Second Breakfast

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My husband didn’t “get” this dish, but it was easy, tasty, and a great way to use up the remains of a good loaf of bread you might otherwise discard or turn into breadcrumbs. With a side of simple pasta, this is a great vegetarian main course.

Items

• 3 28oz cans whole tomatoes (I used Muir Glen fire-roasted organics, which are quite good)
• 8 or so 1/2″ thick slices good-quality crusty bread (e.g. sourdough)
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp reshly-ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp ground allspice
• 1/8 tsp ground clove
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup grated mozzarella
• 1/2 cup grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Drain tomatoes, reserving 1 cup of the juice.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Sautee the onions with 1/2 tsp salt 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
4. Add garlic, clove, and allspice and cook a minute or two more.
5. Add tomatoes with the reserved juice and the brown sugar and pepper, and simmer over medium heat about 20 minutes, until thickened somewhat.
6. Melt the butter in a small dish, and brush the bread on both sides with the butter.
7. Transfer the tomato mixture to a 9×13″ baking dish. Top with the bread so the entire casserole is covered with bread slices, overlapping a bit. Top with the mozzarella and Parmiggiano cheese.
8. Bake 20 minutes or so until the top is browned and bubbling vigorously.

Serves 6.

I was inspired to put this one on my wish list from the now-defunct “We, Like Sheep” and was happy to get it from my mother as part of our family “draw-names-so-that-we-don’t-all-have-to-buy each-other-crap-we-don’t-want-or-need -gift-exchange” (which continues to experience great resistance in my clan despite the obvious wisdom of the idea).

Its a curious and sometimes charming little philosophy book, but I can’t decide whether it is really any good, just a restatement of the obvious for Gen X or Y, or what. Regardless, I didn’t find it as satisfying as one might hope.

The purpose of the book is to identify and name one of the primary causes of unhappiness in our culture, our obsession with our perceived (or actual) status relative to others. Towards this end, Botton divides his book into two (obvious) parts: causes of unhappiness, and potential solutions. Following Botton’s lead (his prose tends to reveal what I suspect are his initial outline-format sketches at times):

Causes

1. Lovelessness
2. Expectation
3. Meritocracy
4. Snobbery
5. Dependence

Solutions

1. Philosophy
2. Art
3. Politics
4. Religion
5. Bohemia

The “Causes” section is a nice examination of the issue of status seen through the five lenses he supplies, and is kind of a cherry-picking trip through Western history of ideas in a mile-wide-and-an-inch-deep format (something obviously suitable for a public TV adaptation).  I was particularly struck by the Meritocracy section, which lays bare the fundamental flaws of American ideals of a merit-based economy (viz. in a society whose rewards are distributed based on merit, if one does not possess those rewards, one must not have merited them, or more simply put, the poor are poor because they deserve to be so).  Throughout the causes section he identifies the powerful meta narratives that subtly inform much of our thinking on these issues, and I was struck by how pernicious and invisible some of these assumptions can be.

The “Solutions” section essentially offers an alternative set of narratives to which one can subscribe to counter the pernicious effects of the “Problems” section.  What I find less satisfying is that Botton’s point seems to be 1) the counter-narratives are as arbitrary and “unreal” as those they are opposing, and 2) the comfort they provide are essentially coping strategies.  I suppose what seems unsatisfying to me here is that Botton doesn’t suggest ways to put the counter-narratives into practice, although obviously these are such expansive and important topics that such instruction would be vacuous in such a short work.  His “Religion” section is also exclusively focused on Christianity, and perhaps a broader view would provide some extra “heft” to his Solutions.

I suppose that’s my problem with this book — the Problems seem more substantial and powerful than the Solutions, at least as he has presented them.  Perhaps this is due to the situations in which I was reading this book (travel), and an uninterrupted reading might give me a different perspective.

Regardless, worth reading.

Of course, the larger question of such a book is how it applies to one’s own life.  I tend to avoid self-analysis here, but perhaps worth reflecting on in written form.

This meatloaf - rich with vegetables, savory spices, and fresh bread crumbs, and three kinds of meat - is a favorite in our house, and is taken from Julee Rosso’s “Silver Palate Cookbook” and is apparently a rather famous dish from the 72 Market St. restaurant in Venice, CA (a Google search for this recipe yields lots of hits).

