Puttering in the Study

Today's Accomplishment - Greek Salad

One of my favorite things about Greece is - Greek salad.  While I can get a partial fix over here with feta cheese, I paid close attention last month to the salads we had, and decided I could probably reproduce one here.  I picked up some Greek salad seasong at a little shop in the Plaka in Athens (dried oregano, basil, thyme & parsley)and used a recipe from the Greek cookbook we picked up on our first trip thirteen years ago.  That and a trip to Walmart (where the tomatoes on the vine were incredible, luckily) resulted in the salad shown, with a glass of Cakebread Rubaiyat (my favorite Cakebread wine, by the way). 

The results were pretty good - I did not have capers (forgot to get some) but I noted while in Athens that I really didn't actually taste the capers, so that wasn't a major problem.  The bigger problems were (1) I cut the tomatoes too big - which I can fix next time; and (2) I didn't season the salad enough - it definitely needed more salt. 

For the above salad (plus a slightly smaller one for Grayson), take a couple of tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces, peel and slice half a cucumber, and slice half a green pepper and red opinion.  Add a few black olives (and capers) salt and a little pepper, and toss lightly.  Sprinkle with Greek salad seasoning, add a generous slice of feta, and dress with olive oil and red wine vinegar, and presto! memories of the Plaka.

Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief - James M. McPherson

I also recently finished listening to this book on Lincoln's wartime military leadership during the trip (maybe just after I got back - can't remember for sure).

I enjoyed it - and gained a new appreciation for Phil Sheridan and the Battle of Cedar Creek, which arguably saved the 1864 presidential election for Lincoln and the war for the Union, as well as Lincoln's personal leadership in retaking Norfolk in 1862 when the opportunity presented itself, but I found it to be a little limiting.  It did make clear that Lincoln's military leadership sometimes had to take into account the political necessities of his office as well, but all the same it didn't quite get across the towering achievement that his successful prosecution of the war was in the way that, for example, Goodwin's Team of Rivals does.  But I did appreciate the extra detail into Lincoln's military strategy.  There is a wealth of information here - the more I read the more I see why so many historians are interested in the Civil War.

Blood Games - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

The Count St. Germain book is set in imperial Rome during and after the reign of Nero.  I thought this would be an interesting book to read since it tells the origin of St. Germain's sometime companions Atta Olivia Clemens and Roger (here Rogerius), and the historical setting should be of interest. 

I did enjoy the book, but I have to confess that it suffered from the usual Yarbro problem that the story arc is identical to every other book: Saint Germain is a wonderful person and citizen but his activities protecting abused members of society eventually cause him to come under suspicion and he's accused and sentenced to some sort of death, which he miraculously survives, followed by a hasty retreat to another locale.  The difference between this book and others is that the climax really is a great scene with the count fighting in the Circus Maximus for his life and emerging trimphant.  It's worth the buildup, even if it's improbable given what Yarbro has told us about the effect of sunlight and water on her vampires.  It is markedly better that the ending of the last one I read, A Flame in Byzantium, where Olivia simply gets tossed into the Bosporus in a sack, and someone picks her up.

One of the better ones in the series, I would say.

Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy - John Julius Norwich

This was the first of two books I read on the Kindle during our trip, and I really enjoyed it.  As other reviewers have noted, Norwich doesn't pretend to address theological issue in this book, so the most you get about any particular pope is that they were or were not devout, but for what it is - a secular history of the institution, it is really quite good.  His description of Pius XII is a damning one, focusing as it does on the latter's failure to publicly oppose Hitler's campaign to exterminate the Jews during World War II, but he points out things I had not known.  In particular, I wasn't aware that German troops actually rounded up Jews in Rome during the War, and Pius said nothing.  Norwich also points up the apparent difference between John Paul I and John Paul II, with the former showing indications of being the more liberal pontiff Paul VI wasn't quite, and the latter being extraordinarily conservative. 

All is all, a very entertaining book. 

First Day of School

They are just not little any more - they really aren't even cute any more either!  Here are Grayson, Collin & Parker, fresh from back-to-school haircuts ready for their first day in the seventh and third grades respectively.