Wordless Wednesday...Florence, Italy

Back on the train and off to beautiful Firenze...Florence

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View from one of the terraces of our hotel

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They will not let you photograph the original..so here is the copy

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The Baptistry, the Duomo and the Bell Tower

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The newly restored Baptistry doors.

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The Ponte Vecchio bridge on the Arno at dawn

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

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Musing Monday...My Shameful Secret.

Looking forward to Turkey Day?
Sorry, days to wait folks...
First, we must muse this week’s musing, from the desk of Miz B at Should Be Reading asks…

 Do you read the ending before you start a book? Do you ever skip ahead to read the ending? 

Oh my, must all my shameful secrets be revealed?
Is nothing sacred?
Will what happen in 1984 someday come to light?
Oooops....didn't mean to bring that up...

Seriously.. As I think I have mentioned, to great uproar before, I will admit that on occasion, I do in fact read the ending of a book.
Now, before the screams drown me out, let me qualify that statement just a bit.
Read might be too strong a word.
I glance at the ending.
Sometimes.
It is a delicate operation.
I usually just want an idea about one thing or the other.
Does Character X survive? Do Character w and Character Z end up together? Does Character Y get their head cut off?
I do not really want to know Who Done It! No!
I do not want to know the outcome in any meaningful sense!

It is a very, very delicate balance.

Ok, so why do I do it?
Hmmm...Maybe there is only so much anxiety I can take. I must decrease the anxiety..I MUST I TELL YA! 
That could be it.
Maybe.
Or maybe I am just a wee bit nuts.
:-)

Weekend Cooking...Lemons Gelato

You will forgive me if I reuse this photo, won't you? I really like it. I snapped it on my trip to the Amafi coast..Sorrento included..a few weeks ago.
And if you don't know it, Sorrento is known for it's lemons, like those giant ones you see in that picture. Yes, those are regular sized bottles and those are very large lemons.

One use of those very large lemons is to make Limoncello, the delightful lemon liqueur Sorrento is known for.

"Traditionally, it is made from the zest of Femminello St. Teresa lemons, that are also known as Sorrento lemons. Lemon zest, or peels without the pith, are steeped in grain alcohol until the oil is released. The resulting yellow liquid is then mixed with simple syrup."

I actually saw recipes for making your own limoncello, involving vodka, but that seemed a little over the top.
But I was determined to post a Weekend Cooking tied into my Wordless Wednesday post ..have you checked out my photos yet. If not, I can wait a minute while you do...go ahead..
So, if not limoncello, then what?
Well, what else is Italy known for? Gelato!
So, I wondered, how is gelato different than American Ice Cream? It seems to come down to butterfat..more milk, less cream, no eggs...and air..less air in Italian, more in American. Supposedly, gelato machines move the product much slower and whip a lot less air into the final frozen delite.

Off to consult my ice cream bible, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. If I could not make an authentic gelato, I would make do with another lemon product. And it seems I had at least four choices. I could make a granita...shaved ice covered with a fruit liquid or a sorbet...sugar, water, lemon juice frozen in an ice cream machine or a sherbet...milk, sugar and lemon juice, again frozen in the machine...or "Super Lemon Ice Cream".
 I went with the ice cream because who can turn down something called "Super"?

It is a simple recipe.

Lemon Ice Cream
(From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)

zest of 2 lemons

1/2 C sugar 

1/2 C lemon juice 

2 C half and half 

pinch of salt

Put the lemon zest and sugar into the bowl of a food processor and process until the lemon zest is very fine. 
Add the lemon juice and process until the sugar is dissolved. 
Stir in the cream and salt and chill for at least one hour. 
Pour the ice cream base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturers instructions.

Oddly, I think I actually came much closed to my intended gelato, low air % result than I had intended.
I have not used my ice cream maker in awhile but I had left the canister in the freezer. When I turned the freezer as low as it would go in anticipation of a power outage back during Super Storm Sandy. And forget to put it back to normal again again.
It was very, very frozen.
So, as the ice cream churned around, it froze rather hard rather quickly and just did not get as 'whipped' as it usually would have. I think.

Either way it was very easy and very delicious. I had a few spare lemons, so I cut them in half, scooped out the flesh and piped the ice cream into it for a cute little treat. Aren't they cute? And look at the tiny bits of zest in there...hmmmmm..

