Cookbook # 35 - The New Midwestern Table
I’ll be taking the rest of October off from Project Cookbook, since this weekend I have a potluck on Sunday, and I’m making my mom’s poundcake recipe for it, which isn’t difficult but is fairly time-consuming and dirty-dish-creating. Then I’m going to Canada 10/18-10/25 for a few days R&R and then to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I look forward to getting back on the cookbook horse come November, though—hopefully I’ll be able to find some nice, cozy recipes to help brighten the Great Dark that looms over Seattle every November through January.
This week I made two recipes from The New Midwestern Table by Amy Thielen (2013). I’ve never lived in the Midwest and haven’t even visited the Upper Midwest that this cookbook focuses on for any length of time, so this was an exploration of unfamiliar territory for me. (Though I do know my way around a pork belly.) Both of these recipes turned out quite well, and I will for sure be making pork belly this way again.
Black Maple-Glazed Pork Belly
½ tsp sugar
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 lbs skinless fresh pork belly
6 cloves garlic, smashed
3 dried bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
½ c. maple syrup
¼ c. balsamic vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, smashed
Mix together the sugar, 1 ½ tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Rub into both sides of the pork belly. Leave to cure, refrigerated, for 2 hours or as long as overnight.
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Blot the moisture from the pork belly and set it, fat-side up, on a rack inside a large rectangular baking dish or a roasting pan. Scatter 4 of the garlic cloves, the bay leaves, and the rosemary sprigs around the pork belly, and pour in enough water to reach just below the rack. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the center of the pork belly tests tender when poked with a thin fork, 3 ½ to 4 hours, depending on the thickness of the pork.
Raise the oven temperature to 425 F.
Combine the maple syrup, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, remaining 2 garlic cloves, ¼ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until the mixture thickens and throws big bubbles, about 5 minutes.
Lift out the pork and pour out all but a thin layer of liquid in the baking dish. Thickly paint both sides of the belly with glaze. Roast the pork belly for 10 minutes, apply more glaze, and roast for another 5 minutes. Reapply glaze and roast until the glaze sticks to the belly and turns dark and caramelized, about 5 minutes.
Transfer the pork belly to a cutting board, cut the belly crosswise into ½ -inch thick slices, and serve.
Wild Rice and Brown Rice Pilaf
¾ c. natural wild rice
5 slices thick-cut bacon, finely diced
1 c. finely diced onion
3 T salted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ c. brown rice
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T sesame seeds, toasted
Put the wild rice in a fine-mesh sieve and rinse it under cold running water, swishing the rice with your hand until the water runs clear. Transfer the rice to a medium bowl and add water to cover. Pour off any black bits or floating kernels, and then pour the rice back into the sieve to drain.
Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the bacon. Cook, stirring, until it’s crips around the edges, about 3 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, and add the onion and butter to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender and light golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the brown rice, 2 ½ cups water, the thyme, salt, pepper, and the reserved bacon. Bring to a simmer, cover tightly, and reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Steam, tightly covered, for 10 minutes.
Stir in the wild rice, replace the lid tightly, and continue to steam until the brown rice is tender to the bite and the wild rice has curled into a lowercase “c” shape, 30-35 minutes. (Note that it took a good twenty minutes extra to get the wild rice soft enough to eat—maybe my stovetop’s lowest setting is lower than the author’s.) Add the sesame seeds, stir, and serve.
September reading
September was another somewhat light reading month for me, though I should pick up the pace in the final quarter of the year between scheduled vacation and holidays.
Great or Nothing by Joy McCullough, Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood, and Caroline Tung Richmond. A Little Women retelling set in 1942, where in the aftermath of Beth's death Meg, Jo, and Amy have quarreled and gone their separate ways--Jo to build fighter planes in a factory, Amy to London as a Red Cross volunteer, and Meg to work as a teacher while keeping the home fires burning with Marmee. It works surprisingly well, really. The Laurie/Amy romance makes more sense here--he's in the Army Air Corps, and they run into each other unexpectedly when he turns up at her donut cart--and instead of a frumpy middle-aged professor Jo gets paired off with an ambitious young woman reporter.
The Marquis Who Mustn't by Courtney Milan. Historical romance set in the 1890s in a small rural town in England that just happens to be about half Asian, full of the charm and emotional resonance I expect from Courtney Milan's work.
The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso. A thoroughly enjoyable YA fantasy with a setting inspired by Renaissance Venice.
The Heathen School by John Demos. An account of a short-lived boarding school in a Connecticut town in the early years of the 19th century that undertook to educate the titular "heathens"--boys and young men who were mostly both nonwhite and non-Christian (though there were a few stray southern European Catholics)--so they could go be missionaries among their own peoples. It didn't last, partly because it didn't really work and partly because of the scandal when two of the pupils, future Cherokee leaders John Ridge and Elias Boudinot, courted and married local girls.
Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It by Greg Marshall. The often amusing and more than occasionally raunchy memoir of a young man whose parents never told him he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a baby--he only found out about it when he had to request his childhood medical records to sign up for health insurance as an adult.
Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple. I'd hoped to read this book for the SPL Book Bingo Diaspora category this year, but unfortunately I didn't make it to the top of the hold list in time. I'm glad I stuck with the book, though. It's a history of the Bund, a Jewish socialist labor movement/political party that flourished in Eastern Europe during the early 20th century and stood in opposition to the Zionist vision. It's harrowing, given the time, place, and people involved, but it's also inspiring in its universalist vision of brotherhood against all odds.
