Sunday Salon: Rainy Day Reads

After a night out dining at The Savant Project, I woke up to the sound of raindrops on the skylight and rolled out of bed a little late (for me) this morning. A little late for me is 9 AM…I know….sad.

We toughed the rain and went to one of our favorite breakfast spots where I went the light route by just having a bowl of fresh fruit. After breakfast, we went to check out some appliances, fixtures, and tiles for our upcoming bathroom/laundry room project. I am thrilled that it is becoming more and more real. The contractor is stopping by next weekend to give us an updated estimate.

Now that my husband is off at work I am catching up on some emails and postings and also doing some spring cleaning.  A bit later I plan on curling up and reading some more of my book club’s selection Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Mister Pip is the ideal escapist read for book lovers. In this novel, the residents of a tropical aisle are distracted from the war around them by reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  The book is a very quick read and I am tearing through it. If I ignore my housecleaning, I just may finish reading it today.

Cuchi Cuchi

Cuchi Cuchi

795 Main St.

Cambridge, MA 02139

617-864-2929

website: http://www.cuchicuchi.cc/

 My book club held its March meeting at Cuchi Cuchi in Central Square in Cambridge. This was my first time dining at Cuchi Cuchi despite it being so close to my office. Now I am mad at myself for waiting so long to check it out.

Cuchi Cuchi has a vibe all its own with ornate decor that is reminiscent of the roaring 20’s. An atmosphere that is only enhanced by the female waitstaff decked out in duds that reflect the era. The menu is made up mostly of small plates ($8-15) with influences from around the globe. There’s also a fabulous cocktail menu with a plethora of martinis and other mixed libations.

We each ordered 2 small plates, which was plenty of food. I started with the Savory Coronets with Tuna Tartare and Avocado Mousse (3 for $13), which Cuchi Cuchi describes as “Our Signature dish with a nod to Thomas Keller, The French Laundry”.  Thomas Keller is one of those chefs that I am just in awe of, so I had to order this. The three crispy cones stuffed with tuna tartare came served upright in a cute little rack.  I loved the presentation and they were tasty, but not my favorite preparation of tuna tartare ever.

I also ordered the beef stroganoff ($14), 3 chunks of sirloin with shallot and mushroom sauce served over egg noodles. The stroganoff was satisfying and filling, the perfect comfort food.

To end our meal we ordered the French Banana Bread Extravaganza and the Cornucopia, a pizelle cone filled with fresh fruit, pureed mango, and whipped cream. I found the cornucopia to be a very refreshing way to end the meal…then mango puree acted as the perfect palate cleanser.

I give Cuchi Cuchi 4 out of 5 mangoes. They are an ideal locale for a girls night out with a fun and funky atmosphere and creative cocktails.

Man in the Dark

Man in the Dark: A Novel by Paul Auster

rating: 4 of 5 stars

 With Man in the Dark, Auster has delivered a quiet and surreal novel. The protaganist in this tale is August Brill, a 70-something retired literary critic who is recovering from a car accident. During his recovery he is staying with his daughter and granddaughter who each have their own troubles.

I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness. Upstairs my daughter and granddaughter are asleep in their bedrooms, each one alone as well, the forty-seven-year-old Miriam, my only child, who has slept alone for the past five years, and the twenty-three-year-old Katya, Miriam’s only child, who used tosleep with a young man Titus Small, but Titus is dead now, and Katya sleeps alone with her broken heart.

To keep himself entertained during his bouts of insomnia, Brill starts telling himself a story about a man who is living in an America with an alternate history. In this other America, the US is not at war with itself but is instead engaged in a civil war. It seems that in this alternate America some of the blue states were so upset that the Supreme Court ruled that George W. Bush won the 2000 election that they secede from the United States and a civil war erupts. As the night goes on, the story that Brill creates becomes more and more intense. Part of this intensity is brought about as Brill reflects on his own life.

The book had touches of meta-fiction with the story within the story and the parallels between both.  The book was very readable and I read it in pretty much one sitting  (okay, I reluctantly had to set it aside to do some work).  I love books with non-traditional narratives, and Man in the Dark is definitely one of those. Auster is definitely offering up an opinion about the state of politics in the U.S. with regards to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. But, it happens to be an opinion that I agree with. I could see how someone might enjoy the book less if these aren’t their political views.

And props to Auster for including the city of Worcester, MA in this tale.

View all my reviews.

Sauteed Broccolini

One of the bonus recipes this month for Barefoot Bloggers was Ina Garten’s sauteed broccolini. I had never cooked broccolini before.  But I wasn’t afraid. No vegetable is going to get the best of me!

