You guys, this is a fancy recipe. So, break out the company plates 'cause you’re gonna want to show this one off with your best china. I'm sure some of you are already drifting away from this post because you think "fancy" means "difficult," but that is NOT true. Stay with me. I promise that this is not going to be scary. Just really, really pretty. And tasty. The main character of Daughters of the Lake, Kate, goes to stay with her cousin...
One of the things I love about Emily Giffin’s novels is that she really captures the soul of whatever city or town she sets her story in. I was excited to see that All We Ever Wanted is set in Nashville, which I became more interested in since my close friends moved down there a few years ago. We’ve yet to visit them, but we hope to adventure with them in their new city soon. Honestly, given how much the food scene in Nashville has grown...
Everyone knows that the best part about Ikea -- apart from it not being a haunted Orsk store -- is the in-store restaurant. There's just something exciting about grabbing that tray, standing on the line cafeteria-style, and being ladled up a giant spoonful of steaming Swedish meatballs smothered in gravy. That's what makes an Ikea trip so great -- you can spend the entire day there, wandering around and being fed a hot meal without ever...
If you were going to eat your very last meal, what would it be? A lot of people probably aren’t as morbid as I am and therefore have not given this concept much thought. I, however, have thought about it extensively, and despite all the possible scenarios under which this “last meal” might occur (alien invasion, being on death row, brink of world annihilation, etc.), my selection remains constant: penne vodka. Penne vodka is my favorite...
Lavender Honey Cookies are my ode to the small bits of loveliness found in Lying in Wait. There’s so much that’s ugly in this book that it’s a surprise when you stumble upon something beautiful, which can range from the simple, like pretty lace curtains hanging in the window of a drab, grey house, to the more complex, like a happy relationship between two suffering people. Or, y'know...a lovely garden in the back of a manor house...with a...
When we first meet the titular character of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, she is traveling through dreary Ingolstadt, Germany to find her friend Victor. Even though the adventure is shrouded in creepiness, author Kiersten White’s vivid description of the medieval city made me nostalgic for Germany – particularly, for its desserts, which I believe are some of the best in the world. Since the novel is mostly set in Germany and...
This Cioppino may be the best meal I've made all year. For reals. Seafood lovers, you are in for a TREAT. Even before I decided that I was going to keep reading The Immortalists, I knew I wanted to make a dish that related to San Francisco. Simon is the first sibling you meet in The Immortalists, and his story quickly takes him to The City by the Bay. His love of SF and the freedom he experiences there is what made me fall in love with this...
These Chai Latte Bars are an ode to my best friend. Why are Chai Latte Bars the book-inspired recipe for The Ever After? The recipe inspired by The Ever After had to be based around a latte. It had to. After all, that’s what started the story. Main character Josie was waiting for her husband to bring her a latte when she discovered the incriminating texts on his phone. If it weren’t for that fateful latte from Starbucks,...
The hardest thing about these Easy Ground Beef Gyros is figuring out how to pronounce them. Gyro. Is it "Jy-roh"? Or, is it "Guy-ro"? Maybe it's "Year-roh? I’ve been to Greece, and I still don’t know how to pronounce "gyro" correctly. (To be fair, I didn't see gyros on any menus there, so I didn't have the opportunity to inquire about its pronunciation). I think it’s the last one ("year-roh"), but please do NOT quote me on that. I have...
Hands down, this is the BEST coconut cake recipe you will EVER come across. During my years upon this earth, I have made the important discovery that coconut is a very divisive flavor. As a coconut lover (some may say fanatic), I can't fathom how anyone could despise this magical ingredient. One of my favorite treats growing up was a coconut FrozFruit popsicle that I would get from the snack bar at the town lake. That cool, creamy taste and...
