The holidays are one of my favorite times to bake. My family (Amber) has a tradition of baking new recipes each Christmas along with our tried-and-true family favorites. We gain inspiration from social media, The Great British Bake Off, and family cookbooks. Some of the recipes are flops but more often than not they taste great even if they don’t look great. So, in true librarian fashion, I want to share this tradition with you, but with a book twist. I am pairing a recipe with a book. Let us know how your baking goes!
First off, I’m starting with something fairly easy: Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath. This book follows Primrose in the months following her parents’ disappearance at sea. Each chapter ends with a simple recipe, including one for waffles. In honor of fall, here is a recipe for Pumpkin waffles.
We can now travel to England with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.If you have been to England, you know they eat several foods that are very different than a typical American cuisine. With the popularity of Harry Potter, there are many recipes out there for foods and drinks specific to the series. I want to continue with the breakfast theme and a full English breakfast would include eggs, sausage (black pudding or blood sausage), tomatoes, mushrooms, buttered toast, beans (Heinz variety), and bacon.
Staying in England, we can visit The Secret Garden where Mary and Dickson use an outdoor “oven” to roast potatoes. Roasted potatoes are a great option that offer lots of variety for flavors. You can try Southern Living’s crispy potatoes recipe or simply preheat your oven to 400° F, spray a baking sheet or cover with parchment paper, dice your potatoes (1 inch cubes), coat in a light layer of olive oil and add seasonings to your preference (salt, garlic, pepper, turmeric, chili powder, etc.). Bake until the potatoes are tender. You can change the seasoning and add cheese if you desire.
We can’t forget another iconic British character, Winnie the Pooh. This cute yellow bear loves honey. We can’t make honey ourselves, but we can make hot honey. Remember, natural honey has a different taste depending on the types of flowers the bees were pollinating. So, you may just want to try different honeys in honor of Winnie-the-Pooh.
As we journey back to the United States, I want to share a tradition my family has at Christmas time of making tamales. We first made tamales when my sister was reading the American Girl series about Josefina. Several years later, we moved to San Antonio and discovered tamales are a traditional holiday meal, so we now make them every year. My family tends to buy premade masa, but you can make it from scratch too. We cook the meat and roll the tamales ourselves. We also like to serve ours topped with chili and cheese; other people put queso or salsa on top. Making tamales can be a bit time-consuming and you need to start soaking the corn husks 24 hours before you roll them, so the husk is soft.
To finish our baking and books, we will end with a blueberry crisp inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because who could forget the scene when Violet turns into a giant blueberry? I prefer crisp to pie, but pies would pay homage just as well to this hilarious food and candy-filled novel.
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