The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake report

Well well, hello ladies, this is Heather M. filling in for Dawn, reporting live from my cozy living room here in little ol' MLT.








It seems a combination of a new venue, a different weekday and a strange book selection converged on the second Wednesday of the month,this June 13, to bring about a small but dedicated gathering of our book club this time. After a small key snafu, we gathered in our new space in the basement of the Bethesda Lutheran church at 6:50 to talk about The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. 

In attendance were: Dawn, our fearless leader, who had another library commitment that particular night (she still is in search of teen reading mentors for her program, know anyone?) but left with a care package of food, Katie S. who brought rare roast beast with horseradish, Lara who whipped up a fruit salad, Karen who made butterscotch pudding with caramel/cone cookies cut into triangles, my daughter Brenna Conwell who made her first cake all by herself-lemony bundt with lemony glaze, and myself who brought a quiche.

 If you read the book, I think you will agree that is was the "weirdest" one so far. Comments ranged from "Why didn't the author explain more about why and how" to "Did it seem to anyone that Joseph might have had Aspergers?" and finally "Why did he like being his grandmother's chair so much?" We all thought that George was the most likable character, but wondered why he became friends with Joe and his sister.

Questions abounded like; why did her gift of tasting start at 9?, why didn't her parents catch on earlier? (especially when it was revealed late in the book that grandpa could smell emotions), was it a genetic thing? and why did grandma constantly send inanimate objects in the mail? We will never know those answers. It was agreed that her style of writing was interesting, especially liked was her habit of utilizing analogies to categorize family members i.e. "Joe is like the dessert, he only needs air, you are like the rain forest, you need lots of water, I'm like the big island of Hawaii, with 12 different climate zones."

So in closing, the general consensus was that it was CREEPY that Joe became a chair, (with that particular passage even to strange for me to read outloud) but liked was the chapter of the romantic and tender way the dad roped in the mom with the velvet footstool gambit. A couple of us wondered out loud if all her writing is this way, maybe one day someone will find out and report back.

Also voiced was the new space and what a good vibe it had, with a huge kitchen containing all the dishes we needed and an industrial dishwasher the speed of light!

Next month we'll be reading Roald Dahl's best known work of literature, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory something we have all watched but probably haven't read. Looking forward to German food, tv dinners, blueberry pie and candy, lots of candy! Everlasting gobstopper anyone?????

Trail of Crumbs report and group update

Sorry about the delay in this month's report.  We've been trying to work out some details about where and when we will be holding future bookgroups and needed to get that worked out.

First, May's book was Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée.  This is a memoir about a woman who was adopted in Korea as a small girl, and raised in Louisiana by a distant parents and foodie grandparents, then later goes on to live all over Europe, building her cooking and writing skills along the way.


Our discussion was small, with only Dawn, Heather, Katie, and Vernetta (I believe?) attending.  Mostly we felt frustrated with the decidedly unsympathetic plight of the author.  While it is understandable she might feel some loss and identity issues with her upbringing, it was hard to hear her complain about her extremely wealthy French boyfriend who adored her and took her shopping and on fancy trips all the time.  If only all of us could go through such tribulations in our 20s!  The food writing was quite appetizing though, and we regretted that this meeting did not featured home cooked food.  We did eat nicely though of a great Vietnamese salad Heather brought, some kim chee, and a  few other snacks.  I regretfully did not take photos or a thorough inventory, alas!


The real meat of the meeting was our discussion about what to do with the bookgroup.  It was decided rather than worry about future policy fluctuation, it would be easiest to move the bookgroup to another private location where we could potluck to our hearts content.  A few suggestions were discussed and it was decided (and later verified) that we would be meeting at the Bethesda Lutheran Church in Mountlake Terrace the second Wednesday of each month.


We are no longer advertising the group, though members are certainly welcomed to bring friends and coworkers who would enjoy it.  The expectation is that everyone attending will me a good effort to finish the book and cook something related to it.

June's title is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender.  We will meet at 6:30 at the church on Wednesday June 13, 2012.


We will no longer have a mailing list through the library, so please sign up for either or Facebook group, or  our Google group page to get on that mailing list.


See you soon!

Botany of Desire report

I was out of the country, so Heather reported on the Foodie Book Group, and Ashley took gorgeous photos: 

An interesting night was had by all at the April 9th "Foodie book Club" meet on the usual second Monday of the month. The subject was man and plants, with some interesting sidelines into the insect kingdom in Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye view of the World.

