Month: September 2015

Holy Papal Visit, Batman!

Posted September 29, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Blogging, Hints, Teas / 0 Comments

 

Guys, I SAW THE POPE!

…moving quickly in a car past me and about a million other people. But it still counts.

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This is a pic the Mister got as the Pope drove by us!

You may have noticed that I’ve been mostly AWOL from the the interwebs since Thursday. That’s because I’ve been busy flying to Philadelphia and fangirling over Pope Francis all weekend!!! I walked more than 20 miles over the span of 3 days: first site seeing in Philly and then gettin’ down with my Catholic self at the Festival of Families and the Papal Mass. SO MANY PEOPLE! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT! 😀

Needless to say, this made blogging a bit tricky. In fact, I pretty much failed at sharing my last Monty Python post on Facebook/Twitter. So I decided to make up for it by posting the shares today and linking to it here (better late than never, right?). If it’s any consolation, we’re finishing up our Monty Python menu today by adding a new custom tea to our Adagio collection: Monty Python’s Coconut Camelot Tea! Click on the link or the pic below to see a description of the tea and details on how to order.

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Monty Python’s Coconut Camelot Tea is just the thing to help you remember whether you need to count to three or five when throwing a Holy Hand Grenade. In this blend, Adagio’s black coconut tea is paired with cream tea, coconut pieces, and cornflowers for a truly divine sipping experience.

Wow…with our Monty Python menu finished up, that means it’s almost October! HOW can it be almost October, guys? I could have sworn September just started yesterday. Then again, this month has been super busy for me, and not just with papal visit plans. I interviewed Jonathan Stroud about his new book tour a couple weeks ago, and I just finished my next Real Life at Home guest post. Plus, the Mister and I are moving on Halloween, and I’m doing NaNoWrMo this November. In short: CHAOS! It’s really no wonder October snuck up on me. Still, I’m SUPER excited for our new menu, especially since it involves one of my favorite authors! Want a hint as to what it could be? Check out the picture below!

Magnifying Glass
Any guesses at what it could be? BONUS HINT: Instead of focusing on one book, this menu will focus on several books all by the same author (not necessarily a series).

 

Now then, I’m going to find a lovely little corner of my apartment in which to curl up and sleep off my 7 am flight from yesterday (if I wake up and see my shadow, we get 6 more weeks of fall).

 

Flying Cow Milkshakes: Coconut Cookies ‘n Cream Milkshakes

Posted September 24, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 8 Comments


Run away! Our Monty Python dessert is coming straight for you! Then again, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, since these Flying Cow Milkshakes are absolutely delicious…and royally decadent! Made with homemade coconut ice cream, Oberweiss milk, and Oreos—they’re a sweet, refreshing reward after a long, hard day of being taunted by Frenchmen.

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Ghosts on Tour: How I Got to Meet Jonathan Stroud and Learn What It’s Like to Write Ghost Stories

Posted September 18, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Blogging, Book Events and Tours / 3 Comments

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Yep, that shirt says “Fictional Character!” 🙂

 

Last night, I interviewed Jonathan Stroud (famous for his bestselling Bartimaeus series) at a tour event for his new book, The Hollow Boy! And strangely enough, I owe it all to Goodreads. 🙂

 

I devoured the Bartimaeus books when they first came out, so I was thrilled when Goodreads notified me about Stroud’s new series: Lockwood & Co. It’s the story of three teens who run their own ghost-hunting agency in London, which is plagued by a sudden and mysterious ghost epidemic. An avid ghost story reader, I decided to read and review the first two Lockwood books (you can read my reviews here and here). Goodreads also informed me that Stroud was planning a promotional tour for the newest Lockwood book, The Hollow Boy. One of the tour events was scheduled to take place in La Grange, IL…not far from where I live! I tracked down the contact info for Stroud’s publicist and asked if I could pretty please have an interview with Mr. Stroud at the La Grange event. The publicist was gracious enough to forward the info to him, and he said YES!  * cue shameless fangirl squeals *

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Shrubbery Salad

Posted September 17, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 7 Comments

This Shrubbery Salad was commissioned by The Knights Who Say Ni! They instructed us to make something that “looks nice and isn’t too expensive,” so we whipped up this delightful recipe from With Salt and Wit. The base is composed of thinly shaved Brussels sprouts, light and tasty enough to make you regret every bad thing you ever said about a Brussels sprout. And the cranberries, bacon bits, toasted walnuts, and homemade vinaigrette bring it all together to create a perfect balance of sweet and savory. Ni!

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Holy Hand Grenades: An Alison’s Wonderland Original Recipe ©

Posted September 3, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 5 Comments

Bring forth the Holy Hand Grenade! September is here, and we’re cooking up our 2nd Movie of the Month: Monty Python and the Holy Grail! I’m a HUGE Monty Python junky, so I’m super excited for this menu. What better way to start it off than with holy hand grenades? These little beauties are white cheddar mini cheese wheels studded with peppercorns and chive, topped with a cross to give them that authentic Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch look. You can throw them at your enemies if you like, but we recommend eating them.

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New menus, new teas, and food quote quizzes!

Posted September 1, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Hints, Teas / 5 Comments

Source: Guess The Book From Food Quotes // quiz

 

Howdy and happy September, Wonderlanders! I’m currently editing up a very special menu for our SECOND Movie of the Month! Remember when we made Star Wars food for our first Movie of the Month, and it was awesome? Those Dry Rub BBQ Bantha Steaks are still my favorite steak recipe, hands down. ^.^

The new menu premieres on Thursday, so be sure to swing by and check it out! If you want to take a guess at what the Movie of the Month will be, here’s a hint:

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Photo Credit: publicdomainpictures.net

Til then, try this cool food quotes quiz by Cait from Paper Fury where you match books to food quotes. I did ok (13 out of 19). The contemporary lit did me in, but I completely SMOKED the classic book quotes! ^.^ Question: Can I feel proud of myself for knowing the Game of Thrones quote…if the only reason I know it is because I have the GoT cookbook?

I have one last piece of news before I go finish my editing: we’ve made a new tea blend! In honor of our Odyssey menu, we’ve released Calypso’s Tea, our very first green tea. It has subtle hints of pineapple, peach, passion fruit, and oranges with an inclusion of hibiscus petals and coconut flakes. The tropical fruit makes it a great iced tea, but it’s also earthy enough to work as a hot tea too. You can order it through Adagio here or by clicking on the appropriate caption in our tea gallery.

 

 

NOTE: I’m a member of the Adagio Affiliate Program, which means I get a commission for every Adagio order placed as a direct result of a link from my site. If you see a tea you like but want to order it later, please come back to this site and click on one of our Adagio links to take you to their site. That way Adagio can track the order back to Alison’s Wonderland Recipes. Thanks for helping keep AWR up and running!