Land of Milk and Honey: The Roundup

Well, we had a good variety of dishes inspired by this strange, dystopian novel.  As well as some strong likes and dislikes!  Here they are, in order of posting.  Please visit all the links for the full stories, and leave comments on them.

First off, and really outstanding I must say, was Amy, of Amy's Cooking Adventures, with her Mirror Glazed Galaxy Cake.  Just beautiful, and so appropriate for the book.

She said, in brief, "Yeah…even though I’m usually all for dystopian stories, this one did not do it for me. It was bizarro land.

Next in was Debra of Eliot's Eats who brought a Green Juice Smoothie to the table, celebrating all the green that the damaged planet was missing.  She really enjoyed the novel, saying "I thought this was one of the best books I have read in a while. I could not put it down."

Next, Marge of The Intrepid Reader and Baker made us a dessert, Japanese Strawberry Shortcake.  Sounds good to me!  She noted that, "It's fair to say I didn't love this book, and I was glad when it was done, but sometimes that is what being in a book club is about right? You read the selection knowing that it might not be the kind of book that you would normally read."  Yes truly, we sometimes do get stretched!

Then Simona of Briciole, arrived bringing us a serving of Radicchio with Red Grapes, "a little bitter and a little sweet" and the contrast in taste and color seems quite appealing.  She had mixed thoughts about the novel, and mentioned "Readers who enjoy dystopian stories may agree with the praises bestowed upon this one." 

I, Claudia Honey From Rock, came in last, just under the wire, with a meal based on the "the years-old fish and bioengineered flour" mentioned in the Publisher's Weekly review in the introduction post. Ventresca Tuna in a Bechamel Sauce with Brazilian Cheese rolls made from tapioca and breadfruit flours. The curly kale would not have been available to the rest of the planet however. Or probably the Béchamel sauce with its butter and milk.  I was among the group who didn't really enjoy the book.  

I hope no one got left out.  If so, let me know.  

News Flash!!  I did miss this very early post which came in on Christmas Eve of 2024!!  My Apologies to Wendy, of A Day on the Life on the Farm, who brought us a very comforting Roasted Vegetable Soup with Pomegranate arils.  She said, in brief:  "There is tons of food in this novel including prehistoric animals that were brought back to life from DNA by the scientists working in this lab." (The mountain research center where the chef was working)

Now we're on to our next selection, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, a memoir by Ina Garten, and hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats.

February/March Selection: Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

Back when the FoodNetwork was all I would watch on a Saturday afternoon, I enjoyed the dulcet calming voice and recipes of Ina Garten on The Barefoot Contessa. I really hadn’t thought much about her these past years even though her Boeuf Bourguignon recipe is my go-to Christmas dinner dish. This summer, however, I reviewed Cooking in Real Life by Lidey Heuck. (Lidey was an assistant for Ina for many years.) Then I heard an interview with Ina on Fresh Air promoting her upcoming memoir. I pre-ordered it. I had no idea that she had worked in the White House, that she spontaneously bought a specialty food shop in the Hamptons, and that she was a very reluctant FoodNetwork Star. I guess I wasn’t much of a fan girl back in the days of The Barefoot Contessa. Long story short… the February/March selection is Ina’s most recent book.

From the publisher:

Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose. From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.

I hope you’re inspired by one of her personal tales like “1000 Baguettes” or “It’s Always Cocktail Hour in a Crisis." Perhaps you’ll choose a recipe from one of her thirteen cookbooks! Regardless, I think this will be a fun and interesting read. I always like a good food memoir. Posting deadline is March 31, 2025. Just leave a comment below with your link.

If you're new to CTB, check out the Guidelines  page here. We're a fun bunch so please join us. Just read Ina's book, get inspired, pop into the kitchen and create and then post about it. 

Until then...

Debra 
Eliot's Eats

December/January Selection: Land of Milk and Honey

Can you believe it, Mid Winter already, with Christmas fast approaching!  I picked this novel, Land of Milk and Honey, by C Pam Zhang, as our next selection for Cook the Books Club, without having read it, which, amounts to a disclaimer, just so you know.  From the reviews it sounded so very intriguing. They were all overwhelmingly raves!  

Just to illustrate: 

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, HARPER'S BAZAAR, TOWN & COUNTRY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, ESQUIRE, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN AND MORE! 

I will leave you all to make up your own minds and am looking forward to hearing your discussions about the novel, and what recipes you come up with, as there were a ton of food references here.  Basically a Sci-Fi, dystopian look at life on planet earth after an overwhelming global catastrophe!

