by Eowyn Ivey, an Alaska native. Set in very backwoods Alaska in the 1920s, a middle aged couple arrive to try to realize their dream and to get away from mentally crushing angst about losing their only child in utero. They homestead. He works the land and she takes care of the house and lives in nearly perpetual loneliness and sadness. At times the couple come together in loving accord, but often they do not. One day they build a snow man. Well, a snow girl. The next morning the snow girl is demolished and the mittens and scarf have disappeared. Eventually they spot a small child who darts through the woods (with red mittens and scarf) with her pet fox and barely seems to touch the ground. Is she real? Where does she live? Is she a figment of their imaginations? Anything else I say could ruin the story. It’s a vivid portrayal of the rough homesteading life back then, yet it’s full of love and friendships. And full of the magic of the snow child. 
by 
by Helen Bryan. I got it as a bargain Kindle book. Liked the idea of the story, but I had difficulty keeping track of the characters. It’s about 5 women from all walks of life who converge in a small country village in England during the middle of WWII. They have numerous trials and tribulations, from relationships to just getting food on the table. The men or boyfriends they’re involved with are also very different, so each person/couple has a different story to tell. There were many, many typo’s and sentence errors in the Kindle version – distracting to be sure. But for a bargain book, I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I felt the editor didn’t do his/her job for this author as the story just didn’t have the cohesiveness I was hoping for. I nearly abandoned the book altogether about half way through, but stuck it out.The author wraps everything up at the end, maybe a bit too neatly, which may not be very realistic.
What a book. I was riveted. My friend (and cooking instructor) Tarla Fallgatter recommended this book, and what a treasure it is. I can’t tell you a whole lot about it or I’d be giving away too much of the story. It opens in London, with an ordinary man, with an ordinary wife. He is asked by his sister to help construct a leakproof cement box for her and her husband to take their valuables on an across-the-ocean voyage on a sailboat. They’re planning to move from England to Canada. He does, since he’s a master of constructing small things. Meanwhile, they also ask this childless couple to care for their young daughter for 4 months while they do this traverse-the-ocean thing, and then they’ll have her fly to their new home. Can you guess? They don’t make it, and that’s an integral part of the story too. The husband (and now the new father of his niece) embarks on a journey to – - well, go to the place where the hurricane foundered them. Oh, but there’s so much more to the story. This is written by 
by Rosie Thomas. (There are lots of other books by the same title, but they’re about shawls, not a novel.) In cleaning out their father’s belongings after his death, Mair comes across an incredibly beautiful shawl with a tiny saved lock of blonde hair. The shawl is exquisite. Her grandparents were poor. She knows there must be more to the story. She’s at odds and ends, and decides to retrace her grandparents’ steps when they were missionaries in India around 1940. Part of the story is told from the viewpoint of the granddaughter (Mair) and part from her grandmother (Nerys). There’s a huge cast of characters, but the story is fascinating, particularly since war was raging in Europe, and this couple was sheltered in many ways by being in India and Srinagar. Not quite a page turner, but it’s very interesting. Worth reading for sure. This is a new book.
. It’s a real winner. It brings to the forefront some very touchy issues, about decisions one makes, or that two people make, that can have huge repercussions, not just today, tomorrow, next year or a generation from now. The background story involves a relatively remote island off Australia (this takes place before satellites and the internet or cell phones), and a young man goes to work at the lighthouse on this island. Eventually he marries. A good woman, and she willingly goes to live on this remote island too. She miscarries 2 children. Out on this remote island with no help. Then one day a boat washes ashore and there’s a dead man and a tiny baby, who’s alive. I don’t want to ruin any of it. Just read it!
; 
(just the cutest book – with a miscellany of things – letters, grocery lists, notes, reminders, confessions the author discovered hidden inside the books he purchased for his used bookstore); and 
.
A hearty cake with some polenta and a food-processor-made almond meal. The topping has a lemon syrup poured over and it’s allowed to soak in, then you put on a crème fraiche glaze. Do serve with some whipped cream or ice cream – it needs it.
This recipe came from a cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter. It’s a recipe she found at Food & Wine last year. Since I get that magazine, I guess I breezed on by it. The cake is not your typical light-as-a-feather style – this is a more rustic version since it contains not only almond meal (that you make yourself – do not use purchased almond meal) but also polenta or cornmeal.
