MissWatson cooks her ROOTs

Hello, I'm glad to be back. Last year I read many more ROOTs than planned, so this year I'm aiming for 75.

I have also taken a critical look at my cookbook shelves and decided that they need decluttering. Every month I'm going to take down at least one book and cook from it. If it yields less than 5 repeatable recipes, out it goes.

Other than that, there will be a few re-reads and a serious attempt to reduce the enormous TBR. Everything I owned before January 1st, 2018 qualifies as a ROOT.

And the cookery experiment:



January
Winterwohlfühlküche

February
Echt Winterküche
20 Minuten sind genug! Vegetarisch

March
Vegetarisch

April
Single-Küche für Faule culled
Italien vegetarisch

Here's the list of books read in 2018.

January
1. Endstation für neun by Maj Sjöwall / Per Wahlöö
2. The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. By gaslight by Steven Price
4. Zofloya, or the Moor by Charlotte Dacre
5. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
6. The Yellow Mask by Wilkie Collins
7. The Biter Bit and other stories by Wilkie Collins
February
8. Pay dirt by Rita Mae Brown
9. Murder, she meowed by Rita Mae Brown
10. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
11. Der Altmann ist tot by Frl. Krise & Frau Freitag
12. Paradies in schwerer Zeit by Thomas Blubacher
13. ...alle Bitternis der Welt by Vsevolod Garšin
March
14. Women & power by Mary Beard
15. Maigret s'amuse by Georges Simenon
16. Die Jugend des Königs Henri IV by Heinrich Mann
17. Das Marsprojekt : Das ferne Leuchten by Andreas Eschbach
18. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
19. A rising man by Abir Mukherjee
20. A closed and common orbit by Becky Chambers
21. L'homme truqué by Maurice Renard
April
22. The enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
23. Pietr le Letton by Georges Simenon
24. Chez les Flamands by Georges Simenon
25. Maigret en Auvergne by Georges Simenon
26. Washington Square by Henry James
27. The Europeans by Henry James

Good to see you, Birgit and good luck with ROOTing

Can't wait to see what you read in 2018! Be sure to share with us your "best" recipes!

Best wishes for great reading in 2018!

Welcome back and have a great reading year! Also I hope you find some great recipes in your cookbooks!

Good to see you back, and I love the cookbook idea! I hope you share some of your successes!

The cookbook collection was one of the first areas that I culled. I still have a large collection but rarely use them. My theory is that it is the pretty pictures that made me buy them in the first place. Good luck with your ROOTing!

Glad you're with us again!

Nice to see you here, Birgit - happy ROOTing and cooking during 2018!

Hi! Good luck w/ your 2018 Goals!
I'll be stopping by to say Hi when I can :)

>1 MissWatson: I have also taken a critical look at my cookbook shelves and decided that they need decluttering. Every month I'm going to take down at least one book and cook from it. If it yields less than 5 repeatable recipes, out it goes.
Love this plan, I want to do something similar except it involves the (possibly heretical) tearing-out of the recipe pages I want to keep :0

P.S. echoing the requests for recipes!

>1 MissWatson: Tasty plan! And a great idea for a varied diet.

Happy New Year, Birgit.

Welcome back, and happy ROOTing! I'm looking forward to your cooking challenge, it's something I should probably do myself. :)

Happy reading in 2018, Birgit!

Hi Birgit and happy new year!

I just love the idea of how you're going to cull cookbooks. Good luck.

I, too, am looking forward to updates on the cookbook decluttering plan - such a good idea!

Hello and welcome to all my visitors, thanks for the good wishes! I hope you all had a lovely holiday!

I am now caught up with all the threads (I hope) and can get serious about ROOTing. I am currently reading Endstation für neun, in a new translation. It's very good, halfway in...

>21 MissWatson: It's a job to star all of the threads and keeping up with reading them, isn't it, Birgit? I'm doing the same right now.

>22 connie53: Yes, especially after an absence of a few days.

And my first ROOT is finished: Endstation für neun. A Martin Beck mystery that has held up very well, especially in this new translation. Definitely a keeper.

Edited for touchstone

Welcome back and happy ROOTing. Looks like you are off to a good start.

The second ROOT for January is The Black Arrow which I found sadly disappointing. The imitation 15th century dialogue was hard to read, there's no real explanation for the Black Arrow (why set it up, who's in it, what do they want) and the hero is a nuisance. I bought this ages ago, and now it's falling apart, so out it goes. No great loss.

And now for the cookbooks. First up on the testing stand is a book I bought shortly before Christmas, mostly because the pictures are gorgeous and it was half-price: Winterwohlfühlküche.

What I hadn't realised on leafing through is that most recipes are for 4-6 persons, so they don't scale down easily. It is translated from English, and the first recipe I tried makes me wonder how competent the translator was, I have never seen "lammschenkel" in a German butcher's. Anyway, I replaced it with a chicken leg, as suggested, and it soon became apparent that the measures given are wrong: far too much liquids for a measly 100 grams of lentils.
The rest was easy: you just put lentils, diced bacon, a tin of tomatoes, chicken stock, red wine and garlic (optional) into a roasting pan, put the meat on top, close the lid and put it into the oven at medium heat for an hour. Then you turn the meat and put it back in the oven. Season with salt and pepper, maybe a little parsley, if the meat is done then. If not, return it to the oven for a little longer.
This tasted very well, but I can't help wondering if it wouldn't be quicker and more energy efficient to do it on top of the stove.

>26 MissWatson: Darn! Oh well, this might make it easier for me to send my copy back to the used book sale when I finish...

>27 MissWatson: LOL. I really had to laugh reading your comment on the 'lammschenkel' and you had a nice solution for it's replacement.

So now, what will you do with the cookbook?

>27 MissWatson: I have a friend who translates from German to English, I think she was working on a cookbook towards the end of last year. Sometimes she asks for some advice (eg if she's translating into American English she'll ask our mutual American friends if a particular expression she's translated works in American as well as British English), I always find it fascinating the variety of ways that things can be translated and understood.