The Library of Amorlin by Kaylyn Josephson. First in what will be at least a duology, the tale of a con artist blackmailed into infiltrating a magical library and, naturally, finds it hard to keep up the con.
The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight by Andrew Leland. Leland has a congenital condition causing him to very gradually lose his sight--he first noticed issues as a teen but dismissed them at first, was diagnosed in college, and in his 40s as he writes this book, he's down to a narrow remnant of his visual field. An interesting combination of personal experience and overview of the culture and politics of the blind community.
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. A sequel/companion volumes to the author's Jesus and John Wayne, examining how women's place in American evangelical Christianity has ebbed and flowed since the late 19th century.
Don't Call It Art by Austin Kleon. A quick little book on unlocking your creativity through leaning into the curiosity, whimsy, and unselfconsciousness of your inner child, largely by letting go of perfectionism and over-planning.
Cookbook # 34 - Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood
One of my brothers has lived in or near Monticello, GA for decades, and that branch of the family are big fans of the singer Trisha Yearwood, who’s a local girl made good for that corner of rural central Georgia. On one of my visits to the area, they gave me an autographed copy of Home Coming with Trisha Yearwood (2010), which is a beautifully photographed and produced collection of tasty, not-too-fancy Southern home cooking. My go-to recipe from it is Sweet and Saltines, which is just a version of Christmas Crack/Matzo Cracker Candy—and it’s addictively delicious.
But since this challenge is all about trying something new, I picked Tennessee Jambalaya, which made for a nice straightforward weeknight meal, kinda spicy and a little on the rich side with all that bacon and kielbasa.
Tennessee Jambalaya
4 slices bacon
1 - 1 ½ lbs kielbasa, thinly sliced
1 ½ tsp onion powder
2 15-oz cans black beans with juice (since we have a whole pantry shelf of Rancho Gordo beans, I cooked a pound of dried beans and included some of the cooking liquid)
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce (I just now realized I almost doubled this, since I just grabbed two cans from our Costco stock without thinking about the fact they’re 14.5-oz)
1 4-oz can green chiles
2 medium carrots, shredded
½ tsp Italian seasoning (I used a heaping teaspoon of Cajun seasoning because I didn’t have any Italian seasoning and Cajun seasoning seemed more in keeping with the spirit of the recipe anyway)
1/8 tsp pepper
In a large stockpot, cook the bacon until crisp and set aside. Cook the sausage in the bacon drippings until lightly browned. Stir in the onion powder, black beans, tomato sauce, chiles, and seasonings. Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle on top of the stew before serving. Serve over rice.
Cookbook # 33 - Grilled Cheese
This week’s cookbook, Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make You Melt by Marlena Spieler (2004), is exactly what it says on the tin, an assortment of recipes for grilled cheese ranging from simple to fussy and elaborate. I chose one of the simpler options, Comfy British Toasted Cheese, and truly enjoyed it as a punchy, flavorful light meal/hearty snack.
Comfy British Toasted Cheese
4 slices hearty, flavorful white or whole-wheat bread
About 3 T Bransten’s Pickle, coarsely chopped (my store’s minimal British section didn’t include this ingredient, so I went with the suggested substitution of mild chutney—I think it would also be good with orange marmalade or quince jam)
6-8 oz strong mature Cheddar cheese or English Cheshire, sliced
Preheat the broiler.
Arrange the bread on a baking sheet. Lightly toast under the broiler, then remove and spread the pickle generously on the lightly toasted bread; top with the cheese and pop under the broiler until the cheese melts.
Cookbook # 32 - The Joy of Cooking (2019)
I own two editions of the The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and, in later editions, the family members who are carrying on her legacy. This one, from 2019, is the ninth and most recent. I also have the fourth edition, from 1951, which I inherited from my mother, who presumably got it as a new bride when she married my dad in 1952. (It was originally published in 1931, a fact I didn’t know until I looked it up two minutes ago.)
This is the closest thing I own to a cooking encyclopedia. In poring over it, I looked for recipes that struck me as classic American home cooking that wouldn’t necessarily appear in the more specialized books that make up most of my collection, and I made a dinner of Chicken Breasts Baked on a Bed of Mushrooms and Glazed Root Vegetables. Both were good, solid dishes, and I was impressed with how tender the chicken breasts turned out.
Chicken Breasts Baked on a Bed of Mushrooms
For well-browned, crisp chicken skin, heat 1 T vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and brown the chicken, skin side down, before placing on top of the mushrooms. (I did this, but sadly attempted to lift the chicken too soon, so a lot of the skin tore off and stuck to the pan, hence my surprise at how tender it turned out without a full blanket of skin to protect it.)
Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Lightly oil a baking pan or shallow baking dish just large enough to hold the chicken pieces in a single layer.
Place in the bottom of the baking pan:
1 lb mushrooms (any type or mixture), sliced
Add to the pan:
1 ½ c dry white wine, low-sodium chicken stock, or a combination
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 T fresh thyme leaves or 1 tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp salt
Black pepper to taste
Trim any excess fat from:
4 bone-in or boneless chicken breasts, skin left on (about 2 lbs)
Season with:
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
Lay the chicken breasts skin side up on top of the mushroom mixture. Brush lightly with:
Olive oil
Bake, uncovered, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 160 F, 35-45 minutes
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken and mushrooms to a plate, arranging the chicken skin side up on the mushrooms. Pour the pan juices into a small saucepan and skim off the fat with a spoon. Add:
½ c low-sodium chicken stock or broth
½ c heavy cream
Boil over high heat until reduced to about 1 cup or until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Spoon some of the sauce over the chicken and pass the rest separately. If desired, sprinkle the chicken with minced parsley.
Glazed Root Vegetables
Combine in a heavy saucepan:
1 lb root vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, parsnips, celery root, rutabaga, salsify, potatoes, or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used carrots and parsnips)
1 ½ c stock or broth
4 T butter
2 T white wine vinegar, optional (I used it)
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
Bring to a simmer, then cover, reduce the heat, and cook until the vegetables are just tender. Uncover and continue to cook, shaking the pan constantly, over medium-high heat, until the liquid has reduced and the vegetables are coated with a golden glaze.
Cookbook # 31 - I’m Just Here For More Food
I’m Just Here For More Food (2004) is Alton Brown’s baking book, so naturally it happened to fall at the end of summer when I’m not really in baking mode yet. I chose to make Cheesy Poof, which I understand is a South Park reference (I’ve never really watched the show). It’s a quick bread, really—the simplicity of banana bread, but savory. I served it alongside chicken soup, and it’s a good low-effort side for anything that goes well with bread and/or cheese, IMHO. Definitely going in the rotation.
Cheesy Poof
2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp dry mustard
2 large eggs
3 T vegetable oil
1 c milk
1 T sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
Place an oven rack in the center position and preheat oven to 375 F.
Prep a 9×5×2 ½-inch loaf pan by spraying with Baker’s Joy and set it aside.
Pulse flour, baking powder, and dry mustard together in a food processor for 5 seconds, then toss with cheddar cheese. Whisk together eggs, oil, milk, sugar, and salt; then add wet ingredients to dry and mix just until batter comes together. Do NOT overmix.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes, until the internal temperature is 210 F, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the loaf from the pan immediately and allow to cool completely on a rack.
Cookbook # 30 - Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times
I have multiple cookbooks by Mark Bittman, and many of his recipes are very, very good. His Pasta With Potatoes and Sausage With Grape recipes are among my go-tos. However, he does have his share of misses, and unfortunately Kale, Sausage, and Mushroom Stew from Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times (2007) was among them. The flavor profile wasn’t bad, but it felt like something was missing. I think it would’ve been better either with a starch added to the soup itself—beans or orzo, maybe—or made with much less broth as a sauce to serve over pasta with cheese.
Kale, Sausage, and Mushroom Stew
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 lb Italian sausage, sweet or hot, cut into 1-inch or smaller pieces
1 lb kale, leaves stripped from stems
½ mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
1 T roughly chopped garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 c stock or water
Put the olive oil in large, deep skillet or casserole over medium-high heat; a minute later, add the sausage and cook without stirring until the sausage browns well on one side, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the stems of the kale into about 1/2-inch lengths and shred the leaves.
Stir the sausage and let it brown a bit more. Remove it with a slotted spoon (don’t worry if it isn’t cooked through). Cook the mushrooms in the remaining fat with the heat still on medium-high, stirring occasionally until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
Add the kale stems and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown, 3 or 4 minutes. Turn the heat to medium and add the garlic, hot pepper, kale leaves, salt, and pepper; stir and cook for about 1 minute. Return the sausage to the pan and add the stock or water. Raise the heat to high and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste and ladle into bowls, topping with the reserved mushrooms.
August reading
As much as I enjoy reading the Hugo/Nebula finalists and keeping my blackout streak on Seattle Public Library’s summer reading bingo going, I’m a bit glad those are past now and I can just read whatever again. I mean, for values of whatever that reduce my TBR list and/or meet LibraryThing community challenges wherever possible, but still.
Anyway, I read 12 books in August, many of them part of a push to complete that blackout:
The Race to Be Myself by Caster Semenya. SPL Book Bingo, Women's Sports. A memoir of the track star's experiences from childhood through her career as a World and Olympic middle-distance runner. She, of course, became the subject of much controversy because of her appearance and was subjected to invasive and privacy-destroying tests that ultimately showed her to be intersex (though she doesn't particularly like that term--she says she was born a girl and has always been a girl/woman, just a different kind of one). It was interesting to see how she experienced it all, and I was mostly just appalled at how the athletic world treated her as a teenager.
A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver. SPL Book Bingo, Hard-to-Love Protagonist. Lalla Rook, the sociopath of the title, knows the way her mind works isn't quite normal, but she's learned to (mostly) mask and move through the world, even as she deals with the fallout from an unplanned dead body in her living room.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. SPL Book Bingo, Horror. I've read enough horror the past couple of years that I'm not sure I can truthfully say I'm not a horror reader anymore, but let's just say I approach it with a caution that I don't have around, say, romance or fantasy or science fiction. But I'll read T. Kingfisher in any genre, even if I wish she'd write more fantasy and fantasy romance and less body horror that's probably going to give me strange dreams.
Language City by Ross Perlin. SPL Book Bingo, Diaspora. Another one of those books that sits on the border between academic dryness and popular science/history. I admit to finding the sections with deep dives/case studies following specific people trying to keep their languages alive most interesting.
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett. SPL Book Bingo, Buddy Read. A lovely cozy mystery with a thread of romance, not to mention a delightful assemblage of cats.