 

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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 "Suddenly. The Cider Didn't Taste So Good" [90]

Suddenly, The Cider Didn't Taste So Good by John Ford Sr. Islandport Press, ISBN 978-1934031940 April 20, 2012, 200 pages

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Retired Maine Game Warden John Ford has seen it all. He's been shot at by desperate prison escapees, been outwitted by wily trappers, and rescued scores of animals. As a tenacious and successful warden, he was always willing to spend the time needed to nab violators of the state's fish and game laws. At the same time, though, he wasn't a cold, heartless, go-by-the-book enforcer; he usually had a good quip ready when he slipped the handcuffs on a violator, and he wasn't above accepting a lesson learned as sufficient penalty for breaking the law. Ford is also a very gifted storyteller and he writes of his adventures in Suddenly, the Cider Didn't Taste So Good, a collection of true tales, both humorous and serious, from the trenches of law enforcement, and also includes heartwarming accounts of his rescue of hurt or abandoned animals.

What is it with me and Maine Game Wardens?
First, there were the books by Paul Doiron, mysteries set in Maine with the central character being Warden Mike Bowditch..I am reading the third one right now and it is very good!...and now John Ford and his real life experience during a long 20 + history as a warden.
I hear the call of the Maine woods.. ;-)

Let me just say that sometimes fiction is actually more interesting than real life.
This is not a bad book.
A number of the stories are pretty interesting. Some are rather amusing. But honestly, I am not sure if if is the stories or the very direct style Mr. Ford uses to tell them, but it all comes across as just a bit flat to this reader, a bit too mundane. I kept waiting for the hit it out of the park story, the really great story, but for me, it never came along.

I saw other reviews..and really, what is with ALL the five star reviews on Amazon?...that talked about laughing out loud as they read. OK, I giggled a few time, smiled a few, but I don't think I actually laughed. I enjoyed the book. But take into consideration my slight Maine Game warden obsession, I think I might have found this a bit more intersting than the average reader might.

Still for Maine fans, those who like stories about fishing and hunting, especially those individuals who are not above stepping outside the law to persue those interests, this might be a book you would enjoy.

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Wordless Wednesday...the Amafi Coast

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Let's take a day trip, out of Rome. We will go  down past Napoli and Vesuvius, to the beautiful Amafi coast, to Sorrento and Positano.

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the view from the restaurant where we had a delicious lunch

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Anyone for a nice cold Limonicello?

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A brief stop for a gelato and a coffee..

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

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Musing Monday...Book Czar of the World!!

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The world I tell ya!! {insert evil Czar laugh} Ha..ha..ha...ha...haaaaaa

Oh my, what has come over MizB at

Should Be Reading this week?!

She has posted eight questions, all of which were ones offered awhile back when she asked us for suggestions, and has left to us what we choose to answer. Answer one...answer them all...whatever we like.

Personally, I think that is just too many choices for a very early Monday morning. But what is a blogger to do?

Well, I will start with the very best of all the questions.
I truly wonderful question.
OK, I might feel that way because it is mine...lol

If you were Book Czar of the world, is there one book you would like to require every kid to read? Or actually, every adult for that matter.

Well, contrary to what that question might imply, my answer is no.
Maybe once I would have said yes. I am not actually sure what the book would have been but I would have made a few suggestions. But...
Take a book like Island of the World by Michael D. O'Brien, a truly excellent book that I assume the vast majority have never heard of and never read. Part of me would like to force you all to read it..but I realize it is not going to work. Not going to work in the sense of forcing you to read it because I think it is excellent and want you to love it as much as I do. Because while I will argue it is a great book, I also realize many readers would not love it. Some might hate it.

People will like what they like.
And I want them to read what they like...so that they will like reading...and will read more books.
It might depend on their age, or their life experiences, or what sort of things they have read before..or all sorts of factors. Regardless of why, I think especially for new readers or people who are not big readers, the book has to be one that meets them where they are..and them hopefully takes them just a little bit further, a little bit out of themselves. Reading anything is better than reading nothing.

