(Very Mock Turtle) Creamy Rice Soup with Olives for Cook the Books August/September Pick: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Sneaking in at the last possible minute with a dish for Cook the Book August/September pick, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats. As usual, I am running late to the party so I will just keep this post quick.

I cannot tell you how long ago it was when I read this book, decades! So it was fun to get back into. I grabbed a pretty pink edition from Barnes & Noble and settled in for a wild ride. It's a short read at just over 100 pages and so I read Through the Looking Glass too-something I didn't do as a child. The whimsy and humor of Carroll's writing made more of an impression on me as an adult, I am sure there was much of it that went completely over my had as a child. It's both weird and wonderful, making it a fun afternoon escape. Thank you to Debra for appealing to our inner children with this round!

I covet host Debra's Dali-illustrated edition, but it was equally satisfying to look at the classic John Tenniel drawings in my copy. 

There is so much food inspiration in Wonderland, tarts and tea, marmalade and mushrooms, lobster and soup just to name a few. I originally was going to make some tea sandwiches but got to thinking about soup, beautiful soup and then  mock turtle soup--which seems to have been made of chopped or ground beef parts and sometimes eggs to offset the more expensive turtle meat in the real thing. 

Beautiful Soup so rich So green,
Waiting in a hot tureen
Who for such dainties would not stoop.

Soup of the evening
Beautiful Soup,
Soup of the evening,
Beautiful Soup

Beautiful Sou-oop
Beautiful Sou-oop
Soup of the evening Beautiful Sou-oop
Beautiful, Beautiful Soup.

Beautiful Soup, Who cares for fish,
Game or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?

Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup,
Beautiful Sou-oop
Beautiful Sou-oop
Soup of the evening Beautiful Sou-oop
Beautiful, Beautiful Soup.

I wanted a meat-free version of mock turtle soup and I was craving a creamy wild rice soup. I decided to add some green olive, sliced lengthwise to the mix thinking they looked like the back and shell of little turtles. The olives and a boil of their juice, brighten up the soup and give it a tangy vibe. It was great served with some dill pickle potato chips too.  

(Very Mock Turtle) Creamy Wild Rice Soup with Green Olives

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Yields 4-6 Servings) 

 

2 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

2 medium celery stalks, diced

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp dried time

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp dried tarragon

4 cups low-sodium vegetable stock

1 cup wild rice

2 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp cold water

1 cups coconut milk or half-and-half

I cup pitted green olives, sliced lengthwise 

1-2 Tbsp of the olive brine (optional)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh dill for garnish 

In a large heavy-bottomed soup pot, melt the butter. Add the celery, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, celery salt and tarragon and cook over moderate medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables just start to soften, about 8-10 minutes. 

 

Add the stock and wild rice to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables and rice are tender, about 35 minutes. Make a slurry with the cornstarch and cold water and stir it into the soup. Add the coconut milk and stir in the olives and olive brine to taste then simmer, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve, garnished with chopped fresh dill and enjoy.

Today (9/30/22) is the deadline for this round of Cook the Books and Debra will be compiling all the entries on the Cook the Book site. If you missed this round and like food and books and foodie books, join us for October/November when Simona (briciole) hosts the novel Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson. 

 

Olive Cream Cheese Stuffed Celery for "The Show Girl" by Nicola Harrison {#TheShowGirlParty}

Once again, I am very happy and excited to be joining The Book Club Cookbook, St. Martin's Press and a group of fellow bloggers to celebrate the publishing of The Show Girl by Nicola Harrison. For #TheShowGirlParty, we received copies of the book and were tasked with coming up with a dish inspired by it.  

Publisher's Blurb:

Nicola Harrison's The Show Girl gives a glimpse of the glamorous world of the Ziegfeld Follies, through the eyes of a young midwestern woman who comes to New York City to find her destiny as a Ziegfeld Follies star. 

It's 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more—even worth all the sacrifices she has had to make along the way.

Then she meets Archie Carmichael. Handsome, wealthy—the only man she's ever met who seems to accept her modern ways—her independent nature and passion for success. But once she accepts his proposal of marriage he starts to change his tune, and Olive must decide if she is willing to reveal a devastating secret and sacrifice the life she loves for the man she loves.

St. Martin's Publishing Group

On Sale: 08/10/2021

ISBN: 9781250200167

400 Pages

My Review:

Historical fiction is one of my top genres although I tend to prefer WWII historical fiction to the Roaring Twenties. Lately though I have been broadening my history horizon and I just finished a non-fiction book about the Barbizon Hotel that put me in the frame of mind for another NYC set book about a young "modern" woman making her way in the city. I didn't know a lot about the Ziegfeld Follies and the famous Ziegfeld Girls, other than what I had seen in movies, so The Show Girl was a new experience. 

Olive McCormick is a young girl from Minnesota, making her way through the theater world with big dreams to be a star in New York. A chance meeting with Florenz Ziegfeld when she is doing a roadshow has her showing up at his theater and offices when she reaches the city, expecting to be put in the show. It doesn't go that smoothly for Olive (now "Olive Shine" as a stage name) but despite her disapproving parents,soon she has worked her way to the Follies and a gig as the featured performer in the Midnight Frolic (the late-night racier show). She meets Archie Carmichael, a wealthy businessman and falls in love, but secrets and bad choices put her stardom and happiness at risk. 

The glimpses into the show girl life and Olive's world where really interesting. For all the modernizing of the 1920s, singers, dancer, show girls, and theater performers were still considered lower class and to have loose morals so life wasn't all glamour, it was a lot of hard work and dedication. I had to keep reminding myself how young Olive was (nineteen when the book starts) because her decisions and actions really frustrated me at times. I wanted her to succeed but also wanted her to care about others and the effects her choices had on them. The end wrapped up a bit quickly and a little too neatly for me, but I enjoyed the settings especially NYC and The Pines (an Adirondacks camp/retreat) that Olive goes to perform at and where she and Archie spend time together. I have always been fascinated by the camps and hotels of this area and that was fun. The retro food, drinks, hairstyles and fashion of the times were engaging too, and I liked the way the fictional characters and events were woven in with the real people and happenings of the times. Overall, The Show Girl was an informative and enjoyable read and I look forward to reading more from the author. 

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Author Notes: Born in England, Nicola Harrison moved to CA where she received a BA in Literature at UCLA before moving to NYC and earning an MFA in creative writing at Stony Brook. She is a member of The Writers Room, has short stories published in The Southampton Review and Glimmer Train and articles in Los Angeles Magazine and Orange Coast Magazine. She was the fashion and style staff writer for Forbes, had a weekly column at Lucky Magazine and is the founder of a personal styling business, Harrison Style.

You can connect with Nicola on her website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Food Inspiration:

There was a surprising lot of food in The Show Girl--Olive liked to eat and drink. Mentions included a Brown Derby restaurant dinner of chopped chicken livers, spaghetti and a Derby plate of crabs' legs, celery, avocado and Thousand Island dressing, and ice cream and sherbets for dessert, Coca-Cola, whiskey, gin fizz, rum, fried eggs with runny yolks, broth and cucumbers, sponge cake, lamb and pork chops, an act called the "The Follies Salad" (Olive was "Spicy"), cheese sandwiches, lobster, lasagna, Peach melba, shrimp cocktail, oysters, a Sardi's meal of Duchess Soup (a creamy vegetable soup), a pork chop with potatoes and French fried onions and. a sirloin steak and Waldorf salad, coffee and biscotti, champagne mimosas, wine and chocolates, a main course of sweetbreads, mushrooms and green lima beans, brandy, a "cherry on top" (Olive's drink of two parts champagne, one part gin, one part orange juice, a dash of grapefruit and a trickle of cherry brandy), cold tomato juice and Palin toast, a weekly meal rotation that included baