Musing Monday...Two for One!

What is going on? There appears to be two Musing Monday questions this week over at Should Be Reading!
{{update @  9a.m.
 ok, if you look now as opposed to 2 a.m. there is only one, the first here. if the other is next weeks question, what will I do? ok, I will think of something}}
Guess I could pick one..or both!

Question one...

For this week’s musing, I borrowed a question from the “I’m Loving Books” blog. It asks…
Have you ever read a book that, at the time, you didn’t feel a strong connection towards, but as time goes by you find yourself thinking about it a lot?

Is it just me, or when you read a lot of books, do most of them just start to blend into each other after awhile? OK, maybe it is just me. And then too, my memory is not what it once was. But still, when I first read this question, one book jumped into my mind. How if I could just remember it's name...
Thanks goodness for Library Thing. I did a search in my books for the world 'sea' and found it..Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye. I am not sure why that story, those characters, those images have stuck with me, but they have. And regardless of the name, the ocean does not play a role in the book, which considering my fondness for the ocean, might explain it. There is water, yes. A Great Lake..a small lake..but no sea.
Still it is a great book, and scenes from the book still come to mind long after I read it. Maybe I need to break my "no re-reading" rule and pick that one again.

Now, question two...

This week’s musing asks…

Have you ever been to a book signing or met an author? If so, who was it? What did you think?

I have never been to a book signing.
Well, I saw one through a window once. The SIL, the Niece and I were at dinner at a restaurant in PA once and next to the restaurant was a Barnes and Noble that was having a signing for an author of a series the Niece read. So she went in, bought some books and got them signed. Maybe I did go in..now I am now sure why I would not have gone in. But I did not know the books or the author, so it wouldn't count anyhoo.

But I did once meet one of my favorite authors. I will not name her but she is famous, multiple NY Times best seller author famous. She is the friend of a friend and I was the travel-alonger. My friend and the Famous Author met years ago in Hawaii where they both lived, both not famous writers. Now Famous Writer lives on the East Coast, so when my non-famous friend was visiting, we drove to visit. She took us out to lunch, we had dinner at her house, she  loaned us her cabin to stay in. She was very nice. I was almost in a state of apoplexy, babbling mindlessly.

I think I have mentioned this before, but writers are my rock stars, my movie stars. If I had taped posters on my bedroom walls as a teenager, it would not have been Mick Jagger or Harrison Ford, but Rex Stout and Agatha Christie. Which granted, is a strange image but true nevertheless.
Actor just play pretend, saying other peoples words and musicians, well, they just play songs. But writers, writers create new worlds. Out of nothing but their imaginations they create people and places and stories, wonderful stories that give endless enjoyment.
What is not to love, what is not to admire?
They are demi-gods, they are superheros, they deserve parades and laurel wreaths...
OK, you get the idea.
I admire them.
Do you think that make Rex Stout posters??

Out and About on the 4th of July

Happily, the poor boys..and the rest of us...got invited over to some friends who have a house, with A/C, on the 4th.

Look at how well behaved they are in the car!

White Dog, Beige Dog and Black Dog.

Weekend Cooking...ATK Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

A lucscious cake topped with almonds and lemon sugar and filled with a lemon cream cheese filling.

That was the description. My, my..
Why does my work schedule always come up in my posts.
Maybe because it rules my life...
So anyhoo, the other night, there I was at work in the wee hours of the night..or actually the wee hours of the morning. Did you know that the average person is at their lowest metabolic levels at 3 a.m. in the morning? Which was just about the time I saw the episode of my beloved America's Test Kitchen that had this recipe on TV. I would have killed for a piece. Lemon..cream cheese..crunchy almond top...

But there was no one else there to kill, so I decided to just make my own as soon as I could. So hot as it is, I actually turned the oven on and dug my bundt pan out. It call for a tube pan, but I don't own a tube pan, so bundt it is!

Well, best laid plans. I was going to make this last Saturday, but we had this storm and lost our electricty. Some of us...happily not me...do not have it back yet.
So in the trash went the cream cheese and eggs and sour cream and yesterday I started from scratch again.