It is kind of strange to think about it (but it is the wee hours of the morning when strange thoughts might come to one's mind) but perhaps over time, if you could force a hypothetical reader to follow a reading plan, maybe you could shape their likes and dislikes and get then to agree with you, to like what are consider Great Books....but that just sounds creepy.
No, as much as I would like everyone to think the books I love are great and that the books I hate are awful, it is not going to happen. Taste differs and ever our own taste in books might change over time. Not even for Book Czar of the World, which, by the way, sounds like a really cool job.
Prime example...The Da Vinci Code..awful book, huge best seller.
And for heavens sake, his name was NOT DA VINCI!

Which I think ties into my second choice in questions, this one from Dr.Pepper Diva.

Do you read outside your preferred genre? Has your preferred genre changed?

I have written about it before, but I love mysteries, have always loved mysteries, will most likely always love mysteries. They are my comfort read. But I really do try to dip into the wide world of books outside that genre. And it is why I think it is important to take up the suggestions of others who love books about something I should read. I read reviews seeing if they can make the case. Maybe I will like it, maybe not, but I think we have to be open to the idea that there are great books out there we might not pick up on our own. But we do, and we like it, and we are maybe just a slightly different person for having read it.
Don't you believe books can do that?

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Weekend Cooking...Panna Cotta

I had been told that it is impossible to have a bad meal in Italy, and while I think that might not be totally true, I will say, from my limited experience, that it is hard. A lot harder than in the U.S.
We had done some research before our trip, looking online for restaurant recommendations in Rome and Florence and Venice...and I am not sure we ended up using any of them. We got some recommendations from the front desks at the hotels, from a couple of our tour guides, a couple were places we had been to before..and we sometimes just stopped at a place that looked nice or was convenient. And most of the meals were very good.
The lovely cured meats, the cheeses, the bread, the tomatoes, the pasta....
And did I mention the pizza? Wow, how do they do that, the perfect crusts, crisp but not dry, the light let flavorful  sauce..awwww.

Well, I am hard pressed to recreate many of these dishes.
But I can try one, a dessert I had in Florence.
We had gone for dinner to a restaurant known for it's wild boar dishes, Osteria del Cinghiale. I had the pasta with a wild boar ragu...delicious. But my supermarket seemed out of boar this week, so I will go with the dessert I had, Panna Cotta with Chocolate sauce.

If I could upload the little video, you could see it jiggle.

I had never had panna cotta and I always like to try some new things at times like this. Creamy, light..and that chocolate sauce was to die for.
So off I went to look for a recipe.
Amazing, the recipe it simple and it is quick and easy to make.
Cream, milk, sugar  and just enough gelatin to hold it together without making it rubbery.



PANNA COTTA

Servings: 8

• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• Oil
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 6 tablespoons sugar 
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Stir to distribute, and set aside to soften 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Wipe the insides of 8 (one-half-cup) ramekins with a light coating of neutral oil and set aside. Half-fill a large bowl with ice and add enough water to make an ice bath and set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar and lemon zest , and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Do not let it boil! Remove from heat, and whisk the very hot milk in the softened gelatin and add the vanilla extract.

4. Set the saucepan in the ice bath  and whisk until the mixture is lukewarm. There should be no grit from undissolved sugar or gelatin.

5. Ladle the mixture into the ramekins and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. If you're going to keep them longer than overnight, cover them with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap gently against the panna cotta to prevent a skin from forming. 

6. About 10 minutes before serving, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the ramekin. Dip the ramekin briefly in a bowl of hot tap water, and then carefully invert onto a serving plate. If the panna cotta doesn't unmold right away, tap the ramekin lightly on the countertop to loosen it. If it still doesn't unmold, return it to the hot water bath for another five seconds and repeat. Panna cotta can also be served without unmolding. 

Very easy.
Well, except the unmolding part. Perhaps I needed more oil on the ramekins.
Perhaps I will just take the easy way out and serve them  in the cups.
Sounds like a plan!

I had no chocolate sauce of the makings of chocolate sauce on hand so I went with some raspberries from my garden I had in the freezer. Add a little sugar, some lemon juice, bring to a boil to melt the sugar and let it cool. Good to go for a nice fruit sauce.

 

I turned the 'bad' side to the back...lol

Unmolding is an issue, so let's try skipping that step. 

Pour it in a nice glass.

 Yes, I think that might be the way to go.

I put some berries in the bottom, poured in the cooled panna cotta and then topped with some berries once it was firm. 

