Good eating

From the Guardian: Jane Brocket's Top Ten Food Scenes in Children's Literature.  I like reading about what people are eating almost as much as I like reading their mail, and I recognized quite a few of Jane's favorites:  Maria's tea, Marilla's raspberry cordial, Pippi's pancakes, and Paddington's elevenses.  Jane's new book, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer: A Golden Treasury of Classic Treats (Hodder and Stoughton, 2008) includes these and other recipes, each of which is introduced by "an evocative description of the book that inspired it" (from Jane's website).  Yum.  It's available now in the UK; I can't wait to get my hands on it.

In the meantime, I would add opening Katy and Clover Carr's Christmas Box to my own list of favorite food scenes.  It's from What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge (1873), and it begins like this:

Then [Katy] could wait no longer, but crept out of bed, crossed the floor on tiptoe, and raising the lid put in her hand.  Something crumby and sugary met it, and when she drew it out, there, fitting on her finger like a ring, was a round cake with a hole in the middle of it.
"Oh, it's one of Debby's jumbles" she exclaimed.

Katy and Clover have to wait until after breakfast to unpack their box ("a big wooden one with all the nails taken out of the lid"), which is longer than I could have done.  Here's a peek at what's inside:

The top of the box was mostly taken up with four square paper boxes, round which parcels of all shapes and sizes were wedged and fitted.  The whole was a miracle of packing....
Each box held a different kind of cake.  One was full, of jumbles, another of ginger-snaps, a third of crullers, and the fourth contained a big square loaf of frosted plum-cake, with a circle of sugar almonds set in the frosting.  How the trio [Katy, Clover, and Rose Red] exclaimed at this!

And they haven't even gotten to their presents yet!  No wonder that "'The Carrs' Box' was always quoted in the Nunnery afterwards, as an example of what papas and mammas could accomplish, when they were of the right sort, and really wanted to make schoolgirls happy."

What are your favorite food scenes in children's literature?  I'll make a list with links to the books.  Extra yum!

It's Pancake Week!

This book about celebrating spring arrived last week, just in time for Maslenitsa.  What is Maslenitsa, you ask?  It's Pancake Week!  From A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox by Wendy Pfeffer; illustrated by Linda Bleck (Dutton, 2008):  "Families [in Russia] ate warm, round, golden pancakes [blini] that looked the sun.  The more butter they spread on each pancake, the hotter the sun was supposed to be during the coming summer."  We love pancakes over here and were thrilled to discover that Maslenitsa, a Russian folk and religious holiday, is being celebrated this week.  More pancakes, please!

Hmmm (mmm).  I wonder if How Mama Brought the Spring by Fran Manushkin; illustrated by Holly Berry (also Dutton, 2008) has anything to do with the Russian folk tradition of Maslenitsa (if not the religious one, obviously)?  I haven't read it yet, although I have read Elizabeth Bird's review at A Fuse #8 Production (2/22/2008).  In that book, Mama tells Rosy about how Grandma Beatrice once brought spring to Minsk by making blintzes (Rosy and Mama try the same thing in Chicago; good luck!).  Blintzes, blini:  it makes sense to me.  What do you think?

Books that Cook: Bee bim bop!

[Books that Cook:  An occasional feature in which the Books Together Test Kitchen (that would be me and my kids) prepares a recipe from the back of a picture book.] 

Milly and I brought Bee-bim bop! by Linda Sue Park (illustrated by Ho Baek Lee; Clarion, 2005) home from the library one day and were making the title dish for dinner the next.  Its catchy refrain, "Hungry hungry hungry / for some BEE-BIM BOP!" was certainly true at our house.  Park's picture book is just plain fun to read aloud, and she makes cooking dinner, which can be a chore, sound like fun, too.  Best of all, bee-bim bop--or "mix-mix rice"--also sounded like something everyone (kids included) might actually eat.  Bonus!

Park's recipe for this popular Korean dish fills a double-page spread at the back of the book.  Single-spaced.  But the ingredient list, while long, consists mostly of items you probably already have in your pantry (the only thing we had to buy were mung beans, and next time we won't even buy them); and the cooking instructions aren't complicated, they just have many steps.  Park helpfully notes what children and grownups should do at each step.  Leo and Milly mostly measured and mixed while I chopped and cooked; there was enough to keep us all busy for about 30 very intense minutes.  Then our bee-bim bop was ready to bee-bim and eat!

Notes from the Test Kitchen

• If you like a lot of extra juice for your rice, make double the amount of marinade and stir-fry the meat in a very large frying pan.  The marinade smells (and tastes) delicious!
• Substitute the vegetables for ones you know your kids like.  Park uses carrots and spinach; next time we might try red pepper and broccolini.
• Wash pots pans and dishes as you go.  Everything cooks in a separate pot and is served in a separate dish.
• The kids loved being able to choose what and how much of it to add to their rice.  Make sure they choose some vegetables (Leo, that means you).
• Next time we (the grownups) are going to try it with spicy ko-chee-chang and kimchi for a little extra kick.

We all had a lot of fun making--and eating--this dish.  Almost as much as we did reading the book!  Park has worked as a food writer, and it shows:  the recipe was written with care, and it's a real asset to the book.