kidzdoc Reads (and Cooks) Globally in 2015: Part 6

Springtime in the Atlanta Botanical Garden, in Midtown Atlanta.




Currently reading:

    

Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care by H. Gilbert Welch

Completed books: (TBR = book acquired prior to 1/1/14)

January:
1. Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers (TBR) (review)
2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (TBR) (review)
3. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (TBR)
4. A Distant Father by Antonio Skármeta
5. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
6. The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh (TBR)

February:
7. In the City By the Sea by Kamila Shamsie (TBR)
8. The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore
9. I Called Him Necktie by Milena Michiko Flašar
10 Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy by Darryl Pinckney

March:
11. Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital by Jerry Gentry (TBR)
12. The Sellout by Paul Beatty

Books purchased or received in 2015:

January:
1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2 Jan, Kindle e-book)
2. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin (2 Jan, Kindle e-book)
3. The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks (11 Jan, Kindle e-book)
4. A Useless Man: Selected Stories by Sait Faik Abasiyanik (12 Jan, Archipelago Books subscription)
5. The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore (20 Jan, LT Early Reviewers book)
6. DownBeat: The Great Jazz Interviews, edited and compiled by Frank Alkyer and Ed Enright (20 Jan, free book as part of 2015 DownBeat subscription)

February:

2015 Reading Globally Themes and possible reads from my TBR collection:

First quarter: Indian subcontinent



Aravind Adiga, Between the Assassinations
Tariq Ali, Night of the Golden Butterfly
Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
Vikram Chandra, Red Earth and Pouring Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
G.V. Desani, All About H. Hatterr
Roopa Farooki, Bitter Sweets
Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide
Intizar Husain, Basti
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Uday Prakash, The Girl with the Golden Parasol
Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Kamila Shamsie, In the City By the Sea

Second quarter: Iberian peninsula



António Lobo Antunes, Act of the Damned
António Lobo Antunes, Fado Alexandrino
António Lobo Antunes, The Land at the End of the World
Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
Juan Goytisolo, Landscapes of War: From Sarajevo to Chechnya
Juan Goytisolo, The Marx Family Saga
Almudena Grandes, The Frozen Heart
Carmen Laforet, Nada
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
Fernando Pessoa, The Education of the Stoic
Mercè Rodoreda, Death in Spring
Mercè Rodoreda, The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda
José Saramago, Baltasar and Blimunda
José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon
José Saramago, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy
Llorenç Villalonga, The Dolls' Room
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Angel's Game

Third quarter: Nobel Prize winners writing not in English

  

Knut Hamsun (1920), Hunger
Thomas Mann (1929), Death in Venice
Halldór Laxness (1955), Independent People
Albert Camus (1957), The First Man; Exile and the Kingdom
Ivo Andrić (1961), The Bridge on the Drina
Jean-Paul Sartre (1964), Nausea
Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), The President
Yasunari Kawabata (1968), Beauty and Sadness
Pablo Neruda (1971), The Essential Neruda; Canto General
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1978), Collected Stories, Volume 1
Gabriel García Márquez (1982), One Hundred Years of Solitude; Of Love and Other Demons; The Autumn of the Patriarch
Claude Simon (1985), The Trolley
Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Midaq Alley; Rhadopis of Nubia
Octavio Paz (1990), The Labyrinth of Solitude; In Light of India
Kenzaburō Ōe (1994), The Changeling
José Saramago (1998), Raised from the Ground; Baltasar and Blimunda; The History of the Siege of Lisbon; Manual of Painting and Calligraphy; Journey to Portugal
Günter Grass (1999), The Tin Drum
Gao Xingjian (2000), One Man's Bible; Soul Mountain
Orhan Pamuk (2006), Snow; My Name Is Red; The Museum of Innocence; Other Colors
J.M.G. Le Clézio (2008), Terra Amata; The Giants; War; Fever; The Book of Flights; The Flood
Herta Müller (2009), The Land of Green Plums
Mario Vargas Llosa (2010), Captain Pantoja and the Special Service; The Green House; The Way to Paradise; The Bad Girl; The Dream of the Celt
Mo Yan (2012), Life and Death are Wearing Me Out; The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine

Fourth quarter: Women writing not in English

  

Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits
Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins; She Came to Stay
Assia Djebar, Algerian White; Children of the New World; The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry
Diamela Eltit, E. Luminata
Annie Ernaux, Cleaned Out
Sylvie Germain, The Song of False Lovers
Marlene van Niekerk, Agaat
Miral al-Tahawy, Brooklyn Heights
Delphine de Vigan, No and Me

2015 American Author Challenge

  

January: Carson McCullers, Clock Without Hands
February: Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
March: Richard Ford, Independence Day
April: Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
May: Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
June: Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
July: Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
August: Larry McMurtry William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
September: Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories
October: Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
November: Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior
December: E.L. Doctorow, The March

2015 British Author Challenge



January: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
January: Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
February: Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests
February: Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
March: Daphne Du Maurier, ?Rebecca
March: China Miéville, The City & the City
April: Angela Carter, ?Nights at the Circus
April: W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
May: Margaret Drabble, ?The Radiant Way
May: Martin Amis, The Zone of Interest
June: Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie
June: Anthony Burgess, ?Earthly Powers
July: Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out
July: Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
August: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea
August: Graham Greene, The Quiet American
September: Andrea Levy, Fruit of the Lemon
September: Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
October: Helen Dunmore, The Siege
October: David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
November: Muriel Spark, Loitering with Intent
November: William Boyd, An Ice-Cream War
December: Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
December: P.G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens

Books about Medicine:

TBR Books to Read in 2015:



Tomes (500 pages or more):
      Nicole Barker, Darkmans
      Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
      Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
      Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
      Ralph Ellison, Three Days Before the Shooting...
      Ian Gibson, The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí
      David Grossman, To the End of the Land
      Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
      George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
      A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
      David Macey, Frantz Fanon: A Biography
      Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
      Paul Murray, Skippy Dies
      Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
      Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
      Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
      William Trevor, Selected Stories
      Patrick White, The Vivisector

Non-tomes (less than 500 pages):
      Stuart Altman and David Shactman, Power, Politics and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
      Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
      Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
      Amiri Baraka, Tales of the Out & the Gone
      Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal
      Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
      Jean Echenoz, I'm Off and One Year
      Percival Everett, Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
      Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
      Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
      Paul Farmer, Haiti After the Earthquake
      Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule
      Jerry Gentry, Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital
      Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
      Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
      Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless
      Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
      Jonathan B. Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine
      Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients
      Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book One
      Charles Lemert, Why Niebuhr Matters
      David A. Mendel, Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and their Doctors
      Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf
      Claire McCarthy, Everyone's Children: A Pediatrician's Story of an Inner City Practice
      Ian McEwan, Atonement
      Andrew Miller, Pure
      Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
      Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood
      Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
      Laura Katz Olson, The Politics of Medicaid: Stakeholders and Welfare Medicine
      Brian Orr, MD, A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System
      Orhan Pamuk, Snow
      Roy Porter, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad Doctors and Lunatics
      Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
      Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir
      Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House
      Richard Wright, Black Boy

Literature from the African diaspora:

Nonfiction from the African diaspora:
Wes Moore, The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters
Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped

Planned Reads for March:

Sait Faik Abasiyanik, A Useless Man: Selected Stories
Paul Beatty, The Sellout
Jerry Gentry, Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital
Intizar Husain, Basti
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
Marlon James, A History of Seven Killings
China Miéville, The City & the City
Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Kamila Shamsie, A God in Every Stone
Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests
Gilbert Welch: Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care

The Irish lamb stew is ready!

Hi Darryl - Beautiful new thread; I love the garden in Atlanta. I have A God in Every Stone out of the library and hope to read it this month also.

>11 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! The Atlanta Botanical Garden is very close to where I live, easily less than 10 minutes by car.

I'll probably read A God in Every Stone in the last week of the month, as I'll be off from work from March 24th until early April.

Happy New Thread! I love Fort Worth's botanical garden. I've never been to Atlanta's. Maybe one day. The University of Tennessee has an outdoor garden I enjoy visiting occasionally. I'll have to make sure I get there this spring.

>1 kidzdoc: Beautiful pic! That is a gorgeous building.

YUM, just in time for Irish Stew. LOVE lamb, and your stew looks so good!

*raises hand* What's for dessert?

>13 cbl_tn: Thanks, Carrie! I'm also fond of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, although it's been several years since I've been there.



>14 avidmom: Right, avidmom. I really should go to the Atlanta Botanical Garden more often, as it's such a short drive from home.

>15 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! However, all of the credit goes to Caroline, who gave me her recipe, and to Publix, my local supermarket, where I bought a lovely looking leg of lamb this morning.

>16 avidmom: Dessert? Dessert??? Um...just a moment, please.

*exits rear door of café, drives to local Krispy Kreme to pick up hot glazed doughnuts*

Happy New Thread. Finely caught up, was 3 threads behind. Now why is it when I visit your thread I always get hungry? ;) The Carrot and Ginger song looks very yummy!

>18 BBGirl55: Thanks, Bryony! It's good to see you here. This thread should probably come with a disclaimer: "Visitors should not enter this thread unless they are fully satiated."

The carrot ginger soup was very good, and I'll definitely make it again soon. The coconut milk gave it a rich, Caribbean flavor, and the shrimp made it a filling and satisfying one course meal. Fortunately I still have one container left in my freezer.

What are those things in the water in the botanical gardens picture? They look like some of the Chihuly balls that he likes to put in gardens but are they?

The discussion in my university class about Brown Girl Dreaming got quite lively tonight. Most of us thought it was a book that adults would like but we just didn't think that 12 year olds would understand it and would be unable to make the connections required to figure out what is going on in the book. There were two people who passionately defended it so the discussion was great fun.

I had read some of Woodson's earlier books (from back in the 1980's) and thought they were very well done. They were clearly intended for a much younger audience than this memoir/novel/fictionalized biography. I have not finished reading this book but find my inability to place it in either fiction or non-fiction troubling. It is important if you are going to use it in the classroom to know if it is fiction or non-fiction.

>20 benitastrnad: Good call, Benita! Those are indeed Chihuly balls in the garden's pond.

Interesting comments about your book group discussion. One of my friends from medical school asked me if I thought that Brown Girl Dreaming would be appropriate for her daughter, who is 11 or 12 years old. I think I told her that I thought it would be, but I suggested that she read it first before letting her daughter read it.

If I remember correctly I initially placed Brown Girl Dreaming in my list of best fiction reads from 2014, until Meredith from Club Read pointed out that it should be listed under non-fiction.

Like the look of the stew. Due to the glut of aubergines in the house we're having moussaka tonight and I'm making baba ganoush for tomorrow.
Your March reading plans look interesting, like me I see you're doing a bit of catch up on the reading challenges.

Lovely thread as always Darryl. Have a great weekend, mate.

Ha - sneaking in before the new thread gets "too long." I love the photo of the Botanical Gardens in Atlanta.

You have some good reading planned for this month. I think I'll join you in reading A Useless Man: Selected Stories. I need to start making my way through some of the Archipelago books I received last year.

And I'll be interested in your take on The Paying Guests. I was underwhelmed.

Checking in on the new thread, Darryl!

Happy new thread, Darryl. I wish you a lovely weekend.

I must be depressed...........even lamb didn't make me prick up my ears in interest.

Happy New Thread.

Happy new thread, Darryl. I see you have Red Earth and Pouring Rain in your list of books to read from the Indian subcontinent. You're in for a treat. I really liked that one.

That stew looks delicious! I need to bust out my slow cooker again, it's been too long.

Happy New Thread, Darryl!

Good morning, everyone! I've had a productive morning so far, as it's not yet 11:30 am and I've already finished my cooking for the day. I made one of my new favorite recipes, African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter, Black-Eyed Peas & Beans from Gluten Free Goddess, along with Russian Cabbage Borscht from allrecipes.com, as I had just enough left over beets and red cabbage from the last time that I made it. The weather is supposed to be fabulous this weekend, with highs of 60 degrees today and 66 degrees tomorrow in Atlanta, so I plan to get outside this afternoon and tomorrow and enjoy both days.

>22 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry! I looked up moussaka, as I don't think I've had it before, and it looks good. I'd love to find out how you make it.

I'm behind on my reading plans so far this year; however, I usually read far less in the late autumn and winter months, due to my busy work schedule, especially the past two seasons. I should pick it up in April, if not this month. I still haven't finished a book yet this month, but I should be able to complete Grady Baby today.

>23 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul! I hope that you're enjoying your weekend as well.

>24 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen! I'm glad that you enjoyed the photo of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I got it off of the Internet, but I do have some of my own as well, which I'll post here. I'll probably go there one day at the end of the month or early April, once the trees and flowers start blooming, and take photos while I'm there.

I decided to renew my Archipelago Books subscription for this year, and so far I've received A Useless Man by Sait Faik Abasiyanik and Time Ages in a Hurry by Antonio Tabucchi. I'd like to read the first one this month, and the second in early April.

>25 alcottacre: Hi, Stasia! There's still more cooking happening here than reading, but hopefully that will change soon.

>26 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I hope that you're also enjoying your weekend so far.

