Somewhere under the heaviness of the black skirts of Mary Boulton I struggled to breathe. Gil Adamson‘s descriptions of the woods and mountains in The Outlander are lyrical and painterly, but also dark as we follow this self-widowed, almost witch-like, maybe even mad, Mary through the woodland — fleeing.
This locavore heroine is introduced as a murderess. Gloomy. An inept housewife. And her attempts at foraging for food sometimes resulted in unpleasant stews, only brought to mouth’s desire by hunger. She may have thought herself an inept housewife, but she certainly inspired Martha-like behaviour in me. I started roasting hazelnuts almost daily, adding them to my salads and grinding them to be used for a Queen’s Mother Cake or with coffee beans for my morning brew. Maybe it helped that it was cold and rainy while I was reading The Outlander. Or maybe it was that my local Farmer’s Market offered hazelnuts. But the smell of hazelnuts filling my kitchen, combined with the warmth feeling they created in me, made me feel like I was part of nature. I felt that somehow I was experiencing the same feelings Mary would have when she sat close to a fire and drank coffee.
So going past the hazelnut madness, what did I think of The Outlander? I loved it! Except that it left me with an intense craving for rabbit stew! Luckily I don’t live in the wild and can go to a cozy French eatery — Bistrot Bistro. The destination is a simpler, cleaner, more honest French, with strong, pure flavours and back-to-basics cooking techniques and food served in the pots they were cooked in. The rabbit stew was delicious, resting in a rich pool of white wine cream sauce, bringing me closer to the adventures of Mary Boulton. My friend and I shared this stew with perhaps an atypical combination: Duck Confit Macaroni and cheese and some chocolate mousse. The chef had made a big bowl of chocolate mousse and our server brought the bowl right to our table, taking what seemed like a mountain of chocolate for my friend and I to share.
I would recommend this book, but be warned: cravings for stew might consume you.
Side note:
I always wear a lot of black and so can not say that Mary’s big and heavy black funeral outfit, a significant contributor to her witch-like allure, had any influence on my fashion choices. But she did inspire me to wear my Foks scarf.
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