon and Blood Orange varieties); vinegars (two different red wine versions); and syrups (again, lemon and orange).

The sugar cubes are used to test the vinegars, which you suck out from the cube and thereby taste the fruitiness without as much of the sourness. The three blue glasses contain the olive oil (they don't want you to see the color because the color does not affect the taste one way or the other).

Here is how to properly taste an olive oil: Take a small sip and let the oil coat your mouth. Next, aerate by sucking in a few breaths of air. Finally, swallow. You will taste a wide range of flavor qualities depending on the type of olives, the age of the olives, etc., from fruity to herbal or grassy to peppery.

Here is our tour guide Linda explaining about the method of tasting the oils, which are to be used in finishing dishes, not in high-heat cooking, as heat destroys the flavor and nutrients of the oil.

My husband and I in front of the estate.
Beautiful vineyards surrounding the estate.

After Round Pond, we drove to Yountville where we had lunch at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. I bought a loaf of Herb Palladin to take home. For lunch, we had a ham/cheese baguette and a sandwich Provencal, along with a tarte au citron (lemon tart) and two of Keller's trademark bouchons (a moist chocolate "bite", somewhere in between a cake and a brownie).

We spent the afternoon exploring the shops at Yountville, mingling with the rich visitors and me jealously eying their small lap dogs. Closer to Napa, we found antique shops, an excellent kitchen store named Shackford's, and an impressive garden nursery that may help explain why most of the yards in this area are so well-kept and manicured.

For dinner, we ate at a casual local favorite called Pearl, where meatloaf and steak sandwiches are popular dinner entrees. Paul got the steak sandwich, and I got a special, the soft-shell crab sandwich.



Here's what we ended up buying: a balsamic and a red wine (Cabernet) vinegar, along with a fruit, smooth extra virgin olive oil. I can't wait to make my first salad!

Also note-worthy: The Oxbow Market, where we found Kara's Cupcakes, along with Three Twins Ice Cream which sells the most expensive ice cream sundae in the world! (One is $3,300, served with syrup made from 3 vintage dessert wines. Call a day a head of time and they'll arrange for a cello player to serenade you while you dig in.)

On Chinese Foot Binding and America

The book I’m reading now, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, details the life of Lily, a 19th century-era Chinese girl and the customs of her village in Southern China. Like nearly all of the respectable women in her time, her feet are bound, and the description of this stage of her life is gag-inducing to say the least.

Most of us learn about foot binding in elementary school- the toes are tied tightly underneath the foot, causing them eventually to break and heal in a claw-like position. Much of the flesh decomposes and falls off, leaving the foot small in size and pointed in shape, a very desirable aesthetic at the time. The goal was to create a "delicate, golden lily" no bigger than 7 centimeters. One out of every ten women died from infection as a result of this practice, and many were crippled due to the effects of it.

In this picture, a Shanghai girl is photographed circa 1900. She was reluctant to show her feet, which were considered a woman’s prized feature, but finally agreed when the photographer offered her four silver dollars.

Learning about the practice of foot binding makes me grateful that modern American culture is generally more lenient and accepting of natural female beauty, but also reflective as well. We look at the practice of foot binding and recoil with horror at this symbol of the oppression of women. Yet I wonder if centuries from now, students will have a similar opinion of the plastic surgery and fad diets that women in our culture voluntarily submit to, presumably for reasons similar to Chinese women of old (prestige, beauty, sexual appeal, etc.).

My hope is that women of all cultures and backgrounds is that they will see and love their own natural beauty and let it shine.

What We Bought on Our First Trip to the Farmer's Market

We made our first trip of the season to the Farmer’s Market last night. One of the best things about going is discovering what’s new. This time, we found pastured lamb and grass-fed beef. I remember seeing chicken there before and thought it slightly odd to buy meat at the outdoor market, but now that I understand more about the meat industry, I think it's wonderful that the small family farms have Farmer's Markets as a venue to sell their quality product.

The lamb was tempting but a little above our budget; the beef, however, was an excellent price, even cheaper than Whole Foods. We ended up buying ground beef and short ribs from Lucky Dog Ranch in Dixon, as well as some gorgeous, firm cherries (they had three kinds of cherries- THREE!) and carrots with tops still on. (Those tops make them seem so much fresher. He he!) Also beautiful were the strawberries, spring onions, greens, and fresh herbs that we saw many stands selling. How I love spring!

Would You Eat at French Laundry?

The French Laundry

Lately I have been planning a trip to Napa Valley which we are taking this weekend (olive oil tasting, here we come!), as well as reading The United States of Arugula (a history of how our country became gourmet-ified). Between both activities, I have become aware that Thomas Keller’s French Laundry restaurant, located in Yountville, CA, is one of the best establishments in our country.

Keller states his philosophy towards the French Laundry dining experience: "I serve five to ten courses, each meant to satisfy your appetite and pique your curiosity. I want you to say, ‘God, I wish I had just one more bite of that.'" His tasting menu changes daily, and the prix fixe for dinner is $250. Per person.

There are hundred of reviews of the French Laundry on yelp.com, some of which claim that eating there was a "once in a lifetime experience" and even "life changing", "humbling", one reviewer even claimed, "I wept" (upon tasting one exquisite dish). I understand feelings like this as I reflect on the first time I tasted an extremely expensive French truffle in Paris. It was unlike anything I had ever tasted before, and until then, I did not know that chocolate could taste like that. However, said truffle was given to me by a generous friend and did not entail personal impoverishment to acquire.

I find the cost requested by Keller to be extraordinary - dinner for two, $500. My question is: Would you spend that kind of money on one meal? If so, under what circumstances?