We Hereby Refuse by Frank Abe & Tamiko Nimura. SPL Book Bingo, PNW Black, Indigenous, or POC Author. While I was definitely aware of WWII Japanese-American incarceration and knew it to be a stain on our nation's history, before reading this book I didn't know just how horrific their treatment at many camps, and especially Tule Lake, actually was. Unfortunately, it's all too resonant with current events, too.
A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. SPL Book Bingo, Queer/Trans Voices. Whoever described this as The Goblin Emperor meets Magnificent Century got it right. It's a swoonily romantic fantasy with a self-doubting prince and his bodyguard in a kingdom that has all of the Ottoman Empire's baroque splendor but none of its patriarchy.
Blood on the River by Marjoleine Kars. SPL Book Bingo, Water. An account of a 1763-64 slave uprising in an obscure Dutch colony along the Berbice River in what is now Guyana. The author adheres too scrupulously (though admirably) to the archival material for this to be a gripping page-turner, but it's an interesting look at a part of the world I know little to nothing about, and also an example of how even this small and short-lived revolution followed patterns of fragmentation and strife all too familiar to listeners to Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast.
The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson. SPL Book Bingo, Myth & Legend. A middle grade story where the 12-year-old protagonist is a granddaughter of Baba Yaga rebelling against her assigned destiny of shepherding the spirits of the dead to the Great Beyond.
Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher. Have a mentioned a bajillion times how much I love it when T. Kingfisher writes fantasy romance? Well, that's what this is, and I love it.
The Reluctant Heartthrob by Jackie Lau. After a summer spent reading Hugo and Nebula finalists and books that fit bingo categories, it's nice to just grab something fun on my TBR like this contemporary romance novella.
Judeophobia and the New Testament ed. by Sarah E. Rollens, Eric M. Vanden Eykel, and Meredith J.C. Warren. And of course this was NOT a fun read, though it's a theological and historical topic that has long interested me. It's designed as an undergraduate-level textbook--which I didn't know before I started reading it--but the relatively short, self-contained chapters worked well for reading during the 30-minute breaks between panels and workshops as I attended Worldcon online over the past several days. It got a bit repetitive, since after the first few introductory chapters it pretty much went through the NT book by book. I think it was meant as a sort of companion text to a NT survey course, so you'd read the chapter on John's gospel during the week John was on the syllabus, etc.
I did learn some new things--e.g. one theory for the seemingly contradictory statements about the continuing validity of Mosaic law in Paul's epistles is that there was a thread in Judaism at the time, and not just among the early Jewish Jesus-followers, where the passages in some of the prophets to the effect of "in the latter days all the nations will look to the LORD" meant that Gentiles would turn to the God of Israel without converting to Judaism. They'd still be "the nations," aka the goyim. So to Paul, if new Gentile Jesus-followers went through a full conversion and started keeping kosher, accepting circumcision, etc., it wouldn't fulfill the prophecy anymore because they'd be part of Israel, not "the nations." Which makes a weird kind of sense, really.
Cookbook # 29 - Asada
Since we don’t currently have a functional grill, a lot of the recipes in Asada by Bricia Lopez (2023) were off limits to me, but I was able to make Frijoles Charros in Broth. This made a huge batch of meaty bean soup—the recipe claims to serve 4 to 6, but it’s more like 14 to 16, and I’m going to freeze over half of it for future homemade meals on evenings none of us feel like cooking. It’s good with tortillas and cotija cheese.
Frijoles Charros in Broth
2 lbs dry pinto beans, cleaned of any pebbles and rinsed
1 large white onion, quartered
1 head garlic, smashed and peeled
1 T sea salt, plus more as needed
4 oz. bacon (about 8 strips), chopped
6 oz. deli-sliced ham (about 8 slices), chopped
6 hot dogs, chopped into small pieces
½ tsp ground cumin
¾ c crumbled Mexican chorizo
½ c chopped Spanish chorizo
2 ½ c chopped tomatoes
1 c chopped cilantro
In a large pot, combine 1 gallon water with the dried beans, onions, and garlic. Bring to a boil Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the beans are softened. This should take about 1 hour but can take up to 2 hours, depending on the freshness of the dried beans. Add the salt to the pot once the beans are cooked. Discard the onion and garlic. Turn off the heat.
In a large frying pan over high heat, add the bacon, ham, hot dogs, ground cumin, and Mexican and Spanish chorizos. Fry until the meat is cooked, about 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until their liquid is reduced, about 6 minutes. Add this chorizo mixture to the pot of beans and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook for an additional 20 minutes.
Stir in the cilantro. If you would like a thicker broth, mash the contents of the pot with a potato masher. Taste and adjust seasonings before serving.
Cookbook # 28 - Dessert Person
Yesterday afternoon I baked Salted Halvah Blondies from Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz (2020), which made for a great confidence restorer after last weekend’s failure with the gnocchi. I was worried about the batter, since it had a sort of caramel taffy consistency unlike what I’m used to in batters and doughs, but it turned out quite tasty—not as sweet as most brownies or blondies, with a nuttiness I’d almost take for almond flavor if I didn’t know better.
Salted Halvah Blondies
Butter for the pan
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt (0.11 oz/3 g) - I haven’t been able to find Diamond Crystal in stores out here even though Saffitz isn’t the first cookbook author who prefers it to Morton. So I used Morton and weighed it. 3 g turned out to be a rounded half teaspoon.