From the Publisher's Weekly: Zhang's exquisite and seductive second novel (after How Much of These Hills Is Gold) centers on an unnamed chef, 29, who is trying to survive in the wake of an environmental catastrophe that wreaked havoc on the earth's biodiversity. Raised in Los Angeles by a single immigrant mother, the chef chased complex flavors and busy kitchens since she was 19. But when the disaster decimated kitchen ingredients and shuttered borders, she was left cooking with years-old fish and bioengineered flour: "Chef had lost its meaning... like fresh." In a desperate attempt to change her surroundings, she takes a head chef position at a secretive food research community on the mountainous Italian-French border, which holds a surprising storeroom with the world's last strawberries, Parmigiano, and boar meat. Her transition to cooking for investors she cannot meet is difficult--she has no access to the outside world and she can't stomach the rich food. But she becomes preoccupied with Aida, the boss's mischievous 20-year-old daughter, who shows up to test her cooking. Aida and her father see their facility as the planet's last hope, and the chef soon learns that her role extends beyond food to enabling a world that caters to their ambition. Wrestling with her desire for both excitement and stability, the chef must squash the inner voice that asks, "Hadn't I meant to feed anyone else?" ...

The deadline for posting your thoughts and inspired recipes will be Friday, January 31st, 2025.  If you are new to the game, and have questions, check out our Guidelines  page here.  I hope you'll read the book and join in.  Basically what we do is read the current book, then make a food preparation inspired by it, and post to your blog.  Leave a comment below with your post link.  Open to all! 

Aloha,

Claudia

Honey from Rock

Crying in H Mart: The Roundup

It's time for the roundup of Cook the Books' Club October-November edition for which we read Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. 

As I've done in the past, I will present our club members' contributions as a menu organized in courses. For each dish, I will give you the official information (author, blog name and post title) and a quote from it, a taste: follow the link and read the author's take of the book and how the reading inspired the cooking. 

Cook the Books Club's Crying in H Mart-Inspired Menu 

Soup:

Dak Gomtang (Korean Chicken Soup)

Main:

Makgalbi-jjim (Korean Braised Short Ribs)

Kimchi-jjgae (Korean Stew)

Korean Style Short Ribs (à la Chongmi)

Midnight Kimchi Fried Rice

Side dish:

Green cabbage with honeynut squash and chestnuts 

Make yourself comfortable and enjoy the menu.

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Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm prepared Dak Gomtang (Korean Chicken Soup)

"This Korean Chicken soup is flavored with garlic, onions, and ginger creating a flavorful broth served over freshly steamed rice... This soup appealed to me because I was having 10 people for dinner and this soup could be made ahead of time. I boiled my chicken and made the broth the day before dinner. I steamed the rice the morning of the dinner but did not refrigerate it. I did enjoy the food descriptions and it made me long for a trip to the Asian Market, an hour's drive from my house, to enjoy food at the little cafe in the corner." 

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Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures cooked Makgalbi-jjim (Korean Braised Short Ribs) 

"Lots of great foodie moments and I think many who lose loved ones, especially at a young age can find this memoir relatable. As she writes, the author mentions tons of Korean foods her (sometimes overbearing) mother made for her in childhood and beyond, so there was lots of inspiration... I decided to poke around the inspiration blog [Maangchi] and see what I could find, which were these fantastic short ribs! Flavorful and delicious, this recipe will satisfy the whole family!"

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Claudia of Honey from Rock prepared Kimchi-jjigae

"Some parents can be so overbearing even in their love, wanting to direct every aspect of their children's lives... The inspirations for cooking were just too many to list.  All Korean food!  And I had only recently posted on that. Getting Into Jang, by Mingoo Kong, A Whole New Cuisine.  Anyway, I fixed a traditional Korean favorite, and one of mine as well: Kimchi-jjgae. Which is a stew in which you put some aged kimchi [spicy pickled cabbage], pork, tofu, and various seasonings."

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Debra of Eliot's Eats cooked Korean Style Short Ribs (à la Chongmi)

"Zauner and her mother [Chongmi] do seem to bond over food. Korean-Chinese food was the first thing they would seek out when they arrived in Seoul for their scheduled family trips. Some of Chongmi’s more gentle lessons seemed to revolve around cuisine... It might have been food that actually kept Zauner sane... I kept coming back to Chongmi’s marinated short ribs. I pieced together a recipe that included green onions, 7-Up, soy sauce, and sesame oil... I put together a couple of recipes and then used the tips from the book on how her mom made them." 

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Marg of The Intrepid Reader prepared Midnight Kimchi Fried Rice

"One of the things that I enjoyed was when Michelle Zauner started trying to learn to cook more Korean food by watching Youtube videos from a person called Maangchi... I chose to take inspiration from a very popular Korean dish, Kimchi, to make a version of fried rice... did have a Korean workmate who suggested that this recipe was overly complicating things and all you really needed was some rice, some kimchi and some tuna and you had a delicious lunch, but we definitely enjoyed this when we made it, and it is an easy mid-week meal."

