ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT
Journey back in time with
The Tumbling Turner Sisters
Sister act
BY JUDY GELMAN AND
VICKI LEVY KRUPP
KRIS TEN DACE Y LWAI
THIS MONTH, we
recommend that you
make Juliette Fay’s
The Tumbling Turner
Sisters your next book
club pick. It’s ;;;;,
and Frank Turner is
out of work. To help
make ends meet, his
resourceful wife and four daughters take
their tumbling act on the road, leaving
their upstate New York home to join the
vaudeville circuit. Sisters Gert and Winnie
share the family’s adventures as they perform in theaters—some seedy, some
grand—throughout the eastern United
States, gathering wisdom from an eclectic
assortment of fellow vaudevillians along
the way.
Juliette Fay
The Turners and their fellow performers consume many sandwiches as they
travel the vaudeville circuit. “Quick to
make, wrap and carry, sandwiches have
always been a mainstay of many travelers,” says Fay. “Vaudevillians stretching
their pennies could get a budget-friendly
cheese sandwich at the drugstore food
counter in any town for about a dime.
When they came up in the world they
might feast on savory and ;lling corned
beef, as the Turner family did.”
In upstate New York, where the
Turners live, the spiedie sandwich—
originally made with succulent chunks of
marinated, grilled lamb wrapped in a
slice of bread—is an institution. Italian
immigrant Agostino Iacovelli popularized the spiedie
in his Binghamton,
New York, restaurant in the ;;;;s.
He and his brother
worked at the
Endicott-Johnson
Shoe Company —
the same factory
that employed
Frank, the Turner
sisters’ father, in
thenovel.
;
He and his brother
Shoe Company —
a
h
Frank, the Turner
THECOSTCOCONNECTION
The Tumbling Turner Sisters (Item#1126545;
1/3) is in most Costco warehouses, along
with food and drink to host a memorable
book club.
NETKOFF / SHUTTERSTOCK
OUR DIGITAL EDITIONS Click here for a video of Juliette Fay talking about The Tumbling Turner Sisters. (See page 14 for details.)
To help make your book club gathering special, here is an era-appropriate recipe (see below) to serve while you chat
about the book. This traditional lamb
spiedie would assure the Turner family
they had arrived.
In addition, the character of Joe mentions that his mother makes pasta e fagi-oli, pasta puttanesca and biscotti. He and
Winnie share a meal of linguini and
meatballs in Boston’s North End. The
vaudevillians also sip a variety of drinks
and cocktails, including rum and Coke,
Manhattans, Madeira, rye, sherry,
Champagne and the nonalcoholic beverage sarsaparilla. C
Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp are
behind the cookbook and website The Book
Club Cookbook (bookclubcookbook.com).
LAMB SPIEDIE
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
VICKI LEV Y KRUPP
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1½ teaspoons dried thyme
1½ teaspoons dried basil
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon coarsely ground
black pepper
2 pounds leg of lamb, cut into
1½-inch chunks
6 hoagie rolls, cut lengthwise
Melted butter or oil, for brushing
Special equipment:
Metal or wooden skewers soaked
in water for 10 to 15 minutes
n n n g t
In a large bowl, combine olive oil,
lemon juice, vinegar and sugar. Add
garlic, bay leaf, cayenne pepper,
thyme, basil, oregano, salt and black
pepper. Stir until well blended.
Place lamb chunks in a large reseal-
able plastic bag set in a shallow dish.
Pour marinade mixture over meat and
close bag. Marinate in the refrigerator
for three days, turning the bag occa-
sionally to distribute the marinade.
Remove the meat from the refrigerator
and let stand in the marinade at room
temperature for 2 hours. Drain, reserv-
ing the marinade.
Preheat outdoor grill to medium-high
heat and lightly oil the grate.
Thread 4 or 5 cubes of meat onto each
skewer. Place skewers onto the
prepared hot grill and cook approx-
imately 8 to 10 minutes, turning
halfway through and basting with
reserved marinade. Remove skew-
ers from grill.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Brush
the insides of each roll with butter
or oil. Grill facedown for a minute
or two, until lightly toasted.
To serve, place a skewer of meat in
a roll, clamp the roll shut and
withdraw the skewer, leaving the
meat sandwiched inside. Makes 6
sandwiches.
Recipe adapted from What’s Cooking
America ( whatscookingamerica.net).
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