For the first gathering of 2016, we read "The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith - a.k.a. J.K. Rowling. It's her second novel featuring protagonist Cormoran Strike, a tough, one-legged private investigator and former military man who served in the Special Investigation Branch. The irony of his inability to utilize the high-level physical skills with which he was trained threads throughout the novel, and is key to his character. As an added twist, he is publicity-averse, illegitimate son of a very rich and famous rock star. Rowling has created a complex and multi-layered character who grows on the reader as the story unfolds.

Here, he's investigating the disappearance of a rather detestable novelist who was last seen causing a scene in a restaurant when his agent tells him his newest novel, Bombyx Mori (the scientific name for silkworm) is unpublishable. As Strike seeks answers to an increasingly confounding mystery, he encounters an array of literary types- writers, editors, publishers - each one more despicable than the last. Rowling proves herself a versatile storyteller who has created yet another memorable character.

Meanwhile, in the way of food for this evening's gathering, I took to heart (as I have done

 all my life) my mother's assertion that if you can read and follow directions, you can cook. I had a large jar of grape leaves that was purchased mistakenly, thinking they were stuffed grape leaves. What to do? Stuff them myself, of course. How hard could it be?


Linda Stradley, on her website, "What's Cooking America" , provides a recipe of which she says "They're so easy to make, and so delicious!" Well, delicious they are. Easy - not by my standards. That is, it's not that they are so tricky  - just very time-intensive. It's a good thing I started on Friday night or we would be in the store buying some ready-made ones to take to dinner tonight. 

First, there is creating the stuffing - primarily rice, but with a mix of other ingredients I would not have suspected were at the heart of this dish. Cinnamon, dill, toasted pine nuts, onion, lemon, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper combine to make a flavoring very different from its individual parts. These are mixed, cooked, then cooled. 

Then there are the grape leaves -- the jar was about eight inches tall, less than three inches in diameter, and into it were stuffed three rolls of leaves, so tightly wrapped that they seemed solid. To separate them without tearing, I put them into a large stew pot into which I ran warm water and then slowly teased them apart. Each one then was patted dry. Rolling the filling up in them was not hard, but 36 rolls and an hour later, I was glad to put the remaining leaves back into the jar.

I confess that I have a bad habit of skimming directions and then plunging in to whatever it is I've taken on. In this case, I ran up against the consequences as I neared the final step. I had carefully filled a large pyrex baking dish with the stuffed grape leaves, poured two cups of hot water, with olive oil and lemon mixed in over it -- and read the next direction which was to put my "pot" on the stove and bring the water to a boil. 

Fortunately, I only need to experience a disaster once to learn from it; some years ago I did just that, put a pyrex dish on a burner to cook - and it exploded all over the kitchen. So in this case I decided that my having boiled the water in advance would have to do. But then I saw that I was supposed to press another ovenproof plate in on top of my grape leaves - and then cover the whole thing. So I got a smaller pyrex baking dish and turned it upside down on the grape leaves, pressing down - and realized that I had no cover for these rectangular dishes. Aluminum foil would just have to do. 

According to the recipe, the cooking time in a 350-degree oven should have been 45 - 60 minutes. Mine took an hour and twenty minutes. I have no idea whether this was the result of my unconventional, and not very tight-fitting cover, my failure to boil, or some other reason. In any case, they are delicious and I will be proud to serve them at dinner tonight. And now I can say I've made my own Dolmades, from scratch. And happily go back to buying them from the very good deli counter at Creekside co-op.