Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Tasha at Book Obsessed is hosting in July. Please stop by Tasha's busy blog, where she focuses on romance novels, with some mystery and suspense thrown in.

I got three books last week from the champion book publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek.  Thanks to Mary and the publishers, I will be hosting giveaways in the near future for all three books.  Check back on Friday for the first of the giveaways.



The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman: "In this utterly charming debut—perfect for fans of Cecelia Ahern’s P.S., I Love You and Allison Winn Scotch’s Time of My Life — one woman sets out to complete her old list of childhood goals, and finds that her lifelong dreams lead her down a path she never expects."



Drive by Raymond Ahrens: "Willie Easelman, 86, born in Brooklyn and a perennial finalist in the American Dream Sweepstakes, is committed to the Morningside Nursing Home by his daughter, Anna. Cunning, despite his dementia, Willie sneaks behind the wheel of his '86 Impala and escapes, heading north along America's roadways . . ."



Cleans Up Nicely by Linda Dahl: "When twenty-something artist Erica Mason moves from laid-back Mexico to Manhattan in the mid-1970s, she finds a hard-edged, decadent, and radically evolving art scene."

I also got one book from the LibraryThing Early reviewer program:



Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Twenty-One: A New Home for the Cookbook Library

Definitely one of my favorite things about our new kitchen is the bookcase under one bank of windows. I can finally keep all my cookbooks in the kitchen with me. They didn't all fit in these shelves, but 80 percent of them did. The rest are in one of the cupboards under the island, which is good enough. At least they are all in the same room.

Ella Fitzgerald, one of our two Jazz Cats, loves the new book case.  In the summer, she can smell the outside through the open windows and keep an eye on the crows.  In the winter, the steam radiator (hidden behind the black screen on the left) will warm up the soapstone counter she's sitting on. I suspect she will spend a lot of time there.

At a neighborhood potluck last night, I got a tip about a plum tree at a vacant house a couple of blocks away. So I went this morning with my next-door neighbor, the wildly creative interior designer Marketa Rogers, to do some urban gleaning.

I'm not quite sure what to do with these.  They are the little round kind, not much bigger than a Bing cherry.  They are deliciously sweet and tart and very juicy.  They would make a great pie, but I'm trying to shed a few pounds and pie won't help.  I think I'll either make a few jars of jam, or pit and freeze them to make a pie later when I have more calorie capacity for eating pie.

Any other plum ideas? For now or to use with frozen plums later.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads