verbatim

Erev 15

Today is the last day that Julie will be 14! I'm posting this now rather than on her actual birthday, which happens to fall on Yom Kippur. The most recent photo I have of her is from last June's middle school graduation ceremony:

Since then, Julie has entered high school! She joined the freshman volleyball team and was quickly bumped (see what I did there?) up to Junior Varsity. It is a very different game from when I played back in high school (Briefly! Remember, Kate?), and she's loving it. I suspect she will go farther than I ever dreamed of, partly because she's already 5'8" (I never quite hit 5'3") and partly because she's a million times more coordinated than I am. 

I don't know if I ever mentioned here that Julie taught herself American Sign Language in middle school. Just by herself, using online resources. So when she got to high school, she enrolled in ASL 1. A week or so into the class, her teacher, who is deaf, told her (signed to her!) that she really belongs in ASL 2 because she is clearly way beyond a beginner. He was really surprised to learn that she's self-taught—he thought she'd taken classes elsewhere or perhaps had a deaf relative or friend. Unfortunately, the ASL 2 class doesn't fit into her schedule, so she's planning to take it next year. But she is also taking an art class called Mixed Media and a Graphic Design class, all in addition to her core courses, so she'll be busy enough. 

Last year Julie took a sculpting class every Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, but she's taking a break from it now because she has volleyball (practice or a game) every weekday and relishes her free weekends. I think she'll start up again once the season ends. In the meantime, she continues to produce all manner of wonderful things in the kitchen—both edibles (mostly treats!) and skincare products like bath bombs, lotion bars, lip balm, body scrub, and so on. She amazes me with her thirst for knowledge and the way she'll just decide she wants to know how to do something and then figure out how to teach herself. She has an Instagram for her artwork, if you're interested: @_wiseart

The only other thing I have to say is: Happy Birthday to my baby!

Editors Take Over Manhattan!

As I mentioned the other day, I was recently in New York City! Yes, really—I took the train and stayed in a hotel all by myself like a real grown-up! I was there for a conference, but not the one I've been to before. Once I finally dared go to ACES (American Copy Editors Society), I knew that the editorial conference bug had got me but good. But this was different: it was the EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association), which had not had a national meeting in more than 10 years. ACES is a huge organization, with members who work at newspapers, magazines, journals, businesses, online sites, and so on—plus freelancers like me. So, the sessions and workshops there address a wide range of industries, skills, and interests. EFA, on the other hand, caters just to us freelancers, so there's an additional focus on the fact that we're all running our own businesses. The EFA meeting was much smaller (about 200 people, as opposed to nearly 600 at ACES this past March) and shorter (just two days), but it was still plenty worthwhile and fun.

Not surprisingly, many of my ACES pals were there, as well as a number of my online editorial colleagues who hadn't been to ACES, so I was meeting them in person for the first time. And then there were completely new people to meet! And all this in Manhattan to boot.

I arrived on Sunday afternoon, having taken Amtrak for the first time ever. When I was young and carefree, I took trains all over Europe like it was nothing. But I had never taken a train in this country! I would definitely do it again—it was faster and more comfortable than taking the bus, and cheaper and less annoying than flying (and when you add in the extra time you need to arrive at the airport, and the transportation to and from the airport, you're really not saving much time to get from Boston to New York). I arrived at Penn Station and walked two blocks to my hotel, which was right smack in the middle of Koreatown—meaning it was also around the corner from the Empire State Building and just another two blocks to the conference location, at the CUNY Graduate Center. 

My friend Jill and I were staying in the same hotel, which had a rooftop bar. We went up to explore and she took this photo of the amazing view of the Empire State Building:

First order of business was to meet up with Michael Ruhlman for drinks and book chat. (Yes, he's got a new one in the works! But no, not a cookbook this time.) The bar we wanted to meet at was closed (On a Sunday? Excuse me, but even in Boston bars aren't closed on Sundays!), so we went across the street to a much dumpier bar, but at least I got to have the stereotypical surly bartender experience I expected from NYC. (It was a mostly beer bar and we didn't want beer; the bartender was clearly scornful of us.) Anyhooo, it was great to catch up and to talk with him as he's finishing up the manuscript that I'll get for editing in a few weeks! Afterward he walked me over to the EFA kick-off event at the Heartland Brewery on the ground level of the Empire State Building. There I got to be reunited with all my editor pals who I am in touch with regularly online but rarely see in person (aside from a couple of Boston-area folks, and not even very much for them!).

Monday morning the conference started, so I got to see everyone else I'd missed, and meet many new people, and go to interesting sessions, and awkwardly apologize to Mary Norris for fan-girling all over her in Pittsburgh (and in the process re-fan-girled myself all over her again). They provided lunch for us there, which was kind of surprising and even disappointing because I had thought we'd get to go out and explore, but then again it was a bazillion degrees out there, so most of us just stayed put. (How I longed for the food truck park we went to every day at ACES in Portland!) That night a bunch of us went back to my awesome little rooftop bar and then out for dinner at Barn Joo 35, a Korean fusion place in "my" neighborhood. It was delicious.

The next day, up and at 'em again, with more interesting sessions and conversations with smart, funny, warm people who made me feel very much like I was where I belonged. Afterward a whole bunch of us went out to the bar that I had wanted to go to with Michael; we ended up eating there too since no one was inclined to get up and find somewhere else to go. It was loads of fun. And then Wednesday morning it was back to Penn Station for my train ride back home.

It was wonderful to connect with other people who not only do what I do but also work from home like I do. Someone joked that we should have all shown up in our pajamas and brought our cats to sit on our laps. I came away with new insights and practical advice and things to think about regarding my own work. Plus, it was just great to have a getaway. I know that people who travel a lot for work get sick of it fast, but for me it is very much a novelty—as is hanging out with colleagues in real life as opposed to just on Twitter.

Not Your Usual Labor Day

If you've read this blog for the last, what, 12 years? or known me personally since the mid-eighties, you know that every single Labor Day weekend we go up to the White Mountains for the Lancaster County Fair. Every. Single. Year. With babies inside or outside my body, no matter what. Until this year.

This year we did not pat tiny lambs, eat Robillard's apple crisp, and squander many rolls of quarters in the Coin Dozer machines. Nor did we tour RVs and imagine cross-country trips, get taken by carnies, climb aboard unstable rides, and admire Belgian horses.

Instead, we stayed home, because Pete had preseason soccer practice, Julie had preseason volleyball practice, and Steph had to move in to her new dorm! Pete and Julie start school tomorrow (and each have a home game later on), and Steph is settling in and ready for classes to begin on Wednesday. 

And then I actually labored a bit on Labor Day, as I'm still trying to catch up on the work I didn't get done when I was in NYC last week! Wait, what? Stay tuned; all will be revealed....

The Insomnia Games

I never have trouble falling asleep when I first go to bed, but if I wake up for any reason during the night, I'm doomed. Regardless of how sleepy I think I am, my brain starts going a mile a minute. Song lyrics, memories, random thoughts, you name it. And when it gets going like that (I call it "busy brain"), I know I'm in trouble. People say that I should get up and read, but I can't do that because I can't see! I can't put my contacts back in because they're still soaking, so I'd have to put on my old glasses, which give me a headache, and then my reading glasses on top of them. I've tried, but it's generally not worth it. So instead, I try to corral my busy brain into an organized activity, and that sometimes helps.

Many years ago I started listing the U.S. states in alphabetical order, but I can do that so fast it's not even a challenge, more of a race. Then I added the state capitals, but again, I know them all by heart, so it was just a recitation with no actual thinking involved. Then a few years later I switched it up by doing just the state capitals themselves in alphabetical order (that is, beginning with Albany, Annapolis, etc. rather than Alabama—Montgomery, Alaska—Juneau, etc.). That was fun for a few months, but now it's old hat too.

Two years ago I had a fun summer learning to list all 32 World Cup countries in alphabetical order. That was hard, and fun! I can't do that one anymore—I'd have to look them up. But I can start all over in 2018!

A few months ago it occurred to me that I could try listing all the U.S. presidents in alphabetical order. Adams! Adams! Arthur! Buchanan! I spent weeks on that one, because I refused to look anything up. At first I was shooting for 44, because I know that Obama is the 44th president. But then I remembered that Grover Cleveland was president twice, but not consecutively (he was in fact both the 22nd and 24th president), which means there are only 43 actual people who held that office 44 times. For quite a few weeks I was stuck at 40 (remember, this was alphabetically, not chronologically, which I don't think I could ever do, and it's not something I can check without looking it up). Then one morning I woke up and announced out of nowhere, "McKinley!" (Andy is used to this sort of thing from me.) A few weeks later we were watching the Red Sox, and I suddenly blurted out, "Polk!" Another few weeks went by and someone tweeted something about Warren G. Harding, and that was that.

So now I need something else to list. It has to be finite and something I would know. Lately I've just been naming as many countries as I can beginning with each letter, but there are something like 195 countries (depending on how you define "country"), and I don't think I'll ever be able to do them all alphabetically. Plus the list changes too often! Meanwhile, did you know that there are currently no countries beginning with W or X (Wales doesn't count, because it's part of the UK), and only one each for O, Q, and Y?

Now you know why Andy rarely says, "A penny for your thoughts" to me, especially if he knows I haven't been sleeping well. (In truth, my insomnia has been much worse at other times in my life than it is these days, for which I'm grateful. Not sure what to attribute it to, but I'll take it.)

Do you have insomnia? What do you think of?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

It's Violet! 

Some of you know that our kooky black and orange kitty has been very sick. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that she wasn't as sociable and playful as usual, but it didn't seem worrisome. Then it become more noticeable, and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen her eat in a long time. When you have three cats, you don't necessarily know who's eating what, or who's using the litter box. (That's the one and only thing that's harder about three cats than three teenagers.) We offered her all kinds of enticing foods, but she was not interested. She's only 4 and had recently had her annual checkup, with no problems.

We called our vet last Tues., who came over on Wed. and checked her out, drew some blood, and gave her some fluids sub-Q (short for sub-cutaneous, meaning under the pelt as opposed to via IV). Thurs. morning he called and said to take her to the veterinary ER immediately. He said her numbers were off the charts in almost every category having to do with renal functioning—for example, her BUN (a measure of what toxins the kidneys are excreting) should have been under 35, and it was 170. He said the renal failure could be due to some structural problem, cancer, exposure to toxin, infection, who knows what.

So we had her admitted. It was really sad. I was sure this was good-bye. The vet there called me that evening to say that they had done an ultrasound and x-ray and saw no signs of structural abnormality or cancer or stones or obstruction or anything else that might be diagnosed visually. Her urine did not show any bacteria, but they were going to wait to see if any grew in a day or two. 

Fri. morning she called to say that Violet's blood work showed tiny improvement in all areas. Still well out of the range of normal, but moving down. But she wouldn't eat. They put her on an antibiotic, which can cause nausea and loss of appetite (!), so they also gave her an anti-nausea med and an appetite stimulant. 

Sat. morning she said she had gotten Violet to lick some cat food off her finger! Just a small amount, but still. And her numbers had crept down a little more. We went to visit her in the afternoon and she was so happy to see us! She was purring nonstop. But she still wouldn't eat. 

Sun. morning, the same: Her numbers were better (though definitely not normal), but she would just barely lick the tiniest amount of food off the vet's finger. I was trying not to think about how long she could go without eating. And then the same again Mon. morning (today). At this point we decided that she was definitely moving in the right direction, and maybe she would be so happy to be home that she'd start eating. So tonight we brought her home, along with all her meds, and our own sub-Q fluid setup. (I am dreading this tomorrow. I had to do it for Mr. Jones a long time ago, and I was not very good at it.)

She went around sniffing everything at home and purring! But she still wouldn't take any food. Then Andy went out to pick up a rotisserie chicken for our own late meal. I pulled off a few shreds and she ate it all! I've never been so happy to see anyone eat chicken in my life. She definitely would've eaten more, but I was too afraid to overdo it. Maybe I will offer her a little more before bed tonight. 

So, we have to go back Fri. morning to check her blood again. At this point it seems most likely that she encountered a poison of some sort, because if she had something wrong with her kidneys from birth, she wouldn't be showing improvements. And nothing has shown up in the urine, although the vet said that not all kidney infections show up in the urine, so we are keeping her on the antibiotics. We may never know. And I hasten to add that she is not out of the woods yet. I am just so happy to have her home. I could barely get any work done without my office pal.

Is This Thing On?

Sorry, I must have mixed up blogging once a day with blogging once a season. I see I almost missed summer. Sigh.

