Danbury Library Blog

Last week I moved into a new place with my fiance, away from the ease and comforts of both our moms’ delicious home-cooked meals. While the entire process of packing, moving, and un-packing brings many interesting adventures of its own, I am quickly finding that being in the kitchen is proving to be the most intriguing of all. Thankfully, with the help of some great books from the library, I am no longer afraid to navigate through my very own kitchen. Over the weekend I unpacked a box of handy kitchen gadgets and utensils, and if it wasn’t for the book Anyone Can Cook, I still wouldn’t know what a garlic press is or what I was supposed to do with it!

Last night I also cooked (without a microwave!) for the first time ever, which was quite exciting. While I had a most basic and general idea of what I needed to cook, I had no idea how to actually get started. Oil? Water? High heat? Medium heat? Is it veggies first or meat first? The Elephant Walk Cookbook, a wonderful cookbook dedicated to Cambodian cuisine, helped me through the rest of my stovetop exploration. Whether you're a brand-new, first-time newbie in the kitchen or a seasoned culinary expert looking to add some fresh, unique Asian flair for your cooking, this cookbook is a must-have.

Even though I missed some ingredients and my noodles turned out a little soggy, dinner was still an overall success (and deliciously edible!). I still had a lot of fun in the kitchen and my experience made me appreciate even more the amazing cooking powers of Mom, among the many other things she can do. I'll be sure to thank my mom especially on this Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, May 11th, and don't you forget to do the same!

Posted by Merry at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Author Alexandra Fuller set out to write about Wyoming's oil rigs and came across young Colton Bryant resulting in The Legend of Colton H. Bryant. It is a touching, true story of a young man's love of his country--especially his native Wyoming, his cowboy existence which changed when he decided to work on the oil rigs to support his young family-- as his father and grandfather had.

Twenty-seven year old Colton Bryant fell to his death on the job in Feburary 2006. According to the author, if the company, Ultra Petroleum, which had record revenues of $592.7 million, had invested two thousand dollars for railings, Colton Bryant would be alive today. Accidents like Colton's are not unusual--more than 80 have died since 2000 working in the oil industry in the western U.S.

Posted by Mary at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In 1960 William L. Shirer published the first definitive history of Nazi germany in English. The book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, was a huge best-seller and won the National Book Award. It became a classic and is still in print and still resonates powerfully as an introduction to the seduction of Germany by Hitler & the Nazis. I read the book and it started me on a lifelong study of Germany that persists to this day. Shirer started out in Paris after graduating from Coe College in Iowa. He, like Hemingway, wanted to be a novelist but instead found his true calling as a journalist & historian and reported about the developments in Germany for most of the 1930s & early 1940s. He and Edward R. Murrow became noted pioneers in radio coverage of European developments. Shirer went on to write nearly twenty books in his career but none enjoyed the success of The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich.

Posted by John O'Donnell at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The pleasures of food and drink have been the basis for some terrific memoirs. In the best food writing, the personal, revelatory story of an individual’s relationship with food is combined with sociological analysis, placed in historical context, and served up with humor and insight. Jennifer 8. Lee’s new book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, is a nice, light entry into the foodie memoir category. Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and formerly restaurant critic at the New York Times, has written three very good memoirs, and Anthony Bourdain’s no-holds-barred Kitchen Confidential launched him into the wide, wild world of food travel. Two beautifully written autobiographies are Julia Child’s My Life in France, and Madhur Jaffery’s Climbing the Mango Trees, both of which trace the early development of a master chef.

Posted by Andrea at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)