The Boreal Gourmet: Adventures in Northern Cooking … reviewed by Ann

I was listening to Sheryl MacKay on CBC radio interviewing Michele Genest about her new cookbook, The Boreal Gourmet, and was immediately intrigued when I heard the words “sourdough boot camp.” The idea of building the starter from scratch with some excellent recipes to follow sounded good to me. I was pleased to see the book arrive at the library recently and immediately checked it out. Sourdough boot camp covers 14 days of clearly laid out instructions for building your starter concluding in the care and feeding of the starter. You can try out your starter on sourdough buttermilk cranberry scones; pizza crust; fig, anise, hazelnut and gorgonzola sourdough bread; sourdough hot cakes; and two-day sourdough bread, which is a basic recipe with some suggestions for creating your own variations.

Another area of interest to me was the section on rosehips. Using rosehips in cooking is common in Denmark, where I spent the early years of my life, so I was pleasantly surprised to find them included in this cookbook. There are recipes for basic rosehip puree, simple rosehip jam, rosehip and crabapple ketchup, and rosehip soup.

We enter the realm of the fairies in the section on Magic Food: spruce tips and rose petals. Genest tells us when to pick spruce tips and what to look for, and includes recipes. One simple recipe, which can be used as a rub for salmon, is spruce tips and kosher salt.

As expected, this being a Northern cookbook, there’s a chapter on The Bush Gourmet, as well as a broad selection of recipes from the Yukon. Here’s a sample:

• Braised Moose Ribs with Espresso Stout and Chocolate
• Shaggy Mane and Wild Blueberry Risotto
• Rowan Jelly
• Simple but Excellent Salmon Stock
• Salmon or Arctic Char Poached in White Wine, Gin and Juniper Berries

Some of the ingredients may not be available here — such as indigenous foods foraged in the boreal forest — but you are encouraged to explore in your own backyard for native plants and berries and other local ingredients.

As an added bonus, scattered throughout the book are the author’s personal anecdotes reflecting her love of the North, good food and the friends who share her passion. The photographs by Cathie Archbould are quite wonderful. Check it out!

Comments are welcome!

Friends of the Library – Quiz Night

Friday, April 15th at 7:30 pm
Centennial High School – Concourse
570 Poirier Street

If your brain is bursting with knowledge of geography, history, current events, literature, and other trivia, show off your skills at the Friends of Coquitlam Public Library’s Quiz Night. Participate in teams of eight – either form a group with seven friends, or sign up individually and we will place you with a team. Proceeds support literacy projects for children and adults living in Coquitlam, including Books for Babies and the library’s book bus. Doors open at 6:45 and the quiz starts at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25.00 each and include coffee, dessert, and a chance to win draw prizes. To buy tickets, or for more information, please phone the library at 604-937-4130.

The Book of Awesome – reviewed by patron Rei

What made or makes life ‘Awesome’ for you? Is it popping bubble wrap, watching the sun come up or perhaps silence? Neil Parischa’s book reminds us of the small things in life – all the little perks that make life awesome. Each entry is never longer than a few pages and there’s so many that it’s hard not to find at least one that will leave you smiling. You can also check out his work at his ’1000 Awesome Things’ blog at: http://1000awesomethings.com.

Comments on this review are welcome.

The Sun Climbs Slow: Justice in the Age of Imperial America – reviewed by patron Ron

This is great for the general reader. It’s hard to find material about international law and global governance bodies that isn’t dry and technical and too specific. Erna Paris, a Canadian, has written is a good introduction to the history of international law, as well as current themes and issues, with special emphasis on the Bush government’s obnoxiously persistent interference with the creation of the International Court.

The author also gives many references and a good list of books you can turn to next, for more information on specific topics (e.g., the Balkans, Guantanamo, and the prosecution of war criminals in general). This book left me deeply impressed with the need for ongoing action concerning the ancient fight between raw power and the rule of law, and for “ending the impunity of high-placed criminals.”

Please feel free to comment.

Avant-Garde Art 101 … reviewed by Jason

“Who’s heard of green skies and purple cows?” “A portrait of a man with both eyes on one side of his head?” “I don’t get Picasso.” “Art? Just looks like a line and a dot to me.”

Don’t “get” modern art? Young and old readers alike can learn to understand it (although you still might not like it) by taking a tour through the following introductory art history books.

Understanding Modern Art: An Osbourne Introduction by Monica Bohm-Duchen and Janet Cook is a great place to start. Osbourne books read much like smaller versions of the Eyewitness series of lavishly illustrated books. Bohm-Duchen and Cook guide you through various modern art styles, themes and movements. The first section “What is Modern Art?” explains how the beginning of photography and the end of traditional art patronage (royalty and the church commissioning works of art) freed artists up to experiment. Themes covered include nature, religion, war, propaganda and public art. The Art and Artists series volume on Modern Art is an introduction to the modern art movements such as fauvism, expressionism and cubism. A quicker, easier tour can be had through Picture This Century: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Art by Felicity Woolf which gives an overview of various types of art including painting, sculpture, prints and mixed media.

The decade-by-decade children’s series 20^th Century Art covers the same ground; the last volumes cover 1940-2000 and focus on specific artists like Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Nam June Paik. Meanwhile, if you’ve always been curious about specific movements or –isms, look no further than the Art Revolutions series. Art Revolutions examines the artists: Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Cubism, Salvador Dali and Man Ray in Surrealism, and Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol on Pop Art.

An even savvier title is Art Attack: A Short Cultural History of The Avant-Garde, a young adult book that not only covers visual art, but also the developments in music, news media and politics as well.

 There you have it, modern art demystified … I hope.

Comments? Go ahead, get creative!