Bake

[Shadowgirlau]

Well after a long hiatus from the book scene I was recently given a book as a gift from my DH. I have always been a terrible pastry maker. While I love to cook and bake and think that I do a passable job at it I have never been able to master making my own pastry so this book has been just wonderful.

The book is called "bake" and it is by an international chef based in America by the name of Nick Malgieri. It is a hard cover book which I really love as I tend to collect hardcover books. The pastry I tried first was the sort of pastry one could use for either a sweet or savoury dish. Well I was hooked line and sinker from the first. The pastry had to be the best I had ever made with all the family commenting on it. I then decided to have a go at the classic puff pastry. From there I have become infatuated with making pastry, I kid you not

The book is wonderful so if you come across a copy of it do have a look through this as it really does have some wonderful advise and great recipes with clear directions of each phase of it. I loved it. Nick Maligieri also has a web site if one wishes to look him up where he also has shared quite a few of his recipes on the web.
I have made sweet and savoury pastry, several cakes and the most scrumptious sweet pastry basket I have ever fiddled with in my life. Once completed it looked so professional that I was loath to let anyone eat it although I have to warn you that this basket was made with classic puff pastry which had what seemed like a ton of butter in it and took me neary all day to make. Classic puff has to be made quickly (as in bought together into a dough) then one rolls it out quickly folds it into 3'rds wraps and chills it for an hour then does it all over again several times. How many times you do this seems to determine how much the pastry "puffs" and this pastry puffed a whole lot. It was golden, crisp and light yet buttery and efinately not something you would make all the time but rather for special occassions. Did I say how much I loved it!

I have recently rekindled my passion for books and reading so if anyone has some other insights to share in the book club arena please do.

Happy Reading All

[minnie]

Hi Kathleen,

Only cooking books or novels as well?

I got back to reading (didn't read a novel for some years, only work related or rubbish mags) when I had Fatima my premmie calf and I'd sit outside with her, so started reading.

Then a couple avid reader friends said I should get a kindle and I was off. As well one friend had over 6,000 novels that she provided, some great books in this lot and a heap I'd never heard of and she's in a book club as well.

I spent most of last year reading all the books commonly known as 'Outlander' by Dianne Gabaldon, honestly she writes in such a way you cannot put her down and I took my kindle everywhere in case of a spare minute to read. They've now been doing a series bases on the books the first episodes shown on Fox (I don't have Fox, as I don't support Murdoch). She's writing book nine and I'm foaming at the mouth waiting.

Then I read a couple of other books one was the true story of a Chinese woman sent as a child to live in Japan who became a spy for the Japanese during WWII "The Secret Papers of Eastern Jewel" a really interesting life she led.

The the Ken Follett Trilogy going from WWI through to George Bush Seniors years... boy you see a lot of what's happening today in these books, very interesting.

And now I'm reading a book recommended by our Cultural Officer at CWA "The Bookseller of Kabul" it's a must read to get some understanding of exactly what life is like today in Afghanistan, most especially for the women.

After I finish this, I think I'll need a good murder maybe a Karin Slaughter or Tess Gerristson as the Trilogy and this one are so thought provoking my poor old brain needs a rest.

I should comment on baking, my oven hopeless baking but one day when I have less to do and a decent oven, I will try.


Vicki

[Shadowgirlau]

Hi Vicki,
Sorry it has taken me so long to get back in here and respond to any replies I have had. Sounds like you have been a busy reader and I have to confess, other than one novel I have mainly been reading cooking books.
My daughter reads Diana Gabalton and has the whole series so far as she is one of her favourite authors. She also really likes Stephanie Laurens who writes quite different novels again. My daughter like me has broad tastes when it comes to reading and has hundreds of books 'literally'
My most recent novel was a Dan Brown though I confess I can't remember the title at this minute though it was very good. Have you read the Tara Moss novels most of which are crime reads? If not them give them a go as they are very good. I used to have her whole collection too but in the recent moves I gave them away, silly me.

Cheers Kathleen
Actually Vicki DD has just been in and tells me that although she enjoys reading Diana Gabalton over the series she has become harder and harder to read as she seems to be 'waffling' or drawing things out as DD said. Do you ever watch things through something called 'Torrens or Torrents?' I wonder because some one in my quilting group was talking about something she was watching that is on over in the US that she can't watch here because she doesn't have Foxtel. I don't know anything about this really although from what the ladies were discussing it seems a lot of people do watch things on their computers this way. Personally I have enough to do with out worrying about watching things on the computer as well. Looking at quilting videos on the computer is time consuming enough