A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen

By Molly Wizenberg, Published 2009



A few days ago I was leafing through my latest copy of Bon Appétit magazine when I came across a simple and delicious recipe for homemade granola. Arriving at the end of the article I noticed it was written by Molly Wizenberg, the writer of the lovely food blog Orangette. 


I discovered Orangette a few years ago and found Molly's writing style and her recipes to be totally unpretentious (she has no formal training) but delicious. So I was thrilled when she announced that she would be publishing a cookbook in 2009.


A Homemade Life reads like a memoir of Molly's life, with food playing a central role. The book is an enjoyable read all on its own, but Molly includes lots of recipes, some being very simple (red cabbage salad with lemon and black pepper), with a few more difficult ones thrown in for the more experienced chef (meatballs with pine nuts and golden raisins). I often find cookbooks to be rather daunting, but Molly comes across as a person who happens to just love food and the important role it plays in many people's lives. She even shares the recipe for her wedding cake which she made herself. 

"Only by interrogating the other passengers could I hope to see the light, but when I began to question them, the light, as Macbeth would have said, thickened."

Murder on the Orient Express 
By Agatha Christie

Last night I ended up watching the fantastic movie “Murder on the Orient Express”. I saw it for the first time as a child (I watched a lot of AMC as a kid) and forgot how many acting legends graced the screen: Lauren Bacall, Albert Finney, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, and Michael York. 

The movie also took me back to one of my first literary loves, Agatha Christie. Growing up I never tired of her succinct, clever books and would often return again and again to my favorites. I always considered her books like a cool drink of water, after reading a few novels that were only so-so, I knew I could pick up an Agatha Christie mystery and feel refreshed at the end of my reading journey. Her fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot will always be one of my all time favorite literary characters. Luckily the British stepped in and created a phenomenal television series out of the Poirot books with the actor David Suchet.

Hercule Poirot Mysteries

ABC Murders

The Clocks

Death on the Nile*

Evil Under the Sun*

The Mysterious Affair At Styles

Hallowe'en Party

Miss Marple Mysteries

4:50 From Paddington*

The Body in the Library

A Pocket Full of Rye

And Then There Were None* More commonly known as Ten Little Indians this remains one of her best loved mysteries, and one of my all-time favorite books. Ten strangers are invited to Indian Island by a mysterious host and are then accused of murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to die one by one.

Death Comes as the End* Completely different from most of Christie's books, this story takes place in ancient Egypt.

The Mysterious Mr. Quin

Ordeal by Innocence

Three Blind Mice Friends trapped by a snowstorm in an isolated estate with a homicidal maniac on the loose. This book was the basis for The Mousetrap, the longest running play in history.