Medium Raw report

This month's book was Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain.   We had a guest from Houston (hi David!) who found us through our Yelp posting!

Our response as a group was pretty mixed.  While there were a few die-hard fans of "Tony" in the group, most of us found the book inconsistent and sometimes annoying.  Many chapters were quite good (especially the one about the man who prepares fish for the fancy fish restaurant), but others were poorly written.

Negative responses:

• Didn't care.
• Whines too much.
• Hypocritical and dishonest feeling.
• Gratuitous bad language wears after a while.
• Didn't connect with much of what he was saying, until the end, when he wrote about the terror of debt.
• Talks too much about drugs.
• What was the point?

Positive:

• Introduced readers to some areas the were not familiar with.
• Enjoyed digs against television celebrities.
• Love the bit about dancing with his daughter, and finally growing up (in his 50s!)
• Liked his suggestion about requiring home ec in schools again.
• Makes lots of interesting points, just in little bursts.

Food was random, as the book didn't really inspiring easily attainable cooking for the most part.  So we just made what we like.

Vernetta: green salad with a homemade Almond Balsamic Vinaigrette:







Heather McN: french scalloped potatoes with ham








Julie D: saffron rice w/chicken






Dawn: shrimp salad stuffed tomato appetizer

Karen: Deviled eggs and yummy cookies

Carol: Mr. Bordaine's mushroom soup and salted peanut butter cookies

David from Houston: smoked salmon

Katie W: carrot cake

Laura: Chocolate Mousse

Next month we will be meeting on Monday March 12, 2012 from 6:30-8:30pm.  We will be discussing Kathryn Stockett's popular book The Help, which was recently made into a movie.

While this isn't a specifically foodie book, it is a wonderful read with lots of great Southern cooking (and one intentional disaster).  

This book is still in very high demand, so you won't be able to get it through our catalog anytime soon...but we do have a limited number of copies at the Mountlake Terrace Library just for Foodie Book Group members.  Just go to the front desk to pick up your copy today.  There are also some cookbooks on African American and Southern cooking available at the front desk if you need ideas!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand report

What a lovely meeting we had this week!  We kept having to add more tables, as more and more folks kept arriving, and we ended up with 14 for the discussion. We had everything from meat pies to curries, and a lovely variety of tea sweets!

But first the book.  Pretty much everyone loved this one (as I predicted...I adore it!)   It was felt that it was SO English, playing both off stereotypes and familiar stories, but branching out in surprising new directions too.  The American characters didn't feel very realistic to the group.  But the setting and story felt real and really came to life for the readers.  As readers, we were charmed by the role reading played in the book.  As romantics, we loved the idea that one could find such a wonderful love later in life.  As foodies, we had a lot of fun making both English food and some spicier stuff to capture both sides of this cozy book filled with serious issues.

Heather Mc. - curried meatballs with saffron rice

Carol L. - Curried Chicken Salad+ Fried Won Ton Wraps with Hot Mustard










Julie D. – Meat pies






Karen T. - chickpeas and potatoes in a pomegranate molasses sauce.






Katie S. – chicken legs + carrots and peppers
    

Katie J. - Yorkshire pudding/popovers

Karen W. - gluten-free, Almond Flour Dark Chocolate Chip Scones

Carol J - English Sticky Toffee Pudding







Dawn – scones and homemade lemon curd







Laura H. - lemon cake with tea





Tania Z-G - Kendall Mintcake

Vernetta S. - toasted oat and raisin biscuits

Heather C. - punch

Nicole – newbie...hooray!




Next month we are reading Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain.  We've had lots of request to read one of Mr. Bourdain's books, and I'm glad we were finally able to get enough copies of one to make this work.  I'm very much looking forward to reading this, and discussing it with you!  Right now there are four copies left for checkout at the Mountlake Terrace Library front desk, and two copies of the downloadable audiobook available!

We will meet on Monday February 13th at 6:30pm.  Looking forward to seeing you there!

Sweet Revenge report

This month's book was Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson, the 14th book in the mystery series starring caterer Goldie Schulz.  Not many of us had read books from this series, and we had a variety of reactions.  Some folks found the book delightful...fast paced and fun entertainment.  Others found it annoying...especially the fast talking, obsessive, nosy, and redundant narrator.  Everyone seems to have enjoyed the food references, and folks felt her descriptions of the caterer life seemed right on the ball.

