Book Buying Spree
Oct. 5th, 2004 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxI admit it. I confess. I'm a book-shopaholic. I buy books even when I don't get around to reading them (which in recent years has been most of the time). I renewed my Books-A-Million discount card and bought:
Frank Stitt's Southern Table Frank Stitt runs several restaurants here in town of which "Highland's Bar and Grill" has become reasonably famous, receiving excellent reviews from Gourmet Magazine, Food & Wine, Esquire, The New York Times and having appeard on A&E's "Great Chefs" more than once. In general, though, I'm usually difficult to impress. That said, I WAS impressed the time I went to one of his other restaurants (Chez FonFon) not too long ago. The food really was outstandingly delicious, so much so that when I saw that he has just released a cook book I decided to buy it. It's a big-ass book, though. It's the size of an art book or garden book.
With it being fall and all I'm interested in a few of the recipes for potential Thanksgiving meals. Of interest:
Curried Pumpkin Soup
2 tbs unsalted butter
2 onions, sliced
2 leaks, thinly sliced
1 carrot
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tbs curry powder
1/4 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 3 allspice berries (tied in a cheesecloth to make a sachet)
1 lb peeled pumpkin, sliced
1 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and sliced
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced
6 cups water (preferably spring water)
1 cup cream
snipped chives for garnish
Melt butter. Add onions, leeks, carrot, apple and saute over medium/low heat until onions carmelize. Add curry, spice sachet, and remaining vegetables. Pour in water and simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove spice sachet and puree vegetable mixture. Pass through a strainer. Trasfer to sauce pan. Add cream and season to taste.
And if I wasn't on a diet, the Sweet Potato Tart with Coconut Crust and Pecan Strusel sounds interesting.
Other Books Bought:
About a year ago when disgusted with BtVS but searching for something vampire-ish to read, I ran across a description of a book that sounded quirky and fun involving rather domestic vampires living in the South. I searched for the book series and couldn't find it ANYWHERE. On-line I discovered that the company that published it had since gone under. They must have sold the rights because tonight I found it in a dual-book release by another company. I have no idea if it's any good or pure drek. But I was willing to give it a try simply because something in the description amused me:
And finally, I picked up a romance by someone's whose name I do not recognize (Catherin Mulvany). I'm always a sucker for partners in crime/professional thief stories (don't ask me why. It's an amoral quirk of mine). It's (as you might guess from my previous comment) a romance between two jewel thieves and thus sounded like it might be fun.
Who knows when I'll get around to reading ANY of these books, though.
Frank Stitt's Southern Table Frank Stitt runs several restaurants here in town of which "Highland's Bar and Grill" has become reasonably famous, receiving excellent reviews from Gourmet Magazine, Food & Wine, Esquire, The New York Times and having appeard on A&E's "Great Chefs" more than once. In general, though, I'm usually difficult to impress. That said, I WAS impressed the time I went to one of his other restaurants (Chez FonFon) not too long ago. The food really was outstandingly delicious, so much so that when I saw that he has just released a cook book I decided to buy it. It's a big-ass book, though. It's the size of an art book or garden book.
With it being fall and all I'm interested in a few of the recipes for potential Thanksgiving meals. Of interest:
Curried Pumpkin Soup
2 tbs unsalted butter
2 onions, sliced
2 leaks, thinly sliced
1 carrot
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tbs curry powder
1/4 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 3 allspice berries (tied in a cheesecloth to make a sachet)
1 lb peeled pumpkin, sliced
1 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and sliced
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced
6 cups water (preferably spring water)
1 cup cream
snipped chives for garnish
Melt butter. Add onions, leeks, carrot, apple and saute over medium/low heat until onions carmelize. Add curry, spice sachet, and remaining vegetables. Pour in water and simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove spice sachet and puree vegetable mixture. Pass through a strainer. Trasfer to sauce pan. Add cream and season to taste.
And if I wasn't on a diet, the Sweet Potato Tart with Coconut Crust and Pecan Strusel sounds interesting.
Other Books Bought:
About a year ago when disgusted with BtVS but searching for something vampire-ish to read, I ran across a description of a book that sounded quirky and fun involving rather domestic vampires living in the South. I searched for the book series and couldn't find it ANYWHERE. On-line I discovered that the company that published it had since gone under. They must have sold the rights because tonight I found it in a dual-book release by another company. I have no idea if it's any good or pure drek. But I was willing to give it a try simply because something in the description amused me:
If there is one thing that Dixie LePage does not need in her life, it's complications. And the man sitting across the table from her in a crowded English pub, the one offering to buy the library of her inherited estate in a small English village is a major complication. For starters, there's the broad shoulders. The slighly amused smirk. And that infuriating, old fashioned, and well, okay, incredibly appealing sense of chivalry. No doubt about it, the guy is hot.
Of course, there is one wee little problem: He claims to be a vampire named Christopher Marlowe, as in THE Christopher Marlowe, famous playwright, contemporary of Will Shakespeare. Right. Amend that to hot, sexy, and totally insane. Please see "no more complications" above. So why can't Dixie seem to resist Christopher's charm?
And finally, I picked up a romance by someone's whose name I do not recognize (Catherin Mulvany). I'm always a sucker for partners in crime/professional thief stories (don't ask me why. It's an amoral quirk of mine). It's (as you might guess from my previous comment) a romance between two jewel thieves and thus sounded like it might be fun.
Who knows when I'll get around to reading ANY of these books, though.
