Weekend Cooking- Restaurant Week in NYC

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.

A few times a year, Restaurant Week is celebrated in NYC. Close to 400 restaurants offer three course pre-fixe lunch ($29) and dinner ($42) menus to give diners a chance to sample restaurants they may not normally get to try.

Restaurant Week this summer runs July 25th-August 19th, and we visited three restaurants this week; two we have been to before- Smith & Wollensky and The Bull and Bear at the Waldorf Astoria- and a new one, Scarpetta.

When we arrived at Smith & Wollensky, they whisked us up to the second floor where apparently all the Restaurant Week diners were seated. The meal was good, split pea soup, and surf and turf for my husband (a $10 upcharge) and caesar salad, and roast beef hash for me. (My husband was happy that there was enough hash leftover for his breakfast the next day,) We both had the chocolate mousse cake for dessert, and we had an entire piece of cake leftover for the next night's dinner. The service was fine, but efficient, they definitely wanted to turn the table over. We were out of there in less than an hour, there was no lingering.

We brought one of our sons to Bull and Bear, where we had a table in the middle of the dining room. We had to ask for the Restaurant Week menu, but the service was excellent and we didn't feel rushed. My husband loves their Onion Gratinee Soup, so he was thrilled it was on the menu. It was delicious, although my son said that it was too hot for soup, so he missed out.

Onion Gratinee Soup

There were three entrees, so we each had one- I had the burger and fries, my husband had the roast chicken, and our son had the skirt steak. They were all fine, nothing too exciting. We had red velvet cake for dessert, and that was good too. The Onion Gratinee Soup was the highlight of the meal.

Last night, we met at Scarpetta, located near the High Line. It's tucked into 14th Street just before 9th Avenue, and the sign is so small, my husband and I both missed it. We started with a martini that was very refreshing and light, made with chambord.

Our server was wonderful very welcoming and he took the time to explain the Restaurant Week menu and make suggestions. We started with the Creamy Polenta with truffled mushrooms which was out- of-this-world good.

Creamy Polenta

We moved onto the Spaghetti with tomato and basil, which is a signature dish there.Even though it didn't have meatballs, which disappointed my husband, when we ate it, we both decided that it was not missing any flavor. That was the best spaghetti we've ever had, creamy with parmesan cheese mixed in.

Spaghetti

I had the Valrhona Chocolate Cake with chocolate caramel butterscotch gelato and while it was small in portion, it was big in flavor. My husband was not as excited about his Coconut Panna Cotta.

Chocolate Cake

Scarpetta was the clear winner here, and they wisely used the opportunity to sell us on coming back to their restaurant. Our server told us about other menu items we may like to try next time, something the other two restaurants did not do so well.

Restaurant Week is an opportunity to showcase your restaurant and create new customers. Some places treat the Restaurant Week diners as an annoyance, people who are just there to get a cheap meal, whereas the smart places know that once you get people in the door, it's up to you to bring them back. We will go back to Scarpetta.

For more on Restaurant Week, visit their website here.

New in paperback- All The Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani

All The Stars In The Heavens by Adriana Trigiani
Published by Harper ISBN 978-0-06-2319191-7
Trade paperback, $15.99, 447 pages

Reading Adriana Trigiani's newest novel All The Stars In The Heavens feels like watching a fascinating Turner Classic Movies documentary. I felt like putting on my best peignoir, slipping on my feathered mules, applying the reddest shade of lipstick, and mixing myself a martini garnished with olives as I dove into the story-behind-the-story of Loretta Young and Clark Gable's forbidden Hollywood romance while reclining on my bedroom chaise.

Loretta Young was a hardworking, well-known young actress when she was cast as the thirteen-years-older Clark Cable's love interest in the movie The Call of The Wild. The movie was to be shot on location in a remote area near Seattle.

Young's assistant, the former-almost-nun-until-she-was-told-by-Mother-Superior-that-she-was-not-nun-material Alda Ducci accompanied Loretta. They were among the very few women on the set, so they managed to attract the attentions of more than a few of the men.

Clark Gable avidly pursued Loretta, even though he was married. Loretta had just ended a romantic, though chaste, relationship with actor Spencer Tracy and even though she had a reputation for falling a little bit in love with her leading men, she was determined not to do so with Gable.

She resisted until she couldn't anymore, and when Loretta and Gable traveled to Seattle to be witnesses to a wedding between Alda and a set painter after a whirlwind romance, she gave in.

The affair had long-lasting consequences, and although Gable promised that he was going to divorce his wife to be with Loretta, he strung Loretta along. Loretta had a career to worry about, and home wrecker would not look good in the tabloids or on her resume.

There were so many things I loved about All The Stars In The Heavens, it could be a multi-part post, but I will just touch on the highlights.

• The novel takes real people and a true story and imagines what really happened, and those kind of stories I find irresistible when done well, and Trigiani aims high and hits a home run here.  

• I love Hollywood behind-the-scenes-stories, and to see a different side of have such unforgettable characters as Young, Gable, a young David Niven, Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy and Hattie McDaniel was thrilling.

• The scene with Gable and Hattie McDaniel on the set of Saratoga, the 1937 movie where Jean Harlow died on set, made me giddy. We see their bantering and flirting, and now I remember why I loved the scenes between Mammy and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind so much. (GWTW is my favorite movie!)

