Tag: baking for bookworms

• January 22, 2016

  Baking for Bookworms: Tater Tot Casserole from Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park

  Food is supposed to make you feel good. It provides sustenance and is usually the conduit for good memories. But all too often, there are people for whom eating is not a positive experience. I feel so much for Eleanor and the abuse she and her family go through at the hands of their stepfather. […]
• January 16, 2016

  Baking for Bookworms: Vanilla Custard from Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches

  So I normally don’t take baking posts from descriptions of food, but this custard was part of a really provocative description, and I couldn’t resist. The custard is mention in reference to a particularly amazing bottle of wine. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a wine that reminded me of vanilla custard, but I […]
• January 9, 2016

  Baking for Bookworms: Buttered Popcorn from Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love

  I wanted to choose a food from this book that reflected the circus atmosphere, and there are few foods that do that better than fresh buttery popcorn. The first mention of popcorn occurs at the very beginning of the novel, when the narrator, the hunchbacked Oly, describes the ‘good days’ of her youth at the […]
• January 2, 2016

  Baking for Bookworms: Saffron Cream from Gregory Maguire’s Wicked

  There’s not much food mentioned in the Wicked series. Elphaba has way more important things to do than cook. Or even eat. But there are a few foods that manage to convey both a very Oz-like sense of the exotic as well as a dark of mysterious quality–something decadent but not quite right. Saffron cream is mentioned […]
• December 11, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms: Holiday Ham Sauce from Kate Christensen’s The Epicure’s Lament

  So I don’t exactly have a recipe or a normal post for you. Because I made this sauce. And it was just. so. gross. So I will not be sharing the recipe with you. Because you will hate me if I do. I mean, I will share vaguely. But don’t make it. So the Hugo, […]
• December 6, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms: Cinnamon Cake from Kate Forsyth’s Bitter Greens

  So this post is late, obviously. I haven’t been keeping up with my baking for bookworms posts very well, even though they’re one of my favorite features. But I’m working on getting everything back on track. If you have a book you want me to cook or bake from, be sure to leave it in […]
• November 22, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms: Russian Dumpling Soup from Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone

  There’s not too much mention of food in the start of Leigh Bardugo’s trilogy, and what food there is tends to contribute to the vaguely Russian inspired setting. This soup is no exception. “Winter looked different to me than it ever had before. I spent sunny afternoons skating on the lake or sledding on the […]
• November 15, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms: Sweetened Spiced Wine from Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits

  There’s nothing like a glass of warm wine on a chilly autumn night. Even better if it’s just a little on the sweet side and has more than a hint of cinnamon. Much of the food in this novel is related to class and status. The Trueba family is wealthy and they can, and do, […]
• October 25, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms: Baked Alaska Cupcakes from Mary McCarthy’s The Group

  Sorry this is a bit on the late side! My brother flew out to Boise this last week to watch a concert with us, and it sort of threw off my posting schedule–though in the best possible way. Baked Alaska is a strange, intimidating kind of dessert. It has a million kinds of textures, combined […]
• October 16, 2015

  Baking for Bookworms: Coconut Pancakes from Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones

  This was actually one of the hardest books to choose a dish from. There were so many good options from nachos and guacamole to mu shu pork, to an apricot-plum smoothie with wildflower honey. But ultimately, it was the coconut pancakes that called to me because, I mean, how could they not? There is nothing […]