Category: Book of the Month Recipes

Mini No-Bake Blackberry Cheesecakes

Posted April 14, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

For the last dish in my PETER RABBIT menu, let me introduce you to these sweet little bites of heaven: mini no-bake blackberry cheesecakes! As soon as I started planning my menu, I knew I wanted the dessert to draw from the blackberries and milk Peter’s siblings enjoy at the end of the story. I tossed around lots of ideas, eventually deciding on no-bake cheesecake because my daughter loves cream cheese (her egg allergy prevents her from enjoying regular cheesecake). Plus, cheesecake is one of my husband’s favorite desserts. I made several batches during recipe testing, and he LOVED being my guinea pig! 😀

This was my first time developing a cheesecake recipe, so to make sure my proportions were right, I consulted two no-bake cheesecake recipes from Live Well Bake Often and Chenee Today. I found my filling to be a bit too loose after it set (possibly due to the additional liquid from the blackberry puree I mixed in), so I used a method I found at Simply Recipes, which calls for mixing a bit of gelatin in at the end. It set perfectly, which was a huge relief, since I would have been so sad to nix the puree. Not only does it provide a fun sweet-tart kick, but it turns the cheesecake an adorable lavender color. Bon appetit! 🙂

NOTE: THIS RECIPE NEEDS TO SET FOR AT LEAST 4 HOURS.

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Carrot Crescent Horns with Chicken Salad

Posted March 31, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Even though Peter Rabbit doesn’t eat any carrots in his story, I feel like a rabbit-centered menu needs a carrot recipe, y’know? However, I suppose it’s rather fitting that this recipe doesn’t have carrots in it either—just crescent roll horns disguised as carrots! 😉 This super cute idea for crescent roll carrots was originally developed by Beth at Hungry Happenings, though I did change it a bit. The idea is super adorable, and Beth also uses an amazing shortcut for diy pastry cones if you don’t have cream horn molds. The secret? Ice cream cones! I used waffle cones for mine. Since they’re bigger, than means more room for filling!

For the filling, I used my favorite chicken salad recipe, which uses poppy seed dressing from my Petunia Bowl Salad instead of mayo. It’s a bit healthier than regular chicken salad, and it’s great alternative if you have an egg allergy (like my daughter).

My kids LOVED this. And talk about a perfect Easter recipe! 😀

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Mrs. McGregor’s Potato Leek Quiche

Posted March 17, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

The funny thing about learning to cook through food blogging is that my cooking skill hasn’t followed a linear progression. Instead of starting with the basics and working my way up, I hopped around from making soup one day to ornate pastries another. It definitely keeps me on my toes. However, it also puts me in the odd position of knowing how to make chocolate cream puffs with brandy pastry cream…but not quiche. Somehow, in the 8 years I’ve been blogging, I’ve never had an opportunity to make it. So when I sat down to plan the entree for my PETER RABBIT menu, I knew I wanted a dish that could showcase the contents of the McGregors’ garden, and quiche was the perfect candidate.

First, I reread PETER RABBIT and made a list of every plant mentioned in Mr. McGregor’s garden. The potatoes caught my eye, since they would be a great way to make the dish hearty and filling without meat (I’m trying to keep it vegetarian, since PETER RABBIT is a garden-centric story). For flavor pairings, I was inspired by the Leek and Potato Soup with Parsnip and Garlic from my cookbook. Leeks are a type of onion, and onions are mentioned as being present in the McGregors’ garden too. So I took potatoes, leeks, and garlic and made a quiche I could imagine Mrs. McGregor serving to her husband after a hectic morning of chasing off mischievous little rabbits.

I started with my go-to pie crust recipe and added in some fresh rosemary. For my quiche base, I used two recipes for reference: Easy Quiche from The Spruce Eats and Crustless Potato Asparagus Quiche from The Natural Nurturer. I LOVE how the final product turned out. Lots of rich flavors coming together in a filling, aromatic dish!

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Chamomile Scones with Peach Jam

Posted March 3, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

 

Today we’re starting a Peter Rabbit menu…and I’ve been looking forward to it for TWO YEARS! 😀 Such a garden-centric story is perfect material for a literary food blog like mine. Plus, there are so many fun uses for a Peter Rabbit menu: kids’ birthday parties, baby showers, Easter, and more!

Originally, I had plans to include a Peter Rabbit menu in my second cookbook, but I had to drop it during the planning stage when I reduced the scope of the book to cold weather holidays only (otherwise the book would have been MASSIVE). Still, I never forgot the delicious Peter Rabbit menu I dreamed up. Now I’m realizing that dream!

