A Visit to the New York Public Library

When I travel to other cities, I always try to take a tour and visit a bookstore or library. I've been in New York City for a few years now, and finally got around to taking the New York Public Library Tour at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

The building is just gorgeous, with the two lion statues, Patience and Fortitude, standing regal guard outside. Our guide was Robin, a library docent. She took us first to the Dewitt Wallace Periodical Reading Room, which has several paintings of famous publishing houses. It is so gorgeous there, with warm wood on the walls, and the golden glow of the table lamps.

The Dewitt Wallace Periodical Reading Room

The Rose Reading Room

The ceiling is wooden in the Reading Room

We walked through the marble walled halls, and Robin told us that the main library on 5th Ave. & 42nd St. is a research library; only the children's library is a circulating library, where you can check out a book. She showed us the stacks, hidden from the public, which go vertically for seven floors up and four floors below Bryant Park.

When you need a book for research, you fill out a call slip in the Rose Reading Room, give it to the librarian. An assistant will take the slip, find the book in the stacks and return it to the desk for pickup. It generally takes 1/2 hour, unless the book has to come from another place; then it can take up to 48 hours.

We also saw the marble from the Croton Reservoir, which was originally on the library site. 

Upstairs there are several collections, featuring such items as a desk and two chairs, owned by Charles Dickens, items from Jack Kerouac, Virginia Woolf and other literary lions.

There is an exhibition of items celebrating the 100 years of the New York Public Library, founded by Samuel J. Tilden, who donated $2.4 million to build the library. The collections of of James Lennox and John Jacob Astor were donated to begin the library, and there is a display dedicated to these three men.

The exhibition is fascinating, with such items as cuneiform tablets from 2400 BC, the first Guttenberg Bible brought to America, a gorgeous huge book of bird illustrations by John Audubon,  two copies of Shakespeare's King Lear from the 1600s, an early copy of St. Augustine's City of God, Virginia Woolf's walking stick and her journal, open to the last entry she made days before she committed suicide, and too many more to name. 

I took the exhibition tour too (12:30  & 3:30 weekdays), which shares highlights of the 250 items. I want to go back to visit it more in detail on my own. The 100 year exhibition ends March 4, 2012.

On the way out, Robin directed us to look at the plaque on the floor near the entrance honoring Martin Radtke. He was an immigrant who came to this country from Germany, worked as a gardner on Long Island, and frequently took the train into the city to visit the library. He wanted to learn about stocks, and he made so much money trading stocks, he donated a large sum to the NYPL. Learning can make you rich in more ways than one, kids.

If you ever find yourself in NYC on a rainy or snowy day, consider taking the library tour; it was so interesting and informative. And the building is gorgeous to boot.

Sunday Gravy and Macaroni

When we lived in Auburn, I used to make a big pot of this homemade sauce with meatballs and sausage; my husband and sons loved it, and it was perfect for a big Sunday family dinner. (I told my younger son I was making tonight and he said "oh, I love that" wistfully; poor guy is  2 1/2 hours away at college.)

As I am not Italian, my mother did not teach me how to make 'gravy', or sauce, as we non-Italians called it. This recipe came from Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Get-togethers cookbook, and it is truly easy and tasty. Once you've made your own homemade sauce, oops gravy, you'll never go back to store-bought.

Now I pair it with fresh made penne pasta from Agata & Valentina, and that ups the taste level too.
Since it's supposed to be cold and snowy tomorrow, I'm hoping there will be leftovers for meatball subs for dinner the next day.

Rachael Ray's Sunday Gravy and Macaroni- from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, for both meats and sauce
• 3 thin cut pork loin chops, 1/2-inch thick, cut in 1/2
• Salt and pepper
• 2 each sweet and hot Italian sausage links
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, for moderate to spicy marinara
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped, 3 for sauce, 2 for meatballs
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls of leaves
• Several leaves fresh basil, torn or chopped, a handful
• 1 pound meat loaf mix, ground beef, pork and veal combined, from butcher counter
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, 2 handfuls, plus extra for tossing pasta and to pass at table
• 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs, 3 handfuls
• 1 loaf crusty Italian bread, for serving

Directions

Heat water for pasta to boil. Salt and cook pasta 7 to 8 minutes, to al dente.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat a deep skillet or medium heavy bottomed sauce pot over medium high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Halve sausages. Add 1 tablespoon, 1 turn of the pan, extra-virgin olive oil to pan or pot. Place chops in pan or pot and brown 2 minutes on each side, remove. Add another tablespoon oil, 1 turn of the pan, and sausages. Brown sausages 2 minutes on each side and transfer to plate with pork. Add pepper flakes, 3 cloves chopped garlic and onion to the pot and saute 1 minute. Add broth to the pan and scrape up drippings. Add tomatoes and herbs and bring sauce to a bubble. Add meats back to the pot and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer sauce until ready to serve, 12 to 15 minutes.

