What-are-you-reading-Wednesday – Dying for Chocolate

Last weekend I read a mystery novel by Diane Mott Davidson, Dying for Chocolate. I was going through the Indiana Humanities Council’s collection of books for reading and discussion groups, looking for novels related to food. This book was one of several titles containing the word “chocolate” (Like Water for Chocolate, Chocolat), so I decided to give it a try.

First of all, it was a lot of fun. But I also discovered that Dying for Chocolate is a prime example of a subgenre that has become very popular in the last few decades – the culinary mystery. Like all detective fiction, it offers the satisfaction of an intellectual puzzle, on the one hand, and a morality play, on the other. The master detective solves the crime, and the wicked are caught and punished.

The culinary mystery, however, adds some delightful and delicious ingredients to the basic mix. Like other “cozy” mysteries, it often takes place in an idyllic setting, such as a small town or village, populated by easily recognizable characters, whether eccentric, endearing, or just ordinary. The detective is usually a woman who is a caterer, innkeeper, or other purveyor of food. In Dying for Chocolate, the heroine is a caterer and single mother who has to track down her boyfriend’s killer while coping with demanding clients and gourmet menus. Culinary mysteries often include recipes for the dishes described, and it’s hard to imagine the book group that could discuss this novel without at least a package of store-bought frosted brownies on hand.

The setting for Dying for Chocolate is Aspen Meadow, Colorado, but the Council’s collection also has culinary mysteries from other regions of the country. Joanne Fluke’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder is set at the Cookie Jar Bakery in Lake Eden, Minnesota, owned by Hannah Swenson. Tamar Myers’ No Use Dying Over Spilled Milk features Magdalena Yoder, Mennonite proprietor of the Pennsylvania Dutch Inn. Nancy Pickard’s The 27-Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders takes sleuth Eugenia Potter from her New England base to her ranch in Arizona. As small business owners, these women have a lot on their plates.

For those who can’t consume just one, most culinary mysteries are part of a series of novels. Like Agatha Christie herself, these writers are very prolific. They also have a penchant for puns in their titles. My favorites: Tamar Myers’ The Crepes of Wrath and the next book by Diane Mott Davidson, The Cereal Murders.

Also recommended (by Keira Amstutz): Julie Hyzy’s State of the Onion (White House Chef Mystery series).

What-are-you-reading-Wednesday: Eat, Pray, Love

I finally picked up Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” — a book I’d been begging my sister to borrow, but she kept lending it out to someone else before I could get my hands on it. Now, I feel like I’m the last person (or at least woman) to read it — especially because Gilbert’s sequel will hit the shelves in January.

Just from the jacket’s description, I knew this was a book for me — and not just because my sister told me so. “Liz” is everything I love in a great fictional character –s trong, funny, passionate, and of course, an avid traveler — but she’s not fictional. Even better. Knowing a little about Gilbert, I was also looking forward to exceptional writing.

So I woke up early one morning over Labor Day weekend just to crack open the book before anyone else stirred. I crashed through the first 75 pages before I even realized it, intermittently laughing out loud and getting a bit teary-eyed. As much as I hated to be pulled out of Liz’s world, when I got interrupted, it was just as well. The book was so delicious that I didn’t want to waste my enjoyment in one setting. Now, I get to live vicariously through Liz’s world a few nights a week. And maybe more. Like my sister, I may read this one twice.

By Kristen Fuhs Wells, communications director at the Indiana Humanities Council

A celebration of culture

By Dorothy Paunovich
“Serb Fest” is held at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Merrillville, Ind., on the first weekend in August.

This year, an exhibit (funded in part by the Indiana Humanities Council) called “Immigrants, Serbs of Steel” told the story of hard-working immigrants who labored in the dangerous steel mills from the early 1900s to the present day. The Serbian immigrants helped build Northwest Indiana’s steel mills, industries, and towns. The exhibit can still be viewed every Sunday after church.

On Sun., Aug. 2, co-authors Stephen McShane and Gary Wilks (Steel Giants) shared  their research about the early immigrants’ contributions to northwest Indiana’s steel industries. Nick Tarailo (Bronko’s Restaurant) spoke of the stories his grandfather  shared about the early days in Gary. You can learn more by watching a video about the project, here.