Love your idea for cookbook decluttering!

>28 rabbitprincess: Like I said over in the CATchallenge, it could be different for you...
>29 connie53: It gets another chance, Connie, just to see if it was a single slip-up.
>30 Jackie_K: Hi Jackie, one of the first hurdles is that there are subtle differences in how animals are cut up and used. Before the fast food industry rolled in, hardly anybody here knew what to do with chicken wings. And the dangers of translation! I have lost track of how often translators into German trip up over mincemeat.
>31 sibylline: Thanks, I'm still in the trial phase...

Good luck with your ROOTs! 75 would be an awesome number to achieve :). I de-cluttered my cookbooks a while back, too. I took pictures, copied out, or scanned all the recipes I liked and donated the books :).

>33 readingtangent: Hello and thanks! That sounds like a very efficient solution to the space problem...

Hi Birgit!

Interesting cooking experiment, and it does sound tasty.

Hi Karen!
I'm taking a drawing class this weekend and won't have much time for cooking, but I want to try the cheese soufflé recipe next. It looks unfussy in the description...

Enjoy your drawing class. I am taking a water colour class this weekend. Should be fun.

>36 MissWatson: >37 Familyhistorian: oh, I’m envious of you both - there’s no local art class that suits me just now. But I bought my mother a set of watercolours and brushes for Christmas and we spent a nice couple of hours yesterday morning dabbling and chatting. It prompted memories I’ve never heard before - I learned that a great uncle had been an artist and art teacher, and my mum had won an art competition aged 14 with a painting of a pheasant. And I had been putting my lack of talent down to non-artistic genes! Hope your output is more satisfying than mine has been ;)

You are all very talented! I can't even draw a stick figure!

>37 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg, it was fun. I haven't held a pencil for drawing since school, and art classes then were pitiful, so we had no instruction whatever. But I was pleasantly surprised that the objects I drew were recognizable!
>38 floremolla: Living in a city with an academic art school has its advantages, there are a lot of people who can be roped in for teaching. I'm not sure what the equivalent for "Volkshochschule" would be: they offer classes for adults, both for professional advancement or culture, such as arts classes, languages, photography, etc.
>39 Tess_W: I wouldn't say I'm talented, I just decided to get an idea of how it is done. The thing I need to remember is that the most important thing is to look closely. Since I am a very text-centred person, that is hard for me.

ETC

Looking forward to seeing what you're reading in 2018, Miss Watson.

Hello Robert, and the same here! There are so many interesting and dangerous books on your thread!

The third ROOT for January is By gaslight.

This book needs concentration and patience, as Price uses no punctuation to mark dialogue and he is constantly shifting in time. The main story is set in London in 1885, where William Pinkerton is hunting a thief who always eluded his father's efforts. He meets a man on the search for a woman with connections to Pinkerton's case, Adam Foole, and follow the men through a dark, wintery London memorably described as sooty and dirty. We get insight into the men's past from long and numerous flashbacks that take up nearly as much space as the main action. The American Civil War is the defining experience for both men and we return there again and again, and we slowly learn where the men's lives intersect. Compared to this long, slow buildup, the denouement fell flat, included more as a duty to the reader than out of choice. I didn't love it as much as I hoped to, but that's probably the fault of Pinkerton and his relentless, often quite brutal singlemindedness.

Cookbooks

There simply are not enough hours in the day for all the things I want to do, so the cheese soufflé had to wait. Instead I tried oven potatoes from that cookbook, also a hassle-free quick recipe. The diced potatoes are pre-cooked in saltwater for a few minutes and go into a hot oven for thirty minutes with a sprinkling of olive oil. Next you make a kind of sofrito from onion and cherry tomatoes seasoned with cumin, coriander seeds, pimentón and chilli flakes, put it on top of the potatoes after 20 minutes, add salt and pepper and stir. Quite delicious, and for me this is a full meal.

>43 MissWatson: Yep, I had no patience for the lack of punctuation to mark dialogue. Bailed after the first chapter. Good on you to persevere! :)

>44 MissWatson: YUM that sounds delicious! I love potatoes in pretty much any form.

>43 MissWatson: I'm a potato lover and also think a potato is a meal; unfortunately my husband, the carnivore does not. Am going to try this!

>45 rabbitprincess: It certainly made me read more slowly, and to take closer notice of the text, but I also grew a little impatient towards the end.

>46 Tess_W: I slightly misjudged the pimentón and felt like breathing flames for a minute, but it's definitely a recipe to repeat with variations, such as added vegetables.

>43 MissWatson: sounds like a challenging read!

>44 MissWatson: sounds delish and an ideal base - I’d maybe add a bit of greenery like spinach or green beans. Must try it!

>44 MissWatson: That does sound good. I think I'd add extra vegetables too. (well I say I would, it's my husband who does nearly all of the cooking here! He's started using potatoes a bit more as the base carb (rather than pasta or rice all the time) which gives us a bit more variety).

Hi Birgit!

That potato recipe sounds very flavorful. I just usually use salt and pepper and a bit of basil with olive oil for roasted potatoes and don't parboil them first. I might try the parboil step next time and get more adventuresome with my spices/herbs.

>39 Tess_W: Neither can I, Tess.

>49 Jackie_K: It was meant only as a sidedish, thus no veg. I usually put peas or green beans into dishes like these.
>50 karenmarie: It saves on cooking time in the oven to boil the potatoes first. Would be a great way to use leftover potatoes, too.

The fourth ROOT in January is Zofloya, or the Moor by Charlotte Dacre

I found this last year when browsing the website of Oxford University Press (very dangerous territory!). It has a very unusual heroine for a Gothic novel, sadly let down by mediocre writing. The heroine's antagonist is constantly referred to as the orphan Lilla, and there's overabundance of adjectives.
The introduction, which I read afterwards, makes some interesting points on why this novel was nearly forgotten: it doesn't fit the canon, and the high-minded literary critics were embarrassed that their Romantic poet heroes Byron, Shelley et. al actually read and enjoiyed this stuff and were visibly influenced by it.

