Islamism reading list

I asked my friend Jeremy, who is on his second tour in Iraq, what books he recommended as an introduction to the historical background of Islamic extremism. With his permission to post, here was his response (links added by me):

"The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. It gives good background and history. Al Quaeda's history is important because it represents (unfortunately not the only or possibly even the most potent manifestation of [Sunni]) Islamic radicalism.

Future Jihad by Walid Phares. It gives a good historical background and gets into the ideology.

Willful Blindness by Andrew McCarthy. Covers the 1993 bombing but also the beliefs and methods animating the actions.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. One of the bravest women alive today. I don't agree with her on everything, she gives unique background based on her experiences.

Inside the Jihad by Omar Nasiri. Some claim the guy made up a phony story. I think it has value in seeing the jihadi movement as jihadis see it.

The Persian Night by Amir Taheri is focused on Iran. I found it to be gratuitously insulting to Muslims (indulging in unnecessary attacks on Islamic doctrines and traditions) but it was nonetheless a good expose on the current regime."

Thanks, Jeremy. Stay safe.

Pancakery, and this dratted bug

My pancake fetish continues apace, and since this week my copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks arrived, I had to try "Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes."

If you haven't heard of The Pioneer Woman yet, by all means mosey on over to her website, which is full of beautiful photography and recipes of the luscious ranch fare she cooks. The book is more of the same, plus whimsical stories and photos of Oklahoma ranch life and of her picture-perfect family.

As for the recipes, within a couple weeks of discovering the website (H/T The Anchoress), I had already made three or four things and everything was as delicious as the photos promised. I would see something on the website and think "boy does that look good, but I can't make something that fattening." And then it would just work on me. And work on me. Until I had to make it! I think the beautiful step-by-step photography is behind this devilry. The book would be a great Christmas present for any down-home cooks on your list.

The sour cream pancakes are great, though I must admit I prefer my staple Cottage Cheese Pancakes. I don't always have cottage cheese on hand, though, so into my file Edna Mae goes for her place on the pancake rotation.

Here's another winner of a pancake recipe for you, Truck Stop Pancakes. They're the best buttermilk pancakes I've ever had. Last weekend, while I was feeling poorly, I decided to just make pancakes from a mix, which I hadn't done in a long time. This was a mix that I used to consider a winner. However, the results were so disappointing compared to homemade, I guess I'm spoiled forever. Good thing homemade pancakes are easy to whip up.
***

So, all pancakes aside, I am still feeling like the butt end of a bad day, now going on the third week. I'm pretty sure that the little souvenir I brought back from Texas is H1N1. Everything seems to fit from what I've read of it, including how hard it is to beat. I'm on my second round of antibiotics for an ear infection, and still sucking down Theraflu, gargling salt water, hacking like a chainsmoker, and generally feeling punk. Normally I am a skeptic about vaccination pushes, but I'm here to tell you, friends, if your doctor offers you an H1N1 shot, TAKE IT.

The only good thing I can say is that my husband hasn't gotten it and thus far neither has anyone at work, so it doesn't seem to be super-contagious. I did stay home from work a few days and have been staying out of public places, but had to take the risk to go back to the office since we are so few- the last of the mohicans after all the downsizing. I am pretty sure what made me vulnerable to catching it (probably at the Alamo) was the fact that I had had food poisoning earlier in the week and my immune system was working double-duty. Now is not the time to be a tourist anywhere, and even if you just have a little cold, take all due paranoid precautions to make sure it doesn't develop into anything else. Just want to do my bit to make sure no one else has to battle this.

A bulletin from the past

A German co-worker was asked to translate a letter that someone found in their parents' things. I thought I'd share it (with names and place names removed) as it's an interesting first-hand historical look from a turbulent time. I'm reminded of my in-laws, six siblings from a little town in Slovakia who had a hard time finding each other again after the war. They were separated during their flight from the Red Army, but managed to find each other in Germany and emigrated together to the US.

