Here are the tastingspoons players. I’m in the middle (Carolyn). Daughter Sara on the right, and daughter-in-law Karen on the left. I started the blog in 2007, as a way to share recipes with my family. I’m still doing 99% of the blogging and holding out hope that these two lovely and excellent cooks will participate. They both lead very busy lives, so we’ll see.
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BOOK READING (from Carolyn):
Music of Bees, Eileen Garvin. Absolutely charming book about a woman in midlife, lonely, who raises bees, also makes unlikely friends. Heart-warming and very interesting about beekeeping.
A Postcard from Paris, Alex Brown. Really cute story. Dual time line, 1940s and present day about renovating an old apartment in Paris, things discovered.
Time of the Child, Niall Williams. Oh such a good book. Very small village in Ireland, 1960s. A baby is left on the doorstep. The town all whispers and helps. I listened to an interview of the author, which made me like him and his books even more.
Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy. If you like animals you’ll swoon. An old woman who really wants to die finds a tiny mouse in her house and befriends it and finds a reason to live. Utterly charming book.
The Forger’s Spell, Edward Dolnick. True story. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of Johannes Vermeer.
If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now, Christopher Ingraham. Could hardly put it down – about a journalist who takes on a challenge to move to small town in Minnesota and write about it. He expects to hate it and the people and place, but he doesn’t. Absolutely wonderful true story.
The River We Remember, William Kent Kreuger. 1950s, Minnesota. A murder and the aftermath. Could hardly put it down. Kreuger has such a vivid imagination and writing style.
How the Lights Gets In, Joyce Maynard. An older woman returns to New Hampshire to help care for her brain-injured son. Siblings and family, lots of angst and resentments.
The Filling Station, Vanessa Miller. Every American should read this book. A novelized retelling of the Tulsa massacre in 1921. Absolutely riveting.
The Story She Left Behind, Patti Callahan Henry. Love this author. Based on a true story. A famous author simply vanishes, leaving her husband and daughter behind. She had invented a mystical language no one could translate. Present day, someone thinks he’s solved the riddle, contacts the family. Really interesting read.
The Girl from Berlin, Ronald Balson. Love anything about Tuscany. An elderly woman is being evicted from a villa there, with odd deed provenance. Two young folks go there to help unravel the mystery. Loved it.
The Island of the Colorblind, Oliver Sacks, M.D. Nonfiction. The dr is intrigued by a remote Pacific island where most of the inhabitants are colorblind. He also unravels a mystery on Guam of people born with a strange neurological problem. Medical mysteries unveiled. Very interesting.
The Bookbinder, Pip Williams. Post 1914 London. Two sisters work at a bookbindery. They’re told to not read the books. One does and one doesn’t. One has visions beyond her narrow world; the other does not. Eventually the one gets into Oxford. Lovely story.
The Paris Express, Emma Donoghue. 1895 on a train to Paris, a disaster happens. You’ll delve into the lives of many people who survived and died in the crash.
A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Richard Grant. This is about Arizona. Author, wife and child move back to Arizona where they once lived. Part memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place.
The Scarlet Thread, Francine Rivers. A woman’s life turned upside down when she discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Kathryn McMurray, a young woman who was uprooted from her home only to endure harsh frontier conditions on the Oregon Trail.
A Place to Hide, Ronald Balson. 1939 Amsterdam, an ambassador has the ability to save the lives of many Jewish children. Heartwarming.
Homeseeking, Karissa Chen. Two young Chinese teens are deeply in love, but in China. Then their families are separated. Jump to current day and the two meet again in Los Angeles.
North River, Pete Hammill. He always writes such a good story. A doctor works diligently healing people from all walks of life. His wife and daughter left him years before. One day his 3-yr old grandson arrives on his doorstep.
A Very Typical Family, Sierra Godfrey. A very messed-up family. Three adult children are given a home in Santa Cruz, Calif, but only if the siblings meet up and live in the house together. A very untypical scenario but makes for lots of messes.
Three Days in June, Anne Tyler. The usual Anne Tyler grit. Family angst. This wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was entertaining and very short.
Saved, Benjamin Hall. Author is a veteran war reporter. Ukraine, 2022, he nearly loses his life to a Russian strike. Riveting story – he survives, barely.
Grey Wolf, Louise Penny. Another Inspector Gamache mystery in Quebec. She is such an incredible mystery writer.
All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each. Could hardly put it down.
