Episode 8 - Show notes, recipes and books
The episode where we think about showing care in small ways; how finger food, grazing platters and shared reading recommendations create connection and celebrate togetherness.
Welcome back! It’s been a longer than expected break between episodes but we’re back and we have A LOT to talk about. Mostly, of course, to do with food, food in books and caring for each other through food.
Our book this episode is the extraordinary Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. And we answer a letter about how to “gracefully navigate” a new and challenging chapter of life with a book and a few recipes.
We hope you enjoy this episode. Click here to listen.
Links and show notes
First, to add something different, we received an email from another listener who wanted to offer a reading recommendation to the previous episode’s letter writer. It’s wonderful to have others enter the conversation and share books that have been meaningful to them. It’s a reminder about how connecting books are and how they can be offered as small gifts of hope. We are sharing this with everyone who may also want to reach for this author when needing a refresh.
“I have another book recommendation for your letter writer. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. I find his writing to be extremely heartwarming and uplifting and a great way to see the positive in the world. There’s a similar feeling when watching Ted Lasso. It’s very hard not to walk away without a bit of a glow and feeling of happiness. I had the same experience when reading Amor Towles’ earlier book, A Gentleman in Moscow. It has stuck with me for years.”
This episode’s book - Leave the World Behind
Sophie and Germaine talked about “gaps” authors purposely leave and what “monster under the bed” they filled their gap with. Rumaan explains more in this BBC Books & Authors interview where they also discuss Alfred Hitchcock and the problems he thought writers had with suspense.
This great New Yorker interview describes the book as a “disaster novel without the disaster”.
This interview looks at the existential questions Rumaan explores.
If interested in reading more by Rumaan, That Kind of Mother also quietly explores similar themes. For something with less unease, Audible has released a short story Rumaan was commissioned to write titled There are Flowers in Ohio. It’s about a family going through a transition and thinking about the roads not taken. It’s also free to download!
A few more things we mentioned;
Listener letter
Dear Sophie and Germaine,
Thank you so much for your delightful and original podcast! I eagerly anticipate every episode and always come away with a new insight on life and a delicious recipe to try.
I am writing to you because I would love your recommendations on something to eat and something to read that relates to my mum in this season of her life.
In March 2020, as Australia locked down against COVID for the first time, my mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I recall her phoning me with the news. "They suspect it's Parkinson's...," she said in a small voice. She had recently seen a neurologist, and while I anticipated a diagnosis of sorts, Parkinson's was not on my radar. The news arrived as we were going into lockdown, which meant we couldn't even go to her house and give her a hug. It was weeks before we could physically be with her, adding to what was already challenging news for all in our family to process.
Fast forward two years, and Mum is living with Parkinson's. She is a poster girl for optimism and positive thinking, religiously doing her exercises every day, eating well and doing everything she can to stave off going on medication.
However, Parkinson's is neuro-degenerative, and I have watched her go from being the 'hostess with the mostest,' organising countless dinner parties, regularly entertaining and cooking up a storm, to quietly struggling with her utensils, not having the upper body strength or manual dexterity to slice through meat or steamed vegetables, stir stiff cookie doughs, stuff turkeys or pull the skin off the Christmas ham without help. There are no more dinner parties at Mum and Dad's. Dad has taken on the lion's share of the cooking, while Mum has taken on more of an advisory role. She can still make a cracking apple pie or pudding, though, it just takes a bit longer and a little bit of help. :-)
We now regularly have Mum and Dad over for dinner. I've noticed the meals that give her the most joy are those that require only her hands to eat, or at most, a spoon. Burger nights are popular, but there are only so many of those you can host, and given her sensitivity to spicy foods or rich tomato dishes and my father's aversion to seafood and salad (aka rabbit food), I am running out of ideas for nourishing meals that are easy for her to eat but still offer a sense of occasion.
So Sophie, I guess I was wondering if you possibly have some meal suggestions that I can add to my repertoire, and Germaine, a book recommendation that can help me gracefully navigate this new chapter and the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead?
Yours in gratitude,
A Grateful Listener
PS: Germaine and Sophie, please don't interpret this as a pity party. I share this with you as an opportunity to identify ways of nourishing those in our community who deserve 'special,' but often get dished up 'convenient,' as carers and family members get emotionally and physically overwhelmed with everything they have to do (and be). As we all know, creativity often takes a backseat when we've got too much on our plates.
While this life chapter is not one I willingly welcomed, it has served up some of the most joyful and poignant moments I have ever had with my mum. Life has a funny way of forcing you to see the miracle of the human spirit in ways you never dreamed possible. Thank you again for the opportunity to regularly share in the beauty and wonder of the human spirit through your beautiful podcast. A true gift to the community.
Germaine’s book prescription
I know the title The End of Your Life Bookclub doesn’t sound uplifting, and I resisted reading it for quite a while but when I did, I felt I gained so much.
Our letter writer says “While this life chapter is not one I willingly welcomed, it has served up some of the most joyful and poignant moments I have ever had with my mum.” This is exactly the journey Will describes in his memoir. His mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he started accompanying her to chemo appointments. They would sit together for hours at a time and one day he asked her what she was reading and so began their bookclub. Talking about books together became a proxy for talking about the most meaningful things in their lives without having to talk about themselves.
They got to know each other in a different way and ask big questions through the books they shared. Will Schwalbe sees reading as a way of “knowing what to do in our lives”. His mother said that “reading isn’t the opposite of doing, it’s the opposite of dying.”
This is such a celebration of life and love between parent and child. I hope it echoes our writer’s experience and allows her to feel less alone as she continues this journey. It also provides a great book list as they read the classics, popular fiction, mystery, poetry, all of it and through each book we get to know each of them so well.
Will Schwalbe also wrote a book about his own use of bibliotherapy, titled Books for Living, also similar to my own book, Reading the Seasons, a book of letters between me and fellow bibliotherapist Sonya Tsakalakis about how books gave us meaning and helped us live too.
Will also had a podcast, But That’s Another Story, where he interviews people about books that have been meaningful or changed their lives.
Sophie’s recipe recommendations
I was so incredibly touched by this letter and the beautiful, generous and loving place it came from. Here below are my thoughts on some good things to cook for our writer’s dear Mum.
But first, just a note though to say that I would be so interested to hear from readers/listeners who have more experience planning and cooking special meals for family and friends with Parkinsons, so if anyone has recipes, ideas to share please do write back to us and we’ll put them in the next newsletter.
In the meantime, and for what they’re worth, here are my thoughts. The first thing that came to mind was just to keep everything small but special; small pies, small meatballs, small plates of good tasty things everyone can eat with their hands.
Mezze platters and plates seem like a good idea - mostly because when you make up a selection of good tasty things to pile into a piece of pita bread or similar, there’s an air of ‘party food’ in the air, or rather, a sense of occasion.
I think it would be great to make up a big platter with small, super flavorsome things everyone could dip into as they pleased;
meatballs (see recipe) with a pistachio tapenade (see recipe below) or perhaps a smoky eggplant babaganoush.
Maybe a pile of little triangles of phyllo pastry stuffed with feta and spinach, sprinkled with sesame seeds then baked till golden, tabbouleh, hummus and diced cherry tomatoes tossed with sumac, olive oil and nigella seeds with soft warm mini pita bread.
Mini hand pies; in my book In Good Company there’s a recipe for small herb hand pies, made with rough puff pastry, filled with a creme fraiche and herby, caramelised onion mixture. Easy to eat in one hand, fun to make in advance and really really tasty. Maybe with a few pickles on the side?
Soft, fancy finger sandwiches with chopped up chicken, pine nuts and celery for crunch. Or a really good egg sandwich cut up and served on pretty plates.
Here are a few mezze platter recipes from my book In Good Company, I’d also throw in some hummus, warm pita bread and perhaps some pitted olives and feta.
Merguez meatballs
Serves 4-6 as part of a mezze platter
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
These little flavour bombs are beautiful in a mezze platter such as this, but also for dinner when served with some pearl couscous, yoghurt, extra harissa sauce and a cucumber and tomato salsa sprinkled with sumac.
500 g lamb mince
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Tbsp harissa, or to taste
1 Tbsp tomato paste (concentrated purée)
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
Chopped parsley, for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Roll into balls, about the size of a shelled walnut, and place on the tray. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Serve warm or room temperature, sprinkled with parsley.
Pistachio and mint tapenade
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: Nil
Loaded with big, bright flavour and super versatile, a jar of this tapenade in the fridge is a very handy thing to have. I stir it through rice or couscous, spread it over salmon fillets before blasting in a hot oven for about 6 minutes or, as per this platter, use it as a dip for boiled eggs or veggies.
1/2 cup (80 g) almonds
1/2 cup (75 g) pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1 cup (150 g) unsalted pistachios
1 handful parsley, roughly chopped
1 handful mint, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil
Combine all the ingredients with a mortar and pestle until a coarse paste forms (or blitz in a food processor). Season to taste.
Slow-roasted tomatoes and eggplant
Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Halve 8 roma tomatoes and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 1 hour or until completely collapsed and intensely flavoured. Prepare and cook 4 slender eggplant (aubergine) in the same way, but reduce the cooking time to 40 minutes (increase the cooking time if using larger eggplant).
Write to us and we’ll send you wine!
If you would like a book and recipe recommendation to help navigate life’s twists and turns, please write to us. Each episode we choose a letter to read out (anonymously) and then prescribe something to eat and something to read that we think might help.
Thanks to Single Vineyards we have been able to gift a case of Highgate wine to each episode’s letter writer.
And it gets better! Single Vineyards have created a special offer for anyone (in Australia) who is subscribed to this newsletter. So, using the code STESTR20 you’ll receive a 20% discount on any wine purchase you make! So great hey!
Very handy for upcoming Christmas feasting and summertime reading! Click here to find out more about their wines on offer.
Email your letters to either Sophie at sophie_hansen@me.com or Germaine at newchaptersbibliotherapy@gmail.com
We would love to hear from you.
Thank you
Thank you so much to Smith and Jones for allowing us to use snippets of your beautiful music. Please head to their website to listen to the whole thing and more.
And thank you as always to our wonderful producer Kristy Reading for putting these episodes together so smoothly. We are in such good hands with you Kristy.
We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation and Wallumedegal people. These people are the Traditional Custodians of this land and form part of the wider Aboriginal nation known as the Eora Nation. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all First Nations people.
I've known about The End of Your Life Book Club for quite a while, but like you I haven't read it yet. I have listened to Will's podcast an I know the story. After reading what you wrote, I think it's time I read it. Thanks for the gentle nudge.