Haiku - A Study of Smoke...

Where there's Smoke ...

Composed by Deb Smith

Spindled wisps escape

Hot embers - to drift and play

High up in the sky

1 July 2010

Haiku - A Study of Smo...

Where there's Smoke

Composed by Deb Smith

Spindled wisps escape

Hot embers - to drift and play

High up in the sky

Haiku - A Study of Stones...

Skipping Stones

composed by Deb Smith

Perfectly smooth spheres

Skip across a sleeping lake

Raising rippling rings

30 June 2010

Stepping Stones

composed by Deb Smith

Stones placed carefully

Here and there - for little toes

Carry all - safely

30 June 2010

Poetry - Haiku

The Morning View

composed by Deb Smith

Foreboding message

Crimson-stained across the sky

Nature's daybreak news

29 June 2010

Evening Bulletin

Composed by Deb Smith

New day promises

Crimson-streaked across the sky

Nature's evening news

29 June 2010

'The Story of a Marriage' by Andrew Sean Greer

You would think life should be simple. We are born, we grow and develop into the person we were designed to be. Most of us grow up in families and trust what we see, know and hear. Our families and environments shape us. As we age and learn more about ourselves, one would tend to think that life and experience would become more certain.

But how does it often turns out that we are mistaken? For some of us, the longer we live the less we know about ourselves and the ones we count on. Things of certainty can often crumble and cause us to turn inward, take the blinkers off and study our lives and loves more deeply.

"We think we know the ones we love."

And, this is the case for Pearlie...the main protagonist for 'The Story of a Marriage' by Andrew Sean Greer.

Novel Tea 'n Pages book club members are currently reading this book and will be meeting on Wednesday evening, 7 July 2010 at 7:30pm to discuss the intricacies of life and love and Pearlie's world.

If you are reading this and would like to become involved, new members are always welcome. Leave a message for Deb via comments and she will send you details.

But, until then -

Happy reading...

Potato Peel Pie Recipes

For those of you who like to experiment, here are two recipes for the fictitious Potato Peel Pie. The first is borrowed from the official 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' website:

"Here is a recipe for a potato peel pie, but I warn you, it tastes like paste. The more authentic it is, the nastier."

The following ingredients will make a very small pie (expand at will).

Ingredients:

1 potato

1 beet

1 tablespoon of milk

Method:

Peel the potato and put the peelings in a pie pan. Don't cook the peels, (because you're in the middle of an Occupation and you don't have any fuel). Boil the potato and the beet together in salty water, but not for very long (due to the fuel problem) and just until you can stick a fork in the potato. Take them out and mash them up with the milk. Pour the glop in the pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees for as short a time as is consonant with digestion (fuel again - say fifteen minutes).

The finished product will look quite attractive and pink. If you squint, you can almost imagine raspberries. Don't be fooled. It looks a lot better than it is. However, if you forget that you were in the middle of WWII and added a bunch of butter, milk and salt, it could be quite tasty.

This second recipe is the one Deb used for 'Novel Ten 'n Pages' book club meeting. It is borrowed from the website, 'Cook Eat Share.com - the world's largest kitchen' (according to the website).

Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Recipe (by Nancy Miyasaki)

Here is what Nancy had to say first: "Having just read the 'Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society' for my book club, I had to find a way to make a potato peel pie for the meeting. After some research, it seems this potato peel pie is as fictional as the characters of the book, so I found a recipe online and tweaked it slightly and came up with the following. If possible, it is best to serve hot from the oven. Happy reading and eating."

Prep Time: 30 minutes

British

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups raw, grated potato skins (I used a potato peeler for this part to get the potato peel authentic texture, rather than a grated texture).The mashed potato is used for the filling.

1/3 cup grated onion

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp flour

beetroot

sour cream (optional)

chives (optional)

butter (optional)

garlic (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Butter a small pie plate. (I chose to make mini pies so that each person could have their own).

3. Mix potato peels with egg, onion and flour.

4. Press the mixture into the pie plate and up the sides to form a crust.

5. Bake crust for 20-25 minutes. (decrease time for smaller pies).

6. While the crust is baking, cook potatoes, drain and mash. You can add your favourite mashed potato flavourings here (for example: garlic, onion, milk, butter, salt, etc).

7. Fill crust with mashed potatoes and sprinkle with beetroot.

8. Bake in oven at a lower temperature (375 degrees) for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Goes well with: beer, whiskey, cocktails with bitters

Bon Appétit!

June Book Club Meeting - Discussion: 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society'

Novel Tea 'n Pages Book Club members recently held their second meeting and discussed the month of May selection, 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer.

The evening began in a relaxing manner where each member gave their overall view of the book, followed by a more in-depth discussion of specific questions that allowed the members to explore the book and author's objectives at a deeper level.

The overall feed back from the majority of members reflected a positive response to the story line, and an affection, especially to its endearing characters. A few members decided that it really was a little 'hard going' for them and not really their 'cup of tea', but decided to persist with it.

During interval, the hostess, Deb, shared out mini Potato Peel Pies (see photograph) she had baked using a recipe found on a web page. Although not an authentic recipe (as the more authentic recipe was extremely basic), the recipe used was still very basic and quite bland. However, the novelty idea gave the book club members a taste of what it might have been like had they been holding their book club meeting post war during the German occupation. The small pies created interesting comments and discussions alone, separate to the book.

After interval, discussion turned to individual elaboration of feelings about the book. Each member discussed why they felt a certain way, ensuring interaction from fellow members who shared their views as well. Discussion of favourite characters stemmed from this conversation. Favourite characters included, Juliette, Dawsey and Isola as well as Elizabeth.

Two points of interest came out of the discussion. The first: when enjoying fiction, book club members enjoy it more if they learn something factual using fiction as the method to discover the knowledge and, secondly, the book works if the author successfully entices us to want to visit the place they are writing about. 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society' successfully fulfilled both criteria for the members present.

Members discussed their thoughts on how they felt about reading someone else's 'personal' letters and more so, how everyone felt about reading a whole book made up of only letters. Comments made from the discussion were that it was like 'finding your grandmother's box of old letters' and reading through them and learning about her and her life back then. Most agreed it didn't feel weird that they were reading someone's private letters like it would if they read someone's diary.

Another point made was that it was a great way to learn about each character. Each layer was shown via a different letter, either addressed to the same person or to another person, revealing, little by little, lives woven throughout the story to make a fabric of community. One member felt it was hard work to get to know the characters at first because there were so many of them and it was hard to remember who was who.

Juliette was the favourite character chosen by the attending members.

Other comments flowing from the narrative was that the author managed to teach us about true friendships and how the best friendships interact with one another. Each character was independent, yet interactive between each other. It also revealed the challenges Juliette faced each day as a writer.

An important point made, concerned the trust that some of the characters felt toward others and the betrayal of those least expected, in order to survive. Sadly, it really came down to the 'survival of the fittest' sometimes. Much of the discussion centred around Elizabeth and her role throughout the story.

The members in attendance highly recommend 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society' to others. Overall, most members thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Our next book for the month of June is: 'The Story of a Marriage' by Andrew Sean Greer. This is a book that will provide some twists for the reader.

Our meeting concluded with refreshments and socialising. Another pleasant get together. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, new members are always welcome.

so, until next time...

happy reading...

Second Meeting of Novel Tea 'n Pages

Novel Tea 'n Pages Book Club members are about to meet up again for the second time. Members have been busy reading other people's letters and listening in to the conversations of some quite interesting and quirky characters. We are all looking forward to hearing each other's thoughts and feelings about the book, 'The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society', by Mary Ann Shaffer.

Meeting starts at 7:30pm

Wednesday, 2nd June 2010

For more information, leave a message via comments.

Happy reading...