The Toll Gate - Georgette Heyer

Summary: It takes a lot to unnerve Captain John Staple, a man with a reputation for audacious exploits and whimsical nonsense. But when he finds himself mired on the moors on a dark and stormy night no less - John hardly expects to find a young frightened boy who's been left alone to tend a toll gate house. 
Never one to pass up an adventure, John decides to take up residence in Derbyshire as a gatekeeper until he can find the lad's father. But as John investigates the suspicious disappearance, he begins to unravel a far more complex mystery. And at its center is a woman ... the very one to tame John's reckless spirit.


Comments: John Staple is a unique man. Finding a poor child being a gate keep for his disappeared father, he stops, stays, and tries to sort out what is going on. Just because it needs to be done. This book is unlike any Georgette Heyer I've read before. It's way more of a
mystery than a romance. The couple in question get married with no real conflict about three quarters of the way through the book, but don't get to be together immediately. The mystery is what are Henry Stornaaway, cousin of Nell Stornaway and grandson of Sir Peter, and Mr. Coate up to - because it must be something to be at Kellands when it's dead boring - which it is most of the time.
The heroine is logical, the hero is, well, a rare breed of man and the secondary characters, from highwayman to Bow Street Runner to 7 year-old boy are well drawn and believable.
Great read - Up next Powder and Patch.

Happy Birthday Agatha Christie!

I am in the process of reading all of Agatha Christie's mysteries. The goal was to do it in order, but I've already messed that up, so I'm keeping to the published date order as much as possible. 


Questions:
Who is your favorite - Poirot or Miss Marple? Poirot, and a nod to Inspector Battle.


Favorite Book (so far)? Chimneys


Thoughts on Hastings... Love him. He keeps Poirot's overlarge ego in check.

Agatha Christie and the Doctor

Favorite reference to Agatha Christie..."The Unicorn and the Wasp"episode of Dr. Who that explains what happens in those 11 missing days. Great stuff that. 

Joanna Trollope to rewrite Jane Austen

From the Guardian Book Section
"From Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy to Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightley, Jane Austen created some of the most enduring romances in literary history. Now, publisher HarperCollins is hoping it has dreamed up another marriage made in heaven, commissioning Joanna Trollope to write a contemporary reworking of Austen's novel, Sense and Sensibility.


The pairing is the first in a what the publisher has dubbed a "major" new series, in which it will team modern authors with Austen's six novels, asking them to reimagine the books in a contemporary setting. The project is the latest addition to the current vogue for Austen
remixes, which have ranged over recent years from the unexpected  success of Seth Grahame-Smith's zombie mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to erotic fiction author Mitzi Szereto's X-rated Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts."


Must say that being a contemporary writer, I had no idea who Joanna Trollope was... go figure. I can't wait to see who HarperCollins contracts with to rework Persuasion.

Coffee Cake

I tend to enjoy recipes by Alex Guarnaschelli. She seems relatively normal for someone on Food Network and I've had good success with the things I've tried before that she has created (or I assume she's created). I've been needing something good for breakfast, and since I still have this fear (unrealistic, I realize) of yeast, I've avoided breakfast breads so coffee cake seems to be a decent alternative. So here goes.

You can get the recipe here.

September 11, 2001

It is difficult - this tenth anniversary of the tragic murder of innocent Americans and other nationalities that were either in the Pentagon, in the Trade Center or on one of the planes used as weapons. Everyone remembers where they were, when it seemed like just one horrific thing after another kept happening, and it's doubtful those memories will ever fade.
I was immediately very busy. My chancellor wanted an event for the next day to honor the victims and responders, and to mourn those we had lost at our university. It was my first real event in a job I had been on less than two weeks. Hell of an initiation, but it kept my mind off things going on in the world. We had deliveries of tables, chairs, podiums, speakers to engage, oh, and a capital campaign gala to cancel. It sounds superficial and it was, but it helped to be busy.
I don't think I really had a good idea of how much of an impact this had on me until late in the night. The Boy and I had gone to a restaurant that we were already quite the frequent customers because I knew there were no TVs in the restaurant. Later, I noticed how quite it all seemed. No flights over head, few cars. It was eerie. It was a very sad time. And it made me very very angry. Ten years doesn't make it any less sad, but hopefully, we, as a people and as a country, have learned something about ourselves and what we hold dear.

Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy - Abigail Reynolds

Summary: Elizabeth marries Darcy despite her dislike of him because she's caught in a kiss that she didn't expect at Rosings Park. 


