Booking Thru Thursday

This week's Booking Thru Thursday question is this:

What’s the last book that made you spring to your feet, eager to spread the word and tell everyone how much you enjoyed it?

While I am always ready and willing to share a book, the one that literally made me spring to my feet was,  "A Land More Kind Than Home," by Wiley Cash.

Kathy at Bermudaonion recommended it to me as an audio book, and I LOVED IT.   I wanted others to listen to it also, and was a bit nervous that it wouldn't be as good when read, but I needn't have worried.  I shared the name of the book with some book club friends who they passed the novel around between them (not an Ipod or audio listen in the group) and they too LOVED the book.

I had fun going out to lunch with a couple of them to discuss the book, as a book club 'extra'.  And now we all are  'springing' to our feet to recommend it.

It's such a good read, I couldn't do it justice if I tried to explain it. I just know--YOU don't want to miss it!

And that is my answer for Booking Through Thrusday.

Outdoor Wednesday

Well, it seems appropriate to me---to share some outdoor Nevada activities, since I work in the tourism trade. (Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center) 
Happy Wednesday!

I am linking up to Outdoor Wednesday hosted by a Southern Daydreamer.

Fry Sauce

Fry Sauce = Yum!
What?   You have no idea what I'm talking about? 

I just discovered that not everyone in the United States knows about Fry Sauce.

Let me backtrack a bit--
I love regional cooking, regional traditions and regional history/food history.

It's SO distinct in the South (grits, country ham, Cajun, GOOD--meaning real-- BBQ) the East ( lobster rolls, clam chowder, baked beans) the Midwest (cheese, pork sausage, jello desserts they pass off as salads--don't get me wrong, I love Jello desserts passed off as salads. I'm just sayin'--Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza), the Southwest ( chilies,  enchiladas, rustic cooking, Mexican influence, tacos,)  The Pacific Northwest (smoked salmon, Alaskan King Crab,  trout, fresh water fish, fruits, berries). 
And so on.  Let me state, for the record, that Texas and California have their very own food stuff and styles.  They make it up, put their own inique spin on it (Tex-Mex and Fresh Mex and Baja Style).

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I felt a camaraderie with the people when it came to food.
Then I moved to Nevada--The Great Basin area of the United States--there's not even a Wikipedia entry for foods of this region.  It's sad really.  
I guess  we could be lumped with chuck-wagon food  (cowboy beans, beef steak, fried potatoes).
I wanted to be known for something cooler than a T-bone steak tho.  Or a bowl of cowboy beans cooked in a Dutch Oven.

And then.... I heard some new friends from Texas say they just had Fry Sauce for the very  first time and really liked it.  I thought  WTH? It's fry sauce.   Then they explained they had never heard of it before, let alone  tasted it.
I emailed my friend in California--and said "can you believe it?--she said she has never had or heard of Fry Sauce.
I said,  YES YOU HAVE.  It's only stupid Fry Sauce--everyone's heard of it.

Then I Googled it.  It seems as if it is a regional thing. Apparently not everyone has heard of it.  Huh. Interesting.

 Fry sauce is a simple combination of ketchup and mayonnaise popular in Utah restaurants as a dipping sauce for French fries. Utah-based burger chain Arctic Circle claims to have invented fry sauce in the 1940s.  (this is from A history of fry sauce by Marsha Maxwell.  Click the link to find out more and to get the recipe on making your own fry sauce.  Be sure and click the AC link to see more about the burger chain)

Fry Sauce is not only popular in Utah. While it might have originated in Utah, there were Arctic Circle burger chains all over, UT, NV, ID, OR and WA when I was growing up, and we all loved AC!
WE HAVE OUR OWN REGIONAL FOOD IDENTITY!   How cool is that?  I'm so relieved.

Of course, it's just mayo and ketchup.  Mixed together.  Most 2 year olds could do it.   But it's good.  I like it better than ketchup.  I love it, in fact.
I LOVE stupid fry sauce!!

Unless I go to Zips. (Which is a really, localized burger joint in Washington and Idaho. )  THEN, I dip my french fries in their homemade tarter sauce.  Mmmmmm.   But that's another story.  For another time. 
Well, wait a minute!  Hold the phone!  Keep your pants on!   Hold your horses!
 I already told that story...see here.

Now, go eat some French Fries everybody. Make fry sauce and see if you like it.

PS:  I'm sure they have a version of Fry Sauce in every region of the U.S, right?  Except for Texas and California rumor has it.

