Shockingly good book

                 To Kill A Mockingbird
                  by Harper Lee
                 audiobook read by Sissy Spacek

The thrill of the unexpected is what keeps me reading and movie going, and the very best thrill comes when I have no idea what I'm about to see.  When I went to see Saving Mr. Banks or Gravity, I had no expectations at all and was wowed by the results.  And when I picked up this book--don't remember why--all I expected was a rather dry courtroom drama with historical significance.

Don't think it for a minute--it's the story of a family.  A girl and her family--and them's the best kinds a' stories.

It was on the high school's reading lists, but somehow missed both kids.  I'm sorry it did, even if all they might have got from it was, "People were weird back then."  But I don't think so--the lessons it teaches are many, both obvious and subtle.  The irony of the teacher who pointed out how wrong it was for Nazis to persecute the Jews while in America, a democracy, all men were free and equal--well, that was pretty much in your face.  The "smaller" lessons in honesty and honor just kind of seeped in, mostly unnoticed.  But there.

One warning--if you grew up in Kentucky and have a tendency to lapse back into southern twang when you're speaking to friends, don't listen to Sissy Spacek's reading of the audiobook.  You'll talk funny for a while.

The China Study Cookbook #14

Asparagus Crepes
I tried cooking yesterday but started way too late in the evening and sporting a bad attitude.  I got one crepe and a bunch of bitter-tasting asparagus.  Either tarragon and lemon are a bad combination, or else the problem was that my tarragon was old and I used lemon juice concentrate?

I guess I can mark that I made the recipe--one serving, anyway--but I don't have a photo to prove it.  I just threw the crepe, asparagus and sauce in a bowl and sucked it down.  Wearily, at nine in the evening.


I will make this one note:  asparagus is too good on its own, simply steamed with the tiniest sprinkling of salt.  It doesn't deserve to be smothered with vegetable broth, onion, garlic, tarragon and lemon.  We ate it but we didn't savor it.

Great book alert

 

The Warmth Of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson follows three Negro families--and millions of other people--through their migration from the Jim Crow South to the crowded cities of the North and West.  Their journeys were painful, dangerous, and heartbreaking; the life they made in the new world was sometimes little different from the old.   But when they crossed the Ohio River, drove through El Paso into New Mexico, or arrived at Washington D.C., they all seemed to sit up a little straighter in their seats.

I knew that schools were once segregated and there were colored balconies in movie theaters, but I never dreamed that some southern states required entire railroad cars to be designated colored or white.  At other times, not the entire car but each group of rows in the car were segregated.  A marker denoted "colored" or "white", and an influx of white riders could cause the marker to be moved back a row at a time, forcing the already-crowded colored riders to move into standing room at the back of the car.

Who could endure such a life?  Many couldn't--this book tells the story of Ida Mae Brandon Gladley, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, all migrants to the north in the years following World War II.  Poor white southerners went north, too--my grandfather and several of my aunts did--seeking jobs in the difficult years of the depression.  The black people also sought jobs...but as often sought dignity, basic human rights, and freedom.

In an incredible feat of research and writing.  It's like three intertwined biographies--imagine how difficult it is to write even one biography well, and Ms. Wilkerson has done three!  It's a fascinating time of history--and a book that's impossible to put down.

Food Styling at its worst

The Thai Wraps from The China Study Cookbook were surprisingly good!  Tofu, a little chopped vegetables, soy sauce and ginger...I don't know what made it happen, but it happened.  They kind of remind me of tuna salad with celery.  Minus the tuna.

I can't even think of anything I'd change.  Maybe I should have used creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy, but crunchy happened to be what I had.  And the peanut butter didn't overpower the dish like in some other recipes I've tried.



I've plenty of leftovers, too!

I wish I'd liked this better

Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion
by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern

Another long anticipated book that turned out to be not nearly as good as expected. Some parts were gripping, like the search for A. M. Barnard...but that occurred halfway through the book.  Both the early sections and the later ones turned out to be slightly dry-ish details of their bookbound lives, their discoveries and disappointments--much of the former and very few of the latter.

I don't know exactly why this shared biography didn't "come alive" for me--it may simply be that I read it while preoccupied with my own affairs, which at present are more composed of disappointments and include very few discoveries.

I'll donate my copy to the library and possibly they'll add it to the collection.  It belongs there.

Seasoned Salt--taste or tragedy?

First, an update on The China Study Cookbook's Tomatillo-Tortilla Bake.  Leftover with a little melted Jack-flavored Daiwa, it's not so bad.  If I ever try it again, I'll use corn tortillas instead of chips and add some chili powder and cumin.



Ree Drummond calls for seasoned salt in her Drop Biscuits and Sausage Gravy recipe, and it got me wondering--what is seasoned salt seasoned with?  The label calls it:
       a unique blend of spices, herbs, and fine-flaked salt.

Below that--holy smokes!--it's a cornucopia!

salt, dextrose, MSG, sugar, spices and spice oils, onion, garlic, paprika, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate (listed as flavor enhancers), yellow #5, yellow #6, blue#2, red#40, tricalcium phosphate, natural flavor (who knows what that is), carboxymethyl cellulose, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, malic acid, citric acid and sodium citrate.

What a mess.  I'm inclined not to use it.  In fact, I'm inclined to throw it in the trash.
I think I'll substitute salt (ingredients: sodium chloride) and pepper (ingredients: dried peppercorns).

Dairy Queen

 Okay, Dairy Queen.

by Catherine Gilbert Murdoch




What I call an excellent teen novel.  Some deep stuff but not overplayed.  Humor and pathos; growing up and NOT repeating the same mistakes over and over; breaking free without breaking hearts...all of it.  It's right up there with Speak, Homecoming, and London Calling on a list of the best teen books I've read.

And, kids--don't let my old woman's enthusiasm scare you away.  It's fun, fun fun! 
Whatever lessons may be taught or morals may be imbued, it's easy enough to shrug them off and just cut loose with DJ as she milks the cows, brings in the hay, and practices football...behind her father's back, of course.