Old Town Book Club

To Eat While Reading: Strawberry Lemonade Bars

2009-08-06T12:51:00.003-04:00

On a very warm evening, we gathered at K's house for a delicious Middle Eastern meal to discuss the very difficult tome we recently finished {or didn't in my case}, Snow. The conversation, as usual was so interesting, despite my taciturnity for lack of actually reading, and was augmented by delicious food. I made up for my lack of input by crafting very well received Strawberry Lemonade bars. I was asked to share the recipe.

For the crust
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start making the crust — cream the sugar and butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in flour and salt. The original recipe said that the mixture would be crumbly, but I found that that the dough lumped up quite nicely, making the next step quite painless. Press your dough into a lightly greased 9×13 inch pan. I lost mine in a very sad break up with my old job so I used my 8X8. The crust was thicker, obviously, but it worked fine. Then bake for 17 minutes until the crust is “set”. I don’t know what this means. I just touched it and it didn’t seem doughy anymore. Good enough!!

2. While the crust bakes, make the filling!

1 cup fresh lemon juice
2-3 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cup pureed strawberries (about 3/4 cup berries)
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Powdered sugar (optional)

3. I used 4 medium sized lemons to get the full cup of juice. I actually had 1/2 a lemon left over, so it’s chilling in the fridge. Then zest. This took one whole lemon to achieve 2 tsps. {I hate zesting, so I quit before 3 tsp}. Next, I took 7 plump very ripe strawberries {sans leaves, obvs} and put them in my food processor to make the strawberry puree. Measure your puree out, put your 1/2 cup back in the processor, and add the rest of the ingredients and blend. Then finish it up with the flour, salt and baking powder and pulse until mixed. Bake for 26 minutes. Let cool completely {about 2 hours} and dust with powdered sugar.

4. Cut to serve 24 {or 9 depending on your pan size} bars with a damp knife.

Enjoy!
Original Recipe; My Take; Anna's Blog

My Surprise Mexican Book Themed Bridal Shower!

2009-07-09T09:16:00.002-04:00

That Wednesday in June was to be like any other Book Club Wednesday. I was running late, I didn't make anything and I barely remembered to bring the book. But when I walked up to the house, and saw the pink and blue balloons I thought YAY! A BABY SHOWER!! See, one of our members, recently found out she is pregnant and we at Book Club are VERY excited. I thought our excitement had just spilled over early AND that no one told me, because, as you know, I can't keep a secret. Turns out, when I walked in the room, it wasn't THAT book club member we were fete-ing. Oh, No! It was THIS ONE! {points to SELF!} YAYAYAY!

My Book Club friends are amazing. They secretly planned a Surprise Mexican Book Themed shower, just for me. It was seriously the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. Of course, we started with make your own Mexican delights ala beef, chicken, rice, beans, guac, the tortillas AND frozen margaritas! And then! They gave me PRESENTS! ME! AND THEY WERE BOOK THEMED! Here I am, in my sombrero, obvs, opening the cupcake book, Hello! Cupcake! I can't wait to try these out! With that came a tiny whisk, piping bags and icing tips and icing tints! E also got me "Smart Couples Finish Rich" which is probably good because MB has a heart attack every time he opens our account. Then you can see me triumphantly holding up the adorable guest book from E2! I can't wait to put this out at my other wedding related fetes for guests to sign in and leave us little love notes!
Speaking of love notes, K bought me a book of famous love stories. It was such a thoughtful gift for a bride to be that loves reading -- I might add it to my repertoire of gifts for brides!
H bought me a bottle of wine labeled Seduction and a cook book called Intercourses! It has recipes that incorporate all of the known aphrodisiacs.
M {our resident mom to be} bought us a copy of The Nest newlywed handbook and thank you notes, which will be coming in handy toute suite.

While I opened my gifts, the dutiful shower hostess E created my first ribbon bouquet that will be incorporated into the one from my other shower!

I am seriously, the luckiest BtoB in the whole world. I have no idea what I did to trick these intelligent, vibrant, friendly, talented awesome girls to keep having me at Book Club, let alone have them throw me a shower. I felt so loved. It was awesome. I'm so thrilled to have found you book club mavens and I'm so looking forward to our next meeting!!

Chocolate Cookie Recipe

2009-05-21T17:17:00.003-04:00

To eat while reading:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1 cup all purpose flour
5/6 cup bread flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp coarse salt
1 stick butter, softened
5/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 12 oz bag chocolate chips

Mix flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugars together. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture, little by little, until well blended. Add chips.

Refrigerate for 24-72 hours, if you have the time. It helps with the texture.
Otherwise, cook at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Let cool on rack.
Eat at will.

Alison Wright Photography

2009-05-04T12:08:00.004-04:00

I picked up a bit of a photography bug in high school and dreamed of being a photo journalist one day. After barely passing a few introductory courses college, I decided that I'd rather pursue a career in health care and keep my photography bug as a hobby.

When I picked up Learning to Breathe, I was excited to read a book about the life of a world traveling photo journalist. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through her book and already amazed at Alison's courage. I'm not sure which is more amazing - her story, or her photographs...

Dalai Lama, India

Khom Loy Festival, Thailand

These images do not do any justice to Alison's amazing work.