Cookbooks

So, the cheese soufflé. The recipe states that four eggs must be separated and three yolks reserved for the sauce. I raised my eyebrows, especially since further down no mention is made of what to do with the single yolk. On second thought, I ignored this and used all four for the preparation. The result is tasty, but I was left with far too much dirty crockery, which I should have known from the moment the separating of eggs was mentioned. Not a recipe I'll repeat any time soon.

If you are curious: the ingredients for 2 people are 100ml of milk, five stalks of basil, 4 eggs, 2 tablespoons butter, 20g flour, 50g grated gruyère, 25g grated Parmesan, salt and pepper.
You bring the milk and the basil to the boil together, let it simmer for a while and then cool off. Melt the butter over a medium heat, stir in the flour until smooth, add the milk through a strainer and stir until smooth, stir in the cheese and let it melt completely, then leave to cool for a few minutes. Add the yolks one by one, then gently fold in the beaten eggwhites. Pour into buttered ramekins, put into a pre-heated oven (200°C) and bake for 25 minutes approx. Do not open the door of the oven.

I hate washing up after soufflés! But I do like eating them :)

My 4 year old calls them 'snow-fflés' which always makes me laugh.

Hi Jackie! It's the sort of food I prefer to eat in restaurants, where someone else has to do the dishes. Still, I was surprised that the preparation went without a hitch. They made such a big deal of it in the movie Sabrina that it scared me off a bit.

I must admit it's my husband who does the cooking. I don't think I've ever managed to successfully separate egg white/yolk!

>53 MissWatson: well done Birgit! haven't had a soufflé for years - my ramekins have been redundant - but this one does sound delicious. I'm the messiest cook though, so I won't rush to try it just yet.

>53 MissWatson: I'm with you, Birgit in that I hate to clean up afterwards!

>53 MissWatson: I was left with far too much dirty crockery
There's an idea for a twist on a cookbook -- a collection of recipes modified for quick clean-up effort.

I've never prepared a souffle ... nor have a memory of eating one although that can't be true.

>56 Jackie_K: >57 floremolla: >58 Tess_W: >59 detailmuse: Hello ladies! Cooking would be so much more fun without the clean-up. I admit I often resort to shortcuts in order to save crockery, but if it is a first effort I tend to stick to the described technique.

ETC

I think I'm in the minority in that I don't mind the cleanup. I just turn on the radio, listen to National Public Radio, and carry on. I do as much as I can while cooking, and then once whatever it is is on the stove or in the oven, I do most if not all of the rest right away. The messiest thing I've made recently was lasagna - 1 pot, 1 pan, 1 bowl, a grater and plate, and tons of wooden spoons, spatulas, and measuring cups and spoons, plus the 10"x15" glass pan.

ROOT number 5 is Black Powder War

This is the third adventure of Temeraire and his crew, who undertake an immense journey across Asia, from China to Istanbul and onwards to Prussia where they get roped into the Prussian forces and fight in the battle of Jena and Auerstädt. An enormously enjoyable read.

>62 MissWatson: Ooh! That sounds like fun! I just took an indirect hit by dnloading the first-in-series, His Majesty's Dragon! :-)

>63 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I hope you enjoy it. Temeraire is simply fabulous, but I also like his captain, Laurence, who is very much a creature of his time and training in the Royal Navy.

Cookbooks

My GP has been chiding me over my cholesterol levels,so I'm laying off the comfort food for a while. The cookbook gets a reprieve, and I'll pick something else to test-drive next.

>64 MissWatson: I love the Temeraire books too.

>66 connie53: Hi Connie! I just found Crucible of gold at my charity bookshop and hope to get round to it some time this year.

In the meantime, ROOT number 6 is The Yellow Mask by Wilkie Collins, who was born in January under the sign of Capricorn. It contains three stories, and I liked Sister Rose best, set during the French Revolution and the Terror. The introduction says Dickens wrote his A tale of two cities around the same time and they often discussed their books, so that looks like a good reason to pick it up. The first time around I quit.

Sympathising with you on the cholesterol problem, Birgit. Mine is a bit higher than I would like but my goodness it's difficult to put a healthy eating regime in place in winter!

My cholesterol is also high, high enough the Dr. wants me to take medicine; but I refused as the benefits outweigh the risks. I don't eat junk food, but I think I eat food too high in fat.

>68 This-n-That: >69 floremolla: >70 Tess_W: Thanks! Christmas cookies definitely have something to do with it. It's been mostly fish and vegetables these last few days, which I really like, but I miss nibbling cookies, sigh.

ROOT number 7 is The Biter Bit and other stories by Wilkie Collins.

I managed to finish this two hours before midnight. The stories are very different in style and subject matter, and also very enjoyable.

Cookbooks

The next book on trial is Echt Winterküche, my most recent acquisition. The first recipe is a success, a salad with beetroot and radicchio.

Ingredients for 4 persons are 600g of beetroot, one head of radicchio and a vinaigrette made from vinegar, honey, olive and walnut oil. The recipe also included pomegrante seeds, which I don't like, so I used pomegranate-flavoured vinegar, which works nicely. You cook the beets in saltwater with a teaspoonful of cumin and coriander seeds each, peel and dice them and let them cool off. Add the dressing, the chopped radicchio and top with chopped, roasted hazelnuts. Resting in the fridge overnight improves the flavour.

The book has quite a few recipes for salads, soups and side dishes suitable for cholesterol-watching. I think this is going to be a keeper.

>73 MissWatson: That sounds delicious!

>74 Jackie_K: I was pleasantly surprised, because beets often taste a little earthy. The vinaigrette really helped with that.

>72 MissWatson: the end of month stats are a great incentive to finish a book before midnight!

>73 MissWatson: that does sound nice - and very healthy!

>75 MissWatson: I must admit I usually buy cooked beets - I have cooked them from raw before, but it was hard work for not enough reward for my taste!

>76 floremolla: I'm feeling smugly virtuous, too, about the healthy eating.

>77 Jackie_K: I often do that, too, but I was curious to see if the cumin and coriander would make a difference. I believe they do.

>73 MissWatson: LOVE beets and this sounds delicious! I too rarely cook them at home, but order them every time I see them on a restaurant menu.

The cookbook experiments sound like fun even though making recipes involves clean up. I felt sure that you would find a healthier cookbook to use once your doctor said to keep an eye on your cholesterol. I love beets as well but, being lazy, I usually buy pickled beets and use them as a condiment.

>79 detailmuse: My favourite supermarket has different coloured beets on offer this week (yellow, white and striped) so I'll be experimenting on the weekend. Reports will follow.
>80 Familyhistorian: Ah, pickled beets! So nice in herring salad...

Hi Birgit!

>73 MissWatson: That salad sounds good, but alas! My husband is a very picky eater and wouldn't even bother. Very occasionally I'll make things just for me, but most of the time it's too much effort. Sigh.

Hi Karen! Yes, I guess cooking for more than person requires a certain amount of compromise to suit all tastes.

ROOT number 8 is Pay dirt by Rita Mae Brown

I picked up the first books in this series more than twenty years ago. The first two were quite enjoyable, the third wasn't, and this, the fourth, is disappointing, too. The case was extremely predictable and handled in a very pedestrian way, and her habit of explaining colloquial terms to the reader gets annoying. One for the charity shop. I've got number five lined up next, and then I'm done with the series.

Cookbooks

A quick report on the beets: yellow beets taste very well, less "earthy" than the red variety. I just peeled them, sliced them very thinly and added a dressing made from lime juice, honey and grape seed oil, with a very finely diced pear in it. Very nice, especially with some tiger prawns to add substance.

>84 MissWatson: you can't really lose yourself in a book if the author has a noticeable quirk like that!

>85 MissWatson: I'm enjoying your beet reports! Must try to track down some yellow ones...

>86 floremolla: Thanks! The taste is noticeably different.

>84 MissWatson: >88 This-n-That: I have always been a bit of an obsessive completer (I also have to read series in the right order, I shudder at the thought of reading book #5 before #3, for example!), so I think in your position I'd have a go at the final one too. Although I've got much better in the last couple of years at ditching books that really aren't working for me - previously I would either slog through them making myself utterly miserable, or leave them for months partially read on the table to glare at me and make me feel guilty.

>85 MissWatson: with diced pear, yum! My current favorite is cliche (with goat cheese, walnuts, plus greens if for a salad) and I'm not above enjoying them canned from the grocery store :)

>88 This-n-That: >89 Jackie_K: I also take care to read series in sequence, since there are so many written in chronological order. And I simply can't part with a book where I haven't at least made an attempt to finish it.

>90 detailmuse: Yummy!

ROOT number 9 is Murder, she meowed by Rita Mae Brown.

This is a definite improvement over the previous two books in the series, a truly interesting case and a glimpse at steeplechase racing. I'm not a horse person, but I didn't get bored, so that's something. And her habit of overexplaining things was less in evidence, too. But I'm still parting with it.

We are having a bit of winter, four consecutive nights of frost, and I thought I'd taste some sun in the Provence with a non-ROOT: A year in Provence. And what do I read? Frozen pipes in January and snow days in February! Ah well, tonight I will continue with March and hopefully spring will arrive.

Must be a northern European weather system, it’s to snow here every day next week apparently - great excuse to stay home and read, but probably not about Provence just yet or I’d be pining for summer way too far in advance!

>94 floremolla: I'm more concerned there will be descriptions of delicious food and I'll get hungry.

>95 MissWatson: If I recall, there will be and you will be! I succumbed to my current read in a similar way -- a book of gardening essays organized by season, and after reading a "winter" entry about planning for the next year's garden (primarily by browsing seed catalogs), I put down the book and went online to order several catalogs!

Reading about snow (here too) and frost (yes, frost too) I just want to say: Give me some Spring! I hate winters.

>94 floremolla: Ugh I hadn't got as far as next week's forecast yet. Not looking forward to that! I'm with you all, I want some proper Spring now!

Hi Birgit!

>84 MissWatson: I've never been able to get into RMB's Sneaky Pie series although I have several on my shelves. I feel that she stopped writing well after Loose Lips, in the Runnymede series. I've never tried her "Sister" Jane Arnold series, but do have the first one on my shelves.

The stand-alone novels that I love are Dolley, High Hearts, Sudden Death, and Southern Discomfort.

I saw her give a talk at a local Indie bookstore in 2008, and was vaguely disappointed. I feel like she's sold out for the money, frankly.

>96 detailmuse: >97 connie53: >98 Jackie_K: I have finished A year in Provence and the descriptions of August heat and the tourist invasion made me thankful for our mild summers here. The food, though, oh my. So jealous.

>99 karenmarie: I've often noted that we grow out of some books (and authors). Twenty years ago the blurbs made them seem charming.

Cookbooks

I have been distracted from the current book by a special offer at my favourite food store: Cima di rape, which I have seen for the first time in my life, so I had to find a book with a recipe. I went for plain and simple: just cut up the vegetable, steam it for five minutes, then sauté it in olive oil, add salt and pepper, cooked pasta and parmesan cheese. Very interesting taste, slightly bitter and with a hint of broccoli. It's from a cookbook dedicated to cabbage that has been worth every cent I spent on it (1€ in my charity shop). Kochen mit Kohl & Co

ETA

>101 MissWatson: the cabbage is an underestimated vegetable and one whose flavour it took me till adulthood to appreciate. With the right accompaniments it's hard to beat but I've never thought of having it as the main ingredient - I suspect it'll be many years till cima di rape reaches this rural backwater though, so I'll have to look out for it in the city :)

>102 floremolla: My favourite is Savoy cabbage, and I love what the Italians do with it in risottos or pasta dishes.