½ tsp baking powder
6 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 stick unsalted butter
¼ c tahini
½ c packed light brown sugar
1 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 T vanilla extract
4 oz halvah, crumbled
2 T sesame seeds
flaky salt, for sprinkling the top
Preheat the oven and prepare the pan: Arrange an oven rack in the center position and preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8×8 inch pan with 2 sheets of foil, crossing one over the other and pressing the foil into corners and up the sides. Butter the foil generously and set the pan aside. (I skipped the foil part because I didn’t realize until I started that I was almost out of foil. So I took a chance on just using Baker’s Joy like normal and it turned out fine.)
Mix the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder to combine. Set aside.
Melt the white chocolate mixture: In a large heatproof bowl, combine the white chocolate, butter, and tahini and set it over a medium saucepan filled with about 1 inch of simmering (not boiling) water. Warm the mixture gently, stirring occasionally, just until the white chocolate and butter are melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and let cool slightly.
Add the sugar and eggs: Whisk the brown sugar into the white chocolate mixture. It will look grainy and you might see some of the fat start to separate from the rest of the mixture, which is normal. Add the whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla and whisk vigorously until the mixture comes back together and looks very thick, smooth, and glossy and is starting to pull ever so slightly away from the sides of the bowl.
Add the dry ingredients and halvah: Add the flour mixture and stir with a flexible spatula just until the dry ingredients are evenly incorporated into the batter. Add the crumbled halvah and folk in gently to avoid breaking into smaller bits.
Bake the blondies: Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it in an even layer all the way to the corners. Sprinkle the sesame seeds across the surface of the batter, then top with flaky salt. Bake until the blondies are puffed across the surface, golden brown around the edges, and slightly jiggly in the center, 20-25 minutes.
Let cool and serve: Allow the blondies to cool completely in the pan. Use the ends of the foil to lift the blondies out of the pan and slice into 16 bars.
Cookbook # 27 - The French Laundry Cookbook
I tried. I really did. I am—if I do say so myself—a good home cook, maybe even a skilled one. Aside from yeast breads, which I will eventually have to face for this challenge, I feel confident taking on about 80-90% of the recipes in most of my cookbooks.
But The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller (1999) isn’t really designed for good practical home cooks. Insofar as it’s intended to be cooked from at all (as opposed to just being a coffee table collection of food porn), IMHO it’s for the kind of home cooks who could contend on a savory/cooking version of The Great British Baking Show.
Still, it’s on my shelf, so I attempted it. I tried the Potato Gnocchi recipe, which was there as a building block for a dish involving smoked salmon that I knew to be beyond my skills, not to mention that I don’t even like smoked fish. And it just didn’t quite work. It wasn’t inedible, but it turned out more like soft mashed potato dumplings than the dense, toothsome pillows I love in a good gnocchi dish.
So pizza is on the way even as I type this. Maybe I’ll circle back to the cookbook at the end of the challenge. I could probably make one of the stocks, or maybe even the family meal lasagna.
Cookbook # 26 - Cool Beans
Sunday dinner was French Green Lentils With a Trio of Mustards from Cool Beans by Joe Yonan (2020), and it was a home run that’s definitely getting added to the rotation. This cookbook is vegetarian (in fact mostly vegan), which I am not, but I have nothing against a delicious meatless meal like this one.
French Green Lentils With a Trio of Mustards
1 ½ c dried French green lentils, picked over and rinsed
5 c vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
2 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
¼ c extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 T yellow or black mustard seeds
1 large bunch mustard greens, chopped (I couldn’t find mustard greens at the farmers market, so I substituted collards)
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 T red wine vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 c toasted pistachios
1 c vegan or dairy feta, crumbled
Combine the lentils, broth, bay leaf, and 1 tsp salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until the lentils are just tender, about 20 minutes.
While the lentils are cooking, pour the olive oil into a deep skillet over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the onion, garlic, and carrot and saute until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining teaspoon of salt and the mustard seeds, then stir in the mustard greens and cook until they fully wilt, about 5 minutes. (I let mine cook a little longer due to the robustness of collards.)
When the lentils are tender, drain them, discard the bay leaf, and add them to the mustard greens mixture in the skillet, stirring to combine. Turn off the heat and stir in the shallot, vinegar, and Dijon. Taste and add more salt if needed.
Top with pistachios and feta and serve.
July reading
July was a slow reading month by my standards, and I’ve even fallen behind on my Seattle Public Library summer book bingo reading—it requires reading books in 24 categories roughly between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which works out to 8 books apiece in June, July, and August, with a week or so of grace period on either side. Normally I’m running ahead of schedule at this point in the summer, but I’ve still got 10 categories to fill for my blackout. I’ve got a plan, and backup reads for most of the categories in case my first choice isn’t working for me, but I feel like I’m back in college procrastinating on big assignments.
Anyway, I did barely squeak into double digits with 10 books for the month:
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. SPL Book Bingo, Soothing. A completely cozy and whimsical romantic fantasy, which I thoroughly enjoyed. (It's also tagged and described as a romantasy, but to me that implies a certain level of angst and kinky and/or explicit sex that just isn't there. I mean, this is a book I would've shared with my very prim and proper mom, if she were still around, though she wasn't the SFF lover that I am and might not have liked it on that count.)
