Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Genre Freebie (Pick a genre and build a list around it. You could do historical fiction featuring strong female leads, contemporary romance set in foreign countries, mysteries starring unreliable narrators, lyrical fiction books in verse, historical romance featuring pirates, Gothic novels with birds on the cover, etc. There are so many options!)
Recently I was honoured to be asked to co-host one of the Cook the Books selections later in the year. Cook the Books is an online book club where you read the chosen selection, but you also cook something inspired by the book. When I was looking through the books that have been chosen over the last few years I was surprised to see that I have been doing this for a while now so today I am sharing the last ten books I read for Cook the Books, as well as what I was inspired to make!
Before that, you might be curious about what book I chose? I couldn't see many Japanese books on the list, so I have chosen The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai. My selection will be up in October/November. You can see all the upcoming selections in this post
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.)Books with Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.) Given that we are now in autumn in Australia I am doing books with Autumny Covers instead.
Red Leaves by Paullina Simons - This was the first book I thought of when I saw the theme. When went to search for it on my blog, I realised that I read it in my pre-blogging days. It wasn't even on my spreadsheet where I keep my list of reads going back to mid 2004! I read this book a very long time ago!
Red Leaves by Thomas H Cook - When I was filtering on my spreadsheet for the title Red Leaves, I came across this book, which I don't remember a thing about. I read this back in 2007.
Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - When I think of American Fall, then one word that comes up a lot is pumpkin. I just read this book while I was away so it is a very, very recent read.
Full Moon Coffee shop by Mai Mochizuki - This book doesn't have anything to do with autumn really, but the colours feel autumny to me.
In Italy for Love by Leonie Mack - By contrast, this book is all about living in Northern Italy during autumn!
The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke - When you go for a drive to check out the autumn colours in nature then yellow and reds dominate, so a yellow wood fits the theme for me!
The Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - Look at that tree! Doesn't it scream autumn in the colour of it.
Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - The next three books don't have anything in the subject to do with autumn, but the colours on the covers feel like they fit in this post. This book is set in Sri Lanka which is very tropical and doesn't really have autumn as a season as far as I know.
Fire Study by Maria V Snyder - The colours of fire and the colours of autumn feel very similar to me!
The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta - It might be time for me to relisten to some Melina Marchetta books! It's been a while.
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR (submitted by Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits)
As I have a tendency to do, I have twisted this week's topic just a bit. Like most of us, I have a tendency to read new books, so my post this week is all about the books I have read this year that were published before 2020.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai - originally published in 2013. I have the follow up book ready to read on my Kindle. (review)
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - originally published in 2018. Seeing this author at Melbourne Writers Festival is one of my highlight for this year. (review)
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - originally published in 2010. Interesting that the first three are all Japanese books.
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - originally published in 1957. One of my all time favourite audiobook experiences is listening to Richard Armitage narrate the books of Georgette Heyer. I tend to listen to them every couple of years ago. Audible bliss!
Relish by Lucy Knisley - originally published in 2013. This was a Cook the Books selection and a re-read for me. (post)
The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith - originally published in 2015. It had been a good few years since I had listened to or read one of the Precious Ramotswe books. Highly recommend the audio versions. Might be time for the next one.
Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - originally published in 2017 - Another Cook the Books selection (review)
Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - originally published in 2017. I loved the first Chandran book I read so I decided to give this one a go on audio.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - originally published in 2001 - This is another Cook the Books selection. (review)
The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain - originally published in 2012 - I did do a bit of a Antoine Laurain binge this year. Another book I read by him was published on 4 January 2020 so just missed out on being counted for this purpose
So, what have I learned from this? I am likely to read older books thanks to Cook the Books. I am also likely to read older books in translation or to listen to them on audio. And it must just be a coincidence that so many of the surnames of these authors start with a K right?
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Debut Novels I Enjoyed (A debut novel is an author’s first published book. You could also choose to share genre or age group debuts if you’d prefer, such as an adult fiction author’s first YA book or a mystery writer’s first romance.) (submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy)
I keep track of a lot of things on my two spreadsheets, whether a book is the author's debut or not is not one of them. So I am going to twist the topic a little bit and share the last ten books that I have read where I hadn't read the author before.
Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg - If all goes to plan I will be reviewing this next weekend.
