Roundup: A Recipe From the Crease of My Right Eye
Here are the wonderful recipes that you sent in for my food blogging event, A Recipe From the Crease of my Right Eye, inspired by Catherynne M. Valente’s two-book series, The Orphan’s Tales.
Ramona from The Houndstooth Gourmet
Golabki - Polish Stuffed Cabbage
Ramona’s stuffed cabbage reflect the nature of the books, where stories are stuffed within stories like tasty meats within sumptuous cabbage leaves. (Okay, I’m being a bit silly, but it’s close enough for me.)
Mrs. W from Mrs. W’s Kitchen
Cardamom-Kissed Dates Stuffed with Hazelnuts, Fruit-Nut Squares, and Frozen Treat in the Sultan’s Garden
Mrs. W was inspired by the excerpts and reviews of the books she read online, and by the cultures she thinks of when reminded of the Arabian Nights, to create three incredible sounding desserts.
Torrey Stenmark from Tereshkova2001
The Cookies of the Mice
These mice cookies look dangerously cute, but if you’ve read the books you know that dangerous is the operative term here. I love that Torrey even included Baldtail, dipped in yellow!
Alanna from A Veggie Venture
Broccoli & Tomato Holiday Wreath
Alanna’s recipe is sneaking in because the broccoli and tomatoes are stuffed and pressed into a ring mold. Sneaky, sneaky! But the more the merrier, and it’s an interesting and festive recipe, so why not?
Sophie from Scarlet and Friends
Stuffed Kourambiedes
Not only are these cookies are stuffed with almonds and layered with a coating of powdered sugar, but Sophie also added extra spices to fit the scents of the books. It’s based on a Greek housewives’ recipe, and I must say that the cookies look a little cutely mouse-like, too.
Laura
Rose and Leek Fried Sandwiches
Now, this is creative cooking! Laura based her dish on this quote from Cat Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice
: “Oh! Roses are very interesting, are they not? Did you know that if you feed one nothing but sugar water and a mash of honeybees, it becomes sweet and thick enough to be fried for sandwiches, like boar meat or fish? We have lunched on rose and leek sandwiches for most of this season!”
Kelly from Is there no way out of the mind?
Spiced Pear & Caramel Trifle
For her first entry into a bloggers’ cooking challenge, Kelly creating a lusciously spicy dessert, perfect for the first brush of winter, inspired by the spice-smog of Ajanabh.
Me
Apples Doused in Cardamom Wine
This dish was based on this quote from Cat Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice
:“I think I might have stayed there, I might have walked through the Carnival with a child’s hand in mine, eaten apples doused in cardamom wine and told her how once, when I was very young, I had seen the old Queen dancing in her lonely hall, her embers red as bleeding, and I thought she was so beautiful, then. I thought she must be so happy. I might have done those things.”
Me
Forbidden Rice with Persimmon and Coconut
This was inspired by the Basilisk’s “little courtyard full of persimmons and coconuts”.
It was hard to pick a winner here! The cookies of the mice were so cute, and the rose and leek sandwiches were just brave and brilliant. But I think the winner has to be Mrs. W, for her Cardamom-Kissed Dates Stuffed with Hazelnuts, Fruit-Nut Squares, and Frozen Treat in the Sultan’s Garden.
Mrs. W was so inspired by the reviews and excerpts of the books that she found online that she went ahead and made three gorgeous desserts, all of which look delicious and really capture the sense and scents of the books, without directly coming from any particular language in them.
Thank you for playing, everyone, and for your inspiration! Congratulations, Mrs. W!
Around this time last year, we were making: Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins
January 4th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
The mice are so cute and that wreath is great! The apple is really beautiful- that one I’m going to make.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I sent in a recipe, too, for Spiced Pear & Caramel Trifle. Did you not get it?
January 4th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Kelly - Oh, no, I didn’t get that! I’ll add it the roundup tonight. I’m so sorry!
January 4th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Great roundup! I’m honored to have won among so many worthy entries. Fabulous event, Danielle.