Just by chance I happened across a single copy of “How to Read Novels Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster at our local mall bookstore.

Finding the one and only copy on the bookshelves without even looking for it was an act of fate, a meeting with destiny. This is a book whose ideas are there to alternately relish and devour. I like to think the book found me.

Foster’s premise is that he had said the same things over and over during class lectures (he is a professor at the University of Michigan), things that had produced epiphanies in his students’ thinking, so much so that he decided to write these eureka-producing lectures in book form. What we get from “How to Read Novels Like a Professor” is an entertaining college lecture from a professor who knows how to keep his audience’s attention and make the analysis relevant to his students, i.e. us, the readers.

The book was immediately relevant to my purposes by page 14 where, in discussing the interiority of modernist fiction, Foster quotes a passage by Proust ostensibly about food, but one which gives new meaning to a mere petit madeleine dipped in tea. Proust’s mental rumination of past madeleines he has eaten leads him to the modernist technique of getting inside his character’s head, in this case, his own head, without much action driving the plot.

Discussion of all the great writers’ techniques are doled out to us in similar sketches and vignettes, each relevant to our world as readers and prompting us to ask questions. What does a novel demand of a reader? What does the reader contribute to the book? How does the reader create place out of the author's bare geographical description? Are we hip enough to read certain novels? Should Faulkner have used a 60-page long sentence fragment?

Perhaps the most interesting point interwoven throughout the work is that each piece, whether prose or poetry, is connected to another piece somewhere, someplace. Since the novel's inception with Cervantes in 1605, very few truly seminal works have existed. For example, out of Don Quixote we get other literary characters from the sublime (Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” is based explicitly on Cervantes' novel) to the silly (Yogi Bear and his pal Boo Boo). Only the experimentation with form changes, leading now to the question, is the novel dead? After reading Foster’s magnificently entertaining work, I can only say that I certainly hope not.

For a small sum of $13.95, we can have a high priced college lecture. Now, if someone would only write “How to Read Cookbooks Like a Professional,” we would be in culinary business. A quick web search did lead me to a list of cookbooks recommended by reputable chefs. Among them on the American list were classics by James Beard and Craig Claiborne, two of my favorites. Here are some simple winter dishes from two of the great American food writers. Hoping your novels and food are delightful in 2009.

HEARTY BEEF SALAD

Beard says he encountered this salad as a first course in France, but often serves it as a supper dish. Great way to use leftover roast beef from your holiday buffets.

2 cups new potatoes, boiled and sliced
1 cup green onions, finely sliced
2 cups celery, coarsely chopped
3 cups lean beef pot roast, cut in 1 inch squares
12 miniature gherkins
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup capers
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 cup roasted and peeled red and green pepper strips
1 bag salad greens

On a deep platter or in a large bowl, place lettuce greens and top attractively with other

ingredients.

Make dressing; pour over salad and garnish with remaining boiled egg whites.

DRESSING

6 hard-boiled eggs
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Dash of Tabasco®

Shell boiled eggs; take out yolks and reserve whites.
Mash yolks with a fork, work in mustard.
In another small bowl, mash the garlic with the salt; combine with mustard.
Drizzle in oil, mixing, and add in vinegar, pepper, and Tabasco®.

Serve with garlic toast or other hearty bread.


VARIATION ON A BUN

Beard acknowledges the hamburger as the all-American favorite, but provides different takes on the traditional burger. This one is Italianate.

2 pounds ground sirloin
Salt, pepper
1 tablespoon each oil and butter
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 wheat buns

Mix beef, salt, and pepper to taste.
Add in pine nuts and garlic, mixing well.

Form into patties and sauté over fairly high heat about four minutes per side; reduce heat and continue cooking until done, about four more minutes per side for medium.

Beard suggested serving them on roasted eggplant with tomatoes.


CALIFORNIA CASSEROLE

Craig Claiborne’s ground round steak recipe serves eight and is easy to make on a work night, reminiscent of your momma's house. Delicious.

1 pound ground round
1 tablespoon peanut oil (or olive oil)
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Salt and pepper
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
Tabasco® to taste
1 16-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes
1 16-ounce can kidney beans
3/4 cup rice
1/4 cup chopped green olives
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350°.
Cook meat in oil until it loses its color.

Add garlic, salt, pepper, onion, green pepper and chili powder.
Cook for approximately five minutes.
Add Worcestershire, Tabasco®, beans, tomatoes, and rice.

Turn out into a buttered 2 quart casserole.
Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.
Sprinkle with olives and cheese and bake until cheese is melted, about 15 minutes more.


SOUR CREAM LIME PIE

Claiborne credits Gourmet Magazine receptionist Ann Seranne as the master of this pie. If you like lime pie, this is over the top.

9 inch pie shell
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon grated lime rind
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup light cream
2 cups sour cream, divided
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar

Bake pie shell according to directions and cool.
Combine sugar, cornstarch, butter, grated rind, lime juice, and cream in saucepan.
Bring to a boil slowly, stirring constantly.
Cook until thickened and smooth.

Remove from heat and cool.
Fold in sour cream.
Pour mixture into pie shell.

Make sour cream topping by whipping the heavy cream; fold in sugar.
Fold in sour cream.

Spread topping over pie and garnish with more grated lime rind, if desired.

I had to refrigerate my pie to get it to set up adequately, but it was still very good.