This is a murder mystery by Jodi Picoult set in an Amish community in Pennsylvania. The community is shaken when a dead baby is found in a barn, but what adds to the shock is that the evidence suggests that an 18 year old unmarried Amish woman, Katie Fisher, is the infants mother. Katie denies that the baby is even hers, let alone that she had anything to do with the murder. So in steps high-flying city attorney Ellie Hathaway who soon finds herself entangled in Amish culture when she ends up having to defend Katie n the courtroom.
I thought this book was ‘okay’. I would rate it similarly to Jodi Picoult’s novel My Sister’s Keeper which I read last year. And like with ‘My Sister’s Keeper’, I can’t really give a reason why I didn’t think this book was great. It was interesting to read about the Amish people, but on the whole I found the book a touch dull and the murdered baby theme unbelievable. The best bit of the book by a long way was the last page, not because it was the end, but because all became revealed with a clever (and for me, surprising) twist. I feel that the last page makes up for the rest of the book.
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As it was my birthday on Friday, we decided to go out for dinner. I booked a table for 8 o’clock at ‘Lister’s Restaurant’ at the Lister Mansion Hotel as I’ve been wanting to try it for a few months. We opted to take a taxi there so that we could both enjoy some wine with our meal.
When we arrived the gentleman who appeared initially to be the receptionist seemed also to be the waiter. He politely asked us to sit on the comfy sofas in the bar area while he fetched the menus. There were two other people sat in the bar area who seemed to have just finished a meal, but there didn’t appear to be anyone else in the adjacent dining area. We looked through the very extensive wine list, and after being very tempted by a Barolo we decided that with a price tag of £32 it was possibly a little too extravagant and instead opted for one of the cheaper wines, a easy-drinking French Merlot at £14. We also both selected a starter and a main course. The waiter brought over and poured the wine into some huge glasses and then took us over to our table in the corner by the window.
I can’t remember the titles of the dishes we had so I’ll have to just describe them. For starter I had a salmon terrine which came with salad leaves and a balsamic dressing. It was very nice but there was a lot of it, there were two slices of terrine, which I thought was a bit much for a starter (one slice would have been plenty). Nigel had charred beef and garlic sausage with a dark Oriental-style sauce and salad leaves. For main course I chose chicken breast which came in a spicy coating and was served with sweet potato mash, mangetout and cherry tomatoes. There was also an accompanying bowl of vegetables- baby potatoes, leeks and carrots. Nigel had rib-eye steak with chunky home-made chips, onion rings and salad. The food was very good and beautifully presented. While we were eating a party of 8 came in followed shortly after by a party of 4, it meant the noise level went up quite a bit, but at least we weren’t the only ones in the restaurant any more.
After eating we talked and relaxed for a bit, finishing the wine, then headed back to the comfy seating in the bar area and had some coffee. We were both too full to eat a dessert. At around 11pm we settled the bill and asked the waiter to order us a taxi.
The total bill (including wine) was £50. I really enjoyed the evening and the food. I would certainly like to go again and would recommend Lister’s Restaurant to anyone who enjoys good quality food when dining out.
I really can’t remember what on earth I used to cook before I started buying BBC ‘Good Food’ magazine. Now I’ve got a subscription so never miss an edition and each one provides just about all my inspiration for what Nigel and I eat during that month. What I particularly like about ‘Good Food’ is that it always has a great range of recipes that are quick and simple for cooking on week nights, but then also some more complicated recipes that I can get stuck into at the weekend.
‘Good Food’ magazine has recently launched a website which also has loads of the recipes featured in the magazine (but not the one that’s currently on sale). I tend to go to the website if it’s the end of the month and I’ve exhausted the current magazine and waiting for next months to come through the letterbox. Some nice recipes I’ve recently cooked include ‘Roast Duck Legs with Red Wine Sauce’ and ‘Lamb with Lemon and Dill’.
I’m looking forward to baking the Nigella Lawson’s chocolate cake (on the cover of this months edition) one weekend.