Grillo Center Labyrinth

Grillo Center Labyrinth
Meander and Meet....designed by George Peters and Melanie Walker of Airworks For more information contact Susan at susan@well.com

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Saturday Morning Walkers - August 10, 2008

Hi everyone!

We had a very lovely walk on Saturday up to Eben Fine Park and back to Pearl Street. Oh, yes, we started with a Labyrinth walk and smudging with Jan, Barb, Mary, Cass, Andrea, Irma and me. We ended up at the Paradise Cafe for breakfast and good talk.
For those of you who don't know, Irma is undergoing chemo right now for breast cancer. She is only 35 years old!!! Several of us have formed what we like to call "Team Irma" and are united to be her support group. Please keep her in your thoughts!

Book Report:

I just finished a wonderful book - My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme. It is the fascinating story of Julia and her husband, Paul's journey into the world of French cuisine. It is as delightful to read as it was to watch her for all those years on television. I must say that I've always been a bit intimidated by classic French cooking and have never even looked at her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I do plan to get a copy from the library and dabble a little bit.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. With Julia Child's death in 2004 at age 91, her grandnephew Prud'homme (The Cell Game) completed this playful memoir of the famous chef's first, formative sojourn in France with her new husband, Paul Child, in 1949. The couple met during WWII in Ceylon, working for the OSS, and soon after moved to Paris, where Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service. Child describes herself as a "rather loud and unserious Californian," 36, six-foot-two and without a word of French, while Paul was 10 years older, an urbane, well-traveled Bostonian. Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of éminence grise Chef Bugnard. "Jackdaw Julie," as Paul called her, collected every manner of culinary tool and perfected the recipes in her little kitchen on rue de l'Université ("Roo de Loo"). She went on to start an informal school with sister gourmandes Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook for American readers, although it took Child's know-how to transform the tome—after nine years, many title changes and three publishers—into the bestselling Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius.

Another DVD recommendation from Jan - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - apparently pretty dark but Jan really liked it. Great cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Marisa Tomei..

Amazon.com
Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is an exceptionally dark story about a crime gone wrong and the complicated reasons behind it. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are outstanding as brothers whose mutual love-hate relationship subtly colors their agreement to rob their own parents’ jewelry store, and more explicitly affects the anxious aftermath of their villainy when their mother (Rosemary Harris) ends up shot. Hoffman’s steely, emotionally locked-up Andy, despite pulling down six figures as a corporate executive, is supporting an expensive drug habit while trying to leave the country with his depressed wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Hank (Hawke), a whipped dog of low intelligence, owes back alimony and child support to his ex-spouse. Both men need money and agree to rip off their parents' business, a decision that goes awry and puts both men in various kinds of jeopardy while their mother remains comatose and their father (Albert Finney) lurches along trying to make sense of anything. Writer Kelly Masterson's screenplay employs a perhaps now-overly-familiar time-shifting tactic, jumping around the chronology of the story's events and replaying scenes from different vantage points. The effect is a little tedious but successfully deconstructs the film's drama in a way that shows how such terrible events are directly linked to family dysfunction, old wounds between parent and child, between siblings, that fester into full-blown tragedy. Eighty-three-year-old director Lumet (Serpico) employs bleached colors and scenes of blunt sexuality and violence, adding to the moral rudderlessness and banality of this airless world. If Devil feels a little reductive and insistently grim, it is also a generally persuasive work by an old master.

Website/Blog of the Week: http://www.blogher.com/ - a blog for women who blog!

Podcast of the Week: from The Diane Rehm Show on NPR - http://wamu.org/programs/dr/08/08/07.php#21837 - "As We Forgive" - "How a graduate film student stumbled upon her thesis topic on a church trip to Rwanda, told the ongoing story of reconciliation between killers and the families of genocide victims, and won a student Academy Award. Plus, a look at a new Rwandan report accusing top French officials of complicity in the 1994 genocide" - don't miss this - I would like to see this documentary shown in Boulder or Denver - does anyone have any thoughts about how to make that happen?

Vocabulary Word of the Week - Rankle

v. ran·kled, ran·kling, ran·kles
v.intr.
1. To cause persistent irritation or resentment.
2. To become sore or inflamed; fester.
v.tr.
To embitter; irritate.

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[Middle English ranclen, from Old French rancler, alteration of draoncler, from draoncle, festering sore, from Latin dracunculus, diminutive of drac, dracn-, serpent; see dragon.]
Word History: A persistent resentment, a festering sore, and a little snake are all coiled together in the history of the word rankle. "A little snake" is the sense of the Latin word dracunculus to which rankle can be traced, dracunculus being a diminutive of drac, "snake." The Latin word passed into Old French, as draoncle, having probably already developed the sense "festering sore," because some of these sores resembled little snakes in their shape or bite. The verb draoncler, "to fester," was then formed in Old French. The noun and verb developed alternate forms without the d-, and both were borrowed into Middle English, the noun rancle being recorded in a work written around 1190, the verb ranclen, in a work probably composed about 1300. Both words had literal senses having to do with festering sores. The noun is not recorded after the 16th century, but the verb went on to develop the figurative senses having to do with resentment and bitterness with which we are all too familiar.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


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rankle
Verb
[-kling, -kled] to continue to cause resentment or bitterness [Old French draoncle


Cooking and Dining Report:


Chris had a very successful dinner party featuring London Broil with Cherry Balsamic Sauce from Eating Well Magazine - http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/cherry_london_broil.html

From Giada de Laurentiis, Chianti Marinated Beef Stew - Mikki and I loved this, Paul and Jack - not so much! This is definitely more of a winter meal! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chianti-marinated-beef-stew-recipe/index.html

From Fine Cooking, Shrimp Salad Rolls with Tarragon and Chives - a nice light summer dinner - would love to try with lobster!

Ingredients
Kosher salt
2 lb. large shrimp (31 to 40 per lb.), preferably easy-peel
3/4 cup finely chopped celery with leaves
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh chives
1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice; more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
6 hot dog rolls, preferably New England-style split-top rolls

How to make
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until bright pink and cooked through, about 2 minutes.the water needn't return to a boil. Drain in a colander and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Shell the shrimp, devein if necessary, and cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch pieces.
In a large bowl, stir the celery, mayonnaise, chives, tarragon, lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Stir in the shrimp and season to taste with more lemon, salt, and pepper.

Position a rack 6 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler to high. Toast both outside surfaces of the rolls under the broiler, about 1 minute per side. Spoon the shrimp salad into the rolls, using about 2/3 cup per roll, and serve.

Variations
Make it a lobster roll: Substitute 1-1/2 lb. (4 cups) cooked lobster meat for the cooked shrimp.

From Fine Cooking, Linguine with Roasted Red Peppers, Tomatoes and Toasted Breadcrumbs - very tasty and also good for a warm summer night. http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/recipes/quick-italian-pasta-roasted-peppers-tomatoes.aspx?LangType=1033&ac=fp

From Giada de Laurentiis, Fregola with Clams and Mussels - out, out, outstanding!! This is a dish from Sardinia. Fregola are tiny balls of pasta, just a bit bigger than couscous. I wasn't confident that I would find it easily but I was pleasantly surprised to find it at the Oliv shop on Broadway, between Spruce and Pearl. It is right next door to the new spice shop I told you about last week. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_206806,00.html

Quote of the Week - from Julia Child in My Life in France:
"One of the secrets and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something it it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear if it can't be fixed."
Hmmm - think I can apply that to my life in general!

I'm very excited that Jexy and Jacob are arriving on Tuesday - we've got some fun stuff planned and good food to eat.
Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Love,
Susan

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