Textbook Material for the Fledgeling Chef

Bar Tartine: Techniques and Flavors by Nicolaus Balla
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the end, I gave Bar Tartine: Techniques and Flavors, by Nicolaus Balla and Courtney Burns, a rating of three stars. You might say that I'm not a fan of California cuisine and neither do I embrace fusion.

It wasn't that. I simply didn't find the first half of the book - the techniques - very useful. I've been growing/grinding/drying/powdering/preserving/mixing, and experimenting with herbs, flowers, seeds, alliums, veggies, peppers, spices, fruits, and meats forever...making yogurt, sprouting beans, flavoring vinegars, pickling and preserving, simmering stocks, and prepping grapes for wine and other uses.

I'll admit to being only a beginning baker - my husband made the bread - but I've grown mushrooms, made cheese, done almost everything the book suggests at one time or another. So three stars for Part One: Techniques. Well written with solid ideas for those who need them. Not enough new in these methods to change this old foodie, set in my ways.

The second half of the cookbook is mostly about small plates and other dishes, as they are served at the Tartine Bar, using the new knowledge and growing collection that the home or restaurant cook has amassed in the pantry by working through the Techniques. All in all, Part Two: Flavors was interesting and useful though heavy on the fusion aspect, I thought. I WILL try many of these recipes.

I love to get a cocktail, or a glass of wine, or a bottle of beer, or a pastis and a glass of ice on a warm summer night and serve myself small plates - tapas from the coffee table. I gave the section four stars but knocked one off when I realized that I might prepare lots of these ideas but would probably not love the tastes nor experiment with any of them more than once. The beauty of a great cookbook is that the recipes insinuate themselves into your life through editing, trial and error, and the desire to make certain dishes again and again.

As Tartine owner Chad Robertson (who is teaching me how to bake with sourdough starter, albeit from his first cookbook Tartine Bread) wrote the Forward to this book and was also the photographer, I'm so glad that I ordered it. His layouts and pictures are beautiful...the story of the life of the restaurant in full view of the reader.  If Robertson gets tired of baking bread he can always find a position as a food stylist. I also loved meeting the authors of this book, Balla and Burns. It's uplifting to find chefs who really love preparing food and make it such a part of their lives. All in all, a great teaching tool. I can see Bar Tartine becoming a textbook at culinary schools.

Bar Tartine Exterior, San Francisco.

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Waving Goodbye to Scarpetta

Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well, I wanted a Scarpetta who lived more in the present and less in the past. I got it for a few chapters. Then there she was. Carrie, again. I guessed right away because the whole mystery had to do with Lucy's behavior. AND, turns out, Lucy knew all the answers all along, so why write the mystery at all?  Especially almost totally in real time. The traffic jam had me worn out before I got the gist of the story. Too much thought process and not enough action. So much more, but why say it?

Angelina Jolie as Kay Scarpetta

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Contemplating Lent

My Egyptian friend kept his prayer rug in his locker. His Dad sent me a proper bean pot from Cairo so that I could slowly cook my fava beans for the infamous breakfast dish Ful Medamis. When his Mother came to visit, she greeted me in Arabic and I understood her perfectly from her gestures alone.

M. used the crockpot diligently so that his teenaged brother would have food even if he himself was at work. On the night before he left to take his opticianry exam (already credentialed in Egypt) our customer, a Rector, prayed with us. Two Episcopalians and one Moslem joined together, hands and hearts, in a conversation with Our Father for a successful weekend.

As time went by, M. guided me through the spirit of Ramadan, but not including the "full" fasting which he said my body had not been prepared for from childhood. I focused on rising early for a nourishing breakfast (suhoor) and dining late, sipping broth during the day. The early morning gave me time for a small Christian devotion before work; the late night suppers, a realization that dates, and chicken, and small plates of salad are frugal yet ample sustenance.