• Women in Trigiani's books are strong women, and always strive to have a career. Here we see that Loretta worked hard to support her mother and sisters, and invested her money in real estate. How many women (or men) in Hollywood were smart enough to do that? Loretta's mother, a single mom, had to raise her four daughters, and built a stellar career in real estate investment and interior design. She was a terrific example for her girls, and Trigiani's protagonists are good examples for women to work hard and follow their dreams to get ahead.

• The gorgeous cover of the paperback edition makes this a book to own in hardcover and paperback.

I could go on and on, but I'll just tell you that I loved that Trigiani has stepped up her already stellar game in All The Stars In The Heavens, and you will lose yourself in a dazzling Hollywood love story that will have you googling Loretta Young/Clark Cable to find out the story that inspired this gorgeous novel. I give it my highest recommendation.

I wrote a #WeekendCooking post about the foodie passages in All The Stars In The Heavens here. 

Adriana Trigiana's website is here.  Like her author page on Facebook for fun giveaways.

You'll Grow Out Of It by Jessi Klein

You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein
Published by Grand Central ISBN 9781478936619
Hardcover, $26, 287 pages

Jessi Klein is the head writer and executive producer of the very funny Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. For that reason alone I wanted to read her book, You'll Grow Out Of It.

The book is a series of essays about how Jessi got to be where and who she is. The first essay, The Tom Man, recounts what happens when a  tomboy grows up. People like tomboys, tom men not so much.

She didn't care much what she looked like, wearing "her dad's old button-down cowboy shirts with enormous shapeless jeans and combat boots" in high school. When she got a real office job, she still dresses " a smidge like a rodeo clown" and thought that Hanes Her Way bikini underwear was the height of sexiness.

Finally, when she met a girlfriend at a bar, and her friend told her that she loved her, but her maroon backpack overflowing with papers and books hurt her feelings, she got the message. Jessi decided that if she wanted to date a Grown Man then she'd have to make an attempt to look like a Grown Woman.

"But when I looked at what it would mean to become a woman- one of those standard grown-up ladies, like the ones from commercials for gum or soda or shampoo- it all seemed to involve shrinking rather than growing."

Klein's observations are thoughtful, like in her essay The Bath, about how women loves baths because for women, the bath is "where you go when you run out of options", when you don't have a room of your own to go to.

"This is why Virginia Woolf stressed the importance of having a room of one's own. If you don't fight for it, don't insist on it, don't sacrifice for it, you might end in that increasingly tepid water, pruning and sweating while you dream of other things."

Klein is a comedy writer, so there are many funny lines in here, like describing a woman who was "just rounding third from medium drunk to very drunk." (I'm a sucker for a baseball metaphor.)

In talking about attending a Bar Method exercise class, she observes that "women have problem areas in a way that men don't. We have big hips and muffin tops. Men just have the thing where they create wars and wreak havoc all over the globe."

In The Cad, she advises that "when you encounter a man wearing loafers with no socks, run. I once heard that the late Tim Russert also believed that a sockless man is not to be trusted, which means that it is definitively true."

One of her funniest essays is Types, where she describes the different types of men she likes and their celebrity inspiration. I don't normally read anything about the TV show The Bachelor, but her take on it made me think, as did her essay on porn.

The one essay that spoke to me the most was Ma'am, abut that time in all our lives when we move from being called miss to being called ma'am by department store clerks, waiters, bank tellers, etc. I just kept saying "amen" throughout this essay, like Klein was a preacher in church and I was agreeing wholeheartedly with her sermon.

The book ends with Klein preparing to attend the Emmy Awards, just a few weeks after giving birth to her son. She was panicked about choosing a dress, and when her friend told her that the one Jessi liked best made her look like Mrs. Roper, she nearly gave up hope.  Anyone who likes the backstory on Hollywood will love that essay.

You'll Grow Out Of It made me laugh and made me think, just like when I watch Amy Schumer's show. It's a little Tina Fey mixed with Amy Poehler mixed with Nora Ephron, and it's a great gift to give to a young woman just starting out in life. I recommend it.

Weekend Cooking- A Trip to the Lower East Side

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.

 Last Sunday, my husband and I took a long walk from our home on the Upper East Side of New York City to the Lower East Side. We ended up at the intersection of 1st Ave. and 1st Street, or what Kramer from Seinfeld calls it- 'the nexus of the universe'.

We've been in NYC for eight years and never eaten at the world-famous Katz's Deli, so we stopped in for lunch. The place was crowded, as always, filled with a mix of tourists and neighborhood people. When you walk in, you're given a blue ticket by a smiling big man working the door like a club bouncer.

Photo image provided

You can either put your name in for table service or join the multiple lines at the deli counter. We split up, I found us two seats at a four seat table, and my husband stood in Cutter Line #7 to place our order. Luckily, we had our cell phones, so he called me to coordinate our order.

We split a huge Reuben sandwich, along with an order of fries and two Pepsis. When you place your oder, you give the counter person your blue tickets, which they mark with your order for the cashier.

We split a Reuben sandwich

The sandwich was good, but I'm not as big a fan of corned beef as my husband. He actually prefers the corned beef at the 2nd Ave. Deli, which is right around the corner from our apartment.

The walls of the deli have hundreds of pictures of famous people who have eaten there- politicians (Bill Clinton, Rudy Guiliani), actors (Leo DiCaprio, Dan Ackroyd from his SNL days) and more (OJ Simpson). And for some reason, there seemed to be dozens of photos of Mike Bloomberg. Everywhere you looked was another photo of Mike Bloomberg, taken over many years, so it looked like a Mike Bloomberg scrapbook.

There are a few men wheeling big carts around to pick up the trays and trash, they just keep circling, which I found interesting. When you finish, you pay (cash only) at the register, giving the cashier your blue ticket. Our order came to $35 for what was essentially one person for lunch. So it's on the pricy end.

Inside Katz's Deli- photo provided

We popped in across the street at il laboratorio del gelato for a gelato treat. The place is all white and sterile looking, just like a lab (hence the name), and the staff were busy providing samples (two per person) to people at the counter.

I chose a small dish of salted caramel (their most popular) and vanilla gelato and it was so creamy and flavorful. My husband had a small mint chocolate chip (delicious) and peanut butter (bland).

Our gelato

We ate our gelato and wandered over to Tompkins Square Park where we found a musical group called The Meetles playing Beatles songs, and sat for a bit enjoying the music. We passed people with strollers and dogs, and apparently there is a street hockey league that plays some serious games on Sunday too.

After wandering about awhile, we decided that we needed to do this more often, just walk around parts of the city we don't spend much time in because it's a big city with a lot to see.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara
Published by Anchor ISBN 9780804172707
Trade paperback, $17, 832 pages

A friend of mine, whose taste in books I truly respect, told me I must read Hanya Yanagihara's novel A Little Life. She said it was difficult subject matter, but one of the best books she has read in years.

I had the book on my pile forever and it got such great reviews, but I kept putting off reading it. Was I afraid I wouldn't like as much as everyone else? Was it because it is 800 pages long? Last week, I decided to tackle it.

A Little Life tells the story of four college friends- Malcolm, who comes from a well-to-do family and becomes an architect, JB, an artist raised by his immigrant mother and aunt, Willem, an orphan from the midwest who had a brother who died at a young age, and Jude, a lawyer who was in an a terrible car accident as a youth and was left with lifelong injuries and crippling pain, and who has no family.

The story follows the men as they go through life, with their successes and failures, their loves and losses. But mostly it is about Jude. Slowly we discover that Jude was abandoned as a baby and raised in a religious community of brothers. He was treated cruelly by some of the brothers, but found what he hoped to be a savior in Brother Luke.

Jude's life as a young boy and young man was one devastation and degradation after another. He told no one what exactly had happened to him, although he came close to telling his social worker, a kind woman named Anna.

He formed a close bond with his college roommates, but never told anyone his life story. He studied hard, never dated anyone and became a very successful lawyer. The story weaves back and forth in time, which might be confusing to readers in the hands of a lesser writer, but Yanagihara handles it beautifully.

The thing that strikes me most about this stunning novel is the struggle between good and true evil in the world. Jude saw the worst of humanity and it scarred him both physically and emotionally for life. But he also saw the goodness of people. Willem, JB and Malcolm were lifelong friends and for the most part, were there for him when he needed them most.

Anna the social worker, his professor Harold and Harold's wife, and Andy, a doctor who took incredible care of Jude's many physical ailments but couldn't get through to him emotionally, all loved and cared for Jude, even if they didn't completely understand him.

A good novel creates empathy in the reader for its characters and A Little Life does that very well. Jude is an unforgettable character, one that the reader roots for and hopes that he can overcome the horrors of his young life. If you can't feel for Jude, you are simply not human. And if you ever doubted the resiliency of the human spirit, Jude will allay those doubts.

I don't generally like to read books where characters suffer abuse, and A Little Life truly gutted me. I sobbed through some of it and audibly gasped a few times. Even now, a week after reading it, my eyes fill with tears for Jude and all he suffered.

A Little Life is a towering achievement, and it rightly deserved all the praise it earned last year (it made many best-of lists). I give it my highest recommendation. It is one of the best books I have read in many years, my friend was right.

Kick by Paula Byrne

Kick by Paula Byrne
Published by Harper ISBN 9780062296276
Hardcover, $29.99, 352 pages

It seems to be the time for books about the Kennedy sisters. Recently, Rosemary: The Hidden Daughter by Kate Clifford Lawson was published and now Paula Byrne's Kick, about Kathleen Kennedy is on the shelves.

Not much has been written about Kathleen, the fourth child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy, better known as Kick. She, Joe Jr. and Jack were thick as thieves growing up together. When Joseph Kennedy was named U.S. Ambassador to England, Kick began to blossom.

She loved their time in England and when WWII was looming over England,  the Kennedy clan returned to America much to Kick's dismay. She had fallen in love with Billy Hartington, the son of the Duke of Devonshire and Chatsworth.

The Kennedys were the embodiment of good Catholics and Billy's family were from the Church of England and historically hated Catholics. Though they were madly in love, their marriage would be problematic for all.

Kathleen returned home and got a job working at a Washington DC newspaper, and pining for Billy. She found a way back to England as a volunteer for the Red Cross, where she and Billy rekindled their love. Although she risked her mother's wrath, Kick accepted Billy's marriage proposal and married him outside of her deeply felt Catholic faith.

They were married for only a few months when Billy was killed in combat. Kick was devastated. She had lost her brother Joe in the war and her brother Jack was nearly killed when his PT-109 boat was destroyed in the Pacific theater.

