Announcing The Little White Horse Winner for Cook the Books

There were so many wonderful blog posts and lovely food  inspired by the prose in Elizabeth Goudge's "The Little White Horse".  Congratulations to all the participants for putting together such a sweet array of things to read and eat and it certainly looks like everyone had fun with this book pick.  Our gracious guest judge, Deborah Gaudin of the Elizabeth Goudge Society, wrote a wonderful post there about our Cook the Books roundup and has also made her decision about the winning entry.

Virtual drumroll, now....

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Here are Ms. Gaudin's thoughts in her own words:

"I have really enjoyed the whole experience of judging the recipes submitted, it took me right back to our restaurant days and poring over recipes my husband had concocted, a hard job, but someone had to do it! After much deliberation and rumination I made the following choices:

~ In 3rd place Suzie's Strawberry Sponge Kisses. I loved the originality of the recipe, while seeing where the inspiration for them came. They look as sweet as a Loveday kiss should be.

In 2nd Place Deb's Turkish Delight Syllabub. This has always been one of my favourite desserts since being given it is eat at my first grown up dinner party at my Headmasters house. It wasn't Turkish Delight flavoured however, another indulgence I love. So the two combined were always on my short-list.

But the winner of the competition after a little heart rending is:

Heathers's (Girlichef) Candied Cherries. Such a simple dish, yet just the sort of pleasure that Elizabeth herself might have chosen. Elizabeth had a simple diet and palette, preferring good plain cooking with home grown ingredients. I suspect that the Cherries would have enchanted her. I was also impressed that Heather had actually quoted the page the reference came from. I enjoyed her write up of the book and thought her dish perfect."

A hearty congratulations to Heather for these fab candied cherries and for an enthusiastic post about "The Little White Horse".  As the winner, Heather will receive a Cook the Books Winner's Badge for her blog and be added to the Cook the Books blogroll.

A heartfelt thank you to Ms. Gaudin for devoting so much thought and time to our little virtual book club.  I know I really enjoyed dipping into Ms. Goudge's writing (thanks for the recommendation Foodycat!) and have  some other of her novels on my book hunting list.

I now pass the torch on to the next Cook the Books host, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen, who has selected Nicole Mones' novel "The Last Chinese Chef" for our reading selection.  Anyone can join us in reading this book, cooking up something inspired by it, and then blogging about it.  You don't even have to be a blogger to participate.  Just let Deb know that you would like to join in the fun by leaving a comment below and she'll blog up your post for you.  The next deadline for Cook the Books is Friday, August 28th, 2009, so go buy or borrow a copy of this sumptuous sounding novel and meet us back here for some bookish and cookish discussion.