Harvest soup

I made a soup today, which gave new meaning to homemade (or homegrown). It was a potato-leek soup, it was our first successful attempt at growing them.

I sauted 5 cups of freshly harvested leeks them in some butter and garlic until soft.

Added a pound of potatoes (also from the garden), homemade chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper.

Although the recipe didn't call for it, I added some baby corn that was in the refrigerator. After coming to a boil, it simmered for about 15 minutes. We removed the thyme sprigs and the bay leaf and used the immersion blender to make it smooth. A final check of the seasoning before adding 1/2 cup of heavy cream, or in our case, coconut milk.

So what did we think? We definitely won't use the baby corn again, it made the soup sweet, and took away from the delicate taste of the leeks. We ended up grating cheese in it, and then I added the last piece of kielbasa to the leftovers. I would make it or something similar again, and I'm excited to grow more leeks!

Newspaper, Pennies, Cardboard, and Eggs--For Growing a Better Garden: More than 400 New, Fun, and Ingenious Ideas to Keep Your Garden Growing Great All Season Long by Roger Yepsen

Newspaper, Pennies, Cardboard, and Eggs--For Growing a Better Garden: More than 400 New, Fun, and Ingenious Ideas to Keep Your Garden Growing Great All Season Long by Roger Yepsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A summer doesn't go by without me reading a new gardening book. This one, from Rodale Press, gave me a dozen new ideas to try, from making a spray from tansy or garlic scapes to use on cabbage worms, to instructions on how to smoke some of my peppers for chipoltes, and using sweet woodruff at the base of our trees (to cut down on weeds) to reusing the winter protection framework for summer bean trellising. Time to go try out some of those new ideas!

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Groundbreaking Food Gardens: 73 Plans That Will Change the Way You Grow Your Garden by Niki Jabbour

Groundbreaking Food Gardens: 73 Plans That Will Change the Way You Grow Your Garden by Niki Jabbour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5.0/5.0 - This book was so good, I ended up purchasing a copy for my home library. It's filled with ideas, details, layouts, and suggestions for so many different garden possibilities that you're bound to find one (or more) to fit your needs! From container to truck gardens, victory to specialized gardens - such as a Chicago hot-dog garden, children's garden, beekeepers, herbalist, garlic and pizza aficionados, and so many more are here for the picking. A useful book for any home gardener.

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EveryDayCook by Alton Brown

EveryDayCook by Alton Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.0/5.0 - I like Alton Brown, we've been watching him (although not lately) for more than 20 years. In fact, I actually bought my husband his first book, I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking. And, we're going to see his show this weekend. But this one was really hard for me to rate. I settled on a 3 because although the writing and humor is a 4, there were very few recipes I would actually try (maybe the mushroom stroganoff, gf peanut cookies, and bourbon bread pudding), but these aren't enough to justify spending the bucks to buy the book which too often calls for ingredients we never use, or gadgets that we don't need.

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Miss Cecily's Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky Zimmerman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.0/5.0 - This book could easily been or a 4 or higher rated book for me, if it was shorter, spent less time on the Nick/Kate relationship or actually included some of the wonderful recipes! It started and ended strong, but dragged in the middle. The evolving relationship between Kate and Cecily was interesting, Cecily was the more interesting character.
Apparently, the Cecily character was based on the author's eponymous grandmother, who actually wrote two of the books mentioned, "Thought for Food" and "Tell Me Again." I think I'll look them up.

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The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - This ticks several boxes for me: historical fiction, food, England, and strong women characters, to name a few. The setting is England during World War II, food rationing is in place, and the BBC is holding a contest to find a woman who can be the radio commentator for the program, The Kitchen Front, to help families make the most of some unusual foods (think whale and sardines) and search healthy and tasty meals. The four women start out as competitors, but as the war throws them together, they become friends, to the extent that they end up living together by the end of the book.
There are period recipes scattered throughout (but none that tempted me), and interesting historical notes at the end. If you enjoy tv shows like Downton Abbey or books featuring food, this would probably be your cup of tea!

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A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5/5.0 - After reading this book on my tablet, I was inspired to buy a copy just so that I can try out some of the recipes. The author tells stories of the first three decades of her life accompanied by recipes that played an important role. She begins as a young child, sharing how she came about loving to cook through her parents, one who cooked, the other who baked. In this chapter, we learn of Burg's (her father) potato salad. She follows that up with her mother's famous pound cake. Every phase of her life from childhood, schooling, travel to falling in love and getting married is told through a salad, soup, dessert or other expression of love for simple, delicious food.