Comments: Boy, I had a hard time with this book. In the end, I liked it a lot and I'm not an easy person to convience, but it took a a little time. The whole idea that Elizabeth Bennett would marry Darcy when she didn't even like him seems such a strange premiss to me, but I guess the social conventions of the time dictated it. The fact that Darcy wouldn't realize that she was marrying him under durress - is he really that blind, but then again, men are dense - I mean even today.  That said, I let those things go and still had one other issue with the story. The miscommunication and mistakes and bad feelings of the characters take the majority of the book. I kept thinking, stop already with the troubles between Darcy and Elizabeth. This is mostly my personality because I like happy endings (and this one was), but it took some work to get there. I'm a sap, I realize it. But there it is.
I enjoyed some of the minor characters quite a bit. Bingley and Georgianna, were delightful. Bingley actually gets angry at Darcy, which is something I never thought I would see. But it was justified and refreshing. I have to admit, I could do without the detailed description of sex, but I don't care for that in any book. Just not my thing. While elements of the story, for example Elizabeth learning to ride, were engaging and believable, I think ultimately I never was able to divest myself of the idea of the marriage being wrong that caused real disquiet while reading.

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily

Summary: Penelope Deveraux never imagined she'd be spirited off to India to give the scandal of her hasty marriage time to die down. As Lady Frederick Staines, Penelope plunges into the elaborate court intrigues of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what he seems. In a strange and exotic country where a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous cobras as his calling card, there is only one person she can trust.
Captain Alex Reid has better things to do than play nursemaid to a pair of aristocrats. Unfortunately, Penelope seems to have the uncanny ability to draw out the deadly plans of the Marigold and put herself in harm's way. With danger looming from local warlords, treacherous court officials, and French spies, Alex realizes that an alliance with Lady Staines may be the only thing standing in the way of a plot designed to rock the very foundations of the British Empire. (source: book cover)


Commentary: I enjoyed this installment of the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. Penelope is a bit like me, the cynic, the critical one, the tom boy even perhaps. She's the only one of Ms. Willig's female characters that could handle the trip to, and living in, India. The rest are way too girly for this. As mentioned previously, Penelope gets herself trapped in a marriage that leaves her with less than the best prospects. Freddy Staines, really, ah, that's too bad (Call me "old thing" one more time and I'll...). Thankfully, based on the plot line we know his number will come up. 
Alex Reid, on the other hand, is a hero's hero. If Penelope can trust him enough to figure out what is going on. And what is going on? Not sure at the beginning, because there are too many members of the Hellfire Club involved and suspicious dealings with the locals that don't seem to be above board. And, Alex's boss has married a local woman which brings him - and Alex - into question with British officers. Penelope suspects Alex of just about everything. Probably over reaching at that point, but being new to the area, who is to say. 
Eloise and Colin seem to still be managing their lives together - so far. Somehow, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop in their relationship. Perhaps it's too much Bridget Jones' Diary in me, but ... I'm cautious.  Not sure, but, this was an excellent story. Liked the cover of this book the best some how. Lovely really. 

Carrot Cake

One of the Boy's favorite cakes is Carrot Cake. I've been making it from the same recipe for what seems like eons. For his 18th birthday I made this favorite. I thought I'd try cupcakes, but ended up being a little behind in the schedule so, it's a cake instead of cupcakes. It will still taste amazing, as it always does, but I really did want to try cupcakes. I'll put that in the file for the future.
The recipe I received from a friend, so I don't know its origins (this was back way before I started to care about that kind of thing, so I apologize in advance). I have made a few changes to the methodolgy and a small change in ingredients. That said, this is an amazing recipe for Carrot Cake. I've  put half recipe ingredients in parentheses because often I don't do the full two layer cake, but just one for a quick cake.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (1 1/4)
2 tsp. baking soda (1 tsp.)
1 tsp. salt (1/2 tsp.)
2 tsp. cinnamon (1 tsp.)

