Gerard finally gets back to reading through the Dewey -- Part 1

It's been a long while, but I'm finally at a stable point where I can have a day job, train for a half-marathon, run a business, AND achieve my reading goals. I also make tasty thing and share the recipes.

Let's see how this goes.

854.912: Eco, Umberto. How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays. (252 pp.; finished 27 May 2017)

Umberto Eco’s How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays is quite an apropos book to have with you while on vacation. He singles out particular occurrences in both American and Italian culture for close, humorous inspection. Eco dissects traveling by train in the US, getting a new driver’s license in Italy, writing an introduction to art books, and much more. There are times when the Eco’s annoyance is just pedantic, but others are universal situations.

The humor here is a bit stilted, but that may be the translation. It is definitely better than your standard American hyperbole and so becomes more like good satire than simple pastiche, almost as if it was the source material for the TV show Frasier. In any case, many of the essays are chuckle-worthy and it makes for a good bathroom or bedtime reader. A light and entertaining book.

June 5, 2017: For today, I'm trying to start off the week with more motivation than usual. Going for a half-hour run at lunch and making a tasty pizza for dinner.

Dinner: Hot Salami Pizza

Welcome back! Glad you've joined us again!

Welcome back, Gerard!!

>4 drneutron: >5 scaifea: Thanks, Jim and Amber. It's good to be back.

708: McClellan, Andrew, ed. Art and Its Publics: Museum Studies at the Millennium. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 200 pp.

Art and Its Publics collects essays from various museum studies professionals to engage the reader to think about museums and art galleries and other exhibition spaces and how the public thinks and acts in them. It’s quite a heady subject as each person has differing agendas when going to a museum. The editor’s essay on the types of publics reveals that throughout history there has always been a discussion about who goes to museum and why, and if knowing those reasons attracts or detracts more visitors.

Other essays looks at private museums, public art exhibitions, how the public evaluates what is art in the first place, and how exhibition layouts and signage play into patron bias. Each essay is insightful (or at the very least informative) in its own right, and all throughout reading, I felt compelled to go to a museum to see how various tidbits from the book were present, so it does get the reader thinking about museums.

Is it a fun read? Decidedly not. But, if you are at all interesting in how museum directors and curators make decisions about their collections and exhibitions, then there are probably far worse books you could read. All in all, it was worth the time I put into it.

Recipe: Hot Salami Pizza

On whatever pizza crust you have on hand (pre-prepared, grilled, etc.), spread a thin layer of pizza sauce. Top with a sparse smattering of shredded Fontina cheese. Top with thin slices of sopressata piccante and salami calabrese. Top with additional Fontina, then diced, roasted red peppers and chopped pepperoncini. (Note: make sure to pat the peppers dry to eliminate excess moisture) Bake at 425 degrees F until cheese is melted, then bring to a broil until pizza is browned to your liking.

Enjoy.

June 6, 2017: Got a good run in yesterday, leading me to feel a lot better about my race in the fall. Store work didn't take too long last night, so I got to spend a fair amount of time relaxing and started a book of Italo Calvino's letters.

Tonight's Dinner: Burger and Tots

June 7, 2017: Taking a rest day from running due to meetings during lunch. Store work was again manageable, so I finally got to putting the library in order last night, getting a couple more shelves done. Still working through Calvino's letters; they're entertaining but very plentiful.

Tonight's Dinner: Chicken Spiedie Sandwiches (a local NY flavoring blend)

June 8, 2017: Last night's spiedie was delicious as always. Since there were no orders to pack for the store, I got back to the library. Three bookcases finished -- 6 more to go. It's organized through Dewey 725. Most of the library is now fiction (and odd reversal for me), so that will be the bulk of the work, followed by my many history books.

Dinner: Burrito Pie

Lovely to see you back Gerard. I look forward to keeping up with you buddy for the rest of the year.

Recipe: Burrito Pie

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. In a large skillet, brown 1.25 lbs ground beef and season with garlic powder to taste. Once browned, add one finely diced onion and saute until tender. Add one can refried beans, one can of diced tomatoes, two diced jalapenos, and 12 oz. taco sauce and mix thoroughly. Simmer for 10 minutes.