>27 lunacat: Oh, foo. I was thinking about you when I was making Irish lamb stew yesterday, Jenny, and especially when I took that photo, as I thought it would pique your interest. I'm sorry that you're still feeling blue, and I hope that you're starting to come out of it.

>28 cameling: Thanks, Caroline. I do want to read Red Earth and Pouring Rain this year, although I won't get to it during the Reading Globally first quarter theme of literature from the Indian subcontinent.

>29 LauraBrook: That stew is very tasty, Laura. I've been using my slow cooker a bit less this year than I did in the latter half of last year, as many of the meals I've been cooking, including the two I made today, use the stove top or oven.

>30 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

It still made me smile that you thought of me, so that's something. And believe me when I say that a smile isn't easy in coming today, so thank you.

>34 lunacat: I'm very happy that I could make you smile, Jenny!

Congrats on the new thread, Darryl. Great photo of the botanical garden up top - c'mon Spring!

*exits rear door of café, drives to local Krispy Kreme to pick up hot glazed doughnuts*

Hot glazed doughnuts!!!!

African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter sounds interesting.

>36 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. Spring starts early here, as you can imagine, although sometimes winter tries to make one last stand in March. Hopefully this week was its last gasp.

>37 avidmom: I haven't had hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts in over a year, even though there is a KK less than two miles from where I live. Somehow I'm not as tempted by them as I used to be, which is definitely a good thing.

The African sweet potato soup is fabulous; my group's former practice manager gave me the recipe earlier this year, and the bolded hyperlink in >31 kidzdoc: will take you to the page for it on Gluten Free Goddess. It's a flavorful but quite spicy recipe, so if you or your family prefers milder food I would dial down the spices a bit, especially the Thai curry paste and the red pepper flakes.

Now I'm wishing I could have KK doughnuts magically delivered to my lap. I adore them but the nearest place to get them from is London, as far as I know. Not good enough. Best Friend, sensing my depression, has just made me another tea so that will have to do.

>39 lunacat: I've seen KK stands in some of the major train stations in London (definitely Waterloo) and on Charing Cross Road near Foyles. What I haven't seen are any standalone shops that make their doughnuts on the premises, as the one near me does:



KK orignal glazed doughnuts are good at room temperature, but they are righteous and practically irresistible when they are hot and freshly made. Most of the supermarkets, including my local Publix, routinely stock them, but they are easy to pass up when the real thing is so close by.

I wish KK would start offering franchise opportunities in the UK. They'd make a killing and I'd be very happy.

Harrods do them, but not hot and fresh, as do various services on motorways. Stopping off at a service station on a trip is my main way of getting hold of them. I'd be very very fat if my local supermarket stocked them so maybe it is a good thing.

>41 lunacat: Although they are quite popular here there aren't many KK shops in metro Atlanta, and the city only has two locations (versus at least a dozen Dunkin' Donuts shops here).

It's a good thing that I don't have a sizable sweet tooth, otherwise I would be in deep trouble living so close to a KK shop.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts always make me think of this guy:

(starting at 0:47): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JteeiYgR1ss

My bestie gave me a Babycakes Doughnut Maker the Christmas before last. She gave me the "mini" one which means it takes about 6 mini donuts to make 1 real one ....... Good stuff, though.

>31 kidzdoc: I am going to have to try the African Sweet Potato Soup - although I will have to eliminate the jalapenos in order to get Beth and Kerry to even try it. *sigh*

Have a great weekend, Darryl!

>32 kidzdoc: Probably best to try moussaka in a good Greek restaurant first. There will be many items on the menu worth trying so good luck.
I've made it many ways in the past including a paleo version involving silverbeet, but I base my present efforts on this recipe from the mother of Australian Masterchef judge, George Colambaris - http://www.georgecalombaris.com.au/recipes/moussaka
I use parmesan cheese rather than the impossible to source keflagraviera cheese and generally use beef and or lamb mince. I think it's the addition of the lemon thyme that makes it for me, such a wonderful scent and I now grow it in my garden specifically for this dish. I have dropped the rosemary, mainly because I haven't read the recipe for a long time and my moussaka still tastes good, I might add it next time. Mostly I use only eggplant and only occasionally add the potato as it is a bit of a chore to add both. It is quite labour intensive so I generally start the day before.
It's one of the favourite meals of two of my sons and a huge dish of moussaka doesn't last long in our household.

I'm sure after reading all that you'll probably settle for the Greek restaurant version!

I have a confession to make that I ... actually ... don't ... like ... Krispy Kreme donuts. I know I am in a minority here, but even the plain ones are just too, too sweet!

>46 SandDune: Rhian you're not alone. Me too, I don't like them.

Good morning Darryl, I wish you a lovely Sunday.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! I've made my usual trip to Publix, had breakfast, and I'm ready to start cooking at least two more meals (although my freezer is nearly full as it is). The Psychiatry department shares our office space, and one of the nurse practitioners gave me a copy of a recipe for Pollo Ciudad with Pickled Tomato Salsa (pollo ciudad is city chicken in Spanish). The salsa is made from scratch, and must sit in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours, so I'll start making that now. I'll have that for dinner, and make huevos rancheros for lunch.

>43 avidmom: Ha! That's more proof that hot KK doughnuts are heavenly, avidmom.

Nice! I've never had homemade doughnuts; how do they compare with hot KK ones?

>44 alcottacre: Hi, Stasia! I'm glad that you've decided to try the African sweet potato soup; it's a great recipe. I didn't take a photo of it yesterday, since I posted one when I first made it in January, but here's the photo I took then:



I'm apparently the opposite of Beth and Kerry, as I like spicy food. You may want to cut back on the Thai curry paste, and definitely the red pepper flakes!

Hmm, I thought that all Texans loved spicy foods...

>45 avatiakh: Thanks for that recipe for moussaka, Kerry. According to Yelp, one of the highest rated Greek restaurants in Atlanta is in Midtown, where I live, and it offers moussaka. I'll probably stop there in the next week or two for a takeaway lunch or dinner, as the hookah smoked by customers there would probably aggravate my asthma. I'll let you know how it turns out.

>46 SandDune:, >47 Ameise1: Heretics! Have you had hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts? There is a massive difference between hot glazed KK doughnuts, which practically melt in your mouth, and room temperature ones, which are gummy and sticky. I'll generally pass on them, and I don't think I've ever bought them from a supermarket.

Happy Sunday, Darryl! Lots of good eats going on over here, but don't forget about those books. They need plenty of love too.

>49 msf59: Happy Sunday to you, Mark! I meant to mention that I'm nearly done with Grady Baby (about 10-12 pages to go). I'm itching to get to The Sellout, the new novel by Paul Beatty that was published this week. I bought the Kindle version of it, and I'll probably start reading it after I get the pollo ciudad going and finish making huevos rancheros.

A hot Krispy Kreme is divine - and one will do me fpr about two years. Incredibly sweet and otherwise almost flavorless. There's a KK shop within reach, though not close, but I seldom have the urge to stop.

My mom makes moussaka regularly - yum. The hard part (speaking as an eater, not cooker, of moussaka) is getting the balance of moisture right - so the eggplant is neither mush nor leather. But when you get it right, it's really nice. Mom also makes eggplant chips - sliced and salted (to draw out the moisture) eggplant, baked with a little oil. Again, sometimes leathery, but if they get to crispy they're addictive (and leathery still tastes good, just less than fantastic). Note that, as a vegetable, I dislike the flavor of eggplant - so "good" and "addictive" from me means a lot.

Aubergine (to use its proper name) is nearly as much of an abomination of a vegetable as cauliflower is.

The huevos rancheros are ready!



Ingredients:

1 lg. tomato $1.15
½ med. Vidalia onion $0.25
1 bunch cilantro $0.69
1 small lime $0.32
½ Tbsp olive oil $0.06
1 tsp (1 clove) minced garlic $0.12
1 med. jalapeno $0.09
2 cups (or a 15 oz. can) cooked black beans $0.40
½ tsp cumin $0.03
to taste salt $0.05
6 small corn tortillas $0.39
6 lg. eggs $1.40
1½ cups shredded cheddar $1.49

Instructions:

Prepare the pico de gallo by dicing the tomato and ¼ of the onion. Rinse about ⅓ bunch of cilantro under cool water and shake to remove as much water as possible. Remove the leaves from the stems and then coarsely chop. Combine the tomato, onion, and cilantro in a bowl. Squeeze the juice from half the lime over top. Stir to combine and then season with salt to your liking.

Finely dice the other ¼ onion and the jalapeno (remove seeds if you don’t want it very spicy). Add the onion, jalapeno and minced garlic to a small pot with ½ tbsp of olive oil. Cook over medium heat until softened (2 minutes). Add the beans, season with cumin and salt and let simmer while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add a corn tortilla and let it toast (about 2 minutes). Flip it over and toast on the other side. Remove the tortilla to a plate after it has toasted on both sides. Cook your egg in the already hot skillet.

Top the hot tortilla with ¼ cup shredded cheese. Top the tortilla and cheese with seasoned beans, the cooked egg and then some pico de gallo.

__________________________________________________________

This was a moderately labor intensive recipe, especially compared to the Southwest breakfast scramble but it's well worth it. It makes six huevos (eggs), so you can have one huevo (or two huevos, as I did), and save the leftover pico de gallo (salsa) and spiced black beans for future meals. All you would have to do is heat a corn tortilla, fry an egg, then combine the ingredients per the recipe. I would think that you could use store bought salsa in place of pico de gallo, to save time, but I seriously doubt that it would taste as good as this does.

>53 kidzdoc: That looks lovely! My Mexican SIL makes huevos rancheros with scrambled eggs.

>46 SandDune: >47 Ameise1: I don't care for yeast donuts in general. I've bought Krispy Kreme's from fundraisers but I usually share those in the office. I love cake donuts, and my favorite is Dunkin' Donuts sour cream donut. Yum!

>51 jjmcgaffey: Right, Jennifer. A hot KK original glazed or a chocolate cream filled doughnut is a great pleasure, but I have to be in the mood for it. Even with the KK love here I'm still not craving one, otherwise I would have stopped at the shop in Midtown after I bought groceries at Publix this morning.

Moussaka looks as though it would be a challenge to make well. As long as it isn't overcooked I love eggplant.

>52 lunacat: What??? I've been quite disappointed by my European friends so far today. I suppose you'll also say that you dislike Brussels sprouts and asparagus, which would be even more heretical than not liking eggplant and cauliflower.

Yuck to Brussels sprouts, yum to asparagus.

>54 cbl_tn: Thanks, Carrie! I've never had huevos rancheros with scrambled eggs, so I'll give that a try next week (as I have enough pico de gallo and seasoned black beans to make four more huevos).

Hmm...are Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Dunkin' Donuts made with yeast? If so, I'm not sure that I've had non-yeast doughnuts. I'm not a huge fan of doughnuts, and I doubt that I've eaten any since the end of 2013. That sour cream cake doughnut from Dunkin' Donuts sounds yummy, as I love my mother's sour cream coffee cake. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

The pickled tomato salsa for the ciudad pollo recipe will be mature in a little over an hour, so I'll start cooking the chicken for it in about three hours.

>56 lunacat: Brussels sprouts are the food of the gods, and asparagus is nearly as good. Publix had some nice looking asparagus on Friday, so I'll cook them in the next couple of days. Recipe ideas, anyone?

Well I was feeling very hungry until Brussels sprouts were mentioned. Urgh.

Gently steamed and covered in salt and butter is how we eat asparagus as a side vegetable, so no help with any more complicated recipes than that.

I don't like Krispy Kreme donuts either. I am more of a Dunkin Donut fan. I like the cakey donuts and the Krispy Kreme donuts are all air and gummy flour and way too sweet.

My favorite donut is homemade yeast donuts. When I make homemade donuts I make pumpkin donuts and they are wonderful treats.

>59 charl08: Uh oh. Didn't we have this discussion last year? I think we decided that the Brussels sprout is the best vegetable on the planet, right?

>60 lunacat: That's not bad, Jenny. However, I was thinking of covering them with garlic and roasting them in the oven, and I just found a simple recipe by Emeril Lagasse, a famous New Orleans chef, that I think I'll try, possibly later today: Garlic-Roasted Asparagus

>61 benitastrnad: I'm definitely a KK man; Dunkin' Donuts are okay, but that's all. However, I'd usually rather have a good bran or carrot zucchini muffin than a doughnut.

Your homemade pumpkin doughnuts do sound good, though!

That is pretty much how we prepare asparagus in this household. Except, kosher salt and we skip the lemon juice. Yummy and easy.

Darryl, I love huevos rancheros. I use pretty much the same ingredients that you do, but I also add a little rosemary in the beans.

Hi Darryl! Just waving and saying: Happy new thread!

Nice! I've never had homemade doughnuts; how do they compare with hot KK ones?

First of all, "never had homemade doughnuts"?!?! That's terrible. *sniff* I wouldn't know how homemade doughnuts compare to KK ones; I've never had Krispy Creme doughnuts specifically. But, I love to bake so in my opinion, everything is better homemade!

>53 kidzdoc: We had a little mom and pop Mexican restaurant here in our little town. They were famous for their Juevos Rancheros - served on Sundays. On Sunday mornings, people would wait in a line that wrapped half-way round the block and nobody ever complained about the 1/2 hour - to 1 and 1/2 hour wait.

