Last year for Halloween, the Mister and I performed a chocolate covered edible bug taste test and published our findings here on the blog. This year, we decided to up the ante and try some more bugs…this time without the chocolate!
Little Belgian Truffles
Our official Agatha Christie dessert was a Miss Marple recipe, so it’s only fair that our bonus recipe should be a Hercule Poirot dish, right? Poirot is famous for his love of rich chocolate, and his native land of Belgium offers some temptingly easy truffle recipes. The recipe I use here is adapted from one I found on Zestuous. I love the different texture elements provided by the cocoa powder and creamy chocolate. Plus, this is probably the easiest candy recipe I’ve ever made! 
P.S. We’re taking a vote to see which detective is better, Poirot or Marple. Vote here!
DELICIOUS DEATH: Super Fudgy Chocolate Cake, Dark Chocolate Frosting, and Easy Halloween Toppers!
Oh, Delicious Death. When making an Agatha Christie menu, is there any dessert more suitable? This decadent dessert plays a significant role in one of Christie’s most popular novels, A Murder is Announced. The exact recipe isn’t shared in the book, but we know it’s chocolate cake “of a melting richness,” which, let’s be honest, is enough to make most of us drool already. I made mine from this delightfully rich, almost brownie-like cake recipe, topped with dark chocolate frosting and bats silhouettes made of powdered sugar. If death by chocolate is truly possible, this is how I want to go.
P.S. We’re taking a vote to see which detective is better, Poirot or Marple. Vote here!
Ariadne Oliver’s Homemade Applesauce
As a super organized person, I love it when a post comes together exactly as planned. Then again, some of my favorite recipe posts have been the result of last minute changes. That’s definitely the case today. My original plan was to post a recipe from Murder on the Orient Express, but I really struggled to find a good option. Sure, lots of foods are mentioned in the book (soup, chicken, cream), but they aren’t described and don’t have much significance in the story. A week ago I was scouring the book for anything that might work. To get me in the spirit, I decided to play an episode of the Hercule Poirot TV series in the background while I worked. The episode was Cards on the Table, which features Ariadne Oliver, Hercule Poirot’s crime writer friend who always speaks her mind. I kept getting distracted by Ariadne’s funny antics involving apples (her favorite snack), and I stopped all my work so I could watch my favorite moment in the whole episode: when she gets out of her car and half-eaten apples spill out all over the driveway. Then it dawned on me: I’d found my recipe—Ariadne’s Apples!
Ghosts on Tour Part II: In which I review The Hollow Boy and Interview Jonathan Stroud About the Lockwood Series
As you know, a few weeks ago I attended a tour event for the new Lockwood & Co. book, The Hollow Boy…and I got to interview the author, Jonathan Stroud! Since I wanted to cover two general topics in my interview, I decided to divide my interview into two parts and publish them separately. The first was a mini interview about the book tour, which I published a few weeks ago with an overview of the tour event. The second part was a more in-depth interview about the Lockwood series itself. I just finished reading The Hollow Boy, so today I’m posting the longer interview with my review of the book. Enjoy!
Jonathan Stroud Interview Part II: The Lockwood Series
Before the tour event began, I got a chance to sit down with Mr. Stroud and ask him some questions about
The Hollow Boy and the Lockwood series as a whole. Here’s what he had to say!
Pocket Full of Rye Sandwiches: Miss Marple’s Tea Sandwiches
Our first Agatha Christie recipe was dedicated to Poirot, but we’d be doing the famous mystery writer a disservice if we ignored her other beloved sleuth: Miss Marple. As much as I love Poirot, I’m a Miss Marple fan too, because her style differs from Poirot’s while still being masterful in its own right. One of her most famous cases is Pocket Full of Rye
Pick Your Poison: Who’s Your Favorite Agatha Christie Sleuth?
Pretty much every Agatha Christie fan I know has a strong opinion on whether Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple is a better sleuth. Me? I’m completely torn.
I LOVE Poirot’s little eccentricities and penchant for perfection (in Cards on the Table, he’s heard to say, “I am always right. It is so invariable it startles me.”). Then again, I love the simple, unobtrusive way Jane Marple always manages to crack a case just by reflecting on her own experiences with human nature. I wish I could trek through London with Poirot on a case, but I’d probably want to end the day sipping tea by the fire with Miss Marple.
What about you? Where do you stand? Let me know in the poll below, and you can leave an explanation in the comments!
WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE? ©
.
Poirot’s Breakfast: Toast with Homemade Strawberry Jam and Mustachioed Hard Boiled Eggs
Happy October, everybody! Welcome to our new menu. Last year we spent the month of Halloween making spooky Dracula recipes, but this year we’re taking a murder mystery approach: an Agatha Christie menu! As many of you know by now, I’m a die hard Christie groupie…so I didn’t need much of an excuse to dedicate a menu to her.
Holy Papal Visit, Batman!
Guys, I SAW THE POPE!
…moving quickly in a car past me and about a million other people. But it still counts.
You may have noticed that I’ve been mostly AWOL from the the interwebs since Thursday. That’s because I’ve been busy flying to Philadelphia and fangirling over Pope Francis all weekend!!! I walked more than 20 miles over the span of 3 days: first site seeing in Philly and then gettin’ down with my Catholic self at the Festival of Families and the Papal Mass. SO MANY PEOPLE! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT! 
Needless to say, this made blogging a bit tricky. In fact, I pretty much failed at sharing my last Monty Python post on Facebook/Twitter. So I decided to make up for it by posting the shares today and linking to it here (better late than never, right?). If it’s any consolation, we’re finishing up our Monty Python menu today by adding a new custom tea to our Adagio collection: Monty Python’s Coconut Camelot Tea! Click on the link or the pic below to see a description of the tea and details on how to order.
Wow…with our Monty Python menu finished up, that means it’s almost October! HOW can it be almost October, guys? I could have sworn September just started yesterday. Then again, this month has been super busy for me, and not just with papal visit plans. I interviewed Jonathan Stroud about his new book tour a couple weeks ago, and I just finished my next Real Life at Home guest post. Plus, the Mister and I are moving on Halloween, and I’m doing NaNoWrMo this November. In short: CHAOS! It’s really no wonder October snuck up on me. Still, I’m SUPER excited for our new menu, especially since it involves one of my favorite authors! Want a hint as to what it could be? Check out the picture below!
Now then, I’m going to find a lovely little corner of my apartment in which to curl up and sleep off my 7 am flight from yesterday (if I wake up and see my shadow, we get 6 more weeks of fall).
Flying Cow Milkshakes: Coconut Cookies ‘n Cream Milkshakes
Run away! Our Monty Python dessert is coming straight for you! Then again, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, since these Flying Cow Milkshakes are absolutely delicious…and royally decadent! Made with homemade coconut ice cream, Oberweiss milk, and Oreos—they’re a sweet, refreshing reward after a long, hard day of being taunted by Frenchmen.