She fought through the pain and eventually began a relationship with Peter Fitzwilliam, a married man. Kick and Peter were killed in a plane crash outside of Paris in 1948.

The first half of the book is filled with names, so many that it made my head spin. The book came to life for me in the second half, when Kick goes to England with the Red Cross. Byrne concentrates on Kick more, and the people around her less, and that strengthens the book for me.

Not much is known about Kick, or Rosemary, so these two books give us insight into these two ladies from America's most famous family. We see the strife between Rose and Kick over Kick's willingness to marry outside her faith, and Joseph's strong love and belief in his daughter to make her choice, though he disagreed with her.

I also liked reading about Kick's job in DC, how she made her way as a curious, intelligent young woman. Her relationship with her brother Jack was an important part of her life, and the death of his two closest siblings just a few years apart must have impacted Jack in a powerful way.

I recommend Kick for fans of the Kennedy family, as well as for anyone who likes a memoir about strong women.

Three Books About Siblings

Reprinted from the Citizen:

While summer is often time to read a light summer romance, this season seems to be a time for books about siblings. For those of us lucky enough to have siblings, we will be able to relate to the complicated, caring relationships the siblings in the following three books.

Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Eligible” is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice”. The names are the same, but the setting is different; this Bennet family- mother, father and five sisters- resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

After Mr. Bennet has a heart attack, oldest sisters Jane (a yoga instructor) and Liz (who writes for a fashion lifestyle magazine) leave New York City to help out at home. Mrs. Bennet is chairing a very important fundraiser and can’t care for her husband on her own.

Apparently neither can the three adult sisters who still live at home: Mary, who is working on her third online post-graduate degree, and Lydia and Kitty, who spend all their time at the Cross Fit studio. Liz comes home to find that the house is in disrepair and since her parents don’t have health insurance, Mr. Bennet’s medical bills necessitate the sale of the family home.

Liz is the one who has to figure all of this out, and things get complicated when she meets Dr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a newly ensconced surgeon at the local hospital. He is openly hostile to Liz, but as we all know, that means he has feelings for her.

“Eligible” is a love story, but for me, the family relationships, especially the sibling relationships, are the more interesting elements of the story. Mr. Bennet, whose dry wit made me laugh out loud, and Mrs. Bennet, who exasperates over her daughters’ lack of suitable suitors, seem to be waiting for Liz to take care of everything, even while resenting her efforts. And Liz has to kick a little sibling behind to get the Bennets’ house in order.

It is funny, charming and sweet, and if you like the TV show “The Bachelor” you will enjoy how that show plays into this modern storyline. 

Emily Giffin is known for her women’s fiction, but her latest novel, “First Comes Love” is about a sibling relationship. Adult sisters Josie, a single preschool teacher, and Meredith, a married corporate lawyer with a young daughter, have a close, but at times strained, relationship. 

When they were in college, their beloved brother Daniel was killed in a tragic car accident and it devastated the family. Their father had a drinking problem and their parents divorced. His death affects them all still to this day.

Josie envies her sister’s happy marriage to Daniel’s best friend Nolan, and their beautiful little girl. When Josie’s former boyfriend’s young daughter ends up as a student in her first grade class, Josie begins to question whether she will ever have a happy marriage and children like Meredith.

Since a husband isn’t on the horizon but her 40th birthday is, Josie decides to have a baby on her own. Meredith thinks this is a selfish decision, and she begins to question her own choices, especially quitting acting to become a lawyer and marrying Nolan.

“First Comes Love” deals with some serious issues- giving up a lifelong dream, how loss affects people in different ways, how secrets can destroy a relationship- through the prism of the sibling relationship between Josie and Meredith. Giffin does a wonderful job with a more serious subject matter and her fans will be pleased with this effort.

Ann Leary’s “The Children” is set in Connecticut. When Whit Whitman dies, he leaves behind his second wife Joan, her two adult daughters Sally and Charlotte, and two adult sons from his first marriage, Spin and Perry. 

He leaves his family’s long-held estate to his sons, with the provision that Joan be allowed to live there until her death. Charlotte is reclusive, rarely leaving the home. She is also a famous “Mommy Blogger”, which is odd because she has no children.

Her blog makes very good money, and no one has yet figured out that her husband and children are figments of her imagination, and she feels she isn’t hurting anyone. She believes she provides entertainment for mothers who read her blog.

When Spin brings his new fiancee Lauren home, something about her makes Charlotte and Sally suspicious of her motives. Again, the relationships among the siblings are the strongest parts in this terrific novel that draws us into the world of the Whitmans.

“Eligible” by Curtis Sittenfeld- A

Published by Random House

Hardcover, $28, 500 pages

“First Comes Love” by Emily Giffin- B+

Published by Penguin Random House

Hardcover, $28, 400 pages

“The Children” by Ann Leary- A-

Published by St. Martin’s Press

Hardcover, $26.99, 246 pages

Weekend Cooking- CBS Saturday Morning's The Dish

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.

Every Saturday morning, I hit the treadmill gym before I'm off to volunteer at the Book Cellar. I watch CBS Saturday Morning and I particularly enjoy their weekly segment called The Dish, where a chef is interviewed at a table filled with a meal of dishes they have created. It's great because the chefs aren't busy trying to cook on camera, they can sit and tell their story, and the viewer can drool over the beautiful food on the table.