Combine ground meat, egg, remaining 2 cloves chopped garlic, 1/3 cup cheese, and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper and roll into balls, 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. Place balls on nonstick cookie sheet. Roast meatballs 10 minutes, then slide into Sunday sauce and turn off oven. Add bread to oven to crisp crust.

To serve, place pork, sausages and meatballs on serving dish. Pour 1/2 of the sauce into a serving dish to ladle over pasta and meats at the table. Toss cooked spaghetti with remaining sauce in sauce pot, adding a few handfuls of grated cheese to the pot as you toss it. Transfer pasta to a serving dish.

Manga!

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food!

First You Try Everything by Jane McCafferty

First You Try Everything by Jane McCafferty
Published by Harper Collins ISBN 978-0-06-621062-9
Hardcover, $24.99

Ben and Evvie have been together since college and married for many years. They are Bohemian kind of people; music is an important part of their lives, and they used to own a pushcart, from which they sold organic food.

Now in their early forties, Ben has an 'adult job' and wears a suit to work. Evvie volunteers at animal shelters and protests the war. She can't seem to get motivated to follow-through on anything. This marriage is on a collision course that Ben sees, but Evvie doesn't. Early on, Evvie is playing a song over and over again while Ben is trying to pay the bills. He asks her to turn it off, because he is "trying to get things in order." This is symbolic, as Ben is moving to get his life in order, but Evvie is happy just to do the same thing over and over again.

Ben tells Evvie he is leaving her, and she cannot comprehend what is happening. He has met a woman at work, and begins an emotional affair with her that turns physical once he leaves Evvie. Evvie can't accept that her marriage is over, and does crazy things to try and get Ben back, including dragging a ladder from her home to his new apartment and climbing in his bedroom window. She gets more and more desperate, and sets in motion a dangerous plan that threatens them both.

I didn't really like the characters in the story. I couldn't relate to Evvie at all; she seemed a bit crazy, and I understood why Ben wanted out. The story is told from alternating perspectives- Ben, Evvie, and for some reason, Ranjeev, the Indian man who works at the convenience store and whom Evvie is fascinated by, gets a chapter of his own. Some of the minor characters, friends of Ben and Evvie and Lauren, the woman Ben falls in love with, seemed more interesting to me than Ben and Evvie.

That said, the writing itself is elegant. I liked some of her observations, such as, "People forget that another person is a complete mystery...People start figuring each other out, solving them like a puzzle, then getting mad or bored. I mean, people should never be solved."  A friend of Ben's talks about how difficult life with kids is by saying "let's just say I feel like most of me is shelved away at least half the time."

At one point, Evvie tries to face what has happened. "This is your life Evvie", and she froze in the rocking chair and understood that life had happened without her. She had somehow lived the life but had not been present for any of it, and now it was over. She rocked in grief that could not be contained by her body."

This is a sad book, about the end of a marriage between two people who loved but grew apart. If I had identified more with the characters, I probably would have felt more empathetic. I did like that the ending tied things up, showing us Ben and Evvie in the future.

rating 3 of 5 stars

For another look at a long term marriage that ends suddenly, read Lily Tuck's I Married You For Happiness

The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess

I was on my way to see Justin Kirk, whom I have deemed 'the nicest guy in show business' in Other Desert Cities on Broadway, when I stopped by the TKTS booth because there was no line at 11am on Wednesday. Gotta love January.  They had Porgy and Bess at 40% off, and since I really wanted to see Audra McDonald on Broadway,  a change of plans was in order.

I have never seen Porgy & Bess; not on stage, not the movie version. I kinda knew the basic story, and that there has been some controversy over this incarnation of the show, and that probably added to the 'must-see' factor for me.

The story takes place on Catfish Row in Charleston, North Carolina in the 1930s. Catfish Row is a community of African-Americans, fishermen and cotton pickers. The opening song, "Summertime", sung by Nikki Renee Daniels and Joshua Henry, is iconic, and they set the tone for this wonderful show.