Included in the exhibit was a burgundy embroidered vest that is more than 200 years old, and was buried in the ground during two wars (WWI and the Turkish war). It belonged to the great-grandmother of one of our parishioners who is 70-years-old. She said that they had to hide their identities and things of value during those times.

Every Serbian family has a fascinating story related to the events that brought them to this great country. Serb Fest is a celebration of those stories, and a homecoming for the heart. Everyone is welcome at Serb Fest–it is attended by so many non-Serbs because they love the food and music.

It has become somewhat of a homecoming for college students, relatives, and for those who are even just slightly Serbian. They can count on things that are familiar: their favorite foods and music. There’s nothing like watching several hundred young people in their teens and early 20s singing and dancing to music that came from a foreign land several generations ago. They still want to dance and sing because it really means something special to them. They all bring friends from school and their neighbors. I remember my non-Serb friends in high school being envious because we had spent the weekends at church dances, basketball tournaments, or traveled to perform with our folklore dance groups or choir. We had so much fun and had so much to talk about. If you went to a Serbian church, it didn’t mean you were in church all of the time, but AT church, where you were surrounded by all this great culture.

What are your “ethnic” memories growing up in Indiana? How do you celebrate that culture today?

Food for Thought: Indiana’s Food Culture

If you stopped by our booth at the Indiana State Fair during Hoosier Heritage Day and added your hometown’s food treasures to our map of Indiana–thanks! We’ve compiled some of the data into a map of Indiana’s food culture and identified things like food festivals and agribusinesses, as well as livestock and agricultural hot spots. Take a look, here.

Then, add your feedback below. We couldn’t fit everything on the map–and for that, we apologize. But, please continue to help us out by identifying what’s missing in your neck of the woods.

How does your garden grow?

A tiny, purple pepper from the Indiana Humanities Council's victory garden.

It’s amazing how much better fresh vegetables taste when you’ve grown them in your own backyard.  You understand the work that went into planting and tending them; you’ve tracked their growth and development like you would a small child, counting down the days until you can pluck them from the Earth and place them in a salad bowl.

I haven’t always felt that way. When I was younger, I was my dad’s designated garden helper. I loved working outside, but not in the weedy, hot, buggy garden. I despised weeding around bean plants and hated breaking them and taking the ends off even more. I convinced myself not to like green beans so that I wouldn’t have to pick them. It didn’t work. But I still went through childhood hating plenty of veggies.

Then, in my twenties, something radical happened. I started to try vegetables I gave up on years ago, and—walla!—I actually liked them. It turned out that I loved spinach, I could tolerate broccoli, and, yes, I even found out how to enjoy steamed green beans.

I became a gardener at home (by my own free will), and this year, a gardener at work (check out pictures of our garden, here), which exposed me to an even larger assortment of vegetables. I had gone 26 years without eating a fresh radish and I spent 26 years removing radishes from salads and avoiding them on assorted vegetable trays. I had never eaten kale, or swiss chard; never picked snap peas off a plant and ate them while standing in the garden. And in one month, I’ve know done them all.

Gardening has provided me with delicious and healthy food, but also a way to connect with my dad, my co-workers, and my fellow gardeners at the Mayor’s Garden Plots. It spurs conversation, reduces my reliance on commercialized vegetables and makes me feel better about myself and my community.

How does your garden contribute to your own personal growth?

Hoosier Cabinets “freed the housewife”

 By Molly Armstrong Head, producer and development director of Hoosier History Live!

An example of a Hoosier Cabinet. Photo courtest of Wikipedia.

I never knew people could get in such a tizzy about Hoosier Cabinets. After I heard Nancy Hiller, author of The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History (IU Press) and a Bloomington cabinetmaker, talk about the social history of the Hoosier Cabinet with Nelson Price on Hoosier History Live! radio show this week, I called my friend Glynis, who has a “Sellers” in her 1920s era kitchen. Her kitchen is so crammed with stuff that you can hardly realize that there is a valuable antique in there. Glynis had listened to the show sticking her radio out the back window; she lives in the country about 50 miles from WICR’s radio tower. (Modern humans can hear the show online anywhere it airs, but Glynis is no-tech.)

