LUCY BURDETTE: I hope today's post is a good follow-up to yesterday's discussion about islands with distinct settings. Two years ago, my side of the family gathered on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a town called Grand Marais, which is on the edge of Lake Superior. What gorgeous country! I could almost imagine living there, although the cousins who do live there reported that they have difficult winters with many, many, many feet of snow. Hmmm, maybe not.
One morning a few of us went to a diner where my sister ordered blueberry buckwheat pancakes. My vegetable frittata was quite delicious, but her pancakes lodged firmly in my mind. I begged everyone to return to the West Bay Diner the next day before we took our plane home. This time, I ordered the pancakes. And we realized that Ellen Airgood, the owner/chef of this cute diner, is also an author!
We had a great time chatting with her and I later enjoyed reading the book I bought called South of Superior. This summer, Ellen's new novel TIN CAMP ROAD was published and it is one of my favorite reads of the year so far. She is a wizard with describing and using setting. Though her mother-daughter characters struggle through the upper peninsula winter in ways most of us will never have to, her descriptions of their love for the area almost make me want to try it. Almost...
Reds, can you think of a series or book where the writer's skill in describing setting makes you yearn to visit? Or even move to that location?
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| a favorite book and favorite hat |
You can imagine that once I got home I had to try making the blueberry buckwheat pancakes. Here was my attempt to emulate Ellen Airgood's Lake Superior Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes.
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (low-sodium is fine!)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 and ¾ cup milk, with 1 tablespoon cider vinegar stirred in
1 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup blueberries
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. In another bowl, beat together the milk, eggs, and melted butter. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to combine them. Stir in the berries.
Serve with a big dollop of whole milk yogurt and real maple syrup.
And here are a few more pictures of Lake Superior...
Oh, goodness, those pancakes sound delicious! Thanks for the recipe . . . .
ReplyDeleteSusan Beth Pfeffer’s “Life as We Knew It” [the first in a series of four] has such an amazing sense of place that it’s easy to imagine what it would be like to live there [but not a place I’d really like to be because the story is about surviving in a vastly changed world after a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth] . . . . Mark Zusak’s “The Book Thief” is another of those books with a wonderfully-described setting . . . .
That would be a no for me too Joan--I cannot read apocalyptic fiction!
DeleteDespite having lived in the Great Lakes Region/Ontario for most of my life, I have never visited the UP (Upper Peninsula). Grand Marais looks gorgeous in the pics but I agree the brutal cold snowy winters would deter me from living there. I would visit, though, for those yummy blueberry buckwheat pancakes.
ReplyDeleteSeveral authors I like depict vivid settings so well that I feel I am there/would love to visit.
NEVADA BARR comes to mind for setting her books in different National Parks in the USA. And AGNAR JONASSON's Iceland books come to mind. The scenes describing the dark, cold, isolated winters in northern Iceland made me feel claustrophobic and vividly there.
RAGNAR JONASSON! I wish my Grammerly app would work on the JRW blog to catch these typos.
DeleteYes I have loved Nevada Barr too. And also Ragnar Jonasson--did you read his newest, THE GIRL WHO DIED? It was set in northeastern Iceland and I cannot remember reading a bleaker setting. Not visiting there!!
DeleteYes, I read THE GIRL WHO DIED. A remote Icelandic village with only 10 people?! Yeah, I also would not go there...they would not welcome strangers, I'm sure.
DeleteRoberta, I'd have to say that I always want Hayley Snow to be my tour guide in Key West. She knows the best sites, the history and, most importantly, where to eat. Tell her I'll be staying for at least 2 weeks.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in knowing more about Ellen's 2 books. Are they stand alones?
Yes standalones, and not mystery. Maybe women's fiction would be the best category. You'll have to ask Hayley about the tour guiding LOL
DeleteJeffrey Siger's Chief Inspector Andres Kaldes series makes me yearn to visit the Greek Islands. I'd like to tour and hike around each little jewel, preferably without the crimes and murders. The scenic descriptions are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI must get my hands on some buckwheat flour! I love galettes, the buckwheat crepes made in Quebec and Brittany. And I always make whole wheat pancakes at home, so I know I'd like these.
ReplyDeleteI can think of all the Reds' settings, which are vivid and make me feel like I'm there, especially Key West, London, Miller's Kill, early 1900s New York, Jenn's romcom in Phoenix, Hank's Boston, and Hallie's southern creepy-doll book! Right now I'm at Lori Rader-Day's Greenway in Devon - also totally there.
Edith, I'm travelling to Montreal from Tuesday. Eating buckwheat crepes on a terrasse (patio) is on my list of things to do.
DeleteC'est parfait, Grace!
DeleteHow are you enjoying Greenway in Devon Edith?
DeleteI am loving Lori's book. I think "atmospheric" would be a good adjective. I'm starting to get worried about how it will end, though - I'm about two-thirds of the way through.
DeleteGrace, eating buckwheat crepes is a good idea but I’m not sure a terrasse is at this time of the year :)
DeleteI am loving Lori's book--very atmospheric! And she will be here on blog this next week!
DeleteDANIELLE: I going to prolong the outdoor dining season for as long as possible! But looking at upcoming weather forecast, it's not the temperature but the rainy weather that might force me to eat inside. I will also see if they accept the new Ontario vaccine passport QR code that was just launched last Friday with my ID.
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ReplyDeleteThe first place that comes to mind is Louise Penny’s Three Pines. Even if it is fictional, I always wished I could live there : a very nice setting, a bookstore, a bakery and a bistro where everyone can gather. What more could I ask ?
ReplyDeleteI love buckwheat and blueberries. I’m sure your recipe is delicious and will try it. Thank you for sharing it and UP with us.
Of course, Three Pines!
DeleteLouise Penney's description of Knowlton, Quebec where she lives makes me want to live there but in her novels her description of Three Pines sounds so lovely that I want to live there too.
DeleteLinda, Knowlton is effectively a charming village. I go there at least once a year and I always enjoy it.
DeleteBeautiful! The UP is in the news these days (Karen Dionne, Jim Jackson).
ReplyDeleteMartin Walker's evocative descriptions of the Dordogne region in SW France in his Inspector Bruno, Chief of Police books.
I have a Walker book on my teetering stack too Margaret!
DeleteI loved the Penny book set in Paris--the next is on my tbr pile. And we'll listen to the thriller with Clinton and Penny while driving south.
ReplyDeleteThose pancakes do look so yummy! I like to use wild blueberries in pancakes but I haven't found any in years! They are best for muffins, too. The blueberries I grow are a bit smaller than what are found in stores so I make them do.
ReplyDeleteThe first setting that truly made me want to live there were the Elisabeth Ogilvie books set on an island in Maine. I read them more than 50 years ago but the feeling is still there. And three Pines of course! But I think that is more a matter of the people there than the geography. Todd Borg's Tahoe books have certainly made me want to visit there, if not live there.
We've been talking about blueberry pancakes for the last couple days, since I bought two pounds of them at Trader Joe's the other day. Buckwheat would take that dish up a notch!
ReplyDeleteJudi, it's funny, but I was just thinking about the blueberry muffin mixes we used to get, which included cans of "Wild Maine blueberries", and they were very small.
Armchair traveling is almost as good as the real thing, given the skills of a good writer. I've even enjoyed Castle Rannoch, although I could easily imagine the bone-chill of the Scottish setting. Some places I've read about and then gone to seemed so familiar when I finally got there. One setting that I someday hope to visit is Amelia Peabody's Egypt.
I just read my (and her) first Amelia Peabody! Loved it.
DeleteAnd they get better, Edith!
DeleteEdith, what fun! I wish I could go back and read that again for the first time--laugh out loud scenes!
DeleteI don't know if a writer's description of a place in their books has ever made me want to move there but I will say I have had plenty of experiences reading books that made me want to eat at the restaurant that plays a large role in the series.
ReplyDeleteI mean who wouldn't want breakfast and lunch at Pans 'N Pancakes in Indiana? (Country Store Mysteries) or have one of those scrumptiously mouthwatering sounding roast beef sandwiches from The Lyme House in Minnesota (Jane Lawless series by Ellen Hart). Or have some brown bread in O'Sullivan's from Carlene O'Connor's Irish Village mystery series?
And if we want to talk an "out of this world" food/drinking experience, I'm booking my interstellar passage to Deep Space Nine to visit Quark's Bar where I can have some Romulan Ale and Klingon Bloodwine while playing Dom-Jot, Dabo and Tongo and visit a holosuite. I'll pass on the Klingon "delicacy" Gagh though.
You're funny Jay! I love reading (and writing) about food too, of course!
DeleteThanks, Jay! I just typed The End on book eleven in that series. ;^)
DeleteDaphne du Maurier - any of her books have made me want to visit the setting. I did go to Jamaica Inn when I was in Cornwall. Unfortunately, none of us can return to Manderly!
ReplyDeleteThe pancakes look fabulous. Buckwheat flour is grown and milled in my end of Maine. We use it to make ployes - thin, crepelike buckwheat pancakes spread with butter (or not depending on the meal), rolled up, and eaten with the fingers. They are a regular companion to chicken stew!
I meant to ask, any adjustments for frozen blueberries?
DeleteOh yum! Never heard of crepes with chicken stew.
DeleteI would think frozen blueberries might mean cooking a tiny bit longer...
Frozen blueberries thaw in minutes if placed in a bowl of water, then drained.
DeletePerfect, I'll thaw first to blot the excess water. Perfect, thank you both!
DeleteLove blueberry pancakes, so these sound like a winner already.
ReplyDeleteDeborah's and the Todds' British settings make me feel like I'm there--would love to just meander through the countryside and through London. Hillerman's books always transport me back to the Southwest. William Kent Krueger's Boundary Waters setting, Susan Wittig Albert's central Texas hill country, Louise Penny's Three Pines and Quebec City (in Bury Your Dead), so many places through books!
Such good suggestions Flora!
DeleteQuestion, if I actually have buttermilk could I use it instead of creating it with the vinegar?
ReplyDeleteLocation, description, yes, I want to visit but I'm not sure about moving there. So many locations of authors I've thought of have already been mentioned here - Nevada Barr almost instantaneously came to mind. Years ago I read a book by Barbara Delinsky, The Summer I Dared, set on an island off Maine's coast. Whether Big Sawyer island is real or not, it's a place I really wanted to visit for years.
Use the buttermilk if you have it. I usually don't so I use that technique--it's uses less sodium too. And you can make just the amount you need so it doesn't go bad.
DeleteI do love pancakes, and those sound delicious. Talking about places brought to life in fiction, my first encounter with that was the garden in THE SECRET GARDEN. AND L. Frank Baum's Kansas in the opening pages of THE WIZARD OF OZ
ReplyDelete--
When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.
And the icebergs in SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW.
DeleteHallie, I reread The Secret Garden the first summer of the pandemic. I felt absolutely transported by the descriptions.
DeleteI love buttermilk but I can never go through a quart of the stuff. But I do always wonder whether adding vinegar gives quite the same result.
ReplyDeleteWe use powdered buttermilk. It keeps in the fridge for a long time.
DeleteVinegar in milk actually makes sour milk, not buttermilk, but the chemical reaction is almost the same.
I love buttermilk on cereal, Hallie. Or just a glass of it!
DeleteI love buttermilk and will try to plan ahead for recipes. I've never tried the milk and vinegar method. Your buckwheat pancakes sound wonderful, Lucy! I will have to hunt up some buckwheat flour.
ReplyDeleteI binged on Martin Walker's entire Bruno series last summer. I so wanted to go and live in Bruno's cottage in the Dordogne. And eat all the food!!!
Oh, I want those buckwheat blueberry cakes NOW! As for buttermilk, I have a couple of other recipes that use it, so I bake those when I have it and freeze them (such as biscuits).
ReplyDeleteSince of place authors who come to mind are Tony Hillerman, Louise Penny and William Kent Krueger. Also Raymond Chandler, Bill Crider and Julia Spencer-Fleming.
I love books in which I become immersed in the location, and I think I would be in my chosen place when it comes to living in the beautiful landscape of trees/forests and lakes and wood smoke coming out of the chimney of my cabin. But, then I realize how I also enjoy a grocery store being just a few minutes from my house. My husband and I have started talking about maybe trying to find a more rugged place to own where we could visit whenever we wanted. Ellen, your settings sound so wonderful, more than just beautiful scenery, as they seem to also be places where a person is forced to come to terms with herself/himself, to see what they're made of.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to look any further than here at the Jungle Reds to find authors who write books in which their descriptions of setting make me dream of going there or living there. Julia's Adirondack setting and Debs' many London settings are worlds apart in terrain and atmosphere, but I have longings to land in both. Of course, Lucy's books are a delightful visit, or rather a re-visist to one of my favorite places, Key West. Peter Mays' the Lewis Trilogy books gave me a hankering for the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Louise Penny's Three Pines is as idyllic a setting as I've read. I recently read Peter Heller's latest book The Guide, set in the mountains of Colorado, with a pristine river for fishing, and that was lovely.
My silly phone is not letting me post from it! Grr. ANYWAY. I just read Jonathan Santlofer's THE LAST MONA LISA and the settings in Florence and Paris are swoony. Susanna Kearsley does an amazing job with 16-1700s Scotland in THE VANISHED DAYS. And always always Jess Montgomery and Sarah Stewart Taylor!
ReplyDeleteYes, with those last two!
DeleteI really need those pancakes. And I do love a book that describes settings so beautifully. I am definitely going to look for this one.
ReplyDeleteElisabeth Ogilvie's TIDE novels are deeply evocative of the Maine coast and life on a remote island (the first Bennett Island books are set in the 1940s but they actually describe life on Criehaven in the 1920s/30s). When I was a young woman, Elisabeth Ogilvie's books made me want to move to Maine. Then I fell in love with a mountain man.
ReplyDeleteJulia Spencer-Fleming is equally good with the foothills of the Adirondacks. I live ninety minutes north, in the High Peaks, an area with many differences, but I always read her books with the joy of recognition. She has a great eye for detail and I can completely believe that the town of Millers Kill is humming away down by Fort Edward.
Speaking as someone who has made quite a bit of butter, cultured buttermilk that one buys in a store is quite different from real buttermilk used in old recipes. Real buttermilk is thin, almost translucent, because the milk solids have been stripped out of it. In the past it would have been sour because cream was collected for a week or more, without refrigeration, before churning -- butter itself had a bite to it. I have used both powdered buttermilk and vinegar-soured milk in baking. The latter is great in whole wheat bread. I might use powdered in pancakes, where it's meant to be more of a presence.