September 2015: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Andrea has picked "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman as our September book.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk.

His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

"A fantastic story that is both the stuff of dreams and nightmares" (San Diego Union-Tribune), Neil Gaiman's first solo novel has become a touchstone of urban fantasy, and a perennial favorite of readers everywhere.

Amazon.com Review

Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neil Gaiman was born in Hampshire, UK, and now lives in the United States near Minneapolis. As a child he discovered his love of books, reading, and stories, devouring the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Branch Cabell, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. LeGuin, Gene Wolfe, and G.K. Chesterton. A self-described "feral child who was raised in libraries," Gaiman credits librarians with fostering a life-long love of reading: "I wouldn't be who I am without libraries. I was the sort of kid who devoured books, and my happiest times as a boy were when I persuaded my parents to drop me off in the local library on their way to work, and I spent the day there. I discovered that librarians actually want to help you: they taught me about interlibrary loans."



Neil Gaiman is credited with being one of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama.


Gaiman wrote the screenplay for the original BBC TV series of Neverwhere (1996); Dave McKean's first feature film, Mirrormask (2005), for the Jim Henson Company; and cowrote the script to Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf. He produced Stardust, Matthew Vaughn's film based on Gaiman's book by the same name.


MORE AT
http://www.neilgaiman.com/About_Neil/Biography

Amy's pumpkin pie recipe

I use a combination of this:

and the recipe from here:

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2008/10/vegan-pumpkin-pie-worthy-of.html

The linked recipe uses coconut milk instead of evaporated milk. So, that's what I do for a dairy-free pie. I use any type of GF flour I have on hand for the flour in the recipe. And I use real eggs, not the suggested egg replacement. I never, ever use nutmeg. :) I add the suggested baking powder & xanthan gum.

Just so you know, coconut milk tends to make the pie have more of a custard consistency. It's not as firm as it is with evaporated milk.

June's Quinoa Salad

(This is my best to quantify the little of this, little of that salad recipe!)
 
2 cups prepared Quinoa (cook 1 cup Quinoa with 2 cups boiling water. Add in 1T powdered bouillon for flavor when you add the quinoa to the water.)

Add:
3/4 c. chopped artichoke hearts
1/3 c. sliced olives
1 can beans such as garbanzo or Aduki red beans
1/4 c. diced scallions
1 c. spinach or romaine, sliced into threads
Fresh herbs of choice: cilantro, thyme, etc.

Top with oil and vinegar-based dressing of choice. You may also want to consider sprinkling sunflower seeds on top.

Becky's Chicken Tortilla Soup

Single recipe makes 8 servings.

Ingredients 

 1 onion, chopped

 3 cloves garlic, minced

 1 tablespoon olive oil

 2 teaspoons chili powder (or more)

 2 teaspoons cumin (or more)

 1 teaspoon dried oregano

 Salt and pepper

 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

 2 (10.5 ounce) cans condensed chicken broth

 1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked

 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers

 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

 2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded

 

Yummy toppers

shredded Monterey Jack cheese

sour cream

chopped green onions

crushed tortilla chips

sliced avocado

Directions

In a small frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper.

Combine onion and garlic with tomatoes, broth, corn, chiles, beans, cilantro and chicken in crockpot. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with cheese, sour cream, crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices and/or chopped green onion.

Southwest Crockpot Breakfast

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. butter 

1 1/2 lb. bulk breakfast sausage, cooked and drained

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4-oz. can chopped green chilies (or jalapeno peppers), drained (or fresh)

2-1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack, cheddar or Pepper Jack cheese (or a combo)

18 eggs

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Grease inside of 5-quart crockpot with butter. Starting with sausage, layer meat, onions, peppers, chilies and cheese, repeating the layering process until all ingredients are used.

In large mixer bowl, beat eggs with wire whisk or eggbeater until combined, then pour over mixture in the crockpot. Cover and cook on low 5-7 hours. Serve with sour cream or fresh salsa.

The eggs should reach 165 degrees F.

