Weekend Cooking: The Kitchen Journals 10

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

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Although I have a couple of cookbooks and some food writing books to review, I thought I'd take a break and settle in with another entry in my Kitchen Journals.

Adult Beverages. Let's start with drinks, shall we? We've been in a bit of rut with wine over the winter, but this week we bought a new-to-us red blend from Gnarly Head, called Authentic Red. It was quite drinkable for a weekday table wine, and I'm sure we'll be buying it again. We have been long-time fans of their old vine Zin.

The latest star though was the discovery of a pleasant Irish whiskey. Right around St. Patrick's Day, our local state store had an Irish whiskey tasting, and although we're Scotch fans, we couldn't resist giving some a try. Our favorite of the batch was Bushmill's Irish Honey whiskey, and Mr. BFR made sure we brought a bottle home. Despite the addition of honey, the whiskey is not sweet, just very smooth. A little bit straight up, in coffee, and even over fruit salad is a great evening treat.

After taking a 10-mile hike last weekend, we were in the mood for an ice-cold brew. Our choice? Dogfish Head Indian brown ale. We've always liked their beers, and after a fun, active spring day, this ale went down easily. It made us wish for warm summer nights on the deck, sipping a beer and reading or talking.

Culinary Cozies. I have a small stack of food-related cozy mysteries in my sights, and I'm looking forward to nicer weather and some lazy weekend afternoons indulging in one of my favorite escape reading genres. Here are five titles that caught my attention. I haven't read any of these authors yet, so I'm hoping to find a new favorite series. I admit I like the corny, punny titles of cozies and their fun covers. Have you read any of these?

Fonduing Fathers (Berkley Prime Crime, 2012) is the sixth entry in Julie Hyzy's White House Chef series, starring Olivia Paras, the assistant chef to the president. Of course, these books are set in Washington, D.C. Bewitched, Bothered, and Biscotti (Obsidian, 2012) by Bailey Cates is the second book in the Magical Bakery series. Our hero is Katie Lightfoot, a witch and a baker living in Savannah, Georgia.

Liz Lipperman's Murder for the Halibut (Berkley Prime Crime, 2012), the third in the Clueless Cook series, is about Jordan McAllister, a foodie journalist working out of Ranchero, Texas. A Broth of Betrayal (Berkley Prime Crime, 2013), by Connie Archer, is the second Soup Lover's mystery book. Lucky Jamieson, our amateur sleuth, runs the By the Spoonful Soup Shop in Snowflake, Vermont. Finally, Paige Shelton's If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance (Berkley Prime Crime, 2012), is the second book in the Country Cooking School series. Betts Winston and her grandmother run the Broken Rope, Missouri, cooking school when they aren't solving murders.

Like all good culinary mysteries, each of the five novels listed here includes a handful of themed recipes. It'd fun to make one of the treats to serve at a mystery book club meeting.

What I've Been Cooking. You can sure tell that we're in the heart of changing seasons in my kitchen. We started out the week eating kale lentil soup and roasted root vegetables and ended the week with asparagus risotto and fruit salad. That's winter to spring in just a few days! Our Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) food shares will start with the reopening of the farmer's market in just a few weeks. I wish it it were already May.

The soup  recipe I used came from Ellie Krieger's So Easy, which I reviewed way back in 2010. And I always make pressure cooker risotto following Lorna Sass's directions. I introduced you to Sass a couple of springs ago; check out that Weekend Cooking post if you've been scared to try a pressure cooker.

What food or drink adventures have you had this week?

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Imprint Friday: The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

I've always had a soft spot for stories that take place in Africa. I guess many of us have a fascination with the continent that is known for its exotic animals and often-harsh environment. Perhaps it's some primordial instinct that makes us want to learn about the place of our origins. In any case, The South African setting of Jennifer McVeigh's The Fever Tree called to me.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Having drawn comparisons to Gone with the Wind and Out of Africa, The Fever Tree is a page-turner of the very first order.

In London she was caged by society.
In South Africa, she is dangerously free.

Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men—one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals. Only when the rumor of a smallpox epidemic takes her into the dark heart of the diamond mines does she see her path to happiness. But this is a ruthless world of avarice and exploitation, where the spoils of the rich come at a terrible human cost and powerful men will go to any lengths to keep the mines in operation. Removed from civilization and disillusioned by her isolation, Frances must choose between passion and integrity, a decision that has devastating consequences. The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth.

If I'm going to be perfectly honest, then I have to admit that by a third of the way through The Fever Tree, I was beginning to wonder if McVeigh had written a historical romance, minus the detailed sex scenes. But soon thereafter I realized that, although some aspects of the plot follow a familiar pattern, the novel is decidedly not what it first appears.

The Fever Tree is instead the tale of Frances's maturation and transformation from a Victorian London society girl to a South African homesteader. And, yes, there is a love story too.

Three aspects of the novel stand out for me. First is the character of Frances, whose personality was carefully and skillfully developed. It would have been so easy for McVeigh to have made Frances a spoiled rich girl or a somewhat dim-witted socialite. But Frances's behavior and choices are rendered compelling because she's a product of her times and upbringing. She isn't spoiled, just properly sheltered. She isn't stupid, just naive and lacking womanly guidance.

So while we may cringe at what she does or doesn't do, we understand that Frances is a victim of her circumstances. Alone in Africa with no personal resources, utterly unprepared to run a household, and lacking all domestic skills, it's no wonder she dreams of a prince who will save her from all her misery.

I also loved McVeigh's descriptions of life in colonial Africa, especially the wilderness. For example:

She discovered that if you look closely at the veldt it transformed itself into a living, breathing thing. The black, lichen-covered rock gleamed green and flickered out a tongue. Two small bushes, indistinguishable from the surrounding scrub, quivered then blew across the plain—ostrich chicks. A clump of brown and yellow soil stirred, thrust out a leathered neck, and ambled, undeniably tortoise-like towards the dam. And the silence resolved itself into the checkered sound of insects, the beating of wings, the wind feeling its way through the grasses. (p. 208; uncorrected proofs)

More than just pretty descriptions of nature, The Fever Tree reveals the harsh life of European settlers and doesn't shy away from how whites treated the darker-skinned people who were native to the land.

Finally, The Fever Tree was inspired by true events recorded in a doctor's diary McVeigh found in the British Library. The doctor described the diseases, especially smallpox, and horrible working conditions he witnessed at the diamond mines. Frances's husband, a young physician with no social connections, tries his best to do the moral and ethical thing, caring for all who need medical attention and attempting to prevent outbreaks of smallpox. Unfortunately, in the book and in the historical record, the diamond kings decided to ignore the signs of an epidemic. After all, they didn't want to scare off their manual laborers and lose their income. The results of their inattention were disastrous.

Other issues addressed in The Fever Tree are diamond smuggling, conservation, women's issues, marriage, and South African politics. These and other aspects of the story I didn't discuss here make the novel a great book club choice.

Do not be fooled by the love story or by the somewhat predictable plot. The Fever Tree, Jennifer McVeigh's debut novel, is a tightly written story of a young woman's awakening from the confinements of Victorian society to discover the beauty of a wild continent and the independence won by hard work.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Buy The Fever Tree at an Indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, April 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399158247
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Review: And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

The seed for Patti Callahan Henry's new novel, And Then I Found You, is based on the real-life story of the author's younger sister, who made the difficult decision to give birth to a child and then let her be adopted by another family. Thus And Then I Found You, although fiction, is close to Henry's heart.

The book focuses on Katie and Jack, who were childhood friends and then teenage sweethearts. After college, they were separated by circumstances, but a weekend get-together left Katie pregnant just months before Jack married another woman. Katie decided to keep the baby and let a (anonymous) childless couple adopt the girl that Katie had named Luna.

For thirteen years, Katie and Jack led separate lives, never seeing each other but exchanging a letter once a year on Luna's birthday. Then, as Katie struggled to commit fully to her boyfriend, she decided to see Jack and make a final clean break from any lingering feelings. But things didn't go as planned, and Katie's past and present collided, changing her life forever.

There is no question that Henry captures the conflicted emotions and lasting worries and doubts that many people have after deciding to let another family raise their child. Regardless, And Then I Found You wasn't a good match for me. Even keeping in mind that the novel is based on truth and even though I was sympathetic to Katie and the choices she made regarding her daughter, I found it difficult to fully invest in the book.

The problem is entirely with me, and I'm sure that pretty much every one else who reads And Then I Found You will be drawn to Katie, hoping she finds happiness and healing. I've been trying to pinpoint what bothered me about the book, and I think it is mostly with Katie's constant mixed emotions and inability to pick a path and accept that choice. She wants it all, even when it's clear that's impossible. She had a way of blaming others for the consequences of her own actions, and that made it hard for me to like her.

I read Patti Callahan Henry's novel as part of the She Reads book club. If you head on over the She Reads site, you'll find links to other reviews (almost all positive) and a chance to win a copy of the book so you can make up your own mind.

Buy And Then I Found You at an Indie or at bookstore near you. This link leads to an affiliate program.
St. Martin's Press, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780312610760
Rating: C
Source: Review (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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Wordless Wednesday 231

The Park, Waiting for Spring, 2013

Click image to enlarge. For more Wordless Wednesday, click here.

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Today's Read and Giveaway: Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

What if you were a fun-loving but sheltered Southern girl on the brink of your eighteenth birthday. You've just met a handsome Yankee who holds the promise of excitement, big cities, parties, and dancing. What would happen if you married that man and were flung into instant worldwide fame, totally unprepared to face the realities of grownup life? Zelda Sayre had faith in F. Scott Fitzgerald, but did he have faith in her?

If I could fit myself into this mail slot, here, I'd follow my letter all the way to Hollywood, all the way to Scott, right up to the door of our next future. We have always had a next one, after all, and there's no good reason we shouldn't start this one now. If only people could travel as easily as words. Wouldn't that be something? If only we could be so easily revised.

—Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler (St. Martin's Press, 2013, pp 1–2)

Quick Facts

• Setting: 1920s; Montgomery, Alabama; New York; Paris
• Circumstances: Zelda marries Scott; a life of glamor, parties, and love disintegrates into drunkenness, loneliness, and depression
• Characters: Zelda Sayre, popular, pretty, fun-loving; F. Scott Fitzgerald, hottest new author; Ernest Hemingway; Gertrude Stein; other expats, writers, musicians, artists
• Genre: historical fiction; giving voice to an often misunderstood woman
• Themes: marriage; alcoholism; women's independence; jealousy
• Evaluation: fascinating; well-researched; perfect book club pick; must read
• Extra: my positive review of the unabridged audiobook read by Jenna Lamia will be published by AudioFile magazine

The Giveaway

Thanks to St. Martin's Press I have a truly fabulous giveaway for two of my readers! Each of the winners will receive a copy of Therese Fowler's Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and an 11 × 14-inch frame-worthy poster that combines the cover art with text from the novel and recognizable icons from some of the cities the Fitzgeralds called home. (shown at right; click the image to enlarge it). Winners must have a U.S. or Canada mailing address. To enter for a chance to win, just fill out the form. I'll pick the winners, using a random number generator, on April 12. Once the winners are confirmed, I'll delete all personal information.



EDIT: if the form does not show up in your browser, just leave your email address in the comments and I'll make sure you are entered for a chance to win.

Buy Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald at an indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
ISBN-13: 9781250028655
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

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