giveaways

we have 4 spooktacular winners!

~ jama ~ 5 Comments

♥ HAPPY HALLOWEEN! ♥

Goth Greetings to all ye goodly ghosts and goblins!

Where did October go? How time flies when you’re having fun! We thoroughly enjoyed hosting all our special guests and thank everyone for reading and commenting on the interviews.

Today, we’re pleased to announce the winners of the giveaways for these three books:

  • Apple by Nikki McClure
  • The Goodbye Cancer Garden by Janna Matthies and Kristi Valiant
  • The Power of Poppy Pendle by Natasha Lowe.

Naturally, we wouldn’t dream of asking anyone other than the ever reliable, extremely flirtatious intelligent numerical genius Monsieur Random Integer Generator to help us pick the winners.

As you can well imagine, Monsieur Generator’s services are in constant demand. Such a busy, busy boy. We had to utilize state-of-the-art vampire bat echolocation to determine his exact whereabouts. We tracked him from the balmy Promenade des Anglais in Nice to the hills of San Miniato in Tuscany, where he was sniffing out white truffles before proceeding to London’s West End, where he will star in a new production of “The Count of Monte Crisco,” part of a new campaign to imprison those who promote trans fats in the human diet.

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♥ a tasty visit with nikki mcclure (+ a giveaway!) ♥

~ jama ~ 77 Comments
Originally self-published in 1997, this recipe gift book was released by Sasquatch Books in 2010.

For award-winning cut-paper artist Nikki McClure, the perfect day would likely start off with one of her husband Jay T’s homemade waffles. It would be topped with fresh fruit — foraged or farm market blackberries or neat slices of late summer nectarines. Or he might make his giant blueberry pancakes — pancakes that fill the whole pan, flipped with a giant spatula. Mmmm!

These nourishing, homemade mornings are an important part of Nikki’s inspiring, free-spirited lifestyle that’s marked by weekly visits to the farmers market, cooking, eating and playing outdoors with her son Finn, foraging for fruit, afternoon swims, astute observations of her rural environment, and hours of meditative work in her studio, where she captures the essence of bird, leaf, branch, sky, the turning of the seasons, and a myriad of other everyday wonders in her amazingly beautiful, intricate papercuts.

Nikki’s studio: working on her next book, HOW TO BE A CAT

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lapping up minette’s feast with susanna reich and amy bates (and a giveaway!)

~ jama ~ 46 Comments

“Those early years in France were among the best of my life. They marked a crucial period of transformation in which I found my true calling, experienced an awakening of the senses, and had such fun that I hardly stopped moving long enough to catch my breath.” ~Julia Child (My Life in France, Knopf, 2006).

OOH-LA-LA and MIAO!

We’ve set out our best red-and-white checked tablecloth today in honor of special guests Susanna Reich and Amy Bates, co-creators of the delectably enchanting picture book biography, Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat (Abrams, 2012)!

*purrrrrs*

Shortly after Julia and her husband Paul moved to Paris in 1948, they were adopted by “a mischievous, energetic poussiequette with a lovely speckled coat,” whom they named Minette Mimosa McWilliams Child. This sly, feisty feline instantly charmed her way into their hearts and became an important part of their lives, sitting on Paul’s lap during meals and stealing tidbits off his plate when she thought he wasn’t looking.

Julia with Minette, Paris, 1953 (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University)

In Minette’s Feast, we are treated to a scrumptious snapshot from those glorious, golden, transformational years of Julia’s culinary awakening through the eyes of her very first cat, who, as this story goes, adamantly preferred fresh mouse or bird to any of the future Queen of Cuisine’s offerings.

Day and night, the “luckiest cat in all of Paris . . . could smell the delicious smells of mayonnaise, hollandaise, cassoulets, cheese soufflés and duck pâtés.” C’est magnifique!

But whether Julia prepared something specially for Minette (fish heads with chicken liver custard), or presented her with tasty scraps from the day’s culinary experiments, for ravenous Mini, “there would always be mouse.”

*licks chops*

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a special giveaway for alphabet soup’s 5th birthday

~ jama ~ 110 Comments

Hello hello hello!

I’m baaaaaaaaaack — just in time to celebrate five years of Alphabet Soup!

Wow, it’s very hard to believe it’s been that long and that I’m still here after 1400+ posts on 2 different platforms, 348 15 pies, 569 a few cupcakes ☺, 145 book reviews, and many, many days when I asked myself, “Why am I doing this again?”

Who’d have thought a very private, non tech-savvy introvert who’d never even read a single food blog (gasp!), could somehow keep finding something to say week after week?

Wonders never cease.

I named the blog, “Alphabet Soup,”  because at the time I was writing my first chapter book about an alphabet collector who acquires a miniature uncle via mail order for the letter U, and included, “soup” because of my first picture book, Dumpling Soup. I was intrigued, and still am, by blogging as an art form, a unique creative outlet that allows me to indulge my love for journaling and creative nonfiction, letter writing, children’s literature, photography, culinary history, typography, food art, food memoirs and baking.

I have learned SO much in five years, only to realize how little I actually know about everything. I have new respect for professional book reviewers, renewed love for teachers and librarians, even have a new appreciation for editors, i.e., “inappropriate submissions.”

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apple pie 4th of july winners!

~ jama ~ 11 Comments

Why yes. It’s time once again to risk life and limb to select the winners of our Apple Pie 4th of July Summer Giveaway.

As some of you may know, last time we nearly avoided any semblance of monkey business, riots in the ranks, or tetchy tampering with contest results.

Nearly.

Determined to avoid yet another fiasco involving false mustaches, Groucho Marx impersonations, or twitchy dowsing rods gone amok, we sent an urgent missive to the ever steady and reliable Mr. Random Integer Generator, who, after a brief sojourn in the French Riviera, Peugeoted himself across the border and is, at this very moment, relaxing in Tuscany with a glass of Chianti, pecorino, and summer-glorious panzanella.

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