Tag: Appetizer

Bamboo Stir Fry

Posted March 6, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

After reading TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA two years ago, I became a big Jules Verne fan. I made a menu for that book here on the blog not long after reading it, and I made one for JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH last year. Today I’m continuing my culinary journey through the works of Verne with a menu inspired by THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND!

As the title suggests, the book is one part survival story, one part mystery. In it, a group of castaways build a life for themselves on a deserted island . . . which may not be as deserted as it seems. I won’t spoil the twist, but needless to say, I had lots of fun reading it!

Today’s recipe is inspired by the bamboo the castaways find on the island, which one of the group says are eaten like asparagus in India. I found a few recipes online for Indian-style asparagus stir fry from The Picky Eater Blog, Piping Hot Curry, and Ministry of Curry and merged them together to make a bamboo version. The final recipe has a strong citrus presence, which is complemented by a touch of green chili heat and warm spices. Enjoy!

Graham Bread

Posted January 2, 2025 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m starting 2025 off with a menu inspired by one of my favorite authors: Anne Brontë. I’m a big fan of all the Brontë sisters, and I’ve done menus for them before (check out my recipes from Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall). Today, I’m making a menu inspired by AGNES GREY, which I read for the first time last year.

I really enjoyed AGNES GREY, though it’s definitely different from other Brontë books I’ve read. While works like JANE EYRE and THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL are Gothic romances with a touch of mystery and scandal, AGNES GREY is more autobiographical and realistic—a slice-of-life of a Victorian governess. It deals with a lot of the same themes as other Brontë books, such as isolation and oppression, but it has an Austen-esque sensibility that I appreciated. It’s much less Gothic than what I’m used to seeing from the Brontës but still masterfully written.

Since AGNES GREY is a Victorian novel—not only in its setting, but also in its subject and themes—I decided to give all my recipes for this menu a Victorian spin. Bread is eaten multiple times throughout the story and was a staple of the Victorian diet, so I went on the hunt for an era-appropriate bread variety and stumbled upon graham bread, which I’d never heard of before.

Graham bread is much like a standard yeasted bread, though it’s made with graham flour instead of all-purpose. Graham flour is a more coursely-ground version of whole-wheat flour, which means it has more bran and wheat germ in it. This produces a loaf with a hearty, delightfully nutty flavor, which is accentuated when it’s toasted.

Using these recipes for 1850s graham bread and honey graham bread as a jumping off point, I made some adjustments to suit my needs and developed a recipe that approximates a Victorian-style graham bread while still being suited to a modern kitchen. Since most grocery stores don’t carry graham flour, I made my own by mixing all-purpose flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ (I provide instructions for that in the recipe below). However, you can also order graham flour online.

I love how this turned out, and I’ll definitely make it again. I brought some to Christmas Eve dinner with my husband’s family, and it was a big hit. One of the kids even asked if he could take the rest of the loaf home with him!

Bluey’s Pumpkin Seeds and Bingo’s “Edna-damee” Beans

Posted November 7, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

I have a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old, so of course Bluey is extremely popular at our house. If you’re a fan too, you’ve probably noticed there are lots of delicious foods in the show. I’ve been compiling a Bluey menu in the back of my mind for almost a year now, waiting until enough episodes came out that I could get a good sense of the most iconic Bluey foods. Now it’s time to bring them all to life! Let’s start with an appetizer.

Coming up with an appetizer was probably the hardest, since I wanted to stick with kid-friendly finger foods, like you would have a Bluey-themed kids’ party. I decided to do a combo recipe of two foods mentioned in the show: Bluey’s pumpkin seeds and Bingo’s edamame beans. Both foods are ones that the girls are reluctant to try at first but wind up enjoying.

In the episode “Granddad,” Bluey is unwilling to eat the pumpkin seeds her mom gives her as a snack until her granddad helps her realize how important it is to take care of your body, especially as you get older. In the episode, Bluey’s pumpkin seeds appear to be plain, but I decided to toast mine with honey, brown sugar, and sesame seeds—inspired by my favorite Sahale snack mix.

In the episode “Pavlova,” Bingo is reluctant to try edamame beans, the name of which both she and Bluey struggle to pronounce. The girls always call them something different, such as “eda-mommy” and “edna-damee.” Bluey and Bandit create a pretend French restaurant to try to encourage Bingo to try the beans, but despite all their efforts, she doesn’t try them until they get distracted and she can do it without pressure. Since my pumpkin seed recipe was sweet, I decided to take my edamame beans in a savory direction, toasting them with garlic and ginger.

These are both super quick and easy, perfect appetizers for a Bluey birthday party!

Potatoes and Molasses: Molasses and Soy Glazed Potatoes

Posted September 12, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Last year I watched OVER THE GARDEN WALL and loooved it. If you haven’t heard of the show, it’s a cartoon mini series aimed toward adults in which two young brothers, Wirt and Greg, are lost in an eerie, magical forest called the Unknown. Considered by many to be a modern retelling of Dante’s INFERNO, the show follows the boys as they try to find their way home, encountering danger, monsters, and new friends along the way. OVER THE GARDEN WALL is known for its strong use of symbolism and old-timey art style (which reminded me of the 1929 Walt Disney short Skeleton Dance), as well as its autumnal aesthetic, muted color scheme, and hauntingly beautiful folk Americana music. It’s an annual autumn rewatch for many fans like me, so I decided to make a menu for it!

