Reads: The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

rating: 4 out of 5


The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is one of those books that it seemed like everyone I know has read but I had not. Well, not anymore! I just finished listening to the unabridged Audio CD version narrated by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. I won’t go too in depth with my review since as I said, most folks that I know read this ages ago. I am a bit of late bloomer.

 

Plath’s novel is semi-autobiographical and tells the sad and gripping story of Esther Greenwood, a 19-year old overachiever who slowly slips into depression and madness. The story is set in the 1950’s in New York City and Boston. Esther is living in the time before the Women’s Rights movement and part of her angst is due to how stifled she feels by society and the gender role that women of the time had to fill. She is unsure of where she should go next with her career, education and love life.

I loved Plath’s writing as it had wry humor woven through it. She did an excellent job of capturing the inner turmoil that one can go through. Gyllenhaal was an stellar choice as narrator. I was completely able to buy her as the character Esther. It wasn’t like she was just reading the book, it was as if she was playing the role of Esther Greenwood.

I read this book as part of the 1% Well Read Challenge (reading 10 books from the 1001Books to Read Before you Die list). It’s my second book for the challenge… so 2 down 8 to go! I have until February 28, 2009 to complete this challenge.

Eats: Cafe Polonia

Cafe Polonia
611 Dorchester Ave
South Boston, MA 02127

website: http://cafepolonia.com/

Cafe Polonia is located in Andrew Square in South Boston. We went on a Sunday night and were able to find street parking fairly easily. The cheery exterior is warm and inviting. Once inside, we were ushered to our reserved table and handed the menus. The inside of the restaurant was cozy with yellow walls and chunky pine tables and chairs. The dining area is quaint and charming and it definitely made me feel like I had stepped into a neighborhood restaurant in Europe. The background music was an interesting mix of Polish pop & rock music and traditional polkas. The menu describes the food as “Fine Polish Cuisine” and has a nice selection of Polish comfort foods including borscht, pierogis, kielbasas, and more. Along with the items on the menu there were half a dozen specials written up on a chalkboard. Their prices are very reasonable.

 

   Our server was very friendly and suggested some Zyweic Polish beers for the 2 men in our party based on their described beer preferences. Both were very pleased with her selections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 They brought us a bread basket that came with a small tub of lard mixed with bacon and caramelized onions. Since a couple of us don’t eat pork, we opted out of trying that. But, one brave soul gave it a try.

For an appetizer, we ordered the Potato Pancakes with smoke salmon and sour cream. The pancakes were very generously sized and fried to a golden brown. The exteriors were nice and crispy while the insides remained soft and flavorful.

Two from our party ordered the Polish Plate which is a sort of sampler that includes stuffed cabbage, pierogis, kielbasa, and Hunter’s stew. 

I ordered the Beef Goulash with Potato dumplings. It came with sides of chilled beet salad and pickles. It was good and very generously portioned. My husband ordered the Rainbow Trout. The trout was stuffed with red peppers and capers and baked whole.  He said it was very good and he really liked the potato medallions that were served with it. He deemed the asparagus that was served across the top of the fish as “overcooked”.

I give Cafe Polonia 4 out of 5 stars. I will be back!

Cooking: Tequila Shrimp Pasta with Tomato-Cream Sauce

I found this recipe while leafing through the Williams-Sonoma Savoring Pasta & Rice cookbook. It sounded unique and I just had to try it. Who can resist boozy pasta?!?! *hic*

In total it took me about an hour and a half to make the pasta. A majority of that time was spent roasting the tomatoes for an hour. But, in the end all that time was worth it.  I loved the way the citrus juice flavor combined with the tomatoes and chipotle peppers.  My husband declared this pasta as “best and a half!”

I will definitely keep this recipe in my repertoire.

(click “more” for the recipe)

Booking Through Thursday: Autumn Reading

This week’s question for Booking Through Thursday is:

Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?

The only season where my reading habits sometimes change is during the summer, when I tend to read a higher percentage of “fluff” books than at other times of the year. This past summer I took this to the extreme and decided to read all the unread chick lit books sitting on my to-read shelf. I enjoy the occasional piece of chick lit but this summer I went a wee bit overboard. My brain turned to sickly sweet strawberry jam by the end of the summer. I was yearning to read something with more substance and a bit less predictable.

So in the past month, I’ve been picking up books with a bit more heft as I attempt to return my brain from its gelatinous state to something a bit more capable of reading about challenging characters and topics. Time for my brain to digest the books instead of the other way around!

