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RANDOM HOUSE, 2008
(available in paperback from Random House, 2008)
RETIRED SCHOOLTEACHER Olive Kitteridge is the thread that binds together this collection of thirteen short stories exploring the richness of small-town New England life. Set in Crosby, Maine, the stories depict daily struggles—a lounge singer confronts an old romance, a young girl wrestles with an eating disorder—and larger dramas. Although sometimes appearing only in passing, Olive’s weighty presence makes itself known in every story. At times critical and tyrannical, at other times sensitive, patient, and empathic, Olive grapples with universal challenges: accepting her son’s decisions, navigating a sometime tense marriage, accepting changes in her town. Olive’s multidimensional, often unlikable character makes her profoundly memorable, and the stories reveal deep truths about the human condition.
Elizabeth Strout shared her thoughts about Olive Kitteridge’s Grandmother’s Doughnuts, a recipe she contributed to The Book Club Cookbook:
During most of the book Olive Kitteridge, the reader sees Olive in her later years. We have glimpses of her earlier life when she is cooking and cleaning (and often pretty fed up with doing so), and we see beans and hot dogs served, and understand that the culinary life of her family is straightforward, with few frills. In her fierce and imperfect way, Olive loves her son and husband, and tries to take care of them while also tending to her students that she taught for so many years. Life frequently tires her out, which means—often—grabbing something to eat that gives a quick boost. By the time we see her at her son’s wedding, in her nice new dress that she made, she admits to herself that she is larger than she wants to be, but she “is not about to give up the pleasures of food at this stage in the game.”
This “food” is often something sweet, and frequently a doughnut. She goes out for doughnuts with her husband, she swipes an extra brownie at Marlene Bonney’s house, she makes applesauce from the last of the season’s apples, she happily eats an ice cream sundae while visiting her son. These things comfort her, and for any of us that have a sweet tooth, we can understand that. For much of the book, Olive is at the point in her life where she is no longer cooking. And, as she suffers one loss after another, it seems that for a while she is sustained mainly by a diet of Dunkin’ Donuts.
I included this doughnut recipe because I imagined Olive’s collection of recipes that would have been compiled over the years, and I thought—as with many women and their recipes—that there are certain things that would be passed down from generations before. Where did Olive’s love for doughnuts come from? Her grandmother, I decided, would have made doughnuts. My own aunt sometimes made doughnuts, and they were unbelievably good. These days we are all (and rightly so, big sigh) concerned with healthy food, and doughnuts don’t make the top of the list. But Olive, until the very end of the book, is not too concerned with her health. The pleasure she received from her grandmother’s doughnuts, doughnuts she no longer makes by scratch, but buys at Dunkin’ Donuts instead, are presented to you here for that occasional “day-off” treat.
NOTE: You will need a deep-fry thermometer to fry the doughnuts.
To make sour milk, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup of milk, and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Or, you may substitute buttermilk for sour milk.
To shape the doughnuts, use a doughnut cutter, which can be purchased for a few dollars at a kitchen store. To prevent cutter from sticking to dough, lightly sprinkle surface of dough with flour. If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, use a 2- to 3-inch round cookie cutter. Cut out the smaller inner circle using a smaller cutter.
NOTE: Doughnuts are cooked in small batches, so allow plenty of time for frying.
3½ to 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon |
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 cup sour milk (see note) 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus about 2 quarts for deep frying |
For the topping (optional) ¼ cup sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon |
In a large bowl, whisk together 3½ cups flour, 1 cup sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
In the large bowl of a mixer, mix sour milk, eggs, and 1 tablespoon oil on medium speed. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium-low speed until just combined. Add only enough flour as needed to form a soft dough (it will be slightly sticky). Cover mixing bowl and let dough rest in refrigerator. (You can chill the dough for up to 2 hours before frying it. Chilling will make dough easier to roll and cut.)
While dough is chilling, prepare to deep fry: Pour about 2½ inches of oil into an 8-inch heavy stockpot with straight sides. (Leave at least two or three inches between the oil and top of pan, so oil does not bubble over.) Heat oil to 355°F–365°F.
Remove dough from refrigerator and place on lightly floured surface. Sprinkle flour lightly on surface of dough to prevent sticking. Roll dough in small batches to a ¼-inch thickness. Cut shapes with doughnut cutter (see note).
Place several dough shapes in hot oil (you can use a spatula). Brown on one side, then flip over and brown on the other (at most 3 minutes total). Adjust heat as needed to maintain a constant temperature. Drain on paper towels or brown paper bags. Repeat with remaining dough.
Serve warm. If you need to reheat, cover doughnuts with a damp paper towel, place in microwave, and cook for a few seconds. For sugar and/or cinnamon doughnuts, place drained doughnuts in a paper bag, add cinnamon and/or sugar, and shake well.
Yield: About 2 dozen 3½-inch doughnuts
Olive Kitteridge’s multifaceted character captivated members of the 3rd Monday Book Group of the Twinsburg (Ohio) Public Library. “Those who didn’t like Olive, and even some who did, were surprised to find that, when we did a story-by-story analysis, she came off positively more often than not,” says librarian and group leader Karen Woods. “Though prickly and off-putting, she prevented two deaths, and tried to prevent another. She seemed drawn to those who were in emotional pain and was able to deliver nonjudgmental comfort.” Woods shared with the group an interview with Elizabeth Strout in which the author details influences on her writing. Strout recalls hearing her mother tell dramatic stories about other families in a matter-of-fact way. “Strout recounts the same sort of tragic events very matter-of-factly,” notes Woods. “Her calm, factual manner allows her to tell stories about suicide, murder, spousal abuse, loss of a child—the greatest tragedies one can bear—without emotionally overloading the reader. We accept that these things are part of life, whereas another treatment might make us too sad to read on.”
More Food for Thought
Wild blueberries were on the menu when Thursday Evening Book Bites of the Manross Memorial Library in Forestville, Connecticut, discussed Olive Kitteridge. “Anyone who has been to Maine and tasted the blueberries knows they are different than regular blueberries. They have a sweet and tart flavor with a tender skin—kind of like Olive herself,” says group leader Deborah Prozzo. The potluck menu included blueberry coffee cake, blueberry muffins, and wild Maine blueberry jam. Prozzo says food plays a key role in her group’s enjoyment of meetings. “Serving thematic food and beverages over the five years we have been meeting has helped to evoke a sense of place and time,” she says. “The members of the library’s book groups look forward to sharing good food, good books, and good friendship.”
The Cypress Readers of Cypress, California, served New England clam chowder as a tribute to the region in which Olive Kitteridge is set. The group enjoyed the chowder as they discussed whether or not they liked Olive, the interconnectedness of people in small towns, and why Strout chose to include Olive prominently in some stories, but barely at all in others.
For their potluck book club meetings, each member of the Bookies of Central Minnesota brings a dish connected to the theme of the book under discussion. Sheila DeChantal effuses about the group’s Olive Kitteridge feast, which included beef stew, carrot soup, meatballs, seafood-stuffed mushrooms, olive rolls, olives, and ice cream with homemade butterscotch topping. “We all heaped our plates with these dishes, and as we reviewed the book, story by story, we revisited the culinary scenes,” says DeChantal. “In many cases, the food in Olive Kitteridge was associated with an emotion or a memory, and revealed something about Olive’s personality.” The beef stew, for example, is tied to Olive’s anger: she’s in a black mood when she slams a bowl in front of her husband. Later, Olive gets sick from eating mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat at a restaurant—but she refuses to believe she is sick. And when Olive finds butterscotch sauce smeared across her blouse, she is afraid of becoming old.
