Monday Miscellany

Looking back, I remember what an important author the Nobel prize winner John Steinbeck was, particularly to my generation.   Books like The Pearl, The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men were essential to the canon of American literature for young adults. Certainly there was much to be learned about early 20th Century California history and culture, even in his fiction, with Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.
John Steinbeck, who had also dabbled in journalism, ventured into non fiction...or so we thought, with Travels With Charley in Search of America, a travelogue of sorts of his cross country road trip with his dog.
According to Wikipedia
In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top – which was rare at the time – and drove across the United States with his faithful 'blue' standard poodle, Charley. Steinbeck nicknamed his truck Rocinante after Don Quixote's "noble steed". In this sometimes comical, sometimes melancholic book, Steinbeck describes what he sees from Maine to Montana to California, and from there to Texas and Louisiana and back to his home on Long Island. The restored camper truck is on exhibit in the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.

But, from a recent article in the New York Times A Reality Check for Steinbeck and Charley
we learn that Bill Steigerwald, after extensive research, discovered that most of the book was fabricated.

He added that he was a little surprised that his findings hadn't made more of a ripple among Steinbeck scholars: "'Travels With Charley' for 50 years has been touted, venerated, reviewed, mythologized as a true story, a nonfiction account of John Steinbeck's journey of discovery, driving slowly across America, camping out under the stars alone. Other than the fact that none of that is true, what can I tell you?" He added, "If scholars aren't concerned about this, what are they scholaring about?"

Years ago I knew about Steinbeck's political bias but I never suspected that he would fabricate an entire book?
But now at my very advanced and skeptical age, I'm not surprised to learn this.
The question isn't why he would fabricate a story to fit his social and political narrative, but why no one has caught this before now?
All that reading about Steinbeck inspired me to serve San Francisco style Cioppino, arugula salad, hot ciabatta bread and chianti last night.
Et voila.

Since I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients I improvised.

Here's the super easy recipe.
saute mirepoix in a little olive oil and butter for about 10 minutes
add two small cans of crushed tomatoes (I use the unsalted kind)
add two cups of clam juice
add two cups of wine (next time I would use one cup wine and one water)
add the juice of one lemon
add 1 tsp basil, oregano and red pepper flakes
simmer for 1 hour and add water as necessary
add fish and seafood such as mussels, halibut, clams, lobster tail, shrimp, etc.
(I used cod, shrimp and minced clams)
and cook for another 10 minutes
and enjoy

Finally, sticking with my oceanic theme I decided to wear a pendant today made from a silver coin from the Spanish Galleon the Concepcion which was shipwrecked in 1641.

Here's the close up

Tiffany & Co. Concepcion 1641 Coin Pendant in 18K $2250

The Concepción was one of the most significant Spanish wrecks of all time, serving the Spanish with a loss of over 100 tons of silver and gold treasure. The almiranta of a 21-ship fleet, the Concepción was already in poor repair when the Europe-bound fleet encountered a storm in September, leaving her disabled and navigating under makeshift sails amid disagreement among its pilots about their location. Weeks later, she grounded on a reef in an area now named the Silver Shoals, just to the east of another shoal known as the Abrojos, which the pilots were trying to avoid.

After another storm hit the wrecked ship and the admiral and officers left in the ship’s only longboat, the remaining crew resorted to building rafts from the ship’s timbers. Survivors’ accounts pointed to drowning, starvation and even sharks for the loss of around 300 casualties. In the fallout that ensued, none of the survivors could report the wreck’s location with accuracy, so it sat undisturbed until New England’s William Phipps found it in 1687 and brought home tons of silver and some gold, to the delight of his English backers.

The Concepción was found again in 1978 by Burt Webber, Jr., whose divers recovered some 60,000 silver cobs, mostly Mexican 8 and 4 reales but also some Potosí and rare Colombian cobs (including more from the Cartagena mint than had been found on any other shipwreck). Unlike the Maravillas of just 15 years later, however, the Concepción did not give up any gold cobs in our time, and any significant artifacts found were retained by the government of the Dominican Republic, who oversaw the salvage. The bulk of the silver cobs found on the Concepción were heavily promoted, even in department stores! The site is still being worked from time to time with limited success.

I love jewelry that has a history.

Sunday At Home or Creating Order Out of Chaos

Like the rest of the world, I can't stop watching the videos from Japan.
This one from the BBC shows when the tsunami first hits the land
It's truly frightening to see the unrelenting power of the tsunami.

As for the report that radiation has leaked from Japanese nuclear plants is going to cross the Pacific and hit the west cost

It is admitted that the first plant has melted down, and 6 more nuclear power plants in Japan are in danger. If they fail, this situation could get even worse. Japanese authorities are distributing potassium iodide to its population for thyroid protection.

For U.S. populations, we can hope that most of the radiation will disperse into the ocean and never reach us, however, with the U.S. West Coast in the direct path of the jet stream from Japan, it is a good precaution to stock up on potassium iodide or natural iodine from kelp, which can prevent the absorption of radioactive iodine, the most common complication from radiation poisoning.

OK, so I didn't run out and buy potassium iodide
Instead I took a clue from Faux Fuchsia and went out to brunch
which is something that I rarely do
But when life brings you circumstances that you can do nothing about
it's good to spend time with your brood

and enjoy a bloody mary
and catch up on what's going on in the lives of your children and their significant others

Since the weather was warmish we sat outside and enjoyed the sun.

Later in further FF style there was some gardening

specifically cleaning up my wildly growing mint, parsley and cilantro

and of course some cooking

with Chicken Chasseur de Ville for Sunday dinner

which was super easy to action

OK, so I admit that it wasn't real poulet chasseur because I left out the mushrooms and the cognac

but it was tasty anyway

Here are the basics

Saute some chicken ( I used organic boneless chicken thighs) in a little butter and oil

remove chicken from pan and add chopped red onion, chopped roasted red pepper, chopped garlic and cook vegetables until soft.

Add one can of chopped tomatoes (I used the no salt added kind) and some red wine and bring to a boil

Return the chicken to the pan and add some fresh parsley, basil and a bay leaf

Cover and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes

Serve with asparagus and hot baguette

There is something so calming about domestic activity

because when mother nature, who's not your friend by the way, brings you chaos

organizing your home, a reasonably achievable goal,

brings you at least some semblance of order out of chaos.

While the Trainer's Away or Dinner At Ten

Last night I decided to take advantage of the fact that my trainer was getting ready to show off her magnificent muscularity at some major national competition and my 8:00 gym appointment was cancelled.
Oh yeah I know, I could have gone to the gym anyway and given my all to the treadmill, but I just said no.
Instead, I decided to cook.

Our favorite Aussi domestic goddess Faux Fuchsia has posted about how cooking can be a de-stresser after a long day at work.  And, of course she was correct.  There is something therapeutic in the act of chopping and cooking and serving and eating that makes you forget about your daily issues.
And cooking raises your serotonin and dopamine levels....or so I tell myself.

Of course all this took time, and after getting home late from the office, then deciding on what to make, then going to the market for last minute ingredients the actual cooking process didn't get started until 8:30 last night.

Maybe it was because of Jill's current Ina Garten obsession or maybe it was because I had leftover roasted chicken the fridge, I decided to cook chicken pot pie using Garten's vegetable pot pie recipe
...with slight alterations.
I used way less butter, I left out the saffron and instead of making pastry crust, I used bisquick for the topping.
The kicker in the recipe was the chopped fennel and the pastis.

Behold the magnificence!

Yes, maybe it was 10:00 before dinner was served but it was worth it.

...but tonight it's back to the gym...

And on a different topic altogether

Faux Fuchsia, who's been traveling around England, the Isle of Jersey and Brittany has been bragging on her blog about the cuteness of Jersey cows. Sorry FF, you may be a domestic goddess and you certainly know your bromeliads from your begonias, but in terms of animal appreciation, those Jersey cows have nothing on the beautiful bovines of Switzerland and Austria. 

Voila, Austrian heifers in their Alpine floral spender.

Pictures snagged from Paradis Express, a pretty blog by a gardener from the suburbs of Paris. 

If you like landscape and floral design, check out her blog

and don't worry, it's not about cows.