Free Sakineh

The first book I reviewed for CTR was Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir by Marina Nemat (you can read it here). Nemat's work is extremely powerful and has made a lasting impression on me. Sadly, experiences like to Nemat's continue on today. So when I heard an advertisement on the radio tonight requesting support for an Iranian woman wrongly imprisoned in Tehran I felt compelled to write out a quick note.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is being tried for adultery and faces stoning. This 5 August 2010 Sakineh's lawyer was arrested... sometime this upcoming week it is presumed she will be executed.

For those who are interested, please visit http://freesakineh.org/ to read through all of the information, view links to news articles throughout the globe, and perhaps sign a petition. I feel it pertinent that we continue to spread Sakineh's story.

Thank you.

Mocha-Chip Meringues

Sweet Sunday's Yummy Lit Review:
Mocha-Chip Meringues

After the success of last week's Apricot Blueberry Bundles I decided to go back to Martha Stewart's website to tackle another one of her recipes. This time I tried my hand at a meringue cookie - my very first!


Here are the ingredients and methods:

3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch; set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until frothy. Beating constantly, add sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes total (scrape down the bowl halfway through). Add espresso powder and cocoa; beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake until crisp, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool completely on sheets, about 20 minutes.


How did it go?

Before starting the baking process I noticed that I was all out of cornstarch. I was determined to make these cookies so I turned to the internet for guidance. Searching Google I discovered that all-purpose flour can be used as a replacement for cornstarch. With the flour in hand I set out to make scrumptious meringues.

Unfortunately they didn't turn out scrumptious. In fact, they didn't turn out at all. I could not get the egg-white mixture to get hard, stiff, and glossy peaks no matter how hard I tried. I like to think it's because I used flour instead of cornstarch... but in hindsight I'm not really sure. I ended up throwing away this runny mixture and, luckily, I found some cornstarch buried in the bottom of one of the kitchen drawers (if only I had found this sooner!).

I was determined to create those 'stiff and glossy peaks' during my second attempt. Thus, when the mixture finally did turn into a texture that resembled meringue I happily yelled out "I finally got it hard!" My neighbors may have heard me, and there may have been a bit of awkwardness in the air after my exclamation, but I was dang proud to have finally created those peaks and crests in my egg-white/salt/sugar/cornstarch mix.

When the meringues came out of the oven 40 minutes later I couldn't help but laugh. They looked deplorable. Comments from others ranged from: "they look like potato-skins," "crematorium cookies," and "it's like gum but then it disappears." After a hour of cooling, however, I was told they tasted as a meringue cookie should. I personally do not know... but I won't be trying these again. I think I'll keep my meringue in pies, thank you very much Ms. Stewart.

----

As a side note, I discovered that if you beat meringue for too long it will lose its characteristic stiff peaks. I guess I got a little carried away once I noticed the mixture was acquiring a harder consistency. Perhaps too much beating combined with a lack of cornstarch ruined my first batch.

So my lesson?

Don't beat it too much or the hardness will go away and you'll be left with a liquid-y mess... sounds like sound and simple advice to me haha.


Hope you all have a sweet Sunday! :)

The Cellist of Sarajevo

For the past few months I have been contemplating reading Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo. I've seen it at the local bookstore many times, read its cover, leafed through its pages, and always placed it back on the shelf. A book about the killing of civilians in Sarajevo, Bosnia? It just sounded too depressing.

I finally decided the time had come to give Galloway's work a shot when I noticed his book sitting on the shelf during my latest trip to the library. When I saw The Cellist of Sarajevo advertised as local literature - Galloway is from a suburb in BC's Lower Mainland - I felt I had no choice but to sit down with a coffee and digest his work word for word.

Galloway portrays a country's experience of civil war and its tendency to dehumanize society. He describes intense scenes of disparity and hope: a country's army murders its civilians who merely wish to cross a street; a cellist plays Albinoni Adiago in G minor on war torn streets for 22 consecutive days as an act of deviance; counter-snipers attempt to protect the people of Sarajevo; and parents struggle to stay optimistic in the presence of their children.

Galloway's work is graphic. A poignant part of the novel is his suggestion that the news media's presentation of war stories distances the audience from events. It was a powerful scene and I feel the only way to give it justice is to provide an excerpt.


After witnessing the bombing of one of Sarajevo's streets, Dragan, one of the main characters, disagrees with a journalist videotaping the resulting carnage:

"It's not that he doesn't want the world to know what's happening here. He does, or at least he agrees with the argument that the world is more likely to intervene if it is forced to see the suffering of innocents. It's just that the scene the cameraman will capture is in no way representative of what's happened here today. It's the aftermath.
A dead body won't both anyone. It will be a curiosity, but unless some viewer knew the hatless man it will mean nothing. There's nothing in a dead body that suggests what it was like to be alive. No one will know if the man had unusually large feet, what his friends used to tease him about when he was a child. No on will know about the scar on his back he got from falling out of a tree, or that his favourite food was chocolate cake...
None of this will ever be said again, has simply vanished from existence. But these are the things that make a death something to be mourned. It's not just a disappearance of flesh. This, in and of itself, is easily shrugged off. When the body of the hatless man is shown on the evening news to people all over the world, they will do exactly that. They may remark on the horror, but they will, most likely, think nothing of it at all." (Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo, p 232-233).

It's sad, but this happens all too frequently. Most of us in the western world are accustomed to having dinner with the news playing in the background providing footage of death and war. It is almost as if the dehumanization that occurs in countries at war continues into the living rooms of those in the west.

