Still Life with Breadcrumbs and Berry Scones

I recently read Anna Quindlen's "Still Life with Breadcrumbs" as part of a new book club organized by one of my old camp friends.  This is not a book that was on my list or that I was even aware of, but I really liked it a lot.  It is rare these days that a book (or a movie or tv show...) is about a woman over 50, Still Life with Breadcrumbs is a nice break from the norm.  The book is about Rebecca Winter a famous photographer who has fallen on hard times, is struggling to make ends meet, and hasn't taken many photographs lately.  In an effort to save some money (and perhaps find some inspiration) she escapes her Manhattan apartment to a modest cottage in upstate New York.  It is in this small town (after a few days alone in the cottage with a raccoon, questioning her sanity and her decisions) that she walks into Tea for Two cafe and orders the first of many scones from the proprietor, the chatty Sarah.  While she spends a year in the small town, she consumes many of these scones, finds her artistic voice again and finds love.  Along the way it is an insightful, funny and moving read.

There are not a lot of bells and whistles in Anna Quindlen's "Still Life with Breadcrumbs" - it just is what it is  - a straightforward great read.   Rebecca Winter, the lead character, is both relatable and someone to admire.  A photographer who made it big almost by chance and became a feminist icon.  In her 20's, with a small child to care for and a self centered british academic husband, Rebecca takes some photos of the mess of her kitchen after a dinner party for her husbands professor colleagues.  Her husband goes to bed and leaves her with the mess, in her exhaustion she takes photos and "still life with breadcrumbs" becomes a sensation - a photographic protest of the tasks women are expected to perform.  After she becomes a success, Rebecca's husband leaves her (she is his third wife) and she raises her son and continues to make money off of her usual success.  When we meet Rebecca she is 60 and has not done any meaningul new work in many years.  She is financially stretched because she supports both her aging parents - her tough mother who now has dementia and lives in a home and her upbeat father who lives nearby.  The years of spending money without bringing in finally catches up to her which is why she must sublet her apartment and escape the city.  When she gets to the small town in NY the cottage that seemed charming in online pictures is run down and a little bit scary.  On her first night there she discovers she shares the house with a raccoon who haunts her attempt to sleep with its nocturnal thrashing around her attic.  A local roofer, Jim Bates, is her savior when he comes by to both repair her leaky roof before the winter and catches the raccoon.  Because she is focused on her own stresses and loneliness, Rebecca does not immediately pay Jim much mind until she runs into him sitting in a tree in the woods surrounding her cabin.  The two soon start working together for the park service tracking eagles and as they sit in trees together all day they get to know one another and romance blooms.  Rebecca resists it at first because Jim is much younger than her.  Nothing is simple of course and the two quickly find drama that drives them apart.  Much of the book is Rebecca's inner dialogue with herself - moving back and forth in time to show how she got to wear she is, the missteps she has made.  While taking one of her many walks in the woods Rebecca finds her artistic inspiration once again, taking a series of photos of mysterious handmade crosses she has found in the woods.  The book does wrap up fairly neatly - Rebecca's life is a mess, she makes a dramatic move to disrupt her routine and finds a better path.  Rebecca is so interesting I did not mind the predictable conventional ending.

Dried Berry Scones, adapted from the Barefoot Contessa
There was no doubt that scones would be what I made for this book.  Throughout the book Rebecca Winter is often sitting with some tea and scone baked by Sarah from Tea for Two.  Part of the book that I really liked was the quirky group of characters Quindlen created to occupy the town Rebecca Winter strands herself in.  Sarah owns the cafe, is a renowed scone baker, gossip and match maker.  She herself is married to a jerk, but she maintains an upbeat attitude nonethless and as Rebecca tries to isolate herself Sarah draws her into the community, often with scones...

Ingredients
4 cups plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 lb unsalted butter, very cold, diced
4 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup dried berries (I used Whole Foods berry and cherry medlely(
2 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon course brown sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix until combined.
4. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is pebble sized peaces.
5. Combine the eggs and buttermilk in a bowl, pour into the mixer and mix until just blended.
6. Toss the dried fruit in the 1 tablespoon of flour and then add to the mixer, mix on low speed until just incorporated.
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured board.
8. Pat into a large rectangle, 3/4 an inch thick.
9. Cut scones out with the cutter of your choice, place on baking sheet.
10. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with the course sugar.
11. Bake for 20 -2 5 minutes until golden brown.