>40 kidzdoc: Ooooooooo.

>62 kidzdoc: Garlic-Roasted Asparagus! That sounds heavenly!

Wow, don't peek for a day and 67 messages!

You will be pleased to know that the carrot, chickpea etc salad was a hit with the meze:

I made Pollo Ciudad with Pickled Tomato Salsa earlier this evening, and it turned out great!



Here's the recipe, courtesy of the Food Network (and Erin, the psychiatry nurse practitioner who shared it with me):

Ingredients:

4 large, boneless chicken thighs or leg and thighs, with skin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 shallots, diced
3 large mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 to 2 jalapeños, chopped with seeds
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
1/2 bunch cilantro, stems and leaves separated
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 cups cooked rice, for serving
4 grilled scallions, for serving
Pickled Tomato Salsa, recipe follows, for serving

Pickled Tomato Salsa:

1 pound tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
2 to 3 serrano chiles, with seeds, thinly sliced in rounds
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons cracked black peppercorns
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat, add oil, and place chicken in pan skin side down. Sear for 4 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for another 8 minutes. Turn chicken and cook another 4 minutes, or until just cooked all the way through.

Meanwhile, make sauce by melting butter in a medium saute pan over moderate heat. Cook shallots and mushrooms until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add jalapenos and cumin, lower heat, and cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken stock. Turn heat to high and cook until liquid is reduced by half. Add cream or half-and-half and cilantro stems and return to a boil. Remove from heat. Puree in a blender, pass through a wire mesh strainer, and return to heat.

Whisk egg yolks, sugar, and vinegar together in a small bowl. While continuing to whisk, pour one cup pureed cilantro sauce into egg mixture to temper. Then combine egg mixture with puree and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce is thick and smooth.

Arrange grilled chicken over a bed of your favorite rice and spoon sauce over all. Garnish with cilantro leaves, grilled scallions, and Pickled Tomato Salsa. Serve immediately.
Pickled Tomato Salsa:

In a large bowl, toss tomatoes with scallions and serrano chiles.

In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar to a boil. Add sugar and salt, and cook until dissolved, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and reserve.

Measure ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, cracked peppercorns, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric onto a plate and place near stove. In another medium saucepan, heat oil over moderate heat until just smoking. Add spices and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until aromas are released, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar mixture. Immediately pour over reserved tomato mixture. Stir to combine, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours or several days. Makes 2 cups.
__________________________________________________________________

Wow. Eating this was like standing in the batter's box during a baseball game, having Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson throw a 100 mph inside fastball at your chin, and knocking the ball over the fence for a home run. I used two jalapeños and three serrano chiles, and it was right at the edge of the amount of spiciness that I can comfortably handle. It tasted amazing, with a rich mixture of spices, and the chicken thighs were juicy and tender (I'll keep that method for cooking them in mind). I'd highly recommend using far less peppers than I did, especially the serrano chiles, and taking out the seeds. I didn't use a wire strainer after I puréed the cilantro sauce, as it was already thick and homogeneous. The one major disagreement that I have about this recipe, which is actually a good thing, is the comment that the recipe for pickled tomato salsa makes two cups. Wrong; it makes far more than that!



That salsa tastes great, and it would be great for other uses as well. I'll either freeze half of the salsa tomorrow after it fully matures in the refrigerator, or cook four more chicken thighs and make a bit more cilantro sauce so that I can stretch out this meal that much more. This was a labor intensive recipe, but it was well worth it IMO.

>48 kidzdoc: I like spicy foods (although my stomach does not), but no one else in my family does, so I always have to adjust recipes for their tastes.

>63 banjo123: That sounds good, Rhonda. Hmm...there was some other ingredient that I was thinking of using in place of lemon, but I can't remember what it was now. I didn't cook the asparagus tonight, but I'll do so sometime next week.

>64 cameling: That's a good idea, Caroline! I have rosemary in my spice cabinet, so I'll give it a try the next time I make huevos rancheros from scratch.

>65 connie53: Thanks, Connie!

>66 avidmom: Yep. I'm all but completely certain that I've never had homemade doughnuts. I'd certainly try one if the opportunity arose, but I'm not in a rush to try making them myself.

Mmm...that little Mexican restaurant you mentioned sounds fabulous. I'd much rather eat at a place like that than a fancy 4 or 5 star one.

>67 The_Hibernator: I'll make garlic roasted asparagus as early as tomorrow after work, Rachel. I'll let you know how it turns out.

>68 Caroline_McElwee: Excellent! I'm glad that you liked the carrot salad with tahini and roasted chickpeas, Caroline. I started to make it yesterday, but I gave up after I realized that I was very likely to grate part of my fingers along with the carrots using the grater that I had. Fortunately Publix had a standard grater in the store, so I bought one of them. It also sold thinly sliced carrots, which are slightly larger than grated strips, so I'll try that recipe during the week or, most likely, next weekend.

>70 alcottacre: I love spicy foods, Stasia. And, as long as I remember to take a Prilosec tablet in the morning, I can handle them as long as I don't eat too late or just before I go to bed.

Oh, Darryl. Never had a homemade doughnut? Sad. You come visit me and I'll make doughnuts, okay?

Wow, this thread is becoming more dangerous than Joe's Cafe. The food looks tantalizing!

Have a good week, Darryl.

^ Ha! I agree. Holy deliciousness, there's a lot of good vittles going on here, Darryl. That salsa sounds like a knockout.

I can't remember, do you ever read graphic novels? March Book 1 is a graphic memoir by Congressman John Lewis, and is really well done.

I love the photo of the botanical garden. I've seen Chihuly exhibits in a few different gardens and they are always gorgeous.

>48 kidzdoc: I'm not a fan of room temperature KK donuts, but I agree that hot and fresh they are divine. Fortunately you can't get them hot over here so I'm not tempted to buy them at all.

>53 kidzdoc: I must confess that when I make this recipe it will be with store-bought salsa, inferior though it is. I just don't love cooking enough to put in the labour of making my own.

Today I bought kale and mushrooms and am going to make a pasta bake with them, to have for my lunches this week.

Happy new thread, Darryl! I love visiting botanical gardens... they are so soothing and relaxing. The one in Atlantic looks lovely.

>31 kidzdoc: - I like the look of that African Sweet Potato Soup with Peanut Butter, Black-eyed Peas and Beans but I think I will mess around with recipe a bit and see if I can make it work more as a stew with chickpeas and black beans instead of black-eyed peas and white beans.... I am not a big fan of white beans.

Donuts are evil.... I can never eat just one.

I am falling too far behind on your thread. I spent a couple days on the road and have been visiting with my grand-niece most of the day.

On botanical gardens: I absolutely love the Sarah Duke Gardens at Duke University.

On donuts: I love them all -- yeast donuts (like Krispy Kreme's hot ones which were tempting me with the "hot"sign when I drove by one today although I didn't yield to temptation) and Dunkin Donuts cake donuts (with the double chocolate one being my favorite).

On the Irish lamb stew: I looks yummy!

>73 scaifea: Oh, Darryl. Never had a homemade doughnut? Sad. You come visit me and I'll make doughnuts, okay?

Wait a minute. I know how this is going to go: "I'll make doughnuts for you if you make Zuppa Toscano, Irish lamb stew, huevos rancheros, etc. for me." You can't fool me, young lady.

>74 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I do need to get back to reading, as I only read one book in that four day break. I may take a cooking holiday next weekend, or only cook one meal.

>75 jnwelch: That salsa does taste great, Joe. I think I'll have pollo ciudad again tonight, but I'll be curious to see if it's too hot to eat comfortably. If so I'll probably dice the two tomatoes I have left over and add it to the salsa.

Thanks for mentioning March Book 1; I had no idea that John Lewis had written a memoir! The Kindle edition is only $6.99, so I'll download it and read it soon.

>76 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. Which are the best botanical gardens in and around London?

Ah. I suspected that you couldn't get hot KK doughnuts, at least in central London.

Let me know how the huevos rancheros taste with store bought salsa. I'd bet that if you found a good quality salsa it would taste nearly as good, as it's a relatively simple recipe, whereas the pickled tomato salsa in the pollo ciudad would be impossible to duplicate well with a store brand.

The pasta bake you're planning to make sounds good. I'd love to know how it turns out.

>77 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! I agree, I love peaceful gardens, especially if I have a book to read. I would go to the Atlanta Botanical Garden more often, but the admission fee is a steep $18.95 for adults, which is more than I'm willing to pay, especially when I can walk to Piedmont Park and sit there for free.

Please let me know how the modified African sweet potato soup turns out. I'll probably bring some to work tomorrow to have for lunch.

Doughnuts aren't a big a weakness for me as are Cheez Its, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Triscuits, Cape Cod potato chips, or some breads.

>78 thornton37814: Hi, Lori! A visit to see your grand-niece sounds lovely.

I visited Duke's campus once, in my senior year in high school when I was determining which university I was going to attend. It was one of the few schools at that time (1978) that offered an undergraduate major in biomedical engineering. I didn't get accepted there, but Tulane did take me.

The "Hot Now" sign at Krispy Kreme is one of the most tempting ones on the planet. Even though the Midtown Atlanta KK is less than two miles away from me I don't pass by it often, so I only rarely have to look at it.

The Irish lamb stew turned out well. I'll probably have it on Wednesday at work.

It's 7 pm, and hopefully traffic has died down. I think I'll head home now.

Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction announced tonight:

Rachel Cusk: Outline

Lissa Evans: Crooked Heart

Patricia Ferguson: Aren’t We Sisters?

Xiaolu Guo: I Am China

Samantha Harvey: Dear Thief

Emma Healey: Elizabeth is Missing

Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven

Grace McCleen: The Offering

Sandra Newman: The Country of Ice Cream Star

Heather O’Neil: The Girl Who Was Saturday Night

Laline Paull: The Bees

Marie Phillips: The Table of Less Valued Knights

Rachel Seiffert: The Walk Home

Kamila Shamsie: A God in Every Stone

Ali Smith: How to be Both

Sara Taylor: The Shore

Anne Tyler: A Spool of Blue Thread

Sarah Waters: The Paying Guests

Jemma Wayne: After Before

PP Wong: The Life of a Banana

I think I can resist Krispy Kreme doughnuts too - not really into fillings - I like plain ring doughnuts with sugar, and prefer non-glazed ones. I think in America I bought from Dunkin' Doughnuts a couple of times, and like cinnamon ones.

>81 elkiedee: Glad Rachel Seiffert got a nod. I thought that book was impressive.

>79 kidzdoc: *snork!* Not at all, in fact, Darryl. I don't allow anyone else in my kitchen (except for my best friend, who is an honest-to-goodness chef), so you'd be off the hook as far as cooking for me goes.

Speaking of donuts, I've discovered a place that I have got to try out. It is called Tato-Nut and is just across the bridge in Ocean Springs, MS from where I'm staying. I found it today but it had already closed for the evening. It is rated as the #1 restaurant in Ocean Springs on most of the ratings sites. I'm definitely going to try them either tomorrow or Thursday before we leave on Friday. The reviews make them sound amazing.

Nope. None of you have had a donut until you have had Voodoo Donuts. Started right here in Portland, and just branched out to Colorado.



Delicious!!!! Eclectic!! And sometimes naughty. ; )

One of their stores is right at the corner of where my son practices soccer. Yum!!

http://voodoodoughnut.com

>7 kidzdoc: Mr. W just asked me about this picture, why look at that, he said (and he isn't even British) its a dinosaur made out of garbage (and he isn't even American-we would say rubbish) poking his head into a building. Ha. He has much to learn.
Happy new thread, and I admit to getting no farther than post 7. I will be back tough.

Though. I meant though
;)

I've read five of the longlist: Elizabeth is missing, How to be both, The Paying guests, Station Eleven, The Bees. The only one of those I wouldn't have shortlisted would be The Bees which was OK but not more.

>80 kidzdoc: Kew Gardens are the main botanical garden in London, and they are superb. Well worth spending a day there. There is also Chelsea Physic Garden which is a walled garden full of plants with medicinal value (mostly real but in some cases only perceived!). Caroline was kind enough to take me in on her membership last year and I thought it was a wonderful place. We joined a free tour which was over an hour of fascinating information about all parts of the collection.

Outside London there is Wakehurst Place, part of Kew and home to plants that need a different soil type to that in London. It's in West Sussex and unfortunately not terrible easy to get to on public transport. It's much less formal than Kew with lots of woodland and I love it there.

There's also Wisley which belongs to the Royal Horticultural Society. It's near Guildford and is also lovely. You can get there from London by train and bus. The RHS have other gardens around the country but I haven't been to them.

In England we have the tradition of landscape gardens, made for pleasure and aesthetics rather than scientific purposes. Stourhead in Wiltshire is probably the most famous, but near to London there is Painshill Park which is a fine example.

The kale, mushroom and pasta bake turned out really well. It's very easy to make - boil the pasta, steam the kale over the pasta pan for a couple of minutes, fry an onion and the sliced mushrooms, then put all of the aforementioned into a baking dish, stir in pasta sauce, grate cheese on top, and bake for about 20 mins. My dish is big enough to make four portions which I can reheat at work in the microwave. I've never used a recipe, just made it up based on what veggies I have on hand.