*******************************************************************

For the record.... I present 

 "The Great Basin"

(yes, we really do have wild horses, and no we are not all cowboys)

Weekend Cooking

I have a bit of an obsessive personality.  It comes out in strange ways, at strange time, with strange things.  Never has it come out in  dieting and exercising (sigh), but in things like collecting cookbooks (or skeleton keys or clocks).

See this picture?  That's the top of my kitchen book shelf.  There are 6 shelves on it and they are all full.  Most of my cookbooks are stored here, but not all of my cookbooks are.  

I love having all my cookbooks at my finger tips.
I want my friends to think ---WOW!  
But most of them think  WTH?
I want them to think--that is so cool, she has a lovely collection of cookbooks.
But most of them think--no sane person needs that many cookbooks.


We have had two of our grandchildren for a week, (I took the train with them last weekend) and today we drove  3 hours to meet their dad, who also drove over  3 hours for the trade-off.  
On the drive, I took some cookbooks with me and started to bookmark things I wanted to make.

BECAUSE, I tend to buy a cookbook, read it and put it on the shelf never to be looked at again.  Well, I look at them all the time, because I love them, but I don't always use them like I should.    I am thinking the colorful little page makers will call out to me each week as I'm making my menu.

I had 6 hours in a car and it just seemed like a good idea at the time.  I plan on going thru every cookbook and marking things I want to make.  (see?  a bit obsessive,  as I have over 200 cookbooks)
Rich  (the Handyman) says I will die before I get them all made, OR before I read all the books I want to read-- but I am hopeful  And what is life without hope?

That's what I did today.  I lead an exciting life.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs.

She says random thoughts.  See?  Right there above.  Random thoughts.  
That's what this is:  a Weekend Cooking random thought.

I am linking up to Weekend Cooking at  Beth Fish Reads.

Oh...and PS:  I found Ginger Beer here in our little town.  I've been looking for Ginger Beer for a few months now.  

I want to try a "Dark and Stormy"  (dark rum, ginger beer and lime)

just because I can.

Spicy Beet, Leek & Walnut Salad-- I Heart Cooking Clubs

Here I am--participating in "I Heart Cooking Clubs" once again.  It's been over a year, but I really wanted to  try it again, but...  (and this is the nice thing about I Hearts Cooking Clubs---no pressure at all. Thank you, thank you IHCC)    I will probably only be participating every other week.  I can't keep up with the mega food bloggers.  I wish I could, but I just can't.

So, here we are, week one and it is anything goes to welcome the new chef:  Yotam Ottolenghi.  (only new to me and to IHCC).  (Check out IHCC to learn more about him--it should be an interesting 6 months.  I bought one of his cookbooks --Jerusalem-- and it is gorgeous!  Lots of veggies and healthier meals.  I hope the Handyman can handle this.  He's pretty much  a meat and potatoes kinda guy)

My 'anything' goes is a beet salad.   I wasn't as organized as I had wanted to be so I was at the market at  7am this morning, trying to find  what I needed.  We both like beets, so I figured this was quick and easy.  To be honest, I didn't think we would like this.  I was just doing it because I really wanted to participate in IHCC from the beginning. 

But guess what?  I really did like it.  We both did.  It's just a slightly spicy dressed cold beet on arugula with some leeks and walnuts and pomegranate   seeds.   (there really were a lot of walnuts in there, hiding, I suppose, under the beats)

I followed the recipe except for a couple of things in the dressing...it called for walnut oil, but I didn't want to spend  $8.99 for   1/2 tsp walnut oil.  I just used a little extra peanut oil.
And  tamarind water.  I had to  Google it to see what it was, and then Google how to make a substitute for it.  It said to use lemon or lime juice with a couple of pinches of brown sugar.  So, that's what I did. 
I think it turned out great.

