Lutefisk Love

So, have ya'll ever had lutefisk? I ordered a pound of it from a Norwegian food company in Minnesota and girded my loins to open the bag when it came on Friday afternoon. J. Ryan Stradal's book Kitchens from the Great Midwest describes the processing and cooking of this traditional food in detail, and it wasn't good. In an interview with the author, he compares the taste to what he imagines aquarium water to be. I'm not sure about aquarium water, but the moment I cut open the bag, I smelled fish and not the good, clean smell of fish. The texture of the filets was spongy -- grossly so -- and later, when I'd roasted it in the oven, it seemed more like jelly than fish. A couple of brave souls tasted it, declared it okay, but fishy, and one woman suggested I crumble it into balls, roll it in Panko and fry it.

I threw it away when everyone left.

So that's my lutefisk experience -- apologies to all Norwegians who hold it close to their hearts.

Other than the lutefisk, we had a really lively discussion about the novel with nearly everyone agreeing that it needed a bit more character development but was otherwise entertaining and a good read. Given how light it was, though, I'm tempted to suggest a heavier one for October and am floating around To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. That's probably one of my top three favorite novels and has an incredible dinner party scene that I could replicate for Books & Bakes. What do you think? Anyone out there have any suggestions for next month's book? Please leave a note in the comments if you do.

Here's the menu from Friday night. All food, except for the caramel ice-cream, was mentioned in the book. A few of the recipes even came from the book!

Margaritas

Wisconsin Cheese and Crackers

Lutefisk

Summer Corn Chowder

Caesar Salad with Croutons

Vegetarian Lasagna

Pork Shoulder Tacos with Mint

Black Beans and Feta

Heirloom Tomato Salsa

Apple Crisp

Homemade Caramel Ice Cream

Celeste's Mud Bars

Books & Bakes

My little sister Jennifer is here visiting. She's got that thing, that touch, that know what you're doing as far as arranging a wall of paintings, throwing cool fabric over old furniture kind of thing. That's what she's been doing all day.

Tonight is my monthly Books & Bakes salon. Saint Mirtha had an unexpected emergency, so I'm going a little nutso in the kitchen. I'll post my menu and all that good stuff later tonight or tomorrow morning, if I'm still alive. We read J. Ryan Stradal's novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest. It was an entertaining read with great food scenes. Lutefisk is involved. Look that up and try to imagine this one-half Italian, one-quarter Syrian and one-quarter Scotch English gal serving it.

I hope your Friday is going well. It's still hot as hell here in southern California. Thank the good lord Jesus for air-conditioning.

Serial Killers and Box Lacrosse

Henry had his first box lacrosse game of the season this afternoon. That's him right there in the middle. Whew. Box lacrosse is scary to watch. I wasn't made for watching rough sports and wonder what sort of karma I'm enacting (is that what you say?) as not a single one of my children really likes to read. Honestly, I dreamed of one day being a sort of Marmie, sharing my favorite books with my brood. Instead, I find myself standing on the highest bleacher in a hockey rink, watching my boy slam himself into walls and others into the ground, all while running and waving a stick with a really hard, small ball. While the other parents yell and cheer and catcall the ref, I wince at every thud. My favorite part of the game is when it's over, and my beautiful boy lopes toward me in his nonchalant way, and I wonder whether everyone, just everyone, wonders who that boy is -- my boy.

Otherwise, I'm in a bit of a funk. I did go back to kundalini yoga this week and am determined to get back into it, get in some kind of physical shape and lose some weight. Enough is enough, right? I have an amazing new ghostwriting job that will keep me busy over the next three months, I'm on a mission to find an agent for my manuscript that I finished at Hedgebrook, and all three children will be at school next week for the first time in nearly two years! Oliver is going to high school, so we're taking a break from homeschooling. We're going to see how it goes as we've found a school that we believe fits him very well. I need to work and will be able to do so, now, every school day. I am continuing my Books & Bakes salon Fridays each month, so if you're in Los Angeles and want to come, please let me know. This month we read J. Ryan Stradal's Kitchens of the Great Midwest. It's an entertaining novel by a local writer that got some nice reviews, and it has a lot of inspiring food so I'm looking forward to preparing a great meal and facilitating excellent conversation.

Despite my aversion to violent sport, I'm actually on a serial killer bent. This is unusual for me (I did not like any of those Swedish books or the HBO series), so heads up. I just finished binge-watching an English miniseries with Gillian Anderson called The Fall. Despite it being about a serial killer with the usual gruesome attacks against females, the show has some incredible acting in it, great writing and complex characters. I also just started reading Jennifer Pashley's novel The Scamp, which is described as "an intense, riveting sage of .... a girl's determination to take control." I think there's a serial killer in it as well, and while I wouldn't ordinarily read this genre, I had the great good fortune to spend some time with Jennifer last night after she read from her book at a local independent bookstore last night. She's a good friend of a very good friend of mine, the writer Shanna Mahin (who wrote the hilarious romp of a novel  Oh! You Pretty Things earlier this year), so I took the recommendation seriously, the writing is terrific, and I literally can't put the book down.

Well, that was a rambler of a Saturday post. I hope you have a lovely long weekend. Tell me all about it.