Visit http://www.alisonwright.com/ for a much more impressive view

On Finn

2009-04-15T09:12:00.003-04:00

Tonight, we're meeting to discuss our latest read, Finn, an extension of the classic Twain yarns Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Full disclosure. I never read or heard either story. I was way too embarrassed to admit this via email to the lovely ladies of the club {as they are all wildly, educated, classy and well read} and forged ahead. I don't know about the rest of the blogosphere out there but it is amazing to me the thing that some public educations miss, but that that the wild world of the internets can easily fill in. Behold:

The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Two young boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures. Huck has been placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her sister, Miss Watson, are attempting to civilize him. Huck appreciates their efforts, but finds civilized life confining. In the beginning of the story, Tom Sawyer appears briefly, helping Huck escape at night from the house, past Miss Watson's slave, Jim. They meet up with Tom Sawyer's self-proclaimed gang, who plot to carry out adventurous crimes. Huck's life is changed by the sudden appearance of his shiftless father, "Pap," an abusive parent and drunkard. Although Huck is successful in preventing his Pap from acquiring his fortune, Pap forcibly gains custody of Huck and the two move to the backwoods where Huck is kept locked inside his father's cabin. Equally dissatisfied with life with his father, Huck escapes from the cabin, elaborately fakes his own death, and sets off down the Mississippi River. He also travels with Jim, who has escaped from Miss Watson. There is an $300 reward for Jim.
source

While, the novel by Clinch is certainly a wild literary departure from the original writings of Twain's Tom and Huck, Finn gives an adult, albeit perverse, perspective of the South along the Mississippi and what it meant for these fictional characters. While a deeper understanding of Twain's themes from his earlier, related novels would have been helpful, the undercurrent of family strife, racism, and understanding of justice and the unraveling of human being was fascinating and well told. Overall the messages, while set in the not so distant, wildly racist past of Southern America, are poignant and just as true for today's reader as they would have been for Twain's readers so long ago.

Email address does not work

2009-03-09T13:21:00.001-04:00

Hey girls, I know book club is this wednesday, however I think I always corresponded through my work email (DDL) but I am no longer on that server, I do not want to miss book club Wednesday, so for updates could you please email me at schranhc@yahoo.com, I need to know the time, address and what I should bring!

Looking forward to it,

Heidi

On Golden Grove

2009-02-25T10:22:00.002-05:00

Our next book selection, as you can see, is "Golden Grove" by Francine Prose. NPR says:

Goldengrove is ...a mirror held up to the sorrow in ordinary lives. That's not to say that there aren't strains of humor in the book — it's to Prose's credit that the book never gets maudlin, and Nico[the main character] is charming and witty, in spite of herself. It's a study of grief and growing-up, that, despite its light touch, has staying power.

I chose this book as a departure from our very serious inspection of "What is the What" and despite knowing the premise of the book was surprised at the how the two tomes can really be compared on so many levels, especially in terms of the ways in which young people deal with grief and loss.

I wanted to include the poem that the book, in part, is named for:

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

--Gerard Manley Hopkins

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks!

What is the What?

2008-12-30T08:34:00.009-05:00

"After God created men and women, according to local legend, he gave them cattle, the source of “milk and meat and prosperity of every kind.” But God offered mankind a choice: 'You can either have these cattle, as my gift to you, or you can have the What.' "

What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children--the so-called Lost Boys--was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.

Dave Eggers has made the outlines of the tragedy in East Africa — so vague to so many Americans — not only sharp and clear but indelible. An eloquent testimony to the power of storytelling, “What Is the What” is an extraordinary work of witness, and of art.
--Francine Prose, NYT Review

Dave Eggers & Valentino Achak Deng

Dave Eggers is the author of three previous books, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, and How We Are Hungry. He is the editor of McSweeney’s, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is co-founder of 826 Valencia, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers for young people. His interest in oral history led to his 2004 co-founding of Voice of Witness, a nonprofit series of books that use oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. As a journalist, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and daughter.

Me Talk Pretty One Day

2008-12-04T10:41:00.010-05:00

Due to scheduling conflicts, we have a new date for our gathering to discuss Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Monday, December 15, 2008
6:30pm - ???

This will be potluck-style so bring your favorite dish to share!

We'll meet at at Elisse's house (Please RSVP by 12/12/08) See you soon!

Check out the January Magazine interview with Sedaris on Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Inaugural Old Town Book Club Meeting

2008-11-11T08:49:00.002-05:00

It was great to meet all of you who made it to La Madeleine's in Old Town last night. For those of you who couldn't make it, there were 6 of us and we had a good time chatting about life, love, and books.

For our first read, I chose Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. There are a few reasons I chose this book.... it's supposedly hilarious, it's been on my "to read" shelf for way too long, and most of the group hasn't read it yet. I like the idea of reading short stories so when we get together we can talk about our favorites. I also wanted to choose something that has been out for a while so it can be easily found at the library or on half.com.

I will host the next gathering at my house in North Old Town on December 4th. It will be potluck style...keep it simple or be creative and bring whatever you like. I'll have plenty of wine on hand....

Happy Reading!

~Elisse