Oatmeal Lace Cookies and President Roosevelt's Martini

I don't know about you, but if there's a particular sort of novel I especially appreciate, it's one with a competent female protagonist.  Two books I've recently finished illustrate this type. The Dead Cat Bounce, is a mystery series debut featuring Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree, recently retired from the stressful field of financial management in New York, and currently restoring a rambling old fixer-upper on an island in Maine.  She is a money whiz and home repair do-it-yourselfer (with occasional help).   And, just so you know, cat lovers out there, the dead cat bounce is a stock market term.  Her books have the added allure of being funny.Right from the first page:

 "...on that bright April morning when, after living cheerfully and peacefully in the house for over a year, I found a body in the storeroom. Coming upon a body is an experience, like childbirth or a head-on collision, that takes the breath out of a person. I went back through the passageway between the kitchen and the small, unheated room where in spring I kept dog food and dahlia bulbs, and where apparently I now stored corpses."  And, on page 3:

 "People in Eastport do not think the telephone grows naturally out of the tympanic membrane, and some of them will actually decide whether to answer it or not based on what sort of news they are expecting." and further down: "I think Ellie added, 'we should make sure the man is really dead.'  This struck me as pointless, since an ice pick in the cranium promised little in the way of future prospects.  But Ellie was determined; it was part of her down east Maine heritage, like being able to navigate in the fog or knowing how to dress out a deer."

Panellets de Pinyons for Dia de los Muertos

For this month's round of our Eat the World Recipe Challenge we are visiting Spain.  At least I am.  Actually, the theme is meant to be Halloween in a country of our choice.  And I picked Spain, partly due to a nephew recently moved there and another, his brother, visiting at the moment.  Instead of the American traditional  Halloween, Spain celebrates with a three day holiday honoring deceased relatives.  It is a time when family members come home to pay their respects to the dead, decorate tombstones with flowers, prepare meals together and attend church.  The festivities kick off on October 31st with Dia de las Brujas (Day of the Witches), continues with Dia de Todas los Santos (All Saints Day) on November 1st, and finishes off with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on Nov. 2nd.  To discover what all is happening for the holiday in Spain, go to Halloween in Spain for a ton of celebrations and attractions.

Family Tree and A Sweetheart Dinner

An engrossing, romantic novel, packed full of good food ideas.  What more could you ask for a Valentine's Day read? Family Tree, by Susan Wiggs is all of that and more.  It's about Annie, an independent minded cook, with vision and ambition.  However the career push takes her away from her home, her roots and from the love of her life.  I loved this book.

From the Publishers:

"Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost.Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago: the town where she grew up, the people she knew before, the high-school boyfriend turned judge....Family Tree is the story of one woman’s triumph over betrayal, and how she eventually comes to terms with her past."

"This Must Be the Place" for Brutti-Boni

Just finished This Must Be the Place, a novel by Maggie O'Farrell.  She certainly knows how to spin an intriguing story or two.  Or three, or four.  They kept coming, interconnected, and at different dates, and places, leaping back and forth between 1986 and 2016, with the various characters, though most were a recurring group.  I found it a bit confusing, and was continually shuffling around in the book to figure things out and understand what was going on.  Still O'Farrell keeps us fascinated throughout.  She is such a good writer.  I've read a number of her novels at this point and loved them all.   From the Publisher:

"Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Claudette was once the most glamorous and infamous woman in cinema before she staged her own disappearance and retreated to blissful seclusion in an Irish farmhouse.

But the life Daniel and Claudette have so carefully constructed is about to be disrupted by an unexpected discovery about a woman Daniel lost touch with twenty years ago. This revelation will send him off-course, far away from wife, children, and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?"

Clares Lace Cookies

 

One thing to love about the "Aunt Dimity" series of mysteries by Nancy Atherton, is a lovely recipe added in at the end.  Something casually featured in the story, nice but not necessary.  Just delicious.  And for lovers of good food and murder mysteries (what exactly is the connection there?) the perfect ending.  You not only get the puzzle solved but a treat as well.  That is if you make the effort to cook it up.

Right now I'm reading Aunt Dimity: Detective, and the treat at the end is The Pym Sisters' Gilded Gingerbread, which I'm looking forward to trying.  These Lace Cookies were the nice surprise, the fillip to finish Aunt Dimity's Christmas.  Light, crispy and delectable.

Death by Darjeeling, and Tea-smoked Duck Breasts for Cook the Books Club

Our current read for Cook the Books Club is the cozy tea shop mystery, Death by Darjeeling, by Laura Childs.  If  death can be considered "cozy."  I've always wondered about that murder mystery appellation, though the tea shop and cafe she describes is certainly cozy enough to make me long for one in our town.

I've read others of her delightful books and come away with that same longing, as well as enlightenment on the subject of tea, the multitude of types with their unique flavors, from all around the world - India, Africa, South East Asia and China to a tea plantation in South Carolina, and, yes Hawaii.  We do have our own tea estates outside the town of Volcano, on the "Big Island."

I was so fascinated with the whole subject, thanks to Childs' book, that for purposes of burgeoning interest and research, I made an appointment to tour a local tea plantation,  Tea Hawaii, with hostess Eva Lee.

Eva Lee and her husband, Chiu Leong, founders of Tea Hawaii,  grow most of their tea in the understory shade of ohia trees.  I discovered that tea will thrive in shade or sun, and at various elevations.  Though, apparently the finest teas grow at higher elevations, due to the slower growth caused by a cooler climate.  Several cultivars  have been planted, and are kept pruned to just below waist height.

Ginger Salt on Double Chocolate Cookies

If you (like me) are one of those bloggers who did NOT get sent any Ginger Salt, fear not.  There is a solution.  One which does not involve traipsing from  grocery store to supermarket,  looking for it in the spices section, or finding and ordering online.  You might say to yourself, as I did, "I can do that...."

What does it take, after all?  Salt and ginger.  You grate the ginger, then mix with Kosher salt.

Simplicity itself.

Spread your mixture out in a glass baking dish (I was afraid the raw ginger might react with metal, but could be wrong on that), and let it dry at a low temperature in your oven.  Easy, peasey.

Then, if you're the sort who saves empty jars, you might fill a few.  And, if you want to remember what the heck it is, put on a label even.  Now all that's left is to sprinkle it on top of a roasted puimpkin, rib-eye steak, a baked potato with sour cream, a filet of mahi mahi, etc., etc., etc. I'll leave where to put it up to your imagination.  Very nice on our tenderloin last night.  But, the piece de resistance might just be these Double Chocolate Cookies, topped with Ginger Salt.

Originally Pierre Hermé's recipe, they were called Korova Cookies by Dorrie Greenspan in her book, Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops.  She named them after Hermé's restaurant Korova on the Champs-Élysées.  In a more recent book, she calls them World Peace Cookies.  I found them when Deb of Smitten Kitchen posted the recipe. Though, I just noticed they were also in my Sept. issue of Bon Appetit.  So, these oft named and copied cookies have been around the block and back.  A few times.  I like the idea of world peace spreading as everyone eats a few cookies.  Realistically speaking, they are more likely to cause a few minor wars over possession.  Because they are to die for.  Especially with a sprinkling of Ginger Salt on top.  I apologize in advance for these seriously addicting little items.  Perhaps should be called Butter and Chocolate Overload Cookies.