The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Outlook for Earthlings" by Joan Frank, Served with a Recipe for Shredded Tofu Egg-less Salad

Happy Friday! I can't believe that we are midway through October already, the time is just flying by. Today I am happy to be a stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Outlook for Earthlings, a novel by Joan Frank. Accompanying my review is a recipe for Shredded Tofu Egg-less Salad. 

Publisher's Blurb:

The Outlook For Earthlings traces a difficult friendship across a lifetime. Melanie Taper is rule-bound, timid, self-erasing. Yet in unguarded moments she demonstrates such deadly insight into human foibles as to suggest a strength that has, for dark reasons, deliberately hidden itself lifelong. Scarlet Rand is rash, willful, abrasive—vexed by “demure” traits and “small fussing motions.” Shocked by Mel’s passivity and near-archaic saintliness, Scarlet disbelieves it. Their friendship suggests to each a final frontier, a saving sanctuary. Yet at its core each woman takes a secret, moral offense at the other’s inmost nature—and her choices. Against the deadline of the illness which is slowly destroying one of them, a reckoning must occur.

The Outlook for Earthlings considers the limits of friendship—and of witnessing. It asks how we may finally measure a life—and who should do the measuring.

Paperback: 237 pages

Publisher: Regal House Publishing (October 2, 2020)

 My Review:

The most surprising thing about The Outlook for Earthlings is the amount of story that the author packs into about 230 pages. She covers decades in the friendship between two very different women, and their lives and their choices. Children of the sixties, Mel and Scarlet meet on the school bus and remain friends throughout the years even as their paths diverge and each goes their own way. Mel takes the more traditional route of marriage and a family while Scarlet is a journalist who travels the world. After a couple decades apart, they reunite, but that reunion is not without a lot of judgment about the decisions the other has made.

Women's friendship is an interesting thing--who we choose as friends, who we choose to stay friends with, and how that friendship ebbs and flows over the years, changing and evolving. Frank captures the story of these two women in beautiful, slightly melancholy prose. Although I didn't really connect and identify with either Mel or Scarlet, I enjoyed reading about their lives and friendship. I could easily relate to how it feels to reconnect with a childhood friend who has a completely different view on life than I do, but whom I love--even while I can't help but wonder at (and yes, sometimes judge) their choices. This one gave me plenty to think about. 

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Author Notes: Joan Frank is the author of ten books: eight of literary fiction and two essay collections. Her recent books are WHERE YOU’RE ALL GOING: FOUR NOVELLAS and TRY TO GET LOST: ESSAYS ON TRAVEL AND PLACE. A MacDowell Fellow and recipient of many honors and awards, Joan also reviews literary fiction and nonfiction for the Washington Post.

Find out more about Joan at her website.

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Food Inspiration:

Since it is such a short book, I wondered if there would be much food in it and there actually was with mentions including rigatoni, cereal, fish on Fridays, persimmons, plums, chestnuts, popped wheat with skimmed milk, coffee, oranges, Chinese food, ice cream, eggs, ginger, fried onions, chicken, a really bad sounding meatloaf dinner, toast with butter, oatmeal, tea, tequila and orange juice, muffins, pound cake, crackers, beef stew, Calvados, chocolate biscuits, crepes, pizza slices with an egg cooked onto them, burgers, pomegranate juice, quiche. The catch up meal for Scarlet and Mel from which I took my inspiration was:

"Upon it, glasses of iced black currant tea, homemade carrot soup--these from Mel. The wheat bagels, organic wine, fake egg salad made of tofu, organic pears, red and green grapes, brick of Gruyere, rye crackers, tub of chive and garlic hummus, diet tonic water, Kalamata olives, small package of baby carrots, organic Fuji apples, fresh-squeezed orange juice, whole grain chocolate chip cookies, raw cashews. salted pistachios, low-fat popcorn, menthol cough drops (in case throats got sore)--these were from Scarlet. In the tiny fridge, a box of organic spinach and a bottle of diet root beer." 