The ensemble break out into song and dance, "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing", "Crap Game" and "Gone, Gone, Gone", their voices filling the theater, communicating to the audience their sense of community.

What struck me was the similarity between Porgy & Bess and the last show director  Diane Paulus brought to Broadway- the revival of Hair! In both shows, the ensemble plays a key role. Community is important; the band of hippies in Hair! and the residents of Catfish Row in Porgy & Bess are both a large family for people on the outskirts of the mainstream society.

The casting is perfect. Audra McDonald gives such a raw, stunning performance as Bess, and her voice is awe-inspiring. Bess is a character who has such a dramatic arc- from drug-addicted tramp to loving companion and friend to traumatized victim and beyond- and you see all of these embodied in McDonald's face and body and voice. It is a performance for the ages.

Norm Lewis, who has one of the finest voices around, plays Porgy as a man transformed and tormented by love. Porgy also has a long, tortured journey, and Lewis amazes the audience with his interpretation.

I knew that David Alan Grier could act (I last saw him in the Broadway play Race), but I did not know that he had such a powerful singing voice. His "It Ain't Necessarily So" and "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon" brought down the house. He played the character of Sporting Life like a well-dressed snake in the Garden of Eden, tempting Bess as if she was Eve. He earned his standing ovation at the end of the show.

There are other wonderful performances- Philip Boykin, who played the brutal Crown was so evil, he actually got booed at curtain call. The actors who played the white policemen who harass the residents and beat Porgy also got booed. I have never seen an audience so into a serious show as this one that they booed the bad guys. Mariah, the matriarch of Catfish Row, was played powerfully by the amazing NaTasha Yvette Williams.

The dancing was fabulous too; I overheard someone say it reminded them of Alvin Ailey, and I second that description. I especially enjoyed the opening number of Act Two. It was so joyous!

The classic music, by George and Ira Gershwin, is performed by a joyous, pitch-perfect cast. When McDonald and Lewis sing "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" and "I Loves You, Porgy", I teared up (and I wasn't the only one.) I knew I was witnessing something special, something I would never forget.

Whatever the controversy, I was moved by the story, the music, and the luminous performances, and to my mind, that is what great theater is all about. Go see it for yourself.

The Pittsburgh Steelers - The Official Team History by Abby Mendelson

The Pittsburg Steelers- The Official Team History by Abby Mendelson
Published by Taylor Trade Publishing ISBN 978-1-58979-668-3
Soft cover, $29.95

With the Superbowl but a few weeks away, today's book review is The Pittsburgh Steelers- The Official Team History  by Abby Mendelson. The Steelers have won six Superbowls, more than any other franchise in history.

I'm not a huge football fan; usually I read and cook dinner while the guys watch the games on Sunday. But one of my son's is a Steelers fan, and I do remember back in the 1970s when I was a kid, how exciting it was to watch Terry Bradshaw and the Steel Curtain play.

Mendelson was a sports reporter in Pittsburgh, and this book is pretty comprehensive. He starts out with a chapter on Art Rooney, called the Chief, the man who purchased the Steelers franchise (then called the Pirates, like the baseball team) for $2500 during the Great Depression.

The Rooney family still owns the Steelers, and Rooney's son Dan followed in his footsteps. Art Rooney became a beloved figure in Pittsburgh, but he retained his common man touch. If anyone needed a few dollars or a kind word, he gave it. Yet he was tough with his own children, believing in corporal punishment.

Mendelson paints a vivid portrait of the fascinating Rooney, interspersing photos and anecdotes throughout the text. He doesn't seem to meet an anecdote he doesn't like about Rooney, filling the text with several similar anecdotes about his various kindnesses to players and others. Less could have been more in this regard.

The Steelers are unique in that the same family has owned the franchise since 1933. That quality also extended to the coaches for the Steelers; they tended to stay a long time as well. Two successful coaches for the Steelers- Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher- are also profiled in great detail.

Although both coaches were successful, each winning Superbowls, they had very different coaching styles. Noll was a product of the 1950s, and he expected that his players would go out and do their job, without much praise from him. Noll "was all business; he came to get the job done, he came to win". He coached the Steelers from 1969-1991, through some disastrous seasons and some legendary years.

Cowher followed Noll in 1992, but he was a much more emotional coach. He believed in talking to the players, getting to know them.  Like Noll, he believed that having a good work ethic was key, that practices were important, and getting the most of out each player would lead to success.

