Posted June 1, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments
Fandom Foodies announced earlier this year that they would be doing a Star Trek recipe month this June. This was perfect, since I was already planning on doing a Star Trek TOS menu this month anyway! 🙂
[EDIT: Sooo it turns out the Fandom Foodies theme was changed to Game of Thrones? Lol! You should totally still check it out. There’s always good stuff on the Fandom Foodies linkups. I’m gonna keep doing Star Trek though, since I’ve been looking forward to it for so long. :)]
All the recipes I’ll be making this month are crowd-friendly finger foods, perfect for any Star Trek party.
We’re starting the month off with a Tribble-themed appetizer: cranberry almond energy bites coated in shredded coconut. It’s a recipe I came up with while I was pregnant with the Little Mister, when I needed a quick make-ahead recipe for postpartum breakfasts and snacks. It’s delicious, quick, and easy to customize based off what you already have in your cabinets. Plus, it looks just like those fuzzy little Tribbles: my favorite characters in all of Star Trek TOS!
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Posted May 25, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments
I loooove toffee. Sweet, nutty, and satisfyingly crunchy—it’s all I’ve ever wanted in a dessert. So when I saw that the main character in the book Sabriel eats some homemade toffee while traveling through the Old Kingdom, I decided this was going to be my dessert recipe no matter what.
I adapted this English toffee recipe by Ghirardelli to get my recipe, which I completely scarfed down over the span of a few days (no joke—I barely left any for the Mister). This toffee is the perfect combo of salted dark chocolate, toasted almonds, and crunchy caramel candy. And it’s super easy to make!
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Posted May 18, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments
In the book Sabriel, the main character and her companions stop at an inn called “The Sign of Three Lemons,” which is named for the lemon trees in the middle of the town square. The innkeepers use these lemons to make scented soaps and a variety of delicious dishes. I wanted to make a lemon dish in honor of the inn for my menu, and lemon poppy seed muffins seemed quite fitting. ^.^
This recipe was originally developed by Creme de la Crumb. I love how tender and lightly sweet the muffins are, with just the right amount of lemon and poppy. Enjoy! 🙂
P.S. These are great for freezing. I froze mine in a ziplock bag to save for post-baby breakfasts!
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Posted May 11, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments
While reading Sabriel, one of the dishes that stood out most to me was the grilled fish Sabriel eats when she arrives at her father’s house. The fish itself is described as “small and almost circular,” and it’s served with a delicious-sounding sauce of tomato, basil, and garlic. As soon as I read those words, I knew I’d found the entree for my Sabriel menu!
Though the sauce’s base isn’t described, it sounded to me like it was most likely a cream sauce (I’ve seen similar sauces served with fish before). The fish had me stumped at first. The closest comparison I could think of was tilapia, since it’s silver and on the smallish side. I grilled some up, whipped up a cream base I adapted from this recipe, and roasted some grape tomatoes. This has become one of my favorite ways to prepare fish!
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Posted May 4, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 11 Comments
Welcome to our latest Book of the Month: Sabriel, the first installment in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy! Sabriel was on my TBR for years before I FINALLY got around to borrowing the audiobook from my library last September. It was sooo good! I love Sabriel as a main character, and did I mention that the audiobook is narrated by Tim Curry? So yeah, there’s that awesomeness too. Plus, some of the foods in the book sound SO delicious that I knew I wanted to make a menu for Sabriel here on blog. So here we go!
When Sabriel first visits the Old Kingdom, she must trek through the snowy, treacherous countryside to her father’s house. Her only sustenance: dried fruit and homemade toffee.
I’ve made fruit chips from apples before, but I’d never tried making more traditional dried fruit. Now seemed like as good a time as any to try! Plus, with a new baby taking up pretty much all my time, I could use some healthy, ready-made snacks to save for emergency munchies! 🙂
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Posted April 27, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
What would a James and the Giant Peach menu be without peaches? A travesty, that’s what. Of course, not just ANY peach recipe will do. I wanted to make something special but simple at the same time. After all, this is a kid’s book we’re talking about! Grilled peaches with ice cream came to mind, and I dressed them up just a little by glazing the peaches with honey and making homemade ice cream with the most glorious of all the spices: CINNAMON. The end result was sweet, refreshing, and delightfully simple. The perfect snack after flying across the ocean on a giant peach!
P.S. The cinnamon ice cream recipe included below is for a Cuisinart ice cream maker and is a slight variation on the vanilla ice cream recipe that comes with the machine.
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Posted April 20, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments
One group of characters often forgotten from James and the Giant Peach is the Cloud Men (perhaps since they were left out of the movie). In the book, the Cloud Men are responsible for creating such atmospheric phenomenon as rainbows, storms, and snow. When James and companions float past a Cloud Man city in their flying peach, they see Cloud families preparing dinners of fried snowballs.
These sounded delicious, so of course I wanted to make them for the blog! And I knew exactly how I wanted to create my own interpretation: mashed potato balls mixed with bacon and cheese, rolled in panko crumbs, and deep fried. Utterly delicious and fun to make!
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Posted April 13, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 7 Comments
When I was planning this James and the Giant Peach menu, I obviously had peaches on the brain. But while trying to figure out how to include a tribute to NYC in the menu, all I could think of was APPLES! I tossed around a few options until I hit upon the idea of hand pies. I decided to go the savory route and paired them with cheese, resulting in the final product you see here!
These savory hand pies are filled with melted Gouda and apple slices seasoned with thyme. Oooh that cheese—I couldn’t get enough! The buttery, flaky crust toppd with just the right amount of salt brings it all together into a little package with big flavor. Enjoy! 🙂
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Posted April 6, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
Are y’all ready for a new Book of the Month? I’m really excited about this one. James and the Giant Peach is an old childhood favorite of mine, and when I reread it last year, I couldn’t help thinking what a great menu it would make!
For our first James and the Giant Peach recipe, I’m making an edible version of the “magic green things” he encounters at the beginning of the book. After all, they’re such an iconic part of the story, how could I leave them out?
These sour green gummy worms are my version of a blood orange gummy recipe from Steele House Kitchen. They’re quick to make and actually pretty healthy (they’re sweetened with honey instead of sugar). Plus, you can make them without a special mold! 🙂
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Posted March 30, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments
In the episode “Jaynestown,” the crew of the spaceship Serenity stumbles upon a poor town of clay farmers (known as “mudders”) who’ve erected a statue to Jayne in their town center.
As it turns out, Jayne committed an accidental act of generosity during his last visit, and the mudders now consider him to be their hero. Now that he’s back, they sing his praises and treat him to unlimited rounds of mudder’s milk—their alcoholic beverage of choice.
Jayne describes mudder’s milk as “all the protein, vitamins, and carbs of your grandma’s best turkey dinner, plus 15 percent alcohol.” Our version is a vanilla protein milkshake blended with a bit of oats, flax meal, and cinnamon—along with a couple shots of hazelnut Baileys. So drink up and get ready to sing another verse of “The Hero of Canton”!
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