Olive Kitteridge. Read it.

Several years ago I took it upon myself to read all the fiction books which have won the Pulitzer Prize. While I still have a few left to read, it has been a fun reading exercise so far, and I've read some books and authors I probably wouldn't have otherwise picked up.

Over the past couple of days I read 2009's winner, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I wasn't really expecting much since a couple of weeks earlier I read a runner up for 2009's prize called All Souls by Christine Schutt. Frankly, I thought it was pretty terrible, and I will never understand why it was picked to be shortlisted. I thought that if All Souls was second best for the year, maybe the winner wouldn't be very great either.

I was wrong. Olive Kitteridge is a novel in short stories. The book spans several decades in a small coastal town in Maine. The characters lives and stories are intertwined, and the larger than life character of Olive Kitteridge makes an appearance in each story to tie them all together.

By the time I finished reading, I was sad the book wasn't longer. Even though the stories weren't necessarily happy, some of them were actually rather tragic and even shocking, I just wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. In my opinion, Olive Kitteridge definitely deserved the prize it was given. Now, I just have to wait to see what wins this year!

The Great American Bagel

I have to admit that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the bagel. When I was a kid, mom would buy bagels occasionally, and I thought eating them with cream cheese was a real treat. Somewhere around the time I graduated from high school, I realized you could make them yourself, and I actually made them quite often. After I graduated from college, I couldn't find a job and ended up working in a bagel shop. It was a very traumatic experience, and for quite a while after I quit working there, I couldn't stand the sight of a bagel.

While I no longer loath the lowly bagel, I think today is the first time I have made them since I worked in the shop. Progress? I think so. Anyhow, I thought I would share the recipe I use. I believe my sister gave it to me, but I don't know where the recipe came from before that.

Bagels
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1 pkg yeast
2 eggs
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt

16 cups water
2 tbsp sugar

Dissolve 1 tsp sugar in 1 cup warm water. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand for 10 minutes or until frothy. Whisk in eggs with oil. Beat in 2 cups of the flour, sugar, and salt until smooth. Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft but not sticky dough.

Turn out onto floured surface, knead for 8-10 minutes or until smooth and elastic and dough springs back when poked with finger. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled.

Punch down dough, knead several times. Divide into 12 equal portions, roll each into 12-inch rope, covering pieces with tea towel as you work.

Bring ends of dough together over-lapping by about 1 inch and stretching the overlap around other end to meet underneath, pinch firmly to seal. Place on floured baking sheet, cover and let rise 15 minutes.

In wide saucepan or Dutch oven, bring water to boil. Add sugar. Slip bagels into water 3 or 4 at a time. Cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Turn, cook for 1 minute more. Using a slotted spatula, remove bagels to well-greased baking sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden and bottoms sound hollow when tapped. Cool.




Here's a picture of my final product. I thought they turned out quite well, and am glad I decided to make them today.

Happy Birthday, Mozart!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on this day in 1756. Mozart has always been on the top of my list of favorite composers, so in his honor, I am posting a video of the allegro movement from the Piano Concerto #17. The video itself isn't very exciting, but the music is wonderful. Enjoy!

Vengeance is mine; I will repay.

At the beginning of the year, I decided I needed to read a classic work of literature every month. So, I sat down and made a list of twelve books that I have not read but feel I should. For the month of January, I picked up my dusty copy of Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. I had read the first hundred or so pages several years ago, then set it aside to read something else, so I started again from the beginning. I read and I read and I read, and tonight, almost a month and 817 pages later, I finished.

Most people, even if they haven't read the book, are familiar with some aspects of the story and know that it isn't a happy one. The reader has a sense of impending doom from the very beginning, and Tolstoy doesn't disappoint. The story is very tragic. Unfortunately, I found most of the characters to be unlikable, which made it hard for me, as the reader, to have sympathy for them.

I was surprised as I got into the book to discover that there are actually two contrasting and interwoven plots in the book: the story of Anna's affair with Vronsky, which of course ends tragically, and the slightly happier story of Levin and his spiritual awakening.

While I really can't say that I enjoyed it, the book wasn't terrible, but I don't think I will ever read it again. Hopefully next month's choice will be better.

On a side note, I checked out a 1935 movie version from the library starring Greta Garbo as Anna. The story was very condensed and somewhat simplified but very memorable to watch.

Welcome to my blog!

I set up this blog quite a while ago, then never wrote anything. So, I've decided to give it a go. What do I have to say? That's a good question. At first I thought about making a topic specific blog - food or books or music or whatever, but that has all been done, and I might want to branch out to more than one subject. So, I've decided that anything goes. For example, I might show you a picture, tell you about a book or a movie, give you a recipe, or just post some of my thoughts and opinions on whatever I'm thinking or doing. I think this is going to be fun!