After a week in which all of our bright sides took some serious reaching (Our car did get washed! At the dealership, where we had to take it due to brokenness. ETC.), I figure it's time to go full-throttle on the joy this particular Friday afternoon. Know what's fun? Projects are fun! Or at least strangely sanity-preserving. To the Book Lover's Cookbook, noted bastion of cheer. Hmm, where were we on the list oh that's right STEPHEN KING. Very good.
Not exactly Stephen King himself of course, because Thinner was penned by the Bachman-Turner Overdrive portion of Stephen King's brain. You know. The Takin' Care of Business personality. Please be aware that Dan did not find the fact of King naming himself after BTO to be entirely hilarious, so add us to the pile of evidence that opposites attract. He's probably right, though, that dorkiness is not really an unexpected (and therefore funny, seriously, so funny to me) trait of King's. Take for example "Bachman's" decision to have one of the characters compare what is happening to "one of those Stephen King stories." THAT IS DORKY, STEPHEN KING. I WINCED AT THAT.
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| I know, I know. I ain't seen nothin' yet. |
The book itself is, I don't know, fine? Some sections drag and King steers well-clear of subtlety at every opportunity. I read it very quickly, partly because it was about 50 pages of story in a 300-page package and also because food is mentioned pretty frequently. So what food have the editors of the BLC selected for us?
"I've lost some weight."
"Well, that's good," Ginelli said. "You were too big, William. I gotta say that, too big. How much you lose?"
"Twenty pounds."
"Hey! Congratulations! And your heart thanks you, too. Hard to lose weight, isn't it?"…
…"It actually wasn't hard at all."
"Well, you come on in to Brothers, William. I'm gonna fix you my own special. Chicken Neapolitan. It'll put all that weight back on in one meal."
"I might just take you up on that," Billy said, smiling a little. He could see himself in the mirror on his study wall, ad there seemed to be too many teeth in his smile. Too many teeth, too close to the front of his mouth. He stopped smiling.
"Non-Dieter's Delight Chicken Neapolitan" it is, then!
This is one of those recipes that makes me feel a little bit bad about not reviewing the BLC strictly on its qualities as a cookbook, because it was delicious, as all vaguely pizza-tasting dishes are. But that's not why we're here. We're here because we are lovers of books and desire to cook as such. So let's take a look at the text-to-recipe translation.
1. That conversation is the only time this dish is mentioned, as a hypothetical. The main character eats most of the food on the planet, but he never eats this. Nor does anyone else, as far as I know.
2. If they did, they would probably find it strange that this authentic Italian restaurant served it with a mountain of cheddar cheese on top.
3. But what they wouldn't realize is that the cheddar cheese is the only thing that puts it at all in range of "non-dieting delight," because up until then it's basically a Weight Watchers recipe, trust me on this one, I know what I'm talking about.
4. And, okay, once they get past the cheddar they're probably going to wonder about the potatoes too.
So, on a scale from Infuriatingly Inaccurate Pioneer Bean Salad to I Wish I Were Currently Eating Pippi's Cranberry Orange Muffin Cakes I guess I would give this an "Uplifting" Rice Noodles.
Anyway, in case you were feeling like this space is not educational enough, here is a picture of the Romani flag:
Speaking of education, Ivy will be in preschool a few hours a week starting next month! Although I'm not sure there's any point, seems like she's doing a pretty good job exploring the world around her without any assistance.