For my bookish dish I decided to go with the "fake egg salad made of tofu." I like egg salad with eggs and sometimes, I like a vegan or egg-less egg salad. I used to buy some pre-made at Whole Foods but I haven't seen it there in a while. I'm a little picky that I don't like it too gloppy or big crumbles of tofu. I had seen Heidi Swanson's Quick Shredded Tofu Stir-Fry and had been meaning to try it. I wondered if pressing and grating the tofu would make it lighter in the egg salad. I found a couple of recipes online but I ended up making up my own. With a vegan mayo, you can keep it vegan of course or just use your favorite mayo or yogurt if you want to keep to a no-egg theme. 

Tofu Egg-Less Salad

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Makes About 2-ish Cups of Salad)

1 block extra-firm tofu, water pressed out and patted dry

1/3 cup vegan mayo or to taste

1 medium celery stalk, finely diced

1 Tbsp dried or fresh shallots, chopped

2 Tbsp chives, finely chopped

1 tsp coarse ground mustard or mustard of choice

1/2 tsp celery salt

sea salt and black pepper to taste

extra chives to garnish

Mix the mayo, celery, shallots chives, mustard, celery salt and salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Using a box grater, grate the pressed tofu into the mixture. Some tofu may crumble and that's OK. (I found it easier and less messy to cut the tofu into quarters and grate each quarter section). Gently stir until combined. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper as desired. 

Serve on bread, lettuce, or crackers. I used some locally made sesame lavosh crackers. Enjoy!

Notes/Results: I really liked this tofu egg-less salad. The texture was light and the flavor really good. I normally like my egg salad simple--mayo, tiny dab of mustard, salt & pepper but since there is no yolk, the extra flavor from the chives, shallots and celery salt is welcome with the tofu. It was great on the crackers and I think the leftovers will be excellent in a sandwich. I will happily make it again and I plan to experiment more with grated tofu.

 

Linking up with Novel Meals # 40 hosted by my friend Simona of briciole, an event celebrating food inspired by the written word. The deadline for this round is Sunday, October 18th. 

I'm linking up to Souper Sundays here at Kahakai Kitchen where we highlight soups, salads and sandwiches from bloggers who join in. Here's the link to this week's link up post. 

 

Finally, I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's the link to this week's post.

Note: A review copy of "The Outlook for Earthlings" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own. 
 
You can see the other stops for this TLC Book Tour and what other bloggers thought of the book here.

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Summer House" by Lauren K. Denton, Served with a Recipe for Pimiento Cheese & Shrimp Dip

It's Tuesday which means it is one day closer to Friday! If you need a little not quite midweek escape, I have the perfect book for you The Summer House by Lauren K. Denton. I am excited to be a stop on the TLC Book Tour for this lovely new novel. Accompanying my review is a recipe for a tasty Pimiento Cheese and Shrimp Dip inspired by the book.    

Publisher's Blurb: 

Sometimes it takes losing everything to find yourself again.

Lily Bishop wakes up one morning to find a good-bye note and divorce papers from her husband on the kitchen counter. Having moved to Alabama for his job only weeks before, Lily is devastated, but a flyer at the grocery store for a hair stylist position in a local retirement community provides a refuge while she contemplates her next steps.

Rose Carrigan built the small retirement village of Safe Harbor years ago—just before her husband ran off with his assistant. Now she runs a tight ship, making sure the residents follow her strict rules. Rose keeps everyone at arm’s length, including her own family. But when Lily shows up asking for a job and a place to live, Rose’s cold exterior begins to thaw.

Lily and Rose form an unlikely friendship, and Lily’s salon soon becomes the place where residents share town gossip, as well as a few secrets. Lily soon finds herself drawn to Rose’s nephew, Rawlins—a single dad and shrimper who’s had some practice at starting over—and one of the residents may be carrying a torch for Rose as well.

Neither Lily nor Rose is where she expected to be, but the summer makes them both wonder if there’s more to life and love than what they’ve experienced so far. The Summer House weaves Lauren K. Denton’s inviting Southern charm around a woman’s journey to find herself.

