Posted August 4, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
I’m proud to announce the start of a menu I’ve been looking forward to for ages: A STUDIO GHIBLI MENU! For those who are unfamiliar, Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki worked with Studio Ghibli to make films like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Ponyo. I’ve been a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan for years, so I thought it would be fun to make a menu for his movies! Since it would be impossible to choose just one film, I decided to base each dish after a different movie. Today’s recipe is from Spirited Away!
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Posted August 2, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Link Up / 9 Comments
Unlimited money for books. It’s what every book lover dreams about, right? Just last month I published a post describing my dream library, so I was all set to continue fantasizing about more books when this Top Ten Tuesday prompt came up. In fact, I’ve been saving books on my Amazon wishlist for ages, so I just had to pop over and see which ones I wanted most. Here’s my dream book haul master list!
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Posted August 1, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Hints / 2 Comments
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I’m not sure what the weather is like by you, but here in Chicago it’s HOT HOT HOT! I’ve been hiding shamelessly inside with my air conditioner all month and cooking up all kinds of yummy goodness to take my mind off the oppressive heat. Let’s take a look at what we made this month!
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Posted July 28, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments
We’re wrapping up our Little Princess menu with the very first food Sara ever shares with her close friend Becky: sweet, delicate, delicious cake!
I love the friendship that develops between Becky and Sara. And I think it’s no coincidence that it all develops around food! 🙂 At first, Becky the maid is shy and uncertain around the well-to-do Sara, and Sara is lonely in an unfamiliar country.
But when Sara sees how hungry Becky is, she shares all kinds of foods with her, starting with this cake (which I modeled after the rosy dress Becky says she once saw on a real princess). Becky is touched by the generosity and soon gets over her shyness, opening the door for a friendship that both girls desperately need.
I always knew cake had the power to change lives! 🙂
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Posted July 26, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Link Up / 5 Comments
One of the many things that make books magical is how they expose us to worlds, cultures, and lifestyles we might never have known about. A truly great book can get us so excited about the lives of the characters that we want to live that way too!
As a kid, I DEFINITELY spent a lot of time pretending to live in different time periods and countries, but I often overlooked how books piqued my interest in new activities. Looking back, there were TONS of subjects I got passionate about after reading about them…and it still happens today! Here are my top ten things I wanted to learn/do after reading books about it. Enjoy! 🙂
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Posted July 21, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments
In A Little Princess, Sara and Becky wake up in their attic room to find that a succulent feast has mysteriously appeared. The delicious dishes appear for many days, and a “spicy Indian soup” is said to be among them. Though the soup is not described, I like to imagine it was mulligatawny soup—filling and savory, with a perfect fusion of English cooking and Indian roots, heralding back to Sara’s background.
This particular recipe (developed by Emily from Favorite Family Recipes) is super complex and delicious. I love how the salty flavors play off the sweet and the creamy flavors play off the savory, creating a truly balanced dish!
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Posted July 19, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Uncategorized / 4 Comments
If you follow me on Pinterest, you may be familiar with my Lovely Libraries page, where I pin pics of all the beautiful libraries I come across in my blog research. I’ve always loved the idea of having a private library of my own, but it wasn’t until I started the Pinterest page that I started thinking about what it might look like.
It didn’t take long for me to discover I have a very distinct style when it came to libraries. I love the old-timey “power libraries” with ornate wood paneling, floor-to-ceiling shelves, and plush reading chairs. I started making a mental list of all the things I’d like to include in my dream library, so I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you!
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Posted July 14, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment
Becky is one of my favorite characters in A Little Princess because she’s so genuine. As a young maid in a school full of little girls with large fortunes and influential families, it would be easy for her to get bogged down in resentment or jealousy. Instead, she’s open to friendship with even the most affluent student—little Sara—and proves to be a great friend in Sara’s time of need.
When Sara starts sharing food with Becky, these meat pies were Becky’s favorite, and I can see why. They’re hearty and heart-warming, with substance and simple goodness—much like Becky herself! 🙂
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Posted July 12, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 10 Comments
I actually designed this tea almost a year before I read the book A Little Princess. I’ve loved the movie for ages, so I thought it would be fun to make a tea inspired by it!
Masala chai originated in India, so I knew it would be the perfect starting point for my tea. But how to make it unique? I decided to blend it with chocolate chai to add some sweetness to the spice. Then I added a touch of vanilla to even out the flavors, and voilà: a chai reminiscent of spicy hot chocolate, perfect for a little girl like Sara Crewe! 🙂
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Posted July 7, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 9 Comments
Our new Book of the Month is A Little Princess, and we’re starting it out with one of my favorite foods in the entire book: Sara’s bakery buns! When the previously affluent Sara Crewe is suddenly thrown into poverty, she struggles with hunger every day. One day she finds a coin in the street, but instead of spending it right away, she tries to find who it belongs to. When she can’t, she uses it to buy six warm, fresh bakery buns…then the baker woman sees her give five of them away to a starving child on the street! The baker woman is so touched by Sara’s generosity, she takes in the child Sara helped and teaches her to work in the bakery. Who knew a little girl with a simple bun could do so much?
In the movie version of the story, the bun in Sara’s hands looks like a giant, delicious cinnamon bun, but I decided to take it a step further and make something special: blackberry buns! Today we’ve spiraled traditional sweet roll dough around rich blackberry preserves and drizzled it with sweet lemon icing.
A dish fit for a princess!
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