I am not doing too well with the work-life balance thing these days. It's hard to say no when you're a freelancer, because then you wonder whether something else will come along. And even when you do say no, somehow schedules shape-shift and the next thing you know, you've got everything going on at once. And then you get offered projects you really can't say no to, because they're so awesome-sounding or because you want to please a long-time client or impress a new one. All of this is to say that I've been working ridiculous hours all summer, including weekends and evenings. No fun, and all my fault. I need to spend a little time figuring out how to be a better boss to myself. 

Being overworked means that I want to make the most of what little free time I leave myself. I've gone to some Red Sox games, seen a few movies (nothing too note-worthy, I'm sorry to say), had a mini-camp reunion with some old friends (by which I mean people I've known since 1973), and saw some far-flung cousins who were all in town at the same time, but I haven't done a lot of reading. As I get older, I find that I am becoming positively ruthless about giving up on books that haven't grabbed me after a decent chunk of pages. I used to force myself to finish every book, but no more. So, here are three books I started but opted not to finish:

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: Everyone has been talking about this book, the first in the four-part "Neapolitan" series. So my book group decided to do it. Let's just say that we had to postpone the meeting once because most of us had been able to get past the halfway mark. When we finally did meet, only three or four people had actually finished it (I was not one of them), and only one person actively liked it. I just could not get into it. Nothing happened, I didn't care about any of the characters, and I finally threw in the towel. I am happy for everyone out there who raced through it and couldn't wait to begin the second book, but there was just nothing for me to hang on to.

The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison: I can't remember why I had this book on my shelf or who recommended it to me, but I was bored silly for the first 50 or so pages and just gave up.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George: I should've loved this, but it was so sappy I had to put it down for fear of becoming hyperglycemic. It's about a lonely Parisian book seller who "prescribes" books to heal his customers' hearts and souls. But I found him pathetic rather than endearing, and the whole story was turning out to be about as corny as could be (his true love had sent him a letter after she left him, but he never dared open it, and then many years later he finally did, and...). I eventually couldn't stand it any longer. (I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.)

But! I am happy to say that I am about two-thirds of the way through a very thick book that my mother-in-law lent me nearly 14 years ago and am loving it. Stay tuned!

I am also very excited to say that I am heading to NYC in a few weeks for the national meeting of the Editorial Freelancers Association. Look out, Manhattan, the editors are coming! Some of us are talking about taking a field trip to CW Pencil Enterprise because we are crazy like that.

Fun Snack

Here's a quick and easy way to impress someone that yes, you made those chips!

Wonton Crisps

24 square wonton wrappers
2 tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese or 2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400°. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.

Cut the wonton wrappers in half diagonally to make 48 triangles. Spread them out in a single layer on the lined baking sheets.

Brush the triangles with the melted butter. Sprinkle them with the cheese or cinnamon-sugar. (I cut the topping ingredients in half and did one tray cheese and one tray cinnamon-sugar.)

Bake until crisp and golden brown, about 10 minutes, swapping the pans halfway through. Toward the end some of the sugary ones around the perimeter got a little too dark, so keep an eye on them!

Let them cool on the sheets, then eat 'em up or store in an airtight-container.

On the Grill

Pro tip: Marinate some meat cubes, put 'em on skewers, and grill. Apparently this particular version is known in the Binghamton NY area as "spiedies" (pronounced either "speedies" or "spy-dees"—the jury is still out according to a debate on my FB page). Just look at the ingredients list and you'll see that you can't really go wrong. I used boneless beef short ribs, but I may try half beef and half lamb next time. I can't remember what I served alongside—I think rice pilaf and salad. We ate every single morsel.

Spiedies

Marinade:
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
¾ cup red wine vinegar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
1 tablespoon chiffonaded fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Spiedies:
2 to 3 pounds beef, pork, venison, lamb, or chicken, cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Whisk together all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Add the meat to the marinade and cover tightly, or transfer to resealable plastic bags and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours (but only 10 to 12 hours for chicken—any longer and the meat will start to fall apart).
3. Preheat your gas grill to high.
4. Remove the meat from the marinade and thread onto metal skewers (or wooden ones that you have soaked in water for 30 minutes so they don't burn). The meat cubes can be placed quite close together. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Place the skewers directly over the flames. Allow the meat to cook, undisturbed, for 3 to 4 minutes, then use kitchen tongs to turn the skewers over and repeat on the other side. Continue turning them every couple of minutes until the meat is deeply crisp at its edges and cooked entirely through, another 5 to 7 minutes. 
6. Allow the spiedies to rest on a cutting board for a few minutes, then remove the meat from the skewers and serve.

"Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed!"

Hi, remember me? I have been working ridiculous hours. Since returning from Portland on April 3, I have had exactly TWO days off: Sunday April 24 (I don't even remember what I did that day) and Sunday May 8 (Mother's Day). I have worked EVERY SINGLE DAY other than those two—and sometimes well into the evening. This is the way it goes when you're a freelancer—you take the work when it comes, because you don't know what the future holds. But even so, this has been an unusual couple of months, because a bunch of projects I had agreed to ended up shifting so that their schedules overlapped way more than I would've liked. I suppose I could've told my clients that I could no longer do these projects since the schedule was not what I originally agreed to, but I just don't like to turn away work. One was a long-time client that I don't like to disappoint, one was a brand-new client that I wanted to please right off the bat, one was a really interesting project I couldn't wait to dig into, etc. But it looks as though this might be the last week of the insanity, and then things will go back to "normal hectic."

For those who wonder how I keep track of my time, I use Toggl, which is a swell desktop (or mobile) app that lets you track your time with a simple start/stop button. You can then generate all kinds of useful graphs. For instance, at the end of last year, I generated a pie graph by client, then compared the amount of time I spent on each client with the amount of money I made from them. It also has a very handy reminder that shows up if you're using your computer but haven't turned on Toggl (like, right now), in case you are indeed working but forgot to start timing. And if you happen to wander away from your computer, when you return it asks if you want to discard the idle time—yes if I decided to eat lunch and forgot to turn off Toggl, no if I've been hunting through reference books for the answer to a knotty hyphenation problem.

Andy felt bad for me with all this drudgery, so he surprised me with a whole box of the greatest pencils ever made in the history of pencils:

Here's the description from the back of the box: 

Yes, it's the 602, also known as the Palomino, and every pencil is engraved with the saying I used as the title of this post. This is the very pencil that Mary Norris wrote about in the chapter "Ballad of a Pencil Junkie" of her book Between You and Me, which she signed for me in said pencil last year.

Andy also sent me a link to the super awesome Palomino pencil sharpener, which takes my breath away.

One last piece of interesting news: At the end of August I am going to NYC for a couple of days for the national meeting of the Editorial Freelancers Association! I've done some events with the Boston EFA chapter, but this is the first time they've had a national meeting in more than 10 years. Lots of my ACES pals will be there, plus plenty of other online editor friends I've never met. I've spent very little adult time in NYC, so I can't wait.

Books I Had Something to Do With

Like most readers, if I'm not madly in love with a book but want to find out what happens, I might skim just to get at the plot, or at least skip certain sections that aren't interesting. On the other hand, if a book is really well written, I savor every single word. Then, there are the books I edit, which I have read far more carefully. By definition, if I've edited a book, I've read it at least twice, and often three times. I make several passes through a manuscript, sometimes looking for different things and sometimes just for a trees versus forest perspective. As you can well imagine, I prefer to edit books that I would actually have wanted to read in the first place! And here are three such books—I edited all with glee!

First is a cookbook, another in the mighty Michael Ruhlman oeuvre, How to Sauté. If the title and cover seem a bit familiar, it's because it's the third in a series of short technique books, and you probably recall reading about them here (first was How to Roast, then How to Braise). Like the others, this book describes the technique in great detail, expanding the idea of sautéing to include pan-frying as well, and discussing everything you need to know: The Cooking Vessel, The Fat, The Salt, The Heat, and so on. Then comes the fun part: a couple dozen recipes, such as the iconic Veal Scaloppine, Sautéed Spinach with Garlic, and Flatiron Steak, all accompanied by luscious photos. I've already been lucky enough to be cooking from the manuscript all these months, but now you can get the book and join in!

The next two are not cookbooks! I mostly tell you about the cookbooks I do, but that doesn't mean I don't occasionally do other cool stuff, too.

To wit (to Whit?), I had the great pleasure of editing Love & Friendship, which is filmmaker Whit Stillman's parody adaptation of Jane Austen's little-known novel Lady Susan. Stillman's subtitle is "In Which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon Is Entirely Vindicated," and the novel is written in the persona of the nephew of the very charming but also very conniving Lady Susan. It is really hilarious, especially if you like the kind of sarcastic Oscar Wilde–style one-liners that take you a minute to get. It's also been made into a film starring Kate Beckinsale. Here's a clip from an interview Stillman did with Slate:

Tell us a little about the way the film and the novel relate to each other.

Sometimes it’s good to blow through all your deadlines. I was supposed to write the book before I did the movie, but before you make a movie there are a million things you have to do. So I didn’t really start the book until we started picture editing, in post-production… There’s not much you can do [at that point]. So I started to work on the book and tried to trick Little, Brown to get more time—using all kinds of ruses. It’s due on a Monday—can I have until Friday? And Friday isn’t really until 11:59… Can I turn it in Sunday night? Christmas was coming up, and I said, “I’ve had so much luck turning in finished work on Christmas day—it’s such an odd thing…” Then it was, “You know—New Years… New Year’s Day…”

So, that pretty much explains why this manuscript came to me screaming RUSH RUSH RUSH! Luckily it was such a delight to work on that it doesn't matter that I didn't sleep for a couple of weeks. Really. And I'm very eager to see the movie.

Finally, I edited a book that had some of my editor pals calling me VERY BRAVE. It's Perfect English Grammar, a grammar handbook written by linguist/lexicographer Grant Barrett. (You may know him from the public radio show "A Way with Words.") I loved editing this book! Not all editors are grammar nuts—in fact, I frequently see questions in our top-secret Facebook group that say things like, "I know X is wrong and I know how to fix it, but I don't know how to explain it to the author! Can someone please tell me the grammar terms I should be using?" Me, I'm the one who knows the grammar terms. Many years ago when I worked in-house doing college textbooks, I used to beg to do the grammar handbooks. So picky! So precise! So black and white! Anyhow, this book is not meant to be comprehensive; it's more of a guide to getting the important stuff right. I think many people out there will find it very helpful.

Mother's Day

What a busy, happy weekend! Saturday Pete had SATs in the morning (well, OK, that part wasn't so happy!), while we drove Julie to her sculpting class at the MFA, then on to Wheelock to pick up Steph, who is already done with her freshman year! Pete then had to get ready for the junior semi-formal at the Seaport Hotel. Some friends in the neighborhood hosted a photo hour in their yard for about 30 of the kids beforehand, and luckily it was pretty much the only hour that didn't rain all week. While Pete was at his party, I went to a mini camp reunion and spent several fun hours with some people I've know for, oh, about 40 years! We talked sports and politics, we caught up on each other's jobs and kids, we reminisced about our crazy days off and nights out as counselors back in the day, we figured out how to make the type size on our iPhones larger (I might have shouted, "It's a miracle!"), and all in all we just had such a nice time being in each other's company.

On Sunday I was treated to breakfast in bed by Steph, Julie, and Andy, and then I got to have my tea in peace amid the pillows while I solved the Sunday Times crossword puzzle in record time. We finally saw Pete in the afternoon (he had been at a sleepover post-party at another friend's house), when we all met at up Jo's for a lovely Mother's Day brunch. Some cousins made a surprise appearance, and the sun even came out, albeit briefly. Then, to cap it all off, before bed I learned that I had become a great-aunt (as opposed to just a great aunt, which I've been for a long time now) as my nephew and his wife welcomed a baby girl to the family!

Here I am with my three reasons for celebrating Mother's Day:

For those who aren't on FB, I captioned it: "Look at these amazing kids I made out of stuff I had just lying around!" Honestly, that's how I feel sometimes when I look at them!

All Booked

Time to catch up on some book reviews. 

(1) A few weeks ago I picked up What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. I expected just a light, fun read, but it ended up hitting me like a ton of bricks. No spoilers here—what I'll tell you is revealed right at the outset. It's the story of Alice, who falls off her bike in spinning class and bonks her head. When she comes to, she thinks it's 1998, which means that she's 29 years old, happily married, and pregnant with their first child. In fact, it's 2008—the bump on the head has knocked out the last 10 years of her memory. She is actually 39, in the middle of a nasty divorce, and has three kids.

What got to me was that Alice is aware that she has changed—even things as obvious as the fact that she is in shape for the first time in her life and seems to have developed a fashion sense, but she does also have crow's feet and a C-section scar. But, more importantly, she wonders what could have happened between her and her husband, since they were so madly in love? And why do things seem strained with her sister, and with her neighbor, and with her best friend? Who has she become, and how did that all happen? Would the 29-year-old Alice even like the 39-year-old Alice? 

It made me wonder what it would feel like if I suddenly woke up 10 years ago. I feel certain that there would be a lightness in me that I've lost, just due to things that happen in life, both big and small. I would still have certain relationships that I've let go of, for no really good reason. Maybe I wouldn't take what I have for granted. I'm making it sound heavy, but in fact it's a delightful read and actually kind of funny in parts. But the meat of it really and truly made me cry, in a good way. I finished the book and immediately felt so appreciative of everything I have, and am, now. 

(2) Our book group met last week to discuss The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. It is the fictionalized account of the life of abolitionist/feminist Sarah Grimké, with an added character invented by Kidd, a slave girl named Hetty who is "given" to Sarah for her eleventh birthday. The book alternates chapters between Sarah's and Hetty's points of view. I enjoyed reading the book, but it felt kind of hackneyed to me. That seemed to be pretty much the consensus in our group—certainly not a waste of time to read but not as earth-shatteringly wonderful as many of the reviews suggested. Someone in the group said it reminded her of books she read in eighth grade, and I felt that way too. The writing was just fine, but it was hardly a book that I couldn't put down. Next we're reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

(3) Sometimes it's fun to read a book I wouldn't normally pick up. Such was the case with The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton. It tells the story of Yasmin and her 10-year-old daughter Ruby, who is smart as a whip and deaf. They travel from England to a remote part of Alaska to visit wildlife filmmaker Matt, Yasmin's husband and Ruby's father. However, as soon as they arrive, they are told that there was a terrible accident at the Inuit village where he was staying. Something just does not sound right to Yasmin, though, and she and Ruby set out in the wilderness to get to the bottom of it. I had to suspend disbelief that a mother would put her child in such danger, but the author did do her best to make it seem as though there were no other options. The descriptions of the wilderness, especially the snow and the unfathomable cold, were really well done. I felt a chill as I read it. I won't give away any of the plot, but I will say that it kept my interest. I don't normally read mysteries, and I was very eager to see what would happen to them. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

(4) This isn't a book I read, but it is a book I'm in! Twitter pal and word game lover @codesparrow collected 350 of her favorite funny tweets over the years and turned each one into a cryptogram. The result is Twitterati, and yours truly appears on p. 53:

Ha ha, funny, right?

 

ACES High

Remember last year when I went to my first American Copy Editors Society conference in Pittsburgh and it was the greatest thing I ever did? (If you've forgotten, go back and read this. I'll wait.) So ... I was wrong, because my second ACES conference, in Portland, was in fact the greatest thing ever!

A huge attraction for this trip was that I'd never been to Portland (the Oregon one, silly—of course I've been up the road to Portland, Maine! I had not realized, however, that the Oregon city was named after the Maine city, which was named after the England city...). We lucked out with five straight days of 70° weather and bright sunshine. It's a lovely city, with Powell's, the largest new/used bookstore in the world (I bet they noticed a spike in sales while ACES was in town!); and huge food cart pods, where you can get pretty much any food you can think of, and it is all yummy and cheap; and the best artisanal ___ shop anywhere (fill in the blank with doughnut, beer, tea, chocolate, coffee, or any other thing you can think of and that will give you an idea of Portland); and pedestrians who wouldn't dream of jaywalking. (I don't think we have jaywalking laws here in Boston, do we? If so, no one has ever followed them, even once. I felt very anarchic marching across the street in Portland against the light.) It is also home to two old friends from my Wesleyan days, and I managed to find time to meet up with both of them! So, jet lag notwithstanding, the location was great. 

But more importantly, just like last year, I was struck by how wonderful it feels to be surrounded by people who understand and appreciate what I do. There were more than 650 of us there (one editor told his wife, "This is the most editors ever in the same place at one time!" to which she replied, "Except in hell!")—some I'd met before and some I'd been wanting to meet and some I'd never heard of but enjoyed meeting. Book editors, newspaper editors, magazine editors, journal editors, website editors, corporate editors, academic editors, medical editors, you name it. Editors, as far as the eye could see!

The first person I spotted when I checked in to the hotel was Kory Stamper, who gave one of my favorite presentations last year and gave this year's keynote address at the banquet. She writes definitions for words at Merriam-Webster. All day. Really. And she tweets insightful yet hilarious things about her work and just finished writing a book about it—stay tuned! Not surprisingly, her session this year and her keynote showed her at her best: engaging, funny, and so, so smart. I wasn't sure anyone could live up to Ben Zimmer's keynote last year, but Kory did.

I once again chickened out on the spelling bee, and I once again knew almost all the words (but not INCUNABULUM or NOCKERL or a couple of others). But I realized that being a good speller is one thing; walking across a stage and speaking into a microphone to an audience is quite another. So, I was content to get a drink and sit in the audience to cheer/groan for the brave entrants. There were also late-night Scrabble games at the hotel bar that I didn't dare join—though I blame that more on the damn jet lag. The last night was a party at Punch Bowl Social, a fun bar that had games like bowling and pinball (plus funky drinks in mason jars), and I did play shuffleboard. So.

Last year's fangirl moment came with Mary Norris; this year it was Carol Saller, who edits the online Q&A section of the Chicago Manual of Style. She is also the author of the very useful and entertaining book The Subversive Editor, now in a new edition. I can only hope I'm misremembering how dorky I acted when I told her how much I loved her session and her book. Anyhow, you'd think that someone who works on the actual style manual for book editors would be very rigid, but in fact, she says this:

I suggest becoming “subversive” in two ways: first, in overturning the image of the author as the enemy, and second, in remembering that sometimes it’s okay to break the rules if it benefits the reader. In encouraging copy editors to resist compulsions, banish insecurities, and develop habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, my mission is to show them not how to copyedit, but how to survive while doing so.

Too many people think of us editors as slavish rule-followers, but we're really quite reasonable people. Usually, anyhow: I bet every single attendee tweeted this sign from the hotel:

(For the record, I'm pretty sure I am the guest whose convenience was being respected here.)

Bagged

I have six—count 'em, six!—blog posts waiting to be written up but am currently slammed with work since I didn't bring any work with me on (teaser alert) my trip to Portland last week! But that will be the next post. This one is about Andy's bags.

For those who don't know, Andy and his father own a textile manufacturing company in Boston. The company was started about 90 years ago by his father and his grandfather, and at one point his great-grandfather worked there too, so Andy is the fourth generation in his family to make his living there! (Oh, and did you know that I go in once a week to do the books?) It's no surprise to anyone who reads the news, but small factories are dying out all over the country. We're losing business every day to China and India, because we can't possibly compete price-wise. A few of Andy's customers care a great deal about the "Made in the USA" label. Others switched to foreign suppliers and then came crawling back when the quality was unreliable, when they could never reach anyone on the phone with a question, when the long freight times meant no more "rush" orders. But otherwise, it's been a struggle to find market niches that are still viable. One thing Andy makes are small buffing/polishing wheels that are used in a variety of industries, such as jewelry makers. In fact, Andy's buffing wheels are used to polish the Oscar statuettes for a company in New York!

Another item that we make are these great big canvas bags that have been used for decades by the utility companies. In the days when you used to see a lot of utility trucks driving around, there was always a filthy canvas bag hanging off the back door, filled with tools and such. They are indestructible—we've used them around the house for years for every possible thing. A few years ago Andy saw higher-end canvas bags being sold by places like LLBean, and he started wondering if that might be an avenue to pursue. Thus was the Boston Bag company founded, as a subsidiary. And just this past Sunday, the bags were featured in an article in the Boston Globe!

And guess what, Boston Bags will be holding all the swag given to the movie stars on both of the Boston Marathon bombing movies that are in production! That's the Mark Wahlberg one, called Patriots Day, about the actual events of the day, and the Jake Gyllenhaal one, Stronger, about Jeff Bauman, one of the victims of the bombing. Which I think is pretty cool. They're really nice bags, and I think the Boston tie-in is especially meaningful in this case. I wonder what will be in them....

So...now you know something about Andy's work! Next post will be about my own professional development.

12 Years and a Day

Whoops, I really meant to get on here yesterday just so I could thank you all once again for hanging in with me all these years. Yes, yesterday was my blogiversary, and it marked 12 years since I published my first blog post. Thanks for commenting, emailing, tweeting, FB messaging, and just showing up. As I always say, if it weren't for you, I'd just write all this stuff in a notebook.

While I'm here.... Lessee, we watched The Wolf of Wall Street the other day, and it was almost unbearable to sit through. I truly felt toxic by the end, which I'm guessing was at least part of the point. But 3 hours was just too damn long, even with Leo's lovely face. Again with the hookers, and the lying, and the coke! Oy. 

I forgot to mention that a while back we saw Sicario, which stars the dreamy Benicio del Toro, this time as a Mexican hit man working for the good guys (DEA) for a change—or is he? Emily Blunt plays the stereotypical idealistic FBI agent who's in over her head (and not terribly convincingly, I'm afraid). Josh Brolin is excellent as the grinning/maniacal take-no-shit boss of the whole operation. It was violent and pretty suspenseful, but ultimately not satisfying or memorable.

I read a terrific novel, though: The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai. It begins in 1999 and then goes back 100 years, tracing the lives of the people that have lived in a grand house that was at one point an artists' colony. The book is so cleverly crafted that you don't realize that you are trying to figure things out until they practically hit you in the head—so I recommend that you read carefully to keep track of details or else you will be flipping frantically through previous chapters to remind yourself what you might have missed. The writing is both beautiful and funny, the plot is amazingly well constructed, the characters are interesting, and the whole thing is just plain fun to read. 

Liquid Lunch

On Saturday afternoon I went to a party that had a great theme: Liquid Lunch. What that means is that everyone brings a pot of soup and a bottle of wine! There were crock-pots all over the kitchen, plus regular pots on every burner on the stove, and some just on trivets. The hosts supplied bread and crackers and cheese and other go-alongs. There were disposable coffee cups and spoons all around so you could sample as many soups as you wanted. Plus wine glasses, of course! It was such a fun and seemingly easy way to entertain—open-house style, so people were coming and going all afternoon. I may have to steal the idea for myself sometime.

I made chicken noodle soup (aka "Jewish penicillin"), which is always a crowd pleaser. But my second choice would have been my new favorite create-your-own puréed root vegetable soup from Melissa Clark. I made it during our one snowstorm of the year so far, and it came out great. I used 1 pound of carrots, 1 pound of parsnips, and 1½ pounds of celery root (which I'd never used before). You could use turnips, sweet potatoes, rutabaga, whatever you want. You're supposed to serve the soup garnished with lemon juice, olive oil, chile flakes, Parmesan, and so on, but I am a purist (read: lazy) and did not do any of those things.

This recipe couldn't be easier, and it's a good enough reason to buy an immersion blender if you've been putting it off. But if you really don't want to, you can use a countertop blender and purée the soup in batches—just be sure to remove the plug in the middle of the lid and hold a towel over the hole while you blend so the steam can escape. (I'm always adding that note to puréed hot soup/sauce recipes in cookbooks I'm editing—if you don't do it, you risk the lid blowing off from the pressure and the contents of the blender flying everywhere.)

Root Vegetable Soup

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 or 3 celery stalks, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 rosemary or thyme branches
2 bay leaves
3½ pounds mixed root vegetables, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
8 cups water
2 teaspoons fine sea salt, or more as needed
½ teaspoon black pepper, or more as needed

Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Stir in the onion and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, herb branches, and bay leaves and cook for 1 minute more. Add the root vegetables, water, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

Discard the herb branches and bay leaves. Using an immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add a little water. Season with more salt and pepper if needed and serve.

Fast, Easy, Fresh*

Last night I tried a really yummy and quick Korean-style marinade from Bon Appétit. I bought 1¼ pounds of meat for four of us, and we were all looking for more after it was done. Yes, it was that good. (Go look at the photo at the link above.) I served it with white rice and steamed broccoli.