Here's the letter:

***

April 18, 1948

I was astonished to receive a sign of life from you again. I thought you had forgotten us, or were drawn into the war and perhaps already dead. And what are you doing in America? From your letter, I see that America is now your homeland. I have thought often of you. One can really say: It's been a long way from there to here. But I enjoy the memories. We passed many happy hours. Earlier on I could still remember the singing, but I don't do that much anymore. I'm now 64 years old, after all, and should take it easy. Have been in -- since 1924. Bought a pretty large farming business. A nice farm with a beautiful view of the lake. Near the main road from -- to --. Since gasoline is again available, about 1000 cars go by in a day. It was quieter during the war, when we didn't get any gasoline in Switzerland. Food was also scarce because we could import very little. We in the country had nothing really to complain about. But in the cities, rations were very meager and also quite expensive. A liter milk costs 43-45 rappen [equivalent to cents]. 1 kilogram white flour costs 1 franc 50. 1 kilogram potatoes 30 rappen. Only vegetables and potatoes were not rationed. Now everything is free again. I'm also enclosing a photograph. Have 8 boys and 4 girls. That's okay as long as we're healthy. We're doing alright financially and health-wise. Hope it's the same with you. Much has changed in your home village, too. You would have a hard time finding your way around, but your birth house is still standing and is still the same. Will close for now and hope to hear from you again soon. In the meantime, greetings from...

A gadget for you

I appreciate low-tech, low-cost things that work better than the fancy-fangled. So I decided to give Melitta's "Ready Set Joe" a try. It's a plastic mold, as you see, that sits on top of your coffee cup. Insert a Melitta #3 filter and your ground coffee, pour in boiling water, stir up the grounds a bit, and it brews a surprisingly good cup of coffee in a minute or two. You may need to pour a bit more water in if you're brewing a big cup.

A drip pot is obviously more convenient if you're making more than one cup or if you need to keep coffee hot for a while, but our work times mean that husband and I are not on the same coffee-drinking schedule. For under $10, this is a good solution for grabbing a quick cuppa joe.



You can use regular coffee filters, though those are a bit more awkward than the little cone filters Melitta makes. I do recommend stirring the grounds while it brews. Otherwise it's too weak, and weak coffee is an insult to God's creation of the coffee bean. The flavor is like French-press coffee. I actually think it is better than French press, because you have the same richness, but not the slight grit. And no risk of things going the way of French presses in my household, i.e. getting cracked in the sink. All in all it's a win for simplicity of design.

Back

We are back from vacation. I finished Patrick Geary's book Myth of Nations and made a good start on Lost To The West, aided along by the sad fact that I was down with food poisoning midweek. I'm going to hold out and post about them together, however, since the two of them nicely overlap on subjects such as the Roman concept of what it meant to be Roman and how that changed as the empire absorbed, and finally was taken over by, those they considered "barbarians."

As is typical, I end up being more interested in the barbarians than the Romans. For example, Geary put a bug in my ear about the development of the Slavic identity. I didn't know that the rise of the Slavs as a group presents a mystery to historians. Who they are, where they came from, and why they asserted themselves so fully over Eastern Europe are considered puzzles. Geary states that they probably were caved out of the remnants of an empire you've likely never heard of, the Avars. Ever notice that the terms Serb and Croat don't exactly sound Slavic? That's because the words are probably Avar, and referred not to particular peoples but to a title or rank within the Avar empire's political structure. And they are not the only vanished people who once ruled whole kingdoms. There are the Goths, who once ruled Italy and northern Africa. So how did they end up being used to represent bored suburban teenagers with an overdeveloped makeup budget?

More on such things to come.

Slovak Grandma Noodles

Here's another recipe. This is another of Pavel's must-have comfort foods, at least my version of it. I now understand why my husband loves it. It's incredibly good. It makes your heart happy, not just your mouth. I don't know the official Slovak name, so I just think of it as Slovak Grandma Noodles, because it's the sort of thing that your grandma would make you if your grandma was from Slovakia.

I'm pretty sure that the Slovakian noodle dish shown here at Man Bites World blog is the same genre. However, Pavel's family uses cottage cheese rather than feta cheese. I happen to think that a combination is very good. You also don't need to make homemade noodles. Homemade noodles are not that difficult and are one of nature's perfect foods, but you can use dried egg noodles or fresh pasta from the deli section.