Eats: Brookline Family Restaurant

Brookline Family Restaurant

305 Washington Street
Brookline, MA 02445
617-277-4466

website: http://brooklinefamilyrestaurant.com/

As I’ve stated previously, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Turkish food.  It is Ramadan, and during his long days of fasting, my man develops cravings as to what he wants for dinner to break his fast. So, Saturday afternoon I got a call from him saying “Let’s go to that Turkish place in Brookline Village.”  He could only mean the Brookline Family Restaurant.

 Once he got home, we piled in the car and drove to Brookline Village where parking was at a premium and apparently so were tables at Brookline Family Restaurant.  There was a crowd of about 12 people waiting outside for a table.  My husband parked the car and I ran in to put our name on the list. There was a big empty table for 12 with a reserved sign on it and they said there was a 7 PM reservation. It was 7:05. But okay, maybe the people were having trouble parking. We went back outside to wait.  At 7:15 my husband broke his fast with some dates supplied gratis by the staff. About 10 minutes later they must’ve given up on the reservation ever showing up so they seating a bunch of the waiting parties… us among them.

 

 We ordered our small feast of cold okra appetizer, Lahmacun (Turkish style pizza topped with ground lamb and veggies), Adana Kebab (ground lamb blended with spices), and a special of Roasted Eggplant stuffed with ground lamb. After we ordered they brought some complimentary bread and a white bean salad to the table. We love this white bean salad. It is flavorful with lemon juice and spices.

 

Reads: Then We Came to the End

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I read “Then We Came to the End” for a book club meeting that I have next week. I m still not 100% sure that I can make it to the meeting, but I read the book all the same.

“Then We came to the End” is Ferris’s first novel and is set at the turn of the 21st century at a Chicago advertising agency that is struggling through the dot-com failure era. The workers at the office are being laid off one at a time with very little rhyme or reason as to who gets the ax when.

Layoffs were upon us. They had been rumored for months, but now it was official. If you were lucky, you could sue. if you were black, aged, female, Catholic, Jewish, gay, obese, or physically handicapped, at least you had grounds.

Ferris narrates the book from a 1st person plural point of view, which is different from other books I have read. The book is laced with disaffected humor as we are allowed to observe the copywriters and designers partake in their office hi-jinx and suffer from paranoia that they will be the next layoff. The workers spend much of their time trying to look busy or hanging out at the coffee bar gossiping. The book for the most part is set in the office so, if you’ve ever worked in corporate America and sat in a cube, you should be able to find something in this tale that you relate too.

Overall, I enjoyed the book although I think it could have been stronger. There were a lot of characters and most of them weren’t very deeply drawn so you don’t really “get to know” any of the individuals too well.

View all my reviews.

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

Yay!  My first official Tuesdays with Dorie posting.  I seemed to have stumbled into Dorie-land in the midst of choco-cookie-mania!  While I was too late to make them in time for the “due date” I couldn’t resist making last week’s Chocolate Malted Whopper Drop cookies this past weekend and they are practically gone… just in time for me to make Chocolate Chunkers.  Chocolate Chunkers were selected by Claudia to be this week’s recipe. She has posted the recipe on her blog.

These Chunkers are an interesting cookie, really much more “stuff” than cookie… and loaded with chocolate on top of chocolate on top of even more chocolate. They are jam packed with white chocolate and semisweet chocolate chunks, chopped nuts, and raisins. My nut of choice was salted peanuts and my dried fruit of choice was golden raisins.

 They are slightly crispy on the outside but the inside is soft and when they are just out of the oven they are chock full of melty goodness. I really like the crunchy, salty touch of the peanuts and the chewiness of the raisins. Those 2 do a good job of breaking up the chocolate overload and adding some different texture to the mix.  I’ve only tasted one of these chunky little buggers so far and I just might be in love!  I will definitely be making these again!

Eats: Cafe Vanille

Cafe Vanille
70 Charles Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-523-9200
website: http://www.cafevanilleboston.com/menus/index.html

 I was over in the  Mass General area on Saturday morning and decided to stroll down Charles Street. Charles Street is one of my favorite streets in Boston… so picturesque and so many cute little shops and restaurants.   I was feeling a little hungry so I decided to stop in at Cafe Vanille to grab a bite to eat.

Cafe Vanille is a bakery serving up breakfast items, coffee, sandwiches and desserts.  A few years ago I ordered an assortment of their petit fours and mini-desserts for a going away party before. They were a big hit at the gathering. The mini desserts are so cute, some are tastier than others and at $1 or more a piece the bill for these little treats can rack up quickly. 

This cute & casual space has a few tables along the walls across from the pastry cases. But, the best place to site is outside. They have a great little patio on the corner of Charles with excellent people watching. Its a great place to sit and read the Sunday paper while sipping your latte and nibbling at your quiche or croissant. This past weekend I chose to get my pastry to go and stroll to the Public Garden and eat it there.

I ordered the Sunburn Croissant which is a croissant with peaches and almond paste. The peaches almost look like sunnyside-up eggs nestled amongst the folds of the croissant.   The croissant was fresh and tasty, definitely better than what you can get at Au Bon Pain.

TWD: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

I was not yet officially a member of Tuesdays with Dorie yet but I couldn’t resist making the Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. I have always been a sucker for malted milk balls. Now, that I think about it, some of my favorite candy junk food is stuff that gives you a tummy ache if you eat even 1 or 2 too many– malted milk balls, gummy bears, jelly beans. ugh!  but soooo yum!

So, anyways, on to the cookies!

 

I spent Sunday morning prepping and baking the cookies. It was a fairly easy recipe, the most pain-in-the-ass parts were finding a supermarket that had malted milk powder (found it in the fifth market I tried in the dried/condensed milk section) and chopping the Whoppers. At the start of the latter effort, I had a few malted milk balls fly free of the cutting board and knife and roll across the kitchen. But, they can’t escape me for too long!  I caught on soon enough and kept those puppies under control with more careful knife work. (Note to self, have an additional cup of coffee ingested next time before you decide to chop Whoppers)

My cookies came out flatter and not as chunky as the ones pictured in Dorie’s cookbook. But, they were still super tasty. I loved how the whoppers melted and caramelized as they cooked. The cookies themselves are malty, chocolatey and chewy. I will definitely be making these again!

 

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops (from Baking by Dorie Greenspan)
1.75 cups all purpose flour
1 cup malted milk powder
.25 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
.25 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temp.
.66 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
.25 cup whole milk
2 cups (6 ounces) chocolate-covered malted milk balls, coarsely chopped
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped or 1 cup store-bought choc chips or chunks

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together the flour, malted milk powder, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about a minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned in the mixture looks curdled – it will even out when the dry ingredients are added. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear in the the batter. Mix in the milk, then the remaining dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. The batter will look more like fudge frosting than cookie dough – and that’s fine. With the mixer on low, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the malted milk balls and chopped chocolate.
Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls on to the sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between spoonfuls. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 6 minutes. When done, the cookies will be puffed and set slightly but soft to the touch. Let the cookies rest for 2 minutes before using a wide metal spatula to transfer them to the racks to cool to room temperature.
Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Sunday Salon: Day of Cookies, History & Goulash

I didn’t get nearly as much reading done today as I’d hoped. I had lofty goals of reading 80+ pages of my book club book “Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris. I only read about 20 pages of it, but I also read a bit of “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath. So that’s something…. The relative lack of reading was for a good cause— COOKIES!  The cookies came out great. They are the Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops that were this week’s selection for Tuesdays with Dorie. I am not officially signed up for TWD yet, but decided to try the recipe anyway since I’ve always loved malted milk balls. I will make another post later about my cookie baking adventures.

I also went to tour Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, MA with my mom who came down to visit for the afternoon. Even though the park is so close by I had never been there before. The tour was $5 for adults and lasted about 2 hours. We got to tour 3 historic homes that belonged to President John Adams and his family.  I had read “1776″ by David McCullough last year for book club which touched a bit upon John Adams. I have not read McCullough’s biography of Adams, but I did see the HBO mini-series version of it.  I am hoping to read the book at some time in the future when I’ve read most of my unread TBR books.

At the National Historical Park, the most interesting of the houses was the so called “Old House”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Adams Old House had a very lovely garden with paths lined with colorful flowers and several shady tree just begging to be curled up under with a book.

Adams House Garden

The property also features the first American Presidential Library.  It is an out building of the Old House and has floor to ceiling books lining all four walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weather vane on Roof of Adams Presidential Library

And for dinner… we ventured into South Boston to have dinner or goulash and potato pancakes at a Polish restaurant… but more on that in a later post.  I must try to read a bit more before I drift off to sleep tonight.