a delicious peek at mr. emerson’s cook by judith byron schachner

July 1, 2014June 30, 2014 ~ jama ~ 14 Comments

“Your work should be in praise of what you love.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best cooks know that sometimes it’s those intangible ingredients that can make or break a recipe.

A certain slant of light, a sprinkling of happy anticipation, a generous cup of love. Two people can prepare the same dish with notably different results. That’s because cooking is a transformative process — part magic, part spiritual, part meditative. Every cook brings his or her own je ne sais quoi to the table.

In Mr. Emerson’s Cook by Judith Byron Schachner (Dutton, 1998), we see what happens when Irish cook Annie Burns finally discovers what special ingredient she must use to help employer Ralph Waldo Emerson regain his appetite.

Emerson lived at “Bush House” from 1835-1880. Here, he raised his family, wrote his most important works, and entertained leading transcendentalists like Thoreau, the Alcotts, and Elizabeth Peabody.

Fact and fiction are interwoven in this beautifully written gem of a story, which takes place at Emerson’s home in Concord, Massachusetts, where he lived with his second wife Lidian and their three children.

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friday feast: anna’s garden songs by mary q. steele and lena anderson

June 27, 2014September 12, 2017 ~ jama ~ 50 Comments

While looking for more children’s books illustrated by Lena Anderson, I was happy to discover Anna’s Garden Songs — a whimsical, light-hearted collection of 14 fruit and veggie poems written by Mary Q. Steele.

Garden favorites like peas, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, beets and onions take their place in the sun with playful rhyming verse and Lena’s fanciful pictures. I may as well confess right now that I’ve always had a thing for giant vegetables, so when I saw how Lena fiddled with scale in this book I squealed with delight. 🙂

Blond, mostly barefoot, bespectacled Anna is just adorable as she plants, harvests and shares the garden’s bounty with her friends, grandfather, and large pet rabbit, who happily scampers through the pages and almost steals the show (he’s especially good at nibbling and napping).

From the moment I opened the book and saw Anna hiding in that big pea pod, I knew I was in for a real treat. I can’t decide which I like most — Anna sitting atop a giant beet, relaxing amongst the tomato plants, or wearing a dress made from lettuce leaves.

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loving ann arnold’s the adventurous chef: alexis soyer (+ a little rice pudding)

June 24, 2014June 24, 2014 ~ jama ~ 19 Comments

If 19th century French chef Alexis Soyer were alive today, he’d likely have his own cooking show. His name brand sauces, cookbooks and kitchen utensils would fill store shelves, velvet berets would be all the rage, and lines of fans would snake around the block at all his public appearances.

Though he was deliciously famous during Victorian times and has been called the first celebrity chef, today Soyer is curiously the man history forgot.

I’ve been fascinated by his life and work ever since reading Ann Arnold’s beautifully written and illustrated picture book biography. You may know Ann as the illustrator of Alice Waters’s now classic Fanny at Chez Panisse, which is ‘the book’ that got me hooked on illustrated cookbooks.

In The Adventurous Chef: Alexis Soyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), Ann outlines Soyer’s life from his humble beginnings in the tiny French town of Meaux-en-Brie (1809), till his death from Crimean fever in London at the age of 48. He was quite a colorful and flamboyant character who enjoyed amusing people — not only a celebrated chef with a social conscience, but also an inventor, entrepreneur, and prolific cookbook author.

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friday feast: gearing up with poem-mobiles by j. patrick lewis, douglas florian and jeremy holmes

June 20, 2014September 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 40 Comments

Ahem. I’ve known for some time that poets J. Patrick Lewis and Douglas Florian are both crazy. Crazy talented, that is.

Ebullient wizards of comedic timing and wordplay, these two pun meisters should be arrested for having way too much fun. Having tickled the funny bones of kids everywhere for decades, they’ve each published dozens of award winning books that celebrate the many wonderful possibilities of poetry. Such joy! Such cleverness! Such vigorous versifying! Veddy veddy good.

Now, a new book by either one of these beloved poets is a real treat, but having them write a book together is like having your cake and eating it two, three, maybe five thousand times. In Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems (Schwartz & Wade, 2014), Mr. Lewis and Mr. Florian have set their engines at full throttle, pulling out all the stops when it comes to inventing 21 crazy dazy cars of the future.

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victor nunes just wants to have fun

June 9, 2014October 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 14 Comments

I think I know what Victor Nunes, a retired art director from São Paulo, Brazil, has for breakfast.

A banana, steamy cappuccino, maybe some bread and butter. But this young-at-heart visionary doesn’t just eat his breakfast, he regularly plays with his food to create delightful doodles and mini pieces of art.

Victor is a person who sees faces in everything. A vivid imagination and a finely honed sense of play seem to be his constant companions each and every day, as he sculpts lighthearted portraits and sketches whimsical scenes. Besides bits of food, he includes everyday objects (pencil shavings, thumbtacks, matchsticks, corks, Q-tips), elevating them from the seemingly mundane to redefine their roles, always inspiring us to take a good second look at whatever is within our reach.