We were up at Eunice's cabin on Batchawana Bay. She had quite suddenly developed rigors and a temperature and was sick enough so we called EMS. While waiting for them to come, standing out by the road, I heard and then saw a pileated woodpecker on the telephone pole on the north end of her property. It then flew right past me, very close, and a second pileated came out of the bush and both were wild and crazy for a few minutes. The strong eastern sun came across the bay and highlighted their brilliant red crests. They were in a some kind of bird frenzy, flying madly about, up and down and all about, in the nearby birch tree, on the ground, vocalizing all the while.
The evening before, I had sat on the porch and saw a chestnut sided warbler, waxwings, and a vireo all in this same area, and all within a couple of minutes of watching. One of these visits, I will go up there and devote a day to birding. Eunice and Bill saw a great grey owl last year; it flew across the road right in front of them!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Pear Pie with Walnut Crust
This was OK...it was like an apple pie, only with pears. I thought I would be able to taste more of the walnut crust since I used 2 cups, but that flavor got a bit lost. If I made it again, I would sweeten it a little more and put some crumble on the top to make it more appealing visually. This photo is before baking and it looked better then than after it came out of the oven. I ate a piece and stuck it in the freezer. I doubt a fresh fruit pie would keep very long in the hot and humid weather we've been having, and it wasn't successful enough to give to the neighbors.
Plum Island by Nelson DeMille
Plum Island is off the tip of the north fork of Long Island and is a federal Animal Disease Center...think all kinds of malevolent micro-organisms and scientists and biocontainment and possible terrorism. I read Up Country by this author several months ago and that book was much better. Still, the author is good at descriptions and observations of place and characters and of the security and secrecy of Plum Island. The main character is a NYC homicide detective who is recuperating from an attempt on his life. Of course he gets involved in a local murder. He is brash and clever, roguish and not lacking in testosterone. Lots of adventure..lots of dialogue. As a reviewer for the Boston Globe says: "DeMille's narrative energy is unflagging."
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz
Subtitled: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.
Jacqueline was educated and then worked in the world of high finance but soon began to realize how empty that world was for her. She worked for Chase Bank and would fly "around the world and review the quality of the bank's loans, especially in troubled economies." It was while she was working in Brazil that she knew she wanted to do something with her life that had more meaning after she was admonished by a hotel manager while helping (in a small way) a 6-year-old street kid in Rio. She began seriously thinking about the disparity between rich and very poor and how she might help.
She found another job and was sent to West Africa, something of an idealist, and she learned that helping the poor and making changes was much harder than she would have thought. Some of the local women resented her. She was now a minority in a foreign culture, no longer a privileged American, and she was in a country where her Western ideas and ways of thinking did not serve her. She then moved to Rwanda, made friends and began to understand how to stand back, observe, slowly assimilate and be accepted. She left that country before the mayhem and murder of a million people, but made several trips back to Rwanda over the years, trying to understand how her friends coped after the unspeakable horrors they lived through..the friends who survived. She slowly learned many lessons, not always quickly. But over the years, she became what she calls a "patient capitalist" and eventually founded The Acumen Fund which helps poor people finance businesses that benefit the larger communities in which they live. The Fund HELPS with financing; does not just give money. It researches, seeks out and then enables people who will be able to sustain businesses that help the very poor in their respective countries. The return on an investment in the Acumen Fund is sometimes just change in the quality of peoples' lives, especially in the early stages of the projects. Her philosophy is similar to the concepts of microfinance or microenterprise in which small amounts of money are lent to the very poor. This empowers women especially as they begin to understand how even a minuscule amount of money can help them out of poverty, can help them make a better life for their children and their communities. The Acumen Fund has worked mostly in Pakistan, Africa and India. This is not pure philanthropy; there is accountability attached to the monies that are dispersed.