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Makes one 10-inch cake, serving 12 to 16

Ingredients:

Lemon Almond Topping

• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1⁄2 cup sliced almonds

Cake

• 2 1⁄4 cups (11.25 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 1⁄8 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1⁄8 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
• 1 1⁄8 cups (7.75 ounces) plus 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest plus 4 teaspoons juice
• 4 large eggs
• 5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄4 cups sour cream
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

Method:

1. FOR THE TOPPING: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°. Spray 10-inch tube pan with vegetable oil spray. Stir sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined and sugar is moistened. Stir in almonds; set aside.
2. FOR THE CAKE: Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and lemon zest on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined. Add 4 teaspoons vanilla and mix to combine. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of sour cream, scraping down bowl as needed. Give batter final stir by hand.
3. Reserve 1 1⁄4 cups batter and set aside. Spoon remaining batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Return now-empty bowl to mixer and beat cream cheese, remaining 5 tablespoons sugar, lemon juice, and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla on medium speed until smooth and slightly lightened, about 1 minute. Add 1⁄4 cup reserved batter and mix until incorporated. Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over batter, keeping filling about 1 inch from edges of pan; smooth top. Spread remaining 1 cup reserved batter over filling and smooth top. With butter knife or offset spatula, gently swirl filling into batter using figure-eight motion, being careful to not drag filling to bottom or edges of pan. Firmly tap pan on counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any bubbles. Sprinkle sugar topping evenly over batter and gently press into batter to adhere.
4. Bake until top is golden and just firm, and skewer inserted in cake comes out clean (skewer will be wet if inserted in cream cheese filling), 45 to 50 minutes. Remove pan from oven and firmly tap on counter 2 or 3 times (top of cake may sink slightly). Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 1 hour. Gently invert cake onto rimmed baking sheet (cake will be topping side down); remove tube pan, place wire rack on top of cake, and invert cake sugar side up. Let cool to room temperature, about 11⁄2 hours, before serving.
5. Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator, covered tightly with plastic wrap. For optimal texture, allow the cake to return to room temperature before serving.

Ok, it is delicious. Love the topping!

But...the bundt pan did not work. See, in the recipe, with a tube pan, the top of the pan remains the top when done and you put the topping on the top.

But, with a bundt pan, the bottom, would become the top, so I put the topping in the bottom of the pan and then the batter. Fine, except it stuck, something awful. Bad enough that I had to get the cake out in a couple of piece. So no whole cake pic!

But it still tasted wonderful! Just a little messy.
Hope you have a tube pan!

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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A Room Full of Bones

A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 978-0547271200
 July 3, 2012, 352 pages

"It is Halloween night, and the local museum in King's Lynn is preparing for an unusual event - the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the museum's curator lying dead beside the coffin. It is only a matter of time before she and DI Nelson cross paths once more, as he is called in to investigate. Soon the museum's wealthy owner lies dead in his stables too. These two deaths could be from natural causes but Nelson isn't convinced. When threatening letters come to light, events take an even more sinister turn. But as Ruth's friends become involved, where will her loyalties lie? As her convictions are tested, she and Nelson must discover how Aboriginal skulls, drug smuggling and the mystery of The Dreaming may hold the answer to these deaths, and their own survival."

If you are very observant, this review might sound familiar. I posted it in March, long before the book was released in the US. But now it is available here, without sending for it from England, like a rabid fan might do, so I decided to repost it. Now you can run right out and get it, as you should!

I am a fan of this series, enough so that when I bought the third book in the series, The House at Sea's End, I went ahead and bought the fourth, A Room Full Of Bones, from The Book Depository as well. 
Ruth, the main character, is a big reason I like these books because, while she is a rather unlikely heroine, she is a great character. Overweight and approaching middle age, she gives little attention to her appearance. She is too busy for such matters. She lives in a tiny, lonely house on a deserted Norfolk beach, a place that most people find a bit creepy. She has an odd group of friends, with maybe the most odd and the most charming being Cathbad, who is a self proclaimed Druid, and she has a less than glamorous job as a professor of forensic archaeology at a local college. Well, it was less than glamorous until she got roped into assisting the police, in the person of DI Nelson, in the first two books, with some of the many crimes that seem to arise in the area involving finding some bones. She is becoming rather famous for some of her exploits now and her personal life took a very exciting turn at the end of book two when Ruth finds herself, as they say, with child.

