Raspberry Red Wine Brownies

I finished reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami and decided to make these raspberry and red wine brownies for my treat/project. Like the book, the brownies are strange, but I think I like them. I had trouble figuring out what to make for this Craft Book Club project and finally decided on something with wine because Miu, the glamorous and successful business woman Sumire is in love with sells wine and I like sweet treats. (I was also considering something Greek because Sumire travels to and goes missing on a Greek island.) These brownies are from a mix and I substituted the liquids for red wine and added fresh raspberries and a single egg. The texture is dense, but cake like and If I make them again I would do 50/50 wine and oil because omitting the oil made them less like a fudgy brownie (the best brownie texture).

Our April book is What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver, a compilation of short stories that was originally published in 1981.

Cloud Cookies

We read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin for our first Craft Book Club book this year and I decided to make some cloud cookies for my book inspired treat. The book was quite long, but I was able to finished reading it in January, but just barely. I’m not sure I enjoyed the book overall, but I did enjoy parts of it. A big part of the book is this cloud wall that moves about and can transport you to another time if you get inside.

I came across a recipe for these cookies on Pinterest when trying to find things to make with sweetened condensed milk since I bought a multi can pack at Costco for all the Christmas treats I planned on making, but none of the recipes I made called for sweetened condensed milk. These cookies are technically called snowball cookies, but for some reason I kept calling them cloud cookies so they are now cloud cookies which fit with the cloud imagery from the book. 

The are a slightly sweet cookie that taste mostly like pie crust. I do enjoy the texture so if I make them again I’ll be adding some vanilla or another flavor and maybe a bit more sweetened condensed milk. 

Our next read is Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. It was published in 1999 so it meets my goal of reading books published before the year 2000 and it is another book with magical realism! According to Libby, it’s part romance, part detective story. 

Root Beer Glaze

December’s Craft Book Club read and the final remake of the year was So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow, Louisa May Alcott. Unfortunately I haven’t finished reading the book yet. I’m about halfway through and am really enjoying it, but haven’t dedicated much time to reading this month. I did make a yummy root beer flavored glaze that was inspired by the sassafras drawings made by Mr. March. When searching for recipes I came across a delicious sounding root beer cake and decided to modify the cake’s glaze and serve it on French toast. I definitely ate too much of the sweet glaze, but it did taste delicious.

Next year’s reading list for Craft Book Club has not been created, but I think I need to read older books since most of the books I’ve been reading were published fairly recently. There are so many books that I’ve missed so we will read 12 books that were published before the year 2000! January’s read is Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. It’s a historical fiction romance with magical realism… I should definitely enjoy it!

Shrimp and Carrot Salad

The November Craft Book Club read was Spear by Nicola Griffith. It's a story in the King Arthur realm with the holy grail. I racked my brain trying to figure out some food that was not water that fit with the holy grail, but I was unsuccessful and decided to look up medieval recipes. I found a recipe for shrimp and carrot salad that was going to be a perfect addition to our Thanksgiving seafood feast! It's a simple recipe with shredded carrot tossed in a simple seasoned vinegar based dressing then topped with tiny shrimp tossed in the same vinegar dressing.

 

We will be reading So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow, Louisa May Alcott for December! Should I continue with the food theme or make another pair of those Amy March Slippers?

Raspberry Caramels

I made some raspberry flavored caramels as a birthday gift for my Nana! It was a new to me recipe that had no stirring and I substituted the vanilla flavor for raspberry flavor. The only other time I've made caramel was for these homemade milk duds last year and it was a stir constantly recipe. These raspberry candies are delicious and there is enough raspberry flavor for another batch so I think I'll be making more soon!

A Violet Drink

I was looking though my old projects and in October 2017 for Craft Book Club we read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and I painted a Jekyll and Hyde pumpkin! This October's read was My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron, Robert Louis Stevenson and I really enjoyed this version of the story. -Sort of a spoiler ahead- I particularly liked the twist how Hyde isn't a monster version of Jekyll especially since this was a gay love story and how often homosexuality is villainized. Since I'm primarily making foods and drinks for these I decided to make the 'potion' that turns jekyll into hyde! This tasty violet colored drink was made with a few ingredients I had on hand and enjoyed on Halloween. It is a mix of rhubarb syrup, blue food coloring, red food coloring (because the blue made the pink syrup too blue), and club soda.