It was a very simple recipe that puts all attention on the fresh veggie. I opted to slice the garlic instead of mincing it, but otherwise I stuck to the recipe.  The broccolini was buttery, garlicky, and lemony. It was crisp and delicious and went perfectly with the steak that I was serving as a main course for dinner.

So good. So easy. I will be making this broccolini again.

This recipe was selected by Mary of Meet Me in the Kitchen.

 

• 1 bunch broccolini
• Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 lemon, zested
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Blanch the broccolini in a large pot of boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain immediately and immerse in a bowl of ice water.
2.   Melt the butter in a large saute pan. Add the lemon zest and garlic and stir. Drain the broccolini and add it to the garlic mixture and heat for 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the pepper, and toss well before serving.

A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am totally throwing myself under the nerd-bus here, but I have to admit that I already knew something about most of the concepts in Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. I guess that is what a couple of semesters of college physics and a bunch of engineering courses does to a girl. That being said, I am not sure how readable this book would be to someone without a technical background. The book is touted to be written in a way that allows laymen to understand these advanced topics.

The book discusses space and time, the origins of the universe and how our understanding of the concepts has developed over time. Hawking delves into quantum mechanics and also explains the concepts of the Big Bang and what a black hole is. And while the book may indeed be brief at under 200 pages, it is quite dense. I did enjoy how Hawking let his own personality shine through the writing and offered up his own opinions, beliefs and philosophies instead of just having the book read like an objective text book.

 A Brief History of Timehas been shown twice on the television show LOST. It was shown in Ben’s bedroom in the episode “The Man from Tallahassee” and a character was also shown reading it in the episode “Not in Portland”.  I guess those Lostees really like learning about time and the universe.  Based on the recent episodes it would seem that time is definitely a favorite topic of the show’s writers.

View all my reviews.

Tomato & Goat Cheese Tarts

Goat cheese is one of those things (and okay, I have a lot of them *pats belly*) that I just can’t resist. If I am reading through a menu and come across the words “goat cheese” in the description of a menu item I just have to order it, unless it is followed by the word bacon, in which case I immediately skip to the next item on the menu. (such a good little supportive wife I am)

So, of course I was mega-psyched when I saw Anne of Anne Strawberry’s Barefoot Blogger pick of Ina Garten’s Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts as one of the March recipe selections. This recipe can also be found in Ina’s cookbook Back to Basics.

The recipe got two thumbs up in my house with the request “next time, make it with meat” (I hear that so often when I make veggie dishes…sigh). Maybe I will be nice and the next time I make these little tarts I will add some chicken.

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts

• 1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
• Good olive oil
• 4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions)
• 3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler
• 4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet)
• 1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices

• 3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves

Directions

1. Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11 by 11-inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer or other round object as a guide, cut 2 circles from the sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. Repeat with the second pastry sheet to make 4 circles in all. Place the pastry circles on 2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
3. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat.
4. Using a sharp paring knife, score a 1/4-inch-wide border around each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan on each round, staying inside the scored border.
5. Place 1/4 of the onion mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Crumble 1 ounce of goat cheese on top of the onions. Place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Brush the tomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with basil, salt, and pepper. Finally, scatter 4 or 5 shards of Parmesan on each tart.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. The bottom sheet pan may need an extra few minutes in the oven. Serve hot or warm.

Mango Crumb Cake

So, this week’s TWD recipe was Blueberry Crumb Cake, but I just had to Mango-it-up. I substituted diced fresh mango for the blueberries and orange zest for the lemon zest.  I also veered off the beaten path slightly from Dorie’s instructions and mixed the crumb topping by hand rather than drag the food processor out of its hiding place.  Plus, I baked this cake in the wee hours of the morning and didn’t want to wake up my honey with the whirring of kitchen machinery.

The resultant cake was moist and studded with juicy bits of mango.  The cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest in the batter added a nice flavor the complimented the mango well. Though my husband did use this as another opportunity to preach to me about how the mangoes in American supermarkets are nowhere near as good as the ones that he can get back home. Sigh, then take me THERE and buy me a mango! 

 

Sihan of Befuddlement chose Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection. She has the recipe posted on her blog so be sure to stop by and check it out.

Sunday Salon: Dim Sum & then some…

I started the day off by meeting with 6 others for some Dim Sum in Quincy. It has been a couple of years since I last had dim sum so I was looking forward to it.  Some of our group were not the most adventurous eaters so we didn’t try that many dishes and walked out of there with a bill of only $30 and change. Pretty affordable!  Next time, I will be taking my husband since he loves to join me on my dining adventures.

And now I am back in my cozy little house where I did a bit of work and then finished the last 40 pages of The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien. This was an odd little book that counts for two different reading challenges I am participating in: the LOST challenge (books referenced by the TV show) and the 1% Well Read Challenge (books from the 1001 list).

