Blog Tour & Food From Fiction: Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg

Today is my stop on the SWEET HOME ALASKA blog tour.  I adored this book and will be reviewing it in a couple days.  Today I am welcoming the author to my blog for a Food From Fiction post.  The main character, Terpsichore, loves to cook and bake and when we meet her she is the main cook for her family due to a deal she made with her mom.  A lot of food is mentioned in this book and more than once I got to thinking about making cookies after reading a few chapters.  I asked for a recipe from the author and she provided one that is discussed in the book.  Thanks for visiting today Carole!

Since the old-timer, Mr. Crawford, recommended this recipe and it is the star of Terpsichore’s best-selling cookbook at the Palmer Fair, the obvious choice is Jellied Moose Nose. 

After all, in the wilds of Alaska, you don’t want to waste a smidgen of the moose you just shot. 

If you actually make it and eat it, you will have earned the right to milk and cookies for the rest of your life. 

From the Recipe Book of Terpsichore Johnson 

Jellied Moose Nose 

Put a large kettle of water on to boil. 

Hack off the upper jawbone of the moose just below the eyes and boil it for forty-five minutes. 

Dip the jawbone in cold water and pluck the hairs from the nose. 

Wash the nose thoroughly. 

Boil the nose again in fresh water with chopped onion, garlic, and pickling spices until tender. 

Cool overnight in the water it was boiled in. 

The next morning, remove the meat from the broth and remove the bones and cartilage. 

Thinly slice the meat, pack it in a glass dish with high sides, and cover with the broth. 

Season with salt, pepper, or vinegar to taste. 

Refrigerate. 

As the mixture cools, it will jell so it can be sliced. 

P. S. I’m a pescatarian, so that’s my excuse for never having tried it.

 

I am not a pescatarian, but I still don't think I would try it because I am also not an adventurous eater!

Pick up a copy of Sweet Home Alaska today. You will enjoy thoroughly enjoy Terpsichore and her adventurous, positive spirit!
Be sure to learn more about the author, Carole Estby Dagg at her website, or on Twitter!

Blog Tour & Food From Fiction: School for Sidekicks by Kelly McCullough

Today I am delighted to welcome Kelly McCullough to my blog.  Kelly has written fantasy for adults for years and School for Sidekicks is his first book for younger readers.  Check out his website for some fun book launch videos he's been making in anticipation for the release of School for Sidekick.  It's a great read that I know will be a big hit in my library!  Here's the synopsis:

Evan Quick is a GIANT superhero geek who dreams of one day becoming a superhero himself. Every morning he checks to see if he's developed his powers overnight, and every day there's nothing. No flying, no super strength, no invulnerability—that always hurts to check—no telepathy, no magic. Not even the ability to turn off the alarm clock without smacking the switch.

But then Evan somehow manages to survive a supervillian's death ray, and is sent to the Academy for Metahuman Operatives. Unfortunately, his new school is not what he expected, and instead of fighting bad guys, Evan finds himself blacklisted, and on the wrong side of the school's director. If Evan ever wants to realize his dream, he must convince his "mentor" Foxman, a semi-retired has-been, to become a real hero once again.

For author guest posts I like to ask them to share a recipe that is either a dish from the book or something they just enjoy.  Here is Kelly's post:

So, for this blog post I asked Foxman for one of his recipes. This was his response:

Foxman's Korean Chicken Burritos

Guaranteed goodness you can eat on the run.

The first thing you have to know about cooking for costumed heroes is that the meal can be interrupted at any time by anything from supervillain attacks to alien invasions or natural disasters. If you ever watched a superhero movie you know that the more involved the cooking process and the more you’re into the meal, the higher the chances of interruptions.

So, before anything else, your recipe has to take that into account and be flexible in the cooking process, or have some major built-in safety procedures. I prefer to go with the latter, and all of my recipes begin thusly:

1) Build one large robotic culinary prep system.* You’ll want it to have at least six arms, all with modular capacity so it can swap out any of its hands for a prep knife or powered whisk. I recommend building these in titanium sheathed with a hyperdense polyceramic armor–something ablative is ideal. You don't want stray plasma blasts to knock out an arm just as the meringue peaks are hitting that perfect spot.

That's why I armor all of my appliances too, and the stove has both internal and external shock damping to prevent small missile impacts from causing the soufflé to fall.

2) Computer control for the robo-chef.** I prefer to go with full blown artificial intelligence, because that gives the system a much better chance of figuring out whether a meal is just on pause for a villain battle, and the timing can be sorted by adjusting temps, or if it's going to have to park the cordon bleu fare and shift to sandwiches and other grab and go meals for the duration of an invasion. However, friends who've had some rogue AI issues swear by a simple but highly adaptive supercomputer with no self-awareness.

Which way you go is up to you, but whatever you do, remember to armor the daylights out of the computer core and harden it against EMP. Because if you don't someone is going to toast off a nuke somewhere close by, and then, bang all your recipes are gone forever. Which is another reason to always backup, backup, backup.

3) Decide how far back to basics you want to go. For example, my robo-chef is always stocked with staples like flour, water, sugar, eggs, and salt because I prefer to have things like crusts and breads made to order for more elaborate meals. I also stock in frozen crusts, and buns and things for quicker meals, and I know some heroes who prefer to have meals mostly prepared beforehand so the system is really doing more reheating than cooking, but that's always seemed so cheap and easy.

4) Ingredients:

8 Large whole wheat tortillas

Chicken:

1 lb. chicken breast, shredded.

1/4 cabbage, shredded

Sauce for Chicken:

2 tablespoons tamari

3 tablespoons chili paste

2 tablespoons chili flakes

2 minced garlic cloves

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 tablespoon powdered ginger

2 tablespoons sake or other rice wine

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Black bean mix:

1 can black beans, drained

1 tablespoon butter

2 minced garlic cloves

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

 

Extras:

1 tomato, diced

1/2 cup pickled jalapenos

1/4 lb. shredded cheddar cheese

1 whole avocado, diced

1/4 cup diced green olives

1/4 head of crisp lettuce, shredded

5) Preparation under normal circumstances. Pretty simple actually, you order delivery on all the ingredients, along with any other groceries you might. Once they arrive at your dummy address—got to protect that secret identity—you have your sidekick collect them and bring them back to the secret lair. There, place the groceries on the kitchen table in easy reach of the culinary robot.

If you've got good AI, you're done at that point except for the eating. If you've gone with a more rudimentary robo-chef, you'll probably have to instruct it to put away the groceries, load the ingredients in the appropriate hoppers and give the machine an execute command. Then, you just sit back with a nice drink and wait for the robot to call chow time.

6) Preparation in emergencies. It's possible that the computer will be having a hiccup, or there might be power complications. In that case you might have to give verbal commands on individual steps. If so, it goes like this:

Computer: Mix the chicken sauce ingredients.

Computer: Add the shredded chicken and cabbage to the sauce, stir

Computer: Prepare two pans.

Computer: Pan one, add the chicken and sauce mix over medium heat

Computer: Pan two, drop in one tablespoon butter, and minced garlic

Computer: Pan one, bring to boil and then simmer for 4 minute

Computer: Pan two, thoroughly sauté garlic, then add everything but beans, lower heat

Computer: Pan two, as pan one starts to bubble, add beans and bring back to medium

Computer: With one minute left on pans, put tortillas in microwave for 20 seconds

Computer: Lay out tortillas and distribute chicken and bean mixes evenly

Computer: Add cheese to tortillas and let melt

Computer: Query guests as to extras they would like

Computer: Add extras as ordered

Computer: Present plates to guests.

Computer: Clean the kitchen

*I'd include schematics, but OSIRIS (Office of Strategic Intelligence and Research, International Section) has informed me that all of that is considered classified and not suitable for sharing with the civilian population.

**Again, I can't offer schematics due to national security considerations, but really, AI is fairly straightforward and a simple application of first computing principles will get you there pretty quickly without violating any stupid national security directives.

Thanks for visiting my blog today Kelly. I hope the book will be a big hit. I will be book talking this at my library all year!

Do you have a question for our guest author? Kelly McCullough will be on Reddit doing an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) this Thursday August 6th at 3:00 PM Eastern Time. He'll be answering questions about School for Sidekicks, all past works, being a writer, his cats, and much more. You can submit your questions by going to http://www.reddit.com/r/iama at the scheduled start time.
  

Food from Fiction Guest Post: Lost in London Book Tour

Today I am hosting Cindy Callghan author of the new book for tweens: Lost in London.  Lost in London is published by Aladdin Mix.  My readers love these books and I know this one will be just as popular.  Here's the synopsis for Lost in London:

Twelve-year-old Jordan isn’t unhappy, but she’s definitely bored. So when she gets the chance to take part in a London exchange program, she’s thrilled to ditch her small town in Delaware and see the world across the pond.

Unfortunately, Jordan’s host sister in London, Caroline, isn’t exactly enthusiastic about entertaining an American girl. Despite the chilly welcome, Jordan finds herself loving the city and Caroline’s group of friends, who are much nicer than Caroline herself.

And then a major misstep leaves Jordan and Caroline trapped together overnight—inside Daphne’s, the world’s largest department store. Given they have complete access to all the fancy shoes, designer dresses, and coolest makeup around, there are worse places to be stuck. But when the girls’ fun has not-so-fun consequences, Jordan’s wish for excitement abroad turns into a lot more than she ever bargained for...

I invited Cindy to participate in my Food From Fiction series and she responded with a fantastic looking recipe for Banoffee Pie.  I hadn't heard of this before but you can bet I will be trying this recipe very soon!  Thank you for joining us today Cindy!

Like my first novel, Just Add Magic, Lost in London features adventures AND delicious food. I asked my friend Michelle Ardillo to create a few Lost in London-inspired recipes for me to share, and here’s one I absolutely love. 

Banoffee Pie is a relatively new food invention in England, created by a restaurant chef in the 1970s. Its popularity grew quickly and it can now be found all over the United Kingdom. How could you go wrong with bananas, caramel and whipped cream? 

As with the lemon tarts, all of the components of Banoffee Pie can be homemade from scratch or they can be purchased ready-made and assembled into a quick and delicious dessert! 

Ingredients:

 One ready-made graham cracker pie crust, 8” or 9” 

One 13.4 ounce can of Nestlé’s La Lechera Dulce De Leche (see hint below) 

Two to three ripe bananas 

Juice of half of one lemon 

One carton of Cool Whip, regular, thawed 

Chocolate shavings for garnish (optional) 

Directions: 

Peel and thinly slice the bananas, place in a medium-sized bowl. Toss with lemon juice. (This will keep the bananas from turning brown inside the pie.) 

Drain any remaining juice from the banana slices and arrange banana slices inside the pie crust. 

Carefully open the can of Dulce De Leche and stir with a spoon inside the can to soften it. 

Spread it evenly over the banana slices. Take your time as the Dulce De Leche is thick and stiff and the banana slices are delicate. 

Top with Cool Whip. 

Garnish with chocolate shavings (optional). 

Place in refrigerator to chill until serving time.

Hints:

If you can’t find Nestlé’s La Lechera Dulce De Leche, you can use a jar of caramel sauce or caramel topping used for ice cream sundaes. 

To slice the pie cleanly, dip the pie cutter into warm water before and after each slice, wiping with a clean kitchen towel or paper towel before slicing. 

To get the very first slice out of the pan more easily, cut the first slice on both sides, and then make the cut for the second piece, but return to the first piece 

You can find Cindy all over the web.  Below are links to her social media sites.  You can also buy her book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million.

Author Food From Fiction: Kevin Emerson's Pancakes

Welcome everyone to my stop on The Fellowship for Alien Detection Blog Tour!  Today I have the pleasure of hosting the author himself Kevin Emerson.  He is going to share with you how important pancakes are to the main characters of his book and to everyone who is on an adventure! 

The most important food in THE FELLOWSHIP FOR ALIEN DETECTION (and, arguably in all road trip adventures) is breakfast, specifically pancakes. Haley and Dodger dream about them as they hurtle across the country by car and by... other means of transit.

Pancakes are maybe my favorite thing to cook. They are the perfect fuel for adventure, and I make them almost every weekend. I've spent years trying to create a healthy whole-grain version that also tastes enough like the old-school diner variety that it still seems like a treat, not a burden. After many failed experiments, I've settled on this adventure-worthy recipe.

If you make these into alien-heads or flying saucer shapes, even better! (and please send me a photo if you do!)

Adventurer's Pancakes (the perfect point between Lembas bread and an all-night truck stop) 
by Kevin Emerson 

This recipe uses buttermilk, and is based on a recipe from Williams-Sonoma. The concept of buttermilk freaked me out, until I tried it, and realized it is the 42 of pancake success. 

Ingredients:
Dry Goods (2 Cups) (you can play with this part any way you like. Pancakes can take nearly any kind of flour/meal.)
1/2 cup whole wheat (or white) flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup oat bran or whole grain oats
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup almond meal
2 tsp baking powder (be generous, whole grains need extra oomph for lift-off)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Wet Goods
2 cups (or close enough) buttermilk
2 eggs (or egg white or egg substitute)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Directions:
Mix all the dry goods together. Add the wet goods. Mix until just smooth. Cook. Serve as fast as possible with butter and syrup.
Feel free to add nuts, blueberries, chocolate chips, pre-cooked bacon, etc., on the griddle.

Make these pancakes, then go on an adventure! Or curl up and read THE FELLOWSHIP FOR ALIEN DETECTION.

Thanks for visiting today Kevin and good luck on your book!
(watch for my review in a couple weeks!)

Food From Fiction: M & M Brownies

I adored this take on Hanzel & Gretel  (you can read my review here).  In this book students at Splendid Academy were fed a constant diet of treats, sweets and other good things to eat to fatten them up.  Every student also had a bowl of M&Ms at their desk that they were allowed to eat from all day long and that filled itself back up when it was empty.

As I was reading I of course started craving M&Ms--how could you not?  I love M&Ms (especially peanut butter).  My favorite thing is to put them in my buttered popcorn at the movies (no calories there I swear).  But, I also love them in cookies and brownies.  There is just something about a baked M&M that I like.  When they are on sale after a holiday I buy quite a few bags for baking with.  My favorite item to bake with M&Ms are M&M brownies.  I am sure taht there are several recipe out there for M&M brownies, but the easiest is to throw a cup or two into a brownie mix and baked them.  The brownies are fudgy and wonderful and the M&Ms are crunchy and chocolaty.  Perfection!

What do you like to do with your M&Ms?

Food From Fiction Guest Post (& Giveaway): Morgan Keyes author of Darkbeast

Today I am delighted to welcome Morgan Keyes to my blog.  Morgan is the author of Darkbeast which was just recently published my Simon & Schuster.  I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Darkbeast and am in the process of reading it.  Morgan was kind enough to write about how important food is in the wrold of Darkbeast.

Many thanks to Jana, for allowing me to visit here at Milk and Cookies: Comfort Reading to tell you about my middle grade fantasy novel, Darkbeast. Due to the generosity of my publisher, Simon & Schuster, I will give away a copy of Darkbeast to one commenter chosen at random from all the comments made to this post by 11:59 p.m. EDT tonight. 

In Darkbeast, twelve-year-old Keara runs away from home rather than sacrifice Caw, the raven darkbeast that she has been magically bound to all her life. Pursued by Inquisitors who would punish her for heresy, Keara joins a performing troupe of Travelers and tries to find a safe haven for herself and her companion. 

Food is important in Darkbeast. From the feast that Keara's family plans to celebrate her sacrificing Caw, to the treats her darkbeast craves, to the stews cooked over the Travelers' outdoor fires, food figures into nearly every aspect of my fantasy novel. (And yes, I got quite hungry while I was writing some of those scenes!) 

As in our very real world, food serves many purposes in Darkbeast. It is used in rituals. It brings people together at the end of long workdays. It restores their spirits in times of crisis. 

Of course, Keara lives in an imaginary world, so much of the food she mentions is different from our own. I worked hard to make Keara's food familiar enough that we all know what it is, but different enough that we probably haven't actually tasted it. Have you eaten chestnut bread? Drunk whiteroot tea? But you probably have ideas of what those foods would taste like, right? Just their names convey a sense of their flavor. 

In one important scene, though, I wanted to make sure that every Darkbeast reader would have a clear mental picture of exactly what Keara was experiencing. To that end, I gave her a special treat: toffee bread. 

Sadly, I've never had toffee bread. I can imagine ways to bake it. I can splice together my experiences of caramel apples and cinnamon coffee cake, forming some sort of new whole. I can put the words down on the page: 

"Steam rose up from the soft white clouds of baked dough. Nuggets of toffee melted through each half, fragrant with rich, sweetened butter. All three of us laughed, and I sank my teeth into the treasure. Sweet warmth flooded my mouth, and I closed my eyes in rapture." 

Can you taste it now? Do you understand what the toffee bread means to Keara, how magical the sweet treat is? What foods do you enjoy in the real world that carry that same feeling? (Me? I'd have to say a hot gingersnap cookie, fresh from the oven, before the molasses and shortening have cooled enough to make the cookie snap!) 

Morgan can be found online at:

http://www.morgankeyes.com
http://www.facebook.com/morgan.keyes.author 

Darkbeast is for sale in bricks-and-mortar and online bookstores, including: Amazon | B & N | Indiebound 

 Morgan Keyes grew up in California, Texas, Georgia, and Minnesota, accompanied by parents, a brother, a dog, and a cat. Also, there were books. Lots and lots of books. Morgan now lives near Washington, D.C. In between trips to the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery of Art, she reads, travels, reads, writes, reads, cooks, reads, wrestles with cats, and reads. Because there are still books. Lots and lots of books.

NTS Blog Tour: Food From Fiction: Hot Chocolate by Lish McBride

Today I am so excited to welcome Lish McBride to Milk & Cookies!  I adored both Hold Me Closer Necromancer & Necromancing the Stone.  She has created a world that I love to visit and I was so excited when I was asked to be part of this blog tour.  She was kind enough to write a Food From Fiction guest post for my stop on her blog tour.  And the recipe she shares for hot chocolate looks amazing!  Thanks for stopping by Lish!

Food ended up being more important in Hold Me Closer, Necromancer than I intended. In the first draft of the novel, I had a lot of characters drinking tea. Now, I like tea, but not matter how much I like it, my characters can’t drink it all the time. 

I think food also comes up a lot because Sam is a vegetarian. I didn’t realize how rare that is in a book until recently. So when I had to think of a recipe for this post I was like, “Oh! I should do a vegetarian tamale recipe like in the book!” Only, I don’t know how to make vegetarian tamales. Which is kind of important. 

Then I remembered Sam’s mom making hot chocolate. It’s an important scene and Sam (and Ramon) make a big deal out of it. Now, I don’t have a hot chocolate recipe of my own, but my friend Jen Violi does. (Jen, besides being a wonderful maker of hot chocolate, also has a book out called Putting Make-up on Dead People and you should read it. I have no problem shamelessly plugging my friends.) I know, I know, it should be my recipe we’re using, but honestly, Sam relies a lot on his friends, and so do I. 

Here is Jen Violi’s Hot Chocolate Recipe 

• Take a big hunk of chocolate (any good dark chocolate you have on hand will work--often I use several squares of those big ass Trader Joe's dark chocolate bars or parts of whatever delicious fancy chocolate bars I have on hand) and melt it down in a small saucepan. 
• As far as how much of anything, I'd say an ounce or two of chocolate per cup of milk, so it can be thick and rich (not like a big mug of powdered mix with water) and minimal. These two are the basic ingredients. 
• Add a bit of whatever milk you're using early on so it doesn't burn while it's melting. Stir constantly. 
• At this point, I also add a dash or two of salt, some vanilla, and several shakes of chipotle chili powder, ‘cause I like it spicy, if you know what I mean. (Some people use cayenne, or even just find one of those spicy chocolate bars.) 
• Then stir in the rest of the milk. Milk wise, I've used cow milk, goat milk, coconut milk, almond milk, almond coconut milk--and they're all delicious. Other things you can add if you’re feeling saucy: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, mint oil, booze (whiskey, Frangelico, etc.), and let’s not forget fresh whipped cream. Or marshmallows. The sky is the limit, friends. Just don’t add all these things to the same batch. That would be disgusting. 

