A Reader's Respite: Weekend Cooking

Showing posts with label Weekend Cooking. Show all posts

A Tour of Bookstores and a Recipe....

A Reader's Respite was tasked this week with finding the appropriate punishment for Mr. RR, who forced us to put down our book for two days and help clean out the garage, an odious task we thoroughly loathe. What punishment did we finally decide upon? We decided to drag the poor mister with us while we took a full day to tour the fabulous independent bookstores of Seattle.

A Reader's Respite thought you might be interested in following along, since this is a preview of the tour we would take any of you on the next time you visit Seattle and give us a shout out....

We started the day off right by ditching the car and hopping on a convenient ferry which took us to downtown Seattle. It's a great form of transportation: they are fairly reliable and rarely sink to the bottom.

Our first stop was an independent used bookstore down in the basement of Pike's Place Market, called BLMF Literary Saloon. The awesomeness of this store cannot be conveyed in words.

What does BLMF stand for? Well, there's an interesting story behind that: the owner was, like most of us, a collector of books. Lots of books. One day, a relative stopped by his crammed-full-of-books apartment and noted that he had, *ahem,* "Books like a mother f____."

True story. The bookstore then had a name.

There are at least a couple of thousand used books in this little store, but they are smartly organized and there is a huge selection with darned fair prices.

Our next stop was still down in the bowels of Pike's Place Market, a little shop called Lionheart Books, which sells new books. This is the place you go for salespeople with personality.....they will sing to you about papercuts and happily "overcharge" you by $600....it really is a fun place.

Still in the Market, we headed over to Lamplight Books, which offers plenty of used and new books at decent prices. It doesn't have the selection that BLMF Literary Saloon, nor the personality of Lionheart Books, but they do have a lot of rare classics that are fun to look at and drool over.

Our next stop in the Market area was across the street to the famous Left Bank Books, a book lover's paradise for all things anarchy. (This is Seattle: we are all tree-hugging commies up here). Even if you don't appreciate the subject, there are a plethora of great history books to be found inside.

It was about this time that Mr. RR started complaining that he was hungry, so being in a generous mood, we allowed a break for lunch at Pigalle, a small restaurant overlooking the water that is consistently voted in the top ten restaurants in Seattle. Mr. RR scarfed down a big bowl of bouillabaisse and two Bloody Mary's while we read a book (he needed fortification).

Then it was off for a mile long hike up to Capitol Hill where Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle's largest independent bookstore resides. It was nirvana, folks. Truly. We made Mr. RR schlepp all the books we bought here around for the remainder of the day. He needed the exercise after all that bouillabaisse.

Mr. RR thought it prudent to point out that it was indeed Happy Hour throughout the city, so of course we headed over to The Alexis Hotel, where the bar is aptly named The Bookstore (the hotel's restaurant is called The Library, by the by). It was here that we indulged in a Chocolate Martini.

Conveniently attached to the hotel is Arundel's Book Store, one of our favorites because it has so much obscure historical fiction for sale. Pricey, but worth it. Plus, we love the spiral staircase that leads to the second floor of books.

So there's your tour of Seattle book stores. Next time your up in the Pacific Northwest, give us a call and A Reader's Respite will be happy to take you on the tour. Mr. RR will gladly remain at home.

Chocolate Martini

2 ounces vodka (the good stuff, don't be cheap)

1/2 ounce Creme de Cacao

Chocolate poweder or shavings for garnish

Keep Hydrated this Summer

For the past couple of weeks, A Reader's Respite has been slacking with our Weekend Cooking with Beth Fish Reads.

Owing largely to an unfortunate incident involving a Q-Tip, a punctured eardrum and an subsequent swollen jaw, we were punished by our doctor with orders for a strict liquid diet and more pills than you can count. So you'll forgive us our lack of participation in any event that involves glorious, mouth-watering, SOLID food.

We have, however, spent the past two weeks in the pursuit of anything liquid that tastes good. We've decided to share our favorite with you here today.

We start with a glass of cooled coffee. A Reader's Respite likes to save what is leftover from our morning pot and stick it in the fridge till it's cooled off enough to work with.

Next, grab yourself some chocolate syrup. Hershey's will do, but if you want to be Mr./Ms. Fancy Pants, you can get yourself the good stuff. Drizzle some in the glass and mix well. How much? Depends on how mocha you like your mocha. A Reader's Respite tends to get a tad carried away with this step.

Add ice till the glass is about two-thirds full. Grab some half-and-half (and we mean real half-and-half...don't you dare ruin this drink with your skim milk) and add a few tablespoons.