>101 MissWatson: I googled cima di rape and discovered that here it is known as broccoli raab. We grew it from seed when we had an allotment a few years ago and it was lovely, although with us it bolted before we could harvest and so it didn't form any heads of broccoli, so we ended up just steaming the leaves and flowers and eating them. I keep meaning to have another go at it now we've got the raised bed out the back, the only thing is that because it's a brassica it attracts the beasties so it's a bit of a faff netting them to try and keep them all out!

I really don't like cabbage though! I can cope with kale if it's with lots of other things, but other than that I avoid it. There are a few things that school dinners put me off for life - rhubarb is one, and cabbage is definitely another!

cima di rape/broccoli raab - onto my vegetable wishlist it goes!

>104 Jackie_K: Sometimes I wonder that the beasties leave anything for the gardeners to enjoy, a colleague of mine has an allotment and many tales to tell about the pests. I prefer to buy mine at the weekly market. I haven't even tried to raise tomatoes on the balcony, so far. I'm also rather glad we didn't have school dinners! It was enough that German classes put me off so many German authors.

>105 floremolla: Let us know if and when you find it.

ROOT number 10 is Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

A decent read, interesting concept, but things started to drag towards the end and Peter Grant is the sort of not-quite-grown-up male I find hard to spend time with.

ROOT number 11 is Der Altmann ist tot by Frl. Krise und Frau Freitag

In real life, Frl. Krise (Miss Crisis) and Frau Freitag (Mrs Friday) are both teachers in Berlin schools with a high proportion of immigrant students, and they have both written humourous books about their experiences before. Here they team up for a mystery set in the kind of school they both know. One of the teachers is found dead near the Spree and the ladies set out to find out more. The story is told alternately by the two women in the first person, which takes getting used to. They are always referred to as Frl. Krise and Frau Freitag, which is odd, as they are on a first name basis with everybody else. They have also picked up quite a lot of their pupils phrases and expressions. It's an entertaining glimpse into a modern urban school, fun, but not very memorable.

>106 MissWatson: I can remember battling the beasties when I had a garden and then there were diseases like blight for tomatoes. Like you, I prefer to buy my fruit and veg at farmers markets or the veggie store.

ROOT number 12 is Paradies in schwerer Zeit

I won this book in an online competition about German literature in exile last year. It is about the German emigrés who settled in Pacific Palisades when they fled from the Nazis, hoping for a job in Hollywood, and I have to say that there are many names in here I had never heard of before. There's Thomas Mann of course, Schönberg and Brecht, but also many others whose books went onto the ever-expanding list.

I've enjoyed reading about your food. I would love to be able to have a small vegetable garden but those things are too much work. And I would become really hostile if bugs ate my veggies. So I too will get mine from the market.

I wish it were still a bit cool here. It's already 77 degrees F and it's not even 10am. I suppose this will be another sweltering summer. Ugh.

>111 enemyanniemae: Hello and thanks! I hope you can find a cool place to enjoy some reading! We're having snow today...

ROOT number 13 is ...alle Bitternis der Welt by Vsevolod Garšin

This is a collection of the stories Garšin wrote in the 1880, and they are wonderful. The defining experience of his life was his time as a volunteer in the Russian-Turkish War, and it permeates everything he wrote. Most of the stories are sad, all reflective, mostly told in first-person narrative from one or more narrators. My favourite is "The coward" where a medical student ponders on why so many people serve in a war when they plainly know that killing is wrong. Amazing psychological insight into peer pressure.

>113 MissWatson: sounds like it should be a companion read to some of the better known war novels. I often wonder when reading novels set in both WWs how the youth of today would respond if they were called up to active duty on fields of war. Although I guess in the nuclear age there's less chance of that sort of warfare!

>114 floremolla: The way technology is going most of them would probably sit in a dark room and fight with consoles. Little different to a computer game, which is a scary thought.

Cookbooks

These last few days I've been alternating between two vegetarian cookbooks. One of them 20 Minuten sind genug! Vegetarisch promises dishes ready in 20 minutes and relies a lot on convenience products, such as frozen or pre-cooked vegetables and tinned beans. The recipes are solid, but not outstanding. But it offers lots of room for improvisation, so it will stay for now.

The other Vegetarisch is aimed at ambitious cooks who use two pots when one will do just as well, and I haven't quite made up my mind about that yet.

We're having frost and snow and I spent most of the weekend inside listening to an audiobook my sister sent me, so no ROOTing. But last night I finally started on Die Jugend des Königs Henri IV, a 700-page brick and I can already see that I will be busy looking things up. It is about King Henry IV of France, and the wars between Catholics and Huguenots.

>117 MissWatson: I hope you're wrapped up warm and cosy! My sister in Munich said it's been terribly cold there with lots of snow, and even though no more snow is forecast, it is so cold that the previous weeks' snow is showing no signs of disappearing.

Here, our snow is forecast for tomorrow and much of the rest of the week. Not looking forward to that! Although we did have a lovely exchange over the weekend - we were in the car and I was telling my husband about the predicted 'polar vortex' that was coming our way. And a little voice from the back of the car piped up, "No mummy, polar bears can't text, they haven't got phones!"

>118 Jackie_K: Hi Jackie! Aren't kids' comments priceless? So very much rooted in the here and now.

Our temperatures are in the minus range, but still single digit, so Bavarians would probably laugh at us for being wimps. The wind is cruel, though. At least I get to wear my handknitted woolen socks and sweaters for the trip to the bins. Normally it's not nearly cold enough for those.

>116 MissWatson: Especially in the off-season, I'm a fan of plain frozen veggies (no salt or other seasonings). Texture and taste seem fine and they're so convenient to keep on hand. I've been wanting to incorporate more beans and understand that draining/rinsing eliminates a lot of the sodium ... do you find the tinned ones suitable?

>120 detailmuse: Oh yes, in winter plain frozen veggies are a godsend, but the cookbook seems fond of seasoned mixes with sauces. And I use tinned chickpeas or kidney beans to save on the overnight soaking, but often find they have too much salt.

