Summer Reading & Summer Eating
July 16, 2007 at 12:29 PM
by Ashleigh
I've been reading. Remember I said I lost my reading mojo? Every book seemed the same and I had no desire to read any of them? I had shelves full of books and no ability to lose myself in any of them.
That's all changed.
First I read Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Now I have Sue Miller's Family Pictures
Did you know that Sue Miller was one of Barbara's lecturers in college? How lucky is she!
I bought a few other books while we were in London. Lori Lansen's The Girls
I also have two Jostein Gaarder books, borrowed from Barbara, to read. Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy
One of our friends from way back is a philosophy lecturer. Perhaps I can understand at least a little of what he's on about once I've read these.
On to the eating part of this post. Because everyone knows that in order to devote yourself entirely to a book you have to have tasty little things to eat, right? I can't tell you how happy I am to be back in the groove with my vitatas. I am so happy I nearly kissed the lady in the shop on Thursday. Which would have taken some doing, as she's ... err... not the kissable sort. Anyway, I get all teary-eyed thinking about my vegetable subscription, which probably has to do with the time of life I'm in.
This week we had blueberries. Organic, super-fresh, dewy blueberries. I made fruit salad with blueberries, banana, mango, apricots, peaches and apple. I sprinkled some of them in the fruit jellies. I ate some just as they were out the box. Then I decided to make a blueberry buckle using Elise's recipe. There were so many possibilities that it was difficult to choose one. Blueberry muffins, blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes. I even froze half the berries while I tried to decide what to do with them.
The clincher for me was Elise's description where she says, 'It in fact tastes much like our family favorite apple coffee cake, but with blueberries instead, like one giant blueberry muffin. Delicious.' Mmm, who can resist a giant blueberry muffin?
The blackberries in my garden are ripening. So are the apples. Apple and blackberry cake. Apple and blackberry crumble. Mmmmm.
I'll be preserving blackberries this year, just like I did the plums.
Did you know that you can preserve fruit really easily? I use Marguerite Patten's instructions which tell you how to sterilise the fruit and the jar before pouring sugar syrup, water, or boiling fruit juice over the fruit and sealing the tops once they overflow.
Soft fruit is best done by layering the fruit and sugar and then sealing without the syrup.
Summer is a wonderful time of the year (even if it is raining and raining ... and raining).
Comments
And here I've been lamenting the fact that I have nothing to read ... I need to go up and check my library shelves out more closely! LOL! Sue Miller, btw, was a pretty hard teacher.
I've got to get over to the larger organic fruit/veggie store on the other side of Gouda. I was drooling over the blueberries at the AH but no way was I paying what they were asking!
So what did ya think fo the history of tractors in Ukranian book? I read it too. You go first :p
I love blueberries. I eat them by the handful. May have to go and get some right now.
Your summer reading sounds great. I also loved The Good Mother (and the film, starring that sex god Liam Neeson), so I'll be hunting down Family Pictures. I've been dying to read A Short History of ..., so looking forward to hearing how you like it.
July 16, 2007 2:13 PM