For the final dish, you will need six tortillas, and 10 oz. shredded Colby cheese

In a tall round casserole dish, spoon a small amount of the meat mixture into the bottom and spread evenly. Next, layer one tortilla, then some meat mixture, and then some shredded cheese. Repeat this five more times, finishing with a layer of cheese. Make sure to distribute the amounts evenly between tortillas.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Serve in pie slices and enjoy.

June 9, 2017: Ah....it's Friday. The day job should be nice and smooth and no store work until Sunday, so I'm relaxing for the next few days. The missus and I will be staying in and binge-watching some Netflix.

Tonight's Dinner: Steak and Broccoli

That burrito pie recipe sounds good. I'll give it a try!

June 12, 2017: Back to the day job grind after a very relaxing weekend. Spent Saturday watching The West Wing all day. Charcuterie for lunch and nachos for dinner. Also spent the afternoon putting a together lovely puzzle of a collage of vintage cookbooks.

Sunday, we went to a Spanish BBQ at Toro Run Winery and tasted through their library wines (2011 vintages of Rieslings and Chardonnays) that complimented a tasty paella. Time well spent.

Tonight's Dinner: Braised Beef Tacos

June 13, 2017: Had some very excellent tacos for dinner last night. We mistakenly used a corned beef brisket instead of a regular brisket, so the texture broke my brain for a small moment, but the spice blend and taco fixin's made it worthwhile. The good thing about it was the fact that I was able to get a fair amount of store work done while it was braising.

I'm still working through Calvino's letters and looking forward to having some barbeque goodies tonight with friends to celebrate an award the missus won last week.

Recipe: Braised Brisket Tacos

Make the brisket: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Mix 1 tablespoon chili powder, 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Score the fat on a 3-4 lb beef brisket, then rub the spice mixture all over the brisket until coated. Heat 1 T vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the brisket fat-side down and cook until browned on both sides, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add 2 chopped Poblano peppers, 1 chopped red onion, 8 cloves of smashed garlic, 1 T chili powder, 2 t cumin, 1 t smoked paprika, 1.5 t ground coriander, .5 t dried oregano, and a pinch of salt to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in 1.5 cups tomato juice and 1 cup chicken broth and remove from the heat. Nestle the brisket fat-side up in the liquid and cover the pot. Bake until the meat is very tender and a thin knife inserted into the center twists easily, about 3 hours.

Transfer the brisket to a cutting board. Spoon off and discard the excess fat from the sauce in the pot, then puree until smooth using an immersion blender (or transfer to a regular blender and puree). Stir in 2 T apple cider vinegar and season with salt. Transfer about 3/4 cup of the sauce to a small bowl for serving. Stir 2 tablespoons water into the remaining sauce in the pot. Thinly slice the meat against the grain and return to the pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the meat is well coated with sauce and warmed through.

Serve in tortillas topped with cilantro, sour cream, or an other taco topping you have.

June 14, 2017: Eat waaaay too much barbecue at Slammin' Jammin last night and feeling the effects of it today. Hopefully a good run at lunch will sort it out.

Dinner Tonight: Mexican Chicken Skillet

Based on your opening post, it sounds like you have a great and very productive work/life balance happening! Loving the recipes your are posting.

856.914: Calvino, Italo. Italo Calvino: Letters, 1941-1985. NJ: Princeton, University Press, 2013. 534 pp.

Italo Calvino was a man of many opinions. From his days in the Italian Communist Party after World War II to his tenure in the Oulipo writing group, Calvino had a lot to say and used his many friends, agents, and even enemies around Europe to say it. The letters translated here by Martin McLaughlin represent the tapestry of threads he wove throughout his life.

The first impression one gets of Calvino is that of a man who needs the company of friends to enrich his life. He constantly wants his pen pals to visit him wherever he is, or send books and articles, or recount news of local politics. But beyond that, there is a hunger. He relishes in all the philosophical complexities of literary fiction, even going so far as to dissect his own work.