Sonja G - Got-a-Hot-Date Bars








Katie W – Pina Colada Muffins







 Madeleine - Prudent Potatoes au Gratin







 Tania Z-G - Chicken Divine








Dawn – Stylish Strawberry Salad







Laura H - Enchiladas







Carol L - Chicken Divan







Julie – Swedish Meatballs (from Chopping Spree)

Karen T. – mac and cheese casserole

We also did a terrific cookie exchange!

Sonja G - Chocolate-Peppermint Thumbprints
Katie W – Russian tea cakes + spritz
Heather McN - chocolate chip cookies
Karen T. – chocolate buttermilk bars and toffee bars
Madeleine - sugar cookies
Tania Z-G - ginger pumpkin cookies, candy cane cookies
Dawn – white chocolate topped gingerbread cookies
Laura H - coconut bon bons
Carol L - Sugar cookies + Brown sugar Shortbread cookies
Julie – cake balls + sugar cookie

Next month we are reading one of my favorite books of the last few years, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the village of St. Mary, England, until his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But will their relationship survive in a society that considers Ali a foreigner?  

It is not so much a foodie book, as a great book that features a decent amount of food, but I think we will enjoy discussing and digesting its flavors.  See you on Monday January 9th at 6:30!

Life of Pi & Pie Night report

This month we explored a totally different sort of food book...one that focused on the essentials of food for survival!  Admittedly, Life of Pi by Yann Martel is not particularly foodie, but the group really wanted to have a night celebrating pie and we've found just discussing cookbooks doesn't fill up a whole meeting!

Life of Pi was full of things for us to discuss.  For most of us, it took a little while to get into at first.  The idea of a boy in a boat with a tiger was a bit freaky, and the first 100 pages were a bit dry with heavy religious writing, but everyone who read/skimmed their way past that found the rest of the book very satisfying.

We had a great discussion about Pi's determination to explore three religions simultaneously.  The main lessons folks drew from this was that there are beautiful parts of all religions, and like with the plot of the book, we all have to choose for ourselves what is meaningful.  As one insightful reader observed, we want to find the truth in what he is saying...regardless of which religion it is coming from or how likely his story.


Things people liked about this book:

• the description of how animals like their territory, and their need for space and food.
• thinking about sparsity as a foodie issue.
• the sheer imagination of it all...where does the author get these ideas?
• the description of Pi's life in the current day, how it celebrates life, love and God.
• Chapter 22 - (The author's summary of religion) "I can well imagine an atheist's last words: 'White, white! L-L-Love! My God!'-and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, 'Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,' and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story."
• the detail of the writing, though sometimes it was gruesome it was always fascinating (like Wild Kingdom in the 1970s!).

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom opening:



Things people disliked:

• Couldn't stay awake reading it!
• The zebra took WAY too long to die (while some liked the very biological description, it pained others to read about animal suffering).

Our pie potluck was WONDERFUL!

Tania made traditional meat pies, and her daughter Tatiana made a lovely squash pie.

Sheri made a spinach-ham pie, and Katie S. made a spanakopita (Greek spinach pie).









Heather made a shepherds pie, and Karen made a beef pot pie.

Heather McN made a spicy pumpkin pie, and Laura also made pumpkin pie (can't get too much of that!)

Katie G. made a peanut butter chocolate pie, and Carol made a delicious and beautiful pie that was very sweet (but I can't recall what type!)








Last, but not least, Katie W. made a delicious Hoosier Pie:

Madeleine brought cevich in the spirit of the book (to remember the story and feel a part of it) and her friend Paul.

And I brought salad and milk to wash down all that pie!

Other tidbits from our meeting:

• Folks wanted to know more about the author. Here is his Wikipedia page.
• There is a new foodie bookstore in the Fremont area of Seattle!  It is called Book Larder and offers classes and author events. 
• Carol recommended the book 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late: and the Very Best Places to Eat Them.
•  Katie S. suggested we check out Maman's Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an AmericanKitchen by Donia Bijan, and it looks like the author will be at Book Larder on December 7th!  Field trip?

Next month's book is Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson, a foodie mystery with a holiday theme:

Catering a holiday breakfast for the local library staff, Goldy Schultz is shocked to see a supposedly dead woman who is believed to be Goldy's ex-husband's killer, an encounter that precedes the murder of a high-end map dealer.    

We have copies at Mountlake Terrace Library, and there are many in the system!   This should be a fun light read just perfect for the busy month of December.  And we will be doing a cookie exchange, so bring a batch of your holiday favorites and a container to bring some sweet treats home in!  We will be meeting Monday December 12th at 6:30pm.