Dear Reader Column 08-14-07

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Dear Reader,

This month's Penguin Classic is posted for you to sample. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/2ory4c and be sure to enter the Classic drawing.

I overdo it every year. When I see Concord grapes in the grocer's aisle, I buy at least four huge containers, then I hurry home and start eating. There's an art to eating concord grapes and when I was a kid, I perfected it in my Grandma Hale's backyard. Grandma's grapevines grew alongside of her garage and in the fall when the vines exploded with big, purple Concord grapes, I could spend an entire afternoon reading a book and popping grape after grape into my mouth.

Pinch, splash, and swallow--three easy steps are the secret to my technique. If you're a grape-eating beginner, let me explain. You never eat more than one grape at a time and you never actually bite into the grape.

Here's the step-by-step: Pick up one single grape, open your mouth--get ready now--pinch the grape, the juice splashes into your mouth, the grape follows right behind, and then you swallow--seeds and all. Toss the skin aside, quickly grab another grape, pick up the pace now--speed is part of the artistry--pinch, splash and swallow, you've got to keep the grape beat going. No fine wine for me, just pop those grapes into my mouth one after another and I'm intoxicated.

Yes, it was my one and only way to eat grapes--until yesterday, when a friend of mine asked if I'd ever made a Concord grape pie. Grapes in a pie? It didn't sound too appetizing to me, but it did sound bizarre and I was intrigued, so I gave it a try.

Let me tell you, there's also an art to baking a Concord grape pie. I perfected it in my kitchen last night and I've got the purple-stained fingers to prove it. Surprisingly, the pie was delicious. The recipe, photos, and baking mishaps--the seeds were a little tricky--are at: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/grape.html

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com