On the bookshelf, #2008-52

The Liberated Bride, by A.B. Yehoshua

From the bn.com site:

Yohanan Rivlin, a professor at Haifa University, is a man of boundless and often naïve curiosity. His wife, Hagit, a district judge, is tolerant of almost everything but her husband’s faults and prevarications. Frequent arguments aside, they are a well-adjusted couple with two grown sons.

When one of Rivlin’s students-a young Arab bride from a village in the Galilee-is assigned to help with his research in recent Algerian history, a two-pronged mystery develops. As they probe the causes of the bloody Algerian civil war, Rivlin also becomes obsessed with his son’s failed marriage.

Rivlin’s search leads to a number of improbable escapades. In this comedy of manners, at once deeply serious and highly entertaining, Yehoshua brilliantly portrays characters from disparate sectors of Israeli life, united above all by a very human desire for, and fear of, the truth in politics and life.

Yehoshua has become one of my favorite contemporary authors. After reading A Woman in Jerusalem, I immediately bought two more of his novels, this one and Five Seasons. He is an excellent storyteller and brings amazing characters to life. The backdrop of modern-day Israel is a character as well…one I am really enjoying getting to know.

New Recipe #3 — Nov 2008

As per my 100 Things list, I am tackling #41 – Try a new recipe every month for a year. The previous months’ recipes can be found here:
Sep 2008: Butter Bean Burgers
Oct 2008: Pasta e Fagioli

When you’re a vegetarian, Thanksgiving is probably the most painful day of the year. For those around you, that is. Nobody can believe that it is possible to celebrate the holiday without turkey. I am here to tell you that contrary to popular belief, the ability to give thanks is in no way inhibited by eating a meat-free meal. You can all rest easier now.

This year’s choice for my Turkey(free) Day entree’ came from one of the cookbooks I purchased on my trip to Chicago last month, called Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Healthful Cooking. The original recipe can be found here. My few changes are below.

Photo taken from Williams-Sonoma website

Sweet Potato and Cranberry Hash

INGREDIENTS
* 3 orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, about 2 lb. total
* 3 Tbs. unsalted butter
* 1 Fuji apple, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
* 1/2 C. diced onion
* 8 oz. cranberries
* 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
* 1/4 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste
* Freshly ground pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat an oven to 350°F.

Set the sweet potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake until they still feel slightly firm when pressed, 50 to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Place the sweet potatoes on a plate, cover loosely and refrigerate overnight. (Chilling them firms the flesh, making it hold together better in the hash.) The next day, peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.

In a nonstick fry pan over medium-high heat, melt 2 Tbs. of the butter. Add the apple cubes and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the butter browns and the apple cubes start to caramelize and brown around the edges, about 5 minutes.

Add the remaining 1 Tbs. butter to the pan. When it melts, stir in the onion and cranberries and cook about 1 minute. Stir in the cinnamon and nutmeg, add the sweet potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until they are heated through, about 4 minutes. They will break up somewhat, but try to smash them as little as possible. Add the 1/4 tsp. salt, or more, to taste, and season with pepper.

Transfer the hash to a serving dish and serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

NEXT TIME
I decided to add the entire 8 oz. bag of cranberries that I bought (the smallest bag available) even though the recipe called for about half that. Next time, I will use just the 4 oz. and use the rest of the berries in something else. I think the dish would have been better with just a little less cranberry flavor. Other than that, this was delicious and I would definitely make it again.

SIDES
I just paired this with some simple green beans and was satisfied. It is a savory, yet sweet, entree so it didn’t need much accompaniment. (Dudes, I totally spelled that word right! Vegetarianism makes you smarter. You heard it here first.)

I’m here

I swear, I’m still kicking. I just have nothing to say. And trust me, given the mood I’ve been in this week, you prefer it that way. I have, however, been tweeting up a storm on Twitter. That is where my brain is this week…in small 140 character chunks.

If I can just make it through the one last day in the office (David, I’m begging for some distraction tomorrow on IM), I hope to be on the upswing. Maybe I’ll even blog about everything I’m thankful for this year. That would be a novel idea, huh?

Who else has to go into work tomorrow? Let’s wallow together, shall we?

