Songs of Willow Frost

Our book group choose Songs of Willow Frost for the May/June book. This is the 2nd book from Jamie Ford. I was excited to read it because it is set in Seattle and I always love reading books with a little local flair. I found the story to be so sad. A Chinese -American orphan in the 1940's is looking for his mother. The story goes back and forth between his search and her early struggles that caused her to give him up. Really well written and interesting. But not a book to read if you are already a little depressed. I gave it 4 stars out of 5 mainly because it is a story that moves quickly, keeps you interested and leaves an impact on you. I often think how difficult life must be for immigrants even today as they try to fit into our culture. But back then it was much much worse. A few years back I read a book called Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. That was one of the best books I've read about the struggles of fitting into a new country. The hardship for that young girl and for that family stuck with me for a long time. They live in extreme poverty in the US and work in a factory. It is modern day which is jarring as I sometimes forget that things haven't changed as much as we want to believe. I haven't really cooked much in the way of Chinese food. I joke with a friend at work that until I went to college I thought all Chinese food was Chow Mien in a can. I decided to create a Chinese Chicken Salad. I don't really think that is at all Chinese! I looked up the history of Chinese Chicken salad and it said it was a Western Dish inspired with Asian ingredients hence the name. I think the only thing Chinese about my version is the fried won-tons! But here it is; 1 bag of Cole slaw mix a few leaves of green lettuce Red pepper Green onions Sugar Snap peas Cucumber Peanuts wontons Chickens I bought a roasted chicken and picked it off the bone so I didn't have to do the entire thing from scratch. For the fried wontons, I bought a pack in the grocery store and fried then in a little bit of canola oil. Just enough to get them dark. I made a dressing with a little bit lemon juice, white vinegar, Asian sesame oil, sugar and salt. Pretty simple recipe and I made enough for me to have for lunch most of the week. Of course after 3 days, I was done with it. Super simple and super good. But not really super Chinese!

the finished product

Cooks on Books

Two books worth checking out

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135018.The_Book_Lover_s_Cookbook

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209363.The_Book_Club_Cookbook

New Beginnings

I've had this blog for a while now but haven't posted for a year. I started this as a way to track my journey as I trained for a half marathon. Then it morphed into books and food and travel. Now it is landing at books and food. It seems I always come back to those things. It's not like I don't have other blogs. I have my hamburger blog that I started about 5 years ago with my nephew. We were in search of the best burger in CA. It became just my blog in search of the best burger anywhere. Mainly west coast but also wherever I happened to travel. There is also the book blog that goes with our monthly book group- Beehive. The book group also started bout 5 years ago and still meets monthly to discuss books. I love my book group. It forces me to read things I might not normally read and lets me see some of my favorite people in this world. The links for both blogs are listed to the right with my favorite blogs. I'm going to try to again. This time focusing on what I am reading and food that it inspires me to cook. Joining together 2 of my favorite things in life. Let's see if I can make it work this time!