Anthony Mason, Vinita Nair and Chef Ouita Michel

Last week Chef Ouita Michel from Kentucky had a gorgeous spread before her. She owns five restaurants in Kentucky, the most famous of which is Holly Hill Inn. She's also the chef-in-residence at the Woodford Reserve Distillery, so many of the recipes she made for The Dish contained bourbon:

• Grilled Peaches Wrapped in Country Ham
• Happy Jack's Sweet Corn Salad
• Black Eyed Peas
• Bourbon Beer Bread
• Pork Chops Bourbonnais
• Kentucky Bourbon Trail Berry Cake
• Her beverage was Woodford Thoroughbred

This would be a great menu for a Kentucky Derby party, but since that event has passed, I'm planning on making this menu for a Sunday dinner. It all looks so fabulous!

Here is the link to the video segment and the recipes are posted there as well.

View More: Food and Wine News|Saturday News|U.S. News|Live News|More News Videos

One note- CBS Saturday Morning also had a piece about an interesting PBS documentary airing this Tuesday titled The White House: Inside Story. It's about the permanent employees of the White House, including the first female Chief Usher and the kitchen staff. It looks fascinating, and here is the video to that story.

New in Paperback- Carrying Albert Home by Homer Hickam

Carrying Albert Home By Homer Hickam
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks ISBN 9780062325907
Trade paperback, $15.99, 432 pages

Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, His Wife and Her Alligator tells the story of Homer Hickam's parents, Homer and Elsie, and their journey from West Virginia to Florida with their alligator Albert during the Great Depression.

Young Homer is watching his favorite TV show, Davy Crockett, when his mother walks in the room and says "I know him. He gave me Albert.", pointing at actor Buddy Ebsen on the television. Homer is flabbergasted that his mother actually knows someone on TV and when she tells him that Albert was an alligator, Homer is even more confused. Elsie tells him that she will tell him the whole story, but not now.

The story of Albert is doled out to Homer over many years. Elsie had been living in Orlando, Florida, where she met a young Buddy Ebsen and fell in love. They dated and then Ebsen moved to New York to try and make it as a dancer and actor.

Elsie moved back home to West Virginia, married Homer Hickam and became the wife of a coal miner, something she did not want to be. Buddy Ebsen sent Elsie a wedding gift- a baby alligator she named Albert.

Albert became her best friend, and she treated him as if he were her child. After four years, Albert became too big and when he chased her husband into the yard without his pants, Homer told her Albert had to go.

Elsie reluctantly agreed, but only if they would drive Albert back to Orlando to release him. Homer loved his wife, although he believed that she was still in love with Buddy Ebsen, and he wanted to make her happy, so he agreed.

On their way from West Virginia to Florida, with Albert lying in a tub in the backseat and a rooster who tagged along, the foursome made their way down the coast. The adventures that awaited them would have made Forrest Gump proud.

They found themselves in the middle of a bank robbery (that Albert foiled), met author John Steinbeck, got involved with a coal miners strike, kidnapped by bootleggers, Homer played baseball while Elsie became a nurse to a wealthy man, they acted in a Tarzan movie, and they met Ernest Hemingway during a terrible hurricane. And at each turn, two bad men, Slick and Huddie, kept humorously turning up like bad pennies.

At least these are the stories they told their son Homer Jr. through the years. The stories are fascinating and funny, but the most interesting part of the story is the marriage of Elsie and Homer Sr.

Homer tried his best to make his capricious wife happy, but Elsie always seemed to want something more, some new adventure that he found himself dragged into. Elsie was very unhappy, she "always felt that her life was like a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box to show her how the puzzle pieces should fit together."

All Homer wanted to was be a coal miner and good husband, but he had a difficult time competing for his wife's affections with a movie star. And Elsie wanted to be anything but a coal miner's wife, yet there she was.

Hickam does a wonderful job with these characters, and we feel their pain. Marriage isn't always easy, especially when the spouses appear to want different things in life.

I tore through Carrying Albert Home, and it felt like a 1940's movie you might find on the Turner Classic Movies channel, or maybe a Saturday matinee serial that you would return week after week to see what would happen to Homer, Elsie and Albert next.

I'm sure young Homer wondered over the years what stories were true, which ones were exaggerated, and which ones were just plain fiction, but it doesn't really matter. Carrying Albert Home is such an enjoyable, crazy journey, and that is all the truth the reader needs to know. I highly recommend it.

Homer Hickam's website is here.

Weekend Cooking- Food & Wine Best of the Best Cookbooks

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.

Food & Wine magazine annually publishes a cookbook titled Best of the Best, which contains recipes from 25 of the best cookbooks of the year. If you are a cookbook lover, and like me have limited kitchen space, buying these books are a great way to get the best recipes of the year from the most respected chefs.

Recently I picked up two of their editions at the Book Cellar, the used book shop where I volunteer. The 2015 edition has several recipes I'm interested in trying, such as the first one in the book for Chicken Saltimbocca from Mario Batali and Jim Webster's America- Farm to Table cookbook.
Here is the link to the Chicken Saltimbocca recipes on the Food Network.