I'm in the same weathersphere as Birgit is. Icy cold with a cruel wind and getting colder by the day. Thursday will be extremely cold, they predict. -10C during daytime! It is a very long time ago that we had that kind of low temperatures.

>118 Jackie_K: That is the cutest! :D

I hope you're safe and warm, Connie!

The February report: 6 ROOTs read, four will leave the house (as soon as somebody wants them).

I'm less successful with culling the cookbooks, three haven proven useful enough, so far. The fourth is shaping up well, too. I made an Indian-style red lentil soup from it yesterday, and it was delicious. The winning touch was the addition of orange segments.

>125 MissWatson: I really love a spicy lentil soup, there's nothing beats it in this weather! I can't imagine adding orange though! Must try that some time.

>126 Jackie_K: It wouldn't work with green or brown lentils, I think, but with red lentils and lots of kurkuma they go quite well.

Lentil soup... mmmm. That sounds awesome and I am glad to hear that it tasted great as well.

>128 enemyanniemae: One of my favourite foods. So versatile!

>125 MissWatson: red lentil soup is such a good winter warmer - I like the sound of that recipe. I had homemade ham and lentil yesterday which was a bit naughty on the cholesterol-control side but was v tasty!

>130 floremolla: Sounds perfect for a snow day! Oh dear, there are little flakes coming down right now...

I'm off to spend the weekend with my best friend and sincerely hope the cold weather won't interfere with train schedules too much. See you next Tuesday!

Hi Birgit!

Congrats on 6 ROOTs in February and I hope you have a wonderful time with your best friend.

>132 MissWatson: Safe travels, Birgit - I hope that you have a lovely weekend!

>132 MissWatson: Safe travels!

Have a lovely time, Birgit!

>133 karenmarie: >134 Jackie_K: >135 rabbitprincess: >136 floremolla: Thanks, ladies!
The train ride south was bumpy, the train developed technical faults half an hour out from Kiel and I missed all my connections, but it wasn't entirely unexpected and I had planned the journey with plenty of room for delays. We had a lovely evening with a concert, the band of German actor Ulrich Tukur, who play mostly swing time standards and do a very entertaining show. And on Sunday we went to see a live transmission from the Bolshoi ballet, the Flames of Paris. I had never heard of it before and I can see that it must have been a prime example of Soviet agitprop back in the thirties. But with the new choreography and altered libretto it was a gorgeous piece, showcasing what the Bolshoi does best: mass scenes and a dozen soloists. I especially enjoyed the "show within a show", a sort of Dido and Aeneas version performed at the court of Louis XVI. Apparently the libretto is based on a novel, so I got hit by a BB as well.

>137 MissWatson: I enjoyed your review of your weekend! Very insightful, I'll look out for the Bolshoi bringing Flames of Paris to the UK. I did ballet till I was 25 and have been going to an over-50s class for a few years (demi pliés only, our knees can't take a full one!). It's great fun, but I don't see live performances often enough - I like classical and modern ballet but my husband demands en pointe and tutus ;)

I saw the Bolshoi perform many years ago (early 90s) in London, it was wonderful (they did Giselle). The leading man was the spitting image of Barry Manilow though, which was a bit off-putting!

>138 floremolla: Donna, my best friend did ballet as a youngster, too, and got me interested in watching it. I think it's great that one can now catch performances from the great houses via satellite transmission, but it seems the audience for such events is very limited. I haven't found a cinema near me where they offer the transmissions from the Comédie Française.

>139 Jackie_K: Giselle is in this season's repertoire and I am looking very much forward to it. And I don't think they have any Barry Manilow lookalikes among the main dancers currently, thankfully.

I have also found the novel on which the libretto is based, Les rouges du midi by Félix Gras, thanks to Gallica. French is okay, but I don't think I could handle the Provençal original.

Hi Birgit! I'm glad that you had such a wonderful time.

I love Giselle. I have seen it live once and I have an old VHS tape of it with Baryshnikov and Makarova. Of course, I don't think we have a working VHS player in the house these days, but I still have the tape. *smile*

Thanks Karen!
I've still got the VHS player, silently gathering dust, but most of the tapes are gone. They were mostly recordings of TV programmes, and once the original language versions became available as DVDs, I switched. The selection is so much bigger, things can be bought for a song that were not available on tape or prohibitively expensive.

ROOT number 14 is Women & power by Mary Beard.

I read this to mark International Women's Day. Rather short, it is drawn from two lectures held in 2013 and 2017, but a great read.

>124 MissWatson: Thanks, Birgit. By now the air feels like spring. I think it must be about the same where you live? I even had half an hour of reading outside in the sun.
Love the description of your weekend.

Hi Connie! It's been a mixed weekend so far, lots of rain yesterday, lots of household chores. But now the sun is coming out and I think I'll go and look at the flowerpots later, to see if they have survived the winter.

Cookbooks

As I expected, the vegetarian cookbook will stay. The recipes were all of the kind that easily turn into regular standbys. And, surprise, I bought a new one! Juste une casserole veggie It's fresh off the press (still smells new) and promises quick and easy after-work cooking. Just throw everything into a casserole, cook, and eat. Not much text, just before and after pictures with a list of ingredients. Today's selection is pasta with bell peppers, report to follow tomorrow.

>146 MissWatson: ooh pretty! And simple, nice!

>146 MissWatson: I'm full from supper, but that dish is trying to make me hungry again! Yummy!

Which cookbook is this? I see that it is in French but my husband, who does all the cooking in our house, reads French and is interested in more vegetarian meals for us all.

>147 detailmuse: >148 rabbitprincess: Yes, it was very simple and very tasty! It really worked as promised.
>149 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Today the touchstone works: Juste une casserole veggie from Marabout.

