Scribbles & Munch

      Some may find the main topics of my blog to be somewhat random: food and writing? Unless I was composing a cookbook* why would these subjects regularly co-mingle? I could answer that I rarely sit down to work on a story without a snack at hand. I could also answer that while engaging in the less cerebral aspects of cooking (risotto takes so much stirring!) my mind is often engaged in working out plot points. Both would be true. But for me, the primary conjoining factor is how easily and elegantly a simple mention of food can enhance a scene or a character.
     Need an example of character development? Consider Sherlock Holmes: when the famous fictional detective (yes, sorry to break it to you Baker Street fans, he was/is fictional) was engaged in a particularly trying puzzle, he would refuse to eat, claiming he needed all the blood in his brain rather than his digestive track (reference: "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" 1903--among others). Everyone knows what it's like to be hungry; most of us find the sensation quite distracting. So with this small, simple detail, Conan Doyle was able to highlight his character's eccentricity, underscore his priorities, and set him apart from ordinary people in a manner so basic that literally any reader would instantly understand. That's the power of food - or absence thereof - in literature.
      Let me walk you through an example of scene development. Consider, if you will, two characters meeting for the first time in a friendly crowd. That's pretty vague could be anywhere, anything, right? Now if I tell you that expensive champagne being handed out to everyone in attendance, things begin to come into focus: with that one detail we know this crowd is a party, and not a casual one. Now I tell you the champagne is being served at one minute to midnight--what does that tell you? Exactly, our party is a New Year's Eve get together. And now I tell you the bubbly is being poured into those shallow champagne glasses instead of tall, slender flutes. This little detail shifts away from the contemporary, opens the door to a different era. If I throw in a casual comment from the host that he had to bribe the chief of police to smuggle in the beverage...odds are your imagination just revealed a Prohibition-era soirée.
    And all of that detail came from focusing around a beverage. I'm betting you already have a vision in your mind's eye, complete with outfits and laughter and music, none of which I've described.
     So why am I talking about food as literary enhancement? Because of this random article about 1950's popular American cuisine from The Columbus Dispatch. (Go on, give it a read--it's short and funny!) I was just browsing the headlines this morning and this one caught my eye. My reaction to the foods described herein was...um...strong. Strong and vivid! I wasn't even alive in the 1950's, but just reading about these three dishes were enough to create this detailed picture in my head of a kitchen, a housewife, cookbooks, appliances, and a pervasive mood of modern efficiency in everything, including food.** This article made me want to write! A vignette at least--maybe a short story. Yes, this random article about how common eatables change with the times was enough to inspire me, and I promise you will get to read the results.

      IN THE MEANTIME...faithful reader, if you have gotten this far in this post, you must be interested in pie. So here's my dilemma: while I am by no means limited to baking one pie a month, it seems to be my modus operandi for the time being. Therefore, in this pinnacle of summer, I want to optimize my pie options. Currently I'm debating two things, neither of which I've tried before. One is a Plum Pie, like this one. Believe it or not, I've never made (and now that I think about it, I'm not sure I've ever tasted) a plum pie...maybe it's time to branch out. The second option is only a pie by marriage, so to speak, and that's Alton Brown's Caramelized Grape Pie. Sound unusual? That's because it is. But I trust AB with my kitchen (which is second only to trusting someone with my cat, and that's second only to trusting someone with my life), and this is on my list. Either way, the process will be documented and blogged upon.
      SO...comment below, and let me know: which pie should I make next?


*Which I'm not. Sorry. I write fiction, and fictional recipes run a very serious risk of inducing food poisoning.

**So many sad, sad packaged foods came out of this era....as far as I'm concerned, the only redeeming feature of SPAM is that it will probably save me from starvation when the Zombie Apocalypse hits.