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The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5.0 stars - This is a deep, thick, meaty book. One that takes days, even weeks to properly digest. The author self-describes himself as a black, white, Jewish, gay, overweight food historian, whose life mission is to understand and share the story of his family, his ancestors, through the food that ate, where it came from, and where they came from. He interprets life of enslaved people, through their food, on southern plantations. In this book, he shares his genealogical research of many years, tracing, with the help of professionals, his ancestral roots to Senegal and Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, along with the 28% European genes, passed down through slaveholders who fathered children upon their female slaves. He also discusses the various crops, corn, rice, and tobacco, and the roles that those played in the lives of the enslaved and the food that they ate. This is really a three theme book, the crops, the food, and the various bloodlines all tied together.
This book is filled with food for thought, and in addition to his history, it makes me think of my own history, so much unknown. What brought my ancestors here, what food did they make? How would a journey such as he undertook change my life? This is a book that will linger in my mind for a long time.

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Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5/5.0 - It's hard for me to review this book. I am surprised at how high a rating it has after >39K people have read it. I'm not saying that it's bad, just that it might be the highest rated book (4.56) I've read (with that many ratings). What I liked: the philosophy of the indigenous people, their history, stories about the plants and the respect for the earth. What I didn't care for was the way the book jumped around, both in subject matter and timeline.
Compared to The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, this book had more plant lore - that part was fascinating, but The Seed Keeper told a similar story in a more readable manner. True, Braiding Sweetgrass is a non-fiction book, but The Seed Keeper is the one I will remember longer and moved me more. Both books told of the tragedy of children removed from their families and their cultures and the long term effect it had on their people, and also the indigenous philosophy of honoring and stewarding the land.
This author will be speaking at the Writers Forum at Brockport in October, and this title is the October reading for the college book club, so I expect there will be some good discussions forthcoming.

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Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - This is the fourth book that I have read by this author; Delicious!, Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, and Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, being the first three. This book continues her food life after the NY Times, as the editor of Gourmet magazine. Perhaps my favorite part is the poem "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams with which the book opens. And of course, the recipes sprinkled throughout.
Book 172 of 2021

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The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5.0/5.0 - I loved this book. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. Emily's mother dies in her junior year and she ends up moving to Mullaby, North Carolina to live with a grandfather she never knew about. Mullaby is a town with secrets. Vance, her eight foot tall grandfather, is filled with remorse over losing his daughter. Win, a very unique young man, wants to break free of the secret that has kept his family shackled for years. Julia, the next door neighbor, bakes cakes for reasons only she knows. But in one magical summer, secrets are shared, pain is healed, and new loves abound.
Book 153 of 2021

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Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - I loved this book, in part because it was such a nice change from all the non-fiction and literary fiction that I've been reading lately. I just couldn't put it down. Polly and Chris have lost their business and are faced with bankruptcy and finding new places to live. Polly moves to Mount Polbearne, off the Cornish coast, while Chris moves back in with his mommy. Polly makes the best of her new life, baking bread and working in a bakery and in no time she has become part of the town, befriended or beloved by all (except maybe her boss). As time passes even that changes, and the temporary stay turns permanent for her.
So I have to confess to crying during the funeral scene where they are singing the Navy Hymn (Eternal Father, Strong to Save). When I saw the words, I heard them in my mind, and I was right back at my dad's funeral. Tomorrow is his 99th birthday. Anyway, it was a good book, and I think I'll read more of the series.
Pop Sugar #30: A book set somewhere you'd like to visit in 2021
Book 91 of 2021


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Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded to 4 stars - This is my third Ruth Reichl book, and like the other two - Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table and Delicious!, this did not disappoint. Ruth shares her experiences in the late 1990s of being the NYT food critic. In order to experience a restaurant as an ordinary diner, she developed a number of alter egos, from the nice Betty to the nasty Emily. She has such a way of describing food that it's almost like being there with her. In addition to the restaurant reviews, she also includes several recipes for everything from risotto primavera to roast leg of lamb. She makes food accessible and enticing.
Book 89 of 2021

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The Last Days of Café Leila by Donia Bijan

The Last Days of Café Leila by Donia Bijan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - Told by a young Persian woman, author, and chef who left Iran following the Islamic Revolution, this book shows how terrible and heartbreaking be courageous can be. Noor and her brother Mehrdad are sent to their uncle in California when they are 18 and 19 years old. Noor, especially, does not understand why their baba-jan has sent them away and longs for home. But Zod, their father, knows to stay would be dangerous, perhaps even fatal, and though it breaks his heart and theirs, they must go. Zod owns the Café Leila, keeping it open during good times and bad, feeding anyone who walks in the door, and beloved by all. Before her untimely death, the secret behind which he never shares with his children. (view spoiler)[ She is killed for being a woman and insulting a cab driver. She is kept in prison for months, being tortured, until she is hanged the day after they allow her husband to see her. Her body is never returned to the family, and the children are unaware. (hide spoiler)]
Zod finally gives Noor permission to come home, when he is dying. She brings her daughter, Lily, who has never known her Iranian roots. In the end, Noor realizes she must stay, at least for a time, to carry on her father's dream and to try and improve life for those who remain.
AtY #39: A book involving an immigrant
Book 78 of 2021


