morsels & sauces

I have been reading The Luminaries , this year's Man Booker prize winner, this year's present from my secret santa, who happened to be my dear friend who lives in North Carolina, and this month's book club selection. At first, this epic seems a 19th-century detective novel that will reveal itself as you go further into the story; however, six hundred pages in, and the detective story seems less compelling than the sheer artistry of Elizabeth Catton's narrative. Certainly the artifice of astrology plays heavily into her construction of the narrative, as each section wanes into half of the one before it.  Opposing characters face off (just as they would in their astrological signs) and keep the luminaries orbiting, leading me to wish that I had taken notes from the get-go with this book; however, by the time all is said and done, the revelations and betrayals of the narrative aren't what keep this book going; it's not even the characters themselves.  Instead, ...

At the end of 2013, the husband and I packed our bags and headed north.   The husband’s family acquired in August a vacation-cum-pre-retirement home about four hours north of our humble Oakland abode.   Said home is nestled, and yes the verb must be nestled , in the redwoods, tucked in on all four sides.   There, the husband and I have been appointed a room wherein we have begun to nest with big, furry blankets and a quilt from my aunt.   The house is in no uncertain disarray with the kitchen having recently been torn out and reinstalled and boasts not a lick of solid furniture on the main floor save that of the white-plastic-lawn-chair kind and a dining table.   However, when we come up, we do so with his parents, who in their generosity have made us feel as if this place has become our own as well.    On the 28 th of December, the in-laws invited over some friends from the area, and the husband and I prepared the first official dinner in ...