My next book that I will start reading later today is My Life in France by Julia Child. I checked this out of the library along with about 9 other books. Not to mention the 4 library books that I already had sitting at home. Yes, I have a book addiction. There is a slim chance that I will finish all of the books by the time they are due. But, seriously, why do I do this to myself?? I guess that I am just a life long overachiever… Too bad that I don’t always succeed.

The rest of the books I currently have checked out of the library are:

• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• The Quiet American by Graham Greene
• Travels with Alice by Calvin Trillin
• Candy and Me: A Love Story by Hilary Liftin
• That they may face the rising sunby John McGahern
• The Gastronomical Me by MFK Fisher
• In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
• The Spy Who Came in from the Coldby John Le Carre
• Slow Man by JM Coetzee
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
• In the Forest by Edna O’Brien
• Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas
• Vanishing Point by David Markson

sigh.

So what are you reading/doing today?

Another 1%

Last year, I signed up for the 1% Well Read Challenge, which set the goal of reading 10 books from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. I ended up surpassing that goal and reading 16 books from the list.

Well, as you may know, I LOVE lists, so I am signing up for the challenge again this year. In the past year, the publishers have revised the 1001 list to take away some of the original books and add some new ones. If you include all the books from the original list and the new list that’s over 1300 books. These people must want me to spend every waking minute of my life reading!   Thus far, I’ve read 158 of the books from both lists, so, yes, I have a ways to go.

So, I am signing up to read 13 books from the complete list over the next year. (end date March of 2010) Some of the books that I plan on reading are (subject to change, of course):

1. The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
2. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid (new list)
3. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (original list)
4. The Razor’s Edge by William Somerset Maugham 
5. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by José Saramago
6. The Double by José Saramago
7. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
8. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
9. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre
10. Vanishing Point by David Markson
11. That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
12. In the Forest by Edna O’Brien
13. Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee

ALTERNATES (because I have no shortage of books on my shelf)

1. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
2. A Prayer for Owen Meany  by John Irving
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
5. V. by Thomas Pynchon
6. The Master by Colm Toibin
7. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
8. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
9. Great Apes by Will Self
10. How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman
11. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
12. The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte
13. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
14. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
15. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Have you read any of these books?

Sag Harbor

Sag Harbor: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Colson Whitehead refers to Sag Harboras his “autobiographical fourth novel”.  In this coming of age tale, Whitehead tells us about Benji, an upper middle class African American teenager who lives in New York with his family. His parents are a doctor and a lawyer. It’s 1985 and Benji can’t help comparing his family to the Huxtibles on the Cosby Show. Benji and his younger brother Reggie spend the entire summer of 1985 at their family’s summer house in Sag Harbor.  Most of the time the boys are left on their own in Sag Harbor as their parents remain in the city working.  Sag Harbor is a summertime conclave of upper middle class African American families. Benji and Reggie spend their days and evenings working and hanging around with other boys who spend every summer at Sag Harbor.

 In the novel Benji tries to discover exactly who he is. He doesn’t fit in with his mostly white prep school classmates and he also doesn’t exactly fit in with the black kids at Sag Harbor. He is trying to reinvent himself as a cool kid (he wants to be called Ben, not Benji) but can’t quite get there, either due to the messed up haircut his dad gave him or his enjoyment of Dungeons & Dragons.  We feel Benji’s awkwardness and anxiousness. Somehow, he isn’t quite into what the other kids are into.

Everybody had their brands, black kids, white kids. Sperry, Girbaud, and Bennetton. Lee jeans and Le Tigre polos, according to the plumage theory of social commerce. If the correct things belonged to you, perhaps you might belong. I was more survival-oriented. The brands I worshipped lived in the soup aisle, in the freezer section behind glass, I’m talking frozen food here. Swanson, of course, was the standard, the elegant marriage of form and function. The four food groups (meat, veg, starch, apple cobbler) lay pristine in their separate foil compartments, which were in fact, presto, a serving dish. Meal and plate in one slim rectangle–this was American ingenuity at its best and most sustaining.

Whitehead mixes in lots of pop culture references to songs, movies, TV shows and slang from the era. This helps to more deeply evoke the time and the place of Sag Harbor in summer of ‘85. Most of the chapters could stand on their own as short stories. Each one explores a different aspect of Benji’s summer, whether its his crush on a girl he works with or reminiscing about the summers of his childhood. Even thought the novel is laced with some more serious topics and themes, the writing is full of sharp wit. Sag Harbor  would make a good book club selection and I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys coming of age stories.

View all my reviews.