(Jamie Ford, on my Kindle). A poignant story about a Chinese-American, growing up in Seattle at the beginning of World War II. Henry falls in love with a young Japanese girl before her family is interned in a relocation camp. It a very secretive relationship because his parents would highly disapprove. The story goes back to the 40’s and forward to the 1980’s when Henry is in his 50’s and his wife (not the Japanese woman) has just died of cancer. The story pulls you in from the first page, especially when some artifacts are found in the basement of an old hotel which contain personal belongings from several Japanese families who were suddenly taken away back in 1942. You can see where it’s going, can’t you? I heard criticism of this book that it was just a little bit contrived. Halfway through I’m enjoying it very much.
(Kathryn Stockett on my Kindle); if you haven’t heard about this book, you should! It’s a novel written from the voice of the black servants and some of the people they work for, all residents of Jackson, Mississippi. In the 1950’s. The maids generally are disrespected, still have to ride in the back of the bus, and some are prevented from using the bathroom in the houses where they work. The story is about a young woman (daughter of one of the society ladies) who decides to write a book about the stories of the maids. Anonymously. But not quite, of course. So it’s not only the stories themselves, but about the society-ladies’ relationships, and about the stealth required to interview the maids and write the book. And the repercussions when it’s published. A fantastic read.
by Jetta Carleton (Kindle edition); 
by Susan Richards (Kindle edition); 
by Sally Gunning (Kindle edition)
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(Mario Batali & Gweneth Paltrow); 
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Goat cheese is one of those comforting foods that always hits the spot with me. I like it anytime as an appetizer, either plain with crackers, or with a topping of chutney or some fruit thing. And one of my favorite things to order in restaurants is any green salad with coins of chèvre. My all-time favorite use of chèvre is when the goat cheese coins have been covered in some chopped nuts and warmed before being put on a salad. I have a goat cheese cookbook; although I must sheepishly admit I’ve never made anything in it.
So anytime I see goat cheese or chèvre anywhere, I usually look more closely at said recipe or menu. This time it was in Food and Wine magazine, May of 2006. More sheepish looks here, but I just got around to reading it. I took a trip to France in May of ’06 and there were a bunch of my magazines that didn’t get read for about 2 months before and at least several months after. My DH had major surgery just a month later, so I lost many months of recipe clipping. I’ve been making a diligent effort lately to get a few stacks of magazines read and tossed out.
When I was planning a large dinner party for this last week, I knew I wanted to make salmon, so worked on rounding out the menu. This clipping spoke to me more than others. And the recipe itself is really quite different. In the explanation about it the article described the dressing as similar to ranch, but goat cheese instead. I wouldn’t have described it anywhere close to ranch except in color and opaqueness. It’s much thicker than ranch dressing and has a totally different taste and texture.
The room temp cheese is mixed by hand with some garlic, salt, white wine vinegar, a splash of water even, then some olive oil and walnut oil. Oh yes, and some fresh, chopped thyme. The salad is composed of light lettuces (they called for Belgian endive, frisee and arugula). Visiting 3 local grocery chains produced no frisee, except a few sprigs in a lettuce combo package. So I used arugula, both regular and red Belgian endive plus the combo lettuces. The salad is also dressed with some sliced apple and toasted walnuts.
I liked it a lot, actually. Our guests didn’t take much per serving, so we had leftovers, and they tasted pretty good the 2nd day (normally I toss out salads that have been dressed since I don’t like soggy salad) but for whatever reason, this didn’t soggify much. (You like that new word, soggify?)
Maybe you’ll have better luck finding frisee, but if not, just use whatever light lettuces you can find.
Greens with Chèvre Dressing
Recipe By: Food & Wine, May 2006
Serving Size: 4
3/4 cup walnuts — halved
1 small garlic clove — smashed
Kosher salt to taste
3 ounces soft goat cheese — chèvre, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon walnut oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves — chopped
Freshly ground pepper
2 heads Belgian endive — cored and leaves halved lengthwise
1 head frisee — torn into bite-size pieces
1 cup arugula — baby arugula if possible
1 whole Granny Smith apple — cored and thinly sliced
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the walnuts in a pie plate and bake for 8 minutes, or until toasted. Transfer to a plate and cool.
2. Meanwhile, on a work surface, sprinkle the garlic with a pinch of salt and mash to a paste with the side of a large, heavy knife. Transfer the garlic paste to a bowl and whisk in the goat cheese, then the vinegar and water. Add the olive and walnut oils, thyme and pepper and whisk until blended.
3. In a large bowl, toss the endive, frisee, arugula and apple slices with the walnuts and some of the dressing. Taste the salad and add more dressing or salt and pepper if needed. Serve at once. If you have leftovers, bring it to room temp before using it – it becomes very firm when chilled and impossible to toss in a salad.
Per Serving (the nutrition info assumes you use all of the dressing, which you may not): 290 Calories; 25g Fat (72.7% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 10mg Cholesterol; 104mg Sodium.
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