I crushed my grandmother's medicines, which she had been otherwise unable to take, and stirred them into the rommegrod. Then I coaxed her to eat a bite, and another bite, and another. She managed about half a bowl.
By the next morning, when my aunts and uncles arrived — with my uncle Lowell weeping and saying, “Goodbye, little Mother!” — my grandmother was sitting up in bed.
“Why, hello,” she greeted everyone. “So nice to see you here!”
Luverne lived to be ninety-eight years old. Thanks, rommegrod!
Note: This pudding can be reheated beautifully. My mom has it for breakfast for several days after Christmas!
1 quart heavy cream
¾ cup flour
1 quart whole milk
Cinnamon, for sprinkling
Sugar, for sprinkling
1 In a large saucepan, bring cream to a boil over medium heat, stirring continuously. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring all the while.
2 Add flour and stir. (It's okay if the flour clumps up.) When mixture becomes a soft ball and the liquid has separated in the bottom of the pan (this will take about 30 seconds), remove from heat. Transfer mixture to a strainer and allow liquid to drain off. Reserve liquid, and return solids to the saucepan.
3 In a separate medium saucepan, bring milk to a boil over medium heat. Add milk to cream solids, and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer until thick and velvety, stirring until arms are indeed about to fall off, 15–20 minutes. Use hand-held electric mixer set on low, if possible (but it's okay if you don't have one; the old Norwegian ladies didn't either).
4 Serve either hot or cold. Top with cinnamon and sugar, and drizzle with some of the reserved liquid. Refrigerate any leftovers.
ADELINE ELLINGSON'S NORWEGIAN HAM BALLS
Makes 6½ dozen large meatballs
This is a traditional Christmas Eve recipe from the Norwegian side of my family — specifically from my grandmother's best friend. The Hallingdahl twins in The Stormchasers would eat these sweet, sinful meatballs as an entrée with their holiday rommegrod on the side.
Note: Any kind of ham will work, as long as it's precooked. I like smoked ham myself, but even a canned ham will do.
FOR THE MEATBALLS
1 pound ground ham (use a food processor to grind fairly fine) (see note)
1½ pounds ground pork
2 cups plain dry bread crumbs
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup whole milk
FOR THE SAUCE
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons prepared nongrainy mustard of your choice (such as plain yellow or nongrainy Dijon)
1 cup water
1 Preheat oven to 325°F.
2 To make the meatballs: Place all ingredients in a large bowl, and knead with hands until completely combined. Shape into meatballs between the size of a walnut and a ping pong ball. Place in one 9″ × 13″ × 2″ baking dish, and one larger pan, such as a shallow roasting pan or jelly roll pan, leaving a little space between meatballs.
3 To make the sauce: Place all ingredients in a small bowl. Stir mixture together until sugar is dissolved. Pour over meatballs.
4 Bake 1½ hours. Remove pans from oven and turn meatballs to coat them with the candied sauce. Meatballs will keep a week in the fridge, longer in the freezer. To reheat meatballs, cover with aluminum foil and place in preheated 300°F oven for 15 minutes. Check a meatball to see if interior is warm. If not, continue heating for another few minutes.
ADELINE ELLINGSON'S POTATO SALAD
Makes 6–8 servings
This is a family recipe provided by my grandmother Luverne's best friend, Adeline. The two ladies were inseparable lifelong friends, so this salad is a staple at family picnics and signifies summer to me. Potato salad appears in The Stormchasers as a favorite food of the twins. I will probably be taken out by a Norwegian hit man for confessing this, but the secret is in the sugar.
Note: The flavors of this salad intensify after 24 hours, so it's best when made a day or two ahead of time.
FOR THE SALAD
3 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
3 teaspoons salt, divided
¾ cup mayonnaise (Hellman's or Miracle Whip)
1 tablespoon prepared plain yellow mustard
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ teaspoon pepper
Dash Worcestershire sauce
3 large hard-cooked eggs, diced small
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
FOR THE GARNISH
3 large hard-cooked eggs, sliced into rings
Dried parsley flakes, for sprinkling
Paprika, for sprinkling
1 Place potatoes in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to boil over high heat. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, reduce heat to medium, and boil gently for 4–5 minutes, or until potato cubes are just tender. (Check cubes often while cooking by fishing one out and tasting it. As soon as they're tender enough to bite through easily, drain them. The potatoes will continue cooking a bit after being drained, so it's better to err on the side of too firm than risk mushy potatoes.) Drain potatoes, and pour into a large bowl.
2 Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, remaining teaspoon of salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce in a separate bowl. Pour on the warm potatoes, and combine gently with a wooden spoon. Add the diced eggs and onion, and stir to combine. Chill.
3 When ready to serve, arrange the egg rings on top of the salad, and sprinkle with parsley and paprika.
Ethan Canin
Fred Gerr
SELECTED WOEKS
America, America (2008)
Carry Me Across the Water (2001)
For Kings and Planets (1998)
The Palace Thief (1993)
Blue River (1991)
Inspiration Two things inspire me as a writer. The first is reading. Not just any book, but a book that makes me read it, and only one in ten books makes me read it. The second is the great fear of not being productive as a human being. I like to make things, work in the garden, cut firewood, or build furniture. The fear of not producing something is a fear of life passing by. I should add that it feels very good to be devoted to something, as well. When you're writing a book, you are utterly devoted to it.
Like many writers and artists, I go from ecstasies to despondencies, and the trick to making a career of writing is to make more shallow the depths of the despondencies and, in some ways, to level out the heights of the ecstasies.
Readers Should Know I spent a number of years trying to figure out what I find inspiring. I've traveled, lived in the jungle, hitchhiked, put myself in dangerous situations, gambled. But after all that, I've discovered that I write best sitting in my office looking out over a familiar view: a shed in my backyard and some chickens plucking at the grass.
Readers Frequently Ask Who is the guy at the beginning of America, America at the funeral with the cane?
That question has a very specific answer: a character who is identifiable later by that same cane.
People always ask, too, whether America, America is based on Ted Kennedy. The plot of the novel obviously derives from certain incidents in Kennedy's life, but the character of the senator was more deeply inspired by Lyndon Johnson, by his public idealism set against his personal ruthlessness.
People wonder what impact teaching has on my writing. I'm lucky because I teach at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and I have fabulous students. Their writing moves and goads and inspires me. To teach good students is a deep delight.
People also ask about my being a doctor and wonder whether I'm ever going to write a medical novel. My strong belief is that if you don't invent everything, you can't invent anything. A novel about medicine would be the last book I'd write.
Influences on My Writing I can't remember the details of all the books I've loved and been inspired by, only the emotion I had when reading them. I love funny books bu
t I remember sad ones.
The Stories of John Cheever. This is the book that first made me want to be a writer.
The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies. The scope of imagination, both outward and inward, stuns me. One novel in the trilogy, for example, is about the life of circus performers, while another is the transcript of a Jungian analysis.
Open Secrets, by Alice Munro. This book really expanded my idea of the short story.
Tell Me A Riddle, by Tillie Olsen. This is not an ornate book, but it certainly is a searing one. As I've grown older as a writer, I've become more interested in content than style. I've come to believe, in fact, that a writer must choose between psychological realism and poetic prose. In my opinion, the two simply cannot fully coexist, for either writer or reader.
ANNA SIFTER'S STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE
Makes 1 (9-inch) pie; 8 servings
An original 1960s recipe from Kathy's Pies of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a family bakery. The strawberry rhubarb pie remains a bestseller.
The scene that got me started on my most recent novel, America, America, is the one that features a strawberry rhubarb pie. Though it did not end up being the first scene in the book, it was the first one I wrote, long before there was a presidential candidate, a love affair, or even a fully formed family story in my mind. Though one is unconscious of this kind of thing when writing, I realize now that the humble, old-fashioned gesture of baking a pie seemed to emphasize the differences between, on the one hand, working-class Corey Sifter and his diligent mother Anna (who actually baked the pie) and, on the other, the wealthy girl who invites Corey sailing. I also must have thought that the combination of something beautiful and luscious — the strawberry — and something lowly, sour, and common — the rhubarb — would work well in a novel that in many other ways juxtaposes opposites.
I myself am a berry lover, blueberries and strawberries especially, so much so that my wife believes I must have been a brown bear in another life. The recipe here is from a long-held family business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is about a half hour from where I live, in Iowa City. To my delight, people in Iowa still give home-baked pies as gifts, so this recipe is also a suitable representative of my adopted home state.
FOR THE FILLING
1 pound rhubarb (fresh or frozen), cut into ½-inch pieces
1 cup sugar
3 cups hulled and sliced strawberries
Dash of salt
5 tablespoons cornstarch
FOR THE CRUST
2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for sprinkling the board
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus additional for sprinkling on the crust
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup cold vegetable shortening
6–8 tablespoons ice water
Milk, for brushing on dough
1 To make the filling: Place rhubarb in a medium bowl, add sugar, and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap. If using fresh rhubarb, refrigerate for 2–3 hours. If using frozen rhubarb, refrigerate overnight.
2 To make the crust: In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, butter, and shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water all at once, and pulse again until dough just begins to come together, but doesn't form a ball.
3 Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, and knead gently until it comes together. Press the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, one slightly smaller than the other. Flatten into disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
4 Strain rhubarb in a colander and reserve juice (you should have approximately 1 cup of juice).
5 Place ½ cup rhubarb juice into a large stockpot. Add strawberries and salt, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix cornstarch into remaining juice and add to boiling mixture. As soon as the juice has thickened and becomes clear, turn off the heat and add the rhubarb. Remove from heat and cool cooked fruit completely.
6 Preheat oven to 350°F. Allow each dough disk to sit at room temperature for approximately 10 minutes.
7 Place bigger ball of dough on a lightly floured surface (you will need a surface at least 15 inches square). With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll from the center outward into a circle roughly 14 inches in diameter. Carefully fold in half, then again to form a triangle. Place in an ungreased 9″ pie plate, positioning it so the point of the triangle is in the center of the pie plate. Gently unfold.
8 Trim edges to within 1½ inches of edge and pour cooled fruit mixture into shell. Roll remaining ball of dough into slightly smaller circle as described above. Lay the rolled pastry over the filling and then roll the edges inward, pressing lightly. Seal edges of dough with your thumb, indenting at regular intervals to form a single fluted edge. Lightly brush the center of pie (not edges) with milk and sprinkle generously with sugar. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut several vents in the center of the top.
9 Place a sheet pan on oven shelf below the pie to catch any dripping juices. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn pie around in oven and continue baking until top crust is golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for several hours until pie reaches room temperature or is just barely warm.
Kate Christensen
Giulia Fitzgerald
SELECTED WOEKS
The Astral (2011)
Trouble (2009)
The Great Man (2008)
The Epicure's Lament (2004)
Jeremy Thrane (2001)
In the Drink (1999)
Getting Started A character or situation comes into my head and begins to expand and take on weight and dimension and color. I become increasingly curious and interested, and eventually I have to write it down to see what happens.
Like Riding a Bike? Not Quite … Writing a novel does not become easier with each book. Each new book is like starting all over again.
Readers Frequently Ask “Where do your characters come from?” is a common question. My characters very often come from potential parts of myself that I haven't ever fully explored or realized, which isn't the same thing as writing about myself. It's as if, with each new book, I get to experience glimpses of other lives I might have had.
Books That Have Influenced My Writing Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. All three novels have unforgettable, complex, amazingly vivid protagonists who live on in the reader's imagination long after the closing of the books' covers. This to me is the hallmark of all the greatest novels and my highest aspiration.
MEXICO CITY TACO STAND CHICKEN TACOS
Makes 4–6 servings
Adapted from caloriecount.about.com
In Trouble, Josie, a Manhattan therapist whose marriage has just ended, goes down to Mexico City for a five-day vacation with her best friend, Raquel, a Los Angeles rock star who has become enmeshed in a sordid tabloid scandal. Josie and Raquel, who are in their mid-forties, both feel that their lives are at some kind of crisis point. They drink tequila and feast on tacos and allow themselves to get caught up in that strange and exotic city.
Note: Wear plastic or rubber gloves while handling the chiles to protect your skin from the oil in them. Avoid direct contact with your eyes, and wash your hands thoroughly after handling.
This is a moderately spicy dish. You can use just 1 jalapeño chile if you prefer a milder sauce.
FOR THE FILLING
3 pounds bone-in chicken breasts (3–4 breasts)
2 jalapeño chiles (see notes)
2 cups finely chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
18 corn tortillas
FOR THE GARNISH
Sliced avocado
Minced red onion
Chopped cilantro leaves
&
nbsp; Green and red salsas
Sour cream
Lime wedges
Pickled jalapeño chiles
Thinly sliced radishes
1 To make the filling: Place the chicken breasts in a large pot and cover with at least 1½ inches of water. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 30–40 minutes. Use a large metal spoon to occasionally skim the scum that rises to the surface. Remove chicken and reserve 1½ cups of chicken broth. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it into bite-size pieces, discarding the skin and bones. You should have about 5 cups of shredded chicken.
2 If you have a gas range, roast the chiles over an open flame until tender and blackened on all sides. If you have an electric range, place the chiles on a broiling tray covered with foil and broil, turning occasionally, until skin is blackened and blistered on all sides. Place chiles in a small bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove stems and peel off blackened skin.
3 Place reserved broth, chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, salt, and pepper in a blender and purée for 1–3 minutes (depending on the efficiency of your blender).
4 Place shredded chicken and puréed sauce in a skillet or saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.
5 Preheat oven to 300°F.
6 Warm the tortillas: Place tortillas on two baking sheets (they can overlap slightly). Spray both sides lightly with cooking spray. Bake until tortillas are soft and pliable, about 4 minutes.
7 To assemble the tacos: Place a few tablespoons of chicken mixture into a warm corn tortilla, and garnish with avocado, red onion, cilantro, green and red salsas, sour cream, lime wedges, pickled jalapeños, and radishes.
FRUIT FOR A LONG-DELAYED LOVE SCENE
Makes 4–6 servings
This recipe is for a dish mentioned in Chapter Ten of The Great Man. Teddy, the seventy-four-year-old former mistress of the “great man” (who has been dead for five years when the novel opens) cooks breakfast for her former boss, Lewis, who has been in love with her for many decades. She brings all the ingredients one hot summer morning in a basket from her house in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in North Brooklyn in New York City, to his apartment on the Upper East Side. She serves this fruit salad with a kielbasa omelet, the perfect combination to inspire the tender but spicy love scene that follows.
Table of Contents: From Breakfast With Anita Diamant to Dessert With James Patterson - a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings and Insights From Today's Bestselling Authors Page 3