Today’s recipe is inspired by the chamomile tea Mother Rabbit has Peter drink when he gets sick. I love tea-infused baked goods, and I’ve been jonesing to make some scones lately. Still, scones alone felt a bit too simplistic. I had peaches on the brain after canning some for the first time a couple months ago, so I developed a peach jam recipe too. The peach and chamomile complement each other sooo well. Yum!

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Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake

Posted February 17, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

If you can believe it, today’s recipe is actually inspired by Wilbur’s slop in CHARLOTTE’S WEB! Stay with me here. 😉 When the author lists the scraps included in Wilbur’s meals at the farm, he mentions upside-down cake and baked apples. I loved the idea of merging the two together into an amazing dessert, so here we are!

When it comes to upside-down cakes, I’m a total novice. I made one once but didn’t like how it turned out. So rather than try to develop my own recipe for this post, I turned to the Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake from Sally’s Baking Addiction. Sally’s recipes are always winners for me, and I knew a sure-fire recipe would give me a good sense of how an upside-down cake should look at each step in the process. That way I’ll feel more confident developing my own upside-down cakes in the future!

As expected, the recipe was easy and turned out great. It was a HUGE hit with my 5-year-old son, who gobbled it up while chirping that it was “A-MA-zing!” I whole-heartedly agree. The caramel apple topping moistens the tender spiced cake just the right amount, and I appreciated that it wasn’t super sweet, allowing the apples and cinnamon to shine. It reminded me a bit of a breakfast bread, which has me scheming about making upside-down banana bread in the future! 😀

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Mrs. Arable’s Canned Peaches: Learn to Can with Me

Posted February 3, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

One of my favorite things about food blogging is it pushes me out of my comfort zone on the regular. For example, even though I found eclairs super intimidating when I first learned to cook, I made lavender lemon eclairs after only a year of blogging because they were perfect for my Secret Garden menu. I used to be terrified of cooking big birds, but now my cookbook, A LITERARY HOLIDAY COOKBOOK, has recipes for turkey AND goose. Over time, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable pushing my culinary boundaries, and just this past month, I tried something I’ve had my eye on for years: canning.

In CHARLOTTE’S WEB, Mrs. Arable serves canned peaches to the farmers. Peaches are a great intro to canning because they are high in acid (making them a pretty safe option) and easy to process. Here was my perfect opportunity to take canning for a test drive to see if I like it! I don’t have any special tools (canner, jar rack, jar lifter, etc.), so I used tips from a few different sources to help me learn to can with the tools I already have. Here are the sources I consulted:

Canning is an exact science, so I highly recommend researching before you begin. This will help the whole process go smoothly and safely. Plus, I’m a novice myself, so the recipe below isn’t the be-all and end-all of canning advice. It’s a description of my experience, which worked well for me, but I’ll probably change my methods a bit as I learn more.

Overall, I had a good experience. I think it’s a bit too much work for small batches, but it’s a great option if you have a lot of fruit, jam, sauce, etc. and don’t want to waste any. I don’t think I’ll buy any canning tools quite yet, but I have lots of young berry bushes started in the backyard. Once those are fully established, I could definitely see myself having enough berry jam for big-batch canning. I’m glad I gave it a whirl!

NOTE: Just to reiterate, I am not an expert. Fully research canning before you begin and use recipes that have been approved for canning. This post is not a comprehensive guide and does not address every variable that can affect the canning process (such as elevation or lower acid foods). Consuming improperly processed canned goods can result in botulism. Be safe out there!

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Templeton’s Smorgasbord Sandwich

Posted January 20, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

 

Deviled ham? Swiss cheese? RADISHES? Stick with me, folks. Today’s recipe may sound a bit “kitchen sink,” but I promise it’s delicious. 😉

While reading CHARLOTTE’S WEB, I noticed a lot of the food revolves around Templeton the Rat. He’s mostly motivated by food, which I for one find highly relatable. The whole reason he agrees to go to the county fair is because the sheep wows him with descriptions of all the discarded food he’ll find there.

Today’s kinda weird yet tasty recipe is inspired by the lunch Templeton finds wrapped in a newspaper while looking for words for Charlotte’s web. It includes a deviled ham sandwich, some Swiss cheese, and a hard boiled egg. It got me thinking about the song “A Veritable Smorgasbord,” which Templeton sings in the movie, and I thought it would be fun to merge the whole lunch together into one sandwich.