The nice thing about this recipe is that it’s a base that you can get crazy with. The first time I made it, my son hated it because I used a really dark chocolate, and he’s just not that into that kind of chocolate. So for him, I use more of a milk chocolate. Have fun coming up with your own take on it! 

Thanks for the recipe Lish, it looks wonderful. Remember to enter to win a paperback copy of Hold Me Closer Necromancer & a hardback of Necromancing the Stone (click here to enter) Thanks so much Lish & Macmillan for letting me be part of this blog tour!  And to Lish for creating such a fun world that I can be a part of for a little while when I read her books.

Food From Fiction: Cowboy Food Inspired by Dead Reckoning

I just finished Dead Reckoning by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill.

It was a fun read:  ZOMBIES!!  WESTERN!! GUNSLINGERS!!  TRAIL FOOD!!

That's right trail food.  

I don't think I could have handled life on the trail, at least my 21st century self couldn't have handled it.

I think if I was alive back then I could have handled it.

At any rate, as I was reading this book I started thinking about a Cowboy Food casserole I have made plenty of times.  It basically comes out looking like the slop you see served often in Westerns, but it taste way better (I am sure).  While I was thinking of doing this post I stumbled upon a SLOW COOKER version of the recipe.  I was so excited!!  I am all about the slow cooker on busy days!

So here is the recipe for COWBOY FOOD in your slow cooker.  

Eat it and feel like a dusty, trail worn cowboy.

Then go take a hot bath!

(my review for Dead Reckoning will be posted next week)

COWBOY CASSEROLE 

1 onion, chopped 

1-1/2 lbs. ground chuck, browned and drained 

6 medium potatoes, sliced 

1 can red beans 

1 can tomatoes mixed with 2 tbsp. flour or 1 can tomato soup 

salt, pepper and garlic, to taste 

Put chopped onion in the bottom of the Crockery Pot; 

layer with browned ground beef, sliced potatoes, and beans. 

Spread tomatoes or soup over all. Sprinkle with seasonings as desired. 

Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. Serves 4 to 6 people.

One for the Murphy's Blog Tour: Food From Fiction

I was so excited to be asked by Lynda Mullaly Hunt to participate in her blog tour.  I got to read One For The Murphy's, which I loved (you can read my review here) and now get to welcome Lynda to my blog for a Food From Fiction post!  Welcome Lynda!

In my middle grade novel, One for the Murphys, food is one of the elements of the novel that helps to demonstrate the differences between Carley’s home with her mother and her home with the Murphys.

Carley makes reference to cans of Chicken Noodle Soup (a food associated with a mom caring for a sick child) that she used to eat directly out of the can because it “saved on paper plates.”  However, on Carley’s first night, Mrs. Murphy tells her that they are having lasagna for dinner. Carley asks, “Stouffer’s or store brand?”  When Mrs. Murphy responds that it’s frozen but only because she’d made it ahead of time and froze it, it is one of the times that Carley thinks that Mrs. Murphy is a real lightweight, thinking that she is “even worse than I thought.”

There is a scene when the oldest Murphy boy becomes very upset with Carley being in his home, and this all begins with a glass of milk. He wants some but she has drunk the last of it.  This represents mother’s milk/caring—something she has found and something Daniel feels he has lost.

Mrs. Murphys Chicken Thingie is a casserole that Carley really takes to. She makes references to it throughout the book. However, it’s the apple pie that has the metaphorical meaning.

In One for the Murphys, trees are metaphors for love and also the changes within Carley. The trees are bare when she arrives, and as she opens up, so do the buds in the trees. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree is also a part of this story line. When she arrives, the house is “the color of dirt” and “Tall, thin trees stand around the house like guards on watch.” And, when Carley runs from the house, she hides in an orchard.  Also, Carley uses a tree in a unique way to defend the youngest Murphy boy from a bully.

In early drafts, it was Mrs. Murphy’s banana cream pie that Carley fell in love with, but as the orchards appeared and the subtle use of trees became clear to me, I changed the pie to apple, tying the metaphors together.

So, food plays a part in ONE FOR THE MURPHYS in showing how Mrs. Murphy feeds far more than just Carley’s stomach.

Here is the recipe for:

Mrs. Murphy’s Chicken Thingie

8 skinless chicken breasts

 Onion  

Salt  

1 ½ sticks butter  

½ cup milk  

Flour  

Lipton Cream of Chicken Soup Mix packet  

1 can cream of chicken soup  

2 cups stuffing mix

1. Cook 8 half chicken breasts with onion and salt until fork tender (1 hour) 

2.  Melt 4 tbsp butter in saucepan. Stir in 4 tbsp flour. Add ½ cup milk and 1 envelope of Lipton’s Cream of Chicken Cup of Soup Mix, mixed with 1 cup of water. Add 1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup. Heat until well mixed. 

3.  Mix together ½  8 oz  pkg. Pepperidge Farms Stuffing and one stick melted butter. 

4.  Break chicken and arrange in bottom of 9 x 13 pan. Add sauce on top and then stuffing mix. 

5.  Bake at 350 for ½ hour.  Enjoy!

Mrs. Murphy’s Apple Pie

For 10" Pie

1 1/8 cups sugar

1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

9 large pared, sliced MacIntosh apples

1 1/2 tbsp. butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix sugar and cinnamon. Mix lightly through apples. Heap up in pastry-lined pan. Dot with butter. Sprinkle with some small tapioca to prevent the pie from being too juicy. Cover with top crust, which has slits cut in it. Seal and flute.

