While it’s not uncommon for people to find a new perspective while traveling, Candler Park resident and Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party shop owner Katrell Christie found herself in India during Summer 2009 with a growing new purpose and a strong determination to help better the lives of the children she’d met while spending time at both a Darjeeling orphanage and a elementary school, one of the oldest schools in Darjeeling.
For these Darjeeling children living in poverty, education is simply the only method of rising beyond their situation, which in most cases is dire. Darjeeling is world famous for its beautiful tea gardens and flavorful teas, but it harbors a darker side as the region’s hub for forced labor and sex exploitation, as well as child trafficking and child labor. Without education, young girls are forced into prostitution in the area, or even transported to work in brothels in other regions of India when they leave orphanages at 16 or 17, with no viable alternatives in the area without a university education.
100% of the profits from The Learning Tea will fund several projects for these children.
Katrell committed herself in 2010 to fully fund the education of three orphan girls at a nearby Darjeeling university; for $800, each girl can receive one year of university education, room and board, food, and clothing; empowering them towards a much brighter future than the alternative available for the women that have left the orphanage before them. No girl from the orphanage has previously ever had the opportunity to attend higher education. It takes so little financially to make a huge difference in the life of these children. The Learning Tea is simply a catalyst for change, one cup at a time shaping their lives towards a much brighter future!
She started with those three girls, then went on to 11 young women as people in her shops gave donations and from used book sales. As you can read at their web site, they are expending as money allows, hope to open another site, providing food, clothing, a safe home, continuing education as well as computer classes, music lessons and other extracurricular activities for these desperate girls.
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
Reeses's Leap by Darcy Scott
DARCY SCOTT is a live-aboard sailor and experienced ocean cruiser who’s sailed to Grenada and back on a whim, island-hopped through the Caribbean, and been struck by lightning in the middle of the Gulf Stream. Her favorite cruising ground remains the coast of Maine, however, and her appreciation of the history and rugged beauty of its sparsely populated out-islands serves as inspiration for her Maine Island Mystery Series, which includes 2012’s award-winning "Matinicus" and the newly released "Reese’s Leap." Book three, "Ragged Island," is currently in the works. Her debut novel, "Hunter Huntress," was published in June, 2010 by Snowbooks, Ltd., UK.
Night Film by Marisha PesslRandom House, ISBN 978-1400067886August 20, 2103, 624 pages.
On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.
For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.
Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world
The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.
" ... offers a rare glimpse into the scrupulous Commissario's personal life. When Brunetti investigates the murder of two local fishermen on the island of Pellestrina, the small community closes ranks, forcing him to accept Signorina Elettra's offer to visit her relatives there to search for clues. Though loyal to his beloved wife, Paola, he must admit that less-than-platonic emotions underlie his concern for his boss's beautiful secretary. Suspenseful, provocative, and deeply unsettling, A Sea of Troubles is an explosive and irresistible addition to Leon?s marvelous series."While I love these mysteries and especially their glimpse into life in Venice, at the heart of their appeal are the characters, especially Brunetti and his delightful family. Also, there are his co-workers, the good and not so good..and none is better than Signorina Elettra, clever and resourceful. To call her a secretary does not begin to explain her abilities. But Sea of Troubles left her in a terrible state as the book ended, having suffered a terrible personal loss, so, of course, I had to buy the next, Wilful Behavior, to see how she made out.
"In Wilful Behavior, Brunetti is approached for a favor by one of his wife's students. Intelligent and serious , Claudia Leonardo asks for his help in obtaining a pardon for a crime once committed by her now-dead grandfather. Brunetti thinks little of it-until Claudia is found dead. Soon, another corpse and an extraordinary art collection lead Brunetti to long-buried secrets of Nazi collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews-secrets few in Italy want revealed."As usual, both very good books, with more than a little ranting about how the Italian bureaucracy works...or doesn't...and now distasteful the tourists can be. Leon' books can be quite cynical, even angry at times, but I keep coming back for more.
"In Brunetti’s Cookbook, Donna Leon’s best friend and favorite cook brings to life these fabulous Venetian meals. The recipes are joined by excerpts from the novels, four-color illustrations, and six original essays by Donna Leon on food and life in Venice. Charming, insightful, and full of personality, they are the perfect addition to this long awaited book."