The Itinerary by Penny Pentley - This was a fun trip through Europe
Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - I can't believe I hadn't read this author before now. (My review)
A New Dawn at Owl's Lodge by Jessica Redland - I would like to read more from this author (My review)
Come Fly With Me by Helen Rolfe - I will be reading my next book from this author soon (My review)
The French Cookery School by Caroline James - This was so much fun! Made me want to do a cooking course in France. (My review)
Invitation to Italy by Victoria Springfield - I'd be happy to visit Italy or France. Either one really. (My review)
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - i can't wait to see the movie of this! The cast looks stellar.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - I have the next book on my Kindle already.
The French Adventure by Jennifer Bohnet - Say yes to adventure! (My review)
This book is the current selection for Cook the Books, and the first I have read from Susan Wiggs which is kind of surprising given how long she has been writing for, and that she writes the kind of books I love.
Annie Rush has basically brought her dreams to fruition. Even as a young girl she used to pretend to make cooking shows, sharing the recipes that she learnt from her grandmother. As an adult, she now produces a very successful TV show called The Key Ingredient which features her charismatic and handsome husband. And now, she has just received some news that she can't wait to share with him.
Fast forward a year later and Annie is back in her home town of Switchback, Vermont and she has to literally learn to how to live again. She needs to rely on her mother, father and brother for the most basic of activities, which brings its own challenges given that her mother and father have been divorced for years, and they don't get on at all. Whilst her father moved onto a new life, her mother stayed on the family farm where they produce maple syrup, and it is back on the farm where Annie begins to rebuild her life, one action, one memory and one dream at a time.
While Annie is still in hospital she is visited by Fletcher, her first love, the man who she left behind while she chased her food dreams. When Fletcher first moved to town as a teenager, her mother warned her off, but Annie and Fletcher gravitated towards each other time and time again, until life made them have to choose which paths to take and those paths lead away from each other. But Fletcher's path lead him in unexpected directions and he has ended up living a life that would have been hard for anyone to believe.
The story is kind of fluid. We hear Annie's story as she recovers, as she recalls each new memory from the past and has to deal with her reaction to that memory. We also follow her to various times in her past as she recalls her relationship with Fletcher, about how she met her husband and more.
As Annie recovers, she gets the opportunity to build a new dream. The question is will that dream once again take Annie away from Switchback and away from Fletcher.
This was a very easy to read book and it is very food forward, and there were a lot of delicious sounding foods. I loved how passionate Annie was from a very young age, and this passion was very clear as we heard the story of how The Key Ingredient came to be the show it was. One of the questions for Annie is what does the future look like. Can she still live her food dreams or was her life changed irrevocably in the accident?
Assuming that more of Wiggs book that foodie focus, I will certainly read more from her!
When it came to deciding what to make for the cooking part of Cook the Books, I really wanted to to find a maple flavoured recipe. I mean, this book is set on a maple farm so it seems obvious. I did search through a few sites for maple syrup recipes, but it turns out that I am returning to a recipe that I first made a few years ago which came from the Queen website. The key maple syrup element is in the maple butter. This is a really simple way to inject maple syrup into a recipe and could potentially be used in a number of ways. For example, you could use whipped maple butter on pancakes, on other loaf style cakes like banana bread, on top of roasted pumpkin. So many uses! The last one might seem a bit odd but I did see a lot of roasted pumpkin and maple syrup recipes so the flavour combination should work! Although I probably wouldn't add the vanilla if I was going to use it on pumpkin!
Maple Butter Date Loaf
Loaf
300g pitted dates, chopped 1 ½ cups (375ml) water 1 tsp bicarbonate soda 130g butter, room temperature 2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla bean paste 2 large eggs 2 cups (300g) self-rising flour
Maple butter
60g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp maple syrup ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
Preheat oven to 170C (fan forced). Grease and line a 23cm x 13cm loaf tin with baking paper.
Combine dates and water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Take saucepan off the heat, add bicarbonate soda, and let sit for 15-20 minutes or until dates are tender.
In the bowl of a stand mixer. beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Turn the mixer down to low and add a third of the flour, followed by a third of the date mixture. Repeat using remaining flour and date mixture 1/3 at a time until fully incorporated.
Pour mixture into prepared loaf tin and bake for 55-60 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean. Let cool in tin for 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack.
For the maple butter, while loaf is cooling in tin, using a stand mixer or hand beaters, beat butter for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add maple syrup and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes. Serve the loaf warm with a smear of the whipped maple butter, or more accurately in our house, a generous slathering of the maple butter.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
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