>90 Sakerfalcon: Kale has become a staple recently in our household. With the cold weather we've been having here in the U.S., Portuguese Sausage and Kale Soup has become a staple that gets made every week and eaten by everyone.

I need to start digging in our leftovers. Our kids are getting to that age where they aren't home for dinner about 50% of the time yet I haven't adjusted my cooking habits. So, peering into the frig I see:

* 2 or 3 servings of the above-mentioned soup
* half a pan of Spinach Lasagna
* maybe 4 servings of a chicken with artichokes and olives that I've called Chicken Marengo my entire life but, now that I've had Chicken Marengo, know is mis-named...still, one of my favorites of all time
* a big Tupperware full of Chicken Chili
* maybe 1 serving of Mojo Pork

I don't think I need to make anything for dinner tonight. :-)

>90 Sakerfalcon: In England we have the tradition of landscape gardens
If I understand "landscape garden" correctly, these also come to mind: Sissinghurst in Kent (literary connection: Vita Sackville-West); Kiftsgate and Hidcote in Gloucestershire.

I went crazy this last week and took a long look at the Bailey's Prize archives. I found so many interesting titles that i went to Alibris and ordered four of those titles. God alone knows why I did that as I have a whole room full of books from which to pick titles - not to mention a whole library at my disposal. But purchase more I did.

I am getting ready to go home for spring break and have already picked out my reading material for the week. I would like to finish Place of Greater Safety but that will have to wait in favor of Rebecca my choice for the B.A.C of Paul's.

I'm just joining in to add my voice to the donut dissenters. Donuts are a bit rubbish, and I've never really enjoyed eating them. Although I do miss the ones that were made in a tiny wee van on market day at my university. 20c each or six for $1, friend and sugared on the spot, then pumped full of jam. Tiny delicious warm balls of unhealthiness.

>91 TadAD: I'd never cooked with kale before, but wanted a change from spinach and I actually think I prefer kale in some ways. I love how it holds its shape and texture instead of turning to mush as soon as you put it near heat.

>92 lauralkeet: I'd only thought of the classical C18th gardens but yes, your examples definitely carry on that tradition. I'd love to visit the two in Gloucestershire.

Darryl, I've just made the Southwestern breakfast scramble again and it's just as good second time around, although I had the same problem of the eggs cooking too fast. I've got the day off today and am going to Rochester to see Bryony. I'm sure we'll pay a visit to the wonderful Baggins bookshop!

I'm definitely going to try some version of a kale, mushroom and pasta bake. It sounds wonderful.

Happy newish thread, Darryl.

Note to self. Your thread is a no go zone after you've just had dental work. Dang my stitches...I just want real food!

We had KK donuts here for a brief period and they were pretty yum. The franchise didn't last though because just too much competition. Tim Hortons is king north of the border, or at least in Alberta? No chance for another player in the market. Too bad!

Darryl, I am slightly off doughnuts as I am trying to stay in approximate human form and I pile on the calories with them. There is an Indonesian company called JCO that do excellent doughnuts.

Have a great weekend.

Woo! Another busy work week has come to an end. I'm off this weekend, and I'm supposed to be off on Monday, but I'll have to go to the hospital for a group meeting that afternoon. I'll work from Tuesday through the following Monday, and then I'll be off for nearly two weeks, which will be my first long break since October (although there are several hospital committee meetings and a seminar or two that I'll have to attend).

I'll catch up here, then start cooking food for next week, as usual (I've already gone to Publix to buy groceries and had breakfast). I'd like to read two books this weekend, The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which came out earlier this month, and Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care by H. Gilbert Welch, my LT Early Reviewers book for January.

>81 elkiedee: Thanks for posting the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction longlist here, Luci. A God in Every Stone and The Paying Guests are on my list of books to read this month, but I probably won't get to them, due to my work schedule. I'll read them sometime in the spring. I also own I Am China, Station Eleven, and How to Be Both, and all are moderately high on my TBR list.

>82 elkiedee: Room temperature Krispy Kreme doughnuts are far easier to pass up than hot ones. I think I'll treat myself to some later this month for my birthday...although, on second thought, I think I'll order a red velvet layer cake from Piece of Cake, a local bakery that makes sinfully delicious sweets.



>83 charl08: Thanks for giving a thumbs up to The Walk Home, Charlotte. I'll keep my eye out for it.

>84 scaifea: That's very nice of you, Amber! I won't visit empty handed, so I'll bring whatever you'd like for dinner if you make doughnuts.

>85 thornton37814: Please let me know what you thought of Tato-Nuts doughnuts, Lori. I may drive to New Orleans later this year, after I get my new car (my big birthday present), and if I take the I-85/I-65/I-10 route I would pass within a few miles of Ocean Springs.

>86 Berly: Those Voodoo Donuts do look scrumptious, Kim! I want to visit Portland sometime in the near future, as a classmate of mine from medical school lives there. Emily and I have a lot in common, as we both received our bachelor's degrees from Rutgers, and are working as pediatricians. I haven't seen her since we graduated from Pitt, and I'd love to meet up with her.

>87 LovingLit: Ha! Wilbur does have a few things to learn, on his way to saving the world.

>88 LovingLit: I do that all of the time, which is why I frequently edit my posts.

>89 SandDune: Thanks for the warning about The Bees, Rhian. I'd ideally like to read the entire BWPF shortlist, but I suspect that I won't be able to do this year.

>90 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for describing those botanical gardens, Claire! I knew about Kew Gardens and, as a result of your visit, the Chelsea Physic Garden, but I hadn't heard of the others.

That pasta bake sounds good; I'll give that a try later this month or next month. Thanks for mentioning it!

>91 TadAD: I'm becoming increasingly more fond of kale, and I have a nearly full bag in my refrigerator now. (Oh, that's right...I was going to make another batch of Zuppa Toscana, but I didn't write down sausage on my grocery list. I'll make it either tomorrow or the week after next.)

Ha! That's a great list of leftovers to choose from, Tad. I still have quite a bit of food, most of which is in my freezer. Let's see: there I have plenty of Irish lamb stew and Emeril Lagasse's New Orleans chili, along with multiple servings of Moroccan lentil and vegetable soup, African sweet potato soup, red cabbage and sausage soup, and borscht, along with single servings of carrot ginger soup (with coconut milk and shrimp) and pork vegetable stew. In my refrigerator I have two servings of African sweet potato soup, a single serving of New Orleans chili, and ingredients to make more huevos rancheros and pollo ciudad. I bought more chicken thighs today, so I'll cook them this weekend for the pollo ciudad, and I bought chicken and Andouille sausage to make another batch of jambalaya. I'm also planning to make the carrot tahini salad and spiced parsnip soup.

Hmm...have I gone a bit overboard here??? Fortunately the vast majority of the food is in the freezer, so I don't have to worry about it going bad.

>92 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I've heard of Sissinghurst, but not the other gardens.

>93 benitastrnad: Well done, Benita. Why read old books when there are enticing new ones to be had?

Enjoy your spring break at home! I'll read A Place of Greater Safety later this year.

>94 evilmoose: Megan! Doughnuts are not rubbish!!! Get thee to your closest Krispy Kreme that sells hot doughnuts, or pay a visit to Voodoo Donuts before you condemn this worthy dessert.

>95 Sakerfalcon: I actually think I prefer kale in some ways. I love how it holds its shape and texture instead of turning to mush as soon as you put it near heat.

You nailed it, Claire. Several nurses I work with, along with one of my partners, who is vegetarian, made essentially that same comment this week, and I agree completely.

Hmm...I wonder if you're cooking the eggs for the Southwest breakfast scramble on too high of a heat. I had that problem the second time I made it, especially since I didn't pay attention to the recipe closely and wasn't ready to add the beans, salsa and chips to them. I'm usually very meticulous when I cook, as I make sure that I have sufficient quantities of all of the ingredients, have everything chopped up and in proper order, and partially memorize the directions so that I know what I'm supposed to do in the current and next steps. I also have the recipe displayed on my iPad, which I keep on the counter that separates my kitchen from my dining room, so that I can refer to it as needed. I learned this from my mother, who has a degree in dietetics, as she was taught the technique of mise en place, in which all of the ingredients for a meal are organized and arranged ahead of time.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: I'll definitely try that kale, mushroom and pasta bake too, especially since I have leftover kale and mushroom in my refrigerator.

>97 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie! Are your stitches out yet?

There was a Krispy Kreme shop close to my parents' house that opened about 10-15 years ago, but it closed after a few years. KK never took off in the Philadelphia area, even though the only real competition would have come from Dunkin' Donuts, I think.

>98 PaulCranswick: Right, Paul. I'm glad that I don't have much of a sweet tooth, otherwise it would be too tempting to make the short drive (

They are the dissolving stitches and I can still feel them in my mouth so they are still sticking around for another day or two I figure. I'm able to eat real food now since I still have one side of my mouth fully usable. People who take out all 4 at once are my hero. I know I sound insane, but my recovery after given birth was more comfortable than this and I didn't have to take any meds...haha!

>104 jolerie: Great; I'm glad that you're able to eat real food, Valerie! I suppose it's a good thing that we all only have one set of wisdom teeth.

My reading slump continues. Despite my desire to read I can't seem to concentrate on any book for more than 30 minutes at a time, as I've often been too tired or unfocused. Hopefully my upcoming long break from work will allow me to get back on track.

I'll start working on the second quarter Reading Globally theme on Iberian literature, which will start in April; I'll be hosting that topic. Once the thread is up I'll post a link to it here.

I'm off from clinical service today, although I do have to attend a meeting at the hospital this afternoon. I'm the backup doctor tomorrow, and thanks to a major diuresis of our service over the weekend there is at least a fair chance that I won't be needed tomorrow. If so I'll start working on the Reading Globally thread, get some reading (and cooking) done, and, most importantly, work on my March Madness brackets.

The shortlist for the Wellcome Book Prize, the UK literary award that celebrates new works that have a "central theme that engages with some aspect of medicine, health or illness", was released last week:

The Iceberg by Marion Coutts
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts
My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

The winner of this year's prize will be announced in London on April 29th. Included in this hyperlink in the first paragraph of this post is a short video by the chair of judges, Bill Bryson, who gives a brief description of each shortlisted book. I've gotten away from this award the past couple of years, so I intend to read all six books by the end of the year.

The Guardian: Wellcome book prize shortlist mixes grief and joy

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist was also released last week:

The Ravens by Tomas Bannerhed
The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck
Bloodlines by Marcello Fois
In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov
F by Daniel Kehlmann
Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgaard (alternate title: My Struggle: Book Three)
By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel
The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee
While the Gods Were Sleeping by Erwin Mortier
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
The Giraffe’s Neck by Judith Schalansky
Tiger Milk by Stefanie de Velasco
Look Who’s Back by Timur Vermes
The Last Lover by Can Xue

The Independent: Independent Foreign Fiction Prize: 'Delightful discoveries' in foreign fiction prize

>107 kidzdoc: The Wellcome Prize is one that I pay attention to. I’m currently reading a book from the shortlist of 2014, The Signature of All Things, which amazingly I managed to persuade a RL book group to read too. We'll see if they ever listen to me again...

>109 qebo: I own The Signature of All Things, but I haven't read it yet. I look forward to your comments about it.

I downloaded My Age of Anxiety and All My Puny Sorrows onto my Kindle; the others aren't available as e-books in the US yet.

The National Book Critics Circle Award winners were announced last week:

Fiction: Marilynne Robinson, Lila
General Nonfiction: David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation
Biography: John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
Autobiography: Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Poetry: Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
Criticism: Ellen Willis, The Essential Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz
John Leonard Prize: Phil Klay, Redeployment

I have the first two in the Wellcome list, and looking forward to both soon. I know St George's Hospital where Henry Marsh works.

I got distracted from The End of Days last year, the only one I have on the Independent list.

I have the Marylinne Robinson (read and loved) and the John Lahr (reading slowly) on the Book Critics Circle list.

And in breaking Voodoo Donuts news, they just expanded to Texas!!! j

And in book news, I read All My Puny Sorrows and enjoyed it very much, in spite of its dark subject matter. It really has stuck with me.

Good luck in the home stretch towards your two-weeker!

>112 Berly: Delurking as someone who used to live in Portland. WHAT?! Man, I need to drive to Texas now.

>112 Berly: - Ohmigod, where in Texas?!!? Off to Google...

ETA: Yet another reason to go to Austin :)

>111 Caroline_McElwee: I'll probably have to wait until I make my first trip to London in early June to buy the rest of the books on the Wellcome Book Prize longlist, Caroline. Please let me know what you think of them.

The only book I own from the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, which I read and enjoyed, but I'll receive My Struggle: Book Three as part of my Archipelago Books subscription later this year.

I'll definitely read Citizen: An American Lyric and Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? from the NBCC list of winners.

>112 Berly:, >113 rosylibrarian: That's good news for people who live in Texas, but that's way too far for me to travel, by plane or car.

I was thinking of reading All My Puny Sorrows anyway, as I loved Toews' earlier novel The Flying Troutmans.