November’s Craft Book Club read is Spear by Nicola Griffith. It is a King Arthur story!

Fish Stew

It's the last day of August and I'm finally sharing this month's Craft Book Club project for A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee. The food I decided to make was straight out of the pages of the story, a fish stew made with rice, vegetables, and fish. It was fine tasting, but I should have added much more soy sauce and miso paste and some other seasonings because I added lots of sauce to my portion while eating it. It looks pretty yummy in the photo though.

The book was much better than my sad attempt at dinner. I really enjoyed it even though I felt it was a predictable story and thought Xiang, the main character was a bit dumb for not realizing her mother was the famous pirate with all the evidence pointing to that. I kept reminding myself, she's just a child, but she was still kinda dumb. I enjoyed the book so much I kept thinking I needed to read Treasure Island to compare... Well, I thought I hadn't read Treasure Island before, but in 2016 I read it for Craft Book Club and made a pom pom parrot. Now I think I remember some scenes from the book, but generally can't remember what happens in the story and have considered reading it again. Not sure if that will happen and if I do reread it, will I even remember?

The next book we are reading for Craft Book Club is Travelers along the way : a Robin Hood remix by Aminah Mae Safi. This time I am sure I have never read Robin Hood. I have however seen the Disney movie version and at least three other films based on the story.

Bread Without a Cross

July's Craft Book Club read was The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne! It is a story about the witch who comes to keep Rapunzel in the tower. If you enjoy adventurous historical fiction with magic, definitely read this one! I decided to make a loaf of bread without a cross since we aren't religious zealots and instead interested in the magical. My loaf of bread is sweetened and flavored with cinnamon. It was cooked in a bread machine since it's been too hot to turn on the oven and warm up the house anymore.  

Our next book is A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee. This is another where I haven't read the original. I think I'll once again skip the original and start directly with the remake!

Elderflower Boba Tea

June's Craft Book Club book was Self-made boys : a Great Gatsby remix by Anna-Marie McLemore. It was the perfect remake read for Pride Month and I don't think I realized it when I marked it down for June. I decided to make an elderflower drink since floral cocktails were quite popular. To make this drink, I almost took a clipping of flowers from my neighbor's elderberry tree, but bought elderflower syrup from Ikea which was a real time saver. After cooking some taro boba (I thought the purple color would give the impression of elderberries), I let them sit in the elderflower syrup to cool then added them to some iced black tea. It was yummy and I think I'll be making this again!

Next on our reading list is The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne, a version of the Rapunzel story. I have it on hold at the library and hope I get it within the next week or two so I'm not rushed to read it and make a yummy treat.

Cranberry Curd

Our Craft Book Club remake read for May was Hester: A Novel by Laurie Lico Albanese. It took me a very long time to figure out what to make for this one. I considered something with apples because of the cider house that Isobel, the main character and woman who inspires Hester Prynne, is told repeatedly not to visit, but ultimately decided I needed to make something red. Obviously because of the scarlet letter. This cranberry curd is a bit more on the pink side, but definitely is in the red family. This was my first time making a fruit curd and my-oh-my is it delicious! I need to make a cranberry meringue pie with it! 

June's book will be Self-made boys : a Great Gatsby remix by Anna-Marie McLemore. I still need to borrow it from the library! Hopefully it is an intriguing retelling!

Not a Mexican Food Buffet

The March read for Craft Book Club was Accomplished: A Georgie Darcy Novel by Amanda Quain. I decided to make more tacos for my food because during the story Georgie brings in a Mexican food buffet for everyone in the marching band to enjoy. It was not a well received gift because she was so out of touch as to what is an appropriate to give your classmates. Anyway, these mini tacos are from Trader Joe's and were cooked in an air fryer which made them crisp and delicious and ready for dipping.

Up next is Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley. I'm not sure if I actually read the older translation. It was probably assigned in high school, but I can't remember it. I decided I will not be reading the other translation before this because I'm sure I'll enjoy this one just as much, probably more.