Orbital, Samantha Harvey. Winner of 2024 Booker Prize. I don’t usually like those, but I heard the author interviewed and she hooked me. This is not a normal book with a beginning, a story and an end. It’s several chapters of the day in the life of various astronauts at the ISS (Int’l Space Station). All fictional. She’s been praised by several real astronauts for “getting it” about space station everyday life.
The Blue Hour, Paula Hawkins. An island off Scotland. Inaccessible except when the tide is out. Weird goings on. An artist. A present day mystery too.
Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger. A judge is murdered and a boy is missing. Riveting mystery.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Ricks Brunt. 1980s. A 14-yr old girl loses her beloved uncle. Yet a new friendship arises, someone she never knew about.
Four Treasures of the Sky, Jenny Zhang. 1880s, a young girl is kidnapped in China and brought to the United States. She survives with many hurdles in the path.
The Boy Who Fell out of the Sky, Ken Dornstein. Memoir, 1988. The author’s brother died in the PanAm flight that went down in Lockerbie, Scotland. A decade later he tries to solve “the riddle of his older brother’s life.”
Worse Care Scenario, T.J. Newman. Oh my. Interesting analysis of what could/might happen if a jet crashed into a nuclear plant. Un-put-downable.
Song of the Lark, Willa Cather. Complicated weave of a story about a young woman in about 1900, who has a gifted voice (singing) and about her journey to success, not without its ups and downs.
Crow Talk, Eileen Garvin. Charming story which takes place at a remote lake in Washington State, about a few people who inhabit it, the friendships made, but also revolving around the rescue of a baby crow.
The Story Collector, Evie Woods. Sweet story about some dark secrets from an area in Ireland, a bit magical, faerie life, but solving a mystery too.
A Sea of Unspoken Things, Adrienne Young. A woman investigates her twin brother’s mysterious death. She goes to a small town in California to figure it out, to figure HIM out.
The King’s Messenger, Susanna Kearsley. 1600s England, King James. About one of his trusted “messengers,” and his relationship with a young woman also of “the court.” Lots of intrigue.
In the Shadow of the Greenbrier, Emily Matchar. Interesting mystery in/around the area of the famous resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Isola, Allegra Goodman. Hard to describe, survival story on an island in the 1600s.
Save the Date, Allison Raskin. Rom-com, witty, LOL funny. Clever.
The Sirens, Emilia Hart. Numerous time-lines, Australia. Mysteries abound, nightmares, abandoned baby, weird allergies.
Red Clay, Charles Fancher. LOVED this book. Mostly post-Civil War story about the lives of slaves in Alabama during Reconstruction.
Stars in an Italian Sky, Jill Santopolo. Dual time line, 1946 and recent time. Love stories and a mystery.
Battle Mountain, C.J. Box. Another one of Box’s riveting mysteries. Love his descriptions of the land.
Something Beautiful Happened, Yvette Corporon. A memoir of sorts in Greece, tiny island of Erikousa, where the locals hid Jews during WWII. All elusive stories told by the author’s grandmother.
The Jackal’s Mistress, Chris Bohjalian. 1860s Virginia, about a woman who saves the life of a Union soldier. Really good story.
Song of the Magpie, Louise Mayberry. Really interesting story about Australia back in the days when it was mostly a penal colony. Gritty strength of a woman trying to thrive with her farm.
The Boomerang, Robert Bailey. A thriller that will have you gripping the book. About a lot of secrets surrounding the president (fictional novel, remember) and his chief of staff and about cancer. A cure. Such a good story.
Care and Feeding, Laurie Woolever. Really interesting memoir of a woman driven to succeed in the restaurant business. She worked for Mario Batali and then Anthony Bourdain. Gritty stories.
Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green. Maybe not a book for everyone. A real deep dive into the deadly tuberculosis infection, its history. I heard the author interviewed and found the book very interesting.
The Book Lovers Library, Madeline Martin. Fascinating read about Boots’ drug stores’ lending library. And the people who worked in them.
The Arrivals, Meg Mitchell Moore. LOL funny, about a middle-aged couple whose children (and their various family members) return to the family home and the chaos that ensues.
My Life as a Silent Movie, Jesse Lee Kercheval. About grief. A big move to Paris, finding herself a new life with a new set of real blood family.
Escape, Carolyn Jessop. Another memoir about a woman really in bondage in Utah, Mormon plural marriage.
My blog's namesake - small, old and some very dented engraved silver plated tea spoons that belonged to my mother-in-law, and I use them to taste my food as I'm cooking.
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Posted in Uncategorized, on December 24th, 2008.
This little rotund guy, who stands about 9 inches high, is not well made. From China, you would know! But he’s cute, and if you don’t look too closely, you won’t notice the mistakes – the haphazard painting job, the precarious attach job on his base. His hat falls off. And he’s brand new. But cheap. He sits on my dining room table, along with a myriad of other Christmas decorations that give diners something to look at on my table. I can’t decide whether this was a wise purchase or not.
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 23rd, 2008.
I can’t believe I haven’t given all of you a list of recipes appropriate for some big holiday meals. Since I’m not doing a big dinner at my house, I just plain forgot. So here’s a partial list of dishes that would be suitable for whatever kind of big meal you’re doing this week. I don’t have time to insert links for every recipe, but if you just go to my RECIPE INDEX page you’ll find the list of nearly all my recipes and the appropriate links to the story about each recipe, and another link for the PDF recipe:
Appetizers:
Baked Brie & Apples
Crostini with Blue Cheese & Apples
Goat Cheese/Apricot Chutney
Provolone Pesto Torte
Sausage Pinwheels
Beef:
Fillet Mignon, Mushrooms, Blue Cheese
Herb Crusted Tenderloin
Tenderloin in Puff Pastry
Steak Diane Flambe
Beverages:
Hot as Haiti
Hot Buttered Rum
White Lady
Quick Breads:
Bloomin’ Sourdough
Buttermilk Scones
Goat Cheese Chive Muffins
Herbed Biscuit Ring (easy)
Brunch:
Brunch Gratinee Eggs
Breakfast Muffin Cups
Chicken/Poultry:
Kosher Turkey
Turkey Gravy (make ahead)
Desserts:
Bittersweet Mocha Roll
Chocolate Ribbon Dessert
Chocolate Steamed Pudding
Flourless Chocolate Cake/Caramel Sauce
Gingerbread Pudding Cake
Pear Crisp/Browned Butter
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Tiramisu Angel Cake Torte
Salads:
Apple Cherry Walnut Green Salad
Spinach & Berries Salad
Spinach Salad w/Mango
Soups:
Apple Parsnip Soup
Butternut Squash/Jalapeno/Ginger
Cold Green Pea
Cream of Cashew Soup
Roasted Butternut Squash/Pancetta
Vegetables/Sides:
Asparagus w/Chile Butter
BLT Smashed Potatoes
Crumbled Asparagus
Green Beans/Garlic/Olive Oil
Green Beans/Shallots/Balsamic
Gulliver’s Creamed Corn
Mashed Potatoes/Mascarpone
Monterey Scalloped Potatoes
Orzo Carbonara/Thyme
Roasted Carrots & Parsnips
Zucchini Gratin
Zucchini Ribbons
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 21st, 2008.
My friend Kathy gave me this little Santa a couple of years ago. He’s made by some very well known company – who produce a line of exquisite Christmas ornaments. I can’t remember the name. His feet swing free, and his sturdy body sits precariously on a shelf here in my family room. He’s very well painted and outfitted and carries a wand with a star. This guy is a treasure.
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 17th, 2008.
It is good to be children sometimes,
and never better than at Christmas.
–Charles Dickens
I don’t know about you, but I’m behind. The faster I go, the behinder I get. Isn’t that the phrase? Everything in preparation for Christmas will likely come together in the next 6 days or so, but right now, right this minute, I’m feeling the usual crush of too many things to do. Too many places to go. Too much pressure!
Here in Southern California it’s 6:30 am as I write this. It’s 47 degrees outside and raining. Now 47 to some of you is likely laughable. You’d think that’s shorts and t-shirt weather, right? To us, with thin California sunshine skin, it’s cold. Brrrr kind of cold. It’s bone-chilling cold to me. But I’m safely tucked into my house, the heater is cranking away, I fired up the gas logs in the fireplace and made myself a coffee latte and now I’ll start my big day of cooking. I’m taking a casserole to my book group’s annual Christmas potluck tonight, so that will likely be the recipe I’ll post tomorrow. I’m planning to make noodle kugel. Some people eat this as dessert, but my recipe is a semi-sorta sweet side dish made with pineapple and cottage cheese.
Then, tomorrow morning I’ll be entertaining a group of girlfriends of mine. We’ve been meeting for breakfast for decades, and once a year in December we meet at someone’s home for a gift exchange and a nice home made breakfast. I volunteered to have it this year. I’m going to make an eggy muffin thing that I’ve never prepared before, some spiced peaches I read about from Nigella Lawson, and schnecken rolls. The latter I’ve posted before, but didn’t have a photo, so now – I hope – I will, and will post about those in a few days.
