Posted April 27, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 0 Comments
Since there’s an extra Thursday this month, I get to do a bonus post! Usually I make a cocktail for my bonus recipe, but since Captain Nemo doesn’t keep alcohol on the Nautilus (much to the distress of Ned Land), I decided to take the opportunity to create a new tea blend.
If you’re new around here, you may not know that I have a set of custom tea blends on Adagio Teas. I used to make a new one for almost every menu, but now I have over 50 blends! So these days I only make a new tea if I feel truly inspired.
I loved the idea of an ocean-themed blend, so I started with White Tropics, which is a white tea flavored with pineapple and coconut. Those fruits are perfect since they’re both mentioned in the book and also have distinct flavors that come through even in a delicate white tea. For added depth, I mixed in my favorite green tea: Citron Green, which has notes of lemon and orange. I love how the citrus plays off the tropical flavors without completely overpowering them. For a flavor boost, I added dried coconut, dried pineapple, and lemon balm.
I always recommend serving herbal and white teas cold since the flavors are so delicate. This one is SO delicious! The lemon hits you first–smooth and soothing–followed by hints of the juicy tropical flavors at the end. Just the thing to calm your nerves after defeating a giant squid!
Sound delicious? You can order it here!
Posted July 21, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments
My Fire Roasted Foolbird recipe from last year was my first time cooking anything other than marshmallows on a fire, and it was SO fun! I knew I had to do some open fire cooking again. What better time than with a menu inspired by MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, the tale of a young boy who lives alone off the land in the Catskill Mountains?
The main character, Sam Gribley, cooks loads of meals on an open fire. It was tough to choose which one, but remembering how long it took to cook the foolbirds, I decided to go with something that would cook a lot faster: fish. I was intrigued by Sam’s method of cooking trout wrapped in grape leaves. Since I couldn’t get trout, I chose snapper, which he eats earlier in the book.
This was SO easy to make, and the flavor was amazing—salty, garlicky, and acidic in all the best ways. The only hard part was the weather! I made this in mid-June and OH MAN THE RAIN. We just couldn’t seem to get any dry weather. My husband, who’s enough of a camping wizard that he can still start a fire with damp wood, just couldn’t get it going in a way he was happy with. It took us over a week (I had to go out and buy more ingredients—the first set had to be cooked on the stove before they went bad), but It was worth it. Considering it only takes about 15 minutes, this is going on my list of go-to vegetarian recipes. Enjoy!
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Posted March 18, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments
Did you know baked fish is the only entree mentioned by name in the book HEIDI? That’s lucky for me, since right now it’s the middle of Lent. Talk about a perfect time to test out fish recipes!
Heidi eats this dish while staying in Frankfurt with the Sessemans. Although they’re an affluent family who could afford to make this dish super fancy if they wanted, the Sessemans’ kind, down-to-earth demeanor made me feel like they’d appreciate a simple recipe that let quality ingredients shine. I used walleye, which is genetically similar to zander, a fish native to Germany (and Heidi’s home country of Switzerland!). Fresh lemon, oregano, and garlic were all the dressing it needed to create a refined dish celebrating delicate, tender fish. Also, I found out “oregano” means “the brightness of the mountain,” which is perfect for this book!
I enjoyed the simplicity of the flavors in this dish. Everything was fresh and light, a perfect reminder of the “the brightness of the mountain.” Enjoy! Read More
Posted July 2, 2020 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments
Hellooooo, summer!
This isn’t usually my favorite season. In Illinois the summer months can get monstrously hot and humid. Plus, I have severe allergies, and I’m a favorite snack of the mosquitoes. Yet this year my allergies have been surprisingly absent, and covid restrictions have made even a homebody like myself appreciate a chance to get out in the fresh air.
When I decided Madeline would be my book of the month for July, my mind immediately went to madeleine cookies because of their similarity to Madeline’s name. I couldn’t pass up a perfect pairing like that, could I? Still, I really wanted something refreshing I could eat while enjoying the sunshine. Like ice cream! So I decided to combine them and do a double recipe. Read More
Posted December 12, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 1 Comment
Our Tea of the Month is here, and of course it had to be something Christmasy! 🙂 Adagio Teas (the company I use to design my teas) offers lots of festive options, such as gingerbread, chestnut, and a Christmas spiced tea. I’ve used several of these in the past and wanted something different, so I decided to start with their candy cane tea. With the sweet peppermint flavor as a base, I knew I could go in two directions: further sweeten in with a chocolate tea or balance the sweetness with a bit of lemon tea. I tried both and loved it with lemon! Grab a tin of this for Christmas to share with friends, and if you feel your heart grow a couple sizes, don’t worry. That’s normal. 😉
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Posted February 25, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments
Of course, Mulder and Scully never actually eat alien cookies while on a case, but concluding an X-Files menu without an alien dish felt just plain wrong. These green and gray sugar cookies are a great dessert to celebrate the conclusion of the new season or a wonderful gift for the person in your life who wants to believe. You can use whatever sugar cookie recipe you want (I used the same base recipe as our Fairy Dust Star Cookies from Peter Pan). The royal icing recipe is one I found by Julia M. Usher.
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Posted July 23, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
For our Secret Garden menu, I wanted to make a truly elegant dessert. Eclairs (one of my greatest weaknesses) immediately sprang to mind. Of course, they needed to fit the theme of the story, and what better way to tie in the garden than adding a little floral touch? Thus, these lavender lemon eclairs were born! I’m not normally into flower-flavored things, but I found these to be light, sweet, and fragrant in all the right ways. The lavender-infused pastry cream perfectly complements the lemon glaze. I used a pate a choux (that’s pastry dough) recipe from Flavor the Moments and made a variation on a pastry cream recipe from Ricón Cocina. Enjoy!
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Posted March 12, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments
Naturally, a book that’s written mostly from a wolf’s point of view isn’t going to have much human-friendly meat in it, but salmon is a notable exception. In White Fang, both wolves and humans regularly feast on fresh Alaskan salmon. And since it’s a dish that can be prepared on the trail, it’s a perfect entree for our menu.
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Posted January 22, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 29 Comments
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UPDATE: You can find a new version of this recipe in my cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK.
You knew it was coming. How could a Narnia menu end with anything else? I can’t be the only person who immediately thinks of the White Witch when I hear the words “Turkish delight.”
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Posted November 6, 2014 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
So excited for our new Book of the Month: The Hunger Games! I’ve loved both the books and the movies, and since Mockingjay Part 1 is coming out later this month, it seemed like the perfect time for a Hunger Games menu. Luckily, the books feature so many recipes, any difficulty in developing a menu comes from the sheer number of options.
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