(by Kate Morton, on my Kindle); several generations of women pepper this book with the story of their lives. It all revolves around a young girl who arrives on a pier in Australia in 1912 with no papers, no family. Nothing except a small white suitcase with little concrete information about her past. She’s four years old and keeps silent about what little she knows. Her story starts there, but then it jumps forward to 2005 when her granddaughter inherits a house in Cornwall (England), purchased by the grandmother and kept secret until after her death. There’s some secrecy going on with all the women. Then the story jumps back to 1975 when the grandmother is a middle-aged woman and you hear part of her story. Much of the book revolves around a walled garden at this house in Cornwall, and how it relates to the “big house” where the grandmother lived some of her early years. It’s quite a complex web of a family saga. I liked it, although each new chapter jumped to a different time, and it’s not until the last 10 pages or so that everything resolves. Good read.
(by Karen Harper, on my Kindle); this one is about a young girl from an impoverished family who is taken to Court and eventually becomes a playmate/governess to Elizabeth I (the story is based on fact, but is a novel). The two girls grow up together. It tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth I’s mother) and others of the court at that time, the intrigues, the murders, the beheadings, and the perseverance of all of the potential kings and queens. Fascinating story, particularly since we visited Castle Howard where where a small part of Henry VIII’s story transpires.
(by Julie Orringer, on my Kindle) too; a riveting story about a young Hungarian Jew who goes to Paris to study architecture, just before the start of WW II. He manages to scrape together enough money to eat, but barely, falls in love with an older woman, yet his work comes to the attention of some of the school’s teachers. He’s one of only a handful of Jews at the school. Then the Nazis begin invading. And the story goes into plenty of detail about the hardships, the imprisonments and eventual deaths of many of his friends and family. I could hardly put it down, though. Heart-wrenching, however.
– by Alison Weir (paperback from Costco). I was expecting this book to be along the same genre as Philippa Gregory’s novels – honing in on a particular English royal woman – telling her story in novel form. This is not one of those types. It’s non-fiction, and tells the factual story of Katherine Swynford, who eventually became the Duchess of Lancaster. But her journey from young bride to Hugh Swynford (this takes place in the 1300′s) to the Duchess is bursting with intrigue as she was John of Gaunt’s mistress for some time (eventually he married her when she was 46 (certainly an advanced age for that century), which caused all kinds of royal scandal). In that period of history no one related to royalty married for love. It was all about family, bearing many children to inherit land and wealth, to fight for the king, to maintain title and fortune. The Duchess’ children eventually became the House of Tudor (King Henry VII). Katherine Swynford was both reviled (because of her immoral behavior) and loved (by nearly everyone who knew her). Alison Weir is obviously a stickler for research – the footnotes comprise over 40 pages of fine print. She paints a different picture of this woman than was done by Anya Seton in her world-famous novel 
, first published in 1954. I was infatuated with that novel – it was one of my all-time favorites. But it’s a romance, and apparently many of the supposed facts – well, aren’t. Life in those times were not romantic. This Alison Weir book is not exactly easy reading; it’s almost like reading a textbook. But it’s fascinating and I’m enjoying it very much.
– by Jack Finney (paperback); read for one of my book clubs. Written in the 1940′s it was a runaway hit back then. An early look at time travel. It’s about a U.S. government experiment in the 1960′s (this is fiction, remember), sending a selected few men back to the 1880′s in New York City. They were told to observe. Not to change anything. To be unnoticeable. Yet one of the young men, just couldn’t quite do that (of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be a story!). It’s his adventure you read. The writer is a master at description. The reader feels transported to that time. Our book club really enjoyed it. Generally I’m not into that kind of book at all, but I found the book fascinating. There is a sequel as well, called From Time to Time.
— autobiography by Laura Bush (hardback from Costco). What a delightful read. It’s not about politics. It’s about Laura’s journey from her young years growing up in Midland, Texas to loving parents, to college grad to school teacher, librarian, to meeting George, whom she barely knew even though they grew up in the same small town, then marrying him. She didn’t come naturally to being a public speaker, but did it, to help her husband. I enjoyed reading about her early years more than the years at the White House. Much of that part was about all the social events required of the President and First Lady. Still interesting, though. I enjoyed the book very much.