My Ramadan experience changed my perspective of Lent. I stopped "giving up" and began "adding to." Instead of giving up wine, I simmered simple dishes in it with lots of nourishing vegetables. One year, I bought fewer groceries and donated savings to a worthy cause. Many times, I have used my sugar for cookies instead of my coffee, delivering them to that single mom down the street who has all those little children. I cleared my mind during meals rather than watch television. Mindfulness.

Yes. I know. I added Taoist Meditation and the spirit of Ramadan to my own Lenten experiences. Such a culturally diametric mash-up, you say! Yet, I continue every Lent to find more personal ways to actively help others and myself - not through self-denial and penance alone, but by asking myself, "What would Jesus have me do/refrain from doing?"

When I contemplate the question, I always find the biblical answer PRINTED IN THE RED INK.

Let Them Wear Armor and Fly Banners and Siege Castles

Edward III: The Perfect King by Ian Mortimer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Edward lll is a book of which a full 25% is bibliography and notes. Beautifully researched and thought out. When Mortimer postulates, he backs up his ideas with a solid and surprising ability to search every corner and dust off all the cobwebs. I decided to myself, more than once, that the author's fervor was because he must also actually be a descendant of that other Mortimer, Roger, just as 99% of English born since 1995 and living in England have the DNA of Edward lll.

I have written that my pet peeve, while reading history, is either an excess of dates or a lack of enough of them to keep myself (or any reader) grounded. I also want to be reminded from time to time of the full name of the person being discussed, or some landmark regarding the surrounding events, since so many of the names in history are the same and the dates or events are important and relevant. This book was perfectly understandable. No searching through previous chapters or googling dates to keep up with the story.

As I neared the end of Richard lll, I found myself wishing for more - to be taken onward through history to the end of the Plantagenet reigns. Also, went back afterwards and took another look at the illustrations, several of the notes, and the maps.

Finally, I now realize that I have made a mistake in my genealogy research. Although it won't change my direct lineage, I have an excess character sitting out-of-place who needs to either be removed or shuffled about. I would have never noticed but for reading this book. I pay homage to the respected and remarkable Ian Mortimer for that tidbit of information and for so much more.

Note to self: There is no mistake on the paternal branch I double-checked. It may be on the maternal side - so I have to be extra careful when I start work over there. I've done some work but haven't rechecked or researched anything maternally.



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God Love Her

The squirrels in the woods have always trusted me. They saw that I kept one of their own in superior fashion. I never encouraged them (or any birds but hummers) to eat in the yard because I knew they would be drawn to the food on the porch if they got too close.  I already have four patched places in the screens due to the constant attention of the Gentleman Caller squirrel.

Gentleman Caller built two nests (as squirrels will do) this year - both in the tree closest to the porch. His main home is perched almost exactly over the spot at which we buried Squirrel. That place will now be forever called the Pet Cemetery after Jack deduced that there was room in that walled flower bed to also bury the cat.

Today, I went about changing everything. I laid the big round candy-cooling marble over the newly dug area and covered it with leaves. I sat Squirrel's garden statute on top of it and filled the tray with nuts from the freezer. Squirrel loved to climb on the statue, sit in the tray, have a Vanilla Wafer.

Bird feeders have been retrieved from the garage, filled and hung. Wind chimes (the sound of which Squirrel clearly disliked intensely) have been untied once again and are singing in the wind. On this late afternoon, the sun has shown for almost an hour and the birds are at the feeders. A small squirrel whom I've never seen has already learned to snatch the Cardinals' sunflower seeds. The wren couple has moved to the back yard - I usually gave them food at the front door.

Gentleman Caller has mewed and searched through the glass in the screened door. He's investigated the little grave and discovered the pecans which are a foreign food for him. He's made several trips "upstairs" with nut in tow.

On a grim looking day (thundering now) the yard is full of vigorous life. So many times I opened the door for Squirrel to check if she had had enough of porch life and felt confident to go out. She never would. Gone now. God Love Her.