The December Project Book Four - Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I heard an interview with Tina Fey on the radio recently and she mentioned that she was on location filming a movie called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.  I knew I had the novel, by David Shafer on my Kindle, so I decided to read it next.  I liked this book, but it was somewhat bizarre.  Without giving too much away, it deals heavily with the issue of online privacy, or the lack thereof, and it did make me think.  Of course, I quickly got over that in time to update my Facebook status and to write and post this entry.  

I just Googled the movie to see which part Tina is going to play, and to my surprise, it's not based at all on this book.  It's based on a book called The Taliban Shuffle:  Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan about a journalist in Kabul.  I actually think that I would have liked that book better...

I did manage to read one more book this month, which I just finished this morning.  Look for my post on The Nightingale tomorrow. 

We Never Asked for Wings, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I loved Diffenbaugh's previous book The Language of Flowers so much, that I had mixed feelings as I began to read We Never Asked for Wings.  I could not wait to read it, yet I worried that I could not possibly like it as much as I liked the other.  And then I read it in one day.

Granted, it was a travel day, and I had hours of airport and plane time to devote to the enterprise, but I also stayed up until 1:30 am to finish the book after I got home.  While I did not find the premise of the book to be as compelling as that of The Language of Flowers, Diffenbaugh's writing ensured that this was an engrossing read.  The novel tells the story of a single mother of two living in the San Francisco area with her two children.  Even though it is fiction, I found it to be a timely read as it deals with several issues playing out right now in the United States political landscape -- namely wealth inequality and immigration.  I've always been a big fan of historical fiction because the dramatization of historical events often helps me to better understand them.  I had the same sensation while reading this book.

I may not have loved it as much as I loved The Language of Flowers, but I enjoyed We Never Asked for Wings, and felt that reading it was time well spent.   

Cheese Blintzes with Cherry Sauce

Cheese blintzes are one of my favorite holiday delicacies.  I make these, using my mother's recipe, each year for the Yom Kippur break fast and this year was no exception.   A few small changes to the recipe this year yielded excellent results. Here's the original recipe, with my changes listed below:

Cheese Blintzes, by Ruth Apter

INGREDIENTS
For the Batter:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sifted flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tbs melted butter
• pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 1 lb. cottage cheese or cream cheese. I use a mixture of both.
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbs sugar
• dash of salt
• dash of cinnamon or a few drops of vanilla. I use vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS
Make the crepes and let cool.

• Make a thin batter of beaten, eggs, flour added alternately with the liquid while beating with a fork
• Work in the butter and salt until smooth
• Heat butter in a small (7"- 8") skillet
• Drop about two tablespoons of batter into the pan and turn to cover the bottom  
• Once set, flip crepe over and finish cooking
• Turn out onto a rack or wax paper to cool

Make the filling and assemble the crepes:

• Mix filling with a fork to a spreadable consistency
• Drop 1-2 tablespoons on crepe
• Roll up each blintz, tucking in the ends
• Fry them in butter until nicely browned on both sides
• Serve with sour cream and stewed fruit (I use pie filling)

This year, I made the following tweaks, and was thrilled with the finished product:

1. I made a double recipe of the batter (I usually get 8 crepes out of a single recipe, so this resulted in 16 plus a small one for "testing")
2. I pulsed one pound of Friendship 1% small curd cottage cheese, briefly strained to remove any excess moisture, in the food processor until smooth
3. I added 8 ounces of softened cream cheese to the cottage cheese and pulsed to fully incorporate it
4. I added a homemade cherry sauce (recipe below)
5. I never fry the blitzes once they are assembled. Instead, I place them seam side down in a casserole dish and bake them at 350 until they are warmed through.

Cherry Sauce (taken from Taste of Home)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound fresh or frozen pitted sweet cherries ( I had frozen on hand so I used them)
• 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water, divided
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a large saucepan, bring cherries, 2/3 cup water and sugar to a boil over medium heat
• Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until heated through
• Combine cornstarch and remaining water until smooth; stir into cherry mixture
• Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened

These really are far too good to eat only once a year.  They would make the perfect brunch addition, or can even serve as a dessert.  Or, make the crepes and fill them with Nutella for a decadent treat.

Silver Car

We went to Chicago last month to visit family.  Our plans included multiple stays with different family members and we knew we were going to log a lot of miles on our rental car.  We had wanted to try Silvercar, and with a lot of drive time ahead of us, this appeared to be the perfect opportunity.  If you are not familiar with Silvercar, it's sort of like Uber and Zip Car gave birth to a luxury car rental company.    

Essentially, you download an app and use it to reserve and pay for your rental car, which is always a Silver Audi A4.  Once you arrive at the airport you use the app to contact Silvercar, and someone comes to pick you up in an Audi A4.  Upon pickup, you proceed directly to Silvercar's off-property warehouse location.

During our ride to the Silvercar warehouse, the driver pointed out several things to Angelo who was in the front seat:

• GPS - already programmed with the warehouse location for our return on Sunday
• Satellite radio
• EZ Pass, with no daily fee - you simply pay for any tolls that are deducted while you are driving the car
• Car charger plug for use with your own cords - so you can charge apple and android phones
• How to connect to the Wifi in the car  
• The closest gas station to the warehouse for refueling before drop off

When we got to the warehouse, this was what we saw:

At that point, we simply picked a car, scanned a QR code on the front window, and were ready to go.  No protracted negotiations about upgrading, no prolonged litany of "extras" like roadside assistance, insurance, or pre-paid gas to wade through, although a pre-paid gas option was offered.  Note: I did take an extra moment to present my driver's license so that I could also drive the car.

It was a great experience for us.  True it was a little bit more expensive than some of the other options, but we found that it was right in line with the cost of a renting a premium car elsewhere.  

As a point of reference, I priced Silvercar versus other car rental companies for an upcoming trip to Denver.  For a four-day trip, Silvercar came in at $13 less for the duration than the lowest premium car from another rental car company, and there were other rental car companies charging $180 more for a comparable rental over the same dates.  That may not always be the case, and you do have the option of saving on compact and other types of cars at other rental companies, so it really is a personal choice.

We followed the pre-programmed directions back to the warehouse at the end of our trip.  Upon arriving at the warehouse, a member of the Silvercar staff jumped in to our car to take us back to the airport so we did not have to take our bags out of the car and load them into another vehicle, which was a nice touch.  Overall we really enjoyed the experience, and will definitely use Silvercar again, especially for trips of a shorter duration.

Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain

Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Hoffmann - these are a few of my favorite authors.  When they publish a new book, I get it immediately, and often devour it in just a few days.  After reading Circling the Sun, I am adding Paula McLain to this list.  I loved The Paris Wife - the other book of hers that I read.  It was a fictional account of Hadley Richardson, Earnest Hemingway's first wife, and told the story of their time in Paris, while he wrote The Sun Also Rises.  I know that I like a book, when immediately after finishing it, I run to Google to learn more about the characters.  After finishing The Paris Wife, I ran to Amazon, first reading a non-fiction book about Hadley, followed by The Sun Also Rises, A Movable Feast, Hemingway's Boat and a book of Earnest Hemingway's letters.  This reading odyssey culminated in an actual odyssey when my husband and I traveled to San Sebastian and Pamplona to see some of the places I read about during this frenzy.  Upon hearing this, a friend who is an professor of literature told me, "You should have gotten a grant!"  I recount all of this to illustrate the fact that when I read something fictional about a real person, if it's done well, I am hungry to learn more.

Paul McLain's latest book Circling the Sun,  a fictional account of the life of Beryl Markham, is another wonderful example of this type of book.  Beryl Markham was, by many accounts, a fascinating woman - the first female horse trainer in Kenya and the first female pilot to fly cross the Atlantic from east to west.  As in The Paris Wife, McLain, does an amazing job of imbuing the book with a sense of of place.  You feel as if you are in Kenya in the early 1900's.  She also creates characters that are consistent and true to form so while the reader may not always agree with a character's decision; you still recognize the behavior as something that they would do.

I wanted to read this book the moment I heard about it, and waited several months for it to be released.  I often suffer from a condition that I call Inverse Expectation Disorder - if I am dying to see, read, or hear it, I am doomed to be disappointed, but if I am expecting it to be terrible, I end up loving it.  This book was a rarity in that I could not wait to read it, and when I did, absolutely loved it.  I cannot recommend it enough, and encourage people to pick it up when they can.  And while others are reading it, I will be moving on to West with the Night, by Beryl Markham and Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen.  At least until Geraldine Brooks' next book comes out on October 6!

Skillet Apple Charlotte

In honor of Jacques Pepin being named the first  recipient of the Julia Child Award on Thursday, and because I had some apples from my recent CSA delivery, I decided to make one of my favorite easy dessert recipes - Skillet Apple Charlotte - tonight.  It's foolproof and fabulous, so I thought I would share the recipe here. When I first started baking, I only made things that did not require me to make a dough.  I made a lot of bread pudding, and pie with pre-made or graham cracker crust.  This recipe, which uses regular sandwich bread as the "crust" would have been a perfect addition to my repertoire if I had known about it then. I often make the apples ahead and then quickly re-warm them, adding the bread and baking just before we are ready to eat dessert.