Cover edge with 1 1/2" strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned and apples are cooked through (test with fork). 

Thanks so much for joining me today Lynda!  I loved your book and look forward to your next one.  For those of you that have not read this check out the book trailer below (then go get yourself a copy, you won't be sorry!).

 

Guest Post: Joanne Rocklin Author of The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook

I am excited to be a part of the blog tour for The Five Lives of our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin.  She also wrote One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street, which I reviewed last spring.  joanne was kind enough to agree to do a Food From Ficiton guest post for my blog so please welcome Joanne!

How Is a Pizza Like a Story?  Let Me Tell You The Ways...

I love to cook. I love to write stories. I love to eat while I create, but that’s another story! (I gain ten pounds every time I write a novel.) 

 A recipe itself is very much like a story—it has a beginning and a middle and an end, and the ending is sometimes happy, sometimes not so happy. Both cooking and writing create order out of chaos; I think that’s why I love both activities. And while I am tolerating lots of disorder and mess, if I keep in mind some principles, a recipe or two during that messy process, I may get a cake or a pizza pie. Or a story. 

For me, that messiness is vital. A first draft and a kitchen must be messy while creating. You can’t stop to wash the dishes or the floor when the tomato sauce needs to be stirred. You can’t stop to rewrite Chapter One when Chapter Two is aching to be written, because you may need to change things yet again. 

 Every single one of my books has something about food in it. Several have a recipe at the end of the story. STRUDEL STORIES is about a family’s stories told while baking strudel; both the family and the recipe undergo changes over the decades. ONE DAY AND ONE AMAZING MORNING ON ORANGE STREET comes with a recipe for ambrosia. That sweet concoction becomes a metaphor for memory and connection. 

My new novel, THE FIVE LIVES OF OUR CAT ZOOK, isn’t about food. It’s about a family’s beloved, sick cat named Zook, and includes the stories Oona tells her brother, Fred, about Zook’s past lives. But food is very important in the book; Zook himself is named after the fried zucchini everyone loves. Gramma Dee makes taffy that makes teeth stay glued together for “seven scary seconds.” Oona’s mom invites The Villain home for a gourmet meal. Oona is entranced by Oakland’s urban gardens, where herbs and lush vegetables grow profusely. And the whole neighborhood enjoys the pizza at O’Leary’s, the kids’ home away from home, where Oona struggles to make conversation with her Secret Love. 

 In this novel, too, food is a metaphor for memory and connection, as in my other books. But food also means love and comfort (of course!) and diversity and growth—a wonderful stewy sauce of metaphors. At the end of my story Oona becomes a “pizza intern” at O’Leary’s, mixing dough, spreading sauce, and on her way to flipping the dough in the air, like a pro. 

Here’s a delicious recipe for homemade Pizza in a Pan, no air-flipping required. PAN-FRIED PIZZA, based on a recipe from the New York Times, November, 2007. Tried and true. 

2 cups all-purpose or bread flour 

3/4 tsp. instant yeast 

1 tsp. salt 

3 Tb. olive oil, more if necessary 

2 cups warm tomato sauce, can be commercial pizza sauce 

slices of mozzarella-sliced/chopped/julienned (whatever term you prefer!) 

fresh basil, if in season 

other herbs, fresh or dried, to taste. 

 Combine flour, yeast and salt in food processor. Turn on machine and slowly add 1/2 cup warm water and 2 T. oil through feed tube. Process briefly, adding more water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture leaves sides of bowl to form a ball. 

Put dough in a bowl coated with olive oil, turn to coat with oil. Cover bowl and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 1-2 hours.

 Divide dough into 4 pieces; roll each piece into a ball. Sprinkle each ball with flour, cover, and let rise until puffy, about 20 minutes, or less. 

Working with a ball at a time (each ball makes one small pizza) roll out to a 10-inch round. (Sprinkle dough with a bit of flour to prevent sticking as you roll.) 

 Heat an oiled 10-inch pan on medium heat. Put a round of dough in the pan to brown evenly. 

 Turn dough with fingers or tongs. 

Put tomato sauce, cheese, salt and pepper, herbs on browned surface. Cover pan and continue cooking until top is hot and cheese is melted OR place under broiler for a short time. 

 Repeat with remaining rounds of dough as needed. (Dough can also be refrigerated for a day or two.) 

Serve warm, or at room temperature. 

These make fine appetizers when cut into small portions. 

Kids love them! And my grandchildren and I have made them together:

Thanks Joanne for the wonderful post and the great looking recipe!

Check out the book trailer for The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook:

Food From Fiction: Comfort Food

Over break I read Tighter by Adele Griffin, which was a great read and I will be reviewing on Friday. There was one part where Jamie makes a "comfort food" meal for her young charge, Isa. It got me thinking about my favorite comfort food meal.

While there are quick comfort foods that I enjoy (cinnamon toast) my ultimate comfort food meal is cornbread and chili.

