“In my middle grade novel, Black Brother, Black Brother, Jamaican twins Zion and Zarra are Donte’s fencing partners and best friends. Zarra dislikes the kitchen but Zion loves cooking food with his secret ingredients—love and tons of spice! After team practice, he brings Jamaican Jerk Chicken as a ‘thank you’ to his coach and teammates. […]
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Kristin Harmel’s Sautéed Chicken with Champagne Sauce
While researching The Winemaker’s Wife, I spent time in the Champagne region of France, where the novel takes place. I was especially lucky to be the guest of a lovely young woman named Virginie Bergeronneau, who works at her family-owned champagne house, Champagne F. Bergeronneau-Marion, based in the town of Ville-Dommange, where the fictional Champagne […]
Garth Stein’s Recipe for Enzo’s Pancakes
My childhood dog was an Airedale terrier named Muggs, to whom I dedicated my book. She loved pancakes more than any other food, and, in fact, her last meal was “hotcakes,” as my mother calls them. My current dog, Comet, was cut from the same cloth apparently, because she loves pancakes as well; in our […]
Adriana Trigiani’s Mafalda’s Cotoletta alla Milanese (Breaded Veal Cutlet)
Every recipe in my family cookbook, Cooking With My Sisters, has a name, and not just the one to describe the food, but a name designated to the creator, the cook, or the person in the kitchen who took the age old instructions handed down on bits of paper and at long last, perfected the dish. […]
Five-Spice Meatballs & Eggplant in Tomato Sauce
In What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde, while living as an Iranian refugee in Sweden, Nahid looks back on growing up in Iran and her life as a “young person with great potential.” She reminisces about the summer nights cooking in the kitchen with her mom and her six sisters when they were preparing food […]
#TheLostFamilySupperClub Recap and Menu
As fans of food and book bloggers, we knew they would have some creative approaches to recipes inspired by The Lost Family, author Jenna Blum‘s new novel. On June 3, we hosted #TheLostFamilySupperClub: a gathering of eighteen bloggers at a virtual dinner party to celebrate the book’s release, sharing novel-inspired recipes and creating mouth-watering menus. It was […]
Mark Sullivan’s Beneath a Scarlet Sky Sicilian Broccoli and Sausage Recipe
“I just finished reading Mark Sullivan’s Beneath A Scarlet Sky, an incredible novel. There is a dish mentioned in the book for Sausage, Broccoli and Garlic that has me salivating. The main character savors this dish. The book is set during World War II Italy and even the […]
Addie’s Crispy Salmon and Rice recipe from RESCUED
One of the most gratifying aspects of writing Rescued was speaking with so many thoughtful and insightful people about their second-chance dogs and their relationships with them. I spoke with Elissa Altman, the James Beard-award winning food writer at an especially tender time. Just a few weeks earlier, Elissa, her partner Susan, and their other rescue, […]
A Gentleman in Moscow Latvian Stew recipe from Amor Towles
In writing a novel, I work from an extensive outline that describes in detail the events of every chapter, the settings, and the psychological states of the characters. As a result, when I began composing the “Advent” chapter in A Gentleman in Moscow, I knew that the Count would visit the Piazza (the main restaurant […]