Food For Thought

Traveling With Pomegranates ****

Traveling With Pomegranates is listed as a 'travel memoir', but don't be deceived by that simplistic classification.  Sure, there's a bit of souvenir shopping, and wonderful passages that describe foreign locales, but there are other much more complicated journeys occurring in this book. 

Sue Monk Kidd is approaching her 50th birthday and has entered perimenopause with a bang.  Her daughter Ann, is about to graduate from college and enter the 'real' world. Each is crossing the threshold into the unknown and both are confused, and at times depressed, about the changes that are occurring in their lives. Trips through Greece and France bring direction and revelations, while their time spent traveling together renews and strengthens the mother-daughter bond that Sue fears may have diminished while Ann was away at school.

Early on, it becomes apparent that both women are also on spiritual journeys. Sue is continuing the trek she chronicles in her earlier works. Ann's is just beginning.

After reading the book jacket blurb, I fully expected to have a strong connection to Sue, considering she's my peer and the 'mother' half of the writing team.  I was rather surprised to find that I was much more in sync with daughter Ann!

I lost patience with Sue's attitude towards menopause, and her search for her 'Old Woman'.  She spends far too much time contemplating her own death, instead of embracing her new freedoms. About half way through the book, I also lost interest in her obsession with the Persephone-Demeter myth and her quest for the 'sacred feminine' through the Black Madonnas. I suppose that my religious background, combined with a 'Snap out of it already!' attitude are responsible for my irritation with Sue, but those are the reasons that I dropped this book to 4 stars. (Okay, I was a tiny bit sympathetic, but not enough to go for the full 5.)

(FYI: If you ever need a Greek Goddess refresher course, click here and bookmark. It will direct you to a very clever website that's an invaluable and fun resource.)

Before I explain my attraction to Ann's travelogue, I should mention the 'edibles' encountered in the book. Remarkably, little is mentioned about the food in France, although there is a funny hamburger scene.  There are, however, several meals mentioned during the travels through Greece.  This made me happy. This made me cook!

Of course there was the obligatory Greek salad as shown in the first picture.  Always a delightful first course!

Next up...Moussaka.  Ann experiences the Greek national dish while on tour with her college history class.  I read. I salivated. I created.

And last, but not least...dessert.  Baklava would have been appropriate, but Galaktaboureko was something I had been craving. 

Flaky phyllo dough is filled with a custard thickened with farina. Then the entire pastry is bathed in syrup that is flavored with orange peel and cinnamon. A perfect end to a perfect meal. Indeed this was food for the Gods and Goddesses!  (I think Mary would have approved, too.)

Now back to Ann, and why I was so taken with her version of the story.  I was only a year younger than Ann when I found myself in Greece for 2 1/2 months. My closest friend and her mother were going on an extended vacation to visit family and asked if I would like to go. I hesitated, but like Ann, I heard, "If you don't go, you'll regret it."  I listened. I went. It changed my life in a way that was very similar to what Ann experiences.  The tour guide assigned to Ann's college group tells her that this life changing experience is called 'the Greek Miracle.'  I didn't know there was a name for it.  I just know that it happened to me.

Ann was a history major in college, and was researching a paper on Athena while on her first tour.  She was hoping to see this relief in the museum at the Acropolis in Athens, but the museum was closed. She doesn't get to see the piece until a return trip a few years later.  When she does finally get to view the real thing, her interpretation is different. Her life has changed. She sees the relief through different eyes.

I was an English major, and except for the photos in our art history textbook, and the Parthenon made out of sugar cubes that was enthroned in a corner of the art room, I had little knowledge of Greek art.  I reveled in all art that I encountered in Greece, but the statue of Aphrodite and Eros fending off Pan that is on display in the National Museum in Athens, struck a particular chord with me.  I probably would have been transfixed in front of this piece for several hours if the museum hadn't closed for the night.

I thought that I was Aphrodite in this scenario, because I was the Queen of two dates.  If I didn't think a particular date was 'the one', I refused number 3, sandal in hand.  I was working my way through college and didn't have the time or inclination to waste on dead ends.  My mother used to tell me that I was too critical.

Now, many years later, I'm wondering if I was actually Pan in the grouping. Was I afraid of being alone?  (His name is the root for the word panic.) 

I did start dating my husband a few months after I returned from the trip.  When my mother flippantly asked me if they'd be seeing 'this one' again, my immediate answer was, "Yes. This one I'm going to marry."  I had a new open heart and equally open mind, but I still wasn't willing to settle for 2nd best. Lo and behold, Mr. Right had materialized.Strange, no?

It took me a long time to write this post.  I kept stopping to look at pictures and postcards from that trip, and reread the journal that I kept that summer.  Honestly, I think I enjoyed my reverie more than I enjoyed Sue and Ann's memoir. Our experiences certainly do color how we feel about what we read.

(Note: If you're a fan of Sue's novel, The Secret Life of Bees, you can watch the groundwork for the book take shape during the authors travels.  I also feel compelled to explain the lack of pomegranate photos in this post. Earlier this week, I scoured my corner of NE Pennsylvania for one of these exotic beauties, but alas, my hunt was 'fruitless.')

This post is being linked to Food for Thought. Please click on the link to discover more timely 'edible' book reviews.

Food for Thought

Here If You Need Me ***** Kate Braestrup is not just another housefrau, and her book, Here If You Need Me, is definitely not just another run of the mill memoir. The story begins when her husband, Drew, a 34 year old Maine State Trooper, is killed in an automobile accident while on patrol. Left a widow, with four young children, Kate is led to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a minister.

After she completes her studies, Kate seeks employment as a counsler with the State Police, which was Drew's goal, but there are no positions available, and she is ultimately employed by the Maine Game Warden Service.

Drawing on her skills, (she was already an accomplished writer), Ms. Braestrup chronicals her husband's death, her experiences as Chaplain to the Warden Service, and the trials of being a single parent. She does this with a very deft hand. She also explores the spirituality of death as it relates to her family and job situations, and the healing power of love. I truly admired the candor she displays in the telling of her amazing journey through difficult situations. Her honesty is at once refreshing and awe inspiring. How she manages to pack this all into a relatively short book is downright amazing.

Food vignettes in this book center around comfort food. Right after news of Drew's death reaches the community, a neighbor brings brownies to the family's doorstep. It's just the first of many such deliveries that will be made in the weeks and months following the accident.

The Warden Service also runs on food. The Wardens fish, trap hunt and then prepare their catch. They even do all of the cooking and serving at their annual dinner.

Kate's on call 24/7, and sometimes is on extended duty during search and rescue missions. She mentions endless cups of coffee and sandwiches eaten in the cabs of the Warden's trucks, and the stews and soups dipensed by the Salvation Army canteens set up on site.

Family meals get a nod too, and are woven into the tale of balancing a life where multitasking is the norm.

The book ends with the description of a search for an Alzheimer patient who has wandered into the woods. Volunteers who are too old to search the woods gather at the firehouse and cook for the professionals and volunteers combing the area.

I really admire Kate Braestrup and I'm totally taken by this book, but I feel obliged to issue a warning. If you're the least little bit squeamish about the mechanics of death, you may want to read this memoir with a bit of caution. It's not gorey, just candid and real...very, very real.

This post is being linked to Food For Thought. For more reviews, please pop over to the website by clicking the button at the top of the page.

Food for Thought

Consuming Passions - A Food Obsessed Life *****

Do you read cook books like they're novels? Do you enjoy a good memoir? Do you like to laugh? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Consuming Passions by Michael Lee West should fly to the top of your 'must read' list.

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Author West takes us on a guided tour of the southern kitchens that she knew as a child, but she doesn't stop there. With a witty and breezy writing style, she also candidly chronicles her adventures and mishaps in her own kitchen, while sharing treasured family recipes. Stories about making breakfast for her new husband, mastering the art of making her grandmothers buttermilk biscuits, her husband's foray into bee keeping, and the quest for the best egg salad recipe are wonderful telltale vignettes of a true foodie's life.

