Cookbook Publication Date & Cover Winner!

Posted February 2, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book Events and Tours / 0 Comments

 

 

Last week I asked all my readers to vote on their favorite cover design for my upcoming cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC. The results are in, and the watercolor design won by a landslide! Thank you so much to everyone who voted.

Since a few people misread the title as “a literary panic” (😂😂😂!!!), I’ll make some changes to the title font, but I haven’t decided what yet. I’ll either tweak the font in Canva or switch to a new one.

A LITERARY PICNIC will be available as an ebook on Amazon and my blog on Monday March 20th—the first day of spring! I reeeally want to get the book done by then because it has a Peter Rabbit menu that is absolutely perfect for Easter.

P.S. For anyone interested in how I made the design, I layered and filtered three sets of watercolor graphics available in Canva Pro from a creator account called CreativeValuation. I then used GIMP 2.1 to do some fine-tuning to the girl in front, primarily to darken her lines so she’d be easier to see when the image is small (like when you’re scrolling through Amazon).

a

I’ll share a sneak peak of one of the menus
in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!

 
 

My New Cookbook Cover: Vote for Your Favorite!

Posted January 26, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book Events and Tours / 2 Comments

 

sdf
 

I recently announced that I have a new cookbook coming out, and today I’m SO EXCITED to share the cover. Well, two of them . . . because I can’t choose! 😅

When I first started designing my cover, I decided to make two different versions—one with a background photograph of one of the menus from the book, another with watercolor elements from Canva Pro. I thought once I saw the finished products I’d know for sure what I wanted, but I love them both too much to choose. So I’m putting it up to a vote! Cast your vote below for your favorite cover, and if you want to vote multiple times, you can check out my Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

I’ll announce the official publication date for A LITERARY PICNIC next week on my socials, so stay tuned! 😁

Read More

Cranberry Candy

Posted December 29, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

A bit of a misnomer, Cranberry Candy isn’t a candy but rather a beverage, most likely named for its sugary sweetness. I chose Cranberry Candy as my STARDEW VALLEY bonus recipe because the cranberry flavor and bright red color make it perfect for the Christmas season, which my family is still celebrating (we’re Catholic, so we celebrate Christmas until January 6th).

The recipe in the game lists the ingredients as cranberry, apple, and sugar. For the apple, I went with sparkling apple cider, since Cranberry Candy strikes me as something fizzy like soda or sparkling punch. To get the cranberry flavor, I went with standard cranberry juice, but I wanted to add something more. I tried a little pomegranate juice in the mix, and I loved it! It deepens the flavor (and the color) without overpowering the apple and cranberry, creating a complexity I really enjoy. My favorite part about it is that, even though all the flavors meld together, you can isolate individual elements of each ingredient: the richness of the pomegranate, the tart astringency of the cranberry, and the fizzy brightness of the apple cider.

Whip up a batch for your holiday festivities and toast a fruitful year in STARDEW VALLEY!

P.S. Just a quick reminder, I’m taking January and February off to finish my upcoming cookbook, so this will be my last post for a couple months. Enjoy the rest of the holiday season, and I’ll see you in March! 😀

Read More

Big Announcement!

Posted December 16, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book Events and Tours / 0 Comments

 

 

A couple days ago I did an interview with the Well Seasoned Librarian Podcast, in which Dean Jones and I talk gingerbread, Hercule Poirot, and my struggles with Turkish Delight. You should definitely check it out! At the end of the interview, I revealed my latest big project. Those of you with amazing memories may recall I hinted at a super secret project several months ago on Instagram. Now I’m finally ready to announce it here on the blog!

My big news is . . .*drumroll *. . .

Read More

Pink Cake

Posted December 15, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

 

 

Pink Cake may sound basic, but this dainty dessert hides a secret ingredient: melon! In STARDEW VALLEY, Pink Cake is a favorite of several villagers. The in-game thumbnail shows a cute pink tube cake topped with red heart sprinkles. The ingredients are listed as flour, sugar, egg, and pink melon (a fruit unique to the game, which looks like a pink cantaloupe). I was intrigued by the idea of a melon-based baked good, so I chose this cake for my STARDEW VALLEY dessert!

For my sponge, I used a variation on a recipe for melon chiffon cake I found on Singapore Shiok. My favorite part about this recipe is that, in addition to melon flavoring, it also uses real cantaloupe. I topped it with my go-to vanilla buttercream, since I felt like adding melon flavor to the frosting would make the recipe too “one note.” And how lucky was I to find these jumbo pixelated heart sprinkles from Nerdy Nummies for my decorations? They’re just the right size, and the 8-bit look is just right for a recipe based on a computer game.

This was my first time making chiffon, and it took me two tries to get it right. Chiffon can be finicky—the key to success is to fully incorporate the flour without over mixing. Doing too much or too little can lead to a deflated cake. Keep folding until you really don’t see any more bits of flour. The final result is worth it: fluffy, delicately sweet, and packed with melon flavor.

Read More

Spicy Eel

Posted December 1, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I don’t like fish, but I LOVE eel. I had it for the first time last year on sushi, and it blew my mind. If the idea of eating eel makes you squeamish, I’m begging you—please please PLEASE give it a try! It’s truly lovely. It has a delicacy similar to fish, but it has a meatier, heartier flavor that reminds me of chicken.

Spicy Eel is my favorite food from the game STARDEW VALLEY. When eaten in-game, it adds buffs to speed and luck, making it perfect for when you plan to spend the day racing all over the map collecting foragables or delving deep in the Mines.

Apart from eel, hot pepper is the only other ingredient listed in the in-game recipe for Spicy Eel. Judging by the dish’s thumbnail, it looks like the eel is brushed with a red sauce. I decided to make my sauce with gochujang (spicy chili paste) for my hot pepper element, taking my inspiration from tteokbokki. Basically I just played with the ingredients and consistency of the sauce until I was happy with it. It’s important to make sure eel is fully cooked (see the note in the Instructions below), so I consulted the cook temp/time in a Serious Eats recipe for whole eel and tweaked it to suit the size of my fillets.

As a self-professed spice wimp, this dish was a little too hot for me, but it was ultra flavorful. I’ll definitely make a milder version for myself in the future, but if you like your food to bring the heat, Spicy Eel is the dish for you! 🙂

Read More

Strange Bun

Posted November 17, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Say hello to the Strange Bun, my latest recipe from the game STARDEW VALLEY! In the game, this recipe is made from void mayonnaise and periwinkle, an appropriately strange combo to be sure. Literally everyone in the game hates them (even the villager who gives you the recipe). I was intrigued by this dish, so I decided to try my hand at making a delicious (but still weird) version.

The in-game recipe thumbnail shows a yellow spiral bun that rises in the center and has red filling, so I knew what my final bun needed to look like. I started with my go-to enriched dough recipe, but I swapped out the egg for mayonnaise. It may sound wild, but mayo has long been known to add fat and complexity to baked goods. In fact, you may have even come across cake recipes that call for mayo.

But what to do about the filling? I loved the idea of adding to the strangeness by making my buns spicy. I decided to make red pepper jam, and since this was my first time making it, I used a recipe by Inquiring Chef and tweaked it to suit my taste. To make the bun higher in the center, I cut the rolled dough into triangles and rolled them from the wide end, baking them in muffin tins to help them keep their shape.

The final product was savory and sweet with a touch of spice. A bit confusing to be sure, but delightfully so. I think if the villagers in STARDEW VALLEY got a chance to try this version, they might change their minds about Strange Buns!

 

Read More

Pepper Poppers

Posted November 3, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

 

 

Today marks the beginning of a menu I’ve been looking forward to all year! Not only is this my first time making a menu for a computer game, but it’s for my all-time favorite game: STARDEW VALLEY!

