My Admiration Goes To:

Don’t forget to think healing thoughts for me this afternoon when I get my teeth extracted. I am not sure how likely I am to write a blog on Christmas Eve although I hope I will feel OK.

I have been having something of a discussion on Glenda’s website about trilogies or individual books. I generally don’t mind trilogies like those written by Glenda Larke or Karen Miller, but I do agree that a single book means you don’t have to remember events and characters from volume to volume. A good example of this is the book I am reading now, as I mentioned yesterday, I am reading Towers of Midnight which is No. 13 in the Wheel of Time series. This series was begun by Robert Jordan (who’s real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr.) as I mentioned yesterday, the novels are being completed by Brandon Sanderson due to the unfortunate death of Robert Jordon. The first book was published in 1990 and there is still one more book to come. The current book is some 840 pages of novel with another 20 or so pages of glossary and maps and each one of the books has been of a similar size. How the hell one is expected to remember everything for 20 years, I do not know. Funnily enough, I do remember a lot, but every now and then something crops up and I have no idea who all the characters in a chapter really are, maybe I will be reminded later on.

The same situation applies to the James R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire series, the last of which was published some 5 years ago. Another series, Earth’s Children by Jean M. Auel, is supposed to get another novel published in March next year (2004 was the last one). Meanwhile, we poor readers are supposed to keep all these characters in our heads. NOT easy.

At the same time, I have boundless admiration for Robert Jordan in the first place for conceiving and writing this vast series, but even further admiration for doing such a wonderful job of picking up the mantle and carrying on in such a way as to make it impossible to tell where one author left off and the other began. Having vaguely toyed with writing a book, ha ha, I have some concept of how difficult this is, and listening to published authors like Glenda Larke and Karen Miller, to name but two, discuss their anguish when they write and the problems of getting their work published in the first place, I don’t really know how anyone manages to achieve writing a novel in the first place.

For supper last night we had a dish I invented some 40 years ago and which was a favourite of both my hubbies although funnily enough we haven’t made it in many a long year. Basically you layer a casserole dish with slices of canned corned beef, cover it with cooked elbow macaroni and then make a cheese sauce with onions in it. Smother the pasta with the cheese sauce and bake it in the oven until everything is warmed through and the tomatoes are cooked. Around 30 minutes at 400 °F.

As an additional recipe, how about a holiday drink. This is certainly a new one on me, I just might give it a try although I do tend to drink Champagne for Christmas.

Lychee Martini

This sweet and sour drink is a great New Year’s cocktail.

Yield: 6

Ingredients

1 cup lychee juice (see note)

1/2 cup pink grapefruit juice, preferably fresh-squeezed

1/2 cup chilled vodka

Ice cubes

12 fresh lychees, peeled and pitted, or 1 can (398 ml/14 oz) lychees, drained

6 thin slices lime

Directions

1. Note: If you can’t find lychee juice, use canned lychee syrup.
2. In a cocktail shaker, combine the lychee juice, grapefruit juice, vodka and ice cubes. Shake or stir well. Strain into martini glasses. Garnish each drink with 2 lychees and 1 lime slice.
3. Idea: Freeze the lychees before putting them in the martinis.

Have a great day, not sure I will.