Posted May 18, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book Events and Tours / 3 Comments
You may remember that the Mister and I attended C2E2 (a comic book convention) a couple months ago. Later, I was super sad to find out I had missed some YA fiction panels earlier in the day. Luckily, Chicago BookCon was this past weekend, so I finally got my fix of all the bookish goodness I could ever want. ^.^
This was my first book convention, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I decided to attend just one panel and spend the rest of the day browsing the show floor. Picking a panel was a tough choice, but I decided to go to the first one of the day: a panel on good vs. evil in YA lit run by Lauren Oliver, Sabaa Tahir, Melissa de la Cruz, and Veronica Roth.
That’s right. We’re talkin’ world-famous-author-of-Divergent Veronica Roth. I was so excited/nervous that I had to run back into the house two different times before we left because I forgot my phone and jacket!
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Posted May 17, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Uncategorized / 8 Comments
While planning the reading kit for this month’s Borrower menu, I wound up stumbling across a LOT of cute miniature things, especially fairy gardens. I’d heard of fairy gardens before—miniature outdoor displays set up to look like fairies live there—but I had NO IDEA they could get so elaborate. There were ones carved out of rooted tree stumps, embedded in stone walls, and even built from scratch to look like real, miniature homes! They had me wishing I could live there, so I made a list of my favorites to share with you. Here are my Borrower dream homes!
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Posted May 12, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments
The next installment in our Borrower menu is actually three foods from the book combined into one! At afternoon tea, the Clocks serve tiny slivers of toasted chestnut in place of regular toast, and the narrator says they ate birds’ eggs and minnows while living at the badger’s set. These all sound like great breakfast components to me, so I combined them all together into a meal fit for a peckish Human Bean or a whole family of Borrowers. My chestnut toasts are just like the ones in the book—whole chestnuts sliced thin and toasted until golden brown. Since minnows are a little hard to find, I used sardines, and quail’s eggs are just the right size for a Borrower!
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Posted May 10, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Reading Kits / 4 Comments
This month’s reading kit is based on The Borrowers, and I’m happy to say there were so many options for things to include that I had trouble holding myself back! I knew Arrietty’s iconic cherry tree needed to be featured, along with the tiny scissors. But then I started finding so many borrower-like mini things that the list got SUPER long. I trimmed the kit down to 6 items, but don’t worry—I planned another mini-item themed post for next week!
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Posted May 5, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments
A few months ago, I read The Borrowers for the very first time, and I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing. It was amazing! Despite being written for a young audience, the characters were nuanced and relatable. The plot, though relatively simple, was engaging. I LOVED Arrietty’s spunk—she quickly became one of my top literary heroines!
We first meet the Borrowers while they are making their evening dinner: potato soup. Of course, since the pot was no bigger than a thimble, only the most delicate slivers of potato and onion were taken from the Borrowers’ stores to make the soup. Nevertheless, the resulting dinner was hearty and delicious, and I knew right away that it would be the appetizer for my Borrower menu.
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Posted May 3, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Link Up / 14 Comments
We all have favorite book characters for sure (Fred Weasley! Jo March! HERCULE POIROT!…..* ahem * I’m done.), but there’s something about the characters we read about as kids that gives them a special place in our hearts. It’s more than simple nostalgia—I like to think it’s genuine friendship. Fictional or not, these people are just as integral to the sharing and shaping of our childhood as any real person. Sometimes more.
But real people grow up. They change, have families, and go off on their own adventures. Our favorite childhood book characters don’t do that unless we’re blessed with a sequel or an epilogue, but that doesn’t stop us from wondering what might have become of them.
This is my list of favorite childhood characters I’d like to revisit as adults. For most, I’ve added my musings about their potential futures, but I want to hear what you think about them too! Do you imagine their fates differently? Exactly the same? Let me know! 🙂
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Posted May 2, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Hints / 5 Comments
April is over and May is here—time to wrap up our current Book of the Month and introduce a new one! But before we get to that, let’s sum up all the awesome stuff that happened this month:
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Posted April 28, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments
Of all our Series of Unfortunate Events recipes, I think this was the one I was most excited about. I knew for sure I would be making Uncle Monty’s famous coconut cake from The Reptile Room as our dessert—it’s the food I remember best from the whole series! All the cakes I’ve made on the blog so far have been chocolate (like Delicious Death and Dauntless Cake), so it was fun to try something different. And you can bet the Mister was excited: he loves coconut! This particular recipe starts with a mix, but I used a few baking tricks to make it more like homemade. The frosting is my own invention too, but I used this BHG recipe as my starting point. The final result is a moist, fluffy cake with just the right amount of coconut. So eat up! If your life is anything like the Baudelaires’, you may not know when you’ll encounter such a delicious dessert again. 😉
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Posted April 26, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 13 Comments
It’s time to premiere our Series of Unfortunate Events tea! When brainstorming ideas for this tea, my first thought went to Esmé Squalor, the Baudelaires’ guardian in the 6th Unfortunate Events book. Esmé is obsessed with all things “in,” and this obsession leads her to drink crazy concoctions like parsley soda and aqueous martinis—all in the name of fashion. Of course, there was NO WAY I was making a parsley tea, so I set my sights on the martini. In truth, the aqueous martini isn’t really a martini, since alcohol was “out” when it was created Instead, it’s simply ice cold water in a martini glass with an olive. I liked the idea of something crisp, simple, and classy, so I used that as my inspiration. Channeling the cucumber and mint infused waters I’ve been seeing at parties lately, I went with a white cucumber base and added spearmint to make it extra refreshing. The results make a perfect iced tea!
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Posted April 21, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 9 Comments
I’m super excited to include this mango and black bean salad as our Series of Unfortunate Events side dish! In the books, this recipe is credited to the author’s lost love—the mysterious Beatrice. It’s considered her signature dish, and I can see why! This recipe is easy, healthy, AND super delicious. The sweet, juicy mango plays off the mellow beans and crisp celery, hitting all the right notes along the way. And the hint of lime in the dressing adds a touch of freshness, making it perfect on a hot day.
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