For those who are unfamiliar, STARDEW VALLEY is a farming and life simulation role-playing game. There are loads of farming sims out there, but this one is special because it is just so perfectly balanced. It’s well-paced, relaxing but rewarding, easy to play in both short bursts and long hauls, and incorporates fun storytelling and lore. In fact, STARDEW VALLEY is the only computer game I’ve continued to play since having kids (sorry, Sims). On top of it all, the art style and music are beautiful in their simplicity…and the food looks AMAZING. Which is why we’re here today. 😉

Food plays a big roll in STARDEW VALLEY. Many of the recipes provide buffs to the player’s speed, energy, luck, attacks against monsters, and more. There are loads of iconic STARDEW VALLEY recipes so I had a hard time narrowing it down, but I knew from the beginning that today’s recipe needed to make the final cut. Let’s make Pepper Poppers! 😀

Pepper Poppers is probably the food I eat most early in the game. It provides buffs for both farming and speed, making it perfect for when I’m working on building my farm to max capacity. Judging by the recipe’s in-game thumbnail, Pepper Poppers consists of a mix of red and green breaded peppers, which the description states are spicy and filled with cheese.

I chose jalapeños for my green peppers and mini sweet peppers for the red (since my store didn’t have any red chilis). For the filling, I used a mix of cream cheese and shredded Cheddar, then threw in some chopped pepperoni and chives to make it my own. Since this recipe is a favorite of the character Shane—and he’s the one who gives the player the recipe—I decided to create a batter than uses his favorite beverage, beer. My beer batter is loosely based on this Paula Deen recipe.

These were SO satisfying. Crisp on the outside, then a hit of spice, and ultra creamy in the center. I can see why they’re Shane’s favorite!

Read More

Cherry Almond Tart

Posted October 13, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

 

 

Today marks the final recipe in my JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL menu. This is one of my favorite books so of course I’m sad to be done, but I’m also SO grateful that I have a job that lets me bring fictional food to life. Living the dream!

Today’s recipe is inspired by the cherry almond tart Jonathan Strange eats while in Spain helping the British army during the Peninsular War. In the book, Strange eats almond tart with dried cherries, which I interpreted to be cherry almond tart using army rations. For my recipe, I decided to make what I felt the army cook was trying to recreate: cherry frangipane tart.

Since I’m new to making frangipane, this recipe is a bit of a conglomeration. I started with my standard pie shell recipe and made changes based on cherry frangipane tart recipes by Fresh Hunger, The Sunday Baker, and Kitchen Trials. I also used a combo of those recipes to come up with my filling. This was a really fun experience! I especially appreciated Sunday Baker’s tip to turn the cherry halves cut-side-up to prevent extra liquid from leaking into the tart.

Since cherry and almond are two of my husband’s favorite foods, I don’t think he minded at all that I had to tweak this recipe 3-4 times before I was happy with it. I hope you enjoy the results at much as he did!

Read More

Salad of Beet Root

Posted September 29, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I’m a sucker for a good autumn salad. I’ll take hearty greens, roasted root veg, spiced nuts, soft cheese over a tomato-and-cucumber situation any day. Yet I’ve never had a chance to make one for the blog, so when I saw one mentioned in JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL, I knew my time had come. Plus, I knew a beet salad would go perfectly with the other dishes I had planned for my Strange & Norrell menu—wigg buns with orange marmalade, a honeyed Cornish hen pot pie, and an opulent dessert I’m keeping secret for now. 😉

I added honey to my roasted beets to tie them in with both the pot pie entree and the vinaigrette I drizzled over the salad at the end (a honey Dijon variation on my go-to vinaigrette recipe). I wanted robust, earthy greens that would hold up to the deep flavor of the beets, so I used some kale and beet greens (never pass up a chance to use edible root veg greens in your salad—turnip greens are amazing too!). For salt and crunch, I included some bacon and toasted pine nuts.

An autumn salad craves soft cheese, so I went with goat cheese since it’s appropriate for the English countryside setting. Stilton would be even more appropriate, but I couldn’t get any. Up to this point, my salad is pretty much a standard beet salad, so I wanted something unusual to set it apart. Apricots were the answer to my prayer—sweet enough to brighten up all the other flavors, while rich enough not to get overpowered.

I ate this with my sister after I finished taking pictures, and we absolutely devoured it! In fact, she normally doesn’t like goat cheese, but she loved it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 🙂

Read More