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I was chatting with my friend Cherrie the other day (she and I spend some time always talking about food – what she’s making, what I’m making, restaurants, etc.) and she was telling me about how she made one of my lamb stew recipes that I’d posted awhile back. Then she said when she tasted it, it was blah. Blah, I thought? How can that be? The stew I made was absolutely fabulous with flavor. She’d made it exactly as written. The lamb was from Costco, just like mine. I had to contemplate that conundrum for a bit. How could two stews be so different in taste? The recipe wasn’t that complicated. Didn’t require any particularly unusual ingredients. Then a light went off in my head. It’s the broth. I’d put a fair slug of turkey broth concentrate in that stew that was almost like a soup.
Hence I’m posting about something that I had begun to take for granted. No longer.
Years ago, I used to buy those little cubes of chicken bouillon to flavor up things. That’s about all there was out there unless you made your own stock (which I’ve done, but don’t choose to make anymore except the day after Thanksgiving). Eventually you could buy loosely packed dry chicken broth granules (still can, I believe). Of course, you could buy canned broth too. But if you were making soup that needed 2 quarts, for instance, that was a heck of a lot of cans to buy and lug home, open and throw out. That’s why I preferred the granules. Then along came the little jars of hydrolyzed protein with a modicum of flavor. And lastly, the sealed, waxed boxes of broth, which I use regularly too. But the underlying problem – to me anyway – was the amount of sodium in all of these products. Even that stuff Better than Bouillon. Have you even looked at how much salt is in them? Salt is cheap – a whole lot cheaper than chicken meat or buying hydrolyzed protein, so of course, the “superior” minds (read: greedy) of American business, always looking out for our better health (right?) would use salt as the overriding flavor. Hey, if they can fool us into thinking it’s chicken broth, then they’ve made another product the unsuspecting homemaker and cook will buy.
Some years ago I read a story about hydrolyzed protein and wasn’t all that thrilled with the process and what products made with it might do to our bodies. So generally I used the cardboard boxes of broth or the loose granules. For a lot of years that’s what I did. And it was only a few months ago that I read about Wolfgang Puck’s own brand of broth that was noticed by either food magazines, or Cook’s Illustrated, or maybe it was Consumer Reports. I don’t remember now, but whatever I read indicated Wolfgang’s was really good. So I’ve been using that too (it’s expensive, so I don’t use it for just anything).
Meanwhile, I decided to try some of Penzey’s soup bases. They do not contain hydrolyzed protein (yea!). The first ingredient on the chicken base (my most used one) is “cooked chicken meat.” Well, it’s about time somebody decided to give us what we want – the main ingredient is chicken! I’ve come to rely on these jars of concentrated broth. I merely dip my small spoons into the chicken goop and pull out a little dab and add to whatever I’m cooking. I never measure – I just use a clean spoon. I use it anytime I need broth and merely add water. They do require you to store them in the refrigerator once opened. That’s about the only down side to these. (And in all fairness, I will state that the second ingredient is salt. At least it’s not the first one.)
At the moment I own three of them (chicken, turkey and seafood). In my next order to Penzey’s, I’m ordering beef and vegetable too. So, if you have come to trust me – may I recommend to you that you click over to PENZEY’S and place an order for these SOUP BASES. DO IT NOW! And while you’re at it, try some of their Korintje or Vietnamese cinnamon too. And cumin. And garlic (the most recent catalog had a write-up about how the Penzey’s folks finally found a garlic grower willing to do what Penzey’s has wanted forever – somebody to cut OFF the little brown stem part). I use fresh garlic almost all the time, but I may order some of this dry garlic just to try it. And just in case you don’t know me very well – no, I’m not getting paid by Penzey’s to tout their stuff. I simply believe in their products and have been nothing but happy with everything I’ve ordered from them. You likely will be too. And whenever you make anything that requires broth, I think you’ll be amazed at the flavor! In a recent Cook’s Illustrated or Cook’s Country, Penzey’s chili powder did not fare well. Number one winner there was Spice Islands.
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