Celia's House by D.E. Stevenson. I wouldn't want all my reading to be quite this old-fashioned and wholesome--I mean, my mom really would've loved this one, and reading it filled me with the peculiar wistfulness of knowing exactly what I'd buy for Christmas for someone no longer in the world for me to give it to--but I'm glad I made the time to read it.
The Golden Road by William Dalrymple. A look at ancient India's deep, though often-overlooked impact on the cultures to its east and west from roughly 500 BCE to 1200 CE.
The Everlasting by Alix Harrow. Hugo finalist, Novel; SPL Book Bingo, Time Travel. Wow. Just, wow. That is quite a book. A gender-bent twist on the Arthurian legend and a twisty time travel love story that's something of a meditation on violence, PTSD, and the costs of empire. So good.
The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbott. My deep dive into Christian universalism continues. I think the author made convincing arguments about logical fallacies in the Augustinian and Calvinist positions, though the more abstract, philosophical sections made my head spin a bit.
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. Hugo finalist, Novel; SPL Book Bingo, Own Choice. I picked this for Own Choice because I slammed the book down (metaphorically, as it was an ebook) early at the first major plot twist because it made me SO ANGRY, and when I googled for spoilers I saw that it's not going to be undone, at least not in this book (I hold out hope for later in the trilogy). But then I kept thinking about it and wanting to read more, so I chose to pick it up and plow through all 600 pages though I'm still SO ANGRY about that plot twist.
The Unclaimed by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans. This book tracing the lives and deaths of four people who ended up as unclaimed bodies in the L.A. morgue was tender and moving, and it also made me vow to work a bit harder on my family connections, keep up my community chorus membership, stop skipping coffee hour after church, and faithfully attend my virtual and in-person writers groups. Oh, and now that my husband and I have our wills squared away, figure out what we want done for our actual funerals and make some concrete plans (albeit not involving concrete--we're looking into green burial options, with my husband favoring human composting while I'm more interested in a traditional burial without embalming in a wooden or wicker casket).
Half American by Matthew F. Delmont. An account of Black Americans' service in WWII, in the teeth of the bigotry of Jim Crow. Often infuriating, always fascinating, and it made me see connections between WWII and the Civil Rights Movement I wasn't previously aware of.
Provence, 1970 by Luke Barr. A gossipy account of some of the very first celebrity chefs and food personalities spending a couple of months in late 1970 cooking, talking, and occasionally clashing in the way of big personalities with big egos.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. SPL Book Bingo, Recommended by an Independent Bookseller. Did I stay up till 11:50 PM to finish this last night so my book tally for July wouldn't be in the single digits? Why yes, I did. Anyway, this was a lot of fun and I might continue with the series, though I don't think I'm going to become a big fan of LitRPG in general.
Cookbook # 25 - Chili Madness
This week I continued in Mexican, or at least Mexican-adjacent, cuisine with Chili Madness (2nd Edition) by Jane Butel (2008). I chose Chocolaty Chili for being straightforward and using ingredients I already had on hand, but with the chocolate to make it interesting. And I liked it, though not quite as much as my standard chili—which is basically beans, ground beef, an onion or two, some variety of canned tomato product, beef broth, beer, and liberal amounts of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder until I decide it tastes right.
Chocolaty Chili
2 T vegetable oil (not canola)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 16 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 16 oz can tomato puree
1 6 oz can tomato paste
4 fresh domestic green chilis, such as Anaheims, parched, peeled, seeded, and chopped, or 1 4 oz can chopped green chilis
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, halved
2 T pure ground red chile powder (hot, mild, or a combination)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 beef bouillon cube
Place the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the meat to the skillet. Break up and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is evenly browned, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the kidney beans, tomato puree, tomato paste, green chiles, ½ cup water, half of the chocolate, the ground chile, half of the cumin, and the beef bouillon cube. Mix well and bring to a boil. Then lower heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
Stir in the remaining chocolate and continue cooking until it is thoroughly blended, adding water if the chili begins to cook down too much or look too dry. Add the remaining cumin, taste, and adjust the seasonings.
Cookbook # 24 - Tacopedia
We’ve gone from the Junior League to Mexico, and suffice it to say that the Mexican-Style Beef Tips from Tacopedia by Deborah Holtz and Juan Carlos Mena (2015) were not even remotely bland. In fact, if I make them again, I’ll probably use 3 serranos instead of 6.
Mexican-Style Beef Tips
2 ¼ lbs tenderloin or ribeye, sliced into small strips
3 cloves garlic, crushed
½ T freshly ground black pepper
½ T ground cumin
Sea salt
1 T corn oil
9 oz diced onion
2 ¼ lbs medium tomatoes, peeled and diced
6 serrano chiles, sliced into rings
12-20 4 ½ inch corn tortillas
sliced avocado and/or rice and beans for serving (I used rice and refried beans)
Mix the meat with the garlic, ground pepper, cumin, and a pinch of salt. Cover and chill for 3 hours.
Heat the oil in a large pot over low heat. Add the onions and fry for a few minutes until translucent. Raise the heat, add the meat and saute for 7 minutes.
Add the tomato and chiles, and season to taste. Simmer until the liquid thickens.
