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!
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!
Mr. Stroud tells the tour audience about the first book he ever wrote as a kid. His shirt says “Fictional Character!” 🙂
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!
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, and that’s where we’re getting our recipe today.
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!
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.
…moving quickly in a car past me and about a million other people. But it still counts.
This is a pic the Mister got as the Pope drove by us!
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!
Any guesses at what it could be? BONUS HINT: Instead of focusing on one book, this menu will focus on several books all by the same author (not necessarily a series).
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).
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.
Last night, I interviewed Jonathan Stroud (famous for his bestselling Bartimaeus series) at a tour event for his new book, The Hollow Boy! And strangely enough, I owe it all to Goodreads. 🙂
I devoured the Bartimaeus books when they first came out, so I was thrilled when Goodreads notified me about Stroud’s new series: Lockwood & Co. It’s the story of three teens who run their own ghost-hunting agency in London, which is plagued by a sudden and mysterious ghost epidemic. An avid ghost story reader, I decided to read and review the first two Lockwood books (you can read my reviews here and here). Goodreads also informed me that Stroud was planning a promotional tour for the newest Lockwood book, The Hollow Boy. One of the tour events was scheduled to take place in La Grange, IL…not far from where I live! I tracked down the contact info for Stroud’s publicist and asked if I could pretty please have an interview with Mr. Stroud at the La Grange event. The publicist was gracious enough to forward the info to him, and he said YES! * cue shameless fangirl squeals *
This Shrubbery Salad was commissioned by The Knights Who Say Ni! They instructed us to make something that “looks nice and isn’t too expensive,” so we whipped up this delightful recipe from With Salt and Wit. The base is composed of thinly shaved Brussels sprouts, light and tasty enough to make you regret every bad thing you ever said about a Brussels sprout. And the cranberries, bacon bits, toasted walnuts, and homemade vinaigrette bring it all together to create a perfect balance of sweet and savory. Ni!
Watch out—this rabbit’s dynamite! For our Monty Python entree, we glazed chunks of red pepper, bacon, purple onion, and rabbit meat with Center Cut Cook’s spicy bang bang sauce to create kebabs with some kick. It’s our tribute to the Killer Rabbit!
, and that’s where we’re getting our recipe today.