It is a somewhat labor-intensive dish if you’re in a hurry, but if you have the time to make the loaf ahead of time (even a day ahead) and cook it when you’re ready, it is definitely worth the effort. Based on the reviews on other sites, I’m not alone in my estimation.

This recipe makes two medium-sized loaves. I like to eat one and freeze the other. The leftovers are fabulous.

Items

• 3 Tb unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup finely-chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped scallions, white bulb and three inches green (the bottom part)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red pepper
• 2-3 tsp minced garlic
• salt (to taste, at least 1 tsp)
• 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
• 3 eggs, well-beaten
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup cream or half-and-half
• 1 lb ground chuck, 1 lb ground veal, and 1 lb ground pork
• 1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs, toasted

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large sautée pan over medium heat, and cook the veggies and aromatics (everything up to and including the garlic) until most of the moisture is evaporated, around 10 minutes. The point here is to cook the veggies and get rid of their extra moisture.
2. Remove from the heat, place in a medium-size bowl, and stash in the freezer to cool down rapidly, at least 10 minutes. You can do this while you’re working on the rest of the dish. Maybe now is the time to make a gin and tonic?
3. In a large bowl (big enough to hold the meat and knead it), beat the eggs with the spices, cream, and ketchup until well-combined.
4. Place the meat on top, along with the bread crumbs and cooled veggies. With your hands knead everything together, about five minutes. If at the end of the kneading the mixture seems a little loose, add some more bread crumbs. If desired, top with more ketchup, or ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
5. Divide and place into two 8-inch loaf pans. Set in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 375F. Place each of the loaf pans in a larger baking dish, and fill the larger baking dish with an inch or so of water. Place both on the middle rack of your oven.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, swapping and rotating the loaf pans about half way through baking to ensure even cooking. Rest for 15 minutes or so before slicing and serving.

Serves a bunch (10 good-sized slices per loaf, or 20 slices total)

Meatloaf Gravy:  By the way, the drippings (which were rather modest in volume based on the lean meat I bought) make a wonderful gravy.  Once the loaves have rested, remove them from their pans and pour the drippings in a saucepan with a cup or so of stock, broth, milk, or even water.  Bring to a boil, and add 1 cup of cold milk with 2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed in (just mix it in with a fork before adding to the hot liquid).  Turn the heat down to low and cook 5 minutes, whisking occasionally.  Delicious!

This is actually the first of Iain Banks’ novels set in the Culture, and according to the Wikipedia article, was heavily rewritten after its initial draft. After reading this for the second time, that makes sense, as there’s a great deal of continuity here with the ideas and devices of later Culture novels, and one has to imagine that this stuff didn’t spring from Banks’ subconscious in its final form. In many ways “Look to Windward” can be considered a loose sequel to this first novel.

This book is set during the Culture-Idiran war, and the event that drives the action of the book is that a nascent Mind, fleeing the destruction of its host ship, is marooned on Schar’s world, one of the so-called “Planets of the Dead”, access to which is heavily-restricted by the rather taciturn Dra’Azon, a “sublimed” species which has left behind guardians to keep unspoiled certain worlds whose inhabitants have completely annihilated themselves. The Idirans, who think all Culture AI is an abomination, task the mercenary Horza to retrieve the Mind in hopes of gaining a tactical advantage, and the Culture dispatch Special Circumstances agent Perosteck Balveda to stop him. This is a somewhat typical big space-opera war/chase/conflict kind of book, but it is a good introduction to the basic ideas of the Culture that Banks develops in later books.

The action starts somewhat slowly for the first third of the book (in retrospect maybe Banks is having the book play double-duty to the introduction of the larger Culture universe), but once the pieces are in place his plotting is tight and the conclusion is very satisfying. Horza is a great anti-hero, and through his eyes we are given a fairly objective assessment of the merits of the Idiran and Culture “sides” to the war. While the story takes place in the context of a larger conflict, the book focuses solely on the Schar’s World affair, and an explanation of the larger war and its outcome is relegated to short pair of appendices which contextualizes the conflict as a minor episode against the vast galactic milieu.

This is very smart sci-fi, and getting to know Banks’ books is very much worth the investment.