Personally, I love the setting in Norfolk. Yes, it is by the sea, often wet and cold and windswept, but really, what better place for a murder...or murders? Storms, fog, dangerous tides rolling in, what could be better? And of course, with these two books we now have the added delightful character of Ruth's toddler daughter, Kate. Knowing Ruth in the first two books, you might be led to have your doubts about her fitness as a mother, as she does herself, but no worry. Ruth's growing relationship with wee Kate is lovely and we know she will excel at motherhood, if in her own way, as she excels at so many things...in her own way.

Each of these books touches on some very real and quite serious subjects, from life in England during WWII in The House at Sea's End and secrets that some will kill to keep hidden, to the treatment of Aboriginal peoples and their remains and some major drugs deal on the English coast in A Room Full of Bones. But the author spins them with so many other little plots lines, some rather engaging, that it keeps the books from becoming too grim.
A charming series, if a series full of deaths and murder and piles of bones can be said to be charming. And these are! Four books with great characters, a great setting, good solid plots and all well written leads to a strong recommendation.

Wordless Wednesday...Ships Ahoy!

It's summer and I can't get away from the water..

boats, big and small.

Hudson River, New York

Mystic, Conn.

Yacht and Beach Club, Disney World, Florida

Athens, Greece

Santorini, Greece

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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Review of "The Line Between Here and Gone" [57]

The Line Between Here and Gone 
by Andrea Kane
Harlequin MIRA, ISBN 978-0778313373
June 26, 2012, 400 pages

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When photojournalist Amanda Gleason met real estate developer Paul Everett at a local political event out in the Hamptons on NY's Long Island, she through she had met the love of her live. Then he disappears, possibly the victim of a violent crime, although a body was never found. Police seem to think he is dead but Amanda is not convinced.

Then she finds out she is expecting his child and wishes he was there to share her joy..until just weeks after the baby, Justin, is born and the doctors find that he suffer from an immunodeficiency disease and he needs a compatible stem cell transplant to survive. For medical reasons, Amanda can not be a donor and a match can not be found. As the baby grows sicker and sicker and all hope seems lost, a friend in Washington DC sends her a grainy cell phone picture of a man who appears to be the missing Paul. Is it possible he is not dead? And it it possible that he could be found and possibly be the donor for the son he does not even know exists. Whatever she is going to do, it must be done quickly if there is help of saving little Justin.

So when you need the best investigators, you hire Forensic Instincts, a private firm introduced in Kane's first book in the series, The Girl Who Disappeared Twice. If you read the first book..and you should, it was quite good..you will be familiar with them all, but if you have not, don't be concerned. Everyone will be introduced quite thoroughly and you will soon be up to speed on Forensic Instincts and their various talents. They are a great team, and the interplay and balance between the characters is very well done. Behaviorist Casey Woods is their leader, Patrick Lynch, is a former FBI agent, Marc Devereaux an ex SEAL, Ryan McKay the techo-wizard, Claire Hedgleigh an “intuitive” and Hero is the human-scent-evidence dog. Even team needs a great dog, right?!
Together they make up the team and are immediately on the trail of the missing developer and they pledge to find him, whether he wants to be found or not and no matter who else may be looking for him. What started out as a fairly simple missing person, maybe a love affair gone bad, soon leads places quite different, quite dangerous.

The story is set in NYC (I would love to see the house Forensic Instincts is headquartered in) and Washington DC, with the rich and powerful and a few politicians, both local and federal. But the most interesting setting is in the various towns that make up the Hamptons, the playground of NY's rich and famous,  and especially a glimpse into the tensions between the locals and the many investors that would like to develop the area and maybe ruin the flavor of the towns.
Where money, big money, is at stake people are willing to do all sorts of things, bad things, illegal things, deadly things.
And, of course, all this is pitted against sweet baby Justin, whose very life hangs by a thread and for whom time is running out, minute by precious minute.

As I said, I enjoyed the first book in the series and I think this one is every bit as good. It is full of action and moves along at a fast, compelling pace, with a great and rather surprising ending. Good characters, a believable plot and an interesting setting..not to mention a good dog...make me recommended this one.

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My thanks to the publisher and Meryl Moss Media Relations for providing a copy for review.