Serve in heaping spoonfuls on doubled fresh tortillas with rice, beans, or avocado
Cookbook # 23 - Colorado Cache Cookbook
The Colorado Cache Cookbook (30th Anniversary Edition, 2008) was put out by the Junior League of Denver, and was a gift from the Colorado branch of my husband’s family. It’s typical of fundraiser cookbooks in having a wide range of typical American home cooking. The Almond Chicken recipe I chose fits that description, insofar as it’s an extremely bland 20th century white person’s version of Chinese food. While I’m actually very fond of Americanized Chinese food, this was so bland that even with my additions of an onion, a decent amount of salt, and generous grinds of pepper, we all had to add more soy sauce, salt, and hot sauce at the table to make it tolerable. I won’t be making it again, though I might use the same basic cooking techniques with a stronger sauce.
Almond chicken
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
3 T peanut oil
2 5-oz cans bamboo shoots, drained
2 c celery, sliced diagonally
2 5-oz cans water chestnuts, drained
½ c slivered blanched almonds
2 T soy sauce
3 c chicken broth
3 T cornstarch
½ c water
Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add chicken and stir fry until browned. Add bamboo shoots, celery, water chestnuts, almonds, soy sauce, and chicken broth. Cover and cook gently for 5 minutes. Blend together cornstarch and water. Add to chicken mixture and cook, stirring, until thickened. Serve with rice.
June reading
Halfway through the year, I’m on pace to read 172 books, though I doubt my Dec. 31 tally will be quite that high—now that I’m reading Nebula and Hugo finalists every year, spring is reading marathon time for me. This month was mostly a mix of Hugo finalists and Seattle Public Library summer book bingo choices.
Root Magic by Eden Royce. SPL Summer Book Bingo, Honorable Mention category. Middle-grade historical fantasy set in 1964 about a pair of 11-year-old twins in the South Carolina Sea Island Gullah Geechee community and dealing with grief, racism, bullying, and the general challenges of growing up along with training in their family legacy of root magic.
Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells. Hugo finalist, Novelette. I skim-read this one for the emotional beats back when it first came out, but this is the first time I read it carefully all the way through, so I'm counting it as a 2026 read. With that said, the emotional beats are the best and IMHO most important part. I liked getting to see more of Peri/ART's vulnerable side, which from Murderbot's perspective you'd hardly know existed.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. This is the 2017 Newbery Medal winner, and it's a simply gorgeous middle grade fantasy. It's toward the challenging end of children's fiction in both its themes and the complexity of the writing and the plot, but I would've loved it at age 10 or 12, and I think it'd be an especially good book for the many bookish children who read far above their grade level but don't want to and/or shouldn't cross over to reading only adult books.
Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America by Andrew Weissmann. I can only take current events reading in small doses, which this fortunately is. Weissmann speaks as the law professor and former prosecutor he is, recommending ways we could make lies such as Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen crimes--if lying to deceive and defraud customers or shareholders is a crime, which it is, why not when the victims are voters and the citizenry as a whole?
The Millay Illusion by Sarah Pinsker. Hugo finalist, Novelette. Atmospheric, almost cozy story of two young performers in a traveling magic show in what feels like the late 19th or early 20th century.
Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love by Brian Recker. I'm making my way through a mini reading list, a personal syllabus of sorts, on Christian universalism in preparation to preach on Romans 8 next month. This one resonated with me far more than Love Wins, largely because the author's perspective, experiences, and general approach to discussing theology are a better match with my own.
The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For by Cameron Reid. Hugo finalist, Novelette. Wherein two young women fight to make lives for themselves (eventually, together) in a corporate dystopia.
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Hugo finalist, Novel, and SPL Book Bingo, Outer Space. I wouldn't say I loved this book--for me, "love" is mostly for books with found family, happy endings, and a certain hint of coziness, at least insofar as the ending should include the found family hanging out together, like Murderbot or the Vorkosigan saga. But I sure admired the heck out of it and couldn't put it down.
When He Calls Your Name by Catherynne M. Valente. Hugo finalist, Novelette. A Jolene retelling (yes, as in the song) wherein Jolene is a vampire.
A Terrible Intimacy by Melvin Patrick Ely. Without once flinching from the true evil of Southern chattel slavery, this history explores the messy and contradictory realities of how it was practiced in one Virginia county through the lens of half a dozen court cases involving the interactions between blacks and whites from the 1820s into the early 1860s.
Crow by Boria Sax. SPL Book Bingo, Animal. A quick overview of how corvids are viewed across various human cultures and religions. There are multiple books in this series, and I think I might get more out of the ones that aren't about animals I already know as well as crows.
The Broposal by Sonora Reyes. SPL Book Bingo, Suggested by a Library Worker. A romcom, but one with a lot of dark undercurrents--our heroes' backstories and challenges include family members with substance abuse issues, abusive exes, and one of their immigration statuses.
A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester. An interesting exploration, somewhat of a literary memoir almost, of plate tectonics, the North American and Pacific plates, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it had focused more specifically on the quake itself. Also, it bears the marks of being written 20+ years ago--earthquake science has progressed quite a bit in the past two decades, for example.
Moonlight and Mischief by Rhonda Woodward. SPL Book Bingo, HEA/HFN. My favorite so far of the mini-trove of traditional Regency romances I found in a used bookstore last fall, a fine example of a house party story with a rakish earl and a wealthy but nouveau riche young woman (her father made his fortune by owning--gasp!--a woolen mill), who form a quick friendship largely because they consider themselves safe from falling in love, given that she is dead set against her mother's effort to see her married into the aristocracy and he isn't ready to marry yet and therefore doesn't allow himself to catch feelings for eligible single women.
