It’s the end of summer and while it’s not technically yet fall…I have already begun my deep dive into the chilling and blood curdling world of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The cosmic crumb that led me here was walking into our local bookstores Libelula. The book: Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey. Then a flash of memory came…I remember Nina and how she had the last page of Frankenstein pinned to her wall. Her roommate told me how she went to read the book but the last page was gone and how Nina told her it had been “re-homed”
I loved this and I wondered what it was about Frankenstein that Nina loved so much to rip the last page out and pin it to her wall.
I was intrigued. And my next thought of course was…would this make a good Kalabash play? For older kids, probably, yes…hmmmm…okay….let’s do it!
So I got a copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I watched the biopic of her life in the bath, I enjoyed the 1994 Frankenstein featuring Helena Bonham-Carter while doing dishes…and now in these last few days of August, I have celebrated her birthday with neighbors and friends. We lit the candles, said goodbye to summer…ate and sang and not a single crumb was left for September.
The menu was made up of
Shephard’s Breakfast (recipe here)
And a berry summer cake (in honor of the berries that the monster survives off of while hiding from humanity in the forest and listening to the bird song.)
And my own creation of a Kale Salad (because Mary Shelley loved Kale)
My Mary Shelley Kale Salad:
You will need a bouquet of Dino Kale, 1 Lemon, A handful of cherry tomatoes, a teaspoon of English or Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. Quickly blanch the kale in a pot of hot water, take it out after 30 seconds or so and rinse in cool water, chop the tomatoes, and mix up the dressing (lemon, oil, mustard, salt and pepper) Toss it all together and voila!