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Musing Monday...Keep on the Sunny Side Edition

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Tho' the storm in its fury break today,

Crushing hopes that we cherished so dear,

Storm and cloud will in time pass away,

The sun again will shine bright and clear....

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,

Keep on the sunny side of life;

It will help us ev'ry day, it will brighten all the way,

If we keep on the sunny side of life

Yes, it is Musing Monday, and we will get to that in a minute, but first a few words about my weekend here in South Jersey.
Just a bit more eventful than I had hoped.

I went to bed Friday night, to be awoken by a thunder storm and the power going off at about 1 A.M.
I went downstairs to find my kitty Larry, because Larry does not like thunderstorms and while Larry is not that fond of me, I thought I could bring him some comfort.
Then, I made the mistake of looking out the window.
Oh my heavens.
It was terrible.
The wind was blowing the trees like I have never seen, I have a BIG oak out front and I had no idea it could move like that without breaking. And the lightning..it was constant flashes, every few seconds for 90 minutes. I have truly never seen anything like it before. It was like the sky was exploding. I do not like storms and this was major, major scary.

"It was a rare type of thunderstorm system called a derecho, which is a “super organized group of thunderstorms,” said Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mt. Holly. Meteorologists will see a derecho of a similar magnitude somewhere in the country about every three to five years, Szatkowski said. But for non-weather watchers, “this will be one of the worst ones you will experience in your lifetime.” At the storm’s peak, winds gusted more than 80 miles per hour, with sustained winds of between 50 mph and 60 mph lasting about 30 minutes.And while the clean-up begins in South Jersey and other places that were hit hard by the storm, meteorologists are starting the process of studying exactly what happened to better understand a relatively rare weather system. "

Of course our power was out, in most of our county. I believe the number was 120,000 out in our county out of 150,000. And they were talking day...a week...until it was back. In 95+ temps. No A/C, no lights, no street lights, no traffic lights, no gas stations, no food stores.

And the trees down!! There is not a street in my town where there are not massive trees and small trees and every sort of trees down. Cars crushed, houses damaged, roads blocked, poles down, power lines in the streets and in yards. We have had storms in the past, violent storms, but the number of trees down in this one is just amazing.

But people get moving immediately, I will say that. By Saturday afternoon the sounds of chain saws and generators filled the air and by Sunday, electric crews from our local company and PSE&G in north Jersey that came down here to help out were amassing. My power came back for a time last night and now is back again. Just in time for me to throw out the contents of my frig and freezer for the trash collection.
But I realize I am so lucky. No damage to my house, very, very little damage on my property, no one I know hurt. My brother lost a tree, but it fell in his neighbor's yard, seemingly doing little damage except crushing part of a fence.

But many here are not so lucky. I have heard of 5 killed in the area, including two children killed while camping out in a state park.And more than 15 people killed in West Virginia from what I last heard.
That makes the loss of electricity for a few days, or even the loss of a car or a house, seem so unimportant.

This week’s musing asks...

When you’re stuck for a book to read next, what do you do?

Stuck for a book? Hmmm...what does that mean?
I am never stuck for a book these days. I have piles of books, books on my Nook, books on a Kindle app on my iPad...gosh, I even have books on my phone. No matter when it is or where I am, I have a book on hand these days.
No, the only problem I have is deciding which one to read next.
In the midst of the storm's aftermath I talked about above, I still had a charged iPad  and a phone full of books, both backlit.
Which was handy because it was darn dark! 

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Sunday Morning with the Boys

Sunday is there favorite day...

There People are all home for treats...

..and they get their special Hash Brown Sunday breakfast!

Review of "Permanence" [56]

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Permanence by Vincent Zandri

Bear Media; May 4, 2012

143 pages

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The narrator of our book is a woman name Mary...a fact we do not find out until well into the story..…who is going every Friday to see a psychiatrist. She is seeing him to help her deal with the accidental drowning of her child, a two year old son named Sammy. A name that we do not find out until almost the end of the book. Since the child’s death several months ago Mary has lost almost everything in her life. Her only child is dead, her husband left her and she was fired from her travel agent job.