Hardcover: 352 Pages

Publisher: Thomas Nelson (June 2, 2020)

My Review: 

Lauren K. Denton's books are an automatic read for me. I get excited and happy when she has a new one coming out--usually starting with the gorgeous covers that grace them and then excited for the escape I find in them. This is her fourth book and the fourth one I have reviewed for TLC Book Tours. I love that they are hopeful, usually about second starts and chances and finding your place in the world, and they are filled with quirky and endearing characters. She also manages to work in delicious food and have me longing to move to a small Southern town or community despite having spent almost no time in the south. Take The Summer House for example, if someone asked me if I wanted to become a hairstylist in a retirement village in coastal Alabama, I'd think they were crazy but by the end of the book, I want to do just that. ;-) 

In The Summer House, Lily awakes one morning to find her husband has left her with a brief note and signed divorce papers. Not sure what she is going to do, she knows she doesn't want to move back to her hometown or go to his family in Georgia, but they just moved to Alabama for him to take a new job and she knows almost no one. She stumbles across a flyer advertising for a hair stylist--something she grew up doing in her single mother's salon and something she has missed since her mother passed away. The position is in a retirement community and soon she is interviewing with Rose, the owner and caretaker of Safe Harbor, a woman who has known her own heartache and has closed up to others because of it. Something in Lily causes Rose to take a chance on her and she is soon living above the hair salon and becoming friends with the colorful group of seniors that live in Safe Harbor. The story is told from the points of view of both Lily and Rose, and each begins to craft a new life. 

I think this may be my new favorite of Denton's books--something about the setting and characters and their stories that made me devour this book and wish for more than one summer with Lily and Rose. There is romance for each character, but friendship and personal growth are the main players in the story. Set in the summer on Alabama's coast, it's a perfect summer book for tucking in a beach bag or curling up on the lanai with a cold glass of lemonade or sweet tea, and immersing yourself in Safe Harbor. I recommend The Summer House to anyone looking for a brief, languid escape from all of the crazy in the world lately and I am already looking forward to the author's next book. 

Here are my reviews and accompanying recipes of the first three books, The Hideaway, Hurricane Season, and Glory Road. They are each separate books and stories so you can dip into them as you please.

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Author Notes: Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren now lives with her husband and two daughters in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, faith, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books. Her debut novel, THE HIDEAWAY, was a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestseller. Her second novel, HURRICANE SEASON, released in spring of 2018, is a USA Today bestseller and her third, GLORY ROAD released in March, 2019.

Connect with Lauren on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Food Inspiration: 

Lauren K. Denton's books are usually filled with good Southern food and The Summer House is no exception. Food mentions included Columbian roast coffee, salad and pasta, whiskey, wine, a shopping cart with buttermilk, flour, eggs, butter, a package of bacon, and a handful of kiwis, lemons, The Sunrise Cafe's Menus with spaghetti & meatballs, shrimp & grits, Mississippi pot roast, honey-glazed carrots, fried okra, butter beans, macaroni & cheese, chocolate icebox pie, layered lemon cake and peach cobbler, lemon tea, sunflower seeds and rice cakes, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, gumbo, oysters, corn chowder, a platter of fried chicken, Sazeracs, microwave dinners, cans of soup and crackers, Cajun fish fillets, chicken, buttered rice and asparagus, pound cake with orange flower water and milk, cheeseburgers, cornbread muffins with homemade butter, cucumber salad, fresh baked bread, apples, cheese balls, pigs in a blanket, barbecue cocktail weenies, sweet tea and lemonade, coffee cake, deviled eggs, Coke floats with chocolate chip ice cream, potato salad, chocolate cake, Alabama Slammers, Hurricanes, macaroni and cheese, rosé, Watermelon Bellinis, Strawberry Sundays and Lemon Sparklers, pimiento cheese dip, fudge pie, snickerdoodles, hushpuppies, passion fruit La Croix, chocolate muffins, milkshake, a Reuben, fish sandwiches, fried crab claws, The Sunrise Cafe's Foods of the Caribbean Menu: saltfish, plantains, rice pudding, ackee, conch fritters, Jamaican jerk chicken, rice and peas, callaloo, flan, and Christmas cake, hot dog, carrot sticks and watermelon, hummus and crackers, a strawberry Popsicle, shrimp, sausage and vegetable skewers, olive oil sprinkled with black pepper and bread, redfish and crispy potatoes, salted bread pudding, lasagna, Bushwackers, Jell-O, Sunrise Cafe's menu with chicken-fried steak, gumbo with lump crabmeat, fried catfish, collards, field peas, coleslaw, bourbon bread pudding, chess pie, and key lime pie, fruit and cheese, Firecrackers (Saltines, canola oil, spices...), and a dish of fried fish, green beans and cornbread.  Whew! I am so hungry now!