Calvino is at times belligerent, compassionate, churlish, and joyous, but never boring. That being said, it helps to be acquainted with at least some of Calvino’s writing before diving into the 600 letters in this book. All in all, however, this was an entertaining albeit lengthy read.

Recipe: Spiced Flat Iron Steak with Chimichurri

Rub two 8 oz. flat iron steaks with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, red pepper, and garlic powder to taste and allow to sit in refrigerator for at least one hour.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, place 1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 cup parsley, 3 cloves garlic, 1/4 t cumin, 1/4 t salt, 1/4 c white wine vinegar. Blend while slowly drizzling in 1/4 cup olive oil until smooth.

Grill steak for 2-3 minutes a side, flipping once. Allow steaks to rest for 15 minutes. Serve sliced, topped with chimicurri.

Faber, Tony. Faberge’s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire. New York: Random House, 2008. 241 pp.

Eggs are very plain things. But when Russian jeweler Carl Gustavovitch Faberge realized a design around them, they turned into the most sought-after pieces in modern art history. Tony Faber’s Faberge’s Eggs is not only a look into the history of the bejeweled eggs, but also a history of Russia proper. From Czar Nicholas II’s coronation in 1894 to his abdication in 1917, the eggs chronicle the czar’s relationships with his mother, his wife, his children, and his country.

Faberge’s workshop, over the course of its lifetime in Moscow, produced 69 beautifully jeweled eggs, but only 50 are considered imperial eggs. These are the pieces ordered by the czar to be given at first from Czar Alexander II to his wife Maria Fedorovna each Easter. Upon Alexander’s death, Nicholas continued the tradition, first giving them just to his mother and then to both his mother and his wife. Each egg presented had special meaning and a special name, starting with the Jeweled Hen Egg (1885) and ending with the sadly unfinished and unpresented Constellation Egg (1917). Faber not only follows the creation and presentation of each egg, but also the saga of their respective ownerships to the present day.

There are times when Faber’s writing gets bogged down with names, places, dates, and politics, but they are few and far between. Luckily, several helpful appendices are added on, including an extended royal family tree, a condensed chronology of the eggs, and a basic Russian term glossary. A few lovely color pictures in the middle of the book highlight the beauty of the eggs, and overall, this was a very pleasant read.

Recipe: Baked Gnocchi with Italian Sausage

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Start a large pot of water boiling.

In a large skillet, wilt 4 cups baby spinach with a little bit of water and a pinch of salt. Remove from pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine 15 oz. ricotta cheese, 1 beaten egg, 1/4 c chopped parsley, 1/2 c chopped fresh basil, 3/4 c grated Parmesan, 1 t garlic powder, 1/2 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, and wilted spinach and set aside.

Wipe skillet clean and then add 2 T olive oil, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped bell pepper, and 1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes and saute for 5 minutes. Add 1 T minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add 1 lb uncased hot Italian sausage, crumble, and cook until browned through. Add 28 oz diced tomatoes and 4 T tomato paste and incorporate fully. Simmer on high until slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, once the water is boiling, add 1 lb gnocchi. Once they start to float, drain water away and add 1/2 c heavy cream to the cooked gnocchi and let them absorb as much as they can.

In a large 2-1/2 qt baking or casserole dish, place half of the meat mixture at the bottom. Cover with all of the ricotta mixture, then all of the creamed gnocchi. Finish with the remaining meat mixture, then cover with shredded mozzarella and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy.

198.9: O’Hara, Shelley. Kierkegaard Within Your Grasp: The First Step to Understanding Kierkegaard. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004. 75 pp.

This is simple is its aim and execution: to help the reader into the writings of Swedish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. In less than a hundred pages, we are introduced to Kierkegaard’s life, works, and thinking. The author goes through each major work well and legitimately synthesizes the salient theses into the thinking of the period. In many variations, Kierkegaardian philosophy struggles with choice, faith, and the individual, trying to make sense of both the existence of the self and the existence of God. This is indeed a good introduction to Kierkegaard’s work, but it is just a first step.

This is a time of year when I as a non-American ponder over what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for this group and its ability to keep me sane during topsy-turvy times.

I am thankful that you are part of this group.

I am thankful for this opportunity to say thank you.