Other recipes I want to try include:

• Tyler Florence's Herb Roasted Wild Mushrooms with Red Wine and Cream from Inside the Test Kitchen
• Agatha Kulaga & Erin Patinkin's Banana Nutella Coffee Cake from Ovenly
• Lone Star Breakfast Taco from Tacolicious

I also bought the 2007 edition (they were each just $1!) and the recipes that interested me the most are:

• Jamie Oliver's Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Bake from Jamie's Italy
• The Pizza Maker's Wife's Pan Fried Steaks from Lobel's Meat and Wine
• Mrs. Carl Winchenbach's Banana Cream Pie from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters

These cookbooks have gorgeous full color photography of many of the recipes, and they'd be a perfect resource for someone having a dinner party. The book is organized by chef, and there is also a recipe index that organizes by category- starters, salads, poultry, desserts, etc.- to make finding what you are looking for easy.

Have any of you tried Food & Wine Best of the Best cookbooks? Let me know in comments.

On Broadway- Bright Star

I was disappointed to hear that Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's Broadway show, Bright Star, was closing so soon. I had heard many good things about the show and about lead actress Carmen Cusack in particular.

Last Sunday I saw a matinee of the show and I am confounded as to why it is closing. Everything about this show works- the story, the Americana music, the performances- I just can't explain it. It's a wonderful show.

The opening number, If You Knew My Story, which was performed by the cast on the Tony Awards, is the perfect way to set the stage for this story. Alice Murphy has a sad tale to tell, one we will soon discover. 

In 1945, young Billy returns home from the war to find that his mother had died. He decides to leave his small town home in North Carolina to pursue his dream of being a published writer. Margo, who works at my dream job in a bookstore, encourages his writing and copy edits for him. She is in love with him, but he has not come to the same conclusion yet.

Billy travels to Asheville to a bring his writing to a prestigious literary journal where he meets Alice Murphy, the tough-as-nails publisher. She likes what she sees and encourages him to try again.

As we flashback to a young Alice, she is a teen living in a small North Carolina town, in love with Jimmy Ray, the scion of the town's wealthy businessman. When she gets pregnant, Jimmy Ray and Alice plan to marry. But Jimmy Ray's father intervenes and plans change.

As I said, this show is wonderful. There is humor, pathos, and emotional scenes; the closer of Act I causes gasps in the audience. There is a terrific six piece band that plays in a cabin on stage that moves as necessary. The band got well deserved huge applause at the end of the show.

The star of the show is Carmen Cusack, who convincingly plays Alice as a smart, joyful teenager and as a buttoned up, all business forty-something publisher. Her voice is clear and lovely and strong and she will be a big star on Broadway in years to come, ala Jessie Mueller.

Emily Padgett and Jeff Blumenkratz give terrific comedic performances as Alice's employees at the journal, and Hannah Elless is wonderful as Margo.

The show closes Sunday, June 26th but I'd be willing to bet it may make it as a touring show. What NYC audiences don't appreciate, the rest of the country just might enjoy.

The Royal Nanny by Karen Harper

The Royal Nanny by Karen Harper
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062420640
Trade paperback, $15.99, 384 pages

If you are one of the many people who love seeing photos of the young Prince George and Princess Charlotte on your Facebook page or when you see William and Kate and their beautiful children on the cover of People magazine must buy it, then Karen Harper's new novel, The Royal Nanny, is for you.

Harper based her historical novel on the true story of Charlotte Bill, the royal nanny to the children of the Duke and Duchess of York, who eventually became King George V and Queen Mary, grandparents to today's reining British monarch, Queen Elizabeth.

The children called Charlotte Lala, and she came to the family as an assistant to the main nanny, until Lala discovered that she had been mistreating David and Bertie, who would one day go one to become King Edward VIII, best known as the man who abdicated the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and King George VI, whom we know best from Colin Firth's portrayal of him in the Oscar-winning movie, The King's Speech.

Lala was devoted to her charges, including four more born after the boys. When the Duchess was giving birth to a baby named John, she had a very difficult birth and feared that she wouldn't live through the birth. She begged Lala to promise to always care for the baby and Lala agreed.

Lala became very attached to baby Johnnie, and as he grew, John appeared to be different from the other children. He had trouble sitting still, and he was slow to learn. Today, we would probably place him somewhere on the autism spectrum.

As Johnnie got older, he began to have seizures. These seizures frightened everyone, and doctors recommended that John be sent away to be cared for. But Lala would not allow that to happen. She appealed to the Duke and Duchess, and promised that she would care for John herself. Eventually, John and Lala were moved from the family home to a smaller home nearby, where Lala cared for him.

Lala gave up her entire life to care for the children, never marrying. She had feelings for Chad, a young man who worked on the family estate, but her sense of duty got in the way of her happiness.

Fans of Downton Abbey will love The Royal Nanny. You get such a sense of what life was like as a servant and as child in a royal household. History fans will enjoy it too, as we see David and Bertie's childhood lives, and how they grew up into the men they became.

Harper has some interesting insight into why David would marry Wallis Simpson and abdicate, she believes that he was attracted to women who dominated him.

In what could have been stock portrayals of real people, Harper brings out their humanity. The Duke loved his son Johnnie, and was torn about sending him away to avoid a scandal. The King and Queen are shown to be particularly fond of their grandchildren, just like every other grandparent. The King plays games with melting pats of butter and the Queen shares her love of small glass animal figurines with her grandchildren.

I found the relationships among the royals and their extended family members who ruled in Germany and especially Russia intriguing. We tend to forget that the Windsor family had such close ties to the rest of Europe and how that affected them during times of war.

