Reading on the Rise

A bit of good news in a sea of bad. Reading is on the rise. Is this some new escapist thing to get away from the economy, your 401K balance, and the other bad news? More people are even reading fiction, especially fiction. Yowza!

One of the publications I read mentioned that no one has determined if readers were picking up Proust or Nora Roberts. Read both, I say! Read Water for Elephants! Read your local mystery writers. Some of them are awfully good. Pick up a children's book you haven't touched for ages. Wind in the Willows comes to mind. If you can't afford a book, go to your local library. Swap with friends.

Here is a short article discussing the reading phenomenum. Yay!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/reading-on-the-rise/books/

Read The Shadow Warriors. See link on the right.

Take Four Ripe Tomatoes . . .

Zowie, the harvest is great, and we must have vitamin C coming out our pores. Last night we had tomatoes provencal, which were so good we have to have them again. We finished the dish with our eggs and bacon this morning. Yum-O. You can find a recipe on the web. I took a short cut and used Panko and put the garlic, parsley, thyme and parmesan into the crumbs. My recipe called for broiling the tomatoes, then broiling again with the crumbs. You have to be ever-vigilant that the crumbs don't burn.

http://www.jacquespepin.net/members/recipes/tomatoesprovencale.html

We had shish-kebab with a green pepper from the garden. It tasted to fresh and sweet. I used decent sirloin for the meat, and also had mushroom and onion on the skewers. We topped off the dinner with corn on the cob. No dessert last night. Not necessary.

My marinade is something I've used since I was a young bride--and it's always good. Herewith:

Marinade for Shish-Kebabs

For 4 skewers

Juice ½ lemon
1/3 c. olive oil
½ cup sherry (dry)
1 T. Worchestershire sauce
1 T. salt
½ t. pepper
1 t. curry powder
½ t. ground ginger
1 small onion, grated
Mix together and marinate beef or pork for two hours--you could probably use for lamb or chicken, too, although I always go for the beef.

Here's a blogger who thinks with me. I loved the "All America Summarize Proust Contest." Remember, Sarah cooks with Polar Bear Helper.

http://lotsasplainin.blogspot.com/2008/08/all-american-summarizing-proust-contest.html