Here's the recipe, taken from Food and Wine magazine.

INGREDIENTS
3 Granny Smith apples (about 1 1/2 pounds)—peeled, cored and cut into sixths
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 slices of white sandwich bread, crusts removed
1 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons apricot preserves
Sour cream for serving

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a 7- or 8-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet, arrange the apples snugly, cored side up. Add the maple syrup, honey and 2 tablespoons of the butter and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook, gently shaking the pan occasionally, until the apples are tender, 5 minutes. Uncover and cook over high heat, shaking the pan a few times, until the liquid is evaporated and the apples are caramelized, 7 minutes.
2. Arrange the bread slices in a square on a work surface. Trim the corners of the slices to form a round the size of the skillet. Spread the bread with the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and sprinkle with the sugar. Arrange the bread over the apples, sugared side up. Bake for 20 minutes, until the bread is toasted. Invert the charlotte onto a plate.
3. In a heatproof bowl, melt the apricot preserves in a microwave oven for 30 seconds. Spread the preserves over the apples. Cut into wedges and serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.

Note:  This is great the next morning with coffee.  Just re-warm, and then add the sour cream when serving.

Pastitsio

I searched high and low for a pastitsio recipe that appealed to me and finally stumbled on this recipe from Ina Garten. It was delicious, but I did make the following modifications:

• I could not find ground lamb the day that I made this, so I used all beef.  It was wonderful but I will try this again with beef and lamb the next time that I make it for the sake of comparison.
• I did not add the beef mixture to the bechamel.  I wanted to keep the bechamel just as it is.
• I did not add Greek yogurt to the bechamel.  I make bechamel frequently for other recipes and I did not think that Greek yogurt would improve this in any way.

I made the meat sauce the night before so that the following morning, I only had to boil the noodles, make the bechamel, and assemble and bake the pastitsio.  The next time I make this, I will increase the bechamel recipe.  I like a nice, high layer on the top of the pastitsio, and this was too thin of a layer for me.  This reheats beautifully so you can make it ahead to take to someone's house or to serve later.

INGREDIENTS
For the Tomato Meat Sauce:
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (1 large)
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound lean ground lamb
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 large cloves)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes in puree
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Bechamel:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan or Kasseri cheese
2 extra-large eggs, beaten
2/3 cup Greek-style yogurt, such as Fage Total
3/4 pound small shells

DIRECTIONS

1. For the sauce, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes. Add the beef and lamb, and saute over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until it's no longer pink, crumbling it with the back of wooden spoon. Drain off any excess liquid, add the wine, and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the garlic, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, and cayenne, and continue cooking over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 45 minutes. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. For the bechamel, heat the milk and cream together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until simmering. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly for 2 minutes. Pour the warm milk and cream mixture into the butter and flour mixture, whisking constantly. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until smooth and thick. Add the nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Stir in 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of the tomato and meat sauce, and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the eggs and yogurt and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Don't over-cook because the pasta will later be baked. Drain and set aside.
5. Add the pasta to the meat and tomato sauce, and pour the mixture into a baking dish. Spread the bechamel evenly to cover the pasta and sprinkle with the remaining 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake for 1 hour, until golden brown and bubbly. Set aside for 10 minutes and serve hot.

Favorite New App

I attended a best practices event for an app I use for work.  The first thing we did was an ice breaker, which called on each table to determine who had the most apps on their phone, and who had the most interesting or unique app.  I learned two things: 

1. My 87 apps were mere child's play compared to others who had as many as 250+
2. There is a really cool app called Tunity that you'll want to get

Tunity allows you to scan a muted TV at the airport, in a bar, at the gym, etc., and then listen to it via your phone.  Want to hear the color commentary for the big game?  Tunity.  At the gym and need to know what the Real Housewives are saying while they throw wine in one another's faces?  Tunity.  At the airport when the "breaking news" banner appears on CNN, and it actually seems that something important happened?  Tunity.

I downloaded it while we were talking it about during the session and, a few days later while waiting for my breakfast in Bar Symon at Dulles Airport I was able to easily scan and tune into Sportscenter on ESPN.  I have yet to try it at the gym, but plan to do so tomorrow.  

Give it a try and let me know what you think!