cookbooks

rainbow pasta from allergies, away!

~ jama ~ 25 Comments

Recently, Mr. Cornelius and I finally made one of the recipes from the Park Sisters’ new cookbook, Allergies, Away!: Creative Eats and Mouthwatering Treats for Kids Allergic to Nuts, Dairy, and Eggs (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013).

We wanted to whet your appetite for their upcoming visit next month and share a few details about their mouthwatering, kid-friendly collection of 70+ recipes — dishes your entire family can enjoy making and eating, whether they have food allergies or not.

Credit: Teddy Wolff/WP Express</em

If you remember when Frances and Ginger stopped by to tell us about their beautifully written, heartfelt memoir (Chocolate Chocolate: The True Story of Two Sisters, Tons of Treats, and the Little Shop That Could, 2011), you know that they own Washington, D.C.’s, premier chocolate boutique. Imagine how disheartening it must have been when they discovered that Ginger’s one-year-old son, Justin, had severe food allergies, making it too risky for him to even visit their shop!

When Ginger was pregnant, everyone assumed her child would be the proverbial “kid in a candy store.” Though Justin had to stay far away from chocolate covered peanuts, he did grow up eating a nice variety of tasty, nutritious meals and snacks, thanks to the conscientious, resourceful efforts of his mother and aunt.

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friday feast: what’s in the garden? by marianne berkes and cris arbo

~ jama ~ 39 Comments

What could be better than a book brimming with delicious rhyming verse?

A book of taste-tempting riddle poems with gorgeous art, yummy recipes, food for thought, and gardening tips, of course!

In What’s in the Garden? (Dawn Publications, 2013), Marianne Berkes and Cris Arbo celebrate the joys of growing and eating twelve familiar fruits and veggies with a cast of adorable, happily-engaged multiethnic kids.

This delightfully fun, interactive feast is served up in a clever format: children are asked to guess which fruit or vegetable is described in each of the catchy four-line poems, then turn the page for the answer, where they’ll find an easy recipe featuring the produce to stimulate their appetites.

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[cookbook review] the secret lives of baked goods by jessie oleson moore

~ jama ~ 21 Comments

“Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” ~ Barry Lopez, Crow and Weasel

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Call my name, brand new cookbook! I’ve dallied between your covers and I’m under your spell. You speak my language: Animal Crackers, German Chocolate Cake, Alice B. Toklas Brownies, New York Cheesecake, Lemon Meringue Pie.

Yes, I’ll marry you. 🙂

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Recipe for Old Fashioned Doughnuts included.

I’ve just had the best time devouring Jessie Oleson Moore’s, The Secret Lives of Baked Goods: Sweet Stories & Recipes for America’s Favorite Desserts (Sasquatch Books, 2013).

Like she says: “everything tastes better with a backstory.”

Think about the hundreds (okay, thousands) of doughnuts you’ve eaten in your lifetime. Who invented the holes? And did you know “the hole is so the calories can fall out”? (I feel so much better now.)

You probably already know that Ruth Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie at Massachusetts’ Toll House Inn, even that Nestlé gave her free chocolate for life in exchange for permission to print her recipe on the back of their semi-sweet chocolate bars. But did you know it wasn’t until after the cookie became a national superstar (featured on a Betty Crocker radio show), that Nestlé invented chocolate chips?

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happy may: catching up

~ jama ~ 42 Comments

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Aloha, Friends!

Yes, the cat in the hat is back.

It’s nice to be home again after spending the last several weeks in Hawai’i with my family. Both of my parents are doing as well as can be expected for now, but when you’re 88 and 98, each day brings new challenges and concerns.

While it was very unsettling to have to suddenly drop everything and fly out there, I’m glad I was able to go and be of some help. No doubt there will be more frequent trips in the near future, so if you know anyone who can arrange to move Hawai’i just a tad closer to Virginia, I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

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Must thank you all so much for your support, good wishes, encouragement and advice. Your comments, emails, and surprise care packages really cheered me up and kept me going — proof yet again of the restorative power of chocolate, and that you are simply the best (and most good looking) blog readers on the planet.

Poetry for What Ails You

Though I wasn’t able to blog at all during April, I must mention how much I enjoyed reading your wonderful National Poetry Month posts. In past years, when I was tied up with my own Poetry Potluck, I didn’t have as much time to keep up with what everyone else was doing.

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good friday feast: a mary oliver good morning with baked french toast

~ jama ~ 46 Comments

“It is Spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ~ Rilke

 

Good morning, Poetry Friends, and Happy Spring!

More than a few rabbits have invaded the Alphabet Soup kitchen but we don’t mind in the least. Thought we’d ease into Easter Weekend by serving up an iconic Mary Oliver poem and some delicious baked french toast.

In this season of renewal, growth, and fresh starts, it’s good to remind ourselves that something wonderful may be waiting for us just over the horizon. As someone once said, “you can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again.”

So let’s toast this new morning, this new day, with all the positive energy we can muster up and nourish ourselves with food for the mind, heart, body, and spirit.

Remember: we can be the light.

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