It's usually at this point in the process that A Reader's Respite stops for a while to admire the swirls that the half-and-half makes and sing all three verses of Carly Simon's You're So Vain ("clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee") and daydream a bit about a young Warren Beatty. But as we mentioned, we're on a LOT of pills here. That may have something to do with it.

But on with the drink....no mocha would be complete without a topper.

And if you'd like to know exactly how A Reader's Respite managed to become the only person in recorded medical history confined to a liquid diet who actually gained weight, the answer would be GARNISH.

Chase it with pain meds - better living through pharmaceuticals, we always say - and you have a recipe for a divine summer beverage.

Now where did we put our book?

Maybe this will turn us into a better cook?

This week, A Reader's Respite has discovered the magic device that we are absolutely certain will turn us into the world's best cook ever:

Meet The Demy. According to Barnes & Noble, The Demy is

the world's first touchscreen, kitchen-safe digital recipe reader, is a tool no serious home cook can afford to be without. With the capacity to store up to 2,500 recipes, a host of convenient features, a small footprint, and the ability to withstand spills and accidents, the Demy instantly gives you all the support you need to turn out one great dish after another, with a minimum of fuss.

Features:

Adjustable font size

3 built-in timers

Shortlist feature for frequently used recipes

Conversion tool for measurements

Dictionary of ingredient substitutes for emergencies

Syncs to complete online recipe collection via USB connection to your PC

Your own recipes can be typed in or scanned and downloaded via the Web

Recipes can be kept private or shared with select individuals

And A Reader's Respite is pretty convinced that with a sticker price of $199.95, it also does the dishes, sweeps up the kitchen and cleans your ovens, all with one easy touch of the button.

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Weekend Cooking is a weekly even hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Go check it out!

Cook the Books....

For this installment of Weekend Cooking (sponsored by the fabulous Beth Fish Reads), A Reader's Respite has only one question.....

How is it that we don't own a copy of this cookbook?

A cookbook featuring recipes from famous food passages found in classic novels and modern favorites, it seems inconceivable that A Reader's Respite doesn't have a copy of this stashed away somewhere. (We double checked our shelves and it's shocking, but true.)

Recipes include Ichabod's slapjacks from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the orange-poppyseed tea cakes found in The Importance of Being Earnest, macaroni and cheese from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, and even Sober Shepard's Pie from Bridget Jones's Diary. How fun is that? Perhaps not the most practical cookbook out there, but for a bibliophile it sounds like a little slice of heaven.

Must.have.this.book.NOW.

Weekend Cooking

It's time for Weekend Cooking with Beth Fish Reads. And for those of you who are now thoroughly convinced that A Reader's Respite cannot cook worth a damn, we give you the following recipe guaranteed to delight (or scare) the pickiest eater out there:

Baked Stuffed Chicken

One 6-7 pound chicken, thawed, plucked, cleaned and ready to cook

1 cup of melted butter, the real stuff, not the fake margarine

1 cup of prepared stuffing

1 cup of uncooked popcorn kernels (Orville is best here)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Fill the chicken's cavity with stuffing and popcorn kernels and half of the melted butter. Brush the chicken with the remainder of the butter. Salt and pepper as needed. Place chicken in the oven with the neck facing the BACK of the oven. Listen for popping sounds.

Chicken is done and ready to serve when the chicken's ass blows the oven door open and the chicken flies across the kitchen. Take cover.

Enjoy.

Weekend Cooking: A little bit mean

This weekend, A Reader's Respite has chosen to share a very special recipe with you. And it really *is* a recipe this time. For real. Check it out:

Why would we be sharing a LINK to a fabulous French croissant recipe?

Because A Reader's Respite will be in Paris this entire week and since it isn't feasible to bring a delicious croissant back for each and every one of you, we thought we'd just provide the recipe instead.

Told you we are a little bit mean.

Bon jour

Weekend Cooking: A Reader's Respite's Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's not much better in this world on a cold, winter day than curling up by a warm fire blazing in the hearth with a good book and a batch of warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies.

Such was the mission for A Reader's Respite if we wanted to participate in Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking.

First, we'll share our uber-secret and complex recipe:

1 tube of that Pillsbury doughy stuff found in the grocery store. Gross, but serves the purpose.
1 cookie sheet with the residue from your previous cooking disaster scraped off
A timer (optional)
1 good book

Open the dough-y stuff and schlopp it on your cookie sheet in big glumps. Put cookie sheet in oven. Go sit in front of the fire to read your book. Become so engrossed in your book that you don't even hear the timer (see, we told you it was optional). Go check on cookies when the burning odor sets off your fire detector and interrupts your reading.

If you follow these directions precisely, you'll end up with this: