Given the title of this post, you’re probably already wondering about the story behind this recipe. It all started with I started hunting through the Star Trek cookbook for any recipes I might want to include in my Voyager menu. I saw the Maquis Breakfast Bars and thought they looked delicious: homemade granola bars with rolled oats, dates, cranberries, dried apples, shredded coconut, and a bit of honey. I haven’t made anything like that before, so I whipped them up one morning. They turned out great…until it came time to cut them. When I tried to slice the giant sheet of baked granola it absolutely crumbled. There was no way I was going to get even a few bars out of it.
Disappointed, I began to nibble on the crumbled bits as I thought about what recipe I should make to replace it. I stopped short. The granola tasted A.MAZ.ING. I couldn’t stop eating it, and after I shared a handful with the Little Mister, he was hooked too. I crumbled up the remnants in the pan and turned it into loose granola, which the Little Mister and I have been eating with our breakfast every morning since (once it runs out, he may mutiny).
Since I loved the flavor so much, it seemed wrong to scrap the recipe in favor of something else. I didn’t want to risk adding more liquid, since it held together really well in the bowl and I didn’t want to risk soggy granola. Instead, I decided to present it here on the blog as granola bowls. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did!
P.S. The original recipe calls for melted butter and honey to hold the granola together. For a healthier option, I think melted coconut oil would work equally well with the honey. I haven’t tried it yet, but I intend to. I’ll let you know how it turns out! 🙂
Today is the last day to submit entries to my cookbook giveaway! The official end time is 11:59 pm Central Time. Be sure to get your entries in ASAP for a chance to win a signed copy of my new cookbook, A Literary Tea Party, and a Tea with Tolkien mug!
I LOVE the mugs. One is green and says “Tea with Tolkien” and the other is blue and says “Lattes with Lewis”! 😀
As many of you have heard from my posts here on the blog and on social media, I’ve been working hard to get the word out about my book. However, there’s a lot of other new exciting things going on as well! First off, we’re moving! We’re currently in the process of packing and house hunting—with the hope that we’ll be tucked away in our new home before the end of the summer. We’re very excited about this new change for our family and can’t wait to find a new place.
We also have ANOTHER new and exciting thing in the works! The timing isn’t quite right to reveal the details yet, but I’m hoping to spill the beans some time in July. 😉
All that being said, I’m having trouble keeping up with my normal post schedule. And I’ve been just AWFUL at keeping up with blog comments. I’ve tried to work ahead as much as possible, but the fast pace in conjunction with my hectic schedule has created confusion and mix ups (some of you may remember two weeks ago when my Vulcan Spice tea post published a week early…before my Star Trek menu even started! Eek!!!). I was already considering parring down my Tuesday posts, but the Vulcan Spice mix up made it clear that I REALLY needed to.
For the next several months, I’m putting all my regular Tuesday posts on hold (Top Ten Tuesday linkups, reading kits, and tea premieres). I can’t give an exact end time, but it will go at least until the start of October. However, there WILL be lots of new book updates, so I’ll share those on Tuesdays as they occur. Of course, my recipe posts will continue to publish every Thursday as usual.
I’ll see you all on Thursday for my next Star Trek recipe.
It’s a fun one, and I’m happy to say the Little Mister and I are both huge fans of it! 🙂
Chili may not be the first thing you think of when you picture eating lunch aboard a starship, but Voyager’s head chef Neelix takes great pride in creating foods his shipmates find comforting and familiar, no matter what planet they call home. His foray into chili began as an experiment with classic American cuisine…and ended with several crewman in sickbay with heartburn! Luckily, the chili recipe I’m sharing here today has a spice factor that’s easy to customize, so you don’t have to worry about making an unscheduled trip to sickbay. 😉
Fun fact: this is actually my grandma’s chili recipe! Once I decided I wanted to make the Rodeo Red chili from the show, I knew right away this was the recipe I wanted to use. I’ve always loved it, and it’s super easy. It was a go-to cold weather dish for my family when I was a kid, and a lot of times my mom would serve it in delicious sourdough bowls (which is an addition I HIGHLY recommend). It’s actually not that spicy on its own, but I added a few extra ingredients (Tabasco, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes) to give it the kick you’d expect from Neelix’s super spicy chili. Enjoy…with some milk close at hand! 🙂
My brand new cookbook, A Literary Tea Party, came out last Tuesday!!! * cue wild flailing and dancing *
I’ve been doing lots of book promotions and event planning the past few weeks, so this is the first time I’ve had a chance to talk about it on the blog. There’s LOTS to tell you! Here’s what’s been going on:
Sara LeTourneau Guest Post.Sara was kind enough to write the intro for my cookbook AND invite me to write a guest post for her blog the week it came out! Since the cookbook focuses on tea party recipes, I decided to write a post with tea party planning tips. Swing by Sara’s blog and check it out!
