Book Review: Simply Quince by Barbara Ghazarian

"Some Biblical scholars speculate that quince may have been the true forbidden fruit," writes cookbook author Barbara Ghazarian, who would love to have this traditional Old World fruit brought back to popularity in U.S. kitchens. "I am passionate about quince."

What's a quince?  Simply Quince gives the fruit's history, its migration from the Old World to the New, and shows traditional and new ways to prepare the fruit. "Marmelo in Portuguese, coing in French, quitte in German, ayva in Turkish, and sergevil in Armenian - across the globe, the fruit-bearing quince tree (Cydonia oblonga)is cultivated and prized for its versatility in the kitchen." (from Simply Quince, introduction)

The raw fruit is astringent and mouth pucking and hardly ever eaten as a fresh fruit. Quince is delicous when poached, baked, put into preserves, or cooked in many other ways.

What I learned from this cookbook: Quince can be put into salads, stews, condiments, compotes and preserves, pies and tarts. Some of the recipes in this cookbook include quince jam and quince apple pie, roast pork tenderloin with quince and root vegetables, lamb-stuffed quince dolmas, and duck breasts with quince-sambal chutney. Let's not forget carmelized quince upside down cake and quince infused spirits, grappa and vodka!

My experiences with quince: I fell in love with the fruit, quince, as a sweet jelly with its unusual but delicious flavor. I fell in love with the tree when I saw the beautiful coral pink blossoms every spring as I walked my dog past a neighbor's prolific flowering quince tree. The tree bore lots of fruit in the summer but they were never harvested for cooking. I picked one up about five years ago and planted the seeds. Today I have two small bushes. One of the trees has borne blossoms and two small fruit two seasons now. I hope for increasing blooms and fruit with each new season.

My quince tree however may very be the flowering ornamental quince, prized for its showy coral blooms and not for the fruit. The fruit-bearing quince tree that has edible fruit has white or pink flowers; the tree is best gotten from a nursery. Simply Quince has recommendations for places to buy trees and quince products.

Barbara Ghazarian has created a community of quince lovers, Team Quince, and directs us to her website, Queen of Quince, which offers quince food products. Ghazarian is also author of Simply Aremenian: Naturally Healthy Ethnic Cooking Made Easy.

For a link to an interview with Barbara and a February GIVEAWAY of two copies of Simply Quince, click here.

Disclosure: This book was provided free of any obligation by Publishing Works, Inc. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.  Publishing Works, Inc. is offering a 20 percent discount at the website, http://www.publishingworks.com/ At checkout, include the Coupon Code BLOG for a 20% DISCOUNT, courtesy of Publishing Works, Inc. and their continued support of book blogging! Happy reading!

Giveaway and Book Review: Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo

Who would think that a group of five knitters would have murder and mystery on their minds, not only once, but now for a second time?

Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo is the second book in the Black Sheep Knitting Mystery series.

Synopsis: Gloria Sterling had everything, as far as everyone could see. A very goodlooking woman, she had a young husband she playfully referred to as her "trophy" husband, money and property inherited from former husbands, a large and luxurious modern home, and social standing in the community.

Gloria is even a good knitter. She befriends the five members of the Black Sheep Knitting Club - Maggie, Lucy, Dana, Suzanne, plus Phoebe, a college student working at Maggie's knitting shop - so that she might join the group.

When Gloria is found floating facedown in her swimming pool, the five knitting club members become convinced her death is not suicide but foul play. They do some investigating on their own to find out the truth about their new friend, Gloria.

Inbetween discussing, planning,and solving the crime, the group spend their time as regular knitting club members might, with their social chatter, plans to knit a blanket for charity, sharing knitting tips and cooking recipes, and discussing their personal lives.

Comments: This mystery fits the bill of a cozy - there is no "blood and gore", the murder takes place "off scene," and the sleuths are amateurs, not professional  investigators. Knit, Purl, Die is also an easy-to-read and entertaining whodunit. Never mind that you might guess the culprit before the very end of the book. The true motives behind the crime will remain a mystery till the end.

Challenges: 100+, Thriller & Suspense

Pocket Books Blog Tours: Thanks to Sarah Reid of Simon and Schuster for a copy of the book for review and for making this possible.

GIVEAWAY for U.S. only : To enter to win one of two copies of this book, 1) leave a comment with your email address so I can notify winners, and 2) tell us the title of one of your favorite mystery novels. For an additional chance to win, become a follower. Pocket Books will mail directly to the winners. No P.O. boxes please. Contest ends Feb. 4; winners must respond by Feb. 6, after which new winners will be chosen.

Book Review: The Cuban Chronicles by Wanda St. Hilaire

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Choose two sentences from your current read, and add the author and title for readers. Anyone can join in.

The Cuban Chronicles: A True Tale of Rascals, Rogues, and Romance by Wanda St.Hilaire

"The group will be returning to Calgary in November, and he wants to see me. I would like to see him but I don't know if it's a good idea to take on a third lover, especially one from Havana."
(from the Oct. 23 journal entry, 2006).

Spicy? Yes!

My comments: What I thought would be a light book on Cuba turned out to be an unusual travel memoir and more - add personal experiences behind the scenes, some away from the main tourist attractions. The author doesn't do only tourist jaunts. She has some good experiences but also some unpleasant ones, unhappy love affairs, and mixed encounters with tourists and expatriates from various countries.

