Novel Eats

Ever since I saw what this month’s challenge would be with the Daring Bakers, I kept trying to decide if I would do it or not. It wasn’t so much because it was challenging and time consuming. It was more about the fact that I’ve already gained a couple of pounds recently and it was clear this was going to be a calorie-filled pastry. Sure, I can share my creations with other people, but usually my husband and I willingly devour what we make.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) season is soon upon us again, and we cannot wait. We’ve been members of a local CSA for several years now, and finally this year we decided to just purchase the fruit share. Twice. We love fruit – that fruit from Hepworth Farms – so much that we decided to get twice as much.

In the meantime we rely on our local Greenmarket in Union Square. We bought so many apples a few weeks ago that we’re overloaded. We do love apple crisp, though, and we’ve had it a couple of times already.

Have only one or two apples on hand? Make these cute mini apple pies!

They looked at each other now, husband and wife, with such a depth of feeling that the eight feet separating them shrank to nothing. Then, slowly, with a darkling gleam in her eye, Mrs. Marquis raised her plate above her head…and let it drop. A canvasback bone flopped free, the stewed apples few straight up, and the plate blew into a dozen pieces scattered across the red linen tablecloth.

-The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

Edgar Allan Poe has always been one of my favorite poets. His poems, while dark and often morbid, have a certain draw to them. I guess I am not much for flowery poems – anyone can write that sort of thing – but Poe’s poems are other-worldly and mysterious. So when I saw that there was a novel out there to be consumed that had Poe as one of its main characters, I had to grab it. I’m glad I did. This fiction of crime was written in a style that is more reminiscent of authors who wrote novels decades ago, and it had very unexpected twists. Poe was an interesting fixture; he seemed like one of those guys in high school or college that just doesn’t fit in, but goes on to amaze people later in life. He was not the main character, however. That was left to an older, charming man (Gus Landor), who, sadly, probably never existed in real life. This murder mystery was an easy read, and hopefully we’ll see Poe and/or Landor again. Good job, Mr. Bayard. I’m sure to read more of your novels.