Paperfury Cake Recipe for A Thousand Perfect Notes. Paperfury’s debut novel came out just two days after my cookbook, so we teamed up to write a post for her blog! Everyone knows she has a passion for cake, and she couldn’t resist sneaking one into the pages of her book: chocolate almond date cake. I developed a recipe for it, and she shared it on her blog, along with info about both our books. Many thanks, Cait! 🙂
Podcast Interview with DIY MFA. I am honored to have been a guest on Gabriela’s podcast for the DIY MFA writer’s site, where she interviews authors about their books and writing lives. It’s so fun and informative–I’ve been a huge fan for ages! Since my interview hasn’t come out yet, I don’t have a direct link to it, but I’ll share one as soon as it’s available. Keep an eye out!
My First Author Event! This past weekend, we held an author meet ‘n greet and book signing at the Streator Public Library in Illinois. It was my very first author event, so I was super excited! It was great to be able to do it in my home town, at the library I grew up using. I literally went around grabbing books and telling my husband, “This is the first copy of the The Hobbit I ever read! This was where I first read Phantom of the Opera!” Many thanks to the library for hosting and to everyone who attended. It was so great to see you all! 🙂
Me at the Streator Library!
Want Me to Visit Your Local Library, Bookstore, or School? Let’s Make It Happen!
I’ve had some people contact me about scheduling an author event in their town, which is SO flattering! I’ve got several potential appearances in the works, and I wanted to let you all know what to do if you want to schedule one too:
First, contact the location you’d like me to visit and let them know you’re interested in having me come by. Some locations don’t do author events, so it’s always good to check. Plus, libraries and bookstores are always more interested in inviting authors if their patrons specifically request them.
If they’re interested in hosting an event, send me an email here!
I’ll send them our press release, and my publicist and I can start talking with them about scheduling! 😀
NOTE: Since I live in the Midwest, visiting locations in this region shouldn’t be a problem. For anything further away, I’ll have to get the ok from my publisher, since they’ll be covering transportation and accommodation. However, if I’m not able to visit your town, we’ve got lots of other options available! We can schedule a radio or podcast interview, or you can let me know of nearby book festivals that my publisher might already plan on attending. We’ll do everything we can to make it work!
Thank you all for your continued support of my blog and book. I couldn’t do this without you guys! 😀
When I first decided to make a Star Trek: Voyager menu, I started hunting through Memory Alpha for recipe inspiration. Unlike the other Star Trek series I’ve seen, this series features a HUGE amount of food, since the ship’s cook (Neelix) is one of the main characters. As I scrolled through his various creations, algae puffs jumped out at me. They appeared in S3E6 (Remember) when Neelix serves them to an Enaran diplomat, but it isn’t their significance to the series that got my attention. It was the fact that they reminded of a recipe I already make all the time! 🙂
Everyday for lunch, my husband packs a spinach and cheese omelet, which means we ALWAYS have a bag of spinach in our fridge. However, he doesn’t need a ton of spinach per omelet, and our grocery store only sells it in big bags (they technically have small bundles of organic spinach, but it’s rarely in good condition and costs as much as a bag). Which means every week I’m scrambling to figure out how to use up almost an entire bag of spinach before it goes bad.
Enter these delicious, healthy spinach muffins from SuperHealthyKids.com. They feature whole wheat flour, honey, and a whopping 6 ounces of spinach. I stumbled upon the recipe after I decided I couldn’t eat one more bite of sauteed spinach ever again in my life. And these are GOOD. I love them; the Mister loves them; the baby loves them. They’re gone in a day or two every time I make a batch.
When I read up on Neelix’s algae puffs, I knew this was the way to go. So buckle up, crew, we’re off to bake some tasty green muffins!