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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 Review of "The Racketeer" [89]

The Racketeer by John Grisham
Doubleday, ISBN 978-0385535144
October 23, 2012, 352 pages

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"I am a lawyer, and I am in prison. It's a long story"

Malcolm Bannister has lost it all.
He was once a small town lawyer, happily married with a young son. Now his is divorced, disbarred and a resident at the Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland for a 10 years sentence, 5 of them still to come.

What did he do? Well, he says that he was only guilty of taking on the wrong client and being a bit naive as to what was going on. But when the client came under federal investigation for some very bad deeds, the feds cast a very wide net and poor Malcolm was caught up in it, charge with money laundering, along with the guilty. Five years later, the appeals are over, there is nothing left to do, except the rest of his time.

Until a federal judge and his girlfriend are tortured and killed in a secluded lakeside cabin, leaving two bodies and an empty safe and not one other clue. The FBI is investigating but every lead quickly goes cold and they are desperate for a break in the case. And then Malcolm steps forward.

He claims to know who killed the judge and what the motive was. And he will be happy to tell the feds in return for them invoking Rule 35, a federal rule that allow a prisoner's sense to be reduced if they provide “substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person.” And Malcolm is the man who know the truth and in return he wants his conviction thrown out, he wants out of jail and he wants a new start in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
And maybe he wants a tiny bit of revenge against the system as well.

That would be all well and interesting, but folks, that is just the first step. Very shortly, after Malcolm's release and the start of his new life, it become apparent that something much bigger and much more complicated is going on, with Malcolm in the lead. And I dare say, until it starts to unroll, you will not have a clue what it is!
I saw one description of this book as wicked clever...and that describes it perfectly.

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John Grisham and I go way back. I read and enjoyed his first few books, but then something happened.
I saw an interview with Mr. Grisham back then where he told that he has signed a contact to write X-number of legal thrillers and although he was bored with the genre, he had to write them to fulfill his contract. He was bored...I, the reader, was bored. And I stopped reading his books. Then, when in Italy, I saw a very positive review of The Racketeer..and then another and another. Perhaps time to give Mr. Grisham another chance and this book did not disappoint.

 I will warn you that at times, things will happen, things will be said, people will do things, that you don't understand. Please, don't worry, it will all become clear soon enough. You just need to see the BIG picture and that will be reveled to the reader, bit by bit, until it all makes sense. Clever, entertaining sense.

Now my sister-in-law, who read the book before I did, had an issues with the ending. Thought it needed a bit more...MORE. I can see her point, although it would not have occurred to me really if she had not said so. Still, while one more big twist, one more clever surprise would have been fun, I was content with the ending as it was, neat and tidy.

 

The Racketeer is a fun, clever romp of a book that I am happy to recommend.And I am very happy to see that Mr. Grisham is back on top of his game!

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Wordless Wednesday...Still in Rome

Still in Rome..so much to see. 

Including the Pope and the cool Swiss Guards. 

And a few other sites.

Get your free ticket..

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..to see the Pope at his weekly audience.

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St. Peter's is big!

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..and the Swiss Guard are cool.

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Stop by the Trevi Fountain

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St.Peter's at night.

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and finish with the Colosseum.

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

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A Review of "Say You're Sorry" [88]

Say You're Sorry by Michael Robotham
 Mulholland Books, ISBN 978-0316221245
 October 2, 2012, 448 pages

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Three years ago, two teenage girls disappeared, and although many leads were followed and extensive searches carried on, no clue of what happen to them was ever found. Did they run away, were they abducted, are they dead? No one knows.

 Then the case breaks wide open. In the middle of a terrible snow storm, the body of a husband and wife are discovered murdered in their farmhouse, the same house that was the home of one of the missing girls. And a body found in a frozen pond not far away turns out to be that of one of the missing girls. Police soon have a suspect in custody, a young man with mental issues who claims his innocence but says he saw the killer, a snowman!

But what of the other girl? Is it possible she might still be alive? Can Joe find her in time?
Police are not hopeful, but pushed one by clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin, back for his 5th installment, the case is reopened. Will they possibly uncover what has happened in time to save a young girl's life?

I have read a couple of the books in this series and this one is a worthy addition. Perhaps not the best, but quite good.
It is a good plot...I did not figure out the "bad guy"...and as always, very well written.
But as with the other books, the heart of the appeal of this book is the character of  Joe O'Loughlin, and the friends and family that will be making repeat appearances.  Back is the story of his off again/on again marriage, his less than perfect relationship with his less than perfect teenage daughter and his always ready to come to the rescue friend and ex-cop Vincent Ruiz. Joe is a very smart man, a very clever psychologist, whose insights are a great help to the police, but of course he is also a very flawed man.
Just like we like our heroes.

He was diagnosed some time ago with Parkinson's disease and that has had a critical effect on his relationships and on his view of life. Physically, he may have his limits but he makes up for it with a very sharp mind.

And then this time around we also have Piper Hadley, one of the two missing girls and one of our narrators.
That certainly gives us a unique and very interesting perspective  on the plot. A quite creepy one as well.

Why then is this not my favorite?
Well, maybe because there was a bit too much of Joe by himself and not enough interaction with his family, especially his wife and Ruiz. For some reason this one just seemed to be mostly Joe on his own and I really think the strength of this series is the interaction that was a bit lacking this time around. Not a deal breaker but for me it took this one from an excellent book, as a couple of the previous ones in the series were, to a very good one.

Still, very good is...very Good!

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My thanks to Library Thing Early Reviewers and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

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Musing Monday.."Brother Can You Spare a Book?"

This week’s musing from the desk of Miz B asks…

What is the most recent book you purchased, or brought home from the local library? What made you pick it? Have you started reading it, right away, or will you wait for a bit?

The last book I borrowed from the library was Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. I requested it..it had to come from another branch...and got it right before I went on vacation and have not started it yet. It is a bad sign that you have to renew a book before you started it.

What made me get it?
Well, I am sure I read a positive review of it somewhere in BlogLand. These days that is the major source of ideas for books to order from the library of books to buy.
I think you find some bloggers whose tastes match your own, whose opinions you trust and they become the major source of my TBR pile growth issues.

Which is one reason I try to make more and more use of my library.

Why I love the library system.

It is not a new love.

No, as I have talked about before it goes way back, to before I was even old enough to get my own library card.

My mother would make her weekly trip to our local branch in Newark, NJ, wee caite's hand in her's, to get her weekly bag of treasures and wee caite would run off to find a couple for herself. It really is a marvelous thing!

I get to read the book and then give it back, adding no more to my book storage issues. And if I really, really love it, I can then go buy a copy to hold in my hot little hands, mine, mine forever.

MINE, I TELL YA!

But you know, I have always wondered about libraries and authors.

If you are a writer and make money by selling books, don't you really  or some level resent libraries?

Sure, I know they can't say that. In fact, many author work to promote support for libraries. But if a library buys one copy of a book and 100 people read it, did you lose 99 sales? OK, maybe not 99...not everyone could afford to buy the book or would not if they had to pay for it, but certainly you lost some number of book sales, didn't you?

Now the question arises with e-books and how libraries are going about 'loaning them. And we see the same sort of loaning model being used.

Weekend Cooking...Let Them Eat Cake! Almond Cake!

Yes, I know, that is not really what Marie said, but I could not help it.

If you read my blog, you know that I just returned from a trip to Italy, visiting Rome, the Amafi coast, Florence, Pisa, the Dolomite Mountains and Venice.
I may mention this again in the future I warn you...lol..and I have just a few pictures.
Maybe a thousand of so.


There are so many great things to remember about the trip.
All the fantastic art.
The architecture.
Historic landmarks.
The scenic views.

The very, very nice hotels....
With their very, very nice breakfasts, one better than the next. Two from lovely rooftop terraces.
The views.
The variety.
The service...
"Good Morning Madam.
Tea this morning?"
Hmmm...maybe a cappuccino? Or hot chocolate? No, a pot of tea it will be, thank you.

Let's check out the buffet.
Grab a plate.

Look at all the fruit. Carved pineapples, fruit salad...did you see the kiwi? Cereals, nuts, yogurt.
The hot dishes...creamy, moist scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon or fried panchetta!

Then we are the cold items.
A lovely variety of meats, ham, salami, prosciutto..and the cheeses.

Not to mention the ever present and ever delicious fresh, creamy mozzarella and tomatoes. A dash of olive oil..some basil...perfection.

Did I mention that view?


Finally the bakery items.
Lovely little rolls, perfect for the French butter and jam.
Or a croissant?
Plain..or for a touch of something sweet, filled with chocolate.
Or a lovely little pastry, so flaky, filled with a fruit filling..is that apricot..peach? Delicious.

Cookies? A tart...or how about a slice of cake?
Cake for breakfast?

Why not?

Did I mention that view?
This picture to the right is from our hotel in Florence and wouldn't any breakfast be better with a view of the Arno flowing by, the rooftops of the city, the Duomo just a short walk away.
As soon as we finish breakfast.

The transition home has been hard. No offers to
get me a hot beverage as a check out the morning selection. Actually, no morning selection!
But we must do what we can.

So when I saw this recipe this week, for this almond cake, I thought, that is something I would have seen in Florence..or Venice or Roma....
I set a-baking!
So now I will have a slice. Make a  cappuccino in my Tassimo.
Look at my photos.
And pretend... ;-)

 Almond Cake (From Sassy Radish)

• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon (312 grams) granulated sugar
• 7 ounces (198 grams) almond paste 
• 16 tablespoons (227 grams) unsalted butter, softened 
• 4 large egg yolks 
• 1/2 tablespoon (7 ml) almond extract 
• 1 cup (226 grams) sour cream 
• 2 1/4 cups (283 grams) all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) kosher salt 
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting, optional

1. With the rack positioned in the middle, heat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. In a food processor fitted with a blade process the sugar and almond paste until combined. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the almond mixture to the butter and mix on high speed until well incorporated. Set the mixer to medium speed and add the yolks, one at a time, mixing well, well after each addition until each yolk is incorporated. Add the sour cream and the almond extract and mix until incorporated. Set the mixer to low speed and add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches, until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix.

 3. Transfer the batter to the pan, and using a spatula, smooth out the top. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack, and let rest for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto the rack. Let cool for 1 hour. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if you like, before serving.

Makes 1 (9-inch) cake; serves 8 to 10.

 

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Happily, I had almond paste on hand, so I was good to go. Just dig out the spring form pan, and yes, hmmmmm...I had some parchment paper. Sour cream was all I was missing. A trip to my WaWa and we shall begin.

The post on Sassy Radish warned that this cake sinks a bit in the middle, as it did in the East Village cafe, the Bluebird Coffee Shop, where she first saw it and begged for the recipe. She thinks it makes it look cozy. But I did not drop mine and break it in half as she sadly did. Not that it would effect the taste.

I made only one change to the recipe and that was the topping. In the original, she suggested dusting with powdered sugar, which would be lovely, and much like the cakes you see on that buffet. But, I decided to make a little glaze and then top it with toasted sliced almonds..because the more 'almondy' goodness, the better.

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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 "Gone Girl" [87]

Gone Girl By Gillian Flynn
Random House Audio, ISBN 978-0385366755
 July 24, 2012

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When we first meet Nick and Amy, they are riding high.
We hear how they met and fell in love, married and started life in New York City, living in a charming town house. He is a magazine writer, she writes quizzes, maybe not their dream jobs but very nice. Even when he gets laid off in the bad economy, they do not panic. They have Amy's trust fund from the books her parents wrote about a cute little girl based on Amy when she was little to fall back on.

But then things start to go downhill very quickly, and they are compelled to move back to Nick's hometown in the Midwest, a place that is itself down on it's luck.
Then, on the morning of their 5th wedding anniversary, Amy disappears and soon Nick looks like the number one suspect.

But what has really happened? Has there been foul play. Or has something very different happen. Is Nick guilty...well, it is soon clear he is certainly guilty of something! But the more you read, less and less sure will you be of everything you thought at first. Bit by but, everything you though you knew about these two is turned on it's head, as we listen in on Nick's present day narrative of what is going on as the investigation starts and as we read excerpts from Amy's diary from years ago up to the present. Just when you think you have a handle on what is going on, Flynn slips in a line that has you saying, "What?? Wait a minute..WHAT??" and turning everything on it's head. Very clever...and that is all I will say about the plot! Maybe I have already said too much. But I must convince you to read it if you foolishly have not yet.

I am, as is often true, late to this book, but I was waiting to get it on audio from my library. And while I am no audio expert, I though this was quite well done. My only complaint is that I was listening to it in the car and my commute is way to short for a really good book. And yes, as just about every review out there has said, this is a Really Good Book. I love a good thriller but this is way beyond your typical good thriller. Dark and clever and more than a bit disturbing in a very, very real way.

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