"Follow Commissario Guido Brunetti, star of Donna Leon’s internationally best-selling mystery series, on over a dozen walks that highlight Venice’s churches, markets, bars, cafes, and palazzos.."
Ok, it did not actually happen in the bayou.
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking. |
| Osaka Castle |
 |
| Is that hot dog sushi? Can't quite read it... |
"Throughout his years with the LAPD, Peter Decker has handled a number of tough cases and strange killers. But few of his previous assignments compare to his latest case—the most bizarre of his storied career.
When Hobart Penny is found dead in his apartment, the cops think that his pet cat—an adult female tiger—attacked the reclusive elderly billionaire. But it soon becomes clear that the beast that killed the eccentric inventor is all too human. Digging into the victim's life, Decker and his colleagues, Detectives Marge Dunn and Scott Oliver, discover that Penny was an exceptionally peculiar man with exotic tastes, including kinky sex with call girls.
Following a trail of clues that leads from a wildlife sanctuary in the San Bernardino Mountains to the wild nightlife of Las Vegas, the LAPD detectives are left juggling too many suspects and too few answers. To break open a case involving the two most primal instincts—sex and murder—Decker wrestles with a difficult choice."
"London's dandiest city gents loved to partake in oysters and gin. But with its bitter tang, gin was knocked back, not savoured. Enter shellfish-monger James Pimm and his famous central London 'Oyster Bar' in 1823. Patrons soon swallowed oysters with the PIMM'S 'house cup'. Flavoured with liqueurs and fruit extract, this more palatable long drink 'gin-sling' kick-started the great British PIMM'S story."If you are lounging by the side of the Thames with a picnic, watching the rowers go by, or looking for some refreshment between matches at Wimbledon, you may very well be drinking a Pimm's Cup.
 |
| Let us gather our ingredients... |
"The proper garnish has long been a point of contention in Pimm’s mythology. In 1949, Jim Moran, a wily New York marketing man prone to stunts, was enlisted to raise the liqueur’s profile. He hired two actresses to stage a fight at a Manhattan nightclub over the correct garnish for a Pimm’s Cup: cucumber or mint. It made the papers.So first, the basic...
That dispute continues in earnest today. Cucumber is commonly in the mix, though some bartenders muddle it and others don’t. Mint is often seen. But any ingredient in your average fruit salad may turn up."
 |
| My favorite version, made with the very gingery zip of Ginger Beer |
 |
| My, that goods good! |
This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
 |
| See the doggie? |
 |
| ..and this one was actually ON the street! |
Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum
First, there is Lighthouse Island by Paulette Jiles. "The bestselling author of the highly praised novels The Color of Lightning, Stormy Weather, and Enemy Women pushes into new territory with this captivating and atmospheric story set in the far future-a literary dystopian tale resonant with love and hope.
In the coming centuries the world's population has exploded and covered the earth with cities, animals are nearly all gone and drought has taken over so that cloudy water is issued by the quart. There are no maps, no borders, no numbered years. On this urban planet the only relief from overcrowding and the harsh rule of the big Agencies is the television in every living space, with its dreams of vanished waterfalls and the promise of virtual vacations in green spaces, won by the lucky few.It is an unwelcoming world for an orphan like Nadia Stepan... Abandoned by her parents on a crowded street when she was four, the little girl is shuttled from orphanage to orphanage, foster-family to foster-family. Nadia grows up dreaming of the vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest. She becomes obsessed with it and is determined to somehow find her way there. In the meantime this bright and witty orphan falls into the refuge of old and neglected books; the lost world of the imagination."
"Your life isn’t complete until you read The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson....
My one complaint about The Long Ships is that it’s only 600 pages. When I reached page 280, I wanted to cry when I saw that I was almost half way through. A book like this should be no less than 2,000 pages. And, yeah, if you’re short on reading time it’ll take you a while to get through it. But that’s fine, since you won’t ever want to read anything else anyway. The book is an epic saga in the classic sense of the term. It covers the adventures of a Viking named Red Orm, from the time he’s a young man until he’s older. It’s a swashbuckling tale of Viking culture around the time that Christianity first made its way that far north. Reading the book is less like turning the pages of a manuscript, and more like sitting around a fire with rowdy Northmen, drinking ale and listening to them loudly chronicle their exploits.
Also, it’s hilarious. All throughout the book there is a dry, understated type of humor that often had me laughing out loud at one o’clock in the morning.""Your life isn’t complete..." well, I have to read that one!