Coffee may be the most iconic “organic suspension” in Star Trek: Voyager, but Vulcan Spice Tea is a close second. It’s a reigning favorite of Captain Janeway, who has been known to share a cup while meeting with her Vulcan head of security, Lieutenant Tuvok. I started this blend with spiced mate tea, a high-caffeine Brazilian tea flavored with cinnamon, ginger, and orange. I paired it with orange honeybush to increase the zesty flavor and honeybush hazelnut to compliment the toastier notes in the mate. Definitely the perfect blend to sip while watching the adventures of the starship Voyager!
For my Lord of the Rings bonus recipe, I loved the idea of making the cake from Bilbo’s birthday party. It’s not expressly mentioned in the book, but it’s hard to imagine a birthday without one. As you may recall, the one in the movie is huuuuge—2 giant tiers with 2 layers each, enough to fit 111 candles and a host of fresh flowers. I thought about doing a recreation of that same cake, but I’ve seen enough other bloggers do it that I wanted to try something different. Plus, I just finished making a giant chocolate chip cookie, and I made a 10-inch 2-layer double chocolate cake last month. They were fun (and delicious), but I think I’m done with giant desserts for a while. I was in the mood for something mini, but not JUST mini. I wanted a unique, creative element to make this dessert just a little bit special. And that’s where I got the idea for these cupcakes!
The cake in the movie appeared to be white cake with vanilla frosting. I decided to stick with the white cake for the cupcakes themselves but went with a lemon frosting on top, garnishing with candles and edible flowers just like the movie. Inside, I added a surprise: homemade blackberry curd! It’s super delicious and easy to make—an invisible surprise, just like at the end of Bilbo’s party!
Howdy, folks! Sorry about the mix-up earlier today. Those of you who were paying close attention probably already know what I’m talking about. I’ve been trying to work ahead on my posts and accidentally scheduled next Tuesday’s post for today! EEP! >.< It was only up for 10 minutes before I caught the mistake, but those of you who follow through email probably still got an update about it….so I guess you got a sneak peak at next month’s menu! I can trust you to keep it a secret until June for everyone else, right? 😉
Anyway, THIS is the post that was supposed to go up today: my Top Ten Tuesday linkup! Below I’ve shared a list of my top 10 favorite fictional worlds. Hopefully they’re all worlds that are forgiving of bloggers who try to work too far ahead and get their wires crossed! 😉
The round, green door of Bag End is one of the strongest icons in the stories of Middle Earth. It represents so much—home and journey, beginnings and endings, comfort and adventure—and it holds all these otherwise contradictory ideas in effortless resolution. It’s the door through which Bilbo greets his unexpected guests and leaves for adventure in The Hobbit. It’s a symbol of the home that Frodo longs to return to in The Lord of the Rings, but when he does, he finds that although we can go home, we can never go back. It’s a door that, when opened, leads to the promise of good company, a full larder, and a kettle of hot tea. It holds a special place in my heart (and that of many other Tolkien fans as well), so I knew my Lord of the Rings menu wouldn’t be complete without a tribute to it.
I’ve made giant chocolate chip cookies in the past, and I loved the idea of making one to look like a hobbit door. So here it is! The recipe is the giant chocolate chip cookie recipe from Tollhouse. I love how it turned out, though if I’d been thinking ahead, I might have tried to create a wood grain effect with my smoothing knife as I spread out the frosting for the base. I love the yellow doorknob and Gandalf’s rune in the corner. The quote around the border comes from Bilbo and Frodo’s traveling song, and it couldn’t be more perfect! 🙂
Normally I make just one tea for my Book of the Month, but I’ve been known to make multiple teas for books I’m really excited about. I knew The Lord of the Rings would be one of those books long before I even started planning the menu. For one thing, it’s a trilogy, so it’s only fair to have one tea for each book, right? Plus, there are just too many awesome potential teas to choose just one. I actually made FIVE originally, but that seemed excessive so I narrowed it down to my three favorites: Ent-Draught, Breakfast at Bag End, and Sam’s Garden Tea.
Ent-Draught was the most obvious choice, since it’s arguably the most iconic drink in the story. There are two versions, and I decided to make the refreshing, less savory version. Breakfast at Bad End is a slight variation on a hobbit tea I designed for my cookbook (the one in the book uses English breakfast and chestnut, while this one is Irish breakfast and hazelnut). And Sam’s Garden Tea is a tribute to orchard, herb, and flower bed with a refreshing blend of peach, chamomile, and spearmint.