I particularly enjoyed the section on the 1970s Steelers, when they dominated the league with such incredible talent as Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, Mean Joe Greene, and Rocky Bleier. There is a very shocking photo of three linebackers- Andy Russell, Jack Ham and Jack Lambert- who each weighed about 220 pounds. Today, high school linebackers weigh 250+.

I also liked the section on the Steeler fans, especially on the bars near the stadium that cater to them, places like Froggy's and Owney McManus'. They are die-hard fans, and some of those anecdotes about them are priceless.

This is the fourth edition of the book, but it seems like the latest incarnation of the Steelers, who won the Superbowl XL in 2006, get short shrift. Mendelson does recap every game of that season, but the 2006-2010 Steelers only get one chapter. We don't really get to know Coach Mike Tomlin and quarterback Ben Rothlisberger as well as their predecessors.

The Pittsburgh Steelers- The Official Team History overall does a great job documenting one of the most legendary franchises in all of sports. From their rocky start and many losing seasons to the record-breaking six Superbowl trophies, from the fascinating owner Art Rooney to incredible coaches Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher to unforgettable players like Joe Greene, Franco Harris and Ben Rothlisberger, this book covers it all with amazing photos, anecdotes and a storied history. It's a must-have not only for Steeler fans, but for all football fans.

rating 4 of 5 stars

Superbowl Snacks

We spent New Year's in New York City this year, and I went all-out on the cooking. Our college aged-sons cook for themselves, so I thought I'd make some some great snacks for New Year's Day. But these snacks would be perfect for Superbowl Sunday.

I saw Jamie Oliver make Sausage Rolls on Live With Kelly, and so I made them. They turned out great, perfect with a nice mustard dipping sauce. The link to the recipe is here.

I also made an old favorite, Hot Reuben Dip. One of my sons is a big corned beef fan, and this really hits all those flavor notes. I got it from a woman who brought it to a holiday party, where it was a big hit.
Hot Reuben Dip
1 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
3/4 cup sauerkraut
1/2 cup Thousand Island Dressing
4 oz. cream cheese
 5 oz. corned beef, chopped
Mix all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low for 1 1/2 hours. Serve on top of crackers or on rye or pumpernickel cocktail bread.

I had leftover ingredients, so a few days later, I made
Mini Reubens
Preheat broiler. Place cocktail rye or pumpernickel slices on baking sheet. Top each with 2 teaspoons Thousand Island dressing, a slice of folded corned beef, a bit of well-drained sauerkraut, and some shredded or 1/4 slice Swiss cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.

My sister-in-law makes Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip, which tastes just like a Wegman's Joey Sub, and came from Food Network Magazine. I also made this for a neighborhood party, and it was big hit there
1 med. onion
2 pickled pepperoncini peppers
1/2 head iceberg lettuce
 1 large tomato, halved and seeded
1/4 lb each- deli-sliced genoa salami, deli-sliced ham, deli-sliced prosciutto, deli-sliced turkey, deli-sliced provolone cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 ts. dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 round loaf Italian bread
hoagie rolls for dipping
Chop onion, pepperoncini, lettuce, tomato into bit-sized pieces. Dice meats and cheese.
Combine chopped vegetables, meats and cheese in large bowl. Add mayo, olive oil, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes and stir til everything is well mixed. Refrigerate til ready to serve.
Cut center of round loaf out to make a bowl, cut scraps of bread into bit-sized pieces. Serve dip in bread bowl, with bread and hoagie rolls on side.

Mary Alice's Hoagie Dip

For our main entree on New Year's Day, I made Food Network chef Robert Irvine's
BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches
4 lbs. pork shoulder roeat
5 whole cloves
3 Tbsp. BBQ rub (I used Penzey's Galena Street Chicken & Pork Rub- a gift from sister-in-law- but you can use any dry BBQ rub you like)
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 cups water
16 oz. BBQ sauce (I used Dinosaur BBQ, a family favorite, but again, you can use any BBQ sauce you like)
Stud the roast with cloves and rub with BBQ rub. Put roast in crockpot and top with onions. Cover roast with water and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Remove pork, discard cloves and layer of fat as well as any water and grease left in crockpot. When pork has cooled, shred it with two forks. Return meat to crockpot and top with BBQ sauce. Heat for 1 to 2 hours. Serve on rolls.