Many western donors give and have given generously but have no idea about other cultures. They see desperate needs and think money is the way to fix that lack. And often it does. But, the issues are usually so much more complicated, because different cultures live in ways we Americans cannot imagine. For millions on this planet, luxury is to be able to live in a 500 square foot home, have a quality bed net for malaria prevention and have access to safe water. But bed nets wear out or tear and need replacement, or need to be dipped in insect-repellant solutions periodically; they have to be used consistently; the processes of providing safe water means understanding and maintaining the technology of water systems and the dispensing of the water, and this is also true for the implementation and delivery of water for crops and the maintenance of those delivery systems; health issues need to be explained in ways other cultures can comprehend, not in the ways we have learned them. Giving money is a short-term solution; providing access to money but with accountability and the expectation of payback with interest is a long-term solution. It has worked. There are 6 billion of us living on earth. People like Jacqueline, Bill and Melinda Gates, Muhammad Yunus and many, many others are changing the way the way those who have can most benefit those who have not.
This work and this book is inspiring and certainly can inform one's way of thinking about the global community and each individual who is a member, be he rich or poor.
The title has little to do with the content of this book but the author does explain the significance of it almost immediately, and it is a nice little vignette.
Jacqueline was educated and then worked in the world of high finance but soon began to realize how empty that world was for her. She worked for Chase Bank and would fly "around the world and review the quality of the bank's loans, especially in troubled economies." It was while she was working in Brazil that she knew she wanted to do something with her life that had more meaning after she was admonished by a hotel manager while helping (in a small way) a 6-year-old street kid in Rio. She began seriously thinking about the disparity between rich and very poor and how she might help.
She found another job and was sent to West Africa, something of an idealist, and she learned that helping the poor and making changes was much harder than she would have thought. Some of the local women resented her. She was now a minority in a foreign culture, no longer a privileged American, and she was in a country where her Western ideas and ways of thinking did not serve her. She then moved to Rwanda, made friends and began to understand how to stand back, observe, slowly assimilate and be accepted. She left that country before the mayhem and murder of a million people, but made several trips back to Rwanda over the years, trying to understand how her friends coped after the unspeakable horrors they lived through..the friends who survived. She slowly learned many lessons, not always quickly. But over the years, she became what she calls a "patient capitalist" and eventually founded The Acumen Fund which helps poor people finance businesses that benefit the larger communities in which they live. The Fund HELPS with financing; does not just give money. It researches, seeks out and then enables people who will be able to sustain businesses that help the very poor in their respective countries. The return on an investment in the Acumen Fund is sometimes just change in the quality of peoples' lives, especially in the early stages of the projects. Her philosophy is similar to the concepts of microfinance or microenterprise in which small amounts of money are lent to the very poor. This empowers women especially as they begin to understand how even a minuscule amount of money can help them out of poverty, can help them make a better life for their children and their communities. The Acumen Fund has worked mostly in Pakistan, Africa and India. This is not pure philanthropy; there is accountability attached to the monies that are dispersed.
Many western donors give and have given generously but have no idea about other cultures. They see desperate needs and think money is the way to fix that lack. And often it does. But, the issues are usually so much more complicated, because different cultures live in ways we Americans cannot imagine. For millions on this planet, luxury is to be able to live in a 500 square foot home, have a quality bed net for malaria prevention and have access to safe water. But bed nets wear out or tear and need replacement, or need to be dipped in insect-repellant solutions periodically; they have to be used consistently; the processes of providing safe water means understanding and maintaining the technology of water systems and the dispensing of the water, and this is also true for the implementation and delivery of water for crops and the maintenance of those delivery systems; health issues need to be explained in ways other cultures can comprehend, not in the ways we have learned them. Giving money is a short-term solution; providing access to money but with accountability and the expectation of payback with interest is a long-term solution. It has worked. There are 6 billion of us living on earth. People like Jacqueline, Bill and Melinda Gates, Muhammad Yunus and many, many others are changing the way the way those who have can most benefit those who have not.
