Category: Book of the Month Recipes

Scooby Doo Tie-Dye Spook Cupcakes

Posted October 25, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes, Holidays / 0 Comments

Ghosts are an essential part of the Scooby-Doo cartoon (even if they do usually turn out to be just some guy in a mask 😉), so I thought it would be fun to make a ghost-themed dessert for this month’s menu. I loved the idea of making spook cupcakes, and I decided to tie-dye the frosting for some psychedelic 60’s flair, perfect for Scooby-Doo! I started with my go-to chocolate cupcake and vanilla frosting recipe from my cookbook and gave the frosting an orange, lime green, hot pink, and light blue swirl. Then I used this recipe to make my own homemade marshmallow ghosts (but you can totally go with store bought ghost Peeps, if you want). These sweet little specters are a perfect addition to any Halloween menu or Scooby-Doo birthday party!

Note: The marshmallow mixture for the ghosts needs to set overnight.

Flower Power Fruit Salad

Posted October 18, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

One of my favorite things about Scooby Doo is its distinctive ’60s aesthetic. Who can forget Fred and Shaggy’s bell bottoms or the Mystery Machine’s psychedelic paint job? Even the iconic color scheme associated with the show—orange, lime green, light blue, and purple—has a fun, hippy vibe to it. I wanted to capture that vibe in today’s side dish: a melon berry fruit salad that would look right at home at a 1960s-themed shindig. I cut cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon into flower shapes reminiscent of those found on the Mystery Machine and added some blueberries for extra color and flavor. To finish, I tossed it all in a homemade lemon honey dressing. The Little Mister was definitely a big fan of this recipe. Most of the watermelon and blueberries didn’t make it past the photo shoot! XD

Shaggy’s Sandwich: A Giant Pizza-Flavored Sub

Posted October 11, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

Shaggy and Scooby are famous for their bottomless appetites, especially when it comes to sandwiches. They’ve been known to down two-foot subs in one gulp, and anything they make it always piled high with ingredients. A giant sub sandwich seemed like the perfect entree for my Scooby-Doo menu, but the question still remained: what kind should I make? With virtually endless options, I found myself staring at lists of ingredients in hopes of coming up with that perfect sandwich. I wanted something fun and a little funky to match Shaggy and Scooby’s quirky personalities.

Then I thought about pizza. Shag and Scoob’s abiding love for pizza is a little less iconic than their love of sandwiches, but it’s still a big part of the cartoon. Why not bring the two together? I started with a 2-foot-long sub loaf and added a layer of pizza sauce and fresh basil. Then came smoked ham and two layers of sandwich-style pepperoni and mozzarella. Top it off with oil-and-vinegar dressed tomatoes and red onion, more basil, and more sauce, and you’ve got yourself a pizza sub! It was a big hit at our house. Even the toddler was a fan! 🙂

Scooby Snacks: Caramelized Honey Graham Crackers

Posted October 4, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

Zoiks! Halloween is just around the corner, and since it’s one of my favorite holidays, I always like to do a spooky menu here on the blog for October (check out my Edgar Allan Poe and Phantom of the Opera menus from previous years!). This year, I’m making a Scooby-Doo menu, starting with Scooby’s favorite treat: Scooby Snacks!

According to the creators of Scooby-Doo, Scooby Snacks are a sort of caramel-flavored cookie. However, Keebler’s boxed version and most of the homemade versions I’ve found online are honey or cinnamon graham crackers. Since I have something else in mind for our dessert recipe this month, I’m gonna stick with the honey graham cracker version.

The recipe I’m sharing today originally appeared on the Brown Eyed Baker Blog, though I made a few changes just to mix things up a little bit (I added cinnamon and vanilla and caramelized the honey). I LOVE Michelle’s recipes. They’re always reliable and delicious, and these grahams are no exception. They’re rich, crisp, and buttery—with an extra nuttiness from the caramelized honey. I caramelized it using a technique I found on Bee America. It’s a quick, super easy way to make honey-flavored bakes a bit more special, and I definitely plan on trying it with other recipes in the future. Maybe I should caramalize my honey-glazed grilled peaches next time I make them!

P.S. The Little Mister LOVES these. I’ve already started saying, “You don’t want to put your socks on? Will you do it…FOR A SCOOBY SNACK?” XD

Sarah’s Sea Glass Candy

Posted September 27, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Blue and gray and green. In Sarah Plain and Tall, these are Sarah’s favorite colors because they are the colors of the sea. To wrap up this month’s menu, I wanted to make a dessert reminiscent of Sarah’s home in Maine. I loved the idea of making sea glass candy—especially since sea glass reminds me so much of the little ocean treasures she shows Anna and Caleb—so I decided to go a step farther and make them in Sarah’s favorite colors too!

I used this sea glass candy recipe from Make Life Lovely, which turned out great. The instructions are simple and easy to follow, and the final product is delicious. I’m really pleased with the colors too. They came out with just the right misty, ocean-y feel I was hoping for. And they were delicious! They actually taste a lot like cotton candy. I wouldn’t recommend serving them to very young children since the ends can be a little sharp, but they’re great for older children and adults. We ate them right up! 🙂

Homemade Bread Bowls

Posted September 20, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

When I was growing up, my mom liked to make soup, stew, and chili extra special by serving them in bread bowls. It made eating that much more fun for us kids, and mom loved that it cut down on dishes! 😉 When I started working on my Sarah Plain and Tall menu, it became clear to me early on that a nice hearty stew would be my entree. I’ve made a variety of soups, stews, and chowders here on the blog before, so when I tried to think of a way to make this one special, my mind immediately went to bread bowls. They get major nostalgia points from me, and they just contribute so well to the rustic prairie feel I wanted to create for this menu.

Store-bought bread bowls are great if you’re short on time (we always used the Panera sour dough rolls when I was a kid), but making your own can be lots of fun. I tracked down this quick recipe from Taste of Home, and it turned out great! The bread tastes delicious when you fill it with stew or thick soup, but I enjoy it sliced up with a spread of homemade farmer’s cheese too!

Beef Stew with Bread Bowls

Posted September 13, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

It seems strange to think that in almost 5 years of blogging, I’ve never done a post on beef stew. In fact, I couldn’t believe it at first. When it became clear to me while reading Sarah Plain and Tall that beef stew was the most prominent entree, I automatically started hunting through the blog to see which version I’d already made…only to my options wide open! (However, our rabbit and lamb stews are delicious, so I’d check those out as well).

So for my very first beef stew post, I’m sharing a recipe from my childhood. This Old-Time Beef Stew recipe from Better Homes and Gardens is the one my mom uses, and it’s what I think of whenever I imagine beef stew. In fact, she was visiting us while I made it, so she was able to give me a few pro tips to pass on to you guys for the ultimate stew experience!

I love how this simple, savory recipe allows the three main ingredients—beef, carrots, and potatoes—to shine, each without overshadowing the other. The beef is tender and juicy, while the carrots are sweet and the potatoes are their wonderful, humble selves. It’s exactly the kind of stew I can imagine the Whittings eating as they read their letters from Sarah!

Farmer’s Cheese

Posted September 6, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Guys, I made CHEESE!! 😀 I’ve been inching my way towards trying cheesemaking for years, and this week I found just the right recipe to inspire me to take the plunge. And it was fun! I’m so glad I did it, and I’m definitely doing it again.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s focus: new book menu. Starting today, we’ve got a new book of the month, and it’s Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan! I read it beginning to end on a long car ride a couple months ago, and I just knew I had to make a menu for it.

Much like my Little House on the Prairie menu, I wanted this one to feature rustic foods inspired by farm life. I knew homemade cheese would make a perfect appetizer, but I didn’t want anything too complicated. Cheesemaking has simultaneously fascinated and intimidated me for ages, so as much as I wanted to try it, I avoided recipes with scary words like “rennet” and “calcium chloride.” After all, I figured farmers like Jacob Whitting in Sarah Plain and Tall often had to make do with little, so I wanted a cheese that I could make with just some basic ingredients.

That’s when I found out about farmer’s cheese. It’s a simple, relatively quick cheese that, though pretty flavorless on its own, is fantastic when you mix a few choice seasonings into the base. There are several varieties, but I like this version from Pocket Pause. It’s one of the more basic recipes I’ve seen, and it turned out great on my first try! It’s a little like feta, except denser and less tart. Depending on how long you drain it, it can have a similar crumbly texture to feta or be a bit more spreadable. I spread some on bread for a quick snack, but you can also crumble it on a top of a salad, serve it on roasted vegetables, or put it in a sandwich.

Calvin’s Snow Goon Truffles

Posted August 30, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Back when I first started planning my Calvin and Hobbes menu, the idea of a snow goon themed recipe easily made the short list. I wasn’t sure exactly what form it would take, but I knew the adorably horrific snowmen from Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons simply HAD to be in my menu. They’re too iconic to ignore!

I played around with a few ideas before settling on Golden Oreo snowman truffles, and although I loved the final product, the fact that this post exists is proof of my devotion to the snow goons. I ran into SO. MANY. ROADBLOCKS.

On my first try, the candy melts I’d chosen wound up being WAY too clumpy for dipping truffles. I tried again with some off-brand white chocolate chips I had on hand, and the results were even worse. On my third try, I rolled the truffles in powdered sugar, but it soaked right in, leaving them sandy-colored. I considered dipping them in almond bark, but the brand my store carried was very yellow (not snowy enough for these truffles).

Not gonna lie, I was tempted to play my “I’m Moving this Month” card and just skip the goons, since they were a bonus recipe. But the idea of finishing this menu without snow goons made me too sad. Luckily, my mom came to visit for a few days to watch the toddler while I packed for the move. She suggested going with Tollhouse white chocolate chips, since that’s what she normally uses for truffles and never has issues with clumping. I gave it a try, and they were PERFECT. Just what I’d hoped for from the beginning. Thanks, Mom! 🙂

Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs

Posted August 23, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

If there’s one iconic food from the Calvin and Hobbes comics, it’s Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Calvin eats three bowls every Saturday for breakfast, and it’s hinted throughout the comics that it could be linked to his hyperactivity and short attention span. With its astronomical sugar and caffeine content, this is one intense cereal, and Calvin scoops on EXTRA sugar to boot! The C&H comics that feature Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs are some of my favorites, so of course I chose it as the dessert for our menu. 🙂

I started out with a pretty healthy homemade version of Cocoa Puffs from SheKnows.com. I added sugar to the recipe to amp up the sweetness and coated the cereal pieces in powdered sugar before baking to get that frosted look. The final result was a sweet treat which, thanks to the cocoa powder in the original recipe, had a rich fudgy chocolate flavor.

So pour yourself a bowl or three and chow down on Calvin’s favorite cereal!

NOTE: Apologies to all the email subscribers who accidentally got an email last week containing a post from next month’s menu. My computer was being spazzy, and when I hit “Save Draft” it decided to publish instead ?. I took down the post right away, so I don’t think anyone else saw it. At least you guys have an edge when I send out my photo hint about the new menu on social media next month, right? 😉