Galloway also proposes that music is a powerful form of communication and allows people to express joy or recall happier times. When homes in Sarajevo do have power, people turn on radios and CD players in the hopes of listening to music and dancing. And the cellist, the grounding focal point of the novel, is able to stop civilians, soldiers, and counter-snipers from action by merely playing his music. Galloway seems to suggest that music is a way to regain humanity, emotional connections, and sensitivity to others in a world ravaged by war.

It wasn't until I was finished reading The Cellist of Sarajevo that I looked up Albinoni Adiago in G minor (you can listen to it here). This is the song that was performed by the fictional cellist... and the song that was played by Vedran Smailovic, the actual cellist who played in Sarajevo's streets in 1992. The novel is premised on Smailovic, who defied imminent danger in order to honour those who were murdered during the Siege of Sarajevo. Needless to say it is a beautiful and moving piece of music.

Book Blogger Hop 2

The Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy-For-Books, is back again!

This is my second time participating in these blogging festivities. It was fun last week and I got to see some interesting sites that I probably wouldn't have encountered without this activity... So I thought I'd give it another shot. You can get all the pertinent details about participation here.


This week's Book Blogger Hop question: Do you listen to music when you read? If so, what are your favourite tunes?

A: Both yes and no. I like silence when I'm reading something full of historical facts or theories. I find it easier to digest information without a song's lyrics interfering with my thoughts. I think it also stems to my educational experiences. I've been told that you will more easily recall information if you are in a similar setting as to when you learned the information. So, for example: I study in a quiet room so that I will be able to recall the information I studied more accurately when I am in a quiet exam room. Many years of studying has made it second nature for me to seek out quiet places to read in my spare time. However, classical music is sometimes incorporated into my reading experience - I'll put on some of Andre Rieu's symphony music, Mozart, Bach, and things of that nature when the silence gets too much.


Hope you all have a good weekend and enjoy the Hop.

Can't Stand the Heat

Louisa Edwards knows how to write an enjoyable, addictive, and modern romance... with a twist.

I don't think I have ever read a book like this one. It was definitely a good read but I reckon a reader needs to have an open mind to fully enjoy Edwards' work. While Edwards writes an engaging love story between a male chef and a female journalist in New York City, she also meaningfully portrays a male homosexual relationship. The characters are well formed, the plot twists (though, admittedly, the twists are sometimes expected), and there's even a madman with a gun. I couldn't help thinking of Mathew McConaughey and Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days or Aaron Eckhart and Catherine Zeta Jones in No Reservations as I read through the book - Edwards creates a literary equivalent of these films.

When I was reading Can't Stand the Heat I began to think back to the last time I read a work of fiction that involved a homosexual relationship of some form. I'm pretty sure that there must have been a homosexual relationship in at least one of the many many books I have read over the years. But as I search through my memory I can't think of any examples. Even homosexual secondary characters in books, characters that were hardly mentioned in a plotline, are hard for me to recall (probably because they were minor characters themselves). I do remember Bridget Jones' Diary mentioning a homosexual male best friend... but I only remember this because of the Hollywood film. I suppose Brokeback Mountain exists in fictive form as well.

On the other hand, or maybe just because I'm an optimist, I reckon that these books do exist... I just haven't encountered one while in the local libraries or bookstores (and, admittedly, I haven't searched for them). Now, after thinking about it, I wonder if it is one of those elusive book genres where you have to know specific titles and put in pre-orders?

The thought that the public is exposed to reading material that is heterosexist and does not reflect diverse experiences is troublesome for me. In fact, while I have thought about representations of gender I have never really considered how sexual orientations are portrayed in novels until now. Reading Can't Stand the Heat made me ponder how popular fiction portrays sexual orientations and reflects societal ideals.

Apricot Blueberry Bundles

Sweet Sunday's Yummy Lit Review:
Apricot Blueberry Bundles

This week I tackled Martha Stewart's Oatmeal-Apricot Cookies recipe.

It is a good recipe, don't get me wrong... but I had to change it around. It was a Friday afternoon, it was beautifully sunny and warm, and I had the hugest craving for a blueberry apricot treat. I searched all of my baking books, baking blogs, baking websites, and still could not find a recipe that combined both of these yummy fruits. And then I found it - there on Martha's website was stated "These treats are a variation on classic oatmeal-raisin cookies. You could also try baking them with other dried fruits, such as cherries, cranberries, or chopped dates." I had found an oatmeal-apricot home for my blueberries!

Martha also gave me some pretty solid steps to follow:

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup roughly chopped dried apricots
3/4 cup slivered almonds.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add oat mixture, and mix until just combined. Stir in apricots and almonds by hand.
Divide dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Place balls 3 to 4 inches apart on baking sheet. Using your fingers, flatten balls to about a 3/4 inch thickness. Bake cookies until edges begin to brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I follow the recipe for the most part... well, besides the addition of 1/2 cup fresh blueberries from BC's interior. I mean, it is Martha Stewart after all. I did not think it was appropriate to mess with a good thing... no pun intended.

These cookies were really fun to make. The batter is sticky, and once you get to the ball stage you'll be covered in the yummy dough. I saved some blueberries to place on top of the cookies for decoration before going into the oven.

However, I do think the cookies were meant to be larger... She states a 25-30 minute baking time and the creation of only 12 cookies.

I ended up with 2 dozen Apricot Blueberry Bundles (as I've aptly named them). They only took 14 minutes in the oven... I hate to think what would have happened to them if they were to be left in for 30 minutes.

Oh, and how do they taste? AMAZING. I thought my favourite oatmeal cookies were from Betty Crocker (last week's Yummy Lit Review). But Apricot Blueberry Bundles are indescribable. The apricots bring a refreshing flavour, the blueberries add richness, and the oats are moist and soft. I love these cookies. I'll definitely be going back to Martha for more recipes.

The perfect cookie to ring in August 2010!
Hope you all have a Sweet Sunday.