Rose Apple Tart

The January Craft Book Club read was What Souls are Made of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri. I decided to read Wuthering Heights before starting because I had not read it before. It was quite long and quite slow and I was not a fan. What Souls are Made of was so much better; I liked how it was from Catherine's and Heathcliff's perspectives plus it was more hopeful.

My treat for this book is an rose apple tart, it has both a rose look and a rose flavor. It was inspired by Catherine and her thinking of a rose Edgar cut from his Mother's garden and how the thorns were carefully removed and what she would grow in the garden instead.

"Wild things that would overgrow everything. Things with sharper thorns, that would bite hands that touched them. Maybe I would breed a new kind of rose. Hardier and crueler."

This tart has a streusel type base and slices of apple with sugar and rose extract. The rose extract I bought was pink and gave the rose a fun pink color. I really liked the flavor of this tart; it reminded me of a cookie or maybe a candy that I have purchased, but cannot figure out what it is. Let me know of any rose flavored desserts you've had. 

Our next read is Anna K: A Love Story By Jenny Lee, a reimagining of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. While I was reading Wuthering Heights, I thought it would be fun to read each of the original stories before the remake, but I've read Anna Karenina before and it is incredibly long so I'm going straight into Anna K. Anna Karenina is a great book though.

Bread!

We read Nordic tales : folktales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark Illustrated by Ulla Thynell for November and my Craft Book Club food was a loaf of bread inspired by the story, The Forest Bride. In this Nordic tale, three brothers leave to find a wife, find a potential bride, and return home where their father makes these women/mouse (one of the brides is a mouse, the other two are assumed to be humans, I don't remember if that was specified) complete tasks to prove themselves... so much ugh... One of the tasks was making bread so I made bread. It probably wasn't great enough to impress the sexist father of my beloved (or some random person who happened upon my cottage in the middle of the forest and decided they wanted to marry me), but it tasted pretty good smothered in butter and jam. 

Craft Book Club will be on hiatus until January. I'll be sharing photos through the month of December like usual, my mock December Daily, and posting twice a week again! Lets hope I can get some of the craft projects on my list complete and take lots of photos throughout the month.

I Burnt the Pepitas Twice

October's Craft Book Club book was Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu. It is an anthology of twelve short stories and I was inspired by the story #ClimbingNation to make a hiking food. You need to read this book! The stories are so varied and each new world comes alive with the imagery. In #ClimbingNation, a woman goes to the funeral of an Instagram-Famous-Climber who has died recently from a climbing accident. I don't want to spoil anything, but some people at the funeral blame the climbing partner for the death and the revenge is shocking.

The trail mix I made includes pretzel twists, M&M's candy, and Honeycomb cereal (which I don't think I'd ever eaten before). It's heavy on the sweets because the roasted, salted pepitas I wanted to add to the mix burned both times I tried making them. The first time I set the timer in the kitchen, left the room, and didn't hear it when it rang. The second time I remained in the kitchen, check after 10 minutes, thought it needed a few more minutes, and those few more minutes were too many.

Our next read is Nordic tales : folktales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark Illustrated by Ulla Thynell. I started reading it over the weekend and there are lots trolls. Have you heard any Nordic fairy tales?

Homemade Milk Duds

I finished reading Mr. Malcolm's List by Suzanne Allain right away, but haven't watched the film yet. In my last Craft Book Club post I said I would eat whatever treat I made while watching the movie. The book didn't inspire any cooking for me so I decided to make a movie theater treat instead. This isn't the movie theater treat I usually buy, but it seems like THE movie theater candy so I made some chocolate covered caramels (Milk Duds) for my Craft Book Club craft. They taste delicious so I need to hurry and watch the movie before all the candy is gone!

Our October Craft Book Club read will be Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu, an anthology of twelve short stories. I think some dark/creepy/spooky stories will get me into the Halloween spirit! 

Tamarind Truffles

I did make tamarind truffles as my Craft Book Club craft for Popisho by Leone Ross! To make these sweet treats, I looked up some recipes and headed to the store to get dates and tamarind paste. I purchased tamarind concentrate so made up my own blend that I'm not sharing here because they are too soft and I didn't measure anything. They do taste pretty yummy, I'll have to get tamarind paste to make some more.