This work and this book is inspiring and certainly can inform one's way of thinking about the global community and each individual who is a member, be he rich or poor.
The title has little to do with the content of this book but the author does explain the significance of it almost immediately, and it is a nice little vignette.
The Women by T. C. Boyle
An amazingly entertaining and imaginative book. It is the fictionalized story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the four significant women in his life. Fictionalized, but based on facts. I am now intrigued by this man and his work and his loves and can't wait to read Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and also more about FLW. While I never was particularly taken with his architecture, admittedly knowing nearly nothing about it except for the house in Grand Rapids on Madison (I think it's Madison), this book most definitely changed that opinion. Taliesin in Wisconsin is now on my list of places to see.
I could go on and on about his travels, his money problems, these women and Taliesin, but just read this book. You won't be disappointed.
I was in Ottawa Beach Inn a few weeks ago, eating spaghetti at the bar because it was so crowded and I didn't want to wait for a table, and started chatting with a couple sitting next to me. There were from Virginia and were headed north (Traverse City, Mackinaw, Pictured Rocks, etc.), and then they planned to see Taliesin. That nudge along with Eunice's a week or so ago about FLW, prompted me to get this book from the library. I had just started it before we moved back to Michigan in 2009 and had to bring it back to the library after reading only a dozen pages or so.)
Boyle is an engaging writer. I now want to reread The Tortilla Curtain. I have read Drop City and found that book a lot of fun. It is a story of hippies in the 60s. I didn't particularly like World's End and can't remember what else I've read by this author but will keep him on the short list.
I could go on and on about his travels, his money problems, these women and Taliesin, but just read this book. You won't be disappointed.
I was in Ottawa Beach Inn a few weeks ago, eating spaghetti at the bar because it was so crowded and I didn't want to wait for a table, and started chatting with a couple sitting next to me. There were from Virginia and were headed north (Traverse City, Mackinaw, Pictured Rocks, etc.), and then they planned to see Taliesin. That nudge along with Eunice's a week or so ago about FLW, prompted me to get this book from the library. I had just started it before we moved back to Michigan in 2009 and had to bring it back to the library after reading only a dozen pages or so.)
Boyle is an engaging writer. I now want to reread The Tortilla Curtain. I have read Drop City and found that book a lot of fun. It is a story of hippies in the 60s. I didn't particularly like World's End and can't remember what else I've read by this author but will keep him on the short list.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Marinated Beets with Mint
This looked and tasted like Christmas, at least that immediately came to mind on my first taste. Very fresh with the red beets and green mint. This is the recipe in which I used walnut oil and raspberry vinegar. It keeps well in the refrigerator, and I added more mint and feta cheese just before eating. Another wonderful tasty salad and the most colorful so far.
Two pear dishes coming up...
Monday, July 12, 2010
Cauliflower with Cumin and Cheese
Another fresh tasting salad that I will eat for 3 or 4 days. I bought whole cumin seeds at the kitchen store downtown Holland and these added the only bit of color to this pale salad. It also has sauteed onions, steamed cauliflower, diced Monterey jack cheese, garlic and a bit of sour cream and cider vinegar for the dressing. These salads last several days in the refrigerator, so can be made ahead or just be there for easy eating. I would never think of the combinations that are in the recipes in this book but most seem to work well, like this one.
The Sibley Guide to Trees by David Allen Sibley
I have been walking a mile in the mornings, along the hardwood forest across the street from my house, and one day thought about how I would like to identify the trees. I went to the library and online and got some dendrology guides. David Sibley is known for his phenomenally successful bird guides and, though I knew he had published this tree guide, I had no interest until, one day, I did. I took it home, along with four or five other tree guides. This is a gorgeous book. Edmund O. Wilson says, "A beautiful, masterful, and much-needed work that will henceforth be our guide to North American trees."
The illustrations are just lovely and I have already spent hours paging back and forth delighted by and in awe of his amazing art work. I ordered it from amazon. For anyone interested, even a little bit, in tree identification, buy this book.
Raisin Pumpernickel Rolls
Yeast, kneading and me...not doing so well. These turned out dark, dense, dry..and they looked and hefted like baseballs, raisin-studded, dark brown baseballs. I gnawed at one and the rest will probably feed some less critical birds. The flavor, once I softened it up as I chewed and chewed, was quite good, but it was way way too much work to get at the taste. I will keep working at this, as there are certain to be more yeast recipes. My yeast doesn't get "foamy" as it sits in warm water; the raisins kept escaping as I kneaded, which was HARD work; the two risings were mostly in my imagination. I need some advice... I know, I know, the photo looks pretty good but they needed to lighten up...
Friday, July 9, 2010
Apron, Walnut Oil and Raspberry Vinegar
I bought these items today. I cannot do much in the kitchen without getting mussed up; thus, the apron. There is a new store in downtown Holland that sells oils and vinegars....Fustini's... and it is simple, cool, airy, high-ceilinged....a nice addition on 8th street.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Lime
This recipe is one of a trio that Mollie calls a "Composed Salad," the idea being that three different salads are presented in a colorful way, "artfully arranged" on a platter. I still have the other two salads to try involving beets and cauliflower. These three WOULD make a delightful, very visually appealing dish.
The peppers were roasted and then de-skinned, cut up and mixed with lime juice, olive oil, garlic, a bit of sugar, salt and pepper. While I was up north over the 4th of July weekend, Maria and Richard had a dinner at Townsend with Deborah and Emily and Ellen and Dave and folks liked them, Ellen especially. I also thought they were very good. They taste best when cold and after a day or so in the refrigerator.
The more I fuss with vegies, the easier it becomes. Now, I can roast red peppers with no qualms. Of course, having a generous, true-temprature oven makes it simple. Roast on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, turn every 5 minutes or so, and place the peppers immediately into a plastic or paper bag for 5 minutes before skinning. The only problem is that they are still hot at this point, but do cool quickly enough to handle, and the skins pretty much slide off.
The peppers were roasted and then de-skinned, cut up and mixed with lime juice, olive oil, garlic, a bit of sugar, salt and pepper. While I was up north over the 4th of July weekend, Maria and Richard had a dinner at Townsend with Deborah and Emily and Ellen and Dave and folks liked them, Ellen especially. I also thought they were very good. They taste best when cold and after a day or so in the refrigerator.
The more I fuss with vegies, the easier it becomes. Now, I can roast red peppers with no qualms. Of course, having a generous, true-temprature oven makes it simple. Roast on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, turn every 5 minutes or so, and place the peppers immediately into a plastic or paper bag for 5 minutes before skinning. The only problem is that they are still hot at this point, but do cool quickly enough to handle, and the skins pretty much slide off.
Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies
The other version of the chocolate-chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. At first, I liked the chocolate cookies better, but after several days and several cookies, it is a draw. Both are just good understated cookies. They keep fresh for a long time. I took a bagful up to the Wetzels and ate them for breakfast and gave some to the Cooneys when they came for the dump card. I gave a bag to the roofers who will probably NEVER get the roof done and I will just get used to a yard full of debris and old cedar shingles piled 3 feet deep on the ivy and will also get used to a constant, very loud pounding overhead as I go about transcribing or reading or cooking or doing anything while at home. It is going on the 3rd week. Yesterday, a crew came and did the whole roof of my neighbors across the street in 12 hours!
Anyway, I liked these cookies. Basic ingredients and 5 to 6 tablespoons of orange juice.
Faith, Interrupted by Eric Lax
Well, the faith didn't get interrupted until well into the book, like over two-thirds of the way through it.
Eric's father was a beloved man, an Episcopal priest in El Cajon, California, where the author grew up. Eric was an only child. I found the book a bit pedantic, a bit boring actually. I think the author is/was bothered by the diminishment of his faith, but I also felt he just liked to talk.
He becomes eligible for the draft (Vietnam era) and goes to Micronesia as a Peace Corps volunteer and then works hard at obtaining conscientious objector status. He does eventually get that, but a good friend of his ends up in the thick of the horror of Vietnam, killing Vietcong on patrols and doing an extraordinary job keeping his platoon safe. The author writes quite a bit about this dichotomy: his own safety in the US and of his friend in peril in the killing fields of Vietnam. That could be a separate book as it is really a different story. Do many conscientious objectors feel the need to justify and explain their choices?
And then, after the war, and after his father dies, he starts to lose his faith. Faith, Interrupted? that implies a reconnection, doesn't it?
I did enjoy the first half of the book as he describes his childhood with his kind and intelligent father. The first 20 years of his life was not so very different from mine, as we were both children of men who chose the religious life as their vocation. He is also nearly the same age as I am, so the summer camps, the church services, his college experience, the devout and devoted parents and a father who liked to laugh and never took himself too seriously were very familiar to me.
Eric Lax has written other books that sound interesting: Life and Death on 10 West, which is about bone-marrow transplantation or The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat, about the development of penicillin. He has also written about Woody Allen. He writes well, so I might seek out one of these and not dismiss this author on the basis of Faith, Interrupted, which was just OK, IMO.
Eric's father was a beloved man, an Episcopal priest in El Cajon, California, where the author grew up. Eric was an only child. I found the book a bit pedantic, a bit boring actually. I think the author is/was bothered by the diminishment of his faith, but I also felt he just liked to talk.
He becomes eligible for the draft (Vietnam era) and goes to Micronesia as a Peace Corps volunteer and then works hard at obtaining conscientious objector status. He does eventually get that, but a good friend of his ends up in the thick of the horror of Vietnam, killing Vietcong on patrols and doing an extraordinary job keeping his platoon safe. The author writes quite a bit about this dichotomy: his own safety in the US and of his friend in peril in the killing fields of Vietnam. That could be a separate book as it is really a different story. Do many conscientious objectors feel the need to justify and explain their choices?
And then, after the war, and after his father dies, he starts to lose his faith. Faith, Interrupted? that implies a reconnection, doesn't it?
I did enjoy the first half of the book as he describes his childhood with his kind and intelligent father. The first 20 years of his life was not so very different from mine, as we were both children of men who chose the religious life as their vocation. He is also nearly the same age as I am, so the summer camps, the church services, his college experience, the devout and devoted parents and a father who liked to laugh and never took himself too seriously were very familiar to me.
Eric Lax has written other books that sound interesting: Life and Death on 10 West, which is about bone-marrow transplantation or The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat, about the development of penicillin. He has also written about Woody Allen. He writes well, so I might seek out one of these and not dismiss this author on the basis of Faith, Interrupted, which was just OK, IMO.
Country Driving by Peter Hessler
The book is subtitled A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. The author is a staff writer for the New Yorker and was the Beijing correspondent from 2000 to 2007. He had gone to China as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1990s, and he spoke the language. The book is in 3 parts.
In the first section, he rents a car and drives across northern China, roughly following the various great walls.
In the second section he relates life in the small village of Sancha, a couple of hours north of Beijing, where he rented a getaway home and becomes friends with a village family. He tells their story and makes the reality of the rapid changes occurring in most of China easier to understand as these changes also become part of Wei Ziqi's life. Wei is the father of Wei Jia and the husband of Cao Chunmei. Wei Jia is a little boy who is sent away to school at a very young age, who develops a serious, life-threatening illness and who recovers, who continues with school and begins to like the Western "products" that make their way even to this small village.
The last section tells of the startup factories and the workers (mostly young) who migrate from the countryside all over China to work in them. This particular city is Lishui, south of Shanghai, and in the province of Zhejiang.