The problem is that it takes awhile to make this comfort food meal, it is rarely readily available when I need comfort. But, oh, oh, oh, when I make it I am immediately comforted by eating it.

It is also my oldest son's comfort meal (that and a gross concoction we make called Chinese sundae that is not remotely Chinese).

Here's what I do to make this meal the ultimate in comfort food:
*crumble up a piece of cornbread (mostly marie callendar's because that's the mix Costco always sells)
*pour chili over the top of that
*sprinkle cheese on the chili and a big dollop of sour cream
*mix around and savor!
YUM!

What is your ultimate comfort food/meal?

Food From Fiction: Chicken Salad from Variant by Robison Wells

This is an awesome book. Twisty and weird and very suspenseful. Not the kind of book you'd normally find some food inspiration from, but I did!! (I couldn't put it down and will be reviewing it Friday--good book!)

They actually talk about food quite a bit and it all sounded good. But at one point Benson (the main character) had a sack lunch that included chicken salad. I am assuming it was a chicken salad sandwich--and that made me think of the chicken salad sandwiches I make. Which are awesome. And I am going to make them tomorrow for my lunch!

Here's what I do:

*one can chicken (I use the Costco size)
*mayo
*blue cheese
*cashews
*green onions, chopped
*croissants (the big ones from Costco)


Mix the first five ingredients together until it looks and tastes like you might like. Because I like blue cheese and cashews I use a lot of those. (I also run the chicken through my mini food processor so it is not in chunks).

Spread it onto a croissant. (I think it is best on a croissant, but it is also really good on bread--and it is good without the green onions as well).

Enjoy!

Food From Fiction: Fried Fruit Pie from Sixteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton

I read and reviewed Sixteenth Summer a bit ago. It was a good read about a very sweet summer romance. One thing stuck with me long after the book, though and it had nothing to do with the romance. There was a part in the book where some of the characters ate fried fruit pies.

And my mouth has watered ever since!!

Remember the fried apple pies from McDonalds? (There is even a facebook page devoted to these) I miss them! They should bring these back as a special once or twice a year I think. I would definitely be in line for those! I bet a peach fried pie would be outstanding as well.

Alas, I have no place around where I live that I can buy one so I have set out to try and find a recipe so I can make them.

The one I am going to try is Paula Deen's from Food Network.

I haven't tried it yet (waiting till fall) but I have tried and made these: Apple Pie Pockets. They are easy to make and so very good to eat. Print out this recipe and give them a try.

And if you've ever made fried fruit pies, share the recipe with me!

Food From Fiction: Lemon Bars (MDBC #4)

Tomorrow I will be reviewing Pies & Prejudice, the fourth book in the Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Fredrick (who holds a spot near & dear to my heart because she is the first author to ever comment on a post of mine here on this blog!). It was a fun book that featured a lot of cooking because the girls started a pie baking business. I love pies (peach being my favorite), but my husband is not a big pie fan. Because of this, I never make pies--it would be too tempting to eat the entire thing myself!

However, they was much talk of a lemon meringue pie in this book--lots & lots of talk. I am not a huge fan of lemon meringue, but lemon bars are another story. And when you keep reading about lemon meringue pies it makes you think about lemon bars instead, well, you have no choice but to go to the kitchen and make yourself some lemon bars!! (none of my family eats lemon bars much but, oddly, I didn't mind having a whole pan of lemon bars sitting around the kitchen all weekend). Lemon bars make me think of sunshine and that is just perfect for this time of year!

All lemon bars recipes are pretty much the same, but I really like Paula Deen's version. See the recipe here or print the recipe here and enjoy a little sunshine in your day!

Food From Fiction: The Mockingbirds (Macaroni & Cheese)

Last week I reviewed The Mockingbirds and today I am going to talk about food, good old fashioned comfort food, from the book. After Alex is date raped she stops going to the cafeteria because she always sees the boy who raped her and his friends there. So, food kind of becomes an issue for her--or lack of it. Friends are constantly bringing her things to eat, but it's not until one girl, Amy, shows up with a pan full of homemade macaroni and cheese that I really started to drool.

The scene is written well, you can tell the food is there for comfort so it has to be a comforting dish, and what is better than macaroni and cheese. The author describes the taste and the gooey-ness so good that I wanted to make some ASAP!

I have never made homemade macaroni and cheese--the boxed kind has always been fine for me. So, I set about searching for a recipe that is like the one described in the book (1 block cheddar, 1 block monterey jack and 1 block cream cheese). Couldn't find one. I was getting very depressed. Then I decided that maybe, since she described it with such detail, the author actually has a recipe for this macaroni and cheese. I contacted her and she was so wonderful in providing me with the recipe for all my readers! Here it is in her own words:

Prep - Cut up slices of cheese from a block of cheddar, a block of monterey and a block of cream cheese.

Cook noodles al dente.

Rub some butter on the bottom of a baking pan.

Spoon in a layer of pasta.

Layer various cheese slices across. Add in some pats of butter. Sprinkle some pepper and garlic to taste. Repeat several times until all the pasta and cheese is added. Pour a little bit of milk into the pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Stir. Serve.

Exercise the next day. A lot.

I can't wait to try this out and I think it's one that my family would love as well!

