CHARLESTON, S.C. – It’s the week of Thanksgiving, which means many of you are getting ready for a few days of nonstop cooking. For the booklovers in the kitchen, there’s a chance to marry your love of cooking with your love of literature with a series of literary cookbooks.
Now, no one at the library is making a claim that these recipes will be a success. You’ll see what we mean with the first book in our list. But we do have a small collection of literary cookbooks that might help with your holiday planning, or just giving you a good laugh while you try to cram a 25-pound turkey in an 800-watt microwave.
Let’s plan some Thanksgiving meals!
Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti
As a young bookworm reading in her grandfather's butcher shop, Cara Nicoletti saw how books and food bring people to life. Now a butcher, cook, and writer, she serves up stories and recipes inspired by beloved books and the food that gives their characters depth and personality. From the breakfast sausage in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods to chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream from Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, these books and the treats in them put her on the road to happiness. Cooking through the books that changed her life, Nicoletti shares fifty recipes.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz
Conjure up feasts that rival the Great Hall's, sweets fit for the Minister of Magic, snacks you'd find on the Hogwarts Express, and more! This bestselling unofficial Harry Potter cookbook is perfect for chefs of all ages, from new readers to longtime fans--no wands required! With this cookbook, dining a la Hogwarts is as easy as Banoffee Pie! With more than 150 easy-to-make recipes, tips, and techniques, you can indulge in spellbindingly delicious meals drawn straight from the pages of your favorite Potter stories, such as:
- Treacle Tart--Harry's favorite dessert
- Molly's Meat Pies--Mrs. Weasley's classic dish
- Kreacher's French Onion Soup
- Pumpkin Pasties--a staple on the Hogwarts Express cart
With a dash of magic and a drop of creativity, you'll conjure up the entrees, desserts, snacks, and drinks you need to transform ordinary Muggle meals into magical culinary masterpieces, sure to make even Mrs. Weasley proud!
Outlander Kitchen: The Official Outlander Companion Cookbook by Theresa Carle-Sanders
Professional chef and founder of OutlanderKitchen.com Theresa Carle-Sanders offers up this extraordinary cuisine for your table. Featuring more than one hundred recipes, Outlander Kitchen retells Claire and Jamie’s incredible story through the flavors of the Scottish Highlands, the French Revolution, and beyond. Yet amateur chefs need not fear: These doable, delectable recipes have been updated for today’s modern kitchens.
Grandpa's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Cookbook by Judi Barrett
The tiny town of Chewandswallow is known for its edible weather: soup rain, mashed potato snow, and hamburger windstorms. And now people everywhere can also enjoy the delectable dishes featured in the bestselling Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Grandpa has been hard at work editing and compiling his favorite recipes, and he’s ready to share.
Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Time Federle
Even if you don’t have a B.A. in English, tonight you’re gonna drink like you do! From barflies to book clubs, Tequila Mockingbird is the world’s bestselling cocktail book for the literary obsessed. Featuring 65 delicious drink recipes paired with wry commentary on history’s most beloved novels, Tequila Mockingbird also includes bar bites, drinking games, and whimsical illustrations throughout. Drinks include:
The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose
The Last of the Mojitos
Love in the Time of Kahlua
Romeo and Julep
A Rum of One’s Own
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margarita
Vermouth the Bell Tolls
and more!
Are you there God? It's me, Margarita: More Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle
Literature, puns, and alcohol collide in this clever follow-up to Tequila Mockingbird, the world’s bestselling cocktail recipes book. Tim Federle’s Tequila Mockingbird has become one of the world’s bestselling cocktail books and resonated with bartenders and book clubs everywhere. Now in this much anticipated follow-up, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margarita, Federle has shaken up 49 all-new, all-delicious drink recipes paired with his trademark puns and clever commentary on more of history’s most beloved books, as well as bar bites, drinking games, and whimsical illustrations throughout.
Cocktails include:
Fifty Shades of Grey Goose
The Handmaid’s Ale
Little Soused on the Prairie
Tender Is the Nightcap
A Room With Vermouth
Go Get a Scotch, Man
As I Lay Drinking
and much more!