Basic Bulgogi

¼ pear, grated (Did a number on my knuckles with the ol' box grater—yeowch! We didn't really taste the pear, but I'm sure it added something....)
1 garlic clove, grated (Having learned my lesson with the box grater, I used my garlic press.)
1 tablespoon grated peeled ginger (Again with the grating! I minced it.)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon gochugaru (coarse Korean hot pepper flakes) or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I used the latter.)
1 pound trimmed hanger steak, boneless short ribs, boneless pork loin, or boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs (I used boneless short ribs.)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
Sliced scallions (for serving)

Combine the pear, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, and pepper flakes in a large resealable plastic bag. Using a sharp knife, slice the meat into very thin strips. Add the meat to the marinade, seal the bag, and squish everything around until the meat is coated. Let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, or chill for up to 8 hours. (I did the 30 minutes at room temp and it was plenty tender and flavorful.)


Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high until shimmering. Remove half of the meat from the marinade, letting the excess drip back into the bag. Season the meat lightly with kosher salt and cook in a single layer without moving until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Toss the meat and continue to cook, tossing occasionally, until cooked through and crisp at the edges, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, remaining meat, and more salt. 


Serve topped with scallions.

*That's the name of the Bon Appétit section this recipe came from, not me trying to be gimmicky.

Movie Review Catch-Up

I've been sitting on a bunch of movie reviews for so long that I forget almost everything I was going to say about them. Ah well, here's what I have.

These are the ones we saw at the theatre, first-run and everything, some going back a while:

Creed: If you saw the original Rocky, then you know exactly how this one is going to go. I found the love interest to be a distraction this time around, though, whereas it was a memorable part of the original. Spending a little time with Rocky Balboa felt like seeing an old friend again. Oh, and not for nothing, but the bad guy opponent at the end did not look like he was fit enough to shovel snow, let alone box. There was a long pan of him from behind and you couldn't see a single muscle in his back. 

Star Wars (whatever the new one was called): Speaking of old friends—hey look, it's Han Solo! I was very happy to run into him too, after all these years. This was fun and interesting and exciting, and I was sitting next to a dead ringer for George Lucas, who said to me, "May the force be with you" as we all left.

Mad Max (whatever the new one was called): This was wicked awesome, as we say here in Boston. Way over-the-top in every fun way imaginable. WITNESS ME!

The Revenant: This one I remember well because I saw it only yesterday. My god, but it was violent and gory! I love movie violence and gore, but this was nearly too much for me. Here's what I think about Leo finally winning a best actor Oscar: Not this time. He was perfectly good, but it just wasn't a best actor role. He had very few lines (what with having his throat ravaged by a grizzly bear) and surely didn't do his own stunts, so it was mostly a lot of images of his face being contorted (albeit convincingly) in physical or emotional pain. It really wasn't that demanding of a role. Tom Hardy, on the other hand, was outstanding. Meanwhile, can you even imagine how bad it must have smelled around those trapping camps? Yeesh.

I see that I did already blog about Brooklyn and Spectre.

These we watched on demand, at home:

The Martian: Oh boy, this was really interesting and enjoyable, and I'm told the book is even more so. Matt Damon is really likable in this role, and it all felt very believable to me (Neil deGrasse Tyson even tweeted that the movie got the "crucial science" parts right).

Bridge of Spies: Very Spielberg-y in every way, which includes very entertaining. There's nothing not to like here, and it's kind of a cool story. We know it was based on a true story because at the end they tell you what the real-life people did after the events in the movie. But for some reason it said "inspired by true events," and I wonder why it didn't say "based on a true story" instead. To my way of thinking, you could hear about a top-secret Cold War spy-swap and somehow be "inspired" to make a zombie movie or a rom-com. But that's neither here nor there. Tom Hanks is really good.

And now, I can't believe I'm admitting this, but on top of the DVD player I found a Netflix DVD that had been shipped to me on, um, May 31, 2014. Not a typo. So we watched it:

Mud: Online pal Nancy urged me to give Matthew McConaughey another chance after I mentioned that I thought he was a total lightweight. She was right: He was superb in this. As A. O. Scott wrote in the Times, "Mud is played by Matthew McConaughey in the latest in a series of surprising, intense, and often very funny performances following his escape from the commercial romantic-comedy penal colony.... Mr. McConaughey commands attention with a variation on a certain kind of Southern character: handsome but battered, charming but also sinister, his self-confidence masking a history of bad luck and trouble." If you see this (and I recommend you do), take note: That grizzled old guy? It's Sam Shepard! I didn't recognize him.

Ribs That Don't Take Hours to Make

To eat during (note I did not say "while watching") the Super Bowl, I tried a new recipe for chicken wings. They were fine, but nothing special, so I won't bother sharing the recipe since you can do better. But I also tried a new recipe for ribs, and they came out splendid. It is the most bizarre recipe—everything about it is weird—but I guarantee you these are delicious ribs. It came from Food52; look at all the nice comments there if you don't believe me. Oh, and look at their photo too, because once again I neglected to capture my finished dish for posterity.

The name comes from the ingredients list—just get out your 1 tablespoon measure and have at it. Although the rack of ribs I got weighed 2.17 pounds, so I used half again as much of each of the ingredients.

1-2-3-4 Spareribs

1 tablespoon dry sherry (I used dry white wine.)
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar
4 tablespoons (that's ¼ cup) low-sodium soy sauce    
1½ pounds baby back ribs, cut into individual ribs

Combine the sherry, sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce in a saucepan and stir to mix. Add the ribs and toss to coat. Cover and cook over low heat for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has almost completely evaporated and has glazed the meat. The instructions also said: If you notice the meat looking grayish in the last few minutes of cooking, remove the lid and raise the heat, searing the meat a bit and thickening the glaze. I in fact took off the lid after about 35 minutes and let it go for another 10 minutes or more, tossing the ribs regularly in the thickening sauce. Maybe that's because I started with more? I don't know, but they were delicious and took less than an hour, which are two amazing things to say about ribs.

Meatless Tuesday

Tonight's dinner was an all-out winner. It had no protein (which Wendy thinks I worry about too much anyhow) and was 100% vegetarian (which Mir's daughter might not believe, but it's true!). (Well, in terms of protein, there were some eggs in the batter, but a negligible amount per serving.) EVERYONE LOVED IT, and I think we would have all eaten more if I'd doubled the batch. I will most definitely make this again, but I will do a proper mise en place next time, rather than rushing around measuring little bits of this and that every second. There's a lot going on, and you will have plenty of dishes to do, but it's not tricky and it's worth it. Really. Oh, and get your white rice steaming at some point, or make it ahead of time, because you for sure don't need to be tending another pan.

General Tso’s Cauliflower

For the cauliflower:
½ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup cornstarch
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
½ cup neutral oil (like peanut or vegetable)
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets (I used two smallish heads, and we ate every last bit.)

For the sauce: 
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
6 scallions, white parts finely chopped, green parts cut into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
5 small dried chiles (optional) (I left this out.)
¼ cup vegetable broth
¼ cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons mirin
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Sesame seeds, for garnish (optional) (I left this out.)

First, make the cauliflower:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, soy sauce, and vinegar.
3. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour, whisking constantly. You should end up with a thick but still dippable batter—thin with a little water if needed. (I did not need to add water, but it was a strange texture indeed, like a peanut dipping sauce.)
4. Heat the oil in a medium cast iron skillet until very hot.
5. Dip each piece of cauliflower fully in the batter, then place in the oil. (Update 1/9/17: Wendy suggested dumping all the cauli into the batter and tossing it around, then using a slotted spoon or your hands to transfer it to the skillet. I tried it and she's right—it's MUCH easier!) Pan-fry the cauliflower until it’s golden on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on absorbent paper towels.
Next, or meanwhile, make the sauce:
1.  In a medium pot, heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Add the scallion whites, garlic, ginger, and chiles (if using), and cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Add the broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the sugar and cornstarch to combine. Pour about ¼ cup of the hot sauce over the mixture, whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth and lump free. Return the mixture to the pot and bring to a simmer. Stir in the green scallion pieces.
4. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens and has good flavor, 7 to 9 minutes more. (Mine was already VERY thick and sticky, so I cooked it for only a minute or so.)
5. Add the cauliflower to the pot and toss to coat until the cauliflower is rewarmed, 4 to 5 minutes. (Again, I did not want the sauce to reduce any more, so I accelerated this step.)
6. Serve immediately, garnished with sesame seeds (if using) and with a side of steamed rice.

So, I think next time I will start with more cauliflower (although I don't think I will need more batter) and then double the sauce recipe, so that the cauliflower is completely coated but there's extra for the rice. (Update 1/9/17: I did just that and it worked out great!) This was really, really delicious.

 

Fried Chicken Redux

Gah! Typepad made me log in, which means I haven't blogged in a LONG LONG time. Like, since last year. Oy, sorry.

All kinds of good things are going on Chez Verbatim. Steph is loving her work with preschoolers, so bless her for that, because I would last maybe 8 minutes in a room full of 3–5-year-olds. Pete got his driver's license this weekend, and on the same day set a new 600m track record for his school, and that's kinda awesome. Julie is home sick, which sucks, but that doesn't stop her from making homemade ice cream for all of us to enjoy. These are the things that keep us going.

Fried chicken also keeps us going, and I recently tried a recipe that strays from the usual method. What if—bear with me, now—what if you put the chicken in the oven first, just to par-cook, then finished it off in the frying pan? Would you maybe get perfectly cooked chicken that's done on the inside and not burnt on the outside? Why, yes, in fact, you would. I got this wonderful recipe from Rebecca Lang's book titled, appropriately enough, Fried Chicken. She offers pretty much every variation you've ever imagined—and many you've perhaps only dreamed of. Read on.

Roasted and Fried Chicken

2 cups sour cream
2 cups buttermilk, divided
1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into 10 pieces (I used thighs and drumsticks only.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1½ teaspoons salt, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1½ cups White Lily flour (or ¾ cup all-purpose flour plus ¾ cup cake flour) (I bet all-purpose would be fine for the whole thing.)
½ cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
Peanut oil, for frying

Stir together the sour cream and 1 cup of the buttermilk and pour into a large zip-top bag. (So, right off the bat I goofed because I had only 1 cup of sour cream. So, well, I just reversed the proportions. No big deal.) Add the chicken, seal the bag, rub to coat the chicken, and refrigerate for 12 hours. (And, like, who has 12 hours? I did maybe 4 hours, max.)

Preheat the oven to 400°. Remove the chicken from the bag, rinse the pieces, and pat them dry with paper towels. Put the chicken pieces on a rimmed baking sheet. Rub the meat with the olive oil and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of the salt and ¼ teaspoon of the pepper. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, and the remaining ¾ teaspoon salt and ¾ teaspoon pepper. (This was way too much, but hey.)

In a large heavy skillet, heat 1 inch of peanut oil over medium heat to 360°. Set a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet. 

Working with half of the chicken at a time, dip the pieces into the remaining 1 cup buttermilk and dredge in the flour mixture. Carefully place the chicken in the hot oil. Fry for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown and juices run clear, turning frequently. Maintain a frying temperature of 330°. (Mine was more like 340°.) Drain the chicken on the wire rack. 

This was exceptionally good fried chicken, without having to spend as much time frying. Thumbs up all around.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

Chicken and Veg

Here is a recipe that I made a couple of weeks ago. I had very high hopes for it, and America's Test Kitchen rarely steers me wrong, but I did end up being a wee bit disappointed. The roasted veggies were perfect, and the flavor of the chicken was wonderful, but the chicken skin never crisped up adequately. And that's a big "but" in this house. I'm posting the recipe anyhow, in case (1) someone out there doesn't care about crisp skin and wants an easy, really delicious one-pan dinner, or (2) someone out there has an idea about what I can do to get the skin brown and crisp (without resorting to an entire additional step, like sautéing it first on the stovetop).

One-Pan Roast Chicken and Root Vegetables

12 ounces red potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
12 ounces Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
8 shallots, peeled and halved (This seemed like way too many, or maybe the ones I got were too big.)
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces, thick ends halved lengthwise
6 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
4 teaspoons minced fresh thyme, divided
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary, divided
3½ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces
¼ teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
⅛ teaspoon pepper, plus more for seasoning
1 teaspoon sugar

1. In a 1-gallon zipper-top bag, combine the potatoes, Brussels sprouts, shallots, carrots, garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of the oil, 2 teaspoons of the thyme, and 1 teaspoon of the rosemary. Press out the air and seal; toss to coat well.
2. In another 1-gallon zipper-top bag, combine the chicken, the remaining 2 tablespoons oil, the remaining 2 teaspoons thyme, the remaining 1 teaspoon rosemary, the salt, and the pepper. Press out the air and seal; toss to coat well.
3. Refrigerate the vegetable and chicken bags for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours, flipping the bags at least once or twice to ensure that everything marinates evenly.
4. Heat the oven to 475°.
5. Spread the vegetables in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet, discarding any excess liquid. Put the Brussels sprouts in the center and the potatoes and carrots around the perimeter. Sprinkle the vegetables with the sugar and season with additional salt and pepper.
6. Place the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top of vegetables, with the breast pieces in the center and the thigh and drumstick pieces around the perimeter. (I used only thighs and drumsticks.)
7. Bake the chicken until the breasts register 160° and the legs register 175°, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and tent loosely with aluminum foil. Return the vegetables to the oven and continue to bake until lightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes more. Toss the vegetables with any accumulated chicken juices and transfer to the platter with the chicken.

