Monday, April 06, 2026

Quiet Sunday

Tana French: The Keeper

This book is too long. There is a detective story in it but the author seems much more interested in describing the complex relationships among dozens of inhabitants of the little Irish town where Cal Hooper, an American policeman, has retired, but where he gets no peace. I forced myself to read to the end. By the time the one and only death in the story was explained, I didn’t really care.

Occasionally, I found some amusing mentions of food in the book, especially raspberry jam that one of the women puts up in little jars and gifts to several other women, an action that becomes enmeshed in the plot. Detective Cal likes to cook: “even though he only took it up out of a belief that Trey [his daughter] needed to eat something other than hamburgers and grilled cheese and whatever boiled-into-submission stuff her mother came up with. Now he tries fancy things all the time, and mostly they work out.” (p. 180)

At a cafe that’s central to the action, the food isn’t very good, mostly fried eggs and “toasties,” but the cozy atmosphere is important, especially in contrast to the nastiness that is a big part of life in the town (and not just the mystery part). It’s a depressing town, as exemplified here:

“The townland is scattered with these places, homes emptied by famine in the 1840s, orphaned by emigration in the seventies, left behind in the millennium rush to easier city jobs. Mostly no one bothers to knock them down.” (p. 356)

I’ve read all of Tana French’s earlier police and detective stories, and I think I liked them better than this one.

The Power Plant

Besides reading, we took a Sunday afternoon walk along the Huron River.

Thursday, April 02, 2026

Happy Passover

Wednesday evening was the start of Passover, and we celebrated with a few other people.
This photo shows the ritual items: the matzoh, the lamb bone, the egg, horse-radish root,
and the greens that symbolize spring. Matzoh reminds us of our ancestors’ exodus from Egypt.

At the table.

Another view of the ceremonial items, as well as the gefilte fish that we
like to have as part of the meal.

Our main course was Chicken Marbella, a 1980s favorite that I had never cooked before.

Gefilte fish (photo by Alice).

What it all means: From 2007

In 2007, I wrote a child-friendly explanation of the symbols on the Passover plate. Here it is again in case you would like to see it. We celebrate the same way each year (you might notice that it’s even the same tablecloth). Back then, I was writing for Miriam and Alice who were small children. Happily, Alice was with us in person this year!

In the spring we celebrate the Jewish holiday called Passover. We have a special ceremony called a Seder, and we tell a story about Jewish history a long, long time ago. To tell this story, we have special food on the table. The picture shows the table from last year.

At the Seder, we tell the story of how the Jews were slaves in the land of Egypt in this long-ago time, and how Moses, their leader, helped them to escape. We celebrate freedom and the coming of spring.

Moses and all the people ran away from Egypt so fast that they didn't have time to bake bread, but ate a flat bread called matzoh. For the holiday of Passover, many Jewish people do not eat any other type of bread or crackers for 8 days, because they want to remember the story.

When the Jewish people were slaves, they had to work very hard making big buildings for the Egyptians. On the Seder plate is a special fruit jam called charoses that tastes very good.

Charoses looks like the mortar that holds a brick or stone building together, and we eat it to remind us of the lives of the Jewish slaves who worked on the buildings in Egypt.

The next special food is called "bitter herbs," or horseradish. This is a very bitter, sharp-tasting root. This taste makes all the people at the Seder remember the hard and "bitter" lives that the Jewish people had when they were slaves around 3000 years ago. They make us remember that freedom is a good thing.

One part of the Seder is to eat matzoh with some charoses and ground-up horseradish on it, and remember the bitter and the sweet parts of the story.

Salt water on the Passover plate makes us remember the tears that people wept when they were not free men and women.

The egg on the Passover plate reminds us that spring is here.

Parsley or other mild-tasting green herbs is also on the Seder table to remind us of spring. Another part of the Passover celebration is to eat egg with salt water and matzoh, and to dip the parsley in salt water.

Also on the Passover plate is a bone from a lamb. We also drink wine as we tell the story.

When Moses helped the Jews to escape, the first thing they did was to cross a big sea named the Red Sea. Here is the magical part of the story: the water of the sea opened up, and everyone could walk between the walls of water.

While they walked, Moses's sister sang and danced to help them on their way. Her name was Miriam, and she has an important part in the story. After all the Jews crossed the Red Sea and escaped from slavery, they lived in the desert for a long time. Miriam had a magic well so that wherever they went, they found water to drink. Even though the desert is a very dry place, Miriam's magic well was always with them.

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

March in the Kitchen

New in My Kitchen in March

New Mug Rack that Len made for some of our many mugs.
Len has been doing a lot of woodworking.

We have been using the new tray for many meals… such as this patè, cheese, bread, and chips.

Good Meals in March

We cooked at home for most of our March dinners. Here are photos — some new, some you’ve seen earlier this month.

At Home

… and another roast chicken!

For Saint Patrick’s Day, of course.

We frequently have tuna salad in one form or another.

Alice made us some classic chocolate chip cookies.

Len made Pad Thai — super good!

Another meal that Len made.

Bacon on Special

I needed a few strips of bacon for classic Boeuf Bourgignon, so I went quickly into a Kroger store.
They had a special: buy one package get one free. So we have had about a year’s worth of bacon this month!