Cookbooks

I took the precaution of cooking and eating my chosen recipe before I studied the new book in detail. It really is perfect after-work cuisine: just wash and cut up your vegetables, put everything into the pot and turn on the heat.
The recipes are organised around ingredient groups, some only vegetables, some with legumes (for protein), others with pasta and rice. It even offers desserts. There's one with bananas, which I don't like, but I think that's the only recipe in the whole book I would not try out.
My bell pepper with mascarpone was very mild and creamy, so not exactly a suitable choice for lowering cholesterol, but I'll make up for this tonight with a soup, using up some leeks and Brussels sprouts.

That cookbook definitely sounds like a keeper!

>152 Jackie_K: Yes, I have strayed from the original purpose of culling the old ones. But my effort to eat more vegetables rules out many of them.

On the reading front, I'm making progress with Die Jugend des Henri IV. He has finally escaped from Queen Catherine's clutches and is ruling his own territories. I think I can finish the book this weekend and start looking for some complementary reading. Somehow I was never really aware before that this is also the time of Queen Elizabeth...Mann consistently misnames Walsingham as Walsington, I have no idea why.

>146 MissWatson: That looks delicious. I even thought one could pick up that spoon and eat from the page!

Hi Birgit!

>146 MissWatson: Good to see that the new cookbook is working out. That recipe looks yummy.

Hi Connie, hi Karen! Yes, that cookbook is turning out to be a real winner. Today's choice is black rice and radicchio.

ROOT number 15 is Maigret s'amuse.

I also found time to finish a short mystery. Maigret is officially on holiday, and follows a muder reported in the papers. Great story, and it made me nostalgic for Paris.

ETA The ticker seems to be offline. Have to try again tomorrow.

ROOT number 16 is Die Jugend des Königs Henri IV.

This book has 741 pages and tells the story of King Henry IV of France from his childhood to the battle of Arques, from which he emerged as the only serious contender for the crown. The striking feature is that Mann always stays close to Henri, everything is seen from his perspective. Lots of murder and mayhem at the Valois court and in the religious war, so it's quite depressing at times. But I'm glad I finally tackled it.

ROOT number 17 is Das Marsprojekt : Das ferne Leuchten

I needed something undemanding and fun after my thunkster and picked up a SF story for kids. Four kids save the Mars colony from being closed down. I finished this in one sitting and it did all I wanted from it. Still, not a book I'll re-read, so off to a new home.

Great ROOTing, Birgit! Diverse and interesting reading too. Well done on the BFB especially, you seemed to make short work of that!

Conversely, I've very little to report so far this month myself - I'm trying to read two BFBs at the same time and it's taking forever.

Hi Donna and thanks. The BFB would have been an even quicker read if the subject matter hadn't been so depressing, as religious wars tend to be. The narrative just flowed, helped by the fact that it is about Henri all the time, you just watch him.
I am currently eyeing Die Reise in den Westen as my next BFB, a Chinese classic clocking in at 1300 pages. I hope it can be done in instalments without losing track...

>162 MissWatson: I would love to read Journey to the West, but sadly there is no Dutch translation available. It is way too large to read in an other language, so I keep hoping it will be translated one day.

>163 FAMeulstee: This has only recently been translated fully into German, and I'm very curious about it.

Around 1980, there was a very funny TV series called Monkey!. It was made in Japan based on the Journey to the West and then dubbed into English. You can see extracts on YouTube.

>165 Robertgreaves: Great tip, thanks!

Hello!! Just dropping by. It has just been TOO long. But I'm happy to see you're doing so well with your ROOTing! Life for me has been a bit crazy these past couple months, but maybe in the couple months to come, it'll calm down ;)

>167 avanders:! Hello, nice to see you! I hope things will calm down eventually!

ROOT number 18 is Anne of Green Gables.

I'm glad I've read this iconic book. I would have loved this as a girl, no doubt, but as an adult a few things jarred.

>169 MissWatson: I read Anne of Green Gables last year, and I think I felt pretty much the same. I did enjoy it though, and when Mt TBR is a little lower (hahahahaha) I might take a look at some of the others in the series.

ROOT number 19 is A rising man

This is a mystery set in Calcutta in 1919. Sam Wyndham is newly arrived and needs to get used to the country and the ways of the Imperial Police Force, and his first case throws him among the bigwigs of the Colonial Administration. He's a little adrift after the Great War and the death of his wife. This was a great story and I'm looking forward to the next book.

>170 Jackie_K: Hi Jackie! What I like about these books is what they tell you about ordinary life in earlier times.

Hi Birgit, just popping in to say hi and see what you're reading - I like the sound of A Rising Man, especially if it's a series. I read so many crime series over the years I got quite tired of the genre but feel ready to dip my toe in again with something a bit different :)

Hi Donna, I'm slowly getting back into the series habit by the various challenges, and the Sam Wyndham series has only just begun. The second, A necessary evil has come out as a paperback this month. The locale is great, and because Wyndham is a recent arrival the explanations are less jarring and don't take you out of the story so much.

ROOT number 20 is A closed and common orbit.

This is a recent ROOT, bought only last year, but a ROOT nonetheless, and a very good story, too.

When I looked out of the window this morning, the world was covered in white, again. It's still snowing, and it is turning to slush on the streets and sidewalks. I fervently hope this won't interfere with my train ride tomorrow, I'm spending Easter at my sister's. I do not fancy sitting somewhere in the empty North German plain in a stranded train. Which reminds me, I better check the charge on the Kobo...

We're forecast to be back into the snow here too for six out of the next nine days - I'm hoping it's mainly sleet and will melt during the day! Hope you get a clear run to your sister's and have a lovely Easter weekend. :)

I don't know what's going on with our weather. It's been freezing overnight so all the cars outside are covered with frost, but the sky is blue and the sun is definitely out (as will my washing be, soon!) and it looks glorious. I think the snow forecast for us is mainly for the hills (I hope!).

>176 floremolla: >177 Jackie_K: It wouldn't be the first time we had Easter egg hunts in the snow, but I could really do without it. My mind is firmly in narcissus and crocus mode!