The Royal Nanny is an utterly fascinating fictional look at a real historical character, and Anglophiles will want to put this one on their TBR list. I highly recommend it, and I'll be looking for more information on the real Charlotte Bill.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Karen Harper's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, June 21st: BookNAround

Wednesday, June 22nd: bookchickdi

Thursday, June 23rd: A Bookish Affair

Friday, June 24th: Luxury Reading

Monday, June 27th: A Bookish Way of Life

Tuesday, June 28th: Kahakai Kitchen

Wednesday, June 29th: A Literary Vacation

Thursday, June 30th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Tuesday, July 5th: A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, July 6th: Read. Write. Repeat.

Thursday, July 7th: Broken Teepee

Karen's Harper's website is here.

I'm Just A Person by Tig Notaro

I'm Just A Person by Tig Notaro
Published by Ecco ISBN 978-0-06226663-7
Hardcover, $26.99, 240 pages

In 2012, stand up comic Tig Notaro made headlines when she began one of her performances with "Good evening, hello. I have cancer. How are you? Hi, how are you? Is everyone having a good time? I have cancer." The video clip of that performance went viral and the world soon knew of Notaro's situation.

But that wasn't all. In the space of four months, Notaro nearly died of a C-Diff infection, her mother died in a freak accident, and she was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Her memoir I'm Just A Person shares Notaro's journey of those months.

The book opens as Notaro is taking a cab ride from the hospital back to her mother's house in Texas after her mother died. Tig had recently been discharged from a hospital in Los Angeles after a harrowing infection which resulted in her being unable to keep any food down.

She was weak as a kitten when she got the call from her stepfather about her mother. Notaro shares stories about her unconventional mother, a woman for whom "drinking with friends by the pool was (her) nine-to-five job and she took it very seriously."

Notaro was a poor student, held back twice in the eighth grade. She eventually dropped out of school and ended up in Los Angeles with some friends where she became a working standup comic.

I'm Just A Person deals mainly with her four month ordeal. She writes matter-of-factly about her illnesses and fears, but it is her relationship with her free spirit mother and how Notaro came to terms with it after her mother's death that truly resonates here. Her description of going into her mother's home and looking at photos and her mother's belongings, and the memories that conjures up is moving.

You'll read I'm Just A Person in a few hours, it is a slim book, but Notaro's story will stay with you a lot longer and maybe give you pause to reflect on your own mortality and relationships. She packs a big punch in a few words. I recommend it.

Tig Notaro's website is here.

Weekend Cooking- LaRose by Louise Erdich

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.

LaRose

LaRose by Louise Erdich

Published by Harper ISBN 97800622777022

Hardcover, $27.99, 384 pages

I read Louise Erdich's heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting novel LaRose recently. It tells the story of a Native American man who accidentally shoots and kills his best friend's young son. According to an old tradition, he and wife give the grieving family their own five-year-old son to raise.

LaRose is the kind of book that works its way into your heart and mind and won't let go. Erdich writes beautiful characters, people that have flaws and deep feelings and want to do the right things. Each character feels so real- from Landreaux, the man who lives with the guilt of killing a young boy, to Maggie, the young rebellious teen sister of the dead boy, to Romeo, a troubled man addicted to painkillers, to Father Travis, the pastor who survived a bombing as a solider in the Middle East.

It's been a week since I finished LaRose, but I can't stop thinking about these people.

One scene, perfect for Weekend Cooking, in this stunning novel happens at a high school graduation party for Hollis, Romeo's son who grew up in Landreaux's home as a member of the family. As I read about the preparations for the party, I thought that even though they live in a different part of the country and have a different culture than mine, some things are universal- the desire to celebrate the milestone with a party.

Hollis's sisters prepare for the party:

The day before, she had made Hollis and Coochy peel two twenty-pound sacks of potatoes. She had cut them into bite-size chunks and boiled them, not too soft. Overnight she let the big dishpans of potatoes cool and marinate in oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and diced onions. She had left them in the basement, on top of the washing machine, covered in clean towels. Now Josette left off planning and brought the cooled-off potatoes upstairs. Carefully, she stirred mayonnaise cut with enough mustard to give that jazzy goldeny color. But not too much mustard flavor. She diced a couple of jars of pickles, stirred them in too. Snow had hard-boiled a dozen eggs, plunging them into cold water so they didn't grow green fuzz on the yolks. Over the bumpy yellow surface of the big green, orange, and blue plastic bowls of salad, they now laid the sliced eggs, then stippled the eggs with shakes of paprika.

After the boys put out the coolers of pop, covered with coins of bought ice, and after the big pot of wild rice and the cardboard box of frybreads, after the chokecherry jellies were opened, and the knives, spoons and forks were set out in coffee cups, after the plastic bags of hamburger buns were opened and ready and then the potato salads, the bowls again covered with dish towels, Josette and Snow carried out the sheet cakes. They had turned out so well! The raised lettering was crisp in the sugar icing. The frosted diploma was perfectly curled at the end. The swirled tans in the camouflage icing looked exactly right. Josette had matched the pattern to Hollis's uniform without letting him know. But she had changed the words. She had taken off the You Go. The cake had no words because there were no words.

LaRose is such an unforgettable, emotionally compelling book,  I give my highest recommendation.

Summer Reads

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Summer will soon be here and that means it’s time to pick the books we’ll take with us to the beach or the pool or just to relax with on our front porch. There’s always so many to choose from, this month’s column will present the ones I recommend.

