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It’s summer!
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. It’s SUM-MMMMMEERRRRR!!! (Ya gotta say it in a singsongy voice like me.)
Now is the perfect time to grab your books, a blanket, and some snacks — and have a picnic outside! Here are my suggestions for what to accompany each of my Summer Grab Bag Recommendations:
The Magic Half by Annie Barrows Miri, a lonely middle kid between two sets of twins, finally finds her other half — who lives in the past!
This was a no-brainer: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, to represent Miri and Molly (her “other half.”)
This is a recent photo of me eating lobster. Yes, I was THAT happy.
Sea City, Here We Come by Ann M. Martin A great summer read! All of the BSC Super Specials are fun and I, a West Coaster, especially liked this one because it was set in summer on the East Coast.
A book set in Sea City definitely deserves to be in the company of delicious lobster and clam chowder!
The Cay by Theodore Taylor Just because I read this for class doesn’t mean it wasn’t mesmerizing!
You won’t be able to put this down, so drink a banana and coconut juice smoothie to stay hydrated!
Read the rest of this entry »
Did you know that this coming Tuesday, June 7th, is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day? I didn’t! Even though the holiday might have been invented by ice cream manufacturers, that only bothers me a teensy bit… because chocolate ice cream is awesome!!!.
Even though we covered our Food Theme a while back, I thought I’d round up some delicious chocolate-related books that might pique your interest:
Chocolate Dreams: Poems by Arnold Adoff, illustrated by Turi MacCombie
I usually prefer prose over verse, but this poem I can definitely relate to! Check out this excerpt from the poem “Let the Biter Beware”:
In the center of each pale milk c h o c o l a t e lump there is a hard nut waiting to bump your front tooth into the d e n t i s t’s chair.
In the center of each dark deep c h o c o l a t e hunk there is a car a mel chunk just waiting to glue your teeth to geth er for ev er.
Take care.
Chocolate by Hershey: A Story about Milton S. Hershey by Betty Burford, illustrated by Loren Chantland
When someone says the word “Hershey,” you think immediately of deliciousness in a bar or kiss shape. But before he became synonymous with sweets, Milton Hershey worked really hard to hit it big — and when he became successful, he also gave back to his community.
Chocolate: Riches from the Rainforest by Robert Burleigh
Chocolate in the United States not enough? How about tracing it all the way back to the Aztecs? This nonfiction title includes mouth-watering full-color photographs and an investigative journalist’s point of view on chocolate.
Chocolate-covered Ants by Stephen Manes Adam gets an ant colony for his birthday… minus the ants. As the ants are en route (hopefully not walking to his house themselves, that might take a looooong time), his older brother Max tells him that some people eat chocolate-covered ants. Gross!
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling Forget chocolate-covered ants. What happens when everything you touch becomes chocolate?
Chocolate Ants, Maggot Cheese, and More by Alvin Silverstein, Virginia Silverstein, Laura Silverstein Nunn Okay, back to chocolate ants. Perhaps I can battle my phobia of maggots/slugs/slimy things by eating them… Okay, maybe not.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
How could I possibly leave out young Charlie, his spirited grandfather, Willy Wonka (the zany proprietor of the best chocolate factory ever), an indoor river made of chocolate, nut-cracking squirrels, Oompa Loompas, a girl who swells up to look giant blueberry, a boy who is shrunk down to the size of a Jolly Rancher, and… okay, I’ll stop there. These are only eight of the THOUSANDS of amazing things going on in this book, and if you haven’t read it by now, GO!
Still not convinced? This “commercial” might do the trick…
— Nancy
Nancy made chocolate truffles for a picnic last week (at Karen’s request). Idea: We should have frozen them and cut them into chunks in ice cream!
Meet Nancy »
OMG, I'm so hungry!
Over the weekend, Nancy posted about ice cream flavors inspired by children’s books. Well, as you guys must know by now, I love food more than life itself (NOT an exaggeration!), so of course I wanted to get in on the action — but I didn’t want to be a copycat.
So instead, I’ve come up with some savory dishes based on kids’ books. Bon appetit!
Snack Menu Baby-Sitters Club Sandwich Double decker of Stoneybrook turkey, honey-glazed bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo between slices of fluffy white bread. Percy Jackson’s Sea of Muenster Spicy cheese fondue, with strips of Greek flatbread for dipping. (Titan Special: Served with a side of mutton.) Melting Maggie Beans Soy cheese, melted over a bed of black beans, lean chicken, and veggies in a baked tostada shell. 8th Grade Super Hero Sandwich Salami, bologna, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and seasoning on a 12-inch roll. (Available as a 6-inch, for those who get queasy when they eat too much.) The Grapes of Wrap Mixed greens tossed with red grapes, pears, walnuts, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and a sherry shallot vinaigrette and rolled in a spinach wrap. (All produce and cheese sourced from California.)
Baby-Sitters Club Sandwich Double decker of Stoneybrook turkey, honey-glazed bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo between slices of fluffy white bread.
Percy Jackson’s Sea of Muenster Spicy cheese fondue, with strips of Greek flatbread for dipping. (Titan Special: Served with a side of mutton.)
Melting Maggie Beans Soy cheese, melted over a bed of black beans, lean chicken, and veggies in a baked tostada shell.
8th Grade Super Hero Sandwich Salami, bologna, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and seasoning on a 12-inch roll. (Available as a 6-inch, for those who get queasy when they eat too much.)
The Grapes of Wrap Mixed greens tossed with red grapes, pears, walnuts, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and a sherry shallot vinaigrette and rolled in a spinach wrap. (All produce and cheese sourced from California.)
And if you want a beverage to wash any of this down, try some Freckle Juice. (If you’re with a parent, they can have a glass of The Invention of Hugo Cabernet.)
Just don’t forget to save room for dessert!
— Karen
Karen really wanted to include Mysterious Eggs Benedict on this menu, but it didn’t really fit in with the rest of the dishes. Oh, great, now Karen’s craving some soft scrambled eggs…
More about Karen »
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Club sandwich photo courtesy of WordRidden on Flickr, Creative Commons License
OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!
Ah, summer. I am pretty sure my ice cream consumption has gone up 275% since the warm weather arrived. I partly blame Karen, because last summer I was forced to concede to her that more people like ice cream than popsicles. The results still bum me out, so to cheer myself up, I just eat more ice cream and popsicles.
Ice cream isn’t just on my mind, apparently — over at the “On Our Minds” Scholastic blog, they came up with these cool suggestions for book-inspired ice cream flavors, and I’ve decided to add my own delicious Willy-Wonka-esque descriptions to them:
Dessert Menu The Invention of Hugo Sorbet The scoop of sorbet you receive is HUGE and every bite is a new flavor. Served by an automaton. A Sprinkle in Time The ratio of sprinkles to ice cream has been reversed: a tiny scoop of plain vanilla ice cream, with A LOT of sprinkles. But you’ll have to eat it fast, because the sprinkles rapidly disappear into thin air! The Berrysitter’s Club: Crunchy’s Grape Idea Low-fat raspberry ice cream with granola flakes and chopped bits of frozen grapes. (Healthy Option) Oreo and Juliet Oreo-flavored ice cream with crushed Oreo bits sprinkled on top. Served with a little plastic dagger instead of a spoon. Pralines & Prejudice Simple, creamy praline ice cream. After finishing a scoop, you’ll speak in a British accent for an hour. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Three scoops of ice cream, with either 1 scoop of strawberry and 2 scoops of blueberry, or 2 scoops of strawberry and 1 scoop of blueberry. Served with Swedish Fish. Peppermint Longstocking Peppermint ice cream served in a (clean) striped stocking. No spoons allowed.
The Invention of Hugo Sorbet The scoop of sorbet you receive is HUGE and every bite is a new flavor. Served by an automaton.
A Sprinkle in Time The ratio of sprinkles to ice cream has been reversed: a tiny scoop of plain vanilla ice cream, with A LOT of sprinkles. But you’ll have to eat it fast, because the sprinkles rapidly disappear into thin air!
The Berrysitter’s Club: Crunchy’s Grape Idea Low-fat raspberry ice cream with granola flakes and chopped bits of frozen grapes. (Healthy Option)
Oreo and Juliet Oreo-flavored ice cream with crushed Oreo bits sprinkled on top. Served with a little plastic dagger instead of a spoon.
Pralines & Prejudice Simple, creamy praline ice cream. After finishing a scoop, you’ll speak in a British accent for an hour.
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Three scoops of ice cream, with either 1 scoop of strawberry and 2 scoops of blueberry, or 2 scoops of strawberry and 1 scoop of blueberry. Served with Swedish Fish.
Peppermint Longstocking Peppermint ice cream served in a (clean) striped stocking. No spoons allowed.
Thanks to the brilliant brains who came up with these flavors for the “On Our Minds” blog! What book-inspired ice cream flavors would you concoct in your kitchen?
For inspiration, Nancy ate some root beer ice cream while writing this post.
