Cooked

This month our book was Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan.  We had previously read The Omnivore's Dilemma some time ago.

Unfortunately, between the holidays and the length of this book, we had a pretty small turnout, and none of us had finished the book.  But it did bring up some good discussion points.  We discussed:

• How cooking with our families is a big part of our lives.
• Vernetta mentioned how the book made her aware meat and industrial process, to the point that she will be seriously rethinking her shopping patterns.
• Stereotype that the best cooks are men, and thought how wonderful it would be to have a tv show that gave tours of their mom's (or other familial inspiration) kitchens ;)
• How this book could make you a BBQ smokemaster.
• How roasted animals = the smoke is the offering to the gods (priest gets the meat.) Volcano sacrifice, no meat.
• Old hogs vs. new....fed horrible things now.  Mad's pig ate rotten milk from dairies. Cows ate better too.
• Pig story very funny...pet pig got away.
• Teacup pigs - a nice fantasy.
• Fire - bbq - hard to get through if you don't like bbq ;) + manliness and death 
• Water - braising - family and unity 
• Air - bread - Stuff taken out of white bread is sold back to you in vitamins - what a racket!
• Earth - fermentation

Despite having a small crowd, we had a lovely meal and cookie exchange.

 

Vernetta – taco soup








Katie W. –  homemade honey wheat bread / pecan tassies

Madeline - Mexican salad







Sunny S. – German chocolate wafer cookies 












Heather McN – homemade brownies, and frosted sugar cookies


Dawn –  ginger brew and chocolate shortbread stars

Who made the delicious fruit salad???

Next month we are reading The Abundance by Amit Majmudar (all copies are checked out Sno-Isle's catalog, though there were still a few book group copies at the Mountlake Terrace Library last I checked.  You can also find it for 75 cents (plus shipping) on half.com.

Happy holidays!

- Dawn

 

The Dinner

This month's book was The Dinner by Herman Koch, something of a suspense novel / psychological thriller that takes place over the course of one dinner (with a ton of flashbacks).  This wasn't a foodie book, per say, but there was a ton of food reference in the book, so it was no problem for us to come up with a great potluck.

A few people really liked this book, but many of us found it hard to read, despite it being very compelling.  Those who liked it were very interested in the question "how far would you go to protect your child", but those of us who didn't like it found the characters to dislikable and the plot disturbing.  We talked about nurture vs. nature, and the difference between people who are psychopaths or mentally ill, and choices that people make that are just plain bad or maybe even evil.

This book has been compared to Gone Girl a lot, but those who had read both, didn't really see it.  They both have some twists, but this book had more psychotic behavior, while Gone Girl has more "average douche-baggery".  However, the author of Gone Girl writes about women in a dark way that is unusual and more nuanced that you usually find, so it sounds worth reading.

We had some really yummy treats this month!

Rachel - cured meats

Katie S. - awesome salad (I didn't have celery root, so I subbed a combo of jicama and actual celery. And instead of tossing it with the baby greens I scooped it into the little romaine leaves. I think there is a lot of room for improvising. The dressing was really good, I'm happy to say I have a little left over for later this week.)

 Vanessa - sandwich rolls and berries (blue, black, rasp)








Michelle - yummy grape salad




Sonja - macaroni a la carbonara




Katie W. - Cheeses and bread

Barbara - olives and stuff cherry peppers
 

Bobbi - almond cake with raspberry sauce







Julie - cake and raspberries



Dawn - pink champagne and cider
 

Next month we are reading Michael Pollan's Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.   Tons of copies available through the library!

We will also be having our annual holiday cookie exchange, so bring some cookies and tins :D

The Orchardist

This month we had a great discussion (and even greater feast) around The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.  We hoped at a minimum we could make a meal around apples and apricots, but the book proved to be full of all kinds of inspiring food.

Overall people seemed to enjoy reading the book, but found it a bit depressing. It was hard to read all the passages with child abuse (there was true worry the baby would be made into a sex slave), and sad that Della never bonded with the baby.  And it was strange when she checked herself into jail, we concluded between the abuse and the near-hanging, she had sustained both emotional and brain damage.  Most of all people were frustrated that we never found out what happened to his sister...while it was agreed this did make the book all the more realistic and tragic, and did explain his actions in defense of lost Della, it made it feel like a presented mystery had no resolution. 

But there were also many moments of lightness and beauty, such as this delightful quote Katie S. shared with us:

There was lots to love in this book.  The trip to the The Peninsula was lovely. Some of us appreciated how as a cobbled together family, everyone in the book had so much space. We really loved the writing, and the  melancholy tone. The pacing was nice and steady, though slow.   Being Washingtonians, we really enjoyed the references to local towns, and the setting in general.  The descriptions of the orchard were so vivid and full of life.  And we drooled over the crab chowder description, and that of the Christmas dinner with rabbit and chestnut dressing.

 Random quote of the evening: "Cell phones don't protect you from bears."


 The food was SO good this month.  Really one of our best feasts!


Barbara – Autumn Apple Salad with Creamy Maple Dressing

Bobbi - Apple, onion, gruyere puffs

Dawn – Watermelon, pickles, lemon drops, cider

 Heather McN – seafood chowder/bisque and nectarine honey tapioca

Julie - Crab (no photos...but tasty!) and chicken and rice 

Katie S. – raisin buns

Vanessa - Artichoke crab dip and mini carmel "apples" (grapes), bacon wrapped chicken fingers

 Madeline - Pork loin with apples and apricots

 Katie W. – plum cake

 Laura – Cornbread and apple pie and honey butter 

Next month's book is The Dinner by Herman Koch. 

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Can't wait to see what you all think of it...and what you cook!