There were eight regulars: Heather M. Lyn and her mom Deloris, Ashley, Katie S, Karen, Laura, Katie W, my daughter Brenna (12) and a walk in club-crasher who couldn't resist the lure of women, conversation and food, even though she hadn't read the book.

Four women admitted finished the book, the rest either plan on it or lost interest. Pretty dry start to most although the real farmer in our midst loved every word of it. The humor was surprising, as well as the home-spun tale of Johnny Appleseed the first segment. The apple science factoids interesting, the genetics/grafting not so much, although Laura told of a road trip where she read some out loud to hubby resulting in much conversation.

Everyone learned new information and the book was a general hit. Our topics ranged at the normal quick-fire speed from applejack (the top inch is poison when distilled) to pot-busts in Lynnwood and the fact that Snohomish County is more known for potent THC levels than Humboldt County (according to a 4 year old Everett Herald article.) We talked about tulips and potatoes, milk and peanut allergies, how Nutella is the peanut butter of Europe and somebody recommended the DVD Food Inc. as a must see for all.

Excellent food and fun, what more can one ask for at the local library?"



Katie S - pulled pork with red cabbage slaw





Heather M - sausage/potato/kale soup and apple pie

Ashley - apple Parmesan risotto w/almonds & balsamic reduction






Karen T-potatoes Dauphine


Laura-potato skins with Martinelli's cider






Katie W-baked potato soup with accompaniments


 
Lyn brought an apple coffee cake and her mom Deloris made an Austrian dish of potatoes with dumplings in cream.


Wow!!






Next month's book is Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée.  (All copies are currently checked out, but you can place a hold in the catalog using the link).  The book contains some recipes, and the author has more on her blog.  We will be meeting Monday May 14th from 6:30-8:30pm.

See you soon!

The Help report

This month's book was The Help by Kathryn Stockett (the movie of which is also now out on dvd). The group was very excited about this book, and put together a wonderful potluck full of Southern comfort foods. 

Our first impressions of the book were:

• loved it!
• surprised I laughed so much.
• Ending was dark, and a little disappointing, but realistic.

We discussed:

• How cliques and social systems help satisfy the need to belong, but have a darker side also.
• How we are taught how we are supposed to behave around other people, and what a challenge it is to transcend this.  Cecilia is a great example of someone who didn't know how to behave and was punished for that.
• What it was like for those of the group who had "help" of some sort growing up.
• How dysfunctional relationships are at least relationship - today the help is often unseen and has no personal connection.
• How sad much of the parenting was in the book.  Elizabeth was a particularly depressing weak character in this area.
• Which characters we liked best (Abaleen brought out the best in kids, full of love, willing to take risks.  Skeeter went to college not to get a husband, but to learn.  Also unafraid to seek out the support she needed).
• The controversy around the book (which can be further explored at the blog A Critical Review of the novel The Help).

While our discussion was fantastic, the food was even better!:

Sonja K-G - chocolate pie (with REAL chocolate)


Dawn – collard greens (no photo?!)



Karen T. - fried chicken (fried in Crisco!)




Katie W. - caramel cake





Ashley P. - Red Beans and Rice



Vernetta S. - Curried chicken tea sandwiches (as well as curried tofu tea sandwiches.)






Julie D. - spicy shrimp + grits




Heather McN - macaroni salad, bean salad, and sweet iced tea

Brenna (Heather's daughter)– ambrosia salad


Katie S. – devilled eggs, green beans and strawberry cake 

And I'm sorry to admit, I don't remember who brought these delicious peanut cookies! [It was Laura!  Sorry about that.]

Next month's book is The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan.  There are 6 people waiting for this book right now, but we do have one copy left behind the desk just for the Foodie Book Group (as of now).  You can also order the cd from the library, or try your luck with the ebook or downloadable audiobook.  And if you are really having a tough time getting into the book, there is also a dvd based on it you can watch :)

I will be out of town, so Heather McN will be leading.  Please send me links to recipes you use, so I can put them in the blog.  And if someone could take photos of the food, that would be greatly appreciated!

ps...I also mentioned my favorite foodie book of the moment, Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, Recipes.  There are 6 copies in the library system (with 2 holds), but you can also get it surprisingly cheap from half.com.

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!