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Reading Update

Posted by Susanna Fraser at 9:40 PM No comments: Labels: memoir, paleoanthropology, reading, YA


Congratulations to Alyssa Everett!

Today my long-time critique partner Alyssa Everett's first book from Carina Press released.  Technically, it's not her debut book, but that book is caught in the Dorchester death spiral, so this is the first book of hers that you can actually find for sale wherever ebooks are sold: Alyssa has a lovely historical voice, and I recommend Ruined by Rumor to anyone who likes their historicals to pay attention to the mores of the time.

Buy it directly from Carina.

Buy it for your Kindle.

Buy it for your Nook.

Posted by Susanna Fraser at 6:12 PM 2 comments: Labels: Alyssa Everett, Carina, historical romance, Regency, Ruined by Rumor


Catching up on 52 Cookbooks - #26, Good Eats 3

I've always enjoyed Good Eats, and I even met Alton Brown at a book signing once.  We have the entire set of his cookbooks, but I rarely cooked from them before this challenge.  So many of the Good Eats recipes just seem so involved for an everyday, very busy cook.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try something like Brown's coconut cake, but since cooking of necessity comes third behind writing and the day job among my commitments, I rarely have the time or energy for something of that magnitude.

While I doubt I'll be taking on his more complex projects, now that I've sampled a few of his recipes, I plan to try a lot more.  These recipes work, and he explains the steps with enough clarity to reassure the cook who's never tried a particular technique before.

For the midpoint of my random cooking year, I drew Good Eats 3: The Later Years.  After browsing, I settled on Oven Roasted Broccoli (see link for recipe), because Brown recommended it for people who normally find broccoli too bitter.  It's a definite winner.  Best-tasting broccoli I've ever had, without any of that icky bitter mushiness broccoli so easily gets, and only slightly more work than steaming or stir-frying.

Halfway through this project, I've already decided to promote some of my little-used cookbooks to the regular rotation--not least Alton Brown's--while others will get even less play.  In general, I'm finding my older cookbooks, especially those that are fundraiser collections rather than single-authored, just don't have a lot of appealing recipes.  That surprises me a little--I'd expected my taste buds to have more nostalgia for the kind of food I ate growing up.  It feels weird to even think of giving away The Moosewood Cookbook or the 1990's Joy of Cooking, but if I want vegetarian recipes or just a comprehensive encyclopedia of anything a home cook might venture on, my Mark Bittman books pretty much have that covered.

After I've finished my 52 cookbooks, I think I'll keep doing a random rotation--it's a fun challenge, and it gives me something to blog about--but I'll stick to those books I actually liked on this go-round.
Posted by Susanna Fraser at 8:04 PM No comments: Labels: 52 Cookbooks, Alton Brown, food, Good Eats


To Scrivener or not to Scrivener? Labels: Scrivener, writing process


Catching up on 52 Cookbooks - #25, Enough to Feed an Army

When I was an undergrad at Penn, not quite when dinosaurs roamed the planet, but I swear there were still woolly mammoths about (OK, OK, it was 20 years ago), my brother was a math instructor at West Point.  While they were there, my sister-in-law contributed to Enough to Feed an Army: the West Point Officers Wives' Club Cookbook.

It isn't listed on Amazon, so no link, but it's a typical compilation cookbook, with West Point facts and images interspersed here and there.  I got my pumpkin and banana bread recipes from it, though I use chocolate chips instead of the suggested walnuts.  This time, I decided I wanted to pick a vegetable recipe, so I settled on:

Warm Green Bean and Pancetta Salad

1 1/2 lbs. green beans, trimmed
5 oz. pancetta, diced
1/3 c. minced shallots
1 T chopped fresh rosemary or 1 1/2 t. dried rosemary (I used fresh, since we have some growing in our front yard)
2 T plus 1 t. fresh lemon juice (I interpreted this as "juice of 1 lemon")

Cook beans in large pot of boiling, salted water until crisp-tender; drain. Rinse with cold water and drain well. Pat dry.

(I chose to steam the beans instead, since I prefer my beans very lightly cooked.)

