I love books that make me feel, that entertain me, that give me insights into life and hope for humanity. But there’s something much less cerebral that will always win me over to a book: tasty food descriptions!
When I reminisce about favorite childhood books, I have to admit that a big portion of the memories involve the characters chowing down on delectable treats. From Chester Cricket sharing a bit of liverwurst with Tucker Mouse to Ramona’s trip to Whopperburger to the bubbly pies at Harper Hall, I’ve always loved reading about what characters eat.
At first I thought I’d do a single posting here about favorite food scenes. But as I talked with my food-scene-loving friends and my list of favorites grew, I started thinking about how I’ve always wanted to try actually making some of these dishes. So I’ve decided to make this my monthly quest: each month I will pick a dish from a YA or MG book and attempt to make it myself.
I must admit that this isn’t the first time I’ve considered recreating literary treats in my own kitchen. A few years ago my friend and I tried our hand at Turkish Delight, figuring that a candy that can tempt you into betraying your friends and joining up with the evil queen must be absolutely amazing. Sadly, our attempt was a miserable failure, as documented here on my recipe blog.
There are also some food scenes that I must resign myself to never being able to recreate in real life. The mouth-watering meal-in-a-stick-of-gum from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will have to remain an entirely literary feast. And I’m just going to have to imagine what the contents of the Drink Me bottle in Alice in Wonderland tasted like (or read the wonderful description in Lisa Mantchev’s forthcoming Eyes Like Stars).
This month, I started with one of my all time favorite books for food descriptions: Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Of all the many, many delicious descriptions in that book, one that has always intrigued me is the Bird’s Nest Pudding:
“It takes a great deal to feed a growing boy,” Mother said. And she put a thick slice of bird’s nest pudding on his bare plate, and handed him the pitcher of sweetened cream speckled with nutmeg.
Almanzo poured the heavy cream over the apples nested in the fluffy crust. The syrupy brown juices curled up around the edges of the cream. Almanzo took up his spoon and ate every bit.
A bit of googling found me this promising recipe on Allrecipes.com so I headed off to the grocery store for apples and heavy cream. I followed that recipe almost exactly, except that I left out the maple flavoring, and I baked my version in two pie-plates. Here’s the result:
And an individual serving, next to my copy of Farmer Boy (and my to-read stack):
And that picture is all that’s left of it! Like Almanzo, I ate every bit! It’s hard to go wrong with apples, cream and sugar but it really was very good. And you know, the brown juices did curl up around the edges of the cream. And the crust was fluffy!
I’ll be continuing to try my hand at other “book-food” over the coming year, and I would love to hear comments about your own favorite food descriptions and any attempts you’ve made to recreate them. And if there’s something in particular you think I ought to try, send that along too!
Comments
1 Lisa Mantchev // Feb 24, 2009 at 6:19 pm
That looks absolutely DELICIOUS. *might have just drooled on myself.*
In my head, this “pudding” looked a bit like an apple pie, with the edges of lattice like the nest (perhaps due to the “slice” description?)
Something from Anne of Green Gables next, my girl!!
2 Samantha R. Vamos // Feb 25, 2009 at 1:29 am
Deva – Please consider adding a PB book to your recipe hunt. My second book, “The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred” (Fall 2010) includes a recipe (it’s a surprise) at the end. After seeing what you concocted, which made me hungry, I’m thinking you’d be well suited for making the recipe in my book! All best, Samantha
3 jama // Feb 25, 2009 at 8:30 am
I’m drooling all over this post. I also wrote about Farmer Boy on my blog, alphabet soup (which is devoted to food in children’s fiction), but I made the apples and onions. I’m looking forward to your future posts, and will link to you.
4 olugbemisola // Mar 6, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Looks delectable! Hmmmm, maybe tomorrow….
I think of Royal’s pancakes whenever I think of the Wilder brothers. Great post!
5 Donna // Mar 10, 2009 at 8:55 am
I like to make Blancmange. That’s what Jo carried to Laurie when he was sick, in Little Women. Here is a modern adaptation:
http://recipes.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Cornstarch_Blanc_Mange_Recipe
6 Melody // Mar 27, 2009 at 11:06 am
I have a copy of “The Little House Cookbook” published in 1979. There is a recipe for Birds- Nest pudding on p. 126. There is also a wacky, but surprisingly good recipe for lettuce with vinegar and sugar. I teach 4th grade and jut finished “Farmer Boy”. It is loved by both girls and boys. We wll be wrting about our favorite holidays and food.
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