Opening Sentence of the Day: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

I was born in San Francisco, California.

 -- The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

This is one of those books that I have always meant to read but never have. The title is misleading.  Obviously, it is not an "autobiography" because Toklas didn't write it, her partner Stein wrote it. It is about both of their lives, not just a biography of the one. And it may be partly fictional, I'm not sure.

I am only about 50 pages into it and I love it.  It's like falling down a rabbit hole and waking up in pre-WWII Paris -- Montmarte, to be exact.  Here's Picasso and Cezanne and Duffy and they are all gathering at Stein's atelier and looking at paintings at salons and having dinner parties.

This book is on several of the lists I am working on: Erica Jong's list of Top 100 Novels by Women, the Radcliffe list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, and my own French Connections list.

Teaser Tuesday: Banker

All the snooty teenage scorn I'd felt for "money-grubbing," all the supercilious disapproval of my student days, all the negative attitude bequeathed by my failure of a father, all had melted into comprehension, interest and finally delight. The art of money management now held me as addicted as any junkie, and my working life was as fulfilling as any mortal could expect.

--  Banker by Dick Francis.

This quote epitomizes what I enjoy about Francis's novels: he takes someone in a job no known for its pizazz (merchant banking in this case), creates a gentlemanly hero who enjoys and takes pride in his work, and weaves an exciting story around all of it, so that the reader comes to find the profession to be very interesting. 

I also like how he says the hero is as fulfilled by his work as any mortal "could expect" -- not going to to go overboard and say the guy is as fulfilled as any mortal could wish or hope. It is fiction, not fantasy.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Passages to the Past is hosting in April. Please visit Amy's entertaining and comprehensive blog devoted to historical fiction.

I went to Idaho last week for work and came back with a suitcase full of books.

First, the waiter at my dinner restaurant in Sandpoint turned out to be an author named Sandy Compton who has self-published several books. We had an interesting conversation about self-publishing and he gave me copies of his books:

Side Trips from Cowboy (his most recent book, a collection of personal essays, which looks very interesting)

Archer MacClehan & the Hungry Now (an earlier novel, sort of a contemporary Western adventure)

Jason's Passage: From the Blascomb Family Chronicles (his first book, a collection of three related short stories)

Second, I went to the main library in Coeur d'Alene where they had a great library book store:

The Group by Mary McCarthy (on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 novels by women)




The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (on the BBC Big Read list)



Overdrive by William F. Buckley, Jr. (an early memoir)




Corridors of Power by C. P. Snow (one of the Strangers and Brothers series)

Cookbook Library: With a Jug of Wine

With a Jug of Wine: An Unusual Collection of Cooking Recipes by Morrison Wood, "well known food columnist" -- it says so right on the cover.

I added this book to my cookbook library several years ago, excited to have found it at the big San Francisco library book sale at Ft. Mason (my favorite book event of the year when I lived in SF).  It is vintage and kitschy and I am excited to finally read it.

The book is organized like a regular cookbook, but pulls heavily from Wood's newspaper columns, which seem to have been written in the 1940s.  It was first published in 1949.  Mine is a 1961 "printing," but I do not think the content changed.

The recipes are short and simple, but interesting.  These are not the typical church supper recipes so prevalent in vintage cookbooks.  They are recipes Wood gathered from famous restaurant chefs of the day, caged off his friends, or concocted himself.

Wood introduces each recipe with a short essay describing the history of the dish or an amusing anecdote about the recipe.  The essays are full of high spirits and WWII-era joviality.  For example:

I think most Americans would shudder at the thought of eating squid, although the meat is twice as sweet as lobster and as delicate as frogs' legs. Let me urge you to unshudder and take a chance on squids a l'Amoricaine.

I'm a big fan of squid myself, and frogs' legs for that matter.  So he caught my attention with this one.  I love fried calamari (of course -- it's fried) and grilled, and have tried both at home without much success.  Braising squid is a much easier way to prepare this creature at home.

I have a basic braised calamari recipe from Cucina Rustica by Viana La Place, that is very tasty and easy to make, but I wanted to try something new.  Wood's recipe is similar, but uses white wine, a little brandy, and calamari steaks instead of tubes and tentacles.

I cut the recipe in half.  Here it is as in the book. 

SQUIDS L'AMORICAINE 

3 lb. squids
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 ounces brandy
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
3 carrots
1/2 bay leaf
pinch thyme
pinch oregano
1 cup solid-pack tomoatos
salt
pepper
1 cup dry white wine

INSTRUCTIONS (paraphrased): Start with three pounds of cleaned squid. Cut into "small cubes or strips."  I cut the steaks into 2" squares that did a shrinky-dink thing when cooked -- they shrunk to 1" square but plumped up to about three times as thick.

Lightly brown the chopped garlic in olive oil, then add squid, cover, and saute for about 10 minutes. Uncover and pour the brandy over the squid.  Light the brandy, let it burn out, then simmer for about 3 minutes.

Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, herbs, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Stir in the wine, cover, and simmer until squid is tender when tested with a fork (30 to 45 minutes).

Serve over boiled rice. Although I think toasted Italian bread is also very good.

NOTES:  This was delicious.  The steaks worked better for me than rings.  The calamari was very tender and sweet.  Yummy!  The only thing I didn't care for was that I used dry vermouth for the wine because I didn't have any other white wine and it made the dish slightly bitter. Hubby didn't notice, but I did.


This is the second of the books I'm reading for the Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Thanks go to Beth Fish Reads for hosting a very fun weekly event:

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Review of the Day: Cold Mountain

 

Charles Frazier won the National Book Award for Cold Mountain, his Civil war novel about a Confederate deserter and the woman waiting for his return.

Most of the book follows the two stories separately. Innman musters himself out of the army after he was injured in battle. Working his way home to Cold Mountain, he encounters Federal raiders terrorizing women and children, Home Guard vigilantes hunting deserters, remnants of families trying to survive the war, and a few misfits and eccentrics whose off-kilter lifestyles seem unaffected by the conflict. The damage inflicted on his soul and psyche as a result of these adventures is profound.

Playing Penelope to Innman’s Odysseus, Ada Monroe keeps the home fires burning back at her Cold Mountain farm. Left helpless by the death of her courtly father, Ada learns the value of hard work from her new companion, the no-nonsense Ruby. The story of the two women raising crops, making cider, trading for supplies, splitting firewood, and generally preparing for a long winter is deeply satisfying to anyone with a nesting instinct.

Both the characters and the themes are thorny, making the story one worth pondering. Frazier’s writing is graceful, even lyrical, and he has an ear for rural analogy that brings life to the setting. Part adventure story, part romance, and part moral treatise, Cold Mountain is an incredibly good book.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

This was one of my National Book Award choices for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, challenge.