 The author travels back and forth from her home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to Cuba and writes this book as a journal that runs from September 2006 to January 2007. Canada has formal diplomatic relations with the Caribbean island, so Canadian citizens have no difficulty traveling there.

Author Wanda St. Hilaire is a sales and marketing rep as well as a traveler and writer. She lives in Calgary, Alberta. This book was published by iUniverse in 2009.

Thanks to Paula of AME for a review copy of this book.

Book Review: The Youngest Son by Oreste LeRoy Salerni

The Youngest Son: Memoirs from the Homeland is more than a diary of a professor in a foreign land. Written from the heart with a good dose of humor, this memoir recounts a very special and wonderful time in Oreste LeRoy Salerni's life – a pilgrimage to the motherland.

The book is the product of a 6 ½ month sabbatical in Italy at the University of Pisa, which was a way for Salerni to pay tribute to his Italian immigrant parents. The completed sabbatical marked the fulfillment of a dream, full of joys, anxieties, travels, new friends, humor and the frustrations the Italian bureaucracy had with him.

About the author: Oreste LeRoy Salerni, the youngest son of Italian immigrants was born in Bolivar, Pennsylvania. He received his BS and his MS degrees from Duquesne University and his Ph.D from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He was...Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Butler University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Indianapolis, for 36 years. Salerni and his wife, Marti, reside in Bradenton, Florida, not far from Pirate City, the spring-training site of the Pirates. Pages: 374" (from the publisher: Peppertree Press)


My comments: This is a delightful and informative account of Prof. Salerni's six months sabbatical at the University of Pisa in Tuscany, where he lectured, wrote research papers, and helped to edit scholarly publications in his field of pharmacy and medicinal chemistry. He and his wife Marti made numerous trips to other parts of Italy to visit relatives, sightsee, and to act as host to many visitors from the U.S.

I learned a lot about the cities in Tuscany - the mountain top villages in Abruzzo where Oreste Salerni's parents were born, and the little town of Marlia near Pisa where the Salerni's lived during the sabattical. The travel memoir also took you to Florence, Siena, south to Naples and the Amalfi coast, and further south to Sicily.

Half of the book is about his experiences as a visiting professor at the University of Pisa, where he made many friends among professors and students alike. Throughout the book are references to friendly people, the food of Italy, and the hospitality he enjoyed, even from strangers.

I came away with a vision of a country with good food and a lot to see - historical buildings, countless churches and Roman ruins, breathtaking scenery. Oreste Salerni did a superb  job of selling his parents' native country, giving wonderful descriptions and detailed information from his diary. He based his book on a journal he kept of his sabattical in Italy.

I love traveling and this book satisfied my curiousity about parts of Italy I've never seen as well as my love of a good narrative.

Thanks to Paula and Peppertree Press for the review copy of this book.



Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge; Chill Baby, Chill! review challenge

Mystery Read-A-Thon Wind-up

I finished the Mystery Read-A-Thon this past weekend but have to confess I did not spend 12 hours reading mystery novels as planned!

The Golden Globe Awards, chores, and other activities ate into my time! But I did finish Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo and started Pilikia Is My Business by Mark Troy.

I'd love to do this read-a-thon again, on a longer 3-day weekend!

The Sunday Salon: Reads and a Giveaway

I'm working on the Mystery Read-A-Thon which ends today, and tackling a book I've been meaning to read, Pilikia is My Business by Mark Troy, a mystery set in Hawaii. I've finished reading another mystery, Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo.

I'm also working on finishing a travel memoir by Oreste leRoy Salerni, The Youngest Son: Memoirs from the Motherland, a personal account of a professor on sabbatical in Tuscany for six months in 2003-2004. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Makes me want to see the parts of Italy I missed on a trip I took years ago after college! I visited Florence and Pisa in Tuscany, but haven't seen Naples, Mount Vesuvius, the picturesque Amalfi Coast, or Venice - places visited in this book.

This past week, I reviewed and posted a giveaway of The Last Surgeon and an interview with author Christina Sunley, reviewed the cozy mystery, Truly, Madly, and shared a Japanese woodblock print and Chinese classical music on the blog.

I realize now I was somewhat busy this past week although I had promised I would slow down in the blogging area! But since I love doing it, there's no stopping :)

What have you posted on your blog this past week?

Mystery Read-A-Thon Jan. 16-17

My first Mystery Read-A-Thon, 12 hours reading mystery novels. Not an unpleasant task! The introductory questions:

1) Give us five fun-facts about you. (Things that are so trivial you wouldn't think of them right away, but that might make others smile.)
1. I wake up at 5 a.m. in the mornings unless I have a hangover. 2. I love sweets 3. I remember my bichon frise dog with great fondness. 4. I'm a secret gardener with a garden blog. 5. I'm a pack rat when it comes to books, especially mysteries!

2) What is on your TBR stack for the next two days?
Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo.

Pilikia Is My Business by Mark Troy, a book I've had for about a year now, but couldn't get past the tiny print. I understand it first came out in electronic format.

3) Do you have any specific hopes and plans for this read-a-thon?
Finish two books within 12 hours, then do a review of book one for Wednesday.

4) Did you participate in the Mystery Read-A-Thon in the past?
No, only because I just found out about it.

5) If this is your first Mystery Read-A-Thon, how do you plan to go ahead?
I'm finishing up the first book and hope to finish the second, which is 213 pages of very fine print!

And if you're on Twitter, search for the hashtag #mysteryRAT, for some chatter...