The deviled ham was easy to whip up (I used my variation on a deviled ham salad recipe from Bellyfull). Since the deviled ham already included a hard boiled egg, I didn’t use one as a topping, but you could if want some extra egginess. I decided to throw in some radishes too, since Mr. Zuckerman grows them on his farm in the book. In the end, the whole flavor profile was giving me 1950s vibes in the best way, which is kinda perfect, since the book was written in 1952.

So don’t be shy, give Templeton’s Smorgasbord Sandwich a try. It might pleasantly surprise you, much like Templeton himself. 🙂

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Corn Fritters

Posted January 6, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

Happy New Year, Wonderlanders! The last two months at my house have been a whirlwind of holiday activity, and it looks like I’ll be hustling for at least two months more. My daughter’s birthday was Monday, her party is Saturday, and my son’s birthday/party are a few weeks after that. With so much to do, it was nice to take a Saturday morning and just work on an easy, yummy blog recipe. Say hello to my first recipe from Charlotte’s Web!

These corn fritters are inspired by the county fair the characters visit near the end of the story. Fritters of any kind have a fun fair food vibe, and I was already workshopping a corn fritter recipe for fun with a whole bunch of fresh corn I froze over the summer. Basically, I was just looking for an excuse to make these fritters again. Sorry not sorry! 😉

What makes them so special? Depends on who’s asking. Maybe you’re a cheese person (if so, this recipe’s got you covered). Maybe you like red pepper’s one-two punch of flavor and color. Maybe you’re like me and think all food needs massive amounts of garlic. But I think the real magic is that you can sub in whatever makes you happiest. Green onion, jalapeno, cooked shrimp, sour cream drizzle—go wherever the spirit moves you! I think my favorite addition was a sprinkling of fresh basil on top. I was out of green onion and wanted a pop of green, so I gave it a try…and OH MAN it was amazing! 😀

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Peanut Butter Skillet S’more

Posted December 16, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

 

 

Time for the ultimate camping recipe: a s’more! Of course, not just any s’more. This bad boy has peanut butter mixed into the graham cracker crust, a layer of intense dark chocolate, and a crown of toasted marshmallows scattered with peanuts, Reese’s Pieces, and mini marshmallows. Do I have your attention? 😉

Technically, there are no s’mores in HATCHET, but the main character often fantasizes about chocolate during his hungry times out in the wilderness. And nothing says “wilderness treat” like a s’more! Of course, plain s’mores would be too easy, so I decided to make a skillet s’more to amp up the specialness without losing the outdoorsy feel. My biggest fear was that it would be too sweet to actually enjoy, so I decided to make it a peanut butter s’more in order to add as many savory/salty elements as possible to create balance.

In my ideal world, this would be a campfire recipe just like my last post, Fire Roasted Foolbird. However, the weather hasn’t cooperated with open fire cooking the last couple weeks. If I get a chance, I’ll revisit this recipe in the summer and post open fire cooking instructions. Roasting the “foolbirds” has me eager to try all kinds of campfire recipes! 😀

P.S. Due to traveling for Christmas, I most likely won’t post a recipe on Dec. 29th. I will if I happen to have a lot of free time to work on it, but my official plan is for my next post to be for a new menu on January 6th.

 

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Fire Roasted Foolbird

Posted December 2, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Today’s recipe leans hard into the rugged setting of HATCHET–we’re roasting foolbirds over an open fire!

In HATCHET, “foolbird” is what Brian calls ruffed grouse, which are plentiful in his part of the forest and make up a good chunk of his diet once he learns to hunt with a bow. Since grouse are hard to come by in the grocery store, I went with Cornish hens, which are roughly the same size.

It took a while for us to have good enough weather for this recipe (I am SO sick of rain right now), but it was worth it. I got to sit out in the yard on a mild November morning, enjoying the solitude as I stoked the fire and turned the birds. I felt peaceful and engaged at the same time. Even though I’m not usually an outdoorsy person, I felt like I was getting a brief taste of what HATCHET’s author, Gary Paulsen, loved so much about the wilderness.

Plus, the hens turned out DELICIOUS–smokey and juicy, with crisp skin. I stuffed the cavities of the birds with fresh sage and oregano, which grow in the area of Canada where the book is based, and they gave the meat just a touch of aromatic herbiness. Of course, the birds were also flavored with the best seasoning of all: the satisfaction of having cooked it myself out in nature with just a few simple tools…and the help of my fire-smart, Eagle Scout husband. 😉

 

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