There were so many things to choose from for this book. I was especially tempted by the Coke Float with chocolate chip ice cream (I am betting that will still happen on one of our warmer weekends) and the Firecrackers (seasoned saltines--who knew?! I'm sure that will happen in my kitchen too!). I knew that I wanted to include shrimp as it is what Rose's family did, especially her nephew Rawlins and was featured heavily. There was a somewhat dubious pimiento cheese dip made by someone named Donna for a big community summer kick-off party and one of the chararcters complained it gave her a stomach ache but I started craving it. Pimiento cheese or pimento cheese (depending on your spelling preferences) pops up periodically on this blog in various interpretations--from the dip itself here and here, to inside a grilled cheese sandwich, in deviled eggs, and even Pimento-Cheesy Eggs on Toast, made for one of the author's previous novels. I was going to make pimiento cheese grits and serve it with shrimp but I wondered if I could add shrimp to it as a dip. As in most things, I found that many people do this online as a quick search online uncovered quite a few variations.

I ended up using this Pimento Shrimp Dip from The Elevated Palate as my guideline, swapping or adding in a couple of ingredients. I thought it would be a great place to use some of my Where The Crawdads Zing Gulf Coast Bay Seasoning, a Book Blend from the BookClubcookbook to give it a bit of zing. (It's a mix of celery seed, sea salt, cayenne pepper, ginger and bay leaves.)

Pimiento Cheese and Shrimp Dip
Based on Pimento Shrimp Dip by The Elevated Palate
(Makes About 4 Cups)

8 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup mayo of choice
16 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated (I used 1 4oz block extra sharp & 1 4 oz block sharp white cheddar)
4 oz jar pimentos, drained and chopped
2 Tbsp green onion, chopped + more for garnish
1 1/2 tsp Where the Crawdads Zing, Old Bay, or other seasoning blend of choice
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
sea salt and black pepper to taste 
about a dozen medium shrimp, cooked and shelled, tails removed & coarsely chopped

Soften cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and stir in the mayonaise. Coarsely grate cheddar cheese and add it to the bowl along with the pimentos, green onion, seasoning blend, lemon juice and sea salt and black pepper to taste. Mix together until well combined. Gently but thoroughly fold in the chopped shrimp until everything is well-combined. Taste and add more seasoning or lemon juice if desired. 

Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. Serve, garnished with green onion with your favorite crackers (maybe Firecrackers!), or baguette. I used black pepper table water crackers. Enjoy. Store tightly covered for up to 3 days. (I will be trying this in a sandwich too!)

Notes/Results: Yes, I know pimiento cheese is not at all healthy but dang, it sure tastes good! This dip is rich and creamy and decadent but with enough zip from the seasoning and the lemon juice to keep it from being too much. The shrimp are a nice tradition with their slight sweetness. I would happily station myself by a bowl of this at a summer party and scoop it up with happy abandon. I'll definitely make it again.

I'm linking up this review and recipe to Novel Food #39, hosted by my friend Simona of briciole, an event celebrating food inspired by the written word. The deadline for this round is Sunday, July 12th.

I'm also sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event that was held at Beth Fish Reads, but is now being hosted with Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. You can see this past week's post here.

Note: A review copy of "The Summer House" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for my review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own. 
 
You can see the other stops for this TLC Book Tour and what other bloggers thought of the book here.

  

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "Where the Forest Meets the Stars" by Glendy Vanderah, Served with a Recipe for Cheesy Cauliflower

I am very excited to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for Where the Forest Meets the Stars, the debut novel by Glendy Vanderah. Accompanying my review is a bowl of very Cheesy Cauliflower, inspired by the book and the mysterious child, Ursa. 

Publisher's Blurb:

In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay—just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.

