Thanksgiving is over and December is here, which means it’s officially acceptable to start thinking about Christmas! As you may have guessed, our new Book of the Month is A Christmas Carol. Seasonally appropriate, yes?
Tis the Season for a New Book of the Month
I had so much fun making the Hunger Games menu this past month, especially the lamb stew (it’s one of my favorite recipes now). Last week’s Katniss Cakes marked the end of the menu, so it’s time to welcome December with a new Book of the Month! Your photo hint is below. Can you guess it?
Katniss Cakes
When I first decided to make a Hunger Games menu, I knew I wanted to go all-out on dessert. Cupcakes immediately came to mind, but I wanted more than just Hunger Games decorations. I wanted each cupcake to exemplify a key story element. After tossing around dozens of ideas, I created three kinds of cupcakes…
Thanksgiving Throwback
As a holiday based entirely around food, Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart. Yet as much as I love it, deciding what to cook can be a little intimidating. If you have a potluck-style dinner like my family, pretty much every relative has their “thing” that they make every year. Finding something traditional and festive that someone else isn’t already making can be a challenge. However, a great way to circumvent this problem is to make a dish that uses iconic Thanksgiving flavors in a new way. I’m making Deeper ‘n Ever Turnip ‘n Tater ‘n Beetroot Pie for Thanksgiving this year, since it’s one of my favorite AWR recipes (and TOTALLY tastes like stuffing). In fact, after looking through the archives, I realized we have loads of Thanksgiving-appropriate recipes…
The Mellark Family Cheese Buns
Buns are a great side dish to accompany a hearty stew, like our Lamb Stew with Dried Plums from last week. Plus, bread in general plays a huge role in The Hunger Games, so it wouldn’t be right to have a Hunger Games menu without it. It was hard to choose between all the great bread recipes featured in the books, but I finally settled on these cheese buns for two reasons:
The Capitol’s Lamb Stew with Dried Plums
In The Hunger Games, the Capitol offers some great dishes—chicken with creamy orange sauce, fluffy dinner rolls, and even pumpkin soup. These all sound delicious, but I knew the best entree for our menu would be lamb stew with dried plums, since it’s Katniss’ favorite Capitol dish…and Cesar Flickerman’s too!
Prim’s Basil and Goat Cheese Bites
So excited for our new Book of the Month: The Hunger Games! I’ve loved both the books and the movies, and since Mockingjay Part 1 is coming out later this month, it seemed like the perfect time for a Hunger Games menu. Luckily, the books feature so many recipes, any difficulty in developing a menu comes from the sheer number of options.
November Book of the Month Hint
Happy November! I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween. We had SNOW on Friday, which I was super excited about, because I’m a weirdo who derives an unhealthy amount of enjoyment from cold weather (Need proof? The Mister once seriously proposed that we move to Alaska…and I thought it was a great idea).
Halloween Bonus Post: Edible Bug Taste Test!
Our Dracula menu has drawn to a close, but I’d like to leave you with one more awesome Halloween edible before the big holiday tomorrow. As you may recall, we’ve already made blue corn Spider Chips for Halloween, so for the brave souls out there, I decided to add some REAL bugs to the menu.
Monster Mash Moon Pies: An Alison’s Wonderland Original Recipe ©
To me, black and white monster movies are the best part of Halloween. I love Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, of course, but The Wolfman also holds a special place in my heart. And don’t even get me started on Frankenstein.