Becky's Stuffed Zucchini

Stuffed Zucchini

 

Ingredients

6 medium zucchini

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, diced

1/2 cup mushrooms

2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

2 tomatoes, diced 

1 cup of parmesan cheese 

1 cup of cheddar or mozzarella cheese 

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons pepper

1-2 pound of lean ground turkey 

Directions

1. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving shells about 1/4 inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides. Lightly salt the inside of the shells.

2. Hear 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and golden color. Add mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides. Saute another 2 min. Remove from skillet and set aside.

3. Heat a Tbsp of olive oil on medium high heat. Add the ground turkey. Lightly brown the brown turkey, stirring only occasionally. Drain any excess fat. Stir in the onion and mushroom mixture. Add the vinegar. Stir in tomato, and cook 1 min. longer. Remove mixture from heat and set aside.

4. When mixture has cooled, add the cheese, egg, salt and pepper. Fill zucchini shells with mixture. Fill a baking pan with 1/4 inch of water. Place filled zucchini halves in pan and bake at 375 degrees for 30 min., until lightly brown. Remove zucchini from pan and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Makes 12 half pieces or 24 quarter pieces.

August 2015: Animal Vegetable Miracle

Cass has picked "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver because "it's about food."

ABOUT THE BOOK
Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, and grew up in rural Kentucky. She counts among her most important early influences: the Bookmobile, a large family vegetable garden, the surrounding fields and woods, and parents who were tolerant of nature study but intolerant of TV.
Beginning around the age of nine, Barbara kept a journal, wrote poems and stories, and entered every essay contest she ever heard about. Her first published work, "Why We Need a New Elementary School," included an account of how the school's ceiling fell and injured her teacher. The essay was printed in the local newspaper prior to a school-bond election; the school bond passed. For her efforts Barbara won a $25 savings bond, on which she expected to live comfortably in adulthood.

After high school graduation she left Kentucky to enter DePauw University on a piano scholarship. She transferred from the music school to the college of liberal arts because of her desire to study practically everything, and graduated with a degree in biology. She spent the late 1970's in Greece, France and England seeking her fortune, but had not found it by the time her work visa expired in 1979. She then moved to Tucson, Arizona, out of curiosity to see the American southwest, and eventually pursued graduate studies in evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. After graduate school she worked as a scientific writer for the University of Arizona before becoming a freelance journalist.

Kingsolver's short fiction and poetry began to be published during the mid-1980's, along with the articles she wrote regularly for regional and national periodicals. She wrote her first novel, The Bean Trees, entirely at night, in the abundant free time made available by chronic insomnia during pregnancy. Completed just before the birth of her first child, in March 1987, the novel was published by HarperCollins the following year with a modest first printing. Widespread critical acclaim and word-of-mouth support have kept the book continuously in print since then. The Bean Trees has now been adopted into the core curriculum of high school and college literature classes across the U.S., and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

She has written eleven more books since then, including the novels Animal Dreams , Pigs in Heaven, The Poisonwood Bible, and Prodigal Summer ; a collection of short stories (Homeland ); poetry (Another America ); an oral history (Holding the Line ); two essay collections (High Tide in Tucson, Small Wonder ); a prose-poetry text accompanying the photography of Annie Griffiths Belt (Last Stand ); and most recently, her first full-length narrative non-fiction, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She has contributed to dozens of literary anthologies, and her reviews and articles have appeared in most major U.S. newspapers and magazines. Her books have earned major literary awards at home and abroad, and in 2000 she received the National Humanities Medal, our nation's highest honor for service through the arts.

In 1997 Barbara established the Bellwether Prize, awarded in even-numbered years to a first novel that exemplifies outstanding literary quality and a commitment to literature as a tool for social change.

Barbara is the mother of two daughters, Camille and Lily, and is married to Steven Hopp, a professor of environmental sciences. In 2004, after more than 25 years in Tucson, Arizona, Barbara left the southwest to return to her native terrain. She now lives with her family on a farm in southwestern Virginia where they raise free-range chickens, turkeys, Icelandic sheep, and an enormous vegetable garden.