It's time for the roundup of Cook the Books' Club June /July edition for which we read the novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal.
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 Kitchens of the Great Midwest-Inspired Menu
Main dish:
French Onion Rigatoni
Side Dish:
Succotash
Carrots, Onion and Apricot
Dessert:
Rhubarb Crumble Bars
Triple Layer Bison Bars
Cocktail:
Spicy Margarita
Make yourself comfortable and enjoy the menu.
Marg of The Intrepid Reader & Baker prepared French Onion Rigatoni
"Over the years, we see Eva's passion for food morph into an unrivaled food career, all of which she manages on her own terms. The other thing about Eva is that she is a collector of people, but as reader's we don't really see this all come together until the very end of the book!... So how do you decide what recipe to make when there are so many food mentions in a book. It almost happens by osmosis. I had written down a few notes, one of which was French Onion Soup, which was the subject of one of the chapters. And then I realised that I had this recipe already saved in my blog to share at some point, and that the recipe would definitely count for Paris in July and voila!"
Claudia of Honey from Rock made Succotash
"[Lars] was pretty amusing as he prepared gourmet baby meals for little Eva in the first section... On the upside, and in between, there were many mentions of food and recipes I wanted to try, so lots of inspiration in that department. As for the meal inspiration, I was quite taken with the description of her Succotash. Luckily, it being the right season, I was able to source organic, farm fresh corn, actually the day picked! And to which I added my garden fresh, green, winged beans, rather the green beans Eva used. A truly fabulous dish! I will be making this again, whenever I can get that corn! You need to call ahead and see if it's in. ;I"
Simona of briciole made Carrots, Onion and Apricot
"While I never wished to attend one of the dinners, I appreciated how Eva helped people in her life, family and strangers. The best moments of the novel for me were those describing kindness and generosity... The book includes many references to food... I was inspired to create something new in terms of flavor combination, but also simple, since an additional challenge was that I traveled for four weeks..., so didn’t have access to my kitchen. Thankfully, I had access to farmers markets and farm stands, and seasonal produce was once again my main source of inspiration: apricots, fresh onions, particularly walla walla, and carrots."
"I was inspired to make these Rhubarb Crumble Bars by a section of the book dealing with a State Fair Bake-Off competition. One of the categories included was Bars, a staple at Potlucks in the Midwest. I decided on these bars because Rhubarb requires freezing-cold winters to grow, and the Midwest has the perfect terroir. Not to mention that, living in Michigan, my rhubarb was abundant this time of year... I recommend this novel, which explores heritage, family, relationships, and coming of age. I also recommend these delicious bars while rhubarb is still available."
"As with his other book, the author totally nails small town Midwest and I found myself chuckling as many of the characters (and the bars! Ah! Such a Midwest staple!)... I’ve come to realize that the author’s writing style (don’t get me wrong, he’s an excellent writer) is just not my thing..., but what I’ve appreciated in both the author’s books was the spot-on descriptions of the midwest, especially Minnesota... I also knew immediately after starting Pat Praeger’s section of the novel that I was going to make bars. As in the book, “bars”, much like “hotdish” are an institution of the midwest... Are these real Bison Bars? Who knows, since I don’t have a hyper specific church cookbook. Were they delicious? Absolutely!"
"I originally thought (back when I was not going to re-read the book) that I would just whip up some jalapeno margaritas and call that good. But, once I re-read Kitchens, I had to make some pepper jelly in honor of Braque, Eva’s cousin. (Honestly, some of the passages with Braque were indeed the most comical)... I did include the Spicy Margarita recipe here just because... My sister introduced us to this recipe and then we basically had to buy a Vitamix. The hardest thing about this recipe is peeling the limes. I threw in the jalapeno to make this cocktail more representative of the Scoville scale heat of the first part of the novel."
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 August / September edition in which we are reading the novel Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford.
Arrivederci a presto!
Simona, of briciole