So the driving is really only the first part and is part travelogue, part history, part sociology...all interesting, with many curious and strange customs and situations (to us Westerners) that he encounters as he drives about. But, the village and the factory stories are equally compelling and informative as this writer manages to engage individuals and tell general stories through their specifics.
China is changing fast and for anyone who is at all curious about the 1.3 billion people who live there, this book will not be disappointing.
In the first section, he rents a car and drives across northern China, roughly following the various great walls.
In the second section he relates life in the small village of Sancha, a couple of hours north of Beijing, where he rented a getaway home and becomes friends with a village family. He tells their story and makes the reality of the rapid changes occurring in most of China easier to understand as these changes also become part of Wei Ziqi's life. Wei is the father of Wei Jia and the husband of Cao Chunmei. Wei Jia is a little boy who is sent away to school at a very young age, who develops a serious, life-threatening illness and who recovers, who continues with school and begins to like the Western "products" that make their way even to this small village.
The last section tells of the startup factories and the workers (mostly young) who migrate from the countryside all over China to work in them. This particular city is Lishui, south of Shanghai, and in the province of Zhejiang.
So the driving is really only the first part and is part travelogue, part history, part sociology...all interesting, with many curious and strange customs and situations (to us Westerners) that he encounters as he drives about. But, the village and the factory stories are equally compelling and informative as this writer manages to engage individuals and tell general stories through their specifics.
China is changing fast and for anyone who is at all curious about the 1.3 billion people who live there, this book will not be disappointing.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
A few weeks ago, while driving to pick up Adam, I heard this author interviewed NPR and picked up the book at the library soon thereafter. (The author's last 5 novels have been NYTimes Notable Books of the Year.)
This story is set in the Ozarks, in a world of extreme poverty, family clans, woods, fields, hills, twisting roads, meth labs, alcohol, brutality, endurance and survival. It will soon be a movie that I will definitely see. The protagonist is Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old whose father has disappeared after putting their home up for bail. Her mother has lost her mind and mostly sits in a rocking chair unable to do the simplest tasks. Ree has 2 younger brothers she cares for, along with her mother. The book tells Ree's story. She is often gritty, sometimes gentle and wants desperately a better life, for herself and her brothers. It's like reading a sociology, geography and natural history book all in one. The descriptions of life in the Ozarks are vivid, both the landscape and the people, and the author immediately draws the reader into this milieu.
Ree teaches her brothers how to shoot squirrels and then they clean them and eat them. "Full stomachs brought about a spell of peace and Ree languished on the couch. She stretched on her back with her long legs propped atop the armrest and put a dish towel over her eyes so the pictures playing inside her head would flicker brightly against a darkened space."
This is another novel that tells of a piece and place of American culture that most of us never know existed. A novel both bright and dark...
This story is set in the Ozarks, in a world of extreme poverty, family clans, woods, fields, hills, twisting roads, meth labs, alcohol, brutality, endurance and survival. It will soon be a movie that I will definitely see. The protagonist is Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old whose father has disappeared after putting their home up for bail. Her mother has lost her mind and mostly sits in a rocking chair unable to do the simplest tasks. Ree has 2 younger brothers she cares for, along with her mother. The book tells Ree's story. She is often gritty, sometimes gentle and wants desperately a better life, for herself and her brothers. It's like reading a sociology, geography and natural history book all in one. The descriptions of life in the Ozarks are vivid, both the landscape and the people, and the author immediately draws the reader into this milieu.
Ree teaches her brothers how to shoot squirrels and then they clean them and eat them. "Full stomachs brought about a spell of peace and Ree languished on the couch. She stretched on her back with her long legs propped atop the armrest and put a dish towel over her eyes so the pictures playing inside her head would flicker brightly against a darkened space."
This is another novel that tells of a piece and place of American culture that most of us never know existed. A novel both bright and dark...
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