>114 katiekrug: Nope. Austin for me would be as far off the beaten path as Reykjavik or Tegucigalpa. I'll have to find an acceptable alternative.

>116 kidzdoc: - I was speaking for myself ;-)

I love Austin.

>117 katiekrug: I've heard nice things about Austin, but I seriously doubt that I'll ever go there, unless there is a medical conference in the city. It's far more likely that I'll visit Reykjavik. :-)

I made two new recipes this weekend. On Saturday I prepared carrot salad with tahini and crisped chickpeas, courtesy of the web site smitten kitchen, which turned out well:



Here's the recipe:

Chickpeas:
1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas, or 1 15-ounce can, drained and patted dry on paper towels
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Salad:
1 pound carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1/4 cup shelled, salted pistachios, coarsely chopped

Dressing:
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
2 tablespoons water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and red pepper flakes to taste

Roast chickpeas: Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Toss chickpeas with one tablespoon olive oil, salt and cumin until they’re all coated. Spread them on a baking sheet or pan and roast them in the oven until they’re browned and crisp. This can take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size and firmness of your chickpeas. Toss them occasionally to make sure they’re toasting evenly. Set aside until needed.

Make dressing: Whisk all ingredients together until smooth, adding more water if needed to thin the dressing slightly. Taste and adjust seasoning; don’t worry if it tastes a little sharp on the lemon, it will marry perfectly with the sweet grated carrots.

Assemble salad: Place grated carrots in large bowl and toss with parsley. Mix in 2/3 of the dressing, adding more if desired. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Sprinkle with a large handful of chickpeas (you’ll have extra and if you’re like us, won’t regret it) and pistachios and dig in.

Do ahead: Salad keeps well in the fridge for two days, however, I’d add the chickpeas and pistachios right before serving, so they don’t get soft.
_________________________________

I used precut matchstick carrots instead of grating whole ones; otherwise I followed these instructions to the letter. This salad has a tangy Mediterranean taste, and I enjoyed it very much.

Yesterday I made spiced parsnip soup, using a recipe in The Soup Bible by Debra Mayhew, a superb cookbook which Caroline kindly sent to me last week:



INGREDIENTS (Serves 6)

3 tablespoons butter
1 onion,chopped
5-1/2 cups diced parsnips
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
5 cups chicken stock
2/3 cup of light half-and-half
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 garlic cloves, cut into julienne strips
3 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onion and parsnips and fry slowly for about 3 minutes.

2. Stir in the spices and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the stock, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

3. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes until the parsnips are tender. Cool slightly, then puree with a hand blender until smooth. Add the half-and half and heat through slowly over low heat.

4. Heat the olive oil in a small pan. Add the julienne strips of garlic and the yellow mustard seeds and fry quickly until the garlic is beginning to brown and the mustard seeds start to pop and splutter. Be careful not to over cook the garlic. Remove from the heat.

5. Ladle the soup into warm soup bowls and pour a little of the hot spice mixture over each. Serve at once.
______________________________

I experienced a mild accident while making the soup, as the plastic cover of my container of black pepper fell off, causing most of the contents of the container to spill into the soup! Fortunattely I was able to scoop out 80-90% of the pepper, but it's still far more peppery than it should be. I used two pounds of parsnips, which made six cups' worth, and the soup is quite thick, even more so than a typical bisque. It tastes very good, even with the pepper overload.

This weblog lists the recipe and contains additional photos:

http://saucysoups.blogspot.com/2010/01/spiced-parsnip-soup.html

>107 kidzdoc: I keep trying to read My Age of Anxiety! It seems to be a great mix of great research coupled with the author's personal experience but I keep getting distracted by other books ......

>120 kidzdoc: I can relate to your culinary accident!

Hi Darryl. Sorry to hear you have kind of a reading slump! But I'm glad if I read for half an hour every day. So just keep on reading! And keep those recipes coming!

>120 kidzdoc: hmm, what is half and half Darryl? I may try that at the weekend. Without the extra pepper!

>119 kidzdoc: didn't think to use pre-cut carrots, but didn't mind grating them, though I bust the grater and have just replaced it with a more sturdy one. I prepared it the night before I wanted to use it, adding the chickpeas and pistachios on the day, as per the recipe. Worked perfectly.

Food and lists all look good.
>107 kidzdoc: My Age of Anxiety sounds like something I'd enjoy, so have WL'd
>108 kidzdoc: I've not read any, and only even heard of one before - My struggle: Book three, so will enjoy finding out some more about these.
>110 kidzdoc: I read some of David Brion Davis' work for a course on Transatlantic history - would love to read this too. Can't imagine it's a short or quick read though...

I've read The Signature of All Things and can say it's a great book! Nothing at all like Love Eat Pray, I've been told since I haven't read the latter.

>123 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, half and half is a dairy product that is a mixture of light cream and milk, so that it has a fat content of between 10 and 12 percent. Lighter than light cream, but fatter than whole milk (by a lot, as whole milk is around 3.5 percent butterfat). I think you may call it half cream over there.

Hi, Darryl. I've pretty much dropped off the planet for the past month, so I'm only reading up a few dozen posts and looking at your food porn. First I was dealing with sciatica. Then just as the PT started kicking in, I began to feel sick. This was 3/6, the day Spring Break began, and I was sick the whole time. I had a negative throat culture, so the only thing they could figure was that it was flu (I had the shot, but I know it was pretty ineffective this year) or some other virus. It got to the point that I was sleeping 15-18 hours/day. Hence not much posting here or elsewhere. I've missed about 8 days of work, so I am way behind in all of my classes. I'm off again today--apparently it was flu as I have been struck with the telltale intestinal symptom. I need to go to work tomorrow and will be spending the rest of the afternoon scratching things off my syllabi in hopes of getting caught up before the semester is over.

Anyway, just wanted to stop by and explain why I have been MIA for so long. Some of those recipes look amazing! Will definitely have to try the carrot-chickpea salad. As to the lists I see above, I haven't even heard of most of the books, aside from the Murakami.

>81 elkiedee: I've read Outline recently, which I quite liked, and The Walk Home. I was disappointed in that one because I've loved so many of Seiffert's novels and just didn't feel this one stood up to them. I'm almost done with How to Be Both, which I expect to be the book I'll be pulling for, but I think it may be a little too literary for the Bailey. I was very bored with The Paying Guests and put it aside about 1/3 through.

>125 jolerie: I second your encouraging Darryl to read The Signature of All Things, which was my #1 read in 2013. As for Eat, Love, Pray, I never bothered to read it as the title and everything I heard about it from others--both lovers and haters--warned me away.

Hope to be around more often, but I have a LOT of catching up to do (and still don't feel well).

Parsnips and Celeriac tend to make a soup very velvety in texture. I read somewhere that you can use parsnips and cauliflower to add smoothness to soups and casseroles without adding much taste. I do think that parsnips have some earthiness as far as taste goes but they do tend to absorb flavor rather than impart flavor. Good stuff, parsnips!

>127 Cariola: Great minds! It was on my favourite list for 2013 as well. Totally unexpected and completely deserving. :)

>101 kidzdoc: They were every bit as good as Krispy Kreme! They were the yeast kind of doughnut/donut. They had already sold out of their Katrina pieces or whatever they were called so I didn't get to try them. I guess I should have gone at 5 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. ;-) They did not have a huge selection of varieties which was a bit disappointed, but they did have glazed ones with and without chocolate on top and with and without cream filling.

>120 kidzdoc: I have just emailed myself this recipe as it sounds fantastic. My lovely other grew some formidable parsnips last year, we had to use a crow bar to get them out of the ground!!

I hope the reading slump has slumped.

>131 LovingLit: I know parsnips and some other vegetables are sweetened by being exposed to frost, but I've always wondered how you do get them out of the frozen dirt when the time comes!

I've been slumpy with my reading too, Darryl. Like you, inability to focus has been my problem. I bet I'd be able to focus if I were laying under a palapa on a beach anywhere.

I think my waist has expanded, at least, an inch but keep those recipes coming. They look fabulous!

What is happening with the reading slump, Darryl. I hope it will slowly move away like the winter!

Hiya, Darryl. We picked up the cd of The Source by Ali Farka Toure based on your recommendation way back when, and thoroughly enjoyed it on our just-concluded lengthy car trip to Pittsburgh and back. Thanks!

Hi Darryl. Stopping by and now skipping away with the Spiced Parsnip Soup recipe.

Re. pepper accident. I did that once when I was making dinner for my older sister's boyfriend/now husband. I never did manage to salvage the pasta dinner but he was a good trooper about the disaster and ate the meal without commenting on the excess pepper. ;-)

>120 kidzdoc:, >136 lkernagh: - my dad did that once with salt in beer. He liked to shake some salt into his beer; one time we were out walking (on the North Caroline barrier islands), stopped for ice cream and beer (for him), and he picked up the salt shaker, shook it over his beer and the cap fell off and into his beer along with the entire contents of the shaker. He got a new beer - but he's still (25 years later!) half-convinced one of us fiddled with the salt shaker and loosened the lid. Someone did, certainly, but not any of us...can't convince him (it's mostly a joke, at this point. But only mostly).

Hi Darryl, hoping that your reading can pick up once you are on your break. I'm also reading fairly slowly at present, just too busy to settle to a long read on some of the books that need it. I have a couple of short story collections to read but they seem to be of the longer variety 50+ pages which sort of defeats me as well.

Also want to add that I just pulled my homemade pastrami out of the oven about ten mins ago and got the thumbs up from my son. It does taste great, first time I tried making it myself. Recipe was from The Artisan Jewish Deli at home.

homemade pastrami....*moan*

>137 jjmcgaffey: Oeps! That is really a lot of salt for one beer!

Hi Darry, I've finally found time to visit your thread. I wish you a lovely weekend.

Happy weekend Darryl!

Hi Darryl! The parsnip soup looks wonderful. I may give it a try sometime - without the onion. Or the extra pepper. ;-)

I didn't get a pie made on Pi Day. 3.14.15 this year but I did make an apricot pie this week in celebration. However, my pie dough was to dry. I did what I usually do for pie dough but I forgot I was in Kansas where the humidity is about 20% instead of the 40% I am accustomed to in Alabama and didn't even think about it being too dry. It did make the flakiest pie dough I have done in some time. The apricots were from fruit that my mother canned about 4 years ago. I didn't get to eat any of the pie but it smelled wonderful. I also made a great batch of beef noodle soup while home and made some barbecued beef in the crock pot for sandwiches that tasted might good.

>141 Ameise1: that tulip is a stunner. I love tulips.

>145 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks so much, Caroline. I love tulips too and in spring I've always a bunch in the house. Those in the garden will need some more warm days.

The soup looks delicious! Bummer about the pepper--I hate it when I do that.

>132 laytonwoman3rd: in this case it wasn't frozen ground that was the hinderance, it was the length of the root. It was over a foot length in total and that last half of it was not going anywhere without some crowbar assistance. Talk about guerilla gardening!

I just finished Brown Girl Dreaming. Wow. It's one I'll plunk down my hard earned coin of the realm to have a copy in my library.

Need to do some cooking today to be set up for the week. I'm thinking of the Black Bean Avocoado Enchiladas from Budget Bytes. DD made them and highly recommended the recipe.

Has your eating caught up with your cooking yet? I go in streaks when the non-cooking kicks in and I am grateful to have geat meals frozen.

#149
I wasn't that impressed with Brown Girl Dreaming. It was good but I am not a real fan of free verse so wasn't that keen on that format. I tend to think of free verse as being lazy prose and Woodson is such a good writer I don't know why she just didn't write a book. I think it was a good book, but somehow it didn't seem to me to be the stuff of major award winners. I am glad I read it, but it didn't reach the heights I thought it would from all the hype.

Hi Darryl. I'm sorry to hear about your book slump. Reading slumps are the worst! It does seem that your cooking life is going well, though.

I hope spring is making its way to Atlanta.

I have Brown Girl Dreaming on hold at the library. My 11-year-old niece loved it and said she related to the main character. I love how much good literature is out there for a young person who is learning to love reading.

Woo hoo!!! Barring any extreme last minute disasters (two of my partners calling out sick this morning, or 15 admissions from the Emergency Department in the next half hour) I won't have to go to work, which means that my 14 day weekend starts today!



I think I'll go back to sleep for a bit longer, then catch up here and start working on the thread for the second quarter Reading Globally challenge (Iberian literature) that I'll host starting next month.

Darryl, you've earned a long break, that's for sure. Hope it is both restful and fun for you. Plus if I'm not mistaken, your birthday is this week ... ?

>153 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. This has been one of the busiest winters we've had in the 15 years that I've been working for Children's, as we've been continuously up to our earlobes in sick kids since early December. Fortunately my partners and I were able to discharge several dozen kids this weekend, and this morning's inpatient census for the General Pediatrics service has at least 25 fewer kids than there were on Friday morning.

You're right; my birthday is tomorrow, and it's Rhian's and Cait's birthday as well.

Well I hope there will be cake! Enjoy a well earned rest as well Darryl.

The Stone Raft has turned up at the library, so I'm all set to go Iberian :-) Wishing you a restful day.