ROOT number 21 is L'homme truqué.

This is a short ebook I downloaded last year and read during lunch breaks. The title story is a short novel about a French veteran of the First World War who was presumed dead and returns blind, but there is something strange about his eyes. The next is Château hanté, a story about a fancy-dress ball held at a castle, where the armour of François I comes to life. And lastly there is La rumeur dans la montagne where a painter comes across an acoustic phenomen in the mountains and becomes obsessed with it.

What I like about Maurice Renard is his precision. His style is clear and to the point, and he describes in minute detail what people do and why they do it. In the first chapter of the novel, two gendarmes find the body of the local doctor and set about analysing how the killing was done. They find a manuscript in his overcoat where the doctor tells the story of his blind friend and patient, always trying to find scientific explanations for what is going on. I suppose this is where his own scientific training comes in. But a vestige of weirdness remains. I think at some point I'll tackle Les mains d'Orlac...

>178 MissWatson: haha yes here in Chicago they're recommending mittens for Easter egg hunts :) Have a lovely trip and Easter.

>175 MissWatson: Happy Easter! Get that Kobo fully charged :) Hope the trip goes well.

Hi Birgit. I hope you are enjoying the visit with your sister. And you have a snow-less egg hunt.

>180 detailmuse: >181 rabbitprincess: >182 connie53: Hello, I hope you had a lovely time, too!
Train travel was accident-free, our Easter was mostly sunny, we had a nice trip to Paderborn (shopping and checking out the local little free library), not much progress on my reading, though. But now I'm ready for the April ROOTs.

ROOT number 22 is The enchanted April.

I have finished my first April ROOT, a charming book about four English ladies taking a holiday break in Italy and getting their lives in order as an unexpected consequence. I liked Arnim's slightly barbed prose, which ensures that things never get too sweet. And I was surprised to learn she was cousin to Katherine Mansfield. The world is small.

Cookbooks

New month, new cookbook: the one currently on the testing stand is 20 Minuten sind genug which promises meals ready in 20 minutes. It works, so far, not surprisingly because it relies on frozen and tinned vegetables. The recipes are unspectacular, but nice, so it looks like another keeper.
At this rate, I'll never get rid of any. On the other hand, it means I have chosen wisely...

>184 MissWatson: I liked The Enchanted April too - it's one that deserves a reread, I think. There's a movie adaptation which might be quite nice too.

>185 MissWatson: sounds good - you have chosen wisely!

>186 floremolla: I saw the movie version when it first came out. The cast does not really look like the characters are described in the book (they seldom do), but otherwise I think it is faithful to the book.

ROOTs number 23 and 24 are Pietr le Letton and Chez les Flamands.

These are two short and very early Maigrets, first published in 1931 and 1932. His grasp of the political situation in Eastern Europe at the time strikes me as a little off (note to self: look into this), but his description of the little town of Givet on the river Meuse, with the shipping stopped because of floods, was very atmospheric. And it definitely helps to read several books in French in a row, it gets easier with every book.

ROOT number 25 is Maigret en Auvergne which contains two Maigret novels.

Very enjoyable, he's growing on me.

ROOT number 26 is Washington Square.

I was surprised how much I loved this. My first experience with Henry James was less happy: The Portrait of a Lady dragged, and The turn of the screw was too weird. But here I could enjoy every single subtly ironic, well-polished sentence, and I really liked how Catherine grew into her own person.
Sadly, the physical book has not aged well, brittle brown pages, cracked glue, loose leaves, so I am getting rid of it. It can be enjoyed as a free ebook any time.
Oh, and Henry James was born under the sign of Aries.

ETA

Cookbooks

I have finally come across a cookbook that must leave the house: Single-Küche für Faule. It translates as cooking for lazy singles, and it doesn't offer enough recipes that I really want to try: too many time-consuming breakfasts and smoothies, too much meat.

My current book, Italien vegetarisch on the other hand, looks very promising. But it's on hold for now, asparagus season has begun.

>191 MissWatson: Disappointing about the book, but yay for it leaving the shelf!

>192 detailmuse: Every time I pick one and leaf through it, I find things I want to try, so it gets a reprieve. Maybe I should bow to the inevitable and buy a shelf extension. There's (still) room on the top.

ROOT number 27 is The Europeans.

Another short, lovely book by Henry James set in Boston. I'm really glad I finally read this, but the paper is of such awful quality that it will go into the bin. The nice thing about classics is that they are easy to get hold of these days.
A propos: it's World Book Day on Monday, and they're having a charity book sale to mark it tomorrow, in the mall. Should I go? Dare I go?

>194 MissWatson: yes, no harm in looking ;)

>195 floremolla: I went a little overboard with 13 books, but it was all in a good cause (the sale was organised by four local friends-of-the-library associations). Most of them are of the "I've heard something good about this, haven't I?" variety.
This is the haul:
Medusa by Hammond Innes
Fiasko by Stanislaw Lem
Dorle und Wolf by Martin Walser
Chenonceaux by Marguerite Yourcenar
Das Halsband der Königin and Die Pendragon-Legende by Antal Szerb
Der Nobelpreis by Andreas Eschbach
Goya by Lion Feuchtwanger
Kleine Weltgeschichte by Alexander Demandt
Frankreich by Johannes Willms
The ballad of the sad café by Carson McCullers
A house for Mr Biswas by V.S.Naipaul
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the four kings by Amy Kelly

Nice haul, Birgit!

Hi Connie, I hope you're having the same fabulous weather this weekend that we have! I've spent a few hours at the two open air fleamarkets today and came home with a batch of eight Simenon books in quite good condition. At least these are short and quick reads! And I have already finished one from the haul, which was a mere 92 pages long: Chenonceaux gives a short history of the famous castle.

Yes Birgit, we had fabulous weather this past week and spring break has started ( 2 weeks of vacation). So I hope it will stay that way. I spend a good part of the last 4 days in the garden reading.

Hi everyone, the thread is getting a little long, so come on over and join me in my second course!