Depressing comfort food?
Our gang of five met Saturday night at Hilarie’s beautiful home and enjoyed a wonderful meal with some of the recipes contained in The Comfort Food Diaries. Nancy’s yummy salmon cakes started the night off with just the right note. What followed was a delicious meal of Lonnie’s Bolognese (with Hilarie’s noodles), Hilarie’s new roasted brussels sprouts recipe and Kathy’s take on “Dot’s Salad.” Carol’s warm gingerbread cake with vanilla ice cream (another recipe from the book) was the perfect end for this culinary adventure.
As for the books:
The Comfort Food Diaries: My Quest for the Perfect Dish to Mend a Broken Heart
Unfortunately, our group found the recipes we made were better than the book, although some felt the book would have been much shorter without their inclusion! Some felt the book started out more complex but failed to maintain that level of sophistication in latter chapters.
The book did raise thoughts about family dynamics (the author’s being fairly messed up) and who would be there for each of us if we lost everything. In the end, we felt the writing was decent, but too slow moving and, in Nancy’s view, fairly boring.
We ranked the book two stars out of five.
Imagine Me Gone
The second book was more warmly received for it’s more-developed characters and family struggles. While some of us found the Michael character to be annoying, others found his voice fascinating. Myself, I found that my empathy for him grew as the story progressed.
The tale of another somewhat dysfunctional family (aren’t all families this?), in contrast to Comfort Food, the story became more interesting as it moved along – each family member struggling to overcome the father’s suicide and find themselves.
We ranked the book three stars out of five.
Next Meeting: Saturday, April 13 at Nancy's home.
books are:
La Rose, by Louise Erdrich
The Leavers, by Lisa Ko