>121 avidmom: I'd like to read My Age of Anxiety in the next month or two, as my mother, my brother and I all struggle with it to some degree (the two of them more than me, though).

It's a good thing that I like a lot of spice in my food; otherwise the spicy (pepper) parsnip soup would have been a complete loss.

>122 connie53: Thanks, Connie. I have managed to read a little more this week, as I've read just over 200 pages in my current book, The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which I should be able to finish today. I've been chronically tired after working 12-14+ hour days for most of this year, and I never sleep well when I'm on clinical service, as I'm thinking and worrying about my patients at night and often wake up at least once between 2-4 am to "check" on them using our electronic health record system that I can access on my iPad or laptop. (I thought I was the only one who did this, but several of my partners do the same thing, which is another reason why we're so tired after a week of hospital duty.) So, I have quite a bit of catching up to do in terms of sleep, and I suspect that my reading output will improve signifcantly later this week.

I'll definitely try some new recipes these next two weeks, although I won't make much until the end of the week, as I still have plenty of food in my refrigerator and freezer to use up first.

>123 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad that Linda answered your question before I did, Caroline. I didn't know that half & half (which I would have said was half heavy whipping cream and half milk) had another name in the UK. It's commonly sold here in the US, for use in cooking and as an additive to coffee and tea, and practically any store that stocks dairy products would have it.



Did you make the parsnip soup this weekend? If so, how did it turn out?

I bought matchstick carrots at Publix because I didn't own a good grater, but I found one there that same morning. I still have 1-2 lb of large carrots, and I'll use them to make another batch of the carrot ginger soup with coconut milk and shrimp later this week (I loved that soup!).

>124 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte. I'll definitely get all six books that were shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize, and I'd like to read one of them every month or two from now until the end of the year. I'll have to explore the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist more closely, as nearly all of the books are unfamiliar to me. The longlist for the US equivalent of this prize, the Best Translated Book Award, will be announced early next month, and there are usually several books that appear on both lists.

You're right; the US edition of The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation is 448 pages long, according to Amazon.

>125 jolerie: Excellent! I'm glad that you enjoyed The Signature of All Things, Valerie. I'll try to get to it later this year.

>126 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for that info about half & half and half cream, Linda!

>127 Cariola: I'm sorry that you've been feeling poorly, Deborah, and I hope that you're in much better shape now. You're right; according to the CDC, the current influenza vaccine is effective in preventing the disease in only 23% of recipients, and I've taken care of at least a dozen kids who contracted influenza despite receiving the vaccine at least two weeks before they became ill. My hospital, along with most doctors' offices and clinics, offer rapid influenza tests, which can quickly diagnose influenza A or B.

I'm glad to hear that The Signature of All Things was your favorite book of 2013.

>128 benitastrnad: Thanks for that useful information, Benita. I hadn't heard of celeriac before, and I don't think I've ever seen it! Is it readily available in supermarkets?

>158 kidzdoc: Darryl, I think it was the flu--but then I got bronchitis. I was out of work all last week. Going in today but still not feeling up to par. Can't wait to retire so that I can start taking better care of myself.

>129 jolerie: Cool. I have The Signature of All Things on my Kindle, so I may read it when I'm on holiday during the month of June.

>130 thornton37814: Thanks for the review of Tato-Nuts Doughnuts, Lori! I'll keep it in mind if and when I drive from Atlanta to New Orleans.

>131 LovingLit: Let me know if you make the parsnip soup and what you think of it, Megan.

Even though this past work week (Monday half day meeting, Tuesday-Sunday on clinical service) was a busy one, I did get more reading done than my usual work days, although I was only able to read for 30-60 minutes per day.

>132 laytonwoman3rd: I read the Wikipedia page on parsnips after your comments and Megan's. I'm surprised that I've never had them before this year, but I like them and will certainly include them in recipes on a regular basis.

Celeriac is usually available in supermarkets. It is a fall root crop so is more commonly found in the fall and winter. It smells just like celery, but when it cooks up it loses most of that taste and becomes something else entirely. It doesn't look like celery. It is a bulbous root that is covered in a brown skin. It needs to be peeled but then it can be chunked or chopped. When it is cooked it puree's nicely.

I would highly recommend Vegetables, Revised: The Authoritative Guide to Buying, Preparing, and Cooking by James Paterson. This book does have recipes in it, but the it is more like an encyclopedia for vegetables. It lists the vegetables alphabetically and shows a picture of them. It tells what part of the plant they come from, what they are good for, and short basics about how to cook them. For some of the vegetables there are short simple recipes. Usually only one per vegetable. I thought this particular encyclopedia so good that I bought one for my mother. She doesn't use it nearly as much as I do, but she does use it, and finds it easy to use. I now keep one in the house to give as a gift to those I know who like to cook or who want to learn to cook.

Lately I have been trying to cook and eat more seasonally, and this book tells me what is in season and when I should find the best of that vegetable in the supermarket. It also makes me feel less guilty when I buy avocados in January because I now know that they are in season in the parts of the world in which they grow and that they are not being grown other places just to satisfy the gluttony and greed of the American market for goods that are not native to that area. It is just plain useful. It is not going to expand your recipe box, but it will expand your knowledge base about vegetables.

>133 Carmenere: Right, Lynda! A palapa sounds like a great place to read, although I do my best reading on airplanes, trains and in cafés, especially ones within bookstores. Since the weather has improved here I'm sure that I'll spend a good amount of time in one of my local coffeehouses, particularly several independent ones near me that I want to try.

Ha! I'll definitely keep the recipes coming. I've become quite popular at work, as I bring in leftovers every day for lunch, heat them in the microwave in our office, and share with anyone who wants a taste. My group's administrative assistant routinely asks me on Mondays what I cooked the previous weekend, and several of my partners and the nurses who are Facebook friends of mine have jokingly asked to hire me or for me to provide delivery service to their homes. We've talked about setting up a Pinterest group at Children's so that we can share recipes with each other, and I'll explore this during this two week break from work.

>134 connie53: Thanks, Connie! The reading slump is entirely due to my previously busy work schedule this year, as I worked far more hours than usual (and more than essentially all of my partners, including the full time ones) and had long work days that typically started at 7:30 am, when I arrived at my desk, and ended at 9-10 pm, after I had dinner and finished my last progress note on my computer. Most nights I would struggle to get the last note completed before I fell asleep, so I usually had very little if any time to read for pleasure or catch up on LT at the end of the day, and my weekends were spent catching up on sleep and doing necessary chores for the upcoming week, including the preparation of meals so that I wouldn't have to cook dinner from scratch or pick up takeaway food after work. My work schedule will be much kinder for the next six months at least, including June, when I'll be off for the entire month as I was last year (my vacation free month off from work as payback for working extra shifts from November through February), and the four weeks of vacation I'll take in the second half of the year.

>135 jnwelch: I'm glad that you liked the album by Ali Farka Touré, Joe. I was introduced to him by a good friend of my friend and classmate from residency, who is a pediatrician in Chicago (Bilkis Hirani). Bilkis and I spent the day with Jumana there several years ago, and she invited us over her house to have dinner with her and her husband, as they played several albums by African musicians. I had gotten away from listening to my world music albums for awhile, but I started up again when I played them while I was cooking. I just looked at my iPod, and I have at least a dozen albums by other African artists, including Baaba Maal, Mansour Seck, Fela Kuti, Habib Koité, Konono Nº1, Lionel Loueke, Salif Keita, Toumani Diabate, Vieux Farka Touré (the son of Ali Farka Touré), and Youssou N'Dour. I'll listen to most if not all of them during the next two weeks, and comment about them here and on my Club Read page, starting with Vieux Farka Touré's self titled debut album from 2007, which I'm listening to now.

>136 lkernagh: Hi, Lori! I hope that you like the spiced parsnip soup.

Did you and your sister decide that her boyfriend at that time was a keeper after he ate that overly peppery pasta without complaint?

>162 kidzdoc: Fela! Awesome. Have you got anything by Amadou and Mariam? I saw them a couple of years ago and their music is so joyful. I've also been appreciating the work of Idris Elba, who turns out to be a dj in his spare time (I thought this was just a celebrity thing, but it turns out he spent his youth with his uncle who was a DJ for community events). He did a really great series for the BBC full of gorgeous old tracks from the 70s. Look forward to the reviews.

>137 jjmcgaffey: Salt in beer? I've never had it, or seen anyone put salt in their beer. Did your father put salt in that second beer?

>138 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry. I had the same problem until last week, as I couldn't concentrate on longer books such as The Satanic Verses or A History of Seven Killings, even though I was interested in reading them. My work schedule for April through June is much less busy than in the first three months of the year, and I'm sure that I'll get much more reading done from now through at least November.

Homemade pastrami?!? Oh, yum! I grew up on Jewish deli and restaurant food, as we lived just across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan and my family routinely went shopping on weekends in the Lower East Side. Earlier this morning I placed an online birthday order for pastrami smoked salmon, sturgeon, whitefish salad, bagels and bialys with Russ and Daughters, the legendary Jewish appetizing shop in the Lower East Side that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Caroline and I (and thousands of New Yorkers) are addicted to this shop, and I get food from there several times a year, either at the shop or via an online order.

You've given me a great idea. My group has its monthly meeting on Wednesday at the hospital, and there is a very good and authentic New York Jewish deli nearby (there is a large Jewish community about a mile from the hospital). Instead of taking the subway I think I'll drive to the hospital, pick up a pastrami on rye sandwich, a potato knish, and a can of Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray (celery!) soda before the meeting, as I haven't had pastrami in a long time. Thanks, Kerry!

>139 laytonwoman3rd: I'm with you, Linda. Hot pastrami is very high on my list of favorite foods! Russ and Daughters opened a restaurant in the past year or two, and I definitely want to go there on my next visit to the city, probably in April or May.

>140 connie53: I'm not sure that beer needs any salt, Connie.

>141 Ameise1: I hope that you enjoyed your weekend, Barbara! I had to work, but I wasn't on call for admissions, so it was a busy but not hectic or stressful weekend.

>142 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! I hope that you had a good weekend.

>143 cbl_tn: Hi, Carrie! Yes, I definitely don't recommend putting 1-2 cups (instead of tablespoons) of pepper in the parsnip soup. Please let me know how it turns out if you decide to make it.

I hope that the weather in Knoxville is as nice as it is here in Atlanta.

>144 benitastrnad: I was too busy to think about buying a pie on the 14th, Benita. If I had I would have bought a Key lime pie from Publix; that pie and a good strawberry rhubarb pie, such as the ones sold in a stand at the Farmers' Market outside of the Ferry Building in San Francisco, are my favorites.

That's interesting about the difference in humidity and how it can affect cooked foods; I would have never thought of that (although I'm still very much of a novice in the kitchen). I'm glad that your beef noodle soup and barbecued beef turned out well.

I think I'll have the last of the pollo ciudad for lunch, and probably parsnip soup and carrot salad for dinner. I have several containers of Emeril Lagasse's New Orleans beef chili in my freezer, but they will probably stay there for another week or so, as I'll primarily have pastrami salmon and sturgeon bagel and bialy sandwiches (with slices of red onion and tomato) this week.

>145 Caroline_McElwee:, >146 Ameise1: I agree, Caroline. I like tulips, and that one is a beauty. Thanks for posting it here, Barbara!

>147 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda! The parsnips gave off a nice mild aroma when they were simmering, and it tasted good.

>148 LovingLit: Wow! That's a lot of work to remove a single parsnip, Megan.

>149 streamsong: I'm glad that you enjoyed Brown Girl Dreaming, Janet; I loved it as well, and I'm glad that I received a free signed copy of the book a few weeks ago as a gift from my donation to We Need Diverse Books (I read the Kindle version of it last year).

The black bean avocado enchiladas sound good; how did they turn out?

I just looked into my refrigerator and freezer. I haven't cooked anything since the Sunday before last, so I don't have as much food as I did a week ago, but I count at least 20 servings of several different meals. So, I could easily not cook anything until next week and still have leftovers, but I'm sure that I'll make at least 2-3 recipes each of the next two weeks. My biggest problem is that I'm running out of space!

>150 benitastrnad: I'm sorry that you weren't keen on Brown Girl Dreaming, Benita. I did enjoy it, and I do like the free verse format, so it worked for me.

>151 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen! I already started to move out of my book slump this past week, and I think I'll be back in the groove today or tomorrow, after I get the Reading Globally thread for the second quarter set up.

Spring is here in Atlanta! The flowers of the trees usually begin to bloom by mid March, and that was the case again this year. There are a mixture of trees with young leaves, one with flowers, and others that are starting to bud. The temperatures have been mainly in the mid 60s (the normal high at this time of year is 66 F) to the upper 70s, which is perfect weather for me.

I'm glad to hear that your 11 year old niece enjoyed Brown Girl Dreaming. A close friend of mine from medical school asked if I thought it would be appropriate for her daughter, who is also 11 yo, I believe, so I'll mention this to Emily today.

Adding salt to beer was a way to pick up the "meh" taste of low-quality stuff, is what I always heard. Common in the depression years, after Prohibition, when decent brew was hard to come by.

Darryl, here's to a well-earned 14 day weekend!

