Read & Feed: A Spring Greens salad for a novel about Frank Lloyd Wright affair

BOOK: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (Ballantine Books, 2008) fictionalizes the scandalous love affair between architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of a client. After a passionate rendezvous in Europe, the two returned and settled in Taliesen, a house Wright designed in Spring Green, Wis., where disaster awaited Mamah and her children.

WHY READ? The novel, set between 1907 and 1914, pushes contemporary hot-button issues about love, loyalty, marriage, commitment, feminism and a mother's obligations to her children. While infatuated with Wright's talent, the well-educated Mamah (MAY-mah) bristled at his egotistical demand that she devote herself to him. The author pits Mamah, a fascinating character in her own right, not just against America's most famous (and famously egotistical) architect, but also against the restrictions placed on women in early 20th century America.

MAKE IT: Since Spring Green is located in Wisconsin, where license plates proudly proclaim the state "America's Dairyland," you might consider serving a salad of spring greens dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, topped with fried goat cheese medallions coated with Japanese panko. (One of Wright's most famous works was the earthquake-proof Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and he decorated his Spring Green house with kimonos and Japanese vases.) The sizzle produced by the cheese in the frying pan could symbolize the love affair chronicled in Loving Frank.

TAKE IT: If you'd rather not cook, you could serve your friends an assortment of artisanal cheeses (a burgeoning industry in Wisconsin) accompanied by award-winning wine from the Wollersheim Winery, located a short drive from Spring Green. (Yes, they do ship to Florida. Check them out at www.wollersheim.com.) Oatmeal cookies would be an appropriate snack since Wright loved oatmeal. (He had Elam's Scottish oatmeal almost every morning.) And cookies, of course, go well with another Dairyland specialty, ice cream. Since Oak Park, where Wright lived, is next to Chicago, you could order Chicago-style pizza. (It's available from Windy City Pizza in Tampa or Paul's Chicago Pizza in Clearwater.) And since Wisconsin is home to many big and small breweries (their baseball team, after all, is called the Brewers), you might want to serve the pizza with Leinenkugel's, brewed in Chippewa Falls, one of the only Wisconsin microbrews available nationwide.

Tom Valeo, Special to the Times

Read & Feed is a monthly column in Taste that matches popular book club selections with food to serve at meetings. If you have suggestions or would like to share what your book club is cooking up, send e-mail to features@sptimes.com. Put BOOK FOOD in the subject line.