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Simona of briciole (your host) prepared
Green Cabbage with Honeynut Squash & Chestnuts

"The book inspired me to look at a food from my upbringing, something not only Italian, but from my family traditions. When I was in Italy last month, the smell of roasted chestnuts... reminded me of my mother. Every October, she would buy a large amount of chestnuts from someone in Casperia, the village in central Italy where she grew up. Then, in the following weeks, we would eat them often, as dessert at the end of dinner, alternatively roasted and boiled... The side dish is earthy and sweet (almost dessert-like) and it's vegan."

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A great Thank you! to everyone who joined in this edition of Cook the Books.

I believe all the submissions I have received are presented in the roundup. If you find anything missing or in need of amendment anywhere in the roundup, please do let me know.

And now, I’ll pass the baton to Claudia of Honey from Rock who is hosting the December 2024-January 2025 edition in which we are reading the novel Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang.

Arrivederci a presto!

Simona, of briciole

Announcement: Our Next Four Selections

It's that time of our virtual book club's cycle when we unveil the next four books selected by the co-hosts. This time, however, there is a twist: read on and you'll know more.
As always, we hope the reading will delight and inspire you. Ready? Let's go!

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Claudia (Honey from Rock) opens the series: for the December 2024 / January 2025 edition, she chose C Pam Zhang’s novel Land of Milk and Honey (September 2023)

I had almost gone with another selection when I read some reviews on this book. Though outside of my usual reading choices, dystopian/ sci-fi, it just provoked such curiosity and interest, that I thought you all might want to give it a try as well! This is not a pandemic novel per se, but it did grow out of the pandemic. Unfolding in a near future. 

From the Publishers: 

A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world's troubles. There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body. In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and cool, seductive violence, the chef's boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.

Claudia, Honey From Rock

Deadline for contributing your post is Friday, January 31, 2025

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For the February / March 2025 edition, Debra (Eliot's Eats) has chosen the memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (October 2024)

I really hadn’t thought of Ina Garten much these past few years and then this summer I reviewed Cooking in Real Life by Lidey Heuck. (Lidey was an assistant for Ina for many years.) Then I heard a recent interview with Ina on Fresh Air promoting her upcoming memoir. I pre-ordered it. I had no idea that she had worked in the White House, that she spontaneously bought a specialty food shop in the Hamptons, and that she was a very reluctant FoodNetwork Star. I guess I wasn’t much of a fan girl back in the days of The Barefoot Contessa. Long story short… my selection is Ina’s most recent book. From the publisher:

Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose. From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.

I hope you’re inspired by one of her personal tales like “1000 Baguettes” or “It’s Always Cocktail Hour in a Crisis." Perhaps you’ll choose a recipe from one of her thirteen cookbooks! Regardless, I think this will be a fun and interesting read.

Debra, Eliot's Eats

Deadline for contributing your post is Monday, March 31, 2025

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For the April / May 2025 edition Simona (briciole) chose the novel The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (May 2024)

Recently, upon returning a book to the library via the Libby app, I was offered the option to "skip the line" and borrow a sought-after novel with a long, intriguing title. I accepted the offer and soon I found myself drawn to the story and even more so to its historical background: the period post-WWI and the challenges it posed to women, war veterans and the UK at large.

From the publisher:

It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel... 

But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked. 

While the novel is not food-oriented, it includes a number of references to foods. I hope it will provide inspiration and above all an interesting reading. 

Simona, briciole

Deadline for contributing your post: Saturday, May 31, 2025.

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To round up the list of selections, for the June / July 2025 edition, guest host Wendy (A Day in the Life on the Farm) chose the historical novel A Bakery in Paris by Aimie Runyan (August 2023)

From Goodreads: 

This captivating historical novel set in nineteenth-century and post–World War II Paris follows two fierce women of the same family, generations apart, who find that their futures lie in the four walls of a simple bakery in a tiny corner of Montmartre.

The first story is set in 1870 and the parallel story is set in 1946.  Historical fiction is my favorite genre and this novel has the additional lure of being a "foodie" read.

Wendy, A Day in the Life on the Farm

Deadline for contributing your post: Thursday, July 31, 2025.

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Remember that membership in our book club is open to anyone and we hope you will join us by reading these selections and creating inspired recipes. For more information about participating, click here.  

As always, specific announcement posts can be found at Cook the Books at the beginning of each two-month period and the current selection is always shown on the right side of the homepage.

To recap:

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December 2024 / January 2025: Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang (hosted by Claudia at Honey from Rock)

February / March 2025: Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (hosted by Debra at Eliot's Eats)

April / May 2025: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (hosted by Simona at briciole)

June / July 2025: A Bakery in Paris by Aimie Runyan (hosted by Wendy, A Day in the Life on the Farm)

Happy reading and cooking!