>155 Caroline_McElwee: There will be cake, Caroline! I placed an order today for a white chocolate layer cake from Piece of Cake, a local set of bakeries that make what are considered to be the best cakes in metro Atlanta. It will be ready tomorrow.



>156 charl08: That's good news, Charlotte! I hope that you enjoy The Stone Raft as much as I did. I'll certainly read at least one or two books by Saramago, probably Journey to Portugal and The History of the Siege of Lisbon. I'll almost certainly spend most of the month of June in Europe, as I did last year, and I want to spend more time in Spain and visit Portugal, although I may wait to do that until the fall, when it will be cooler. I'll probably pick up more guides from the Marylebone branch of Daunt Books in June, and plan my Iberian trip then, unless I decide to do the reverse of last year and go to Spain in the first half of June and travel to London for the second half of the month.

>159 Cariola: You may have contracted a secondary bacterial bronchiolitis following a primary influenza infection, or possibly developed influenza bronchitis. Neither would be very pleasant, though. I'm glad that you're feeling better, and I hope that you don't rush back to work too soon. I developed a bad asthma exacerbation with pneumonia two years ago right about this time, and I returned to work 1-2 days before I should have, which was a mistake.

>161 benitastrnad: Thanks for the info about celeriac, Benita. I looked at Wikipedia's page for it, and I don't ever remember seeing a vegetable that looked like it, or having it in a meal. I'll look for it when I go to Publix, probably on Thursday, and when I visit the Piedmont Park Farmer's Market on Saturday and the DeKalb Farmer's Market sometime next week.

Thanks for recommending Vegetables, Revised. I'll probably go to my local Barnes & Noble later this week to buy birthday books, so I'll look for it then.

>163 charl08: I haven't heard of Amadou and Mariam before; thanks for mentioning them, Charlotte. I have an account with Spotify, so I'll listen to some of their music shortly and let you know what I think of them. I'll check out Idris Elba, too, as I'm also unfamiliar with him.

>168 laytonwoman3rd: Interesting! Thanks for that bit of knowledge, Linda. I've learned a few things here on my thread today!

>169 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! I have several projects and tasks that I'd like to complete in the next two weeks, so this will be a staycation for me. It's a great time of year to be in Atlanta as well.

I'm heating up the ingredients for pollo ciudad now (chicken thighs, rice, pickled tomato salsa, cilantro sauce). I don't think I posted the recipe in The Kitchen, so I'll do that now after lunch. Best chicken and rice recipe ever.

>170 kidzdoc: Darryl - we are currently in Lisbon and walked past the Saramago foundation yesterday. Apparently it's very interesting - as long as you can speak Portuguese.

>172 SandDune: Excellent, Rhian! I'll be very interested to hear about your stay in Lisbon, since it's likely that I'll go there later this year. I can speak and read Castilian (but not Catalan) Spanish reasonably well, but I'm only good with Portuguese words that are similar to Spanish. Have a great time, and please take plenty of photos! Have a Happy Birthday tomorrow as well!

I just want you to know that I've had the Russ & Daughters website open all afternoon, and if I end up ordering 2 or 3 pounds of rugelach, and a side of Scottish salmon, YOU will have to explain the bill to my husband. Prepare a defense, please.

>174 laytonwoman3rd: That's easy. All you have to do is tell him that you're expecting, as pregnant women have certain unexplicable food cravings that need to be satisfied by any means necessary. Are you having a boy or a girl?

>175 kidzdoc: There would be SUCH a miracle involved there....not sure he'd believe it!!

>175 kidzdoc: >176 laytonwoman3rd: *snort* !

>176 laytonwoman3rd: Hmm. I suppose honesty would be the best policy, then. Tell him that Russ and Daughters is an irresistible place to buy appetizers and sweets, both online and especially in the shop. I took an old friend of mine there for her first time last year, and she went half berserk buying practically one of every sweet that was sold there, while I bought plenty of salmon, sturgeon, whitefish salad, bagels and bialys. We went to Chinatown to meet her husband for lunch at Joe's Shanghai (soup dumpling heaven), and his eyes widened when he saw the massive Russ and Daughters bags that each of us carried. However, he was quite pleased when his wife showed him all of the goodies that she bought and gave him some to take back to his Wall Street office.

Ah. I remembered that I had a photo of Jen and me, which her husband took outside of Joe's Shanghai, with Jen's bag filled with sweets from Russ and Daughters that weighed barely less than she did sitting on the ground behind her:



ETA: Oh, wait a minute...that's my bag, I think, as my shoulder bag is next to it. Jen's bag (which Bob was holding) was roughly the same size, though.

>173 kidzdoc: I find Portuguese an odd language. It looks so very similar to Spanish, but it sounds completely different! Much more Eastern European than anything else.

Happy birthday, Darryl. Many happy returns and enjoy the cake.

>165 kidzdoc: It's mid-70s with a cloudless blue sky here. A beautiful spring day, not terribly conducive to reading. It's too nice to be indoors.

>152 kidzdoc: "...my 14 day weekend starts today!"
Every weekend should be fourteen days long!

I'm looking forward to the second quarter of the Reading Globally challenge. I've been doing a bit of browsing in the past week or so, looking for Spanish or Portuguese lit that I might like to read. Of course, Jose Saramago is a favorite. And Carlos Ruiz Zafón. And maybe I'll finally get around to reading something by Gabriel García Márquez.

Those are the obvious ones. I know I'll learn about many more via the challenge!

*yawn* I'm now awake after a nearly 3 hour nap, but I'll probably go back to bed pretty soon, as my body is craving sleep.

>180 SandDune: Right, Rhian. Metro Atlanta has a small Brazilian community in a nearby suburban town, and I'll encounter a Brazilian family whose child requires hospitalization every 3-4 months. Fortunately most Brazilians speak Spanish in addition to Portuguese, so we can communicate in that language, although I sometimes have to remind them that I don't understand their native language.

The first medical emergency on a flight that I was called for assistance involved a teenage girl from Brazil who was experiencing respiratory distress on a flight from San Francisco to Atlanta. She was part of a group of young adults that spent several days there. Fortunately the group leader spoke good Spanish, so after I assessed the girl and placed her on supplemental oxygen I was able to determine from him that she was experiencing a panic attack, as she was briefly detained by the SFPD for suspicion of shoplifting and was released. She was about to meet up with the tough adult matron, who was set to give her a grilling over the incident, and she started to hyperventilate as a result. I stayed with her for the remainder of the flight (even though I told the flight attendants that she was medically stable, the captain kicked the plane into high gear and we landed over a half hour ahead of schedule), and I gave a report to the emergency medical technicians at ATL after we landed and spoke to the not-so-evil matron. As a token of thanks I was given a $400 or $500 voucher by Delta for assisting the patient; none of the other medical professionals on the plane spoke Spanish.

>181 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! I'm sure that I'll enjoy the cake, but I'll bet that I enjoy the pastrami salmon on a bialy even more.

>182 cbl_tn: It was a nice day here as well, but I was too sleepy to think about going out. I'll definitely spend at least a couple of hours outside tomorrow, though.

>183 EBT1002: Right, Ellen! 14 day weekends make for very short work weeks.

I'm glad that you'll participate in the Iberian Peninsula Reading Globally challenge. I started working on it today, beginning with Medieval Spanish literature. I'll probably only read 20th and 21st century Portuguese and Spanish literature and nonfiction, though, as I have more than enough books at home that I'm eager to read. I posted a list of planned TBR reads for that challenge in message #3, but I also own several newer books that I may also try to get to in the next three months, and later this year.

ETA: I should finish the opening messages of the thread by Thursday, and I'll post a link to it here once I'm done.

>136 lkernagh: - LOL, I think my sister had already decided that he was a keeper before my botched dinner fiasco. ;-0

Enjoy your time off!

Happy birthday mate. A day after our wedding anniversary so it will be easy to remember in future. Noted the prize nominees and winners with as much fascination as always.

Happy Birthday mate, Have a fab day & Long weekend to come !

>164 kidzdoc: No - he actually hasn't salted his beer since (remember, this is over 20 years ago now!). He told me once, several years after the incident, that every time he lifts a saltshaker to salt his beer he hits the visceral memory of that shaker lid falling off and can't bring himself to hold the shaker over the beer.

Hmmm. It occurs to me that he (they, my parents) now use a salt-grinder exclusively. I wonder if it's related?

>173 kidzdoc:, >180 SandDune: Portuguese was deliberately designed to be incomprehensible to Spanish-speakers. Literally! There was a Spanish king on the Portuguese throne at the time, and those of his court and the nation who weren't happy about it shifted their dialect so that he and the Spaniards he'd brought with him couldn't understand them. So many Portuguese-speakers can understand Spanish, but few the other way around.

I studied Spanish in school for many years (6? 7? High school and college), but never achieved real fluency - I have (had) an excellent accent, limited vocabulary, and practically no grammar skills. And then I went to Portugal (where my parents were living and working), and picked up just enough Portuguese to totally mess up the remnants of my Spanish.

>158 kidzdoc:, >161 benitastrnad:, etc - Celeriac is often available here in Northern California - you may also find it called "celery root". It's really an incredibly ugly object - the size of a baseball or a bit larger, all knobbly and brown and flaky with stubby roots coming off in all directions. But it tastes lovely - it's great sliced/chopped up in salads, too (and it retains more of a celery flavor that way, eaten raw)

I'll have to keep an eye out for Vegetables, Revised - sounds like a very useful book!

Happy birthday Darryl! You know, you have a popular birthday...I have 4 other friends on Facebook with the same birthday today! And only one birthday party invitation. What's with that?
Have a great start to your fortnight long weekend!

Happy birthday Darryl!

Happy birthday, friend!! I hope it's the best one yet!

Happy birthday Darryl! I hope you relax and enjoy your day.

Happy Birthdsy Darryl. I hope you have a special day, doing the things you enjoy. Book in one hand, cake in the other, oops, you have frosting on your nose and not enough hands to turn the page!

I know you've probably ordered yourself a birthday cake for later, but I thought maybe a little sour cream coffee cake would go nicely this morning:

Chin-chin, Darryl!



Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday, Darryl!

>186 lkernagh: Good move by your sister, Lori.

Thanks! I'm still very sleepy, so today will be a quiet, relaxing and very pleasant birthday.

>187 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, and belated Happy Anniversary to you and Hani! I look forward to meeting the two of you, hopefully in New Orleans later this year.

>188 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex! Today is the official beginning of my long break from work, as I was the on call doctor yesterday and would have had to work if I was needed, as I was last Tuesday. I'm not using any vacation days during this 13 day break, so I don't mind spending it here in Atlanta and catching up on long delayed tasks and goals.

>189 jjmcgaffey: Ha! I don't think I would have ever forgotten that salt fiasco if it had happened to me.

That's very interesting information about the development of the Portuguese language! It makes sense that people from Brazil and Portugal also speak Spanish, since both countries are surrounded by Spanish speaking nations, but I would guess that the citizens of other countries where Portuguese is spoken, particularly Mozambique, don't speak Spanish.

I took my first formal Spanish class in 9th grade, after we moved from Jersey City to suburban Philadelphia. I'll always remember that, after the class, the teacher called me to her desk, and asked me where I had learned Spanish. She told me that I pronounced it correctly (e.g. "yoablo", with the merge of the words "yo" and "hablo" together, as the "h" is silent and whenever one word ends with a vowel and the next one begins with one the words are blended together; most of the suburban kids pronounced the two words harshly: a Philadelphia "YO" followed by "HAH-blow"). I told her that I had never taken a Spanish class, which was true, but when I told her that I had grown up in Jersey City and the Bronx, where my maternal grandparents lived, and had Latino classmates in elementary school, she postulated that I had been "learning" Spanish by being around people, mainly from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, who spoke it fluently and correctly, which helped me to pronounce the words properly and well in advance of my fellow classmates.

At least once every week that I'm working a parent in the hospital who I've met for the first time will ask where I'm from, as they also say that I don't speak Spanish like a person from the US, especially if they happen to hear me speak English along with Spanish. Many of them are surprised that I'm not Latino, and I suspect that some of them thought that I was denying my Latino heritage, as they looked at me skeptically when I told them that (to my knowledge) I have no Latino blood. At least twice I've overheard families ask one of the unit secretaries or nurses if the "Dominican doctor" was here, and then greet me when they saw me. ¡Yo soy dominicano!

Thanks for that additional information about celeriac. I'll look for it and buy a couple if Publix has them in stock.

>190 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! Rhian and Cait (@Cait86) also share the same birthday (and, as I've probably mentioned, Rhian and I share the same birth year as well), along with famed San Francisco poet and co-founder of City Lights Bookstore Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who turns 96 today.

>191 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I think I'll dance cautiously and with my eyes wide open around the porcupines.

>192 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian! And Happy Birthday to you, too!

>193 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! Today won't top last year, when Rhian and I celebrated our birthdays together by seeing an exhibition at the Tate Britain and a leisurely lunch, but it will be a very nice one all the same.

>194 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I love that graphic image!

>195 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura! Yes, it will be a relaxing day, and I'll probably take a long nap after lunch.