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Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5/5.0 - Pearl is almost a spinster, when Beck, a traveling salesman meets and marries her. They have three children, Cody, Ezra and Jenny, before he leaves for a sales trip one day and doesn't come back. Each child views their childhood differently. Cody believes that his mother favored Ezra over him, and in fact, that most people did. He steals the woman that Ezra plans to marry, to prove to himself that he can do something better than him. He is successful and travels for his job as an efficiency expert, just like his father, but insists on bringing his father to each new town with him. Ezra, on the other hand, sticks close to home, working at a restaurant that he eventually inherits, and renames the Homesick Restaurant. His greatest dream, similar to his mother's, is to have family dinners there, but until the very end, it never seems to work out. Jenny, the youngest, grows up feeling like an ugly duckling, but does well in school and becomes a physician, and marries three times, eventually ending up with a blended family of eight.
Anne Tyler's books don't seem to have much action in them, they are more about examining what it means - to be alive, to be human, to have a family, or be married. This book was well received, receiving the following awards: Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Fiction (1983), PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Nominee (1983), Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (1982), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (1982), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (Hardcover) (1983). They just take a different mindset to read, you must be willing to take time with them, read them closely and over time, reflect upon them.
Pop Sugar #14: A book set in a restaurant
Book 62 of 2021


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Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - Having watched Ruth Reichl as a judge on Top Chef and reading a previous book, Delicious!, I was interested in reading this memoir and learning more about her. This memoir covers only her first thirty years, up until 1978, and focuses on what led her to cooking as a life. Her unique family, her independent childhood, the influence of two women who cooked for her mother and her pseudo-grandmother and her time in a Montreal boarding school, where her best friend was the daughter of a French diplomat, who loved nothing more than showing the two schoolgirls delightful French food, these all came together to create a young woman who loved to cook, who lived to cook, and who cooked to live. The second part of the book, from her college years on, shows the effect of various college friends, colleagues, and travel to different countries. Rounding out the book are recipes, each one cooked for a different person she loved.
Book 5 of 2020
PopSugar # 3: A book set in multiple countries


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Guilty as Cinnamon by Leslie Budewitz

Guilty as Cinnamon by Leslie Budewitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 or 3.5 stars for this second in the A Spice Shop Mystery series. This is set at the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle and I loved the market interactions. I enjoyed the tension between Tag and Pepper as they navigate their way from marriage into friendship, all the while trying to decide whether friendship is all they want. It's definitely not all Tag wants, but Pepper is not as sure. Either way, with Pepper being a shop owner, and Tag being a bike patrol policeman whose beat is the market, they are sure to be in each other's lives for the long haul. While the Flick Chic group didn't play as much into this plot as in some of her other books in this series, I am always attracted to strong women characters and friendships. And books that include recipes, sign me up! All in all, not a bad way to pass the time.
Book 184 of 2020


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The Solace of Bay Leaves by Leslie Budewitz

The Solace of Bay Leaves by Leslie Budewitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - New (to me) cozy mystery series by Leslie Budewitz that takes place in Pikes Place Market in Seattle that I finished on a recent trip. I like the location and the characters, all in all it was an enjoyable read and now I'm going to go back and start from the beginning of the series and see if it holds up.

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The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 stars - Sophie is a young chef who seeks her past after being sabotaged at the restaurant she cooks at. Her grand-mere is a French chef, and she grew up visiting her, until a final falling out between her mother and grandmother happened at the beginning of her teen years. In an attempt to put her life back together, she reaches out to her French family, only to find her grandmother is in the hospital after a serious health setback. Leaving immediately for France, she is astonished at what she finds there. The chateau is not the simple thing she remembers, it now supports the village and includes two critically acclaimed restaurants. Over the next months, Sophie struggles to find her confidence, learn more about her family, including a father she never knew, and spend as much time with her beloved grandmother as possible.
If you love cooking, family stories, and stories about second chances this book is one you'll want to read. I would definitely seek out more books by this author!
Book 177 of 2020.

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Family Tree by Susan Wiggs

Family Tree by Susan Wiggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5/5.0 stars - This book combined so many of my favorite elements, family, food, second chances at love, with strong women characters and the gorgeous New England/Vermont setting that sets the stage for a good read. Not that there weren't flaws. The books tried to cover too many things and left some lightly explored. Was it a true representation of someone with TBI? Was it awfully convenient that two different workplace accidents were so important to the plot? There was a lot of lawyerly love in this book. There was a happy ending that really took 3 or more years to happen, but seemed like just a few chapters.
Book 170 of 2020

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