Mix these all together in a bowl and have ready when the time comes. Easy.
1 1/2 cups of butter, unsalted (3/4 cup)
1 cup granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed (1/2 cup)
2 tsp. vanilla (1 tsp.)
3 eggs (1 egg)
Put butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until all incorporated. Add vanilla and mix in. Add each egg, one at a time and mix until incorporated. Now you're ready for the flour mixture. Add it in heaping spoonfulls, but make sure it is mixed in before adding more. Stop the mixing and scrape the bowl often to not have bits of flour in the bottom of the mixing bowl.
2 1/2 cups of carrot, grated on the large hole of box grater (1 1/2 cups)

1 cup raisins (1/2 cup)
1 cup nuts, chopped I'm a fan of walnuts, but this is optional esp. if you're allergic. (1/2 cup)
Toss all this in the batter and mix, on low, until combined. Divide mixture into two 9" cake pans that have been sprayed w/Baker's secret (great stuff, that). Bake for approximately 30 mintues, rotate and bake for 25 or so more - checking towards the end. Use the toothpick test to verify doneness. Let cook on a rack while you consider the frosting (do I sound like AB?).
2 8 oz. bars cream cheese, softened (8 oz.)
1/2 cup butter, unsalted, softened (1/4 cup)
juice from one large lemon, strained (wing it, whatever tastes good)
2 tsp. vanilla (1 tsp.)
3 cups powdered sugar give or take (1 1/2 give or take)
Mix cream cheese and butter together, add everything else (and lemon zest if you like) and mix slowly until the sugar is incorporated.

Once cake is cool, frost as you see fit. Pretty simple as things go, but w/a decent amount of prep and around an hour in the oven this isn't something you rush. But it's well worth the time you put in. Enjoy.

The Temptation of the Night Jasmine

Summary: After five years abroad, Robert, Duke of Dovedale, has returned to England to avenge the murder of his mentor. To uncover the murderer's identity, he must infiltrate the infamous secret Hellfire Club. But the Duke has no ideas that even more difficult challenge awaits him - in a mistaken, romantic-minded young lady. 
Charlotte Lansdowne wistfully remembers the Robert of her childhood as a valiant hero amoung men. Too aware of his own flaws, Robert tries to dissuade Charlotte from her delusions, even as he finds himself drawn to her. When Charlotte takes up a bit of espionage - investigating a plot to kidnap the King - Robert soon realizes that she is more than the perfect partner in crime. Caught in a dangerous game full of deadly spies and secret rites, Robert and Charlotte must work together to reveal the villain ... and confront their true love. (source: book cover)


Comments: I have to admit this book, starting out, was my least favorite so far. Charlotte was, again, at the beginning, annoying and amazingly childish. She's just about too much to take. Robert is obsessed with getting revenge for his mentor to the point that he would join the Hellfire Club, which would seriously put his reputation in danger, but he does it anyway. Charlotte's time as a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen is an interesting idea. Henrietta and Penelope make an appearance as well as Miles which gives us some continuation of the plot line from the previous books. Penelope is acerbic, perhaps even more than ever and makes a terrible mistake that will cost her. At a certain point in the book Charlotte is forced to stop being such a baby and grow up, and thankfully, she does which makes for a much more enjoyable story.
The story between Eloise and Colin is still moving forward as well and doing so rather nicely which means something bad is bound to happen. Up next, Betrayal of the Blood Lily.

Croque Monsieur

Ready for the broiler

Croque Monsieur
3 tbs butter, unsalted
4 tbs all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (or thereabouts)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
1 lb Fontina, grated
1/4 c Parmesan, grated
Dijon mustard
1/2 lb ham, sliced thin
10 slices of firm white bread (remove crust or not, as you like)


First toast the bread - in the oven. It takes about 5 minutes at 375 and then flip for 3 minutes more.
Mornay Sauce - melt the butter, once the butter is bubbly, add flour and cook together for a few minutes to cook off the flour taste. Add a small amout of the milk first and stir in, let it cook for a bit. Then add the rest of the milk. You can heat the milk and this process will go quicker, but I never bother to do that. It's the same method I use for making macaroni and cheese. You have to heat this over medium heat and it requires pretty much constant stiring so you don't burn the mixture. But given a few minutes, it will thicken until it coats the back of a spoon. Once this is accomplished, remove it from the heat and add about 8 ozs. of Fontina and all the Parmesan.  You could use Gruyere, which is more traditional, or as I have before, use a combination of Fontina for melt-ability and cheddar for flavor. Set aside.
Now assemble the sandwich. Take once piece of toasted bread and coat with Dijon mustard, add a slice or two of ham, a little grated cheese and top with another piece of bread. Then do the fun thing - top sandwich with the mornay sauce and top with a little more grated cheese.

Sure, it's white on white, but it taste amazing. 

Now for the finish - heat the sandwiches in the over for a few minutes in the oven, that I'm sure you left at 375 degrees. If you want to broil to get the cheese on the top brown and bubbling - go for it.