Snack Break

You know all those recipes where you bake various nuts in a sweet or spicy mixture? Well, this one is the best. It just plain is. And the kicker is that I don't even like pecans and I gobbled these up as fast as anyone. (The recipe says that you can also use walnuts, but I don't like them either. Some other time I will try this recipe with my faves, almonds and cashews—I don't see why that wouldn't work, even though they are not as soft as pecans and walnuts.) Easy and yummy, these make a great last-minute hostess gift.

Candied Pecans

1 large egg white
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons water
1 cup sugar
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pound raw pecan halves

Preheat the oven to 250°. Grease a rimmed baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white, vanilla, and water until foamy.  

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, kosher salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg.

Add the pecan halves to the bowl with the egg white and toss well to coat.

Dump the nuts into the bowl with the sugar-spice mixture and toss well to coat.

Spread out the pecans in a single layer on the greased baking sheet.

Bake the pecans for 1 hour, tossing every 10 minutes or so. Keep an eye on the pecans during the last 15 minutes of cooking to make sure they don't burn. They should be golden brown and coated with the crunchy sugar-spice glaze. Let them cool off a little and then eat them all at once. (Or, if you can show more restraint, pack them into an airtight container and store at room temperature for 2 weeks.)

Brooklyn, Brooklyn

This may be a first: I read a book and saw the film adaptation of it in the same week! We'd been assigned Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín for our book group meeting on Thursday, but I'd been so swamped with work in the weeks leading up to it that I ended up reading the whole thing in two or three sittings early that same week. Then, over the weekend, a few of us went to see the movie. And, it is also one of those rare occasions when I loved the book—but am starting to think I loved the movie even better.

Here's the no-spoiler synopsis: It takes place around 1950, and Eilis (pronounced "ale-ish") lives in a small town in Ireland, where there's not much going on—certainly there aren't many job opportunities. A priest arranges for her to move to America, where he has landed her a job in a fancy department store and a room in a boarding house. Eilis has never been away from home, but she gets on that big ship and sails away to her new life in Brooklyn. At first she is so homesick she can barely stand it, but she eventually starts getting used to things—including her American boyfriend. Then she gets news of a death in the family and has to go back to Ireland. Back home, she is seen as worldly and glamorous, and without even trying she lands a good office job and a boyfriend. What should she do? It won't give anything away to say that in the book version, I was really torn about what she would do—and, just as importantly, what I thought she should do. It is a rare book indeed where I am not sure how it will turn out and could really imagine either ending. The ending of the movie version was much more clear-cut, but not in a Hollywood-ized way—that is, I didn't feel as though loose ends were tied up in an overly "convenient" way, I just thought they could have done more to make her decision a little more tenuous.

The main reason I might have preferred the movie was because I couldn't take my eyes off of Saoirse Ronan, who played Eilis. She completely inhabited the role and I just loved watching her face and the way she moved. She was outstanding. Really, the entire cast was terrific—from Eilis's American boyfriend to her landlady (and the other lodgers in her boarding house) to her sister and mother. I guess I just felt I got to know Eilis much better in the film than in the book. In any event, I don't think you could go wrong reading the book before the movie or vice versa; they are both lovely. Has anyone else out there read and/or seen Brooklyn? What did you think?

Long Weekend

Better late than never: Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone out there in Internet Land had a nice holiday. It was a wonderful day here, as always, with lots of food and family. I didn't stray from my tried and true menu, although I did do something new with the leftover butternut squash purée: I blended it with some chicken broth and had a lovely lunch today of soup and breadsticks. I also have 3 quarts of freshly made turkey stock in my deep-freeze, so Mike Dukakis will have to make do without my carcasses.

Fortuitously, I was in a bit of a work lull, so I really got to enjoy the long weekend for a change. We decided to take advantage of our already-stretched-out stomachs and just continued to feast nonstop throughout the weekend—including a visit on Sunday to the ultimate destination for pig-outs, Minado.

Pete, Andy, and I saw "Spectre." So ... plot-wise it's the least good (I can't bear to use the word "worst" when Daniel Craig is in the sentence) of the four Craig-as-Bond movies, but it's still plenty good fun, with lots of car chases and fist-fights in a helicopter and cool gadgetry and clever repartee and ridiculously implausible plot turns (and believe me, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief a lot when it comes to these movies). I adore Daniel Craig in this role.

I also caught up on that tottering stack of New Yorkers next to my chair, and even snuck in a new book. I highly recommend Sous Chef by Michael Gibney. The subtitle is "24 Hours on the Line," and that's exactly what you get: a play-by-play of what it's like to be a real sous chef at a Manhattan restaurant. I've read all the memoirs, by chefs both famous and unknown, and this is one of the best. It's fascinating and feels 100% real. (It doesn't hurt that Gibney is not only a long-time chef but also happens to have a Master's in creative writing.) I read the whole thing in two sittings—very enjoyable.

What have you been up to?

More for Us

Andy wouldn't care if he never ate mac and cheese again, so I took advantage of a night when he was out to try this recipe for Pete and Julie, who, like me, would care very much if we never ate mac and cheese again. This comes from Amanda Hesser, who rightly says, "I've always thought macaroni and cheese's 20% crunch to 80% soft ratio was all wrong. The ratio should be more like 50:50. The soft part, delicious though it may be, wears you out. You need lots of crisp bits to stay interested in the dish." So now we can all slap our heads and say "D'oh!" that we didn't beat her to the idea of making mac and cheese on a baking sheet, to maximize crunchy top-ness.

It turned out splendid. The top was gorgeous (although my photo ... not so much, so use your imagination), and the bottom also browned up nicely and slid right out, thanks to the butter on the bottom of the pan. The whole thing could just about be removed as a single plank of mac and cheese. I couldn't imagine why she didn't include bread crumbs on top, so in the interest of science I sprinkled some panko over only half, and that half did get even browner and crunchier. So next time I will do the whole thing, but lightly—you don't want to completely cover the top or else the cheese won't get brown and luscious. Next time I might sneak in some blanched broccoli, too. 

Baking Sheet Macaroni and Cheese

1 tablespoon butter
12 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
1 pound pasta spirals (or other small shape)
⅛ teaspoon cayenne (Whoops—I was out of cayenne, and none of us missed it.)
⅔ cup whole milk
panko

Heat the oven to 475°. Use the butter to thickly grease an 11-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet. Combine the grated cheeses and set aside 2 heaping cups for the topping. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 6 minutes. (I know the pasta is supposed to be only parcooked before it goes in the oven, but this just did not seem like enough, so I let it go another minute.) Drain. In a large bowl (I used the pasta pot), toss together the pasta, cheese, cayenne and salt to taste. Spread the mixture on the buttered baking sheet and evenly pour the milk over the surface. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top and sprinkle on a little extra cayenne. Sprinkle some panko over the top, if desired, and bake until golden and crisp, about 15 minutes.

Book Group

I forgot to report on our last book group meeting, where we discussed Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. The book has been playing to rave reviews everywhere, and if you've heard anything about it, it's likely that it's a literary version of Gone Girl. Well, structurally, yes—the first half of the story is told by the husband and the second half by the wife—but this one is by no means a whodunnit. Here's the Amazon Best Book of September synopsis:

Many a therapist will tell you that honesty and transparency is the glue that keeps a relationship together. Lauren Groff cleverly turns this concept on its head in Fates and Furies, demonstrating that sometimes it’s what you don’t say—to protect your partner’s vanity, their reputation, their heart—that makes a marriage hum. (Until it doesn’t.) Broken up into two parts and numerous perspectives, this dazzlingly told tale of one such marriage introduces us to Lotto and Mathilde. The former is an out-of-work actor turned successful playwright, although some of that success is fueled by forces his ego obscures. And then there’s his adoring and enigmatic wife, Mathilde, who we later find out is a far better actor than Lotto ever was. For all the smoke and mirrors, Groff crafts a convincing love story that packs an emotional punch, especially when certain truths are revealed. There is also something satisfying in finding out the extent to which our own perceptions are skewed as the narrative unfolds.

In the first half of the book, we meet Lotto, who is a charismatic, narcissistic, guileless, happy -go-lucky golden boy. We don't really wonder what makes him tick, because he doesn't really tick: What you see is what you get. His wife, Mathilde, is more enigmatic, and we wonder a great deal about what makes her tick. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that I found the revelations in the second half of the book to be so outrageous, so implausible, as to make me downright angry. Most of the questions I had in the first half were indeed answered in the second, but most of them in ways that had me just saying to myself, "HUH?" Other people in the book group had an almost opposite response: They were bored silly with Lotto and at least felt as though there was some meat to Mathilde's tale.

I had such high hopes for this one but ended up feeling cheated, I'm sorry to say.

Catching Up

Let's see, I've been working a little harder than I'd like, but all freelancers know that they takes work when they gets it. In the meantime:

Julie turned 14! She and her friends had a chocolate extravaganza at Max Brenner, and then the family did a repeat of last year's Melting Pot pig-out.

Andy also had a birthday, but it wasn't a round number, so we won't mention it.

That same week, we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary! Which, as I mentioned on Facebook, means that I've now been married longer than I was single. (Mind —> Blown) We had a fabulous dinner at Scampo, Lydia Shire's latest restaurant. I started with the most divine purple cauliflower soup—it was almost too pretty to eat!—and then had just about the best roast duck I've ever had. Andy went the all-pork route, with spaghetti with cracklings followed by suckling pig. We finished off with a plate of cookies. All in all, a wonderful evening, every bite of it.

Let's see, what else ... Pete scored his first varsity-level goal in soccer! And then, later in the game, he went to head the ball into the goal, but the goalie had other plans ... Pete ended up with a very mild concussion. (Don't tell my mother.) (Mom, if you're reading this, HE'S FINE.) He had to miss the last few games of the season, though.

Julie is taking an art class at the MFA, which her Grandpa Bernie would have been tickled pink about.

Steph is doing great in her first semester at Wheelock. She is spending three afternoons a week in a Jump Start (similar to Head Start) program at a local preschool and loving it. She's doing really well academically and loves living downtown.

And me, what else besides working.... I spent Saturday at the Greater Boston Food Bank, helping sort food for needy families. I've said it before, but it's an amazing place. Oh, and I've recently been to a couple of events sponsored by the Boston chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association. Most of us spend all day alone in our little home offices, so it's wonderful to get out and connect.

Hope you are all well out there in Internet-Land!

Git Yer Cookbooks Here!

I have half a dozen potential blog posts in my brain but no time to get them out onto the keyboard, so I'll just dash off this quick one now. Here is the latest batch of cookbooks I edited, hot off the press!

First up is Paleo Planet by first-timer cookbook author Becky Winkler. It's easy to imagine that Paleo food has to be just a hunk of meat on a plate, but Winkler shows how you can prepare exciting, varied meals from around the globe that follow Paleo principles (in a nutshell: grain-free, dairy-free, legume-free, and a few other -free's, but the author is refreshingly un-bossy about it all). As you know, I am not a Paleo gal, but there are plenty of recipes in here that I would make in a heartbeat. (No one has to know whether I serve them with a hunk of bread.)

Bill and Cheryl Jamison's Barbecue Lover's Big Book of BBQ Sauces delivers on its subtitle's promise of "225 Extraordinary Sauces, Rubs, Marinades, Mops, Bastes, Pastes, and Salsas, for Smoke-Cooking or Grilling.") Bon Appétit crowned the Jamisons "the king and queen of grilling and smoking" for a reason—4 of their 18 cookbooks have won James Beard awards. This was the third book I did with Bill and Cheryl, and they were always such a pleasure to work with. I was really sad to learn in March of Bill's death. I never met him in person, but by all accounts he had a larger than life personality and a huge heart.

Next up is Good Cheap Eats: Dinner in 30 Minutes or Less by Jessica Fisher. This is a follow-up to last year's Good Cheap Eats: Everyday Dinners and Fantastic Feasts for $10 or Less. Whereas the first one was geared to families wanting to eat well on a budget, this one focuses on getting dinner on the table now. Fisher and her husband have six kids, so you can bet she knows a thing or two about saving a few bucks and a few minutes whenever she can. Both books offer entire menus if you are having one of those days when you can't possibly be creative, but obviously you can mix and match to your heart's content. Fisher favors fresh, whole foods, and streamlined preparations.

Finally, a book I'm especially dying to dig into now that the weather is getting chilly: Dinner Pies by Ken Haedrich, aka "Dean" of the Pie Academy. The subtitle on this one is "From Shepherd’s Pies and Pot Pies to Tarts, Turnovers, Quiches, Hand Pies, and More," so really anything you can wrap in crust counts as pie in Haedrich's book. He has all the usual suspects, plus some more inventive variations, and his basic techniques and strategies can be used for just about anything you can dream up that you want to turn into a dinner pie. Yum. 

Shcarole!

One of the items I made in last Saturday's cooking class was something I'd never made before: escarole. I think the only way I've ever had escarole at all is in soup. It is bitter, although we learned that shade-grown escarole, which is lighter in color, is less bitter. I made this recipe the other night to go with our chicken. The escarole I bought was quite dark, and thus pretty bitter, but I find that goes nicely with a rich main course. And it couldn't be easier to make.

Escarole with Pancetta

1 head escarole
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, chopped (I should have gone to Trader Joe's, because they have those nice packages of diced pancetta, but instead I got sliced pancetta at Whole Foods, which I then tried to chop but sort of ended up shredding. It turned out fine. It is pancetta, after all.)
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional (I omitted this, because on Saturday I found it just too hot and spicy.)
¼ cup dry white wine

Cut the escarole in half lengthwise and remove the darkest outer leaves. Trim off the first inch or so from the tops of the remaining leaves. Cut the escarole cross-wise into about 1-inch strips, right down until you get to the stem. Submerge the leaves in cold water and agitate to remove any loose dirt. Drain and gently shake to remove excess water. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and sauté until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and set aside. Try not to eat it all. (In the class, we took the pan off the heat at this point too and set it aside until we were almost ready to eat. The escarole cooks up fast, so it makes a great last-minute side dish.) 

Return the pan to medium heat and add the garlic and red pepper flakes (if using). Cook until aromatic, about 2 minutes. Add the escarole and white wine. Cook, tossing occasionally, until the escarole is tender and wilted, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, garnish with the reserved pancetta, and serve.

Mmm ... Donuts ...

As promised, here is a representative sample of the truly wonderful chocolate-glazed donuts that Julie made over the weekend. 

Professional-looking, right? And I promise you that I did not supervise Julie at all during the entire process. The recipe comes from a book I edited a few years book, A Baker’s Field Guide to Doughnuts by Dede Wilson. It's supposed to make about 14 donuts; Julie’s were small so she got about 20. Be sure to let your eggs and buttermilk come to room temperature ahead of time, and start early enough so that you can refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.

Chocolate Cake-Style Doughnuts

2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
½ cup sifted Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup neutral vegetable oil, plus more for deep-frying
2 ounces semisweet chocolate (not more than 55% cacao)
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Heat the oil and chocolate together in a microwave or double boiler until the chocolate melts. Whisk until smooth; remove from heat and cool slightly.

In another large bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer (or whisk by hand) until pale and creamy. Beat in the vanilla along with the melted chocolate mixture, then add the buttermilk and beat until combined. Add the dry mixture in two batches and stir with a wooden spoon just until the dough comes together. The dough will be fairly soft. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Line a rimmed baking sheet pan with a triple layer of paper towels. Heat 3 inches of oil in a deep pot or deep-fat fryer to 350° to 355°F. (I dragged out my trusty old Waring Pro, which delighted Julie.)

While the oil is heating, dust the work surface generously with flour. Scrape half of the dough onto the surface, dust the top of the dough lightly with flour, and roll out to ½-inch thickness. Cut out doughnuts with a lightly floured 3-inch round cutter. (We don’t have a donut cutter, so Julie used a large cutter for the outside and a tiny one for the hole in the middle.) Gently gather the scraps, press them together, roll out the dough, and cut out as many additional doughnuts as possible. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Fry a few doughnuts at a time; do not crowd. Fry for about 1 minute and 40 seconds, flip them over, and fry for about 1 minute and 40 seconds more on the other side, until just cooked through. Using a slotted spoon, remove each doughnut from the oil and drain thoroughly on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining doughnuts.

Make the glaze (see below; Julie needed to make an additional half recipe) and dip the donuts into it. DEVOUR while still warm.

Hard Sugar Glaze

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons water

Place confectioners’ sugar in a medium-size saucepan. Whisk in the water until it begins to combine; it will be thick before you heat it. (Julie fretted about the thickness and added a little more water; it still came out fine.) Cook over medium heat, whisking often, until it liquefies and becomes completely smooth and very warm—but not hot—to the touch. Do not let it simmer. The cooking will be brief—about 15 seconds. Remove from the heat and use immediately. 

Fun Fall Weekend

This was a fun weekend, despite the fact that I was not at Boston Calling seeing the Avett Brothers. Wah! 

Saturday I went to an all-day cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu! I drive by there every time I head into and out of Charlestown, but it never occurred to me that they do anything beyond the actual cooking school (for a diploma/certificate). Then I saw a Groupon* good for two-for-one on a single all-day cooking class at the Bleu Ribbon Kitchen—and grabbed it. I invited the friend who had invited me to that paella-making class last winter, figuring that she would be game. We perused the scheduled classes and our calendars and settled on "The Italian Series: Piedmont." The menu consisted of Braised Short Ribs, Creamy Herbed Polenta, Escarole with Pancetta and Chile Flakes, and Almond Panna Cotta with Amarena Cherries. (Are you drooling yet?)

The place is gorgeous. We started off in a large demo room, where the chefs showed us how we'd be making the dishes. Then we headed up to the actual working kitchens and got busy. It was really fun to work with all the professional equipment, particularly the GIANT range, and to chat with the chefs.

Gotta keep whisking that polenta! It was a really fun day, and always nice to reconnect with an old friend—we grew up across the street from each other!

That night we realized that Julie had never seen "Guys and Dolls," so we watched it on demand. Andy was on the stage crew for that show when he was in high school, so he knows every single word to every single song. Julie now has a mad crush on the young Brando; I am more of a young Sinatra fan myself.

Sunday I took Julie shopping for some fall clothes. Just before we headed home, we went back to a store that we'd already been to, and at that very instant, I ran into another dear old friend, who was in town for a weekend getaway with her mom and sisters. We hadn't seen each other in probably 10 years! I couldn't stop grinning after that.

When we got home, Julie decided to make chocolate-glazed donuts, and who was I to argue with that. I will post the recipe and photo tomorrow, but I will tell you now that they were SPLENDID.

That night we realized that Julie had never seen "West Side Story," so we watched it on demand. It's amazing how un-menacing those evil gang guys look now! (And if you're noticing a trend, yes indeed—next up are "The Music Man" and "Oklahoma"! I knew if I had enough kids, one of them would be into musicals!)

Later on, Pete, Julie, and I sat outside in our jammies and fleeces to watch the Supermoon. 

A lovely weekend, all around.

*For me, "Groupon" has become genericized, à la Scotch tape and Jello and Kleenex. This particular "Groupon" was in fact a Travel Zoo voucher.

Euphoric

Euphoria by Lily King was the subject of one of the best book group meetings we've had in a very long time. This is a classic example of a book I never would have picked up on my own and am so grateful to have been assigned. I normally read the Sunday NYT Book Review cover to cover, but somehow I missed the review of this book—or, more likely, skimmed it and decided it wasn't for me. Was I ever wrong. (The Times went on to put it on their list of the 10 Best Books of 2014, and it won lots of other honors, too. I was oblivious.)

The book takes place in 1933 and is a fictionalized account of a brief period in the life of Margaret Mead, one involving great breakthroughs in the nascent field of anthropology, as well as a love triangle. In this case, our three anthropologists are the intrepid American Nell Stone, who has recently published a book to great acclaim; her handsome but piggish Aussie husband, Fen; and Andrew Bankson, a Brit whom they meet by chance. Nell is all about work-work-work, studying and taking notes and trying to make sense of the various tribes they encounter along the Sepik River in New Guinea. Fen, Nell thinks, would rather just live with the tribes and not have to bother studying them. At the same time, he is fiercely jealous of his wife's success. Bankson has been working alone for years and is so lonely and depressed and full of self-loathing that when we meet him, he is just about to do himself in. 

There is so much to love about this book. For one thing, the writing is terrific—some of King's descriptions really made me stop in my tracks. She does equally well with the scenes of great intellectual excitement and discovery as she does with the quiet buildup to the steamier scenes, and her depictions of the three personalities in this triangle felt exactly right. But I also just plain loved the story. It was fascinating, and you don't need to know (or care) even a little about Margaret Mead or anthropology at all in order to enjoy it. 

As I mentioned, we had a very spirited discussion. All of us loved the book, but that doesn't always guarantee a good meeting. In this case, we had so many questions and opinions and connections that we probably could have gone on for another hour if it hadn't gotten late. It was a great pleasure to talk about this book with others—if I'd read it on my own, I think I would have felt disappointed that I had no one to discuss it with.

In case you couldn't guess, I enthusiastically recommend this book! We haven't picked our next book—any suggestions?

More Short Books

Flora by Gail Godwin was lovely but almost too sad. It's 1945, and 10-year-old Helen lives in North Carolina with her father. She has no mother, and her beloved grandmother recently died. When her father is called away to work on a secret military project at Oak Ridge, Helen's 22-year-old cousin from Alabama comes to stay with her for the summer. Helen is angry and mean, and Flora is extremely innocent and open-hearted, so the balance of power is out of whack in the house from the get-go. There is so much loss, and sadness, and hurt feelings, and unexpressed (or mis-expressed) emotion that you almost can't tell that there is a plot unfolding, but it's there. The story is told by the elderly Helen, who has become a writer and is looking back on that fateful summer. I do recommend this book, mostly for the beautiful writing, but it's definitely not a "feel good" read.

Poor Man's Feast is Elissa Altman's memoir of being in love with food and then falling in love with a person who loves food in a different way. Altman is a born-and-bred New Yorker and pretty much obsessed with the food world—buying every trendy ingredient she hears about, preparing the most elaborate dishes for her friends, and endlessly talking about it all. There are names dropped throughout, mostly brand names of expensive knives and cookware, plus jaw-dropping prices she pays for tiny amounts of exotic ingredients (some of which she doesn't even know how to use but just must have them). These parts I found very tedious, despite (or perhaps because of?) my love of cooking and eating. But the point was to contrast Altman with her new girlfriend (whom she meets online). Susan lives in a tiny house in a rural part of Connecticut. She too loves food, but more for the beauty and simplicity of, say, a freshly picked tomato, still warm from the sun, with just a sprinkling of salt. She can't understand why her new girlfriend is forever lugging all these fancy-shmancy ingredients from the city to her house and and spending hours preparing elaborate (usually very tall) dishes. Spoiler: They manage to work out their differences.

A huge detraction for me was the lack of decent copyediting for this book—in particular the rampant misuse of commas. I could bore you with dozens of examples, but here are just a few: "checkered, French picnic oilcloths" and "enormous, vintage Kohler sink" and "two immense, kosher beef franks." She also overuses certain words—every time someone turns on the broiler, you know something is going to be "immolated," and everything makes her "swoon." But it was a sweet enough story to read on a summer weekend.

I also read Euphoria by Lily King, which I loved, but I will wait to tell you about it until after my book group meeting next week.

And Away She Goes!

Those of you who have been reading this blog since I started in March 2004 might remember being introduced to my 7-year-old daughter, Steph. Fast-forward to this past Saturday when I dropped my now 18½-year-old daughter Steph at college! No, really.

Last winter she joined a Facebook group for all admitted students, and she became friendly with two of the girls there. They met in person at various events during the winter and spring and decided to room together. I had drilled into her that you don't have to be best pals with your roommate(s), but you do have to have compatible lifestyles. So, for Steph, that meant very neat and orderly, and also early-to-bed-early-to-rise. These girls have similar preferences, so it was a good choice. They lucked out and got the dorm that was recently renovated, so they actually have AC! Also better wifi than the other dorms, modern bathrooms, etc. On the first floor of her dorm is a big kitchen, a study area, a TV room, and a laundry room. Everything is clean and new and nice.

The beds are adjustable, which means that if you don't mind using a step stool, you can fit loads of stuff UNDER your bed and conserve precious floorspace. There are adjustments at various levels, as with shelving—this is the highest it goes:

Pretty clever, huh? (The beds can also be stacked as bunk beds, but no one was too eager to go that route.)