The September Craft Book Club book is Mr. Malcolm's List by Suzanne Allain. My library hold is finally available so I'll probably read it this week! Then maybe I'll eat whatever book-inspired-treat I make while watching the movie! What movie snacks are your favorite?

Vampire Slayer Cake

Hi again! It's been a bit! I took an unexpected break from the blog, but I'm back to share a yummy treat I made. The July Craft Book Club read was The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. I enjoyed this one, it was dark and creepy with a bit of humor and made me wonder if I would realize my neighbor was a serial killer. Hopefully I wouldn't be blinded by their polite behavior. The food item I decided to make for my "craft" was a recipe I found in Eight Flavors by Sarah Lohman (another book I recommend). This is a carrot cake with garlic both in the cake and in the lemon cream cheese frosting. Very good; I plan on making it a gain and adding a bit more garlic to the cake mix and letting the frosting sit for at least a day before serving so it's not as harsh (I added some LARGE cloves of garlic to the frosting and it was a bit overwhelming). The second, third, and fourth days the cake was extra yummy. I loved the combo of lemon and garlic in the frosting. I'm calling it Vampire Slayer Cake because garlic. (Also, I've never understood why it's called carrot cake since it has lots of pineapple too.

Our August read is Popisho by Leone Ross I started it yesterday and am thinking I might be making some tamarind truffles since they were mention and the name alone piqued my interest, but I might find something else as I make my way through the book.

Hibiscus Sichuan Shaved Ice

My Craft Book Club craft for The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow is a snow cone recipe I found in Nicole A Taylor's cookbook, Watermelon and Red Birds. When contemplating what sort of food to make for this book, I decided it needed to have sea salt because the first door January goes through, she describes the smell as "salt and age and adventure." The recipe also needed to be adventurous (age was not a priority for me). This recipe for hibiscus Sichuan Snow Cones sounded perfect, it had sea salt (I realize now that it wasn't as salty as my initial idea to represent this book) and two special ingredients I needed to buy (hibiscus and Sichuan), adventurous! I topped milky ice with the syrup because I love bingsu, but I think it will be better on plain ice as intended. There is lots of left over syrup, so I can try on plain ice too or even in a drink!

Our next Craft Book Club read is The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. I still need to borrow it from the library! 

Sourdough Pickle Buns

This month we read Sourdough by Robin Sloan for Craft Book Club. I loved the book and I obviously decided to make some sourdough. Instead of plain sourdough, I made some sourdough pickle buns. They smelled very pickley, but didn't taste it. To make the dough, I used a standard sourdough recipe and swapped out the water for pickle juice. So far I've eaten them plain, with yummy BBQ mushrooms and grilled onion (pictured), with blackbean burgers, and with meatballs and marinara. Since the pickle flavor is lacking, it tastes fine with most everthing. If I make them again I will add some small pickle pieces and hope that gives them more pickle flavor.

Our next Craft Book Club is The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.

Daffodil Cake

The Craft Book Club book for April was Greek Mythology - The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook by Liv Albert. After reading a few books that have mentioned various Greek Gods I realized I didn't know much about Greek Mythology and needed to remedy that! The story that inspired my yummy treat today was that of Echo and Narcissus. The ending of the story is how Narcissus saw his own reflection in a pond and fell in love with himself. He stared longingly at his reflection until he died and in the place he died were small yellow flowers, Narcissus or daffodils.

I happened to see a recipe for a daffodil cake from Martha Steward before reading this story and it sounded delicious so I made a daffodil cake (mostly from a cake mix because I'm lazy). I had never heard of a daffodil cake before, it is an angel food cake with half of the batter mixed with egg yolk and citrus juice and zest. I love both angel food cakes and citrus so I needed to try this. My lazy daffodil cake making method was to prepare the mix according to the box and add a few drops of yellow food coloring, the zest of an orange, and about an eighth of a cup of its juice to half of the batter then bake.  It tastes good.

Sourdough by Robin Sloan is the next book for Craft Book Club. I will likely be making something with sourdough (I love wild yeast), but should probably make it a savory something since I've been making exclusively sweet treats since switching my "crafting" for Craft Book Club to all edible things. Let me know if you have any suggestions!