As I learned on the show, these marvelous inventions were marketed in the early part of the 20^th century as “a boon to women.” And they sold like hot cakes. They had spice racks, storage bins, a built-in flour sifter, a pull-out counter. And you could sit down in front of them to do your work. They centralized the food storage and preparation area, saving many steps.

More than two million Hoosier cabinets had been sold by 1920, meaning that they could be found in one in ten American homes. One old ad exclaimed, “Lincoln had freed the slaves, and now the Hoosier has freed the housewife from unnecessary drudgery!” 

Now, I reflect that, for the last fifteen years or so, designer kitchens, food prep, gardening, kitchen gadgets, and haute cuisine seem to be absolutely the yuppie, upscale thing. 

Although the Hoosier kitchen sure has changed, I think our society will always believe that having all the right stuff in your kitchen tells people that you have “arrived.” (Where, exactly, I’m not quite sure.)  

Next week (June 13), join Hoosier History Live! at 11:30 a.m. on WICR FM (88.7) to hear 90-year-old P.E. MacAllister reflect on civic history.

The Top Ten Places in Indiana to Experience the Humanities

By Amy Vaughan, Director, The Indiana Office of Tourism Development

With June quickly approaching, I am optimistic about Indiana’s summer travel season. As I think about my own trip ideas for this summer, I am struck by how much there is to do in Indiana to celebrate the humanities. 

Here’s what comes to my mind:

1. Bloomington – One of Indiana’s best food towns, visit Farm Bloomington, Restaurant Tallent and the Scholar’s Inn, for a world class meal.  And don’t forget to stop on Fourth Street’s Restaurant Row to try ethnic fare.

2. Columbus – Stop at the Columbus Visitors Center and take its guided driving tour of a city Smithsonian magazine called “a veritable museum of modern architecture.”  Visitors can see more than 70 buildings and pieces of public art from I.M. Pei, Eliel Saarinen and Dale Chihuly.

3. Conner Prairie’s New Balloon Exhibit – A recreation of an 1859 mail delivery test in Lafayette, the tethered helium balloon ride combines the adventure of climbing 350 feet in the sky with learning about the history of flight in Indiana.

4. Elkhart County Quilt Gardens Tour – This driving tour features more than 16 gardens and 16 hand painted murals.   (Visit in mid-July for the best blooms.)  All of the gardens have been created to replicate Amish quilt designs.

5. The Indiana Repertory Theatre – Founded in 1972, the IRT is one of the leading regional theatres in the country.  I’ve been wowed by performances of To Kill a Mockingbird, A Christmas Carol and Pride and Prejudice. 

6. The Indiana State Fair – With everything from the world’s largest boar to gourds shaped like David Letterman, the state fair is my favorite Indiana spot in August.

7. The Indianapolis Museum of Art – One of the tenth largest general art museums in the country, the museum’s world class art collection and 152 of gardens and grounds are well worth the visit.

8. New Harmony –The site of two utopian communities, New Harmony offers a rare mix of architectural gardens, historic buildings and unusual public spaces.  It’s an unusual gem tucked away in southern Indiana.

9. The West Baden Dome at West Baden Springs Hotel – It’s been called the Eighth Wonder of the World.  An amazing display of design ingenuity, the dome is breathtaking to see.

10. White River State Park – It offers a rich mix of concerts, events, exhibits and gardens at the Indianapolis Zoo, the Eiteljorg Museum of Native American Art, the NCAA Hall of Champions and the Indianapolis Indians.

And these are just a handful of the many great options in Indiana.  I’d like to know, “Where’s your favorite place in Indiana to get your dose of the humanities?”

South Side Dining–Indianapolis: Anyone? Anyone?

I moved to Indianapolis in March of 1998 and in the decade between then and now I have lived in ten different residences, which makes me sound far more like a vagabond than I actually am. For most of that time I have lived and worked on Indy’s north side–normally within a stone’s throw of 86/82 Street.

I was especially lucky to have worked in and then lived very near 86th Street and Ditch which, as many Indianapolis residents will tell you, is one of the best intersections in the city. But whether I was there or living nearer Nora, or off of 38th and Lafayette, or in/near Fishers, I have always had access to a hefty portion of Indianapolis’ best restaurants.