There are several steps to making this, but it’s not difficult. Hopefully you have a stand mixer, as the sugar and egg mixture needs to mix for about 10 minutes or so – until they attain a ribbony texture. Raw almonds are pulsed to a small mince with the polenta in the food processor. You definitely do NOT want almond meal – that’s too fine – this is a rustic cake with some definite tooth-bite to it. The dry ingredients are added in and the cake is baked in a 10-inch springform pan. While it’s baking you make a lemon sugar syrup – nothing more than a simple syrup with lemon juice in it and it’s poured over the hot cake – while it’s still in the springform pan – that way the sugar syrup will soak down into the cake. Once it’s cooled, you remove the pan and frost with the crème fraiche glaze. (It has lemon juice in it too.) That’s it. Tarla sprinkled candied violets over the top, but that’s purely optional.
What’s GOOD: the different texture – this isn’t a layer cake kind of dessert. Expect some chew to it and it’s not overly moist either. That’s why it needs to be served with something else like whipped cream or ice cream, and definitely some sugared berries or juicy stone fruit. Really delicious flavor, though.Worth making.
What’s NOT: really nothing – it does take some time and effort to make, though. None of the steps are daunting, however.
printer-friendly PDF – created using Cute PDF Writer, not Adobe
MasterCook 5+ import file – right click to save (remember where), run MC, File|Import
* Exported from MasterCook *
Almond Cake with Lemon and Crème Fraîche Glaze
Recipe By: From Tarla Fallgatter, cooking instructor, 2013 (originally from Food & Wine, 2012)
Serving Size: 10
CAKE:
1 stick unsalted butter — melted and cooled, plus more for the pan
1 cup almonds — whole, unsalted
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup polenta — or cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs — at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup crème fraîche
SYRUP:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
GLAZE:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1. CAKE: Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 10-inch springform pan.
2. Spread the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 4 minutes, until they are slightly fragrant. Let the almonds cool completely. In a food processor combine the almonds and cornmeal. Coarsely chop them – pulse the mixture until the almonds are finely ground but not pasty.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the ground almond mixture, flour, baking powder, rosemary, lemon zest and salt. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk, combine the eggs and sugar and beat at medium-high speed until tripled in volume, 10 minutes, or until it’s ribbony in texture. With the mixer at low speed, add the crème fraîche, then drizzle in the melted butter just until incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg mixture into the dry ingredients in 3 batches. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until a paring knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
4. SYRUP: While the cake is baking prepare syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the water, sugar and lemon juice and boil for 3 minutes. Let cool.
5. Set the hot cake on a rimmed baking sheet and pour the syrup evenly over it. Let the cake cool completely. Remove the side and bottom of the pan and transfer the almond cake to a platter.
6. GLAZE: In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, crème fraîche and lemon juice until smooth. Spread the glaze all over the top of the cake. Let stand until the glaze sets slightly, then cut into wedges and serve.
7. Ideally, serve this with some sugared fresh fruit that has marinated for half an hour or so – like strawberries or peaches so they make a syrup. Since the cake is a bit on the dry side, you’ll enjoy the moisture from the fruit.
Per Serving: 469 Calories; 25g Fat (47.5% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 54g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 130mg Cholesterol; 295mg Sodium.
. Maybe it was in Rombauer’s earlier editions, but this is the book I own because my old one from the 1950’s was falling apart. I looked up many other recipes, and they were all the same – mangoes, sugar of some form and either lime or lemon juice. Plus just a bit of water to make the sauce almost pourable. That’s it. See? I said it was easy!
jittering around inside the pan. Here at right is a picture I found online. I’ve written about it before, but it’s a battery-operated device that sits inside the pan, has silicone feet and once you turn it on (mine has 4 speeds), it jitters itself around the pan, turning in circles to keep the pot contents moving – stirring. It’s an automatic stirring device is all I can tell you, and it worked SO perfectly for this pudding! I also use it on the rare occasions I make risotto. It’s ideal for sauces. Just an aside about this device – if you go online, lots of people don’t like it. Including Consumer Reports, who found it worked for very few things. A thick sauce will stop it cold. Some people think it’s a joke. Mine works well – have never used it except on 
. The key is the sloping edge – you don’t want a squared-off 90° angle as it’s very difficult to stir that corner (whether you’re using a stirring device or an ordinary spoon) and keep the pudding from burning. Or if you’re making a sauce, or a creamy soup. This particular pot is called a soup pot.
There’s only one really big “condition” about making this – 
. She brought the pan from home because most cooking schools don’t have this cake pan size! Don’t get confused with the pans – the company (and amazon, at the link above) also sells a 10×15 deeper 2-inch cake pan too (which probably would work), but this recipe just plain works perfectly in the 10×15. The pan has a flat side lip on the edges – a flat edge that makes for easy grabbing right out of the oven. NOTE: when you click to the actual pan through the link above, it SAYS it’s an 11×15 pan – and if you measure it edge to edge, it is 11×15, but the interior is 10 inches. And make sure you get the one with the 1-inch depth – they also have a cookie sheet (no edges). Read the description carefully.
Leave a Comment!