Hello everyone!
I am so thrilled to announce that this round of CTB will be judged by the writer himself, David Kamp! David also offered to send the winner a couple of his books as a reward. HOW COOL IS THAT?
So do your best and post your review and recipe by the 28th of May.
Yours
Johanna
It’s time to announce our next three bi-monthly foodie book selections! While you are delving into the current book, The United States of Arugula by David Kamp, you can start begging, borrowing or finding gently used copies to purchase of our selected books through the end of the year.
Rachel, The Crispy Cook is having us put our foodie detective hats on for “Death By Darjeeling (A Tea Shop Mystery)” by Laura Childs. Rachel says, “This cozy mystery is the first in a series of (now 13 titles) books featuring Charleston, South Carolina tea shop owner Theodosia Browning. Theodosia and her employees at the Indigo Tea Shop offers a wealth of teas and baked goods to sample at the shop and at various catered events, including an evening tour of historic homes. When an unscrupulous real estate developer turns up dead at this Lamplighter Tour, clutching an empty tea cup that held poisoned tea, Theodosia goes sleuthing to track down the murder.”
The deadline for “Death By Darjeeling” is Monday, July 30th.
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At Kahakai Kitchen, I (Deb), have become enamored of a little book of food essays, “Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen“ by Laurie Colwin. Colwin was the author of five books, as well as a food writer and a contributor to Gourmet and other magazines, who died unexpectedly and tragically young, in 1992 of a heart attack at age 48. “Home Cooking” is a small and wonderful collection of stories and memories about food, interspersed with recipes. Colwin wrote in a casual, warm style and with such a sparkling sense of humor–laughing about herself and her experiences–both good and bad in the kitchen. If you haven’t experienced her before, I think you will fall a little bit in love with her writing. It’s a short book so if you are feeling extra ambitious, feel free to read her follow-up More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen, as well.
The deadline for “Home Cooking” is Monday, September 24th.
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Jo of Food Junkie Not Junk Food is giving us a glimpse of a food writer’s life gone bad with the novel “Heartburn” by Nora Ephron. Jo says, “Heartburn is the bittersweet story of Rachel Samstat, a food writer, who discovers that her husband Mark has been having an affair with another woman, whilst she is VERY pregnant. The worse part is that it is not just a fling, but a relationship which has been going on for some time and is not about to end. Nora Ephron’s “Heartburn” is actually based on her own disastrous four-year marriage to Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein and is a funny, witty, heartbreaking, and mouthwatering story all at once.“
The deadline for “Heartburn” is Monday, November 26th.
So grab a copy of each of these books and join us for some foodie fun! If you are new to Cook the Books we would love to have you join us–you can check out our guidelines here.
Happy reading, cooking and eating!
Deb, Rachel and Jo
Hello everyone!
I hope you all enjoyed our previous sweet read and you are ready for something more…robust:
From the author’s site: United States of Arugula is a book about one of the happiest developments of our time: the quantum leap forward in food choice, food quality, and culinary sophistication in America in the last sixty years or so. The book examines not only the social forces that effected this transformation, but the visionaries who changed American food for the better: among them James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, and Alice Waters.” We should all find plenty of inspiration to cook from this fun look at the world of food.
The deadline for your entry for United States of Arugula is Monday, May 28th.
So please either email me at: jdimopoulosAT foodjunkie.eu, or leave your post comment here.
Thank you and Happy Easter,
Jo (foodjunkie.eu)
Thanks to everyone who participated in our latest Cook the Books selection, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Such wonderful dishes both sweet and savory, and excellent posts with your reviews, thoughts and feelings about reading (or rereading in many cases) this classic children’s book. If you didn’t get a chance to view the roundup and look at all the posts, here’s the link.
A very big THANK YOU! to our two fabulous judges, Natasha of 5-Star Foodie and her daughter Hannah, 5-Star Foodie Junior. It wasn’t an easy decision for them, but not only did they pick a winner, Hannah had comments for each person on their entry. Thanks so much ladies!
Here is what they said:
Natasha said: “Hannah and I just went over all the entries and I am including her comments below as well as the winner selection. This was so much fun!”
Hannah’s Feedback:
Our Judges Verdict:
Hannah said: “All the entries were very creative and everyone did a great job!. I picked Camilla’s dishes as a winner because those dishes could have been on a 5 star restaurant menu!“.
Congratulations Camilla! …First time joining in CTB and walking away a winner! You can see all of the wonderful dishes Camilla made for her Wonka-inspired dinner here, at her blog Culinary Adventures with Camilla.
It’s now time to pass the Cook the Books hosting torch along to Jo of Food Junkie Not Junk Food and our April/May selection, The United States of Arugula by David Kamp. And, I’ll be back briefly in a few days to announce our next three CTB picks–so stay tuned. Happy reading and cooking!
I love how willing all of you were to step back into childhood and embrace our February/March Cook the Books selection, the classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. For some it was revisiting an old favorite, for others it was a new experience, but everyone did an amazing job at coming up with their Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket inspired dishes. Whether it was something savory to nourish poor Charlie and his family, or a fantastical scrumdillicious treat, your posts sharing your thoughts on the book and your dishes were a delicious treat to read!
Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor enjoyed rereading the book, especially the parts where the naughty children got their comeuppance, but she was concerned about “the sustenance the Bucket family was missing in the beginning of the book” and wanted to give them something filling. She says, “So…….you’d think the inspired meal or dish would be totally chocolate related, right? I decided on a Beef Roast with Vegetables and Potatoes Rice as the beginning of the book painted such a bleak portrait of the Bucket household’s pantry. They spoke of watery cabbage soup…….but I am not inclined to have severe lower abdominal pain for days on end slurping cabbage soup. Nope. You can serve with mashed potatoes and place that lovely gravy atop or (if you are married to a southerner as I am….even though he doesn’t act or sound like one) you may serve over rice.” A meal to warm and fill the belly for sure!
A new face to welcome to Cook the Books is Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camila who was inspired by seeing the play adapted from the book to cook an entire chocolate dinner. Starting with a Roasted Parsnip-White Chocolate Soup, served with Chocolate Crostini and a Chicken with Chocolate-Balsamic Vinegar Glaze and Salad. Dessert was a variety of luscious Vosges chocolate bars. Camilla did a quick re-read of the book for our Cook the Books event and says that “There are several things I like about this book. Though the plight of the Bucket grandparents is depressing – all four confined to a single bed that they never leave – I like that they all live together. Extended family, if you have that luxury, adds so much to kids’ lives. I like the message of the story – you get what you deserve.” Welcome to Cook the Books Camilla!
My Cook the Books co-host Rachel, The Crispy Cook says, “It was a pleasure to dip in again with little Charlie Bucket and his sprightly Grandpa Joe as they explore the wonders of Willy Wonka’s amazing Chocolate Factory with a bunch of rotten kids and their equally revolting parents. I would recommend this witty book to anyone looking for a wacky, slightly sardonic romp, old and young alike.” She was inspired by Wonka’s Lickable Wallpaper for Nurseries and creatively created her own version saying, “I thought about those homemade flyers that have strips at the bottom with people’s phone numbers to rip off, and then that got me thinking about making edible wallpaper using nori, those sheets of roasted seaweed that one uses to roll sushi.” Rachel had fun experimenting with flavors and turning out some tasty Lickable Nori Wallpaper Snacks.
Alicia of Foodycat calls the book “a classic children’s book – a wonderful fantasy with a good dollop of the macabre and some none-too-subtle moralising. Just the way I like them really. It’s a great book for the food lover. From the painfully austere, watery, cabbage soup that the Bucket family lives on, to the small, tantalising luxury of Charlie’s birthday chocolate bar and then the unimaginable abundance of the chocolate factory itself, it is all described with an acute ear for language and a beautiful sense of timing.” Foodycat focused on the art and science of making chocolate saying “I decided to do something straightforward and absolutely fundamental to making chocolate. Tempering it.I used my tempered chocolate to line two of my silicon rose moulds. Once it set, I filled the moulds with chocolate mousse and chilled them to set. They turned out beautifully! The perfect snap, the perfect smooth texture and a lovely glossy finish. Willy Wonka would be proud of me!”
Eccentric inventor and chocolatier Willy Wonka, once opened the largest chocolate factory in the world, but spies stole his recipes, so he closed the factory to the public. The factory mysteriously started producing again, and now Wonka is reopening it, but only to the five lucky children who find a golden ticket, hidden inside the wrappers of his Wonka bars. Charlie Bucket lives in poverty with his mother and his four elderly grandparents and there is barely enough money to buy food, let alone chocolate bars. After his birthday chocolate bar and a bar purchased with a coin his Grandpa Joe gives him do not yield the coveted golden ticket, Charlie thinks he has no chance to win a tour of the factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate candy. At the last minute, with money found on the street, Charlie buys a final bar and finds the last golden ticket. Now he and Grandpa Joe are headed to visit Wonka’s factory, along with some obnoxious companions. Wonka’s wonderland is full of amazing inventions, fabulous candy treats and mysterious little workers called Oompa-Loompas–but beware–dangers lurk there for bratty. misbehaved children!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl is my pick for our February-March Cook the Books round. I read and re-read this book as a child, along with Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, but I had not revisited it since reaching adulthood. I thought it would fun to find my inner child by going back to this fun classic and I hope you will join in. With all the fantastical and mouth-watering treats imagined in the book, I can’t wait to see what sort of scrumdillicious treats and dishes everyone makes!
The deadline for your entry for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Monday, March 26. To join in the fun, simply read the book, make a dish (or dishes) inspired by it, and post your thoughts about the book and what you cooked up. Let me know when your post goes live by leaving a comment below and/or by sending me an email at debinhawaii@gmail.com. Judging information will be forthcoming.
Happy (& delicious) reading!
Thanks to everyone who grabbed hold of our latest Cook the Books selection, Outlaw Cook by John and Matt Lewis Thorne, and submitted such great posts for our roundup. We certainly covered a lot of culinary terrain in our posts.
And a hearty thank you to our Guest Judge, our featured author himself, John Thorne, for stopping by to read our submissions and select a winner. He was most gracious and in his emails to me noted that “This is going to be very hard. I’m blown away by the thoughtfulness (and generosity) of all the writing and the adventurousness of the cooking.”
He went on to say:
“It was a very interesting experience: I thought you’ve gathered together some very good readers and very good (and imaginative) cooks. Also, I don’t get much of a chance to learn about the experience readers have when they read one of my books. I found it hard to believe that OUTLAW COOK is approaching its twentieth birthday! — perhaps because the food your participants chose is essentially timeless.”
And the winner of this Cook the Books round is……………….Claudia of Honey from Rock. Claudia’s now a three-time winner of our little CTB contest and her post about backyard bread baking, Romanesco cauliflower and Lasagna Cacciatora is interesting indeed. Congratulations Claudia!
I will now pass the CTB torch to another Hawaiian buddy, my friend and co-host, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen. She will be here soon to officially kick off our next book round, featuring that toothsome children’s classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and I’m sure I’m not alone in looking forward to rereading this scrummy book.
