On Monday, September 15, 2014 4:56:59 PM UTC-5, Tara wrote:
> I love food writing in children's literature.

I loved "All of a Kind Family" and its food too.

An old post of mine, from elsewhe

For anyone who doesn't know, there's a "Little House" cookbook (and
songbook-no, not 2 in 1! :-) ). The author points out that since food
was so often scarce, "Farmer Boy" is not only about Almanzo, it's
Laura's fantasy of living the stable, prosperous life, surrounded on
all sides by food. So far, I've tried the ginger water (also, check out
the ginger beer according to the book "Reasons for Seasons") codfish
balls, & green pumpkin pie (yes, it does resemble apple, but a little
more tangy - I loved it!).

I found a recipe for the Swedish cookies Pippi made in the first book
- "pepparkakor", so I'll try that. I've made flaming plum pudding, as
in "A Christmas Carol."

Check out Barbara Nynde Byfield's "Eating-in-Bed Cookbook" - very funny
and often very exotic or simply scrumptious. (She also wrote murder
mysteries, humor and kids' books.)

Recipes include "Elizabeth Barrett's Brownies," "Swordfish Agamemnon,"
"Spilt Milk Pudding," "Curried Favor"(a very spicy lamb dish), "Cornish
Hens Suttee," "Cheesecake Under the Covers," "Caesar's Goat,"(made with
veal) "Cooked Goose Full of Beans," "Pomegranates Inferno," "Turkish
Delight," "Suleyman's Comfort"(lamb with rice, currants, pinenuts,
etc.), "Chocolate Chili," "Golden Eggs" (deviled eggs with caviar),
"Tacos for Talking To," "Shoulder of Lamb to Cry On" (stuffed with
truffles) "Nest Eggs" (with chipped beef and kidney beans), "Watermelon
Hollandaise" (with gin), "Piggy Bank Beef" (stroganoff), "Deep Sleep
Apple Pie," "Ether" (macaroons with fruit, cream and brandy), etc.

Not all the recipes are expensive, believe it or not!

However, I found it necessary to turn up the heat for both the brownies
and the milk pudding - and the latter benefited from a reduction in sugar
as well. Suleyman's Comfort also has too much rice. Oh, and for anyone
who doesn't know, a #2 can means an 18- or 20-ounce can.

Do check it out! She wrote funny comments next to every recipe. Plus a
long introduction on the art of eating in bed.

Quote:

"If you've just seen 'Captains Courageous' on the Late Show and if
you're crying like a baby long before the last commercial, don't be
embarrassed. The minor woes of life are painful and deserve something
on your stomach. These (deviled) eggs, accompanied by a glass of
champagne, will wash down the lump in your throat."


I've always wanted to try poppy-seed cakes after reading the kids'
chapter book of the same name (1928). I tried baking eggs (wrapped in
20th-century foil) in the fireplace after reading about it in the only
really good book in Lucy Fitch Perkins' "Twins" series - "The Cave Twins".
No failures, but not memorable. "Cricket" magazine always had fun
things to cook.

I remember begging to go to France so we could check out the chocolate
shop from "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang". (Yes, I tried the recipe for fudge at
the end, but I've never really liked fudge - too rich.)

Finally, I would love, someday, to cook the feast Shasta had in C.S.
Lewis' "The Horse and his Boy". Just to refresh your memory, it was
"...lobsters, and salad, and snipe stuffed with almonds and truffles,
and a complicated dish made of chicken-livers and rice and raisins and
nuts, and there were cool melons and gooseberry fools and mulberry fools,
and every kind of nice thing that can be made with ice. (Plus white wine.)"
I lived in Spain when I read that book and I thought one of those sounded
something like paella, but not quite. (There's a Narnia Cookbook by Douglas Gresham - Lewis' stepson - from 1998, plus the Unofficial Narnia Cookbook
by Dinah Bucholz, who also wrote the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook.
Unfortunately, Gresham's book is out of print, I think.)


Lenona.