Thanks so much to Daisy Whitney for sharing her recipe for us and for writing such a great book!

Food From Fiction: Dead is So Last Year (Comfort Cookies)

Once again Daisy spent this book cooking. She even got a job in her favorites diner as a cook! Reading these books always makes me hungry. At one point Daisy has some friends over to her house to discuss something or work something out, I can't remember what right now, and she makes cookies because they are comforting.

That made me think of my favorite comforting cookies. The kind that I can't even make at home because I will eat the entire batch. Frosted Maple Cookies. Those of you who have been paying attention will know I posted this recipe two weeks ago when I rated a book 5 yummy frosted maple cookie. I am posting it again because not only are these my favorite cookies, I love to make them most in the fall for some reason!

So, click here for a printable copy of the recipe. Know that the dough will be thin and will spread as you bake it, but they turn out so light and crisp and flavorful. I know you will find them very comforting!

Food From Fiction: Dead is a State of Mind (French Dip Sandwich)

Daisy Giordano is an amazing cook.

Every book about Daisy is packed with mentions of the good things she makes. It always makes my mouth water. In fact, I have two food from fiction posts off of the last two Dead Is...books I read.

Today's post, though, includes the recipe for my husband's favorite dinner: French Dip Sandwiches. These are made in a crock pot (yay!) and everyone I have ever served these too loves them. Truthfully the meat is fine, the au jus is great, but the way I fix them is the best.

Buy some stadium rolls--they are just better rolls and hold up so well when dunked in the au jus--butter them, stack the cooked, sliced meat on one side and top with a slice or two of cheddar cheese. Here comes the magic...broils them until the bread is toasty and the cheese is melter. YUM. It is making me hungry as I write this!

Anyway, take some time to try these (serve them with fries and a salad), you won't be sorry.

Click here to see and print the recipe.

Food From Fiction: The Kneebone Boy (Sandwich Fillings)

I was recently reading The Kneebone Boy, loved it, review to come later. In the book the kids are treated to peanut butter/marshmallow fluff sandwiches. That same week I saw that same sandwich served on a TV show. I have never had one, nor do I really want to try one. However, it got me thinking of weird sandwich fillings--my son loves peanut butter/m & m/ chocolate chip sandwiches. I keep a tupperware container of mini chips and mini m & ms and I make him one every now and again for his school lunch.

I also make a wonderful chicken salad using canned chicken, mayo, blue cheese and cashews. It is amazing!

What is your favorite sandwich?

Food From Fiction: Dear Pen Pal: The Mother Daughter Book Club #3 (Fudge)

I just finished the third book in the mother/daughter book club series. I talked about the whole series for Tween Tuesday once here. These are such fun books and there is always a ton of food talk because at each book club meeting they either make something or just have a nice meal together. In this book, Megan Wong's grandma from China moves in with her and her family so there is a lot of Chinese food being eaten and made. It made me crave a good Chinese meal! But, since I have never made any "real" Chinese food I decided to focus my latest food from fiction recipe on fudge, which the book club makes towards the end of the book.

My favorite recipe is Million Dollar Fudge. I make it every Christmas and pour it into tins to add to the cookie plates I hand out as gifts. You can modify this recipe so many ways--use mint or peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips or press crushed candy canes or mini m&ms into the top before they harden. The possibilities are endless--and so delicious!!

Million Dollar Fudge

Boil together 4 1/2 c. sugar, 1 can evaporated milk and 1/3 c. butter for 6 minutes.
Remove from heat and pour into a bowl with the 2-7 oz hershey bars (broke into pieces), 1 small jar marshmallow creme (or 18 large marshmallows) and 1-12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Stir until melted (I always do this step in my mixer and put it on low until everything is melted and mixed well).
Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.

One year I even found raspberry chips that I used and that fudge was excellent!

The fourth book in The Mother Daughter Book Club is called Pies & Prejudice and will be released this fall. In anticipation of this release Heather Vogel Frederick has been doing a Pie-of-the-Month Club on her blog where she interviews a fellow author and gets their favorite pie recipe. What a fun feature! I look forward to a lot of great food descriptions from this newest book!

Food From Fiction: Tuna Casserole (Never Cry Werewolf)

A few weeks ago I read Never Cry Werewolf. It was a decent teen supernatural book. You can read my review here. The main character in the book, Shelby, goes to a summer boot camp for problem teens. In the course of her time at camp she gets to enjoy some tuna casserole at the mess hall. I know, gross. But, I have very fond memories on tuna casserole.

When my now husband was just my boyfriend in college it was one of the first recipes I learned to make. I had always baked, but it wasn't until I was in the throes of love that I found that nesting/cooking part of me. So, I made tuna casserole at least once a week.

Here's the recipe I used:

1 1/2 c. elbow macaroni (cooked & drained)
1 can tuna, drained
1 c. shredded cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 c. frozen peas

Mix all together in casserole and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until bubbly and hot.

I have since seen so many more "gourmet" tuna casserole recipes, but the one I think is best is the one my husband's roommate taught me after I made the above version.

Make a box of macaroni and cheese. Stir in a can of tuna and frozen peas (cooked & drained).

It just doesn't get much easier than that!!
(side note: my kids do not like tuna casserole so I haven't made it for years)