Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson

Description from Goodreads: Caterer Goldy Schulz's lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm, is time-consuming, but she's enjoying it . . . until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The deceased also happened to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother is begging Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.

I think Dark Tort would be described as a cozy mystery. It's a clean read wih a good, friendly heroinne in a small town who stumbles across a crime. As with most cozy msyteries, it's light, not anything that taxes your brain too much. I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get ahead of the plot; it was enjoyable just to let the story unfold. Dark Tort is part of a series, in fact, it is number thirteen out of fourteen. That didn't stop me from enjoying it as a stand alone. The author fills in enough background so you feel on top of things. I think it fits for Weekend Cooking because Goldy is a caterer and there is lots of food talk. The print version has recipes so that's a sure fit! But I listened to this one on audio. It has been such a long time since I listened to it that I can't really remember my thoughts on the narrator, I guess that tells us something - not memorable! As with most of the series I stumble upon in the middle, if I were to stumble across another, I would listen to it but I am not going to go seek them out.


This post is linked to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads. Click on the logo to see the other posts this week.






This book counts toward the 2010 Audiobook Challenge hosted by the bloggers over at Royal Reviews. Click on the button to see my progress.

I Like You by Amy Sedaris

From the Amazon product description: Are you lacking direction in how to whip up a swanky soiree for lumberjacks? A dinner party for white-collar workers? A festive gathering for the grieving? Don't despair. Take a cue from entertaining expert Amy Sedaris and host an unforgettable fete that will have your guests raving. No matter the style or size of the gathering--from the straightforward to the bizarre--I LIKE YOU provides jackpot recipes and solid advice laced with Amy's blisteringly funny take on entertaining, plus four-color photos and enlightening sidebars on everything it takes to pull off a party with extraordinary flair.

I've raved often enough about how much I like David Sedaris so coming across this book by his sister, Amy, at the library delighted me but as is often the case when I go in with such high hopes - it wasn't all wonderful. There were some things about it that just fascinated me - the photography to start. Amy is a very pretty girl and she dresses her self up in costumes to grace many of the pages; seeing her transformations was fascinating. She also used plenty of pictures of food and decorations. The sneak peek page on her website says, "This book is so visual, a monkey could enjoy it." The vignettes she creates to go along with the party themes are very clever and looking at all the details is a treat. Some of the recipes sounded pretty good but if I am actually going to get a recipe from a book and try it - it's not going to be from a comedienne, it's going to be from a cook so although they sounded okay, I didn't make anything from the book. The humor was at times wonderful and at times made me cringe. When she talks about how to deal with the inebriated and says, "Better to cut them off rather than pretend it's not happening and then allow them to stay over and wet your bed" that makes me laugh. But then other times she goes too far over the edge and I am not offended but neither am I amused. She also includes crafts which I could absolutely live without. The final verdict is that I was glad I got this one from the library, it was a sometimes funny romp but not something I would ever refer back to again.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads. Click on the logo to see the other posts this week.






This book is my "I" book for the 2010 A-Z Reading Challenge. Click on the button to see my progress.

Easter dinner 2010

Went shopping yesterday with the intention of buying a leg of lamb but the least expensive one was $49.00 so came home with a turkey instead! My hope this year is to involve everyone in the food prep so I am "assigning" each family member a recipe. I know I will have to help them through it but it's a step and maybe will give them an understanding of the effort that goes into our big holiday meals.

The menu will be..
No special recipe for turkey, just follow the directions on the wrapper! I have some grapes to sugar to place around it for decoration along with some fresh herbs that will be left over from the other recipes. Although now that I am thinking about it, maybe I will look for the Southern Living recipe where you cook the turkey upside down and then flip it halfway through - that one did turn out very moist. Also, the picture shows stuffing but I am not stuffing. I'll probably make stuffing another night when I serve the leftovers. This is Ex-Marine's assignment.


The vegetable is gratineed baked squash. It involves fresh sage, heavy cream, and cheese and it is delicious! I'm not a huge squash fan and I ate a ton of this at Christmas. This one is just for me.