Now she just sits in her apartment, living off the life insurance, going out only to get food and to see Doctor, as she calls her psychiatrist, every Friday. Because not only is he her doctor, he is her lover.
Ok, creepy enough for you yet?
Oh, don’t worry, it will get even more interesting, in a grim way. Doctor tells her that he will be gone for several weeks, at a series of conferences in Italy. She is upset, not sure if she can make it through without the time they spend together. And then rather surprisingly, he invites her to come along, to Venice, Florence and Rome, with him. Of course, things are a little complicated when we find out that Mary is afraid of flying. In fact, even though she was a travel agent, she has never flown. But then Mary is afraid of many things…flying, elevators, dealing with a baby…the voices. Yes, voices. Mary is a very troubled young woman, perhaps way more than we first realized.

I am not quite sure how you would characterize this book. I read someone who said it was like watching a car wreck. You want to turn away. You know it is going to be bad, you know it is going to be ugly, and yet you can’t avert your eyes. I doubt most readers will be totally surprised where this book goes, what happens, what we find out, but the journey there is gripping. The imagery is memorable, if not always pleasant. I must say that those rats, running over the rocks along Florence’s Arno River, made an impression on me, if not a good impression. Water is a theme that appear again and again, the water that drowned her child, the rain, the rivers, the canals of Venice, let there is somehow nothing cleaning about this water.

…a perfect backdrop for this tale of death and madness.

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My thanks to the The Partners in Crime Tour and the author for providing a copy for review.
Drop in to their site and check out a few more reviews on the tour!

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Wordless Wednesday...My Kitchen

Staying close to home today...

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, 
check these out.

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Review of "The Land of Decoration" [55]

The Land of Decoration: A Novel 
by Grace McCleen
Henry Holt and Co., ISBN-13: 978-0805094947
March 27, 2012, 320 pages

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The real world that 10 year old Judith, the narrator of our book, lives in is not the most pleasant place. She is very lonely, separated from her classmates at school by the fundamentalist Christian sect that she and her father belong to. But she is distant from her father as well, an angry and frozen man who has retreated into himself after the death of his wife at Judith's birth.

"I don't know what Father's perfect day wold be like. I expect it would be full of Necessary Things like Bible study and preaching and Saving Electricity and Being Quiet and Wasting Not Wanting. In which case, he has his perfect day all the time.
Or perhaps his idea of a perfect day vanished a long time ago and he has forgotten how to imagine a new one."

So Judith has taken refuge in a world of her own creation, a little town she has built, perfect as she believes the world will be after Armageddon, which they believe is just around the corner. Is is an idealized version of her working class, rather depressed town that she has created from found objects and trash...

“There is a world in my room. It is made from things no one else wanted and it is made with things that were my mother’s, that she left to me, and it has taken most of my life to make.”

But even her Land of Decoration is not enough to comfort her after she become the intended victim of a bully at school, a boy that she..and we...believe will try to drown her in a toilet at school come Monday. So Judith goes to God and prays that He sends a huge snowstorm, so that school will be cancelled. She decorates her tiny town with fake snow and ice, believing it will bring about her wish. When she wakes up the next morning to see a record snowfall, as she believes her prayers have been answered and will continue to be answered, that she can actually effect reality, it sets off a chain effect of requests she makes to God. Or, as no doubt many will believe, the voice she hears that she believes is God. Regardless, it sets in motion a series of events that a ten year old could never foresee, and seems helpless to stop.

Is Judith really hearing God talk to her, really controlling events with her prayers or is it all just a coincidence? Or perhaps is she, as her new teacher seems to think, a budding schizophrenic, desperately in need of help?
And that is perhaps the most interesting part of this very interesting book, that the author never tips her hand, leaving the reader to interpret the events as Judith relates them on our own. There is a lot to think about here, about the nature of faith, about religion, about God, on the one hand and equally about being a parent, and being a family, about guilt and grief on the other. This would, I think, make a wonderful choice for a bookclub, with all sorts of issues to talk about.

It is a beautifully written book, with some breathtaking images and lovely language and yet it is also, at times, quite dark and disturbing. Whether it is a hopeful ending or a tragic one, again the reader will have to decide. I will go with hopeful, thank you. Because I want Judith to be all right, to be happy, to have a father who will finally protect her, who will finally wake up to what is going on.
Because beyond all the issues put forward in this story, at the heart of this book is the charming Judith and I dare any reader not to be pulling for her. We can't help but hope that somehow her world will not come to a terrible and sad end, destroyed as her little created world, her Land of Decoration, could so easily be. She is a very smart, a rather precocious child, but a 10 year old child all the same, whose world seems on the edge of spinning out of control, a child in desperate need of her father.

Highly recommended.

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My thanks to Henry Holt and Company for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

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Musing Monday...Don't Worry, Be Happy!

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Awww...it is suppose to be a lovely break in the heat today. Not that it has anything to do with it being Monday. It just makes me happy. So before we head out to start the day, let's check out this week's Musing Monday question from Miz B at Should Be Reading ..

This week’s musing asks…

Do you set goals for yourself, while reading? For example, “I want to get this book finished this weekend“, or “I will read __ pages today“, etc. Why, or why not?

For better or worse, I am not really a person who sets goals.
My reading, like most of my life, has no set schedule.
As usual, I blame..or thank...my work schedule.
One Monday I am working..the next Monday I am off.
Today, I slept all day..tomorrow I will sleep at night.
So my reading, like eating and sleep and doing the laundry is in a sort of free floating schedule. Which I guess is no schedule at all.

I have read one blogger who sets a certain amount of time that he reads every morning. So neat, so tidy, so organized. The idea appeals, but is impossible.
That would never work for me. One day I would be asleep, the next at my office.
Reading just has to fit into the plan for the day and the role reading plays in any day fluctuates drastically. If I think about it...and I have not until now...there is a certain pattern, following the four week pattern of my work schedule.

When I work days, I read very little, if at all. I go to work for 12 hours, come home, eat, care for the kitty, make lunch for the next day, maybe watch some mindless TV for an hour and go to sleep. On the other hand, when I work nights, I often read a great deal. At work. I will not state a definite number of hours, but it is a few.
Days off can range from reading all day, to not reading at all, depending on the Real Life demands of such annoying things as going to the supermarket, cleaning the house, hacking back the backyard jungle and such. Ya never know.
So the idea of saying "I must finish this book by today" or "I will read 100 pages today", just does not fit into my reading lifestyle. Ya get some time, ya read. No time, no reading.
And some days, you just ignore all your obligations and get lost in the wonderful world of a wonderful book.

That being said, I will admit that, since starting to blog, I do feel a certain book reading pressure. It is a vague, free floating sort of anxiety. If I were better organized, like if I had a real calendar of my reading 'obligations', it might not be so vague. It is one reason I don't do book challenges and few book tours.  But still, it is always in my mind that I have X number of library books, due back by a certain time, Library Thing Early Reviewer books to review, Amazon Vine books that must be read to keep my reviews over 80% or get thrown out, the odd book tour I have a schedule day for, the publication dates of review copies I have accepted. Yes, if I actually paid real attention to all that, I might feel rather pressured.
And I can not have that.
Because let's remember folks, reading is suppose to be fun!
So don't worry.

And now, to leave you with one of those tunes that will play in your head all day...

Weekend Cooking...Sgroppino.

It has been a bit warm this week.
Actually, it has been almost record breaking hot.
So we are going to take a frosty trip to Venice.
"But it is not frosty in Venice!" I hear you saying.
No, but it is the home of a frosty, tasty, refreshing drink that is perfect for a hot day.
Sgroppino!!

You can have it is an aperitif, to get those taste buds all set for a meal.
Or you could have one as an intermezzo, a palate cleanser between courses.
Or you could have it as an after dinner drink, or even as dessert.
The choice is yours.

 

I tried to find something about the history of the drink, but was unsuccessful. All that seems agree upon is that it is very popular in Venice and the surrounding area.
Actually, it is very difficult to even get two recipes that are the same.
So we will go with this one. But it seems you can free to change things up and still call it a Sgroppino. Some use vodka...some limoncello. Lemon sorbet is most common, but I saw recipes with gelato, with lemon ice cream, with orange or blood orange sherbet. Some add sugar or simple syrup, which I just do not see the need for, even if you use all vodka instead of the sweeter limoncello. Prosecco is the norm for the sparking wine used, but anything with bubbles will work. Mint..or lemon zest or a slice of orange as a garnish will be nice.