Hardcover: 332 Pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (March 1, 2019)

My Review:

I signed up for this book based on the description and somewhat on the comparison to The Snow Child, a book that I want to read, but I confess, still sits on my Kindle--unread after several years. Although I can't speak to the comparison being accurate, I can tell you that I very much enjoyed Where the Forest Meets the Stars and that it is a beautifully written book that had me fully caught up in the story and characters and kept me turning the pages. 

Magical realism can be tough to write without it traveling over to the unbelievable, too much woo-woo side, and for me, Glendy Vanderah had a deft touch that had me truly wanting to believe that Ursa really comes from the stars, or at least has something magical about her. She is a special character, wise beyond her years, funny and engaging, and that makes it easy to imagine why a practical scientist would keep her hidden and why a hurting, reclusive neighbor would help her. I also liked Jo and Gabe and how they come together with Ursa, the trio forming bonds as each works through the hurts and damages that life has given them. The story had me smiling and tearing up in almost equal parts as Ursa looks for her five miracles--things that other people might overlook in the search for something bigger, but that a child (whether human or from another world), would see the beauty and magic in. Although I have not spent time in the rural areas of Southern Illinois, the author brings the settings with the rustic rented cottage, the forest and landscape surrounding it, and Jo's bird study sites to life beautifully. Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a special book, one that I found easy to curl up and get lost in, and one that I wanted to go back to after I finished, to spend more time with the characters. I can't wait to see what Glendy Vanerah writes next. 

If you would like to win a copy of Where the Forest Meets the Stars and you have a U.S. or Canada mailing address, head over to my Instagram account @DebinHawaii for a chance to win. 

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Author Notes: Glendy Vanderah worked as an endangered bird specialist in Illinois before she became a writer. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in rural Florida with as many birds, butterflies, and wildflowers as she can lure to her land. Where the Forest Meets the Stars is her debut novel.

Connect with Glendy on her website or Instagram.




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Food Inspiration:

There was a lot of food in Where the Forest Meets the Stars, much of it cooked over the fire pit at the cabin, including marinated chicken breasts and vegetable skewers, turkey burgers, toasted marshmallows, grilled mahi basted with butter and vegetable skewers. There was also apple cider, oatmeal, tuna sandwiches, trail mix, fruit, blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs with "green stuff" (aka spinach and/or broccoli), apple pie, leftover beans, rice, and chicken, coffee, cereal, pancakes with syrup, orange juice, peach and strawberry-rhubarb pie made with farm stand fruit, potato salad from Jo's mother's recipe, burgers, pork chops, applesauce, and green beans, Raisin Bran cereal, wine, iced tea, milk and cookies, pizza, Necco rolls, turkey burgers with sweet potato fries, turkey and cheddar sandwiches, omelets with Gabe's eggs, roast chicken and packaged bread stuffing, leftover green beans and corn, beer, cheese and crackers, fried eggs, English muffins and orange slices, tomato soup, a chef's salad, dutch apple pie and vanilla ice cream, a spaghetti dinner, chili and cornbread, egg sandwiches, roast beef, and sandwiches and lemonade.

I thought about the toasted marshmallows that Ursa loved or a potato salad like Jo's mom's recipe, but decided instead on Cauliflower in Cheese Sauce because Gabe brings it over for a dinner with Ursa and Joe and I liked their exchange...

"Gabe brought leftover cauliflower in cheese sauce for dinner. 
'Not yuckyflower!' Ursa said. 'Jo made me eat it last night!' 
'This has gooey cheese on it,' he said, and gooey cheese makes anything, even dirt, taste delicious.'
'Can I eat dirt instead?'"

and later...

"'Wow, a clean plate,' Jo said to her. 'Even the cauliflower is gone.'
'The cheese made it okay.' she said. 'You should do that when you make yuckyflower.'
'Thanks,' Jo told Gabe. 'You've set the bar way too high for my simplistic cooking skills.'"

Between Ursa's yuckyflower comments and the fact that my friend was talking about a keto-friendy cheese sauce she made that was giving me serious cheese sauce cravings, I picked it as my book-inspired dish. I like cauliflower already, but enough gooey cheese sauce (and I put plenty of the sauce recipe below on my steamed cauliflower) would make it palatable for a child or anyone who found it "yucky." 