Cook pancetta in heavy large skillet over medium heat until crisp, stirring often.  Transfer pancetta to paper towels.  Pour off all but 1 1/2 T fat.  Add shallots and chopped rosemary to skillet and cook over medium heat 2 min, stirring often. Add beans and stir to coat.  Add oil and lemon juice; stir until beans are heated through.  Season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with pancetta. The beans turned out quite tasty.  They're not enough better than my usual preparation, which is just to stir fry till hot in a little olive oil with garlic, salt, and pepper, to replace it for everyday meals.  But I can see myself making it as a side dish at a dinner party someday.
Posted by Susanna Fraser at 10:37 PM No comments: Labels: 52 Cookbooks, Enough to Feed an Army, food


Catching up on 52 Cookbooks - #24, The Pie and Pastry Bible

(I've been cooking from a random cookbook each week even when I've been too busy with edits to blog about it, so now that I'm back in the land of the blogging I'll be posting a month's worth of catch-up entries.)

I don't think of myself as a pie person even though the last few years I've made the pecan and pumpkin pies at our family Christmas celebrations, and depending on the season I often make a pecan or a berry pie when we have dinner guests.  You see, a real pie person would make her own crusts, and for some reason homemade pie crusts intimidate me.  I feel the same way about yeast breads.  I'm game for anything else that's within a normal home cook's repertoire, but those two feel like you need a PhD in advanced cookery to tackle, or something. I don't claim this is rational. Maybe next year my culinary challenge will be "overcome yeast phobia."

My mom could do both, naturally.  She rarely baked bread, but she made pies ALL THE TIME, always made her own crusts, and looked with scorn upon ready-made pie shells.  I mean, next thing you'd be making your cakes from a MIX.

So now, whenever anyone praises my pecan pie, I'm all self-deprecating and say, "Oh, thanks, but I cheated.  I used a store-bought crust. My mom would've made the crust, too." And when The Pie and Pastry Bible came up in the rotation, I felt preemptively guilty, because I knew I'd end up cheating and using a ready-made crust.

But I did not!  Instead I chose to make...


5 c. baking apples, peeled & sliced 1/2 inch thick (~3 large)
1 1/2 t. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 T light brown sugar
2 T granulated sugar
3/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg, pref. freshly grated
1/8 t. salt
1 T unsalted butter

2 T + 2 t. light brown sugar
1 T. sugar
1/2 c. walnut halves
1/16 t. salt
1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
3/4 t. vanilla extract

EQUIPMENT: a 9-inch pie pan

Preheat oven to 400 F. Set oven rack on 2nd level from the bottom.

In a large bowl, combine apples, lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and toss to mix. Allow the mixture to sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a food processor, pulse together sugars, nuts, salt, and cinnamon until the nuts are coarsely chopped.  Add the flour, butter, and vanilla and pulse until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.  Empty into a small bowl and with your fingertips lightly pinch the mixture to form little clumps.

Transfer the apples and their juices to a colander suspended over a bowl to capture the liquid. The mixture will exude about 1/4 c. of liquid.

In a small saucepan, reduce this liquid, over medium-high heat, with the butter, to 2 T.  Pour the hot liquid over the apples, tossing them gently.

Transfer the apples to the baking dish.  Pour in all the remaining juice.  Cover the dish with foil and make a 1-inch slash in the middle.  Bake the apples for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and sprinkle the surface evenly with the topping.  Continue baking for 20-25 minutes or until the topping is crisp and golden brown, the fruit juices are bubbling thickly around the edges, and the apples feel tender but not mushy when a cake tester or small sharp knife is inserted.

Cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

It came out looking like this: Not the most photogenic dessert ever.  It was reasonably tasty, though not enough so to justify the amount of work that went into it. It would've been far better with some vanilla or dulce de leche ice cream, though.
Posted by Susanna Fraser at 8:47 PM No comments: Labels: 52 Cookbooks, food, Pie and Pastry Bible


What I've read while editing

Posted by Susanna Fraser at 9:16 PM No comments: 
Freedom to Love Recent books from my library