There’s lots of food in the show, but perhaps the most iconic dish is potatoes and molasses, which is served during Episode 3 in a schoolhouse attended by small animals. Greg sees how sad the animals are eating plain mashed potatoes every day for lunch, so he comes up with the idea to add some molasses and sings them a song about it.

Lots of food blogs have already made film-accurate versions of potatoes and molasses (I especially like this recipe by Feast of Starlight), so I decided to make a re-imagined version. I liked the idea of doing fried potatoes with a sweet and salty glaze, kind of in the style of Korean gamja bokkeum, so I went in that direction. I coated my potatoes with cornstarch to give them a delicate crispness when fried, then tossed them in a glaze of molasses, soy sauce, and garlic.

They’re sooo satisfying: sweet and salty on the outside with a warm and tender center. The perfect snack to sustain you as you travel through the Unknown in OVER THE GARDEN WALL!

Mr. Robert Martin’s Honey Walnut Date Scones

Posted July 4, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

Some of you may recall I finished my first Jane Austen book (NORTHANGER ABBEY) last year and loooved it. After finishing NORTHANGER, I was eager to jump into my next Austen read, so after careful consideration, I chose EMMA.

Is it possible I love this book even more? I can see why EMMA is so many people’s favorite Austen book. I think it’s where Austen’s strengths as a writer—wit, social commentary, dynamic characters, and realistic relationships—truly shine.

So of course I had to make a menu for EMMA! We’re starting off this menu with an homage to Mr. Robert Martin, who made what I consider to be one of the most underrated romantic gestures in a Jane Austen novel: walking 3 miles to gather walnuts, just because he heard Harriet Smith liked them. In honor of Mr. Martin’s devotion, we’re making walnut scones! I decided to add some honey and chopped dates too, since I love the honey-walnut-date flavor trio.

These scones are tender and buttery with a touch of both savory and sweet. They’d be perfect with a generous schmear of honey butter or blackberry jam!

Rainbow Sprinkle Baked Donuts

Posted May 9, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Warm weather always makes me want to make menus for light, fun reads. I haven’t made a picture book menu in a while, so I thought it would be fun to make recipes inspired by each of the books from the IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE series. Let’s start with rainbow sprinkle baked donuts inspired by IF YOU GIVE A DOG A DONUT!

Originally, my plan was to make apple cider donuts as a nod to the apple juice from the story, but I’ve already make apple-flavored donuts multiple times before (like apple cider donut holes and crullers). I wanted to try something new, so I decided to make birthday cake flavored baked donuts, drawing my inspiration from the rainbow sprinkle donut on the cover of the book. Plus, I’ve wanted to by a donut baking pan for years, so this was the perfect excuse!

The recipe I use here is a variation on a recipe from Sprinkle Bakes, tweaked to suit my needs. The final product reminded me of a cupcake in all the best ways. If you’re someone (like me) who loves the cake part of cupcakes and would happily eat one frosting-free, you’ll love these donuts. In fact, although I put icing on top to match the illustration on the book cover, I think they’re better without it. If I make these again, I think I’ll leave them plain. And the rainbow sprinkles mixed through the batter are so much fun!

Mediterranean Roasted Grape Salad

Posted March 14, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

Have you ever read a book where you know you would be best friends with the main character in real life? That happened to me when I read JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Jules Verne. The book is narrated by a young man named Axel, the nephew and research assistant of Professor Lidenbrock, a German geology professor. We find out Axel’s attitude toward food at the beginning of the book, and it endeared him to me immediately.

The first scene begins at dinner time, when the professor rushes in with a runic Icelandic manuscript and skips dinner to start translating it. Axel and the housekeeper are shocked, since the professor never misses meals (Axel eats his uncle’s plate of food as well as his own, since it’s so delicious). After this, Lindenbrock gets so excited about the manuscript that he insists neither one of them will sleep or eat until they translate it. Axel silently rejoices that he ate two dinners.

While the professor is out of the room, Axel accurately translates part of the manuscript, realizing it gives instructions for how to journey to the center of the Earth (roll credits!). Certain the trip would be fatal–and equally certain his uncle would want them both to go anyway–he doesn’t tell the professor he figured out what the manuscript says. Stealing his nerves, he resolves to miss breakfast AND lunch in the name of avoiding a crazy subterranean expedition (spoiler: the professor figures it out anyway 😆).

I laughed SO HARD when I read the first scene, and from that moment on, Axel was my new best friend. That’s when I decided to make a menu for JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH!

Today’s recipe is inspired by the part of the book when the characters are on a Mediterranean island surrounded by fruit trees, including grapes and pomegranates. Drawing inspiration from the region, I decided to make a roasted grape salad, sticking primarily to Mediterranean ingredients. Starting with a spinach base, I added crumbled feta and toasted almonds, topping it all off with fresh pomegranate arils and homemade pomegranate vinaigrette. For the finishing touch, I added some balsamic roasted grapes I made using a recipe by Beautiful Eats & Things.

