Food for Thought

My neighbor does food demonstrations at Williams & Sonoma. She thought this link would be of interest. http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_detail/national/4313

you can download 6 grilling recipes. Each month she will pass along to me featured recipes to post on the blog.

While perusing books at small local bookstore the title The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake caught my interest. I love lemon cake and the title seemed quite intriguing. I expected a light summer read but as I got into the book the plot became more complex and quite compelling the more I delved into the story. The storyline is unusual with mystical qualities written into real world of Rose and her brother Joseph. Rose is a young girl who at the age 8 tastes her mother's lemon cake for the first time. It was at that very moment Rose discovers she has a gift. It is the gift of being able to tell the emotions the person who prepared the food is feeling. This gift actually becomes a burden for Rose. She finds out some heart-breaking family secrets. The story is also a coming of age story for Rose as the years go by she has to learn how to cope with the gift of knowing. Along the way Rose learns how to accept and forgive her loved ones and find herself. Aimee Bender the author, does a good job developing her characters and capturing Rose's voice. The author creates anxiety and build pressure with each sentence especially in the last 1/3 of the book. Perhaps that is why I devoured this book from start to finish in under 24 hours!

On the way to the bookstore which is in a small rural Up North town of Dorset we passed by some interesting yard art. I had to include the photo. Pay close attention: can you find antlers, horseshoes, hubcaps, weathervane? Someone showed a lot of ingenuity.