Not any more though.

Although I work downtown, I have lived in Indianapolis’s south side for the last 14 months and finding interesting fare near the house is substantially harder. It’s not that there aren’t some options, Yat’s is open down there now, that’s nice. And I’ve always been an on-again/off-again fan of La Bamba’s since attending Ball State in the mid 90s–I just heard the one on the north side has started selling vegetarian tamales, so I’m hoping against hope that’s true at the south side location too.

Thai Spice, near the Greenwood Park Mall, is the new consensus favorite Thai place amongst my friends with whom I eat Thai cuisine (that’s fancy French talk for “food”). And, for a big chain, Stir Crazy at the mall has a tasty menu with a lot of vegetarian options.

And Douglas Karr recently informed his blog readers that The Bean Cup is the place in Greenwood to go for good coffee and although I haven’t tried it yet, he seems like a man who knows what he’s talking about.

I found great chilaquiles on Madison Avenue once (maybe in a dream), somewhere near the KMart but I haven’t been able to find them again.

Of course part of the problem is I don’t live in Greenwood and I don’t eat beef or pork which means that one of the (supposedly) best places near my house is essentially off limits: GT South’s.

And while this is an off-topic comment I’ll just quickly note that on the recommendation of the Best of Indy issue of Nuvo I just tried the pizza and Cheestyx II at Gusto’s in Fountain Square and…holy  moly!…it was excellent. It totally deserves the recognition. Really.

So, if you happen to live or visit Indy’s south side, by which I mean Beech Grove, Greenwood, Southport and thereabouts, feel free to send me your favorite places to eat–but Beech Grove/Southport stuff is rarer and so more appreciated.

Is It Corn Yet?

I consider myself an expert on corn. No pun intended — I mean corn, the crop.

For example, I know it should be knee-high by the 4th of July. I look to see how it’s doing when I drive around Indiana, nice and green or too brown. I know it needs to be detasseled and that kids and teens often do that as a summer job. I even found out, finally, what a combine is–a combination harvester and thresher (thanks to Richard Rhodes’ book Farm: a Year in the Life of an American Farmer).

My late mother loved to tell a story from her visit to Iowa when I lived there in the 1970s. As we drove along the country highway, she asked me to stop and get some corn for dinner, to which I replied disdainfully, “That’s field corn. You can’t eat it.” I don’t know why she thought that was so hilarious. To me, it was just something you know if you know corn, the way you know that local home-grown corn isn’t ready before August.

This has been an stressful year for corn. Thanks to the ethanol craze, corn prices doubled and farmers planted more to meet the demand. Sadly, floods in the Midwest devastated many potentially lucrative fields.

I will continue to keep an eye on the corn as I drive around this summer. As a Hoosier, I consider it part of my job.

This entry was posted by: Nancy

Meandering Indiana – 5

I have been taking this blog along to meander Indiana through history (the state’s) and memory (mine). So let me not pass up a perfect prompt in the appointment of Norbert Krapf as Indiana’s poet laureate, as noted earlier.

Norbert Krapf is a native of Jasper, Indiana, in Dubois County. Because Jasper was settled in the 1840s by German Catholics, it is very well known to the Hoosier history community as a classic example of nineteenth-century immigration. It retains its ethnic and religious character far beyond most Hoosier counties.

Touring the churches of Dubois County, which seem more like magnificent cathedrals, you have to be impressed. The Sisters of St. Benedict in Ferdinand certainly can be proud of their newly restored chapel, my favorite. The present-day nuns live up to their heritage of energetic, forward-looking women who wanted to build something big. They also continue their tradition of hospitality with a retreat and conference center where I have stayed overnight. It’s another world, and as their website demonstrates, the sisters are far from behind the times.

In southwestern Dubois County, amongst a little pocket of Protestants, a colleague and I recently conducted computer training at a middle school. Again, an influx of immigrants is changing the landscape, as the school has had a sizable population increase of Mexican children.

Taking a break from our session, we headed back to Jasper and stopped at the Schnitzelbank restaurant. Managing to be southern German and down-home southern Hoosier at the same time, this one is worth a trip, maybe even worth a poem.

This entry was posted by: Nancy