The Place of Tides by James Rebanks. SPL Book Bingo, FIFA World Cup Country. A midlife crisis memoir (which I mean positively, and in a way I found relatable given my own age) wherein a British farmer and writer spends several months on an isolated Norwegian island with two women there for the eider duck nesting and down gathering season.
Cookbook # 22 - South
I’d like to return again sometime to South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations by Sean Brock (2019), since it’s a deep exploration and elevation of the rural Southern/Appalachian food of my childhood. I chose a very basic recipe for my first venture. I didn’t have the time or energy for some of the more complex choices, I’m trying to save money currently so special-ordering non-local ingredients is out, and while some of the fresh fruits and produce grow very well out here on the other corner of the country…it’s still a month or two till they’ll be in season. So I went with Fried Apples, and they were good. The lard gave them a faintly savory/meaty flavor, which worked well given that I served them as a side dish with pork chops.
Fried Apples
2 T lard
2 lbs Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 3/4-inch wedges
½ c. packed light brown sugar
4 T unsalted butter
½ tsp kosher salt
Heat the lard in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the apples and cook, stirring frequently, until they start to brown and soften, about 6 minutes. Add the brown sugar and butter and stir to combine and melt the butter. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the apples are completely tender but not falling apart, about 3 minutes.
Remove the apples from the stove, stir in the salt, and serve directly from the skillet. Or transfer to a heatproof container, cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate for up to 2 days; reheat over medium heat before serving.
Cookbook # 21 - Pig: King of the Southern Table
I suppose it was inevitable that I would eventually attempt to cook something from one of my cookbooks and end up with an inedible mess. I just wasn’t expecting Pig: King of the Southern Table (James Villas, 2010) to be where it happened, since it’s well-reviewed and relatively recent.
I attempted Deep-Fried Marinated Pork Nuggets, partly because I had pork tenderloin already in the freezer from my last Costco run and partly because it was it was more summery than most of the recipes that appealed to me—Baked Pork Chops With Spiced Applesauce Glaze, for example, didn’t really appeal on an 80-degree June day. We do have air conditioning, unlike a lot of Seattle folks, but still.
Anyway, I thought as I was preparing the marinade last night that it was awfully heavy on the soy sauce, but I’m trying to follow the recipes as written, especially with such a well-reviewed and recent cookbook, so I just went for it. And OMG. Complete salt lick. You couldn’t even taste the pork—it was like eating meat-textured salt with a faint hint of soy flavor. So my pork nuggets are in the compost bin, the noodle and vegetable stir fry I was planning to accompany it will find another use in the next few days, and our sandwich order is on the way via DoorDash.
That said, I do like the basic technique. There’s more tenderloin in the freezer, so I might try it with a less salty marinade, like, you know, a basic pork BRINE.
Deep-Fried Marinated Pork Nuggets
1 c. soy sauce
1 c. dry sherry
1 garlic clove, minced
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp dry mustard
1 1 ½ pound pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 c. all-purpose flour
salt to taste
3 c. peanut oil
In a large bowl, combine the soy sauce, sherry, garlic, pepper, and mustard and whisk till well blended. Add the pork, stir well, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Dredge the pork nuggets in the flour, shaking off the excess, and place on a large plate.
In a deep fryer or deep cast-iron skillet, heat oil to 350 F. Deep-fry the nuggets in batches till golden, about 10 minutes, and drain on paper towels.
Cookbook Challenge # 20 - The Cookie Book
Next up on my cookbook journey is The Cookie Book (presented by the Seattle Mariners Wives, 2002), which is exactly what you’d expect based on the title and authorship—as a fundraiser for a local nonprofit, the wives and girlfriends of the Mariners as they were 24 years ago (think Edgar Martinez, Ichiro Suzuki, Bret Boone, etc.) collected a bunch of cookie recipe and did a photo shoot of various players who are now retired with their wives and cute kids, many of whom probably have kids of their own now. (I remember that team very well, and my God does it make me feel old to think of how long ago it was.)
Anyway, the recipes are largely a tour of all the cookies, brownies, and bars you’d likely see at a family gathering or office/church potluck. I went with Nanaimo Bars, contributed by then-Mariners chef Jeremy Bryant. My husband pointed out that the classic recipe includes Bird’s custard powder rather than vanilla pudding mix, but I retorted that part of the point of this challenge is to follow the recipe as written, within bounds of reason and ingredient availability. And they turned out quite tasty, though I wouldn’t win any points for presentation or evenness of layers.
Nanaimo Bars
½ c. butter
¼ c. granulated sugar
1 egg
5 T cocoa
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 c. shredded sweetened coconut
½ c. walnuts, chopped
½ cup butter, softened
3 T milk
2 T instant vanilla pudding
2 c. confectioner’s sugar
6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
In a double boiler pan combine butter, sugar, egg, cocoa, and vanilla until custard-like. Add graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and walnuts. Press mixture into a 9×9-inch square man. Cool.
In a mixing bowl, combine butter, milk, and pudding. Mix well. Add confectioner’s sugar and mix well. Spread over first layer in 9×9 pan. Let stand for 15 minutes.
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over low heat. Stir constantly. (Here, despite my protestations about following recipes as written, I microwaved them in 30-second bursts, stirring in between, until melted.) Spread evenly on top of two layers in pan. Cool.