Tolstoy's War and Peace

I found some pleasure in this story. Very long, but lots of interesting characters and a nice little commentary on cultural thinking of the era.  The book made it very clear that I know nothing of the history of the French revolution and Napoleon, but this gave me at least some insight.  I think if I read it again I would get a lot more out of it as I would be able to keep better track of the different characters and build their personalities in my mind a little more.  I found it took me half of the book to get them straight in this case.  A positively worthwhile undertaking.

A Shakespearean Play

For my play I decided to read Richard the Third and found it thoroughly dull and outside my many fields of interest.  As is typical with me I found no interest in this highly revered writer and the content of his play.  Such things appear to be lost on me.  I would like to think I am well educated, but I'm clearly not sophisticated. Maybe a proper study of Shakespeare would reveal what I am missing, but for now I'm happy to be part of the ignorant masses that just don't get it :).

Final Food for Episode 3

Just a little endive with eggs.  Endive is a lot like bitter lettuce.  I have seen different types though and recipes to cook it.  But this sufficed and dressed up my plate nicely.
And with that, Season 1, Episode 3 food references are complete!

21 More Risottos! 5 to go!!

An almost final barrage of risotto recipes.  I think I have found the Magic Risotto.  A chicken and mushroom risotto by the Huon Hill restaurant in Wodonga. That risotto was just perfect - in seasoning, texture, flavour.  Just delicious.  If I weren't so tired of risotto, I'd be heading back for more very soon :).  See below.........

The Magic Risotto

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

So, the first half of the book I wasn't feeling it.  I had Disney's version in my mind and this was just not the same.  I struggled through the long chapter on the architecture of Paris.  It seems a theme with classics to educate as well as entertain the reader, which is all fine, but the education generally requires determined wading to get through. However, I will say I was, I guess, intrigued by the reality that the city had such a long history preceding the books time of setting (the 1400's).  Living in a country that has a 200 year documented history and buildings of lesser age than that, a reader can be left dumbfounded at the description of 200 year old building that would now be 600 years older. (I assume Notre Dame still stands.)  Amazing to think of it.
But anyway, about halfway through I began to come round, although I was still unconvinced by the crazed actions invoked simply by beauty. I am always frustrated at the thought of men losing their heads with passion at the mere sight of a pretty girl.  She could be awful, spiteful, controlling, money hungry and an unforgivable snob and yet a dance and a pretty face has men falling at a woman's feet. In a way it is realistic, but I felt like it was overplayed.  But finally, as the action built and I began to fear for the characters, I accepted the caricature that was the archdeacon.  The Hunchback's behaviour seemed more realistic, but then an outlandish character leaves more room for acceptance of out of the ordinary behaviour I suppose. Looking back I think my being slow to warm to the book came from seeing the characters as realistic.  A nice church leader taking in a poor orphan.  A pretty young girl.  A writer.  A grief stricken mother who had lost her child.  I wanted a real story. Not a fairy tale.  But when I think about i,t the whole story screamed fairy tale.  If I had accepted this sooner I would have sunk into the journey of the story much sooner I think.
The finale is I guess what moved this book to the rank of classic.  An unbelievable ending that seemed to be inevitable but still completely unacceptable.

Not one but three new risottos.

Now if only I could get the photos from my phone to my computer.  Alas,  an update to Mavericks has rendered iPhoto useless.  Attempts to download an update elicit requests for a password to someone else's account and refusal to let me change the user.  There must be another way??
Aha! Quick google search and the answer: Image Capture.  Here they come.

Hollywoods' Chicken and cashew risotto

Leek and mushroom risotto

Carrot Risotto

So I am discovering you can turn almost any vegetable into a risotto and many of them taste largely the same (although my taste buds are fairly indiscriminate).  The mushroom risotto tasted as you would expect - mushroomy, but the recipe called from minimal cheese so a fairly bland sort of flavour .  The carrot risotto called for a lot of cheese so a lot tastier.  The restaurant risotto reminded me why it is nice to eat out once in a while, but also why it might not be wise too often.  It was so tasty with onion and cashew flavours, chicken of course and sun dried tomatoes to add some zing.  But it was also deliciously oily. So good ;).

Herb and Vegetable Risotto

Today's risotto was a lovely herb and vegetable risotto.  Tasted cleansing and healthy.  I think I have this connection in my mind between herbs and clean eating.  So it was good and I felt good eating it.

I ate it while watching Gravity which is a fantastic movie by the way.  Also clean, but a bit disconcerting.  Confirmed my greatest fear is being alone in outer space.  I travelled to America once and looking out over the expanse of the ocean I felt so alone and unwilling to ever find myself there.  Imagine being on a plane as it crashes in the middle of an ocean, so awfully scary, but not half as scary as running into trouble in space.  Anyway, entirely beside the point of my risotto, but what else can I say about that?  So one more down, 29 to go.  Haven't found any magic ones yet, but all good. 

Two more risottos

So, tonight I tried lemon risotto.  It certainly had zing.  I'm not sure if I got the balance of lemon right. Not that it tasted bad, but lemon flavour in such a dish seems unusual. The other risotto was supposed to be a pumpkin and almond risotto.  I didn't realise till the next morning that I had been brought the wrong thing.  This one is mushroom and sun dried tomato, so not that similar and it was a bit charred too.  If I had realised earlier I might have requested my order be repaired.  Oh well.  It seems there is no end to the combinations that can be added to a risotto base.

Pie in Episode 3

Lemon Meringue Pie

Raspberry Pie

Pie, the next most important thing after education and family.
So I cheated a little and just bought a few ready made pies.  Still enjoyable and possibly better than I would have been able to make.  Really enjoyed the lemon meringue.

Some Delicious Risottoes

Pea Risotto

Garlic Risotto

Butternut Squash Risotto

Chicken Spinach and Pumpkin Risotto

Chicken and Roasted Pumpkin Risotto

I'm working my way through the forty one risottos and actually cooking regularly for the first time in about 10 months, but it has still taken about a month to get through about 7 risotto recipes, so not that regularly.  I think I enjoyed the garlic risotto the most and the sweet potato one with bacon.  Mmm.  I'm pretty okay with any type of risotto though, but may tire quite soon of them.

Some Episode 4 and 5 Dishes

Tea. This is actually a dark chocolate infused black tea. Very nice.

Another risotto.  This one is chicken risotto with zucchini and asparagus.

Turkey melt with lemon and cayenne pepper.

Some hothouse tomatoes for my tomato salad.

Hothouse tomato salad.

Two Dishes

This recipe was very simple and quite nice, although I'm not sure it quite turned out the way it was supposed to for my fear of burning the butter.  I don't think it was quite as brown as it was supposed to be.  It was sort of weird eating pasta coated in butter, which is essentially what the sauce is.  Today's healthy eating advice doesn't quite fit with such a recipe, but enjoyable all the same.

Handkerchief Pasta with Brown Butter and Sage Sauce

Sweet Potato Risotto (Risotto 2)

My second risotto. Remember the episode where Sookie makes her famous risotto and it gets a 'fine' review.  She tries forty different risottos just to check that hers really is the best, so this is number two of forty! Really nice, but I think I could have darken the bacon a bit more ;).

Doublemint

I ended up having to buy a whole box of this chewing gum just to try it as it isn't generally sold here in Aus, so still working my way through it years later.  I'm not used to gum with sugar in it and so don't like to chew too much of this stuff for fear of rotting my teeth ;).  We mostly just have artificially sweetened gum here, which probably damages all other parts of my body, but spares my teeth ;) so there you go.

Mushrooms, Trout and Reisling

A lovely meal.  The trout was beautiful, but the recipe left the mushrooms with a little too much lemony zing.  I feel a bit gourmet eating such fair, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Melon Medley

I wasn't sure which type of melon was referred to so...

A couple of Episode 4 foods

Classic Crisps

Pizza

Rice Cake

Cassoulet

A trip to Melbourne and a visit to Chez Olivier saved me from having to recreate this complex dish - spiced sausage, duck, pork and beef along with beans.  Such a high calorie, high fat, high protein dish took no time to fill me up and I wasn't able to finish it. It had a stewy meat broth sauce along with the tastes of the various meats.  I quite enjoyed it, but felt like I wanted to put some veggies in to add colour to the dish.