Easy (Keto-Friendly) Cheese Sauce
by my friend Barb
(Makes About 2 1/2 Cups)

2 Tbsp salted butter
4 oz cream cheese, cut into chunks
milk, up to 1 cup
shredded cheddar cheese, up to two cups
(I added 1 tsp ground yellow mustard)
a few dashes of Tabasco, to taste, optional 
salt and black pepper to taste

Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium sauce pan. Add the cream cheese and stir until it has melted into the butter. 

Whisk in about 1/2 cup of the milk, turn heat to medium low and add about 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheese, stirring until melted and smooth. At this point, you can play with the consistency of your sauce, adding more milk and/or cheese as needed, until you get a smooth, creamy, pour-able sauce. Turn the heat to low whisk in the yellow mustard and Tabasco, if using, and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as desired.

Serve warm, with vegetables, eggs, or whatever you like. (I confess, I steamed a head of cauliflower cut into florets and just stirred it into my cheese sauce, but you can be more judicious and just drizzle or pour it over over.)
 
Notes/Results: OK, this cheese sauce, especially when you are lazy and use it all on a small head of cauliflower, isn't going to win low calorie or low fat health awards, but it is delicious. I'm not doing a keto or low-carb diet, but I appreciate a cheese sauce that is thick and creamy without having to use flour or cornstarch and bother with making a roux. I gobbled up a bowl for dinner the first night I made it and I have been enjoying the remainder-reheated with eggs on top and as a side dish for fish. I will happily make it again.

I'm linking up this review and recipe to Novel Food #35, hosted by my friend Simona of briciole, an event celebrating food inspired by the written word. The deadline for this round is Tuesday, March 26

I'm also sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

Note: A review copy of "Where the Forest Meets the Stars" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Lost Vintage" by Ann Mah, Served with Recipe for Citron Pressé (Fresh Lemonade)

It's Friday and it's been another crazy week. I needed at least a bookish trip to the vineyards of Burgundy, France so I am happy to be a stop today on the TLC Book Tour for the new novel, The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah. Accompanying my review is (a better day-drink for me than wine) an icy cold glass of Citron Pressé, or as we know it here, fresh lemonade.

Publisher's Blurb:

Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II.

To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last chance. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife, Heather, who now oversee day-to-day management of the grapes. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a talented young winemaker and her first love.

At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of World War II and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great–half aunt who was a teenager during the Nazi occupation.

As she learns more about her family, the line between resistance and collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?

Hardcover: 384 pages  

Publisher: William Morrow (June 19, 2018)

My Review:

As you may know if you read this blog and my reviews, historical fiction, especially World War II historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. When you add a wine and food element to that, you get a book that hits all of my buttons and The Lost Vintage is that book. It takes historical fiction adds a foodie element and tells it, fairly seamlessly, within two stories or timelines--present day and the 1940s. In the present day we have Kate, a sommelier studying for her third and final attempt at the Master of Wine examination. On the advice of her mentor she heads to her family's vineyard in Burgundy to stay with her cousin Nico and his wife Heather (Kate's best friend from college), help with the upcoming harvest, and meet with local wine experts to improve her knowledge of the local grapes and wine. Kate and Heather start a huge project clearing out the basement filled with decades of their family's castaway items and Kate discovers a secret room with a collection of valuable wine and WWII French resistance pamphlets. Kate's family's reticence to talk about the past have she and Heather investigating and uncovering family secrets, including the existence of a young girl who would have been her Great-Aunt Helene and the fact that there are six bottles of an expensive 'lost vintage' that are missing from the secret room's cache of valuable wine. The second story is told through Helene's journal and covers the 1940s, right before the war starts and before the Nazis invade France, with Helene about to graduate high school and attend university to study chemistry. The war prevents Helene from escaping her life with her cold stepmother and she must stay home to care for her young stepbrothers. Back in the present, in addition to studying for her exam and trying to discover whether Helene and her family were collaborators with the Nazis or aiding the resistance, Kate contends with being being around her first love, Jean-Luc, Nico's friend and a neighboring winemaker (who seems to be well over Kate), as well as a possible romance with Walker, an American in the Côte-d'Or to do a 'stage' with Jean-Luc while studying for his Master Sommelier exam.  

