Tidbits (of cheese and other literary goodness)

I'm sorry, two loyal readers, one of whom I'm pretty sure is a spambot! I've been super busy - ALA, work, other job, other things...but in good news, I do have some recipes and reviews forthcoming...errrr...as soon as I get the chance to write them.  I have, however, been hoarding up way, way, old news and things.  You've probably already seen them, but I don't care!  Enjoy them or not; as Captain Planet would say, the power is yours!

Food

• Behold, the greatest post I have ever seen: author and cheese pairings.  I mean...does it get any more fantastic than that?  But I have to ask, why no cheddar cheese pic for Ernest?  
• Do you want to make a chocolate loving librarian very happy?  Give them a library of exotic chocolate bars.
• Enjoy this map of the United States of Burgers, just because it is summer, and you are thinking about BBQs, right? 

Art

•  This artists description says it all ("art inspired by and made from books"), but her method of delivery - finger prints - is really cool!  
• Just because I loved it so much when I came upon it, I'm going to share the best, loveliest watercolor prints that would be great in a kitchen.  Speaking of making a librarian very happy, I happen to know a librarian who loves the olive oil print...

Movies

• Stills from The Maze Runner!  I'm not even in a tither about how much the actors are not 13.  It looks great! 
• However, the kid who just got cast as Jonas in the Jeff Bridges adaptation of The Giver?  He does not look like a preteen.  Just sayin'...
• There's a run on Jane Austen on the interwebs this week!  First, check out the trailer for Austenland, which I'm really, really looking forward to, because OBVI.  Then, check out this gigantic waterlogged statue of Colin Firth's Darcy.  Wouldn't you love to know what he thinks? And more importantly, what happens when birds poo on that super white shirt?

Books

• This is olllld news at this point.  John Corey Whaley - he of the dipples who shared his woodpecker tattoo with us - is coming out with a new book! YAY! The cover art was released, and now haunts my dreams.  #creepydolls
• Best. Manicures. Ever. 
• Are you a demigod?  Do you want to be one?  Good thing we had this talk.  There's a Camp Half-Blood you can attend! Percy Jackson camp, y'all!  Is there one for grownups?  I want to go! (I think I may have posted about this a million years ago, but if I've forgotten, so have you!) 
• There was an EW issue about Divergent!  There were lots of pictures for your eyeballs to feast upon, and the trailer is being released at Comic-Con.  But I've posted the most important information below:

PAMUKED!

Recipe 38: Roasted Eggplant Soup

It became abundantly clear to me in, uh...March, that it was unlikely that I'd be able to complete the Le Creuset 52 Challenge this year, especially considering I was going away for the entire summer.  I definitely couldn't bring it to Chile with me; seeing as part of my apartment intruder-attack plan includes flinging Blue at said apartment-intruders head, I'm pretty sure it counts as a weapon of mass destruction (especially if you are a vegetable inside it, badoom ching! It's a good thing I make myself snicker...)  As per, I'm off on a tangent, so let us return to our regularly scheduled programming:  my new plan is to eventually get to the 52 recipes mark, as originally planned.  It may just take two calendar years though.  But we'll get there!  

BB: Before Blending

In other news, I've been sharing a farm share with the biggest little soccer fans this side of the Charles, the chef and publicity guy behind the fabulous Asphalt Kitchen.  Except since I wasn't here, they have been eating drowning in my half of the share for most of the summer.  Bean stopped by my first day back in town with a rather large shopping bag quite literally bursting with veggies.  It's a little overwhelming.  Luckily, the bountiful crop of veggies this time of year have forced me to crack open the cookbooks and start making the recipes I've been earmarking.  This week I invited the Asphalt Kitchen over to make Smitten Kitchen's Roasted Eggplant Soup.  We more or less followed the recipe, although I added some cayenne, cumin, and corriander to it (as suggested), and did have to substitute rosemary for thyme because I thought I had some and didn't.  Oops. 

AB: After blending

Everyone loved this soup.  Everyone but me.  Don't get me wrong, I really, really, really liked it.  I just found it incredibly bright, as though it needs something to bring it a little more down to earth.  Next time I make it (and I will, it is incredibly easy and uses up sooooo many of my farmshare veggies), I plan on trying some of the suggestions in the comments by either adding tahini or paprika.  Did anyone who has tried this recipe or some variant find the same? How do you do it differently?  Suggestions on how to make it more earthy, por favor!

Roasted Eggplant Soup
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, where it was adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 4

Three kinds of cheese, two kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, green onions, and onions, all from Farmer Dave's farm, are visible in this one picture !

Recipe 40: Macaroni and Cheese (so good I prefer the name Macaroni and Jesus)

This comfort food recipe comes all the way from the armpit of America to warm your bellies and help you help the government keep the floundering cheese industry on it's feet.  Or something.  

Anydoodle, this one is courtesy of Xandy "Brown Thunder" Brown, a New Jersey native who does not own a Bumpit.  I've included her slightly modified (because I was missing some ingredients) recipe below.  She recommends adding in veggies or even some ham or other meats to dress this one up.  I've had her recipe many times, both with and without fixin's and can assure you, your mouth will shout "HOLY MACARONI AND JESUS" either way.  Or something.    

Cheesey goodness!

Recipe:

Stormbreaker, by Anthony Horowitz: Baby Bond

Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz (2001).
NY: Philomel. ISBN: 0-399-23620-1
Well hello, Alex “Baby Bond” Rider. I’ve heard about you for years, mostly from the mouths of young boys who regularly wouldn’t be caught dead in the library, but were caught jonesing for a fix of your spy trickery. I see what the fuss is all about; you have super cool spy gadgets, super stealth intuition, acrobatic skillz, and a knack for finding yourself in sticky situations. You’re also kind of a badass. What’s not to love, if you are a 12 year old boy? Stormbreaker, and I assume the rest of the Alex Rider series, since I stopped here, is a kids eye view of/homage to the campiest of old school James Bond flicks, prior to Daniel Craig broodingly sexpotting it up (mmmmmm).
You're welcome.

I’ve got a theory that Alex is actually going to grow up to become 007, but hasn’t quite hit puberty yet, so out go the Bond girls and in come gadgets like zit cream that can burn through metal, and a Gameboy that also functions as a fax machine/x-ray machine/bomb. Horowitz tells Baby Bond’s story in an engaging and high adrenaline way, weaving in cheeky nods to the 007 villain mill by dubbing a mute butler with mouth scars Mr. Grin, throwing in a Russian minx, and including a giant Portuguese Man-o-War in an even more giant tank in the big bad villains office. The chapters are short and sweet, often ending in a cliff hanger, which makes it hard to put this book down. Moreover, Alex is crafty and clever, and he usually chooses to truck on instead of bemoaning his sad sad life, making him a-okay in my book, since so much of YA fiction seems to revel in angst and tragedy.

Stormbreaker begins with an ominous knock on the Rider residence door; as with most midnight knocks, this does not bode well for young Baby Bond. His uncle and sole guardian, Ian Rider, has been killed in a tragic car accident, allegedly because he was not wearing a seatbelt. Baby Bond is instantly suspicious; Uncle Ian was a seatbelt wearing fiend! He does some investigative journalism, only to discover that all is not as it seems: Uncle Ian was straight up murdered, and what’s more, a super secret spy for Her Majesty (not Madonna, the Queen, foo), in MI-6. It turns out that he was killed on a mission, trying to find out what the deal is with the new super computers (the Stormbreaker) that Harry Sayle, crazy Egyptian-English billionare, is donating to schools across the UK. Baby Bond is more or less conscripted into service as MI-6’s new super secret teen spy weapon by his late uncle’s handlers, having to survive boot camp before he is shipped off to finish up where his uncle left off. He assumes the identity of the kid who won the Stormbreaker essay contest and travels to Sayles’ complex to test out the game. Things start out okay, but sooner than later things take a turn for the dangerous, and Baby Bond is fighting to survive AND find out what is up with these super cool Stormbreaker computers. It goes without saying that Baby Bond will have to ATV, scuba dive, scamper, hide, and skydive his way to saving his butt and find out the truth, leaving the reader with well nibbled nails and jonesing for another fix of Alex Rider.

Best for: This series is probably best suited for younger YA readers (Grades 5-8), but definitely could cross over into the Children’s category because there aren’t too many big words, there are short chapters, and the narrative is simple and appealing. An easy sell to reluctant reader boys or girls, for the action and viscereal drama.

The hook: I assume most kids have heard of this because of the movie, but I know from experience there are a good many who have not. And then there are those like me...aka those who just don't make the connection. Good thing we're so good looking. I’d begin by asking some spy related questions, give a brief plot summary, and then read the scene where Alex is trapped his Uncle Ian’s bullet-ridden car in the junkyard car crusher. And there I catch them, hook, line, little stinkers. Or mabye I should just hold up a picture of Daniel Craig. I'd let him convince me, if you know what I mean.