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There are also helpful hints scattered through out the book. We learn how to season cast iron cookware, what type of food to bring to a funeral, how to handle kitchen fires and what to do when you're burned while cooking. The aunts and Mama also liberally dispense advice on men folk, and some of their hysterical observations certainly ring true!

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Along the way we're introduced to a wonderful cast of family characters. Aunt Dell, the family 'artiste', Aunt Tempe, renown for her coconut cake, and Ary Jean, West's mama are just a few of the colorful southern women who bring spice and life to this memoir. They're so skillfully drawn, that you feel you know them by the end of the book.

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So pour yourself a tall glass of sweet tea, (if you don't have a recipe there's one in the book), and settle down for a most enjoyable read. Of course you won't be seated for long, because when you read some of these recipes you'll be on your feet, in the kitchen, and up to your elbows in flour!

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This post is being linked to Food For Thought. If you'd like to read more book reviews please just click the icon at the top of this page. You won't be disappointed.

Food for Thought

The Time Traveler's Wife *****

I tend to avoid reading anything that even remotely resembles science fiction. It's a genre that has never appealed to me. That being said, I was making it a habit to avoid The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. I didn't bother reading the New York Times book review. I ignored it when I saw it on the end shelf at the library or in a book store display. I ignored it when it appeared on the best seller list. Need I say that it never appeared on my long hold list at the library? Yet, the book seemed to be presenting itself to me at every turn. Odd, no?

Then one day, it appeared in my hands, carefully wrapped in pretty paper and tied with a bow. A birthday gift...ughhh. I smiled graciously, did a little ooh-aah dance, said thank you, then tossed it in to a carton of books being packed for our move to Pennsylvania.

It was several weeks before the book surfaced again. I was rummaging through moving boxes stored in our unfinished home. I needed some books to read while we waited in a residence hotel for our house to be move in ready, so I tucked it into my tote bag.

That afternoon, I opened the book and started to read. The Walcott poem was the first glimmer of hope that I had for this being a good read. It appears before the dedication and a prologue. It was the first hook...the prologue was the second. A few pages into the first chapter, I was a goner. A love story was emerging. Sure it was a quirky love story with the time travel twist, but the characters were finely drawn and complex. With each passing page, I was drawn deeper and deeper into their story and their unique problem.

The two main characters are Clare, the wife, and Henry, the time travelling husband. Henry never knows when he'll be subject to moving though time or how long he'll be gone. He doesn't know if he'll be going back in time or forward. He starts popping in and out of Clare's life when she is only six years old. She brings him food and clothing, since he's always hungry after one of his passages, and also arrives naked. Some of the food she brings him is quite odd. She later confesses that she wanted to find out if there was anything he wouldn't eat.

Henry is due to appear on Clare's 18th birthday, and she prepares a picnic 'feast' for him. She doesn't know how to cook, and seems to have no desire to learn, so she puts together a rather odd assortment of prepared items from her parent's larder. It's all part of a seduction plan that only an 18 year old could plot. You'll have to read the novel to see how it plays out...

Henry does know how to cook, and when they meet in 'real time' and begin their adult courtship, he prepares a dinner for Clare's 21st birthday...vichyssoise and salmon. He wants to take care of Clare and cooking is one of his offerings...an expression of his love.

By the time Henry is 43 and Clare is 35, he has had a glimpse of what the future has in store, and he begins worrying about leaving Clare alone. The couple also have a daughter, and he's concerned that he won't be there to take care of them. In an effort to prepare Clare for her future, he gives her cooking lessons. After Clare prepares her first meal, and realizes that she can now cook, she stares across the table at Henry and thinks, 'Don't leave me.'

I was rereading this book when the Food for Thought meme came about, and I'm now happy that I was. It was the perfect vehicle for me to join in the fun.

And just a closing thought...the perfect book can be like an abiding true love. You can be narrow minded and refuse to allow it to enter your life, but if it's meant to be, it will somehow find you and endure the test of time.

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