This Mediterranean roasted grape salad is easy, healthy, and super refreshing. The perfect pick-me-up after a journey to the center of the Earth . . . or a long night of translating an Icelandic manuscript! 😉

Faraway Pasties: Elijah’s Empanadas

Posted January 4, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

Welcome to a new year! May your 2024 be filled with joy, adventure, and (of course) lots of delicious food—just like the inspiration for today’s menu, a delightful book I read last year called MY FINE FELLOW.

MY FINE FELLOW is a gender-swapped version of MY FAIR LADY with a few other notable changes. In this version, instead of a phonetics professor passing off a flower seller as a fine lady at a ball, a young pair of gentlewoman chefs hope to pass off a talented street food vendor as a gentleman chef. Naturally, the book is full of delicious food, and since the main characters come from a mix of cultural heritages, many of the dishes come from around the world. Reading about so many creative dishes ignited my imagination, and I relished the idea of starting the new year with a challenging menu. So here we go!

Today I’m making one of the book’s most iconic recipes: Faraway Pasties. These are Elijah’s signature dish, which catch the attention of Helena and Penelope, setting off a chain of events that lead to Elijah competing in the Royal Culinary Exhibition. Throughout Penelope’s first conversation with Elijah, we get little bits of info about the pasties—enough for us to know that Elijah’s Faraway Pasties are fried Salvadoran empanadas with paprika mixed into the masa dough and filled with beef, potato, and oregano. They sounded SO good, so I knew they had to be the first dish in this menu.

I’m very new to making empanadas, so for today’s post I combined recipes from Jonathan Melendez and Hank Shaw, making a few tweaks for the sake of accuracy to the story. Oh man did they turn out good! They were a huge hit with my kids. My son loved the crisp fried masa dough exterior, and my daughter especially enjoyed the savory, beefy filling. They ate a half batch in one sitting!

I can just imagine how satisfying one of these empanadas would be on a cold, rainy night at the Convent Garden Market, just like when Penelope eats them at the beginning of the story!

Skeldale House Sausage Rolls

Posted November 2, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

I’ve been craving comforting TV shows for the past few months. I’ve had lots of health issues lately, and it’s got me feeling weary in body and soul. When I feel like this, I just want to curl up on the couch and watch something cozy. For me, peak comfort television is ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL. It’s a PBS Masterpiece show about a Yorkshire countryside veterinary practice in the 1930s-40s (based on the memoir of the same name). I just rewatched all three seasons, and the lovable characters, wholesome story, and cute farm animals soothed me to the depths of my heart. Season Four recently released in Britain, but since I’m in the U.S., I have to wait until January. As I eagerly await Season 4, I’m biding my time by making a menu inspired by all the delicious food in the show.

Today’s recipe is sausage rolls, a staple appetizer at every Skeldale House Christmas party. Since the show’s season finales are always set during Christmas, sausage rolls appear in each one. Sausage rolls are especially prominent in the season three finale, where Jenny desperately tries to force a plate of rolls on Gerald to keep him from leaving the party early.

The filling for these sausage rolls is heavily inspired by Rapunzel’s Braided Pastries in my e-cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC. However, I also took a lot of inspiration from this Jamie Oliver recipe, since I wanted the rolls to be authentically British.

They turned out AMAZING. I love a good sausage roll, and these are top tier (if I do say so myself! 😉).

P.S. If you haven’t read the memoir the show is based on, I highly recommend it. My husband got it for me as a birthday present a couple years ago, and it’s sooo good!

Bambleby’s Marinated Mushrooms

Posted September 7, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

I finished reading EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES a couple months ago, and guys. GUYS. It’s sooo good! If you’re a fan of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL, you’ll love this book. It’s my favorite read this year, and I think it’s made dark academia/historical fantasy my new favorite genre combo. Once I finished it, I knew I had to make a menu for it.

Wendell Bambleby is definitely my favorite character. He’s a comfort-loving, clutter-hating dandy who finds himself increasingly dragged into acts of heroism, much to his chagrin. He reminds me so much of Howl from HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, and the curmudgeonly Professor Emily Wilde is 100% the Sophie to Bambleby’s Howl. I love them both so much! So today we’re starting our menu off with Bambleby’s Marinated Mushrooms.

In EMILY WILDE, the villagers give Bambleby a giant basket of mushrooms when they aren’t sure how to thank him for his help. He isn’t thrilled by the gift, but I doubt he’d let good food go to waste. Instead, I think our ease-loving Bambleby would find the simplest way to prepare them, and nothing’s easier than tossing some mushrooms in some seasoned olive oil!

For today’s post, I drew from recipes from three different sources (No Spoon Necessary, Cooking LSL, and Dish ‘n the Kitchen), cobbling them together to create something new. I loved the flavor of the finished mushrooms—herby and garlicky with a meaty texture—but I’ll admit I didn’t care for them cold. I think they would be perfect warmed up just a little, especially as a side for steak!