The book of the summer, one that has gotten so much buzz and praise from everyone I know who read it is Camille Perri’s debut novel “The Assistants”. Author J. Courtney Sullivan nailed it when she called it “the 9 to 5 for the millennial generation.” 

Tina is the twenty-something assistant to a Rupert Murdoch-type communications titan. She is in charge of gathering his receipts and turning them in to get reimbursed. Due to a glitch, Tina receives a reimbursement check that, while the amount means nothing to her boss, would pay off her huge student loan debt.

She pays off the debt and things spiral from there. Someone figures out what she did and asks Tina to do the same for her, and soon more people become involved. The book is hilarious and fast-paced and so well-written. I finished it in two and half hours and absolutely loved it. 

Dorothea Benton Frank’s novels always mean summer is here and this year’s book, “All Summer Long” takes the reader on a whirlwind trip around the world as we follow the adventures of Olivia, an interior designer whose major client is a wealthy industrialist.

Olivia and her husband Nick must navigate his retirement, relocation down South, and a business downturn all while dealing with the craziness of the uber-wealthy. It’s a little bit of a departure for Frank with the multiple settings, but just as much fun as always. 

If you like your summer fiction more on the serious side, Jennifer Haigh’s “Heat and Light” tackles the subject of fracking and its effect on a small coal town in Pennsylvania. 

When fracking companies come to town promising big money to anyone who will lease their land to them, desperate people take the money and have to deal with the consequences later. Haigh takes us into this small town and makes it so real to us, feeling these people’s pain and the bad position they find themselves in.

Anything with the word “girl” in the title is hot this summer and I have three titles that fall under that umbrella.

Emma Cline’s debut novel, “The Girls” has gotten high praise from many reviewers. Cline’s novel echoes the Manson family killings of the 1960’s as a lonely teenage girl falls under the spell of a group of young people and their charismatic leader in California of the late 1960’s. 

Anyone who lived through those years will find this novel particularly intriguing, and Cline’s main character is so well-drawn that as she falls through this bizarre rabbit hole, you will understand how she got there.

Anne Tyler’s “Vinegar Girl” is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Famous authors are tasked with with reinventing Shakespeare’s plays, and Tyler takes on “The Taming of the Shrew.” 

Kate is a lonely preschool teacher who lives at home in Baltimore with her research scientist father and her teenage sister. She loves to garden but is beginning to resent taking care of the adults in her family. 

When her father connives to get her to marry his research assistant so that the man can get his green card, Kate must decide if she will turn her life upside down or keep going the way things are. It’s a quick read, and you don’t need to be a fan of Shakespeare to appreciate this clever story.

Richard Fifeld’s debut novel “The Flood Girls” is set in a very small town in Montana. Rachel returns home to make amends as part of her twelve step program, but most of the people, including her mother the local bar owner, want nothing to do with her.

She makes friends with Jake, her twelve-year-old neighbor who loves Madonna, Jackie Collins novels and designer clothes. The characters are indelible in this fantastic story where the local ladies’ softball team provides the town’s entertainment and the ending will have you in tears. 

If you like non-fiction, Nathaniel Philbrick’s newest book, “Valiant Ambition” shares the story of the American Revolution through the troubled relationship of George Washington and Benedict Arnold. 

Whatever you read, enjoy the summer and happy reading!

Weekend Cooking- Chicken Week on the Today Show

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.

I flipped on the TV one morning this week and found myself in luck as Kathie Lee and Hoda were celebrating Chicken Week on The Today Show with a recipe I thought my husband would enjoy- 30 Garlic Clove Chicken.

The ingredient list was simple, all fresh ingredients, and the directions were easy as well. The only things I needed to get at the grocery store were some fresh rosemary and bone-in chicken thighs.

The prep only took fifteen minutes to brown the chicken first, then the onions, garlic and rosemary. Add the wine, cover and pop into the oven for one and one half hours.

It was a good night to make this dish, as my poor husband had a heckuva time getting home from work that night. President Obama was in town, which meant that traffic would be a disaster as streets were blocked off and when he went to the subway to get the 6 train, there was a delay and no trains were moving.

Finally, after about an hour and half after he left work, he made it home, a trip that usually takes twenty minutes. He was afraid that dinner would be ruined, but this dish held up great. I turned off the oven, left the cooked rice on the stove with a lid and when he got home, we were ready to go.

I added some fresh fruit salad and a sliced tomato with mayonnaise and black pepper and we had a wonderful meal. The wine made a nicely flavored sauce over the chicken and rice, but personally I felt that it could used a little bump of flavor, maybe some more fresh herbs. My husband liked it just the way it was, and as an added bonus, no vampires will come near you with all that garlic.

I checked out some other Chicken Week recipes, and I'm going to try the Crispy Chicken With Honey Sauce and the Chicken Salad Sandwich next.

From the Today Show- 30 Clove Garlic Chicken

30 Clove Garlic Chicken
from Craig Strong

1/2 cup vegetable oil
8 bone-in chicken thighs
2 cups thinly sliced onion
30 whole cloves garlic
1 cup white wine
4 branches of rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Salt and pepper chicken.

In a heavy pot that has a lid, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken and brown on both sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve. Add the onions, garlic and rosemary and cook for five minutes.

Place the chicken on top of the mixture and add the wine. Place the lid on top and place the pot in the oven. Cook for one and one half hours.