Monthly book post: December

December list:
Deep survival : who lives, who dies, and why : true stories of miraculous endurance and sudden death by Laurence Gonzales. One of my top ten books, I reread this when I realized I'd forgotten some of Gonzales's arguments.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. I was a bit put off by the title, which is reminiscent of nearly everything on the Barnes & Noble paperback fiction table, but the novel reads like a more coherent Mrs. Dalloway (which is good, because Woolf is one of my favorites) and was engaging enough to read up until the moment we left to line up for the marathon.

Let the northern lights erase your name by Vendela Vida. Set mostly in Finland, this novel plunges you into the cold icy stoicism, humility, and beauty of northern Scandinavia, and into the life of a woman who abandoned her fiance to track down her father. The characters in this novel don't act as you expect them to, yet it's not altogether unbelievable.

The simple home : the luxury of enough by Sarah Nettleton and Frank Edgerton Martin. Pretty pretty pictures of real homes that values resources, functionality, and aesthetics over McMansion acreage.

Also read:
Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume by Jennifer O'Connell, Meg Cabot, Beth Kendrick, Julie Kenner, and Cara Lockwood. A series of essays: I love the first ones but my disappointment with the last half keeps me from recommending it.

A moment

A moment for art: posters about the 35W bridge collapse

Crafty: Update

I thought I'd do a little follow up to the Christmas craft post so I could remember some of this for next year.

HOMEMADE FOOD GIFTS

Enamored with both almonds and Italy, I ended up making amaretti and biscotti (recipe follows, technically cantuccini) to give away. Both are easy to make and quite tasty.

I received a few very yummy and clever gifts. Husband declares that the candied orange peels are "chock full of awesome" and "need to be taken away from me." (Note on recipe: remove from syrup, roll in sugar to make this version).

And I'm totally copying this idea next year: dried herbs from the garden, packaged in cute little jars from Penzey's. Good thing AP gave us a little primer on drying herbs!

Speaking of AP, another fabulous food gift that she gave me a few years ago was homemade cream cheese, dusted with curry powder. Husband and I still swoon at the memory.

OTHER FOOD GIFTS I'm giving this year:

Ames Farm makes some tasty honey, and has a cute gift set of 5 for $15.

Cheese - who wouldn't enjoy a nice selection of local cheeses from the coop? (My dad, I hope).

Clementines
Green and Black's chocolate bars

And even though it's usually awkward and unsuccessful, I'm always trying to tie on interesting things on top of my gifts. Two ideas: Nut Goodies (local and festively wrapped) and mandarins (with the little leaves attached).

Happy holidays!

Almond Biscotti of Tuscany (Cantuccini)
modified from Lynne Rossetto Kasper's recipe, printed in the Star Tribune, for those with a food chopper/small food processor and no large Cuisinart-style food processor

Makes 30 to 40 cookies.
• 14 oz. whole blanched almonds, toasted
• Generous 1 1/2 tbsp. shredded lemon zest
• 2 generous tsp. shredded orange zest
• 1 1/2 c. bleached flour (measured by lightly spooning flour into the cup and leveling with a straight edge)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 2 1/2 tbsp. clear corn syrup
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Butter and flour a large cookie sheet. In a food chopper, process almonds until coarsely ground (like coarse sand) with a few larger chunks remaining. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in both the zests, the flour, and the baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix the salt, pepper, eggs, egg whites, corn syrup, sugar and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients, mixing only long enough to blend. Dough will be a dense batter -- do not overmix.

Using a rubber spatula and pastry scraper to help you, spread the batter on the baking sheet, shaping it into two 16-inch-long loaves about 3 inches wide and 1 inch high. Space about 3 inches apart.

Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turning heat up to 325 degrees. Cool the biscotti 10 minutes, slice crossways 1/2 -inch thick, and turn each piece on its side. Bake 12 more minutes, turn over the cookies and bake another 15 minutes. Cool the biscotti completely on a rack. They are best eaten the second day and later.

Marathon #4

Last weekend Husband and I traveled to Alabama to see what that's all about (conclusion: AWESOME) and to run a marathon. The race itself was more akin to my first marathon - lots of waving and thanking volunteers, chatting and wooting, enjoying the sites, out to have a good time and not break some the land-speed record.

















To be sure, the race had a few southern charms. I've never had a race emcee let us know he'd be praying for us. Or been cheered on by Baptist teens bearing motivational signs from the Bible. Or been accosted by disgusting protesters/"spectators" outside Planned Parenthood. I don't know enough about Auburn or 'Bama football or the military to understand the seemingly incomprehensible cheers (hooky hooky hoo!?). Nor has the post-race refreshments ever included two kinds of Moon Pies.


















The course was the flattest thing I've ever seen. It was beautiful. The weather (average low is 35, average high, 55) was a unseasonably warm 71, with what-is-starting-to-seem-inevitable? extreme humidity. You can see the haze/mugginess in some of the photos. Speaking of the photos, you might be wondering how we came to have them. My amazing and frequent-flier-laden parents flew in to cheer us on. They were an unbelievable support crew and quickly expanded their cheering efforts to include a few handfuls of other runners, who they came to know as the runners were right before or after us throughout the race.


















To us, the residential streets were a fun opportunity for ethnographic study. To local residents, I'm sure they were just extremely boring.

We ran together the whole way, which was a first, and seeing what Husband goes through (oh the cramping!) makes me even more impressed with his strength and determination. We finished in a respectable 4:43. Then we walked the cowboy walk of the victorious, showered off the layers of salty sweat, napped, and headed out for a Thai and sushi dinner of champions.

We rounded out our trip by driving up into the hills and touring some caves.























UPDATE: I found some photos on my parents' camera from Grandma's and added them to that post.