Turks also make a quick mac-and-cheese this way, by stirring butter and feta cheese into cooked pasta. So if your grandmother were Turkish, you might get this, too, though she's not going to be putting bacon into it. Which means that, if you're like me, you're hoping for a Slovakian grandmother.

Without further ado:

Homemade noodles* or thick egg noodles, cooked
1 pkg thick-cut bacon
1 lg or 2 med onion, peeled and sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, mashed
2 tbsp butter
4 ozs feta, mashed very fine with a fork
1 16-oz container cottage cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp Hungarian paprika (sweet or smoked)
cracked black pepper

Fry up bacon and drain it on paper towels. Pour off most of the bacon grease into a bowl and set that aside. Meanwhile get a big pot of salted water boiling. In the bacon pan, fry the sliced onions 8-10 minutes til browned and soft. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the paprika- the warmth brings out the flavor- and set aside off the heat. Slice or crumble up your bacon. Meanwhile cook your noodles in the salted water and pour into a colander to drain. Put the pan back on low heat and add the butter and a little of the reserved bacon grease. When the butter is melted, add cottage cheese, finely mashed feta, sour cream, and black pepper. Stir together and stir in sauteed onion mixture. Let it all warm a bit- you just want it barely warm, not cooking. Fold in hot noodles and bacon pieces. If you want to get fancy, you could add in some chopped fresh parsley, but this is so good the lily needs no gilding. Serve immediately. An excellent side with this would be a garlicky coleslaw or bell pepper salad.

*Homemade noodles easy-to-remember ratio: 1 cup flour - 1 egg - 1 tsp salt, plus enough water to make dough come together. For this recipe I use 4 cups flour, 4 eggs etc.

To make noodles: Put flour on a board and make a well in the center. Beat egg and salt together and pour into the well. Start working the dough with your hands, adding a few splashes of water at a time until you get a good dough, not too sticky. Roll out dough thin but not too thin, maybe 1/8th an inch. Try to get it to roll into a rectangle, pulling a little with your hands here or there. When it’s rolled out, fold the long ends of the dough in on each other in a loose trifold. Slice off 1/4th-inch slices and unroll the strips. Cut into the length you want your noodles and lay out on lightly floured tea towel or board to dry at least 1 hour.

To cook homemade noodles: Separate them with your fingers and carefully drop into boiling salted water; stir once to unstick them. These cook up fairly quickly, about 3-5 minutes. They're done when they float to the top.

Vacation reading

The blog has been a bit modern history-ish lately, hasn't it? What can I say. If I got paid to study history, I'd have to specialize. As it is, I'm a happy dilettante.


However, with vacation coming up, I am going back to ancient and medieval. I have picked up a couple new books that I'm very much looking forward to digging into. One is Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization. It is by Lars Brownworth, whose 12 Byzantine Rulers podcasts I enjoyed. (His new podcast project is called The Norman Centuries.)

Those of us who have an interest in the Byzantine Middle Ages- all fifty of us :) -need to support such scholars' work.

The other book I picked up is Patrick Geary's The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Now this one intrigues me. I have written and reviewed Geary's work before, and this guy and I seem to have similar interests and pet peeves. One of mine is the hold that the modern nation-state has over our thinking of ourselves. Geary's thesis, I gather, is that our modern notions of European ethnicity are based on myths that have more to do with the ideas of 18th century romanticizers than actual fact.

Will be interesting to see how he develops it. Hopefully it will not turn into a print rendition of "We Are The World" and a "celebration of diversity." The reviewers' comparisons of the book to contemporary debates about xenophobia, nationalism, etc. make me a little nervous on that score.

Another book comes to me via a German co-worker whose church supported the work of one of the Malatya martyrs, Tilmann Geske. The book is written by his widow Susanne about the experience and is called Ich Will Keine Rache ("I Want No Revenge: The Drama of Malatya"). I pick it up with a heavy heart, but the title pretty much tells you that Geske herself is one strong woman. She and her children still live in Malatya. The trial for the murderers continues. The latest report I could find was from August, when an informant from inside the Malatya gendarmerie alleged that the murders were carried out with help from the police, who appear also to be trying to hinder the court proceedings.