She has orientation through Tuesday, and then classes start on Wednesday. In between all the meetings and sessions, there have been fun events like a BBQ and a city scavenger hunt, and tonight they're being taken on a harbor cruise. I love that she'll be living in downtown Boston, something I never did.

That being said, she's only 7.6 miles away from home, which means that she can hop on the T and be in her old bedroom in about a half hour if she feels the need, or we can easily bring her things from home that she wants. But she is away, so it's the best of both worlds. We are very proud and excited!

Voracious

Whenever I get a package and I'm not expecting anything, it's almost always a book I worked on that the publisher has been kind enough to send me. This time it was one of my favorite books I ever edited: Voracious by Cara Nicoletti. 

Nicoletti, a butcher and former pastry chef as well as an English/Latin major in college, offers 50 recipes that are featured in (or inspired by) some of her favorite books from childhood all the way through adulthood. For instance, there are the Buttermilk Pancakes from Pippi Longstocking, Biscuits with Molasses Butter from To Kill a Mockingbird, Pork Pie from Great Expectations, and Honey–Poppy Seed Cake from The Aeneid. But beyond the recipes, it's the little stories and vignettes that introduce them that are so captivating. Whether she's reminiscing about her days on the playground play-acting scenes from the "Little House" books (Breakfast Sausage inspired by Little House in the Big Woods), her miserable Chinatown apartment that was infested with mice (Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in honor of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie), or her summers spent on Nantucket with her grandparents (Clam Chowder à la Moby-Dick), the introductions are what really make this much more than just a cookbook. 

I don't always feel strongly about recommending books I worked on, but this one gets an enthusiastic double thumbs-up.

More Zukes

Here's a non-zoodle recipe for those of you with an unmanageable zucchini crop. I made this twice already, once as hors d'oeuvres for a party and once just because. You can even eat it for lunch, like quiche. (I can't remember where I found this recipe, but when I Google it, I get tons of hits from all over, so I don't think it's a terribly proprietary formula.)

Zucchini Cheese Squares

3 cups shredded zucchini
2 teaspoons salt
1½ cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 7" x 11" baking dish. (I have never heard of this size dish, so I used my 9" square brownie pan.)

Combine the zucchini and salt in a colander and toss to mix. Set aside in the sink to drain for 30 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water.

Combine the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. Add the zucchini, onion, cheese, thyme, and pepper. (I didn't have fresh thyme, so I used about 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning blend in place of the thyme and the pepper.) Mix well with a big fork, breaking up any clumps of zucchini.

Whisk together the oil and eggs in a glass measuring cup. Pour into the zucchini mixture and mix well. Spread evenly in the baking dish.

Bake until golden, about 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then cut into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Two Days, Two Books

Over the weekend I read two short novels:

The first was The Photograph by Penelope Lively. Interestingly enough, I recall that this was the first book I'd ever heard of by Lively, but somehow I only just now got around to reading it. Here's the synopsis from Amazon: "Penelope Lively’s latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked DON’T OPEN—DESTROY. But Kath’s husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets—within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her—and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched." Lively is a very engaging writer and a genius at creating believable characters; unfortunately, we never fully get to know Kath, although it's made very clear that no one (with the possible exception of one character) ever really knew her. She's long gone, and we are left to piece together who this person was from the recollections of all those she left behind. This was not my favorite Lively book, but I think anything she's written is definitely worth reading.

Next up was That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay, which was absolutely delightful. It tells the story of Eve Petworth and Jackson Cooper, both divorced and looking down the barrel of turning fifty. Eve lives in England, where she doesn't do much of anything but putter about her beautiful country home, gardening, cooking, occasionally volunteering, and dealing with her daughter, who is suffering much more from the loss of Eve's mother than Eve herself. Jack is an American novelist who has written a popular series of books about a smart private investigator who loves to cook (think: Spenser). Eve writes a letter to Jack in praise of a particular line in one of his books that captured her fancy, and they begin a correspondence, mostly about food and cooking, but also, as it turns out, about Life. This is not groundbreaking territory by any means, but it's a charming book, with great warmth and humor. I loved the writing, and the ending was pitch-perfect.

Can't Say I Liked It

I had high hopes for Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman; it was touted as a novel that would appeal to fans of Donna Tartt, Meg Wolitzer, and Jeffrey Eugenides. However, I ultimately found it to be a disappointment.

It starts off promising enough: We are introduced to three Harvard students and one professor, all or some of whom may or may not have been involved in another student's murder. The interrelationships are complicated, but in most cases unbelievable. The author has to go out of her way in several cases to tell us that So-and-So finds himself/herself drawn to Such-and-Such despite not liking or respecting him/her at all. Certain characters are described as charismatic, but then nothing supports this idea, and I was left wondering why these people were even in each other's lives. In particular, after pretty much every pair of characters has a falling-out, they're still in touch years after graduation—it didn't ring true at all. After a while, I couldn't care less what happened to any of them.

Despite this, I continued reading, because I wanted to know what would happen and how the author would tie up all the questions and mysteries surrounding the murder and other unexplained plot events. I'm sorry to say that absolutely nothing is resolved. Nothing. The ending is coyly vague, and I was incredibly frustrated. I actually went online to see whether I'd somehow missed something, but no: there's no resolution at all. 

I don't need to like the characters in order to like a book, and I don't need to have everything sewn up tight at the end, but I do need something to make my reading time worthwhile. Often it will be the writing style—if it's gorgeous enough, I can forgive other lapses. This author is a competent enough writer, but that's about as far as I'll go. 

If anyone out there read this and liked it, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

Bread Winner

I felt bad one day when Julie said that she'd never made bread before. I used to make bread all the time, but I guess not for ages and ages. So we started with an easy recipe from King Arthur, whose recipes always come out great.

True to its name, this bread has a coarse texture and makes splendid toast. I didn't take a photo, but you can follow the link to see how lovely it is at the KA blog (I love that blog's name: FLOURISH!).

English Muffin Toasting Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup milk
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
cornmeal, to sprinkle in pan

1. Whisk together the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.

2. Combine the milk, water, and oil in a separate, microwave-safe bowl, and heat to between 120° and 130°. Be sure to stir the liquid well before measuring its temperature; you want an accurate reading. If you don't have a thermometer, the liquid will feel quite hot (hotter than lukewarm), but not so hot that it would be uncomfortable as bath water.

3. Pour the hot liquid over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

4. Beat at high speed for 1 minute. The dough will be very soft.

5. Lightly grease an 8½" x 4½" loaf pan, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with cornmeal.

6. Scoop the soft dough into the pan, leveling it in the pan as much as possible.

7. Cover the pan, and let the dough rise till it's just barely crowned over the rim of the pan. When you look at the rim of the pan from eye level, you should see the dough, but it shouldn't be more than, say, ¼" over the rim. This will take  45 minutes to 1 hour, if you heated the liquid to the correct temperature and your kitchen isn't very cold. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400°.

8. Remove the cover, and bake the bread till it's golden brown and its interior temperature is 190°, 22 to 27 minutes.

9. Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

Despiralized

I swore up and down that I wasn't going to buy one of those stupid vegetable spiralizer things, and the next thing I know, I was typing in my VISA number over at Inspiralized. What pushed me over the edge was a recipe that looked so yummy I had to try it. And I did, and it was ... meh. I think it was the first time I've ever not loved something from Simply Recipes. Sigh. Anyhow, I'll post it here anyhow, in case anyone wants to try it (everyone else on that site seemed to like it)—or maybe you can figure out what went wrong with mine. 

Cheesy Baked Zucchini Noodle Casserole 

3 pounds zucchini
1½ tablespoons kosher salt, divided use
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used a little more because I used garlic-herb chicken sausage.)
8 ounces Italian sausage
1½ cups diced onion
1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
¾ cup ricotta cheese (We are not ricotta fans.)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.

2. Using a spiralizer, make zucchini noodles ("zoodles"—gah!) with the device. You should have a generous 8 cups of zucchini noodles. Place in a colander in the sink. Snip the zoodles with scissors here and there to keep them from tangling too much. Toss them with 1 tablespoon of the salt. Let the zoodles drain of excess moisture while you make the sauce.

3. Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with the olive oil and heat over medium heat. Remove the sausage meat from the casings and add it to the pan. Gently cook the sausage, breaking it up into clumps, until it is just cooked through and lightly browned. Transfer to a bowl. Discard all but 1 tablespoons of oil/rendered fat. (I actually had to add a little more.)

4. Add the onion to the pan and cook until softened and lightly colored,  5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

5. Return the sausage to the pan and add the crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to maintain a low simmer. Cook for 5 to 6 additional minutes. Stir in the basil and the remaining ½ tablespoon salt.

6. While the sauce is simmering, use a clean dish towel to squeeze more moisture out of the zucchini noodles. (You will be surprised at how much liquid comes out!)

7. Add the zucchini noodles to the pan with the tomato-sausage sauce. Gently stir to combine so that all of the noodles are coated with sauce. Transfer to the greased baking dish and spread into an even layer.

8. Arrange the ricotta in clumps on the casserole. Press the ricotta into the zucchini noodles to penetrate the casserole a bit. Mix the mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese together and sprinkle over the top in an even layer. Bake until the top is lightly browned and bubbly, about 35 minutes. (Mine was deeply browned after 10 minutes—what the??) Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

So, this was fine, and we all ate it. The flavor was good enough. The main complaints was that it didn't really hold together like a casserole; it was kind of soupy under the melted cheese. Maybe I needed even more zucchini? And more sausage? Also, why was it done so quickly in my oven? Anyhow, it certainly wasn't as good as the Zucchini Pizza Casserole I've made a few times; that one uses 2 eggs as a binder.

Who out there has a spiralizer, and what do you use it for? Please don't tell me I just bought an expensive paperweight with very sharp edges.

Refreshment

Psst, don't let the foreman down in the comma mines know that I've slipped away from my post, but I wanted to take a minute to share this fun summery recipe with you.

Watermelon Jell-o

2 (¼-ounce) envelopes unflavored gelatin
½ cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3½-pound piece seedless watermelon

 

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over ¼ cup cold water. Set aside to soften, about 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the sugar, salt, and another ¼ cup water. Heat over high, stirring occasionally, just until the sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes; remove from the heat. Stir in the gelatin mixture until dissolved; set aside.

3. Remove the rind from the watermelon and cut it into chunks. In a blender, puree the lemon juice and half of the watermelon chunks. Add the remaining watermelon chunks and puree. Pour the puree through a fine-mesh sieve into a large glass measuring cup—you will need 3 cups total—and discard the solids. 

4. Stir the gelatin mixture into the puree; skim off and discard any foam on the surface. Divide the mixture among 6 serving cups. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. 

This Summer's Beach Read

If you are in need of a summertime can't-put-it-down book, have I got a suggestion for you: Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. It's long (416 pages) but flies by, in part because the chapters are very short and always seem to end with some sort of cliff-hanger—it becomes all too easy to keep saying, "OK, one more chapter...!"

The main character, Mabel Dagmar (one of my only complaints about the book was the ridiculous names!), is a shy, overweight, working-class college freshman who finds herself roommates with the beautiful, wealthy, glamorous Genevra Winslow. Mabel is shocked when Ev befriends her and even invites her to spend the summer at her family's Vermont "camp" (read: sprawling multi-cottage compound). Ev is temperamental and has a nasty streak, but Mabel is positively starstruck. 

But, just as beautiful and peaceful as the summer promises to be, darkness and mystery abound. The Winslow family has apparently been keeping secrets for many decades, and Mabel is determined to get to the bottom of it all. I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that there are two main secrets, and I felt that one of them was not developed nearly enough to have warranted such a build-up. But, never mind, this is a real page-turner, and a pretty well-written one at that. Throw this book in your beach bag and get ready for a fun read.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

What I've Been Eating

As usual, we spent the long July 4th weekend up in the White Mountains, and the main reason is this:

Sometimes we just like to veg.

But, we are never too lazy to eat up there, and this trip was no exception. There were all the usual suspects, like Polly's Pancake Parlor and Chutter's, but this time we also tried out the Schilling Beer Company, which was excellent. Check out their website for info on all the many wonderful beers they brew there; the website, however, barely hints at the wonderful food they serve. We all split an appetizer called "The Slate," which is in fact a large slate with tasty fresh and local things on it, like cheeses, cured meats, pretzel bread, marinated veggies, salmon paté, etc. Then we each got a thin-crust wood-fired pizza, and they were really, really good. This place could easily have been in any major city (great atmosphere, too!), so it was quite a treat to find it up in the boondocks.