The first time I made it, I used some limoncello and some plain vodka. After some thought...because a classic drink like this deserves thought..I changed it to all limoncello. For those not familiar with it, limoncello is an Italian lemon liqueur make by soaking the peels of Sorrento lemons in grain alcohol and then adding simple syrup. It is traditionally served chilled as an after-dinner digestivo, lovely all alone.
And I used the traditional prosecco, a rather dry, not very expensive, low alcohol, sparkling white Italian wine. But for a slightly sweeter touch, Asti Spumante would be very nice too.
So, on to making the drink.

 Sgroppino

For 4-6 servings...

1 pint lemon sorbet
1/2 cup limoncello
1 cup prosecco.

Let the sorbet sit out at room temperature for a few minutes to get a little soft.
Put in a chilled bowl (you could use a blender,but it seems like overkill and may melt the sorbet too much) and then pour in the limoncello and mix with a whisk until blended and slushy. Add the prosecco and mix and immediately served, ideally in champagne flutes. Top with some zest or mint or a slice of lemon.
Enjoy!

I saw recipes that measured the limoncello or vodka in tablespoons. Really, what are they thinking. But I guess that is up to you. And the amount of sparking wine you add will determine how thick the final drink is. If you want to eat it as a dessert, even with a spoon, just add a dash. But these measurement made a nice, pourable beverage.

Cin, Cin!

 

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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Review of "Skios" [54]

Skios by Michael Frayn
Metropolitan Books; ISBN-13: 978-0805095494
June 19, 2012, 272 pages

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"The great master of farce turns to an exclusive island retreat for a comedy of mislaid identities, unruly passions, and demented, delicious disorder...

On the private Greek island of Skios, the high-paying guests of a world-renowned foundation prepare for the annual keynote address, to be given this year by Dr. Norman Wilfred, an eminent authority on the scientific organization of science. He turns out to be surprisingly youthful, handsome, and charming—quite unlike his reputation as dry and intimidating. Everyone is soon eating out of his hands. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the foundation's attractive and efficient organizer.

Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki's old friend Georgie has rashly agreed to spend a furtive horizontal weekend with a notorious schemer, who has characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped there with her instead is a pompous, balding individual called Dr. Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper, and increasingly all sense of reality—indeed, everything he possesses other than the text of a well-traveled lecture on the scientific organization of science.

In a spiraling farce about upright academics, gilded captains of industry, ambitious climbers, and dotty philanthropists, Michael Frayn, the farceur "by whom all others must be measured" (CurtainUp), tells a story of personal and professional disintegration, probing his eternal theme of how we know what we know even as he delivers us to the outer limits of hilarity."

I admit I am not familiar with this author, with his books or plays. But I read a lot of great things about him, read him lauded as yes, "the great master of farce". And indeed, this is farce. But sadly for me, while it was a bit entertaining, it was not great, and oddly enough, I did not find it very funny. Maybe, as I have read others saying, it would have been better as a play, full of English actors who, I think, can play this sort of humor unlike no others. But on the printed page it fell flat, one improbable event after another improbable event, going nowhere in particular.

Mistaken identity, dead cell phones galore, language misunderstandings at every turn..at first the reader may buy into it, but there is a limit. Supposedly intelligent, successful people making silly assumptions and then just going with them is a little amusing at first but just grow silly after awhile.
OK, I will say, I loved the setting.
The foundation has built an idealized Greek village for their conference, with the brilliant blue sea in the background, and I would not mind pretending I belonged there to have a little vacation. For me, that will be the most memorable part of this story.

I had hoped, until the last page, that there would be some great event to top it all off. There were hints of mobsters and secret agents and funny doings with ancient Greek treasures, which yes, played a small part in the ending. But it seemed a long way to come for a story that just petered out.
Other reviews I have read of this book..I had to see if I was the only one not that amused...said that there were Frayn fans and this was, by far, not his best.
So is you are looking for a nice farce..and summer is, I think, ideal for a light and funny farce, perhaps check into some of his other books.

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My thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

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Wordless Wednesday...Animal Farm

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Some animals..some real, some not.

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A local heron...

A pig from Philly..

Some birds from Longwood, Delaware

Well, these shells from Mykonos once had animals in them..

This impressive fellow is from Disney World..

And finally, a Turkish kitty from Istanbul

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...as always, for more Wordless Wednesday, check these out.

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