Spicy Beet, Leek and Walnut Salad

Ingredients

• 4 medium beets
• 4 medium leeks, cut into 4-inch segments
• 1/2 oz cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 1 1/4 cups arugula
• 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds (optional)
• 1 cup walnuts, coarsely copped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoon tamarind water
• 1/2 teaspoon walnut oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoon walnut oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Cooking directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and roast them in the oven to 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on their size. Once cooked, you should be able to stick a small knife through to the center easily. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Once cool enough to handle, peel the beets, halve them and cut each half into wedges 3/8 inch thick at the base. Put in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Place the leeks in a medium pan with salted water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, until just cooked; it's important to simmer them gently and not to overcook them, so they don't fall apart. Drain and refresh under cold water, then use a very sharp serrated knife to cut each segment into 3 smaller pieces and pat dry. Transfer to a bowl, separate from the beets, and set aside.
4. While the vegetables are cooking, mix together all the dressing ingredients (starting with walnuts through salt) and leave to one side for at least 10 minutes for all the flavors to come together.
5. Divide the walnut dressing and the cilantro equally between the beets and the leeks and toss gently. Taste both and add more salt if needed. To put the salad together, spread most of the beets on a serving platter, top with some arugula, then most of the leeks, then the remaining beets, and finish with more leeks and arugula. Sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds, if using, and serve.

Saturday Snatpshot

Just a little desert walk

3 facts:

(right around the corner--about a mile-- from my neighborhood)

(all  photos taken on the same walk)

(the desert is amazing)

I am linking up with Alyce from  At Home With Books and her Saturday Snapshot meme.

 Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken.  Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see.

A couple of books and a long train ride

Last Friday, I took the train from home to the Bay Area of California...a  10 hour train ride.  It was fun, relaxing (I could read, sleep, eat and then start all over again), and oh so beautiful going over the  Sierra Nevadas. It's scary how much snow there 'isn't' this year tho.  The west  is going thru a drought.  Water is going to be scarce this summer.

I stayed in the Bay Area for a couple of days and enjoyed Easter with my son and his family and then on Monday I boarded the train once again for my 10-hour trip home--with two 3-year olds, twins. My grandchildren.
It was just as fun an experience on the trip back---but different than the trip over. We played with play-dough, colored in coloring books, watched a movie, ate and slept.

Eli had gotten a toy digital camera in his Easter basket--he took pictures of the whole train trip.  Including passengers.  He loves it, and he loved the train ride.

They both did---for the first two hours (of a ten hour trip), they were glued to the window.  It's really a great way to travel if you are taking kids.

Over the weekend and train ride, I did get to finish 2 books that I had started.

Mudbound, by Hilary Jordan is the book I have chosen for World Book Night.

All I can say is: WOW.  I loved this book.  Although loved is a strange word to use as a description for a book that takes place in 1946 on a Mississippi Delta farm--a book that's all about the Jim Crow South, so let me just say that the story really touched my heart.  It was disturbing in many ways, but Jordan made her characters come alive, and they helped tell a riveting, unforgetable story.

So glad I chose this to give out on April 23rd/World Book Night.  I can't wait to share it.





Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage. 
I listened to this one on my iPod.

It was told in 4 different voices, one for each of the marriage partners, which I thought a good way to do the audio, since  hearing a different voice  with each chapter when different thoughts, ideas and opinions were stated, made it a bit easier for me to identify with the authors.
That is IF I could identify with their lifestyle, which I really can't,  never having lived it.  But I did feel some sense of compassion for their struggles and prejudices for living this alternative lifestyle.

 
Goodreads says this:
From a family that inspired 'Big Love's' story of Bill Henrickson and his three wives, this first-ever memoir of a polygamous family captures the extraordinary workings of a unique family dynamic, and argues for the acceptance of plural marriage as an alternative lifestyle.


I am giving it 3 stars, because I liked it very much.  Polygamy has always intrigued me (I hesitate to use that word, because my friend Kathy at Bermudaonion used it when we were talking about this book and I don't want her to think I'm being a copy cat.  But seriously, she recommended it to me because it was just that--intriguing.)  And--- if we are talking about an alternative lifestyle between consenting adults, I can 'kind of'  get that---but I cannot get (even a tad bit)  the Warren Jeffs kind of  polygamist commune fundamentalism.
This story is not that.  This story is something completely different and sheds a whole new light on polygamy, and what it is and what it isn't.

Sometimes, it did seem as if the wives talked more about what made their marriage hard, rather than what made it good, but I think they were trying to answer questions that many main stream Americans have--don't you get jealous, isn't it hard to find time alone with your spouse,  what about the children, etc.

What we forget is that their marriages are based on a spiritual principle, and that is what they are striving for,  not some crazy sex-filled foursome or whatever--it's not about that.   And if I have respect for other's beliefs then I have to have an open mind for  main-stream polygamy.  Right?  I didn't say I agreed with it, just that my mind is open...to reading the book.   And I liked it.
It was very interesting. 

That's what I have been up to.