Do you have any favorite Superbowl Snacks you'd like to share? Share them in comments below!


This post is part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food!

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield
Published by Random House ISBN 978-0-385-34408-1
Hardcover $25

I put The Homecoming of Samuel Lake on my Most Compelling Books of 2011 list. The story begins with the patriarch of the Moses family killing himself at the annual family reunion. Set in Arkansas in the 1950s, Samuel Lake is a preacher who has once again lost his job and retreats back home to his wife Willadee's family to regroup.

Samuel and Willadee have a wonderful marriage, they are very supportive of each other. They have three young children, Swan being the only girl. Samuel used to date Bernice, who later married Toy, Willadee's brother. Bernice is still in love with Samuel, and decides to use her beauty and feminine wiles to get Samuel back.

Samuel sets up a tent revival, hoping to get enough people to come and perhaps getting a permanent preaching job out of it. Willadee works during the day at her father's bar, Never Closes, which is attached to their home, and also houses the grocery store that Willadee's mother runs.

Swan and her brothers find Blade, a mysterious young boy, hiding in their barn and discover that he has been badly abused by his father, Ras Ballenger. Ballenger is evil personified, and every time he makes an appearance in the novel, I got chills. He beat his wife, sons, and the horses that he was supposed to be training. He is one bad, bad man.

When Swan's family takes the young boy in, Ballenger swears vengeance against the Moses/Lake family, and waiting for his plan to take place ratchets up the tension in this heartbreaking, beautifully crafted novel. I finished the book on the treadmill and almost had to get off because I was sobbing so hard.

I loved the characters in this book, with Toy being my favorite. He is man of few words, so when he speaks it is powerful. He also has a sense of sadness about him. Seriously injured in WWII, there is a question of whether or not he killed a man involved with his wife while he overseas. He forms strong bonds with the children, and his tenderness with them melts your heart. His evolution is moving, and Toy is a truly unforgettable literary creation.

So many of the characters are well-drawn- Willadee, Swan, Samuel, Blade, Bernice, even Ras. The way the Lake family lived their faith was inspirational. They loved God and each other, and tried hard to embody their faith everyday. I liked the way that Wingfield wrote how important it was to the family and the story.

The difficulty of being married plays a large role in the book. Willadee and Samuel's marriage is tested, but is strong. Contrast that with Toy and Bernice's unhappy, lonely marriage and the sadness that Willadee's mother feels about how the last years of her marriage unfolded. I think the author is saying that marriage is something that needs to be cared for and tended if it is to survive.

My favorite lines from the book are from Willadee and Toy's mother, about Blade's effect on Toy:

"She had no idea that Swan was also doing something special for Toy, or that Toy's life was changing in ways he could have never anticipated. All she knew was that this little boy was doing a kindness for her own little boy- the man who had been her little boy- and her gratitude knew no bounds."

As a mother of two sons, those lines killed me.

I could go on and on about this book, but all I really need to tell you is that if you love beautifully crafted books, with a compelling story and characters that feel so real, you will love The Homecoming of Samuel Lake.  I almost wish I were reading again for the first time.

rating 5 of 5

If you liked To Kill a Mockingbird, you will like this book.
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Kickin' It Old-School With The Book Seat

I know that E-readers are the thing now, (I'm actually on my second Kindle now) but I still read physical books. I probably read more physical books, as I use my Kindle only on the treadmill or when I am on the bus or waiting in line.

So this year when my sons asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told them that I wanted The Book Seat. It's a book holder that I found in Acorn, a catalogue I received in the mail. I had never seen this catalogue before, but as I flipped through it, I saw The Book Seat, read all the fabulous reviews online, and put this on my Christmas list.

Usually, my sons send me a link to whatever it is they want Christmas and I just click on the link and order it; this year I turned the tables on them and sent them this link.

I love my Book Seat! I used to get cramps in my hands and fingers from holding a book while reading it. Now my book 'sits' in its beanbag seat, with a flat plastic page holder. It works for all kinds of books- hardcover, paperback, magazines, even the Kindle. I can sit on the couch or read in bed, in total comfort. My fingers and hands are pain-free. It even has a pouch in back for reading glasses.

The Book Seat has changed the way I read! It's advertised as an aid for older people or people with arthritis, and since I'll be getting my AARP card in the mail in the next few months, I guess it's appropriate. But seriously, it makes a great gift for the bookish person in your life.