Literary trivia . . . name that book!

Saffron · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:06 am Post subject: Cook books

Penny:

Penelope · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:54 am Post subject:

Oh Blimey Saffron......I collect Cookery Books too.....and it is very difficult to nominate a favourite.

I have so many cookery books that when I rescue one and bring it home from the bookstore, I always must reliquish one or two from home or we would be buried beneath the heap.

I love Mrs. Beeton because she describes taking a haunch of deer and jointing it oneself......and if, like us, you like to eat wild game birds like Teal, Blackcock, Widgeon and Mallard.....she also describes their habitats and natural history, and includes a lovely little steel engraved vignette, illustration.

I think if you get the bird...in its entire state, with feathers etc., and have to pluck and prepare it oneself then one has a true respect for what is being eaten, rather than buying something in a polystyrene tray at the supermarket which looks as though it never had anything to do with a live a beautiful creature.

I love Elizabeth David because she describes 'where' one should eat her recipes (ie on a sundrenched terrace in Tuscany) and the kind of plates and utensils to be used. Very evocative.

Madir Jaffrey's Indian Cookery books always include a photograph of the part of India from where the dish originates....and why it includes those particular ingredients. Also, why it is essential in vegetarian cookery to grind ones own spices in a pestle and mortar.....

I do have a lovely old Victorian pestle and mortar and I love using it because I can feel all the other ladies who used it before me.

What a long post. You can tell you have found my passion..... Rolling Eyes

Penelope · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:14 am Post subject:

Oh....and I just want to tell everyone about a little-known paperback (Penguin, I think) by Brother Ramon.....he is a Monk who instructs one to peel and chop an onion, but do it contemplatively.....noticing what a beautiful thing an onion is.....

And the American lady, Peg Bracken who says......prepare your ingredients, put them all into a casserole dish in a low oven and then go and sit down with a glass of gin.....wonderous, wonderous.....

Saffron · Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

Penny - Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions. I can't wait to go over to the library and look for some of the cookbooks you mentioned. One of my all time favorite cookbook writers is Mollie Katzen. Her most famous book is Moosewood Cookbook. She even has a wonderful children's cookbook called Pretend Soup (I especially love children's cookbooks - just today an old friend of mine suggested I write one and who knows, maybe I will give a try). My most prized cookbook is one my mother got from my paternal grandmother (who I look like), called Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, published in 1947. It is two thick volumes filled with just about everything. My mother made a killer peach pie from this cookbook. I also have to mention my favorite cake cookbook (I love cake!), Cakewalk: Loving Spoonfuls from a Southern Kitchen by Robbin Gourley. Robbin Gourley also did the wonderful watercolor illustrations that accompany the recipes. The book is as much fun for me to look at as to cook from.

ralphinlaos · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 2:58 am Post subject:

And what about the Polish cookbook? "How to make beef stroganoff: first, you butcher a cow . . ."

Peg Bracken is a sensible lady; she has no time to contemplate the beauties of an onion or the wonderful smells emanating from the wet chicken feathers as you pluck them. She just tells you how to put good, decent food on your table without spending the entire day in the kitchen.

Sunning yourself in Tuscany, indeed! I hope that cookbook is in the fiction section at your bookstore, Penny.

Now, back to the subject, o.k.?

You're right again, Penny. The book I was looking for is "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," by Robert Lewis Stevenson.

So, here's another one:

"I'm dead now. He killed me. No, not him, but I hope he goes to jail for the crime. I never really loved him. And that prissy little thing he has now, well . . ."

Is that too obvious a clue?

NAME THAT BOOK!

Penelope · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 4:34 am Post subject:

It's the wonderful 'Rebecca' by the wonderful Daphne du Maurier.

I know I'm right this time, one of my all-time favourites along with 'Jamaica Inn'.

ralphinlaos · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 11:08 am Post subject:

Right again, Penny. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. First clue!

See, I knew that was far too easy. That's the last time that will happen.

Daphne du Maurier has always been one of my favorites. Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, Jamaica Inn (loved it), My Cousin Rachel, and probably more I can't remember right now.

But . . . the last time I went to Thailand, I picked up a copy of Rebecca; I'm always buying books and re-reading them. And I didn't appreciate it at all. What a whimpering, long-suffering, meek, self-effacing heroine; no wonder du Maurier didn't even give her a name. The dead Rebecca was far more interesting than that wimp he married in the south of France.

I'm exaggerating, I know. But I was put off completely by the character this time around; I'll read it again someday with a more open mind.

Now, I have to find another NAME THAT BOOK which will stump everyone.

Ralph

Penelope · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 11:51 am Post subject:

OK Ralph.....take away my Kudos if you must.....but...Yo Ho Ho....I have leapt into the lead.....I've got the Cup. Punk

I loved the little prissy nameless person (In Rebecca)....because that is me....and I don't care......the interesting, exciting Rebecca....doesn't exist.....

I know......whether you admit it or not...you have been making 'Literary Trivia' easy for me...to encourage me....now.....I am going back to being completely in the dark.....but I still like the challenge.....it distracts me from the 'global warming'.....and I love you for that. Kiss

ralphinlaos · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 5:14 am Post subject:

Clue #1:

One of the all-time classics. "A kiss, evil, sin, nature, punishment. Human conflict, passion vs. intellect."

NAME THAT BOOK!

Saffron · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 5:31 am Post subject:

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë'


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