I really enjoyed Ann Mah's storytelling and her vivid descriptions of the scenery, food and life in Burgundy in the 1940s and present day. Both the stories, and Kate and Helene were interesting and I found myself happy settling into each time period. As I've mentioned in previous reviews, I like WWII historicals that show me a new perspective, make me think, and have me Googling more information, facts, and details. I was very interested in this look at the French in the countryside, the resistance and the collaborators and I learned some interesting information. This is the first book of Mah's I've read--although I do happen to have her first novel, Kitchen Chinese, loaded on my Kindle and I will make it a point to get to it sooner now that I've experienced the quality of her writing. If you love historicals, WWII novels, books set in beautiful France, novels with a food/wine slant, dual timelines, family drama, romance  and secrets, definitely add The Lost Vintage to your summer reading list.


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Author Notes: Ann Mah is a food and travel writer based in Paris and Washington DC. She is the author of the food memoir Mastering the Art of French Eating, and a novel, Kitchen Chinese. She regularly contributes to the New York Times’ Travel section and she has written for Condé Nast Traveler, Vogue.com, BonAppetit.com, Washingtonian magazine, and other media outlets.
 
Find out more about Ann at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

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Food Inspiration: 

As Ann Mah is a food and travel writer, it is only natural that along with the wine, the food is plentiful in this novel--primarily French foods, although we get a bit of American food, "Thaitalian" fusion (made me chuckle) and Mexican food thrown in. I took two pages of food notes but here is just some of what was mentioned: Courgette (restaurant name), toast with cherry jam and yogurt, margaritas and tequila, lemonade, tea and shortbread, charcuterie, cheese and crudites, dark chocolate stuffed into a baguette, pork sausages, brownies, Comte and various French cheeses, pate, honey, pot-au-feu (beef stew), buttered tartine, roast pig, lentil salad, apple tarts, blanquette de veau (veal ragout), tapenade, pear frangipani tart, jam and pickles, avocado toast, quatre cake (French pound cake), rosemary lamb chops. vegetable terrine, potatoes and tripe stew, boeuf bourguignon, potted meat, calf's foot jelly, eggs, chicken vol-au-vents, individual beef Wellingtons and various appetizers, chocolate eclairs and raspberry tarts, sardines, poached eggs in meurette sauce, snails in garlic-parsley butter, steak frites, salad with sauteed chicken livers, Crème Brûlée, spaghetti, porridge, Lapsang souchong tea, Thaitalian artichoke lemongrass carpaccio and green papaya carbonara, a super-vegetarian taco, burrito, pasta with broccoli, garlic and chile, chilled crab and shaved white asparagus, and veal stew.
 

It's been the kind of week where I needed something simple and I needed to not be eating bread, desserts, and chocolate, so I went for lemonade as my book-inspired dish as it was mentioned a few times. I looked for traditional Citron Pressé (French lemonade) recipes, but then I saw Ina Garten's Fresh Lemonade recipe and liked the fact that it was whirled up with ice in my blender--quick, cold and refreshing--so that's what I did. Sometimes fast and simple is just what we need.

Fresh Lemonade
By Ina Garten via Barefoot Contessa at FoodNetwork.com
(Yield 1 1/2 Quarts)

1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (5 to 6 lemons)
1/2 to 3/4 cup superfine sugar (I used the lesser amount)
1 cup crushed ice
4 cups very cold water

Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until completely smooth. Serve over ice. 

Notes/Results: A very refreshing and tasty lemonade. I used the lower amount of the sugar and a bit more of the ice-to-water ration and liked that it retained a delicious tartness, I think the blender is perfect for both pulverizing the ice and mixing in the sugar so it will be my lemonade-making tool from now on. I will make this again. (Maybe I'll add vodka the next time!) ;-) 

Linking up this Ina Garten recipe to I Heart Cooking Clubs where it is Potluck week. Any recipe by our current or past IHCC chefs. 

I am sharing this book and food pairing with Novel Foods #33, an event celebrating food inspired by the written word and hosted by my friend Simona at Briciole. This deadline for this round of Novel Food ends Thursday, March 23rd.

 
I'm also sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

 

Note: A review copy of "The Lost Vintage" was provided to me by the author and the publisher, Harper Collins, via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.

You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.