Report on a Potluck with a Mystery Theme

Guest blogger and long-time Mystery Book Group member Rona Fischman has this to say about the mystery-themed potluck that took place at the Central Library on April 4th:

The Mystery Book Group, which generally meets on the first Wednesday of each month at the Central Library, joined into the spirit of Somerville Reads by reading mysteries that had food themes. We had a pot-luck for our April meeting.

There are several authors who write mysteries that include recipes. We read a few of them including A Catered Valentine’s Day by Isis Crawford and Butter Safe Than Sorry by Tamar Myers. One member made blue cheese/cranberry/rosemary cookies from Butter Safe than Sorry. We didn’t much like the book, but we loved the cookies. Another member baked a chocolate cake from The Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke. We all could die and go to heaven for the dark chocolate that was served as well!

Overall, we preferred mysteries where the food in the story was part of the story, and added to understanding the character or the setting. Among our favorite food books were the Donna Leon mysteries, where the main character, Guido Burnetti, goes home for a multi-course lunch with his family on most days. Even his coffee-break food was interesting to us. To honor the Leon mysteries, pumpkin ravioli was served at the potluck.

Other mysteries with great food are those by Louise Penny. They are set in a small town in southern Canada, where there is a to-die-for bistro and the home cooked meals are also wonderful. We won’t tell you how many people die in the bistro - you’ll have to read the books!

Food-Themed Art by Somerville Students

The K-6 students and the art teachers of the Somerville Public Schools have produced a beautiful array of food-themed art that is now on exhibit in the auditorium of the Central Library. It will be here through the end of April, so please stop in and have a look at their wonderful work. There will be a reception on Tuesday, April 10th at 3:00 p.m., and the public is invited to meet the artists, their parents/guardians, and their art teachers. We hope you'll be able to come, but in the meantime, here's a preview of this special, and delicious-looking exhbit! Click on each picture to see a bigger image.

Preview of Somerville Cooks

Our community cookbook is almost ready! Here's a teaser:

Recipes Wanted for Community Cook Book

One of our most exciting projects for Somerville Reads 2012 is the creation of a community cook book! Nothing brings people together quite like food, so we're asking all of our neighbors to share some favorite recipes. Maybe you have a specialty that people always want you to bring to parties, or a recipe for something that the kids ask you to make over and over. Or it might be a treasured family recipe from your culture, or a favorite that features local ingredients. Whatever you choose, we're looking forward to your contribution. We don't know if we'll be able to print all of the recipes - it depends on how many submissions we get and whether there are duplicates - but we'll use as many as we can. If you didn't invent the recipe yourself, please make sure that you include credit where it's due (ie: "found this recipe in my mother's old Fanny Farmer" or "clipped this out of the Globe Sunday magazine years ago".)

There are three ways to submit a recipe:

• drop it off at any Somerville Public Library location, care of Ellen Jacobs or

• e-mail it to ejacobs@minlib.net or

• mail it to:
  Somerville Public Library
  79 Highland Avenue
  Somerville, MA 02143
  Attention: Ellen Jacobs

The deadline for submitting recipes is March 1st.

Once we've compiled all of the recipes, we're going to print copies of the cook book and sell them at our kickoff event, a potluck meal at the Central Library on Saturday, March 31st beginning at 1:00 p.m. We hope that people will bring lots of the dishes featured in the cookbook, but anything you'd like to contribute will be welcome! (Please make sure to list the ingredients so that people with allergies or other food restrictions can be informed.) Everyone who comes will have a chance to vote for their favorite dish, and five lucky winners will receive prizes of gift certificates donated by local businesses that are sponsoring the event: Dave's Fresh Pasta, Guru, Highland Kitchen, India Palace, and Sherman Café. Proceeds from the sale of the cook books will go toward future programming at the Libraries.

So what are you waiting for - send in your recipe today!