Friday 5ive- March 12, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. This week marks the one year anniversary of the pandemic lockdown here in NYC. Last year on March 12th when Dorothy and I locked the door to the Book Cellar, the nonprofit used bookstore where we work that supports New York Public Library branches, we had no idea what would happen in a year. But hope is on the horizon if we stay vigilant, and everyone gets their vaccine when it's their turn.

1)  St. Patrick's Day is next week, and we always celebrate with corned beef and cabbage, a favorite meal of my sons. I decorated a bookshelf with some green books and books by favorite Irish authors.  It makes a good March Zoom background.

2)  I received my 8th medal for my virtual Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) ride on the Conqueror Challenge. It was a 481 mile ride from France to Spain, and the postcards highlighting sights of interest I received for this one were fascinating. Next up is a 750 mile Boston to Bar Harbor ride, a three month ride.

3)  It was a week of Zooms. We had a family Zoom for my mother-in-law's birthday, filled with lovely flowers, festive balloons, pretty cupcakes decorated like flowers, and gifts galore for the beautiful birthday lady. It was nice to have so many grandchildren participate.

After the birthday Zoom, we had a family wine Zoom with a very informative and entertaining person from Stag's Leap Cellars Winery in Napa Valley. Terri gave us background on the winery and the wines we tasted were excellent, a good time was had by all. The Fay Cabernet Sauvignon was my favorite.

On Monday, the Facebook group Peloton Moms Book Group hosted a talk with author Kristin Hannah, whose new novel, The Four Winds, which debuted at number one on the New York Times fiction bestseller list. The book tells the story of Elsa, who with her teenage daughter Loreda and young son leave their family farm on the Texas panhandle when the Dust Bowl storms and Great Depression decimate their farm. They flee to California only to fight horrible living conditions, discrimination, and farm owners who take advantage of the refugees, to try and make a life. It was a fascinating discussion, and we learned all about Hannah's research and writing process. My full review of her best book yet publishes Sunday in the Auburn Citizen and online at auburnpub.com. (Hint- I gave it a rave review.)

Our wines from Stag's Leap Cellars

4) We watched a terrifc documentary on Apple TV+ this week- Boys State. The documentary, about a program where 1,100 young men from all over Texas come together to create a democratic government of their own. They split into two groups- Nationalists and Federalists, decide on party platforms, and elect representatives. The film focuses heavily on the race for Governor, and the candidates they highlight are such interesting young men, after watching this documentary you know that you will be seeing them as future leaders. The film won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. 

5) On the book front, I finished Kate Quinn's WWII novel The Rose Code,  a 626 page book that flew by.  Three women who work at Bletchley Park outside London are trying to break the German communication codes and one stumbles upon a spy. It continues Quinn's WWII brilliant novels (The Alice Network and The Huntress) about women who did more than their part for the war effort.

 

Speaking of WWII, I started Jacqueline Winspear's newest Maisie Dobbs novel, The Consequences of Fear. We're up to 1941 in this popular mystery series, and private investigator and psychologist Maisie is now assisting the SOE (Special Operations Executive) British spy agency by assessing candidates psychological state of mind before they can work with the French resistance. Maisie and her able investigator Billy are also working on the case of young boy who witnessed a murder. I'm halfway through and as always, it's great to visit Maisie's world and the friends and family we've come to know over 16 novels. It publishes on March 23rd.

Stay safe and socially distant, wash your hands, wear a mask, and get a vaccine when it's your turn. We're getting so close to beating this, I can feel it. I hope you do too.

This post was shared with The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader's Weekend Cooking posts.

 

Friday 5ive- March 5, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. I cannot believe it is March 2021, it seems like yesterday it was March 2020.

1)  I saw Clinton Kelly on the Rachael Ray Show making a no-bake dessert that I knew my husband would enjoy- Banoffee Pie. It's a simple dessert, but one part is time consuming. You need dulce de leche, and since I couldn't find any premade in the four grocery stores I looked, I had to make my own. You take one can of sweetened condensed milk, place it in a large pot of boiling water (completely covering the can), bring it to a simmer for 2 1/2 hours. After letting it cool, (which I apparently did not do long enough because when I opened the can, caramel sauce sprayed my hair) it is ready to pour over a pretzel crust with sliced bananas on top. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. My husband loved it and we both decided it was worth the caramel sauce that I had to wash out of my hair. The recipe is here.

2)  We purchased a wine credenza from Wine Enthusiast to organize all of our wine accessories (glasses, knickknacks, too many wine bottles) and it arrived this week. It looks good in our foyer, and now I have much-needed cupboard space in my kitchen.

3)  I joined a fascinating book Zoom this week- William Morrow presented A Celebration of Women's History Month to launch Lauren Willig's new historical fiction Band of Sisters, based on the true story of a group of the all-women's Smith College alumni who went to France during WWI to aid French villagers displaced by the Germans. The book is fabulous, it will be one of my best of 2021 I can already tell (my review is here), and the Zoom was fantastic. Carol Fitzgerald from BookReporter.com moderated a panel of female historical fiction writers Lauren Willig, Vanessa Riley (her book The Island Queen will publish in July), Kristin Harmel (The Book of Lost Names), and Marie Benedict (The Mystery of Mrs. Christie) discussing determined women in history, and researching and writing historical fiction, and I could listen to them talk all night. 

4)  I'm watching reruns of 1990's sitcom Designing Women on Hulu on my Echo Show while I make dinner at night. (I guess that is appropriate for Women's History Month). I love that show! We used to watch it every week, back when you used to watch a show on TV once a week. I laugh all throughout dinner prep, and I every time Julia Sugarbaker goes off on one of her rants, I know them word for word. Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Jean Smart, Annie Potts and Meshach Taylor (as delivery man Anthony) were expertly cast. 

5) I started and finished one book and am halfway through another. J.T. Ellison's thriller Her Dark Lies. is set on an isolated island off the coast of Italy, where Eliza, an artist, is preparing for her wedding to Jack, a scion of one of the America's wealthiest families. From the beginning things go wrong, people are being killed, and clues are dropped about Jack's first wife,who died three weeks after her their wedding. There is a lot going on here, people are not who they seem to be. It's a cross between Rebecca and a soap opera. My full review publishes Tuesday. 

I'm a big fan of Kate Quinn's historical fiction books (The Alice Network, The Huntress), about women doing their part during war to serve their country, even putting themselves in jeopardy. Her latest, The Rose Code, is about three British women who work at Bletchley Park trying to break the German secret war communication codes. Set in two time periods, one in 1939, where three women- Mab, Osla, and Beth- work on the top secret project, and then seven years later when one of the women is locked away in a sanitarium because she knows there was a spy at Bletchley and seeks the assistance of the other two to prove it. It's vintage Kate Quinn, and I can't put it down. 

Stay safe, socially distant, wear a mask, wash your hands, get the vaccine when it's your turn, and we'll get through this sooner rather than later.

This post was shared with Marg at The Intrepid and Baker on her Weekend Cooking posts here.