Table of Contents: From Breakfast With Anita Diamant to Dessert With James Patterson - a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings and Insights From Today's Bestselling Authors (6 page)

I myself am a berry lover, blueberries and strawberries especially, so much so that my wife believes I must have been a brown bear in another life. The recipe here is from a long-held family business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is about a half hour from where I live, in Iowa City. To my delight, people in Iowa still give home-baked pies as gifts, so this recipe is also a suitable representative of my adopted home state.

1
To make the filling: Place rhubarb in a medium bowl, add sugar, and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap. If using fresh rhubarb, refrigerate for 2–3 hours. If using frozen rhubarb, refrigerate overnight.

2
To make the crust: In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, butter, and shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water all at once, and pulse again until dough just begins to come together, but doesn't form a ball.

3
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, and knead gently until it comes together. Press the dough into a ball. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, one slightly smaller than the other. Flatten into disks and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

4
Strain rhubarb in a colander and reserve juice (you should have approximately 1 cup of juice).

5
Place ½ cup rhubarb juice into a large stockpot. Add strawberries and salt, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix cornstarch into remaining juice and add to boiling mixture. As soon as the juice has thickened and becomes clear, turn off the heat and add the rhubarb. Remove from heat and cool cooked fruit completely.

6
Preheat oven to 350°F. Allow each dough disk to sit at room temperature for approximately 10 minutes.

7
Place bigger ball of dough on a lightly floured surface (you will need a surface at least 15 inches square). With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll from the center outward into a circle roughly 14 inches in diameter. Carefully fold in half, then again to form a triangle. Place in an ungreased 9″ pie plate, positioning it so the point of the triangle is in the center of the pie plate. Gently unfold.

8
Trim edges to within 1½ inches of edge and pour cooled fruit mixture into shell. Roll remaining ball of dough into slightly smaller circle as described above. Lay the rolled pastry over the filling and then roll the edges inward, pressing lightly. Seal edges of dough with your thumb, indenting at regular intervals to form a single fluted edge. Lightly brush the center of pie (not edges) with milk and sprinkle generously with sugar. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut several vents in the center of the top.

9
Place a sheet pan on oven shelf below the pie to catch any dripping juices. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn pie around in oven and continue baking until top crust is golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for several hours until pie reaches room temperature or is just barely warm.

Giulia Fitzgerald

SELECTED WOEKS

The Astral
(2011)

Trouble
(2009)

The Great Man
(2008)

The Epicure's Lament
(2004)

Jeremy Thrane
(2001)

In the Drink
(1999)

Getting Started
A character or situation comes into my head and begins to expand and take on weight and dimension and color. I become increasingly curious and interested, and eventually I have to write it down to see what happens.

Like Riding a Bike? Not Quite
… Writing a novel does not become easier with each book. Each new book is like starting all over again.

Readers Frequently Ask
“Where do your characters come from?” is a common question. My characters very often come from potential parts of myself that I haven't ever fully explored or realized, which isn't the same thing as writing about myself. It's as if, with each new book, I get to experience glimpses of other lives I might have had.

Books That Have Influenced My Writing
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. All three novels have unforgettable, complex, amazingly vivid protagonists who live on in the reader's imagination long after the closing of the books' covers. This to me is the hallmark of all the greatest novels and my highest aspiration.

Makes 4–6 servings

In
Trouble
, Josie, a Manhattan therapist whose marriage has just ended, goes down to Mexico City for a five-day vacation with her best friend, Raquel, a Los Angeles rock star who has become enmeshed in a sordid tabloid scandal. Josie and Raquel, who are in their mid-forties, both feel that their lives are at some kind of crisis point. They drink tequila and feast on tacos and allow themselves to get caught up in that strange and exotic city.

Note:
Wear plastic or rubber gloves while handling the chiles to protect your skin from the oil in them. Avoid direct contact with your eyes, and wash your hands thoroughly after handling.

This is a moderately spicy dish. You can use just 1 jalapeño chile if you prefer a milder sauce.

1 To make the filling:
Place the chicken breasts in a large pot and cover with at least 1½ inches of water. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, for 30–40 minutes. Use a large metal spoon to occasionally skim the scum that rises to the surface. Remove chicken and reserve 1½ cups of chicken broth. When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it into bite-size pieces, discarding the skin and bones. You should have about 5 cups of shredded chicken.

2
If you have a gas range, roast the chiles over an open flame until tender and blackened on all sides. If you have an electric range, place the chiles on a broiling tray covered with foil and broil, turning occasionally, until skin is blackened and blistered on all sides. Place chiles in a small bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove stems and peel off blackened skin.

3
Place reserved broth, chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, salt, and pepper in a blender and purée for 1–3 minutes (depending on the efficiency of your blender).

4
Place shredded chicken and puréed sauce in a skillet or saucepan and simmer for 45 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.

5
Preheat oven to 300°F.

6
Warm the tortillas: Place tortillas on two baking sheets (they can overlap slightly). Spray both sides lightly with cooking spray. Bake until tortillas are soft and pliable, about 4 minutes.

7
To assemble the tacos: Place a few tablespoons of chicken mixture into a warm corn tortilla, and garnish with avocado, red onion, cilantro, green and red salsas, sour cream, lime wedges, pickled jalapeños, and radishes.

Makes 4–6 servings

This recipe is for a dish mentioned in Chapter Ten of
The Great Man
. Teddy, the seventy-four-year-old former mistress of the “great man” (who has been dead for five years when the novel opens) cooks breakfast for her former boss, Lewis, who has been in love with her for many decades. She brings all the ingredients one hot summer morning in a basket from her house in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in North Brooklyn in New York City, to his apartment on the Upper East Side. She serves this fruit salad with a kielbasa omelet, the perfect combination to inspire the tender but spicy love scene that follows.

1
Place the watermelon chunks, blueberries, and plums in a large bowl. Mix gently with a wooden spoon.

2
In a measuring cup, whisk together the lime juice, honey, and mint leaves. Pour the dressing over the fruit salad and toss. Serve right away or chill first. Add whipped cream if you like.

Makes 4–6 servings

In
The Epicure's Lament
, Hugo, a hermit who is determined to smoke himself to death and cook as many meals as he can along the way, spontaneously cooks the following dish for his sister-in-law, Marie, and her
au pair
, Louisa, on a bucolic evening. He shows up at Marie's house one night when he knows his brother has the kids. He arrives with groceries and wine, finds the two women sitting outside in the grass, and goes inside and gets right to work in the kitchen.

Hugo uses canned shrimp, but please feel free to use fresh. He serves this Newburg on white rice with a side of buttered green beans.