Natalie Jenner’s The Jane Austen Society Classic Victoria Sandwich This is a very classic British cake recipe from the BBC Good Food Magazine (May, 2005) which is super easy and quick to make. If you prefer, you can skip the icing filling and just spread strawberry jam between the two sponge layers. In The Jane […]
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Kelly McWilliams’s Homemade Mac and Cheese and Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
Kelly McWilliams’s Homemade Mac and Cheese and Cauliflower Mac and Cheese Agnes at the End of the World is a story about the power of hope and faith to help us surmount impossible odds. Agnes begins her journey as the victim of a fundamentalist cult based in northern Arizona, where medicine and contact with […]
Ruta Sepetys’s Traditional Red Sangria and Tortilla de Patatas
Ruta Sepetys’s A Taste of Spain: Traditional Red Sangria and Tortilla de Patatas Spain is a feast of sights, sounds, and smells. As you read The Fountains of Silence, I hope you can feel Madrid in 1957. The sunshine. The passion. The fear. The silence. Spain is also a culinary capital of the world. While working […]
Mary Kay Andrews’s Hello, Summer Lemon Bars
Mary Kay Andrews’s Hello, Summer Lemon Bars Hello, Summer is set in a small, sleepy Florida town. When people think of Florida, they think of bright, sunny skies, and delicious citrus and these lemon bars are the perfect way to celebrate that! As a native Floridian, my lust for lemons—indeed any citrus, is, excuse the pun, deep-rooted. […]
Alka Joshi: The Palace Recipe for Royal Rabri from The Henna Artist
In this scene from THE HENNA ARTIST, Lakshmi, a woman who paints henna on the bodies of Jaipur’s wealthy women, is asked to meet with the Dowager Maharani for the first time. Malik, Lakshmi’s eight-year-old helper, has been told to wait outside the Maharani’s drawing room, but can’t resist sticking his head inside when the […]
Jewell Parker Rhodes: Zion’s Jamaican Jerk Chicken from Black Brother, Black Brother
“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. […]
Adrienne Brodeur’s Recipe for Malabar’s Power Pack Cocktail
Then Malabar ordered a power pack in her usual rapid-fire staccato: “A dry Manhattan. Standing up. With a twist. No ice. No fruit.” When the waiter tilted his head quizzically, Malabar exhaled her annoyance and repeated the order at exactly the same speed as she had the first time. I asked for a Taj Mahal […]
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. […]
Heidi Diehl’s Hinterkopf Geburtstagskuchen (Birthday Cake)
In Lifelines, Louise falls in love with German drummer Dieter Hinterkopf when she travels from Oregon to Düsseldorf to study art in 1971. The Hinterkopf Geburtstagskuchen is Dieter’s family‘s traditional birthday cake. Louise’s mother-in-law, Hannelore, instructs Louise to make the cake for her Dieter, part of the complicated family history that Hannelore shares. The […]
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 […]