BTW, how did I ever do NaBloPoMo last year? I am totally without original thought these days.

All the best

Today, Denise and her man, The Boy, are getting married. (I often refer to him as The Boy in conversations with Denise, because we’re The Girls and…well, he’s The Boy. And since I respect his aversion to ever being mentioned on the Internet, he shall forever be known here as The Boy.)

Denise and The Boy have been great about letting me be their ‘third wheel’. We have gone to dinner together, movies together, and sometimes they just let me come over and hang out with them. You can’t ask for better friends. So today I am wishing them all the love and happiness and good fortune they deserve.

And Denise, who shares my sense of humor, will respond, “Hey! That’s mean!”

So I think I know (or maybe not)

A few days ago, I mentioned that my mom has a surprise for me this Christmas and it is something that my step-father really wants and I had no idea what it was. A few days later, it hit me.

I think I’m getting a kindle.

Why do I think this, you ask? Well, it was featured on Oprah’s Cool Crap show or Yuppie Nonsense show (or whatever she calls it) and my mom thinks I should want everything Oprah wants. (Yeah, I have no idea either. But I did love the Oprah-approved pajamas of a few years ago.) Plus, the Amazon guy was offering a discount to Oprah viewers so she would have jumped on that. And my mother knows how much I read and that books are taking over my house. And we have discussed more than a few times how bad my eyes are getting and this gadget lets you enlarge the font at will. Plus, when I first read about the kindle, my initial thought was how much my step-father would enjoy one.

Are you getting the same answer that I am when you add all that up? Carry the one. There you go.

Now, I have no idea if I’m right. Actually, I hope I’m wrong so that I really will be surprised when I open the gift. If it is the kindle, I’m going to have to act surprised. Which, on second thought, may not be too difficult because “holy crap I was right!” can look a lot like surprised if you squint your eyes just so.

But I’m still not sure how I feel about this. (I mean, if I’m right and I end up with one.) I am an avid reader, yes. But I am, even more so, a book lover. A lover of books. Adoro libros. I love everything about them. I love the crispness of the pages of a brand new book and the well-worn softness of a book read many times over. I love the bindings and the fonts and the book jackets. I like the smell of books. I like how they look sitting on the shelf. Or waiting for me on the nightstand. I love books.

That is not to say that I will shun the kindle. No, I will accept it graciously and gratefully. I will enjoy it. (If I’m right and I actually get one.) I can see the benefit of being able to carry around 200 books in one slim little device. I can appreciate the ‘green’ aspect of buying reading materials that didn’t cause the destruction of trees or the use of gasoline to transport them to me. And that whole font enlargement function may be more of a necessity sooner than I want to admit.

But, dude, I really love my books.

Denise brought up a good point the other day when we were discussing it. We are old school when it comes to reading. It isn’t enough to just read words. The enjoyment in reading is in how your body physically curls up around a good book, the texture of the cover against your fingers, the weight of the book resting on your chest, the sound the pages make when you turn them. It is a complete sensory experience.

She likened it to people who practice the nearly archaic art of writing letters, real letters, because of their love of fine pens and quality stationery. They like the feel of a perfectly weighted pen in their hand and the sound it makes as it scratches the paper. Those people cannot understand our use of email and instant messaging as means of communication though I doubt any of them would dispute the convenience of technological correspondence. They may even send the occasional email themselves but their passion lies in old school letter writing. That is what they love.

So, whether I’m right or wrong, kindle or no, I will always have my books around me. I may jump on this particular electronic gadget bandwagon but I will not abandon my bound paper ways. I will find a way to incorporate both into my life. But we will always know where my passion lies. (Of course, this entire discourse only matters if I’m right. Which I may not be.)

We are going to get a big laugh out of this post if I come back after Christmas to tell you that I got a jumbo bottle of Turtle Wax and a new chamois, which, as luck would have it, my step-father would also love.

So what about you? Which side of this reading discussion do you come down on? Are you ready for a new technological gadget or are you unwilling to give up your hardcovers and paperbacks? Or are the backs of cereal boxes about as fancy as your reading gets? Thinking back, did you have any reservations about email? (Can we even remember a time before email?) Do you ever write letters any more? Do you wish letter writing would make a comeback? These are all things I feel I must know about you. Please share.