More about Nancy »
Ice cream photo courtesy of Swamibu on Flickr, Creative Commons License
Here on Kidsmomo, even though we’re all about books, you may have noticed that we talk about food once in awhile. Well, actually, a lot.
Well, we’re not the only ones to combine books and food! Every year in Seattle, Washington the Edible Book Festival celebrates books + food with a contest. Here are their basic guidelines:
“Create and bring a piece of edible art related to books: it can pun on a title, refer to a scene or character, look like a book (or paper, scroll etc), or just have something to do with books. Whatever the inspiration – it must be edible.”
Unfortunately, I don’t live anywhere close to Seattle, so I wasn’t able to get a bite of these books. Hm, maybe I can get a Northeast chapter of this started up… yes… and then the edible books will come to me… and then there will be nom-ing! Lots of nom-ing! *drool*
The festival accepts books of all genres and levels, but my favorite this year was the entry that won the ‘Most Pun-derful’ silver award:
"Little Hows on the Pear E"
It’s a pear cut into the shape of the letter “E,” and someone wrote “How” a bunch of times in little letters all over it! Get it?! Obviously, I love this one because it has puns, it’s made of fruit, and is based on one of my favorite book series!
I’d like to point out that there are probably some books that don’t sound very tasty, despite being awesome reads:
Check out the rest of the winners on The Edible Book Festival’s blog. What’s a book that you’d want to gobble up?
Yesterday Nancy ate a tangerine, and then remembered that she’s been meaning to read Tangerine by Edward Bloor for a while now.
Drinks that let you fly. Applesauce that melts snow. Sushi made of candy. And foreign wax apples. Believe it or not, only two out of these four tasty treats are from books featured in our latest podcast, all about books involving food! Yes, that means the other two are for real! Which ones are which? You’ll just have to listen to find out:
And don’t forget: our next theme is in honor of Women’s History Month! So check out these Girl Power books or send in a review of favorite super-girl read!
— Nancy and Karen
If you’ve followed our edible exploits over the last few days, then you know that it’s finally time for the culmination of our culinary competition. That’s right, people — it’s FOOD FIGHT TIME!
For our food theme, we each cooked up a dessert based on a children’s book. Then we presented our sweets to a panel of judges without revealing who made which dish.
Whose cuisine reigned supreme? Watch our KidsmomoMO video to find out:
And to see our step-by-step adventures in the kitchen, or if you want to do some book-based baking yourself, check out our posts on Karen’s baked custard pudding and Nancy’s almond flan!
If you ask me, this food fight doesn’t seem very fair. My selection was inspired by the soulful and heartstrings-tugging Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, but meanwhile, Karen picked a recipe that’s been used as a magical projectile weapon. @_@ (That’s my look of worry and shock.)
But there’s no use in worrying now when there’s almond flan to be made! You know what would cheer you and me up? Saying the word “flan.” Flan, flan, flan! Shout it with me! Fuuuuuuh-laaaaaaaaan!!!
Click on my photos to see my step-by-step flan formation:
To continue having flan fun, grab your parent and see if you can do this recipe justice:
Since our current theme is books about food, Nancy and I knew we couldn’t let this topic go without a… FOOD FIGHT! Well, sort of. In this case, we mean a Kidsmomo cooking competition:
Nancy and I each tried our hand at a recipe based on a children’s book. Then we presented both of our dishes to a panel of judges without saying who made which recipe. Whose cuisine reigned supreme? To find out, you’ll just have to tune in on Monday, when we bid farewell to our food theme with a special KidsmomoMO video of the judging and results.
In the meantime, you can whet your appetites (literally) by following along on our culinary journeys. Today, you can see how I transported my kitchen to Number 4 Privet Drive. And then on Saturday, check back for Nancy’s cooking adventures.
So, let’s get to the actual food, shall we?
Aunt Petunia’s Baked Custard Pudding
With all the amazing edible concoctions in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world, I surprised myself by choosing a Muggle recipe. But remember the dessert that Dobby splattered all over the Dursleys’ guests in Harry Potter Book 2? How could I possibly resist replicating that? (The dessert, not the Hover Charm, unfortunately…)
Click on my photos to see my step-by-step pudding process:
Want to try baking your own custard pudding? Put on an apron, grab your parent to help you, and use this recipe:
This book trailer for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was originally the Mystery Book Theater video for our Food theme. For more on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, check out our “Get In My Belly” podcast.
Are you constantly craving dessert? Do you have a sweet tooth? Does your mouth water at the mere mention of… SUGAR? Then chances are, you’ve already devoured Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. But you’ve never seen it like this — re-imagined as a television infomercial!
