Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Books and Josephine

Guess I owe Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis an apology. Having persevered with the book And Less Than Kind, I actually found I quite enjoyed it after all. More for the parts involving Underhill and the Sidhe than to do with the history of Queen Elizabeth I. Although it did make me realise just what a rotten life Elizabeth lived and how very much on her own she was, particularly once Queen Mary came to the throne. She must have been a nervous wreck by the time she herself came to the throne. What a life. Having finished it, I now have a new book to read which I am looking forward to doing. It has taken me forever to get hold of it as it is out of print, but I have finally got a copy of the first of the trilogy and have read the first few pages. This book is The Siege of Arrandin by Marcus Herniman, an English author with an extensive background in medieval history. I know that Glenda Larke of Tropic Temper (see link on this page) enjoyed the trilogy, so I am expecting to do so. You can't believe how much trouble I had getting this book. I went to Amazon.ca and it was ordered for me from England, it was apparently shipped to me, but never arrived. Finally my money was refunded and I went to Amazon.com and ordered it again from an American source. It was shipped to me on August 1. I finally got it yesterday, over a month from San Francisco which is 5 hours flying time away from me. I think they sent it round the Horn. On Thursday we have a visitor coming for lunch, Matt's cousin from Toronto, whom we haven't seen for maybe 20 years. In fact she is a second cousin, her dad and Matt's dad were cousins. It will be so nice to see her again. I have decided to do a basic Quiche Lorraine with a Caesar Salad followed by a Crème Brulée for dessert. I hope she has a good appetite. I haven't made a quiche in a few years, don't know why not, I always enjoy them and they are not difficult to make. Oh damn, I have just checked on the Weather Channel and they have named a tropical storm after me, Josephine. This is not the first time this has happened. The last one was 1996. I hope it stays as a tropical storm and also stays out to sea, last time I got blamed by friends for the mess I made. As you can see from this picture I got from the Weather Channel the three storms are well spread out across the Atlantic at the moment. Hanna looks like it could hit the Florida area at the moment, the other two could go floating off up north and not hit land at all, at least that's what I'm hoping. I am sure I am not alone in that wish. When we lived in the south and we got so many hurricanes, the biggest danger we personally faced was falling trees and we sure had lots of those. In 12 years I think we lost around 26 trees. We were so lucky, never once did one actually fall on the house. The fence took a good bashing occasionally, but never the house. Once, in the same storm, we had one tree at the back and one tree at the front and they had both fallen away from the house, something to do with the circular winds I imagine. I was thinking of a quiche recipe, but they are 10 a penny on the internet with all kinds of combinations and flavours. Instead I decided on a sorbet which is a delightful addition to any meal. Cantaloupe Sorbet Source: Cookbook Wizard Picture maona.net Servings: 6 Ingredients: 1 tbsp. honey 3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 2 large or 3 medium cantaloupes 3 tbsp. brandy Instructions: Bring honey, lemon juice, sugar and water to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes. Let cool. Seed the cantaloupes. With a melon baller make 18 cantaloupe balls. Soak the melon balls in brandy. Set aside for garnish. Cut the rest of the cantaloupe flesh into 1-inch pieces and puree in a food processor until there are 3 cups of purée. Combine the cooled honey-sugar syrup and the cantaloupe purée. Mix well and freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to a plastic container and store in the freezer until needed, no more than 3 days. Allow the frozen sorbet to thaw slightly before serving to enhance the flavor. Serve with brandied cantaloupe balls as a garnish. Note: Honeydew melon may be substituted; then substitute lime juice for lemon juice. Have a great day.

8 comments:

  1. i hope ike anna and Josephine will be good boy and girls, and be nice enough to go back wher they belong !

    At last you got that MH book ! don't spoil the story please as i might to try nextly to get one too ^^

    mmm les bonnes quiches lorraines, quiches aux fromages, quiche aux poireaux et tartes aux légumes ! i'm hungry again !!!

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  2. Well my quiche lorraine turned out very well.

    My friend in NC says I can go down and clean up after Josephine if necessary.

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  3. Darn, now I wish we had an ice cream machine! My mom adores melon, and when we were in Florence several years ago we discovered a little street stall that sold melon ice cream and she was ecstatic.

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  4. You don't have to have a machine to make ice cream or sorbets, its a somewhat arduous process, but you freeze the ice cream til its slushy to hard, then whip it thoroughly, then put it back in the freezer and do the same again, maybe a couple of times. This prevents crystals forming in the mixture. Ru, don't you have a Mrs. Beeton? She tells you how to make ice cream without a machine.

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  5. I have a copy of The Seige of Arrandin in the mail, too. I sure hope it arrives faster than yours did!

    Although after your first experience, perhaps I should just say "I hope it gets here!" Fingers crossed.

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  6. At least your copy, Satima, was sent by someone who knows your address properly. I truly believe my lot sent it to CA (California) instead of Canada. Anyway it arrived that's the main thing. Nice of him to send it plus the book by Glenda. He's a lovely lad.

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  7. He is indeed:-) Your Canada / CA confusion reminds me the time when I was working in Massachusetts. We were getting letters addressed to Germany back with postmarks from American postoffices saying "no such address". It turned out that US mail had been reading German postcodes as American ones, even though the coutry of destination was clearly stated on the envelope!

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  8. Its amazing the dumb things that can happen like that. Makes you wonder.

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