Make ahead mashed potatoes. Potatoes made the night before with a brick of cream cheese, a stick of butter, and a cup of sour cream added. Then you just heat them up the day of the meal. This is my job for Youngest. Some folks decorate the to with chives or paprika - my family likes them without the added color. They are suspicious of added color to familiar foods!


This is one of Bookworm's recipes that she can do all on her own. I'm going to have her get started as soon as she wakes up today because her brothers are already raiding the fruit I bought yesterday so there will be none left if she doesn't get cooking! The crust of this is sugar cookie dough, the glaze is white grape juice mixed with stuff (maybe corn starch to thicken it and some sugar?).



Dessert is a new recipe. I saw it on a blog about a week ago but when I tried to find it again couldn't so had to go Google it and hope I have the recipe right! (The blogger called it funeral cake - ring a bell anyone?) It's yellow cake mix with mandarin oranges added and the frosting is crushed pineapple mixed with vanilla pudding mix and folded into Cool Whip. This one is for Tween to make.

Update: Everything turned out great. Nobody liked the cake but me so after one more thick slice, I'll have to toss it so I don't eat the whole cake myself! Everyone completed their assignments except that Tween did balk at the pineapple and refused to go any further with the cake recipe from that point.



This post is linked to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads. Click on the logo to see the other posts this week.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

From the Amazon product description: The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives.

When this book came out, I entered every blog contest I could find because it sounded just like something I would like. The format of disparate characters brought together and then having their personal lives revealed is one of my favorites, Maeve Binchy does it all the time and I enjoy those immensely. But this book didn't charm me. The time spent developing the characters was my favorite part but it was not enough to give me a connection with any single one that would carry me through the rest of the book. The "rest of the book" is the cooking classes at the restaurant. There I was left cold. Although using the author's style I couldn't just say cold, every description seemed to require a simile and then description was piled on top of description to really overwhelm me. The five-star reviewers describe the writing as lush and sensuous; the one star reviewers share my feeling that it was all just too much!

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads. Click on the logo to see the other posts this week.





This book counts toward the 2010 Audiobook Challenge hosted by the bloggers over at Royal Reviews. Click on the button to see my progress.

Cleaving by Julie Powell

From the author's website: Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she’d ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING.

Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer’s, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs--tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts.

The camaraderie at Fleischer’s leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world--from South America to Europe to Africa. At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart.

Welllllll...this is a tough one to talk about. There is a huge ICK factor. I fell in love with the sweet Amy Adams version of Julie but this Julie is much darker. The "insane, irresistible love affair" is really hard to get past, it just feel very wrong to me. There was such a contrast between the healthy marriage of the couple who owned the butcher shop and Julie's love triangle - you wondered how she could not see it. A similar triangle in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo didn't bother me nearly as much because it was fiction. The result, I just don't like Julie anymore. I wonder if others feel the same and if there is any fall out for her from the book. This is a memoir; it all really happened and these are real people having their lives splayed out for all of us to see. She talks at one point about her relationship with her parents and for the rest of the story I kept thinking, "Your dad is reading this!!!" It's really more than any father needs to know about his daughter!

The other half of the ICK factor was the butchering. I've read other reviews that objected to the graphic descriptions of dismembering the animals - I really wasn't bothered by most of it. My only moments of real disgust came when she visited Tanzania - way too much raw meat and fresh blood consumed there for my taste and, then again, when she made head cheese - yuck. I almost had to fast forward through a few of these bits - sitting in the parking lot at work with one hand over my mouth and the other hovering near the controls - but I made it through. That about sums up the whole book. I made it through not because I loved it but because I was curious enough to want to be brave enough to finish.

Click on the Weekend Cooking button to see who else is linked up over at Beth Fish Reads.

Psst, I have a giveaway posted. It's Chicken Soup for the Soul; Living the Catholic Faith. It's a perfect book for Lenten reflection and the giveaway is open until tomorrow!

This book counts toward the 2010 Audiobook Challenge hosted by the bloggers over at Royal Reviews. Click on the button to see my progress.