While Julie recuperates from her surgery, she is never far from the kitchen. As I type this, she is downstairs baking the second Berry Buttermilk cake in as many weeks and also making ricotta-honey ice cream. All of the important ingredients came from the farmers' market, where Julie was also heard to exclaim with delight, "They have sorrel!!" 

A couple of weeks ago, on a Meatless Monday, I tried a new tofu technique from America's Test Kitchen. You press the tofu, cut it into rectangular "fingers," coat it in a mixture of 3 parts cornstarch and 1 part cornmeal, and then brown it on all sides in a little oil. It did indeed come out nice and crispy, even when mixed in with my other stir-fry ingredients. I kind of did a mashup of two recipes, using the sauce from this one and the veggie technique from this one (using bok choy, broccoli, and carrots), and served it over rice noodles. Everyone approved.

I also recently tried a new chicken recipe, from the "dunk the pieces in something wet and then in something dry and put them in the oven" family. Sometimes the "something wet" is buttermilk or melted butter and sometimes the "something dry" is panko or cornflake crumbs. Here's how this one went:

Juicy Oven-Fried Chicken

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek style.)
1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey (I used honey.)
1 garlic clove, minced
3 to 4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Combine the yogurt, brown sugar or honey, and garlic in a mixing bowl. Turn the chicken pieces in the yogurt mixture and, if you have the time, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Combine the flour, paprika, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish.

Lightly oil a baking dish large enough to accommodate the chicken without crowding. Coat the chicken with the seasoned flour and shake off any excess. Set the chicken, skin side down, in the dish and bake for 25 minutes. Turn the chicken over and continue baking until cooked through, about 35 minutes more. 

This was delicious (no weird tanginess from the yogurt), and cold leftovers were equally wonderful for lunch the next day.

What I've Been Reading

For this month's book group, we met to discuss The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. The subtitle is "Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics," and that pretty much tells you what you're getting. It's a partially fictionalized account of the 1936 USA crew team; I say "partially fictionalized" because although the story is historically true, the author took some liberties by filling in dialogue and other details that no one could possibly know now. But he did extensive research, and did a good job painting a picture of a particular time and place. Although I enjoyed the story very much (despite knowing exactly how it would end), I did find the book to be a bit of a slog at times. I think that the author (or perhaps his editor) just couldn't bear to make any cuts, so you end up with overly long descriptions at times. I was reading it somewhere when I was out and about, and a woman stopped me and said, "Isn't that book great?" We got to talking, and she told me that her daughter rows crew, and that she told her mother that the descriptions of what it's like to be part of a crew when everything is in perfect synch—the author calls it "swing"—brought her to tears. I also especially enjoyed the parts about the man who built the racing shells. All in all, it was truly a feel-good story; the writing style wasn't particularly scintillating, but it still makes for a good read.

We aren't meeting again until the fall, and we haven't picked our next book yet. But, in the meantime....

I read The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg. It's the story of a family and its matriarch, Edie, who is not so slowly but most surely eating herself to death. She eats all the time—for fun, out of boredom, to medicate herself, because it's there, for the flavors, for the activity, any reason whatsoever. She is obsessed with food. Is this a problem, and should her family do something about it? Or is this just the way she is and they should let her be happy, even if there's no question that her health is in true danger? It's a short book, but the characters are well drawn and believable; I really enjoyed Attenberg's writing. The book has quite a bit of humor, but it's not aimed at Edie, so we never feel that Attenberg is poking fun at her. In fact, we are left to question who in this family really "needs help" and who doesn't. It ends up being an astute but compassionate look at this particular family, in terms of both how they interact and who they are as individuals.

I also read The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon. I'd heard great things about Gordon but somehow never managed to read any of her novels. This one ... meh. Here's the description from Amazon: "Miranda and Adam, high school sweethearts now in their late fifties, arrive by chance at the same time in Rome, a city where they once spent a summer deeply in love. At an awkward reunion, Adam suggests that they meet for daily walks and get to know each other again. Both have their own sense of who betrayed whom and long-held interpretations of the events that caused them to part. But gradually, as they take in the pleasures of the city and the drama of its streets, they discover not only what matters to them now but also what happened to them long ago." Sound sappy? It was. But I can be a sap, so that isn't what made me roll my eyes on nearly every page. It was Adam and Miranda's dialogue that did me in. They spoke in these ridiculously long, grandiose soliloquies. I had to keep looking for quotation marks to see whether someone was in fact still talking. I was so sick of the both of them (especially Miranda) by the end that I didn't care what they did.

And finally, although I never ever read murder mysteries, I read Dangerous Admissions by Jane O'Connor because it's about a freelance copyeditor! Rannie, a single mom, finds herself trying to solve the case of who murdered the very influential college admissions counselor at her son's fancy-shmancy Manhattan private school. They say that some parents will just kill to get their kid into an Ivy League school, and our hero is determined to get to the bottom of it. There are fun references to publishing, and there's also a love interest to spice things up. The author did a good job of retrieving some seemingly unrelated details sprinkled throughout the story and using them to tie up the ending in a satisfactory way. I liked Rannie and thought this was a thoroughly fun romp. (It's probably not the author's fault that there were some errors along the way—one character named Dottie is occasionally referred to as Dotty; the shortened form of "microphone" is given once as "mic" and once as "mike"; that sort of thing—but it was kind of disconcerting because Rannie is always mentally correcting people's grammar and usage, so I couldn't help but feel that she would have been annoyed.)

Next up is Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore.

What are you reading?

DIY Queen

When I mentioned Julie's love of DIY the other day, it occurred to me that it warrants an entire post of its own. 

Julie makes everything. I'm not even talking about in the kitchen, where no challenge is too daunting. (We made cheese this week! More on that later.) She also makes all her own skincare products, like facial scrub and lotion bars and bath bombs and lip gloss. She never met a craft she didn't want to try. I think the next frontier for her will likely be sewing.

In the meantime, one of her favorite Hanukkah gifts from this past December was a subscription for a Doodle Crate, which is a monthly package containing everything you need to create something fun and wonderful. The materials are all great quality, and the instructions are well written. The projects are neither too free-form nor too directed—there's just enough guidance so she knows what she's doing, but plenty of room for creativity. Here are some of the things she's made:

These are candles. She made the candles themselves and decorated the little glass holders.

She made the paper covers for these little notebooks and then bound them—it's hard to see from my lousy photo, but they're lovely.

Julie loved carving these rubber stamps!

Here's most of a terrarium—the cats got to it before we could move it. :(

This is a fabric woven basket. She dyed the fabric strips!

There was also a sculpting project, but unfortunately the bag got a hole in it (darn cats again!), so the clay dried up. We are going to get some more. The latest delivery is a solar imaging kit.

The company, Kiwi Crate, offers subscriptions for different ages groups, from preschool on up; Doodle Crates are for kids 9 to 16 years old. They also offer Tinker Crates for kids 9 to 14 years old; those are more about science and technology than crafts. If you want to sign your kids up, use my code to get $10 off. Happy making!

Herbal Goodness

Every winter I get dreamy about having a vegetable and herb garden in the summer. I enthusiastically buy books and equipment, and then when spring rolls around, I forget all about it. I spend the summer at the farmers' market and Whole Foods, and that's the end of that.

But now I have Julie, who has never met a DIY project she didn't embrace whole-heartedly. She found an EarthBox I had bought many years ago that allows you to plant a small garden and move it around—into or out of the sun, for instance—and keeps the plants up high enough to thwart all those cute bunnies in our yard. She got some seedlings, and the next thing I knew, we had this:

And the next thing I knew, we had yummy fresh basil pesto. She's also growing mint and oregano.

All of this brings me to The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden, which just may be the book that turns things around for me.

Originally published in 1975, this 2015 version has been completely updated. It outlines everything you need to know and do to maximize your yield from a tiny garden. It starts out with the basics for someone like me who claims to have a black thumb: where to put the garden, how to prepare the soil, what exactly to plant—and when—and how to tend the plants once they start to grow. Honestly, the idea of having to prep and take care of just a few square feet and end up with hundreds of pounds of fresh cukes and tomatoes and squash and herbs is very enticing. 

So, this year we will stick with the EarthBox herb garden, but next year—just you wait!—we will be growing actual crops.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

What's Your Sign?

Yesterday it was Julie's turn to experience the wonders of orthopedic surgery. Yes, that broken toe turned out to need a couple of screws to hold on a piece of bone that snapped off. (Yowch!) I would like to officially state here that I am done waiting for my loved ones to wake up from anesthesia. It's a horrible, scary state of non-reality and I refuse to do it anymore. So: No more surgeries, guys, OK?!

If you are an editor and you are waiting for your kid to wake up from anesthesia, you look around and notice signs. You see this one:

and realize that someone got there with a Sharpie before you did; you appreciate their enthusiasm but wish that they had used a lowercase "a" and also added a period at the end.

You see this one:

 

and cannot fathom who approved the use of the second hyphen and the lowercase "n" and "u."

And you see this one:

and wonder whether people who used to work for this hospital bed company are known as "Ex-Hausted Employees."

Then you wait some more, until your kid finally wakes up, and they let you give her some ginger ale and graham crackers.

Falling Apart, Sort of Literally

Here's our family, listed from best to worst, orthopedically:

1. I am fine. Moms can't have anything wrong with them.

2. Steph needs only two more physical therapy sessions and she will have "graduated"! She has only a slight limp now. What a long haul, and what a trouper. 

3. A few weeks into track season, Pete developed shin splints in both legs, which turned out to be stress fractures, so that quickly put an end to that. He is mostly just supposed to not run, and let them heal themselves, and then he'll go in for a gait assessment in a couple of weeks.

4. Julie and another girl kicked each other in yesterday's soccer game, and her big toe got all swollen and purple. I took her in for x-rays this morning and, sure enough, it's broken. There's nothing to be done except wear a very stylish shoe thingy (sort of like Steph's very stylish boot thingy, but it doesn't come up high). They referred us to an orthopedist who specializes in feet, so I'll call him tomorrow. She is obviously done with soccer for the season and also couldn't do the AIDS Walk today, which was a big disappointment.

5. Andy had been suffering for weeks from sciatica again; he finally went for an MRI and learned that he blew out another disc. Which explains why this is pretty much the worst pain he's ever experienced (and that's saying a lot). He got a steroid injection in his spine on Thursday, but he still had to miss Steph's high school graduation, which was a huge bummer for everyone. The steroid injection could provide relief as soon as 2 days, or up to 10 days, or never at all. So far, nothing, but here's hoping....

Sorry to end on such a downer; to brighten things up, here's a proof from Steph's graduation (yes, I know you're not supposed to do this, but things have been kind of hectic around here, so sue me):

Pairs

Two books that I worked on last year came out in the last week or so. The first is Sally Mann's glorious memoir, Hold Still, which I proofread. Having read every single word of it, I can assure you that Mann's words are just as compelling as her images. I highly recommend this book if you like a good story, regardless of whether you consider yourself a photography aficionado. As Publishers Weekly put it, "The vivid descriptive energy and arresting images in this impressive book will leave readers breathless." The other book is The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar, a collection of critical essays by the renowned poetry scholar Helen Vendler, which I edited. Working on this book took me right back to the days of my college literature classes. Vendler examines the work of poets I know well, such as Wallace Stevens and W. B. Yeats and Walt Whitman, as well as plenty I'd never even heard of, like Jorie Graham and Amy Clampitt and Charles Wright. This book is a good example of something I wouldn't have likely picked up to read on my own but am glad I did.

I've posted before about Elizabeth Strout; the first two books of hers that I read were two of my favorite books ever: Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys. I've since gone back to read her two earlier books. Sometime last year I read Amy and Isabelle and realize I never reviewed here. I liked this one less than the other two, although Strout's writing is so effortlessly beautiful that I would read anything she wrote just for the pleasure of immersing myself in her words. I recall that I wasn't happy with the conclusion she seemed to be drawing at the end, but otherwise this was a captivating, if somewhat disturbing, look at a teenage girl's budding sexuality. And just recently I finished Abide with Me, which I had begun months ago and then had to put aside because I was too busy with work. Again, a less compelling story than Strout's later work but, again, gorgeous prose and well-fleshed-out characters. All of Strout's books take place in the small towns of Maine, and she captures that atmosphere—and the inhabitants—perfectly. This one is about the personal struggles of the new pastor in one of these small towns. I'll say the same thing about Elizabeth Strout that I've said about Richard Russo: Even one of her lesser novels is better than half of what's out there, and always worth reading.

And while we're doing pairs of things, these aren't books, but here are two family photos from my niece's wedding:

We clean up nice, huh?