>196 Caroline_McElwee: Ha! You'll probably be right, Caroline! There will likely be a point today or later this week when I'll have a book in hand while I'm eating cake, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a bit of frosting missed the mark and landed on my nose.

>197 laytonwoman3rd: Ooh...thanks, Linda! If you take away the frosting that looks exactly like the sour cream coffee cake that my mother often made for me for my birthdays when I was a child.

>198 katiekrug: Hey hey! Now you're talking, Katie. Thanks for the Pimms cup; cheers!

>199 rosylibrarian: Thanks, Marie!

>200 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori!

I'm so glad you are going to have a relaxing do nothing birthday. Sometimes they are the BEST! I was early on FB so hope I'm on time with best wishes here.

The list of finalists for this year's Man Booker International Prize, the £60,000 award which recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction, was announced in Cape Town this morning:

César Aira (Argentina)
Hoda Barakat (Lebanon)
Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe)
Mia Couto (Mozambique)
Amitav Ghosh (India)
Fanny Howe (United States of America)
Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya)
László Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo)
Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa)

The 2015 Man Booker International Prize winner will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 19 May.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/man-booker-international-prize-2015-finali...

>205 tiffin: Thanks, Tui. It's a beautiful day here in Atlanta, but I'll gladly spend a lazy day indoors. I appreciate you being one of my early well wishers on FB yesterday, and you're right on time today!

Happy Birthday Darryl

>208 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda!

Happy 14 day birthday weekend Darryl! I hope you can get some rest and some reading done after your busy time at work.

Happy Birthday, Darryl. And I hope you enjoy your time off - you deserve it.

>167 kidzdoc: Thanks for the link to We Need Diverse Books. That looks like a very interesting project. Although I can't put my finger on the correct poem, I was really struck by Jacqueline Woodson's memory of picking up a picture book and realizing that brown people have stories, too. There was a similar theme in an autobiography I read last year by Caribbean author Elizabeth Nunez who grew up reading the Enid Blyton books.

And oh - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

>203 kidzdoc: Well, maybe your mother called me and clued me in? We never put icing on it either; my grandmother made it often, and I do have the recipe somewhere.

>210 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather! Yes, I'll have plenty of opportunity to get caught up on rest, and get a lot of reading in as well.

>211 catarina1: Thanks, catarina! I've been looking forward to this break since our work schedule came out in January, and I'm glad that it came at this time of the year.

>212 streamsong: You're welcome, Janet. I'll have to look for that poem by Jacqueline Woodson. Thanks for the birthday wish!

>213 laytonwoman3rd: I'd say that great minds (yours and my mother's) think alike, Linda.

Happy birthday, with the well planned 14 day "weekend". Though I imagine it'll be a bit before you've fully recovered from your long and intense work stretch.

Happy Birthday, Darryl!!

>215 qebo: Thanks, Katherine! Yes, it will be several more days before I'm fully caught up on sleep and am completely rested. My body has learned to live on 5-6 hours of sleep during long work stretches, but when it has the opportunity to get 8-9 hours it soaks them up like a dehydrated plant.

>216 connie53: Dank je wel, Connie!

Happy Birthday Darryl! What a wonderful way to kick off your 14 day weekend. :D
Let the rest and reading begin!

>218 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie!

Wishing you a very happy Birthday today, Darryl!

Thanks, Roni!

Have a lovely birthday, Darryl!

Happy Birthday!

>206 kidzdoc: wow, I had no idea about this prize! Thanks for the info.

Happy birthday, Darryl! Yours is the day before mine so it will be easy to remember ;)

Happy Birthday and enjoy your cake.

>222 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah!

>223 avidmom: Thanks, avidmom!

>224 LovingLit: You're welcome, Megan. The Man Booker International Prize is far less well known than the (Man) Booker Prize, but it's nearly as important IMO, as it recognizes an author's entire body of work instead of one book.

>225 bell7: Thanks, Mary! And Happy Birthday in advance to you! (I'll post a proper greeting on your thread tomorrow.)

>226 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry! I haven't touched my cake yet, since I ate my free birthday red velvet muffin this afternoon and had a late dinner. I'll enjoy a slice tomorrow, though.

>214 kidzdoc: Ah ha - I found the poem I was looking for.

It starts on page 227 and is titled stevie and me

The last stanza (p. 228):

"If someone had taken
that book out of my hand
said "You're too old for this"
maybe
I'd never have believed
that someone who looked like me
could be in the pages of the book
that someone who looked like me
had a story."

All kudos to Amazon's "look inside" feature. From there you can use the search feature for a specific word. I searched on 'stories' and it still came up with 'story' and the proper page.

BTW, I did not get to try the black bean enchiladas. The store I took Mom to only had hard-as-rocks avocados and was out of cilantro. Mom wasn't up to stopping by a second store, so the recipe got put off a bit.

Happy belated birthday and woot woot for the vacation!!

>228 streamsong: Ah, yes. I remember that stanza from Brown Girl Dreaming, and I found it in my hardcover copy of the book. Thanks for posting it!

Ugh to hard-as-rocks avocados. I hope that you can try that recipe soon.

>229 Berly: Thanks, Kim!

I noticed on FB that yesterday was your birthday but I don't think I did anything about it. SO --- Happy (belated) Birthday!!!!! Nice to have it fall in the early days of your 14-day break from work.

>228 streamsong: and >230 kidzdoc: I have Brown Girl Dreaming on hold at the library and that stanza makes me look forward to it even more.

Darryl, I had missed your list of planned reads for the second quarter (post 3) -- thanks for pointing that out to me. I would like to read an assortment from the region. It's definitely a newer segment of literature for me. I mean, I tried to read Don Quixote last year but it's just not my thing, at least not at this point in my life.

Ken Burns and Katie Couric do a TV series based on a book I think I heard about from you. Not sure I can watch it. Didn't think I could read the book, either, but I imagine everyone should.

>231 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen! I've had to work my fair share of birthdays, but my partner who now makes the schedule has been good about giving us that day off whenever possible.

Now that my group's monthly meeting is over I'll get back to working on the Iberian Peninsula theme for the Reading Globally second quarter challenge. Hopefully I'll have it up by tomorrow night, if not sooner, and I'll post several more books other than the ones I mentioned in message #3.

>232 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for mentioning that upcoming series, Linda. I had heard about it, and I definitely plan to watch it next week.

>231 EBT1002: I forgot to mention that I loved Don Quixote, Ellen!

The longlist for this year's Orwell Book Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing, was announced yesterday:

Jamie Bartlett, The Dark Net
John Campbell, Roy Jenkins: A Biography
Rana Dasgupta, Capital: The Eruption of Delhi
Dan Davies, In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile
Nick Davies, Hack Attack: The Inside Story of How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch
Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin, Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain
Zia Haider Rahman, In the Light of What We Know
David Kynaston, Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957-59
Louisa Lim, The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited
David Marquand, Mammon's Kingdom: An Essay on Britain, Now
James Meek, Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else
Lara Pawson, In the Name of the People: Angola's Forgotten Massacre

The £3,000 prize will be announced in a ceremony on 21st May 2015.

More info: http://theorwellprize.co.uk/news/the-orwell-prize-2015-longlists-announced/

After a half day's worth of research, the thread for the Iberian Peninsula is almost ready. I have to take my car to the shop this morning, so I won't get it posted until later today, or tomorrow at the latest. Once I have it up I'll post a link to it here, and figure out which books I'll plan to read next month.

>236 kidzdoc: - Ooh, I look forward to seeing what you've put together. I am going to use it as an impetus to finally read one of the Saramagos I have on my shelves....

HAPPY EVER-SO BELATED BIRTHDAY!!

It is a darn good thing I wasn't here when >197 laytonwoman3rd: was around...I'm porking up quite nicely without the need to sneak all I can find of that cake.

Have a wonderful and invigorating Iberian spring, doc, you deserve the rest. Exhausting as a vacation is....

I am about to explode about a character in a book just as you did with Moon Tiger. I am reading Rebecca and a more weak kneed, spineless, wimp that the second Mrs. De Winter I have rarely met. This woman makes me so angry that I want to throw the book at her. However, I like the novel and think that an author who can produce that kind of anger in me must be doing a good job, but the second Mrs. De Winter is enough to make me want to shake her.

>237 katiekrug: I'm back from the BMW service center (as I had to reschedule my appointment for Tuesday), so I'll put the finishing touches on the Iberian Peninsula thread and post it later this afternoon. I must own at least two dozen unread books by Spanish and Portuguese authors, and travel literature written by non-Iberian authors, including several by José Saramago, so I'll spend most of the next three months reading those books preferentially.

>238 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! It's great to see you posting again on LT. Since you're "porking up quite nicely" I won't mention the white chocolate layer cake I bought for my birthday, which is far too large for one (or four) people to eat. I've had my fill of cake the past three days, but I've only finished a quarter of it, so I'll have to give half of it away to some deserving folks.



There'll be no vacation for me until June, but I'm enjoying and am very grateful to be off from work and mostly relaxing this week and next.

>239 benitastrnad: I hadn't planned to read Rebecca, as I'm way behind on the books I had intended to read, but the comments I've read about it have made me consider getting to it at some point. I now think the same as you about Moon Tiger; far better for me to have a viscerally negative reaction to a character than an indifferent one.

Wrap the cake up in plastic wrap. Cover the plastic wrap in aluminum foil and put that cake in the freezer. You can then take it out and thaw it and have it to celebrate something else. Or you can cut it into serving size portions and do the same wrapping process and then just have a slice whenever you want it. Perhaps as a desert to go with that frozen soup?

I want to keep reading Rebecca, but find that woman exasperating. I took the time this morning to look at some of the literary criticism about Rebecca and found that my reaction to the character is not out-of-line. I keep telling myself that in order to get out of a financial situation like the narrator found herself in, marriage would have been the lesser of evils, but dog-gone-it, have some backbone. I am not far enough into the book to find out more of the details, but now I can't wait to read it to see how Du Maurier handles this character. Several of the literary critics say that Rebecca is her finest novel, and I do like the writing so am not going to ditch this one. I am just going to complain about that character until I finish reading it.

>241 benitastrnad: Great idea, Benita. That's a better plan than sharing it with Richard.

What time period was Rebecca set in? Was she a spineless jellyfish because she had to stay in a (loveless?) marriage to escape a far worse fate? I don't know anything about the book, so I am completely clueless about her circumstances.

WHAT?! NO CAKE FOR ME?! *flounces out*

I don't think it's spoilerish to mention to readers who haven't finished (or even started) Rebecca yet that it's a Gothic tale, and accordingly you should expect twisty bits. It isn't just the second Mrs. DeWinter's story, by any means.

>243 richardderus: He's got his flounce back!!!!

>243 richardderus: Sigh. All right, fine. *slices a microscopically thin piece of cake for Richard*

>244 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. I have too much on my literary plate at the moment to get to it now, but I'll try to fit it in before the end of the year.

>245 laytonwoman3rd: I suspect that Richard never lost his flounce!

As it is chocolate (albeit white), I shall accept my symbolic victory.

>247 richardderus: Such modesty warms my heart. How about I give you the remaining 3/4 of the cake?

#242
The book was published in 1938 and was meant to be contemporary to that time period. The narrator (the woman never names herself) a poor woman of the minor nobility, or perhaps the English Upper Middle Class, but don't trust me on that as I am not that familiar with the class system in England of that time. She was sufficiently worried about her "place" in society to be worried about appearances. At the beginning of the book she was a hired companion to a crass elderly rich American woman. She was doomed to spend the rest of her life as a paid companion (read that fetch and carry person for rich old women) and marriage allowed her to escape from that life. It is clear that she saw her life as a companion as a comedown and that she was an object of pity.

Hi Darryl! I was scanning through the posts looking for a book review. Nothing? Lots of cake. LOL.

I am nearly done with Wolf Hall and I think I will just jump right into Bring up the Bodies. So, in one full swoop, I will be caught up.

Hope the week is going well.

>250 msf59: Hi, Mark! I've only read two books so far this month, and I haven't written any reviews for a while. Not long ago I finished the thread for the theme that I'll be leading for the Reading Globally group from April to June, which will focus on literature, nonfiction and poetry from the Iberian peninsula. I'll post a link and some recommended and planned reads here, once I create a new thread.

Wow, you are flying through Wolf Hall! As you're probably aware, I loved that book, and Bring Up the Bodies, and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of The Mirror and the Light, which apparently won't happen until next year.

The week is going great, as I'm off from work until the Monday after next.

>249 benitastrnad: Thanks for that summary of Rebecca, Benita. Hmm...I suspect that I wouldn't enjoy it, and since I have so many other books I'd like to read this year ahead of it I'll take a pass on it.

>248 kidzdoc: ICK!!!!!

No, no, mustn't deprive the birthday boy.

that was close

>250 msf59: That's the way I read them. Are you enjoying the books? I just preordered the DVD of the series, which won't begin for a week or so here. I have faith that the wonderful Mark Rylance will do an amazing performance as Cromwell.

>217 kidzdoc: You know your Dutch! good for you, Darryl!

>256 kidzdoc: Ha! I wouldn't know a word of Dutch without Google, Connie. I'm limited to American English and (Castillian) Spanish.