So off I go – to catch up. To grocery shop, to cook, clean, set my dining table. And try, though it all, to remember that the reason for it all is to celebrate Christ’s birth, and that it isn’t about the shopping and the eating, but about remembering that Jesus was born long ago in tiny town. That a saviour was born. I don’t use this blog as a podium for my Christianity, but today I felt the need to remind myself that the season is all about Jesus. On Sunday evening my husband and I went to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian church in Newport Beach (not our own church) to hear a wonderful, absolutely wonderful Christmas music concert. Through an occasional drama skit, soloists, their 107-voice choir and 20-piece orchestra we heard the Christmas story. Very moving. This coming Sunday we’ll go to our own church’s music concert, with our 100-voice choir, and probably a 15+ piece orchestra. God and the Holy Spirit speak to me through music. Always have. It’s the words, but more so it’s the glorious music. It stirs my soul. Won’t you treat yourselves to a concert where you live? Go to a Christmas Eve service somewhere. Listen to the words, the lilting voices, and hear the amazing story. Believe.
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 15th, 2008.
Sorry the photo is a bit blurry. But you can get the idea – warm kitchen, warm hands, lots of melting chocolate on said hands as we sprinkled chopped chocolate all over the hot caramel layer for the Chocolate-Almond Saltine Toffee.
Then there’s an even funnier story. When Cherrie and I were madly baking cookies the other day, I set up an assembly line to make the harlequin pinwheels. Six slabs of dough needed to be rolled out between waxed paper. Then the soft chocolate layer was spread on top, nuts sprinkled on that, then carefully, very carefully, we rolled up the rolls before refrigerating them. So, I was doing the rolling out of the dough and Cherrie did the chocolate layer, nuts and rolling them up. I traveled down the production line with my top sheet of waxed paper, pressing, rolling, reforming, rolling, until it was just the right shape. At the 6th one I left the waxed paper on top.
Now, you have to understand, Cherrie wears glasses for reading only. She didn’t have them with her. She carefully went down the row, spreading chocolate, applying nuts, rolling up. When she got to the last one . . . well, let’s just say she couldn’t SEE the waxed paper covering the cookie dough. So she spread the chocolate on top of the waxed paper. All we could do was giggle. Fortunately we had plenty of chocolate and nuts, so it got tossed. Good friends. Good time. Good laughs.
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 14th, 2008.
This guy, a stately looking reindeer if I ever saw one, is made of metal. He’s heavy. Found him in a shop in Colorado a couple of years ago. Sometimes he graces the kitchen island, or the dining room table. Every year I gather all my Christmas “stuff” and pick and choose what goes where. This year he stands guard in back of the kitchen sink where he becomes a silhouette in the light.
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 10th, 2008.
Did you know:
In 1856 Alabama was the first state in the United States to
declare Christmas a legal holiday.
In 1907 Oklahoma became the last U.S. state to declare Christmas
a legal holiday.
— from Merry Christmas: Inspiring Quotes,
Poems, and Stories to Celebrate the Season
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 7th, 2008.
Posted in Uncategorized, on December 3rd, 2008.
I’m tired of cooking. No, don’t worry, it won’t last long. I’m tired of turkey. And I don’t want anything with cranberry relish. Nor any pumpkin pie, either. (I could probably eat another serving of dressing, but there weren’t many leftovers of that.) We have one more dinner meal with the white turkey chili I blogged about the other day, which is just as good if not better after it’s been refrigerated for a couple of days. When that’s gone, I’m gonna be DONE with turkey for awhile. Last night I had plans to make a shrimp thing, but the closer it got to dinner time I didn’t want to cook. We went out instead. So, since I don’t have any recipes to blog about today, thought I’d share with you a photo I took over Thanksgiving weekend at our house in the desert. I couldn’t sleep, got up way before dawn, sat working at my laptop at the bar that overlooks the golf course (it’s below in the dark part you can’t see). I glanced out the window and saw THIS. Gorgeous, huh? That was December 1st and it was 87 that day.
TO MY SUBSCRIBERS: I’ve found out that when my blog was moved to a new host (server) about a week ago, the feed link stopped working (some bad code). So, those of you who subscribe through a feed service or by email subscription, you probably missed 3 or 4 posts I did in the last week. Just go to the blog itself and you can catch up. Sorry about that, and I hope it’s fixed now or will be shortly.
Posted in Uncategorized, on November 27th, 2008.
Here’s a little quick and witty piece of wisdom and will hopefully describe me today as I prepare a big dinner for our family:
The hostess must be like the duck,
calm and unruffled on the surface
and paddling like hell underneath.
. . . . . Anonymous
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