Category: Book of the Month Recipes

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Turkey Breasts with Cranberry Pear Filling

Posted November 8, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and with all the preparations ahead, it’s no surprise I’ve had turkey on the brain…though this may also have something to do with the fact that our neighborhood wild turkeys have been out in full force lately. One strolled through the backyard just as I was about to sit down to type this! 🙂

Since this Sleepy Hollow menu is very Thanksgiving-centric, I wanted to be sure to include a turkey recipe. A whole turkey was out of the question (I’ve got an 8-month pregnant belly, an almost-2-year-old, Friendsgiving to host this weekend, and an author event next weekend. Cliche as it sounds, my plate is kinda full.). In short, I needed something simpler and faster than cooking a whole bird. I considered a turkey roulade, but I already made one for my Little Women menu. Then stuffed turkey breasts sprang to mind. They’re a great way to get all the traditional Thanksgiving flavors into a standard-size meal, and the process it quite similar to a roulade, though easier.

Using the roulade recipe as inspiration, I made some key changes to make this recipe unique: wrapping the turkey in bacon, swapping apples for pears and pecans for walnuts, changing bread cubes to Panko crumbs, and adding onion. Plus, I swapped out the seasonings for the thyme and rosemary you’d typically find in stuffing.

By the time all was said and done, it was practically its own recipe—a delicious one at that! The flavors were perfect for the season. They had me wishing Thanksgiving was tomorrow! 🙂

Apple Cider Crullers

Posted November 1, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

November has arrived and, with it, our brand new book of the month: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow! Normally I save spooky stories like this for October, but as I was rereading Sleepy Hollow in preparation for this menu, I noticed that pretty much all the food was perfect Thanksgiving fare: pies flavored with pumpkin and apples, dressed turkey, cider, and so much more! Thus, I decided to save this menu for November, when people would be hankering for classic autumnal flavors, rather than Halloween-specific recipes.

I’m starting things off with delicious apple cider crullers. When Ichabod Crane describes the delicious food served at the Van Tassel party, crullers are high on the list, as is cider, so I decided to make a recipe that combined the two together. I’d never made crullers before and originally planned to find a recipe online, but when I realized they’re made with choux pastry, I whipped up a batch of the trusty choux recipe from my cookbook, simply subbing apple cider for half the water. The icing was easy to improvise too: just make powdered sugar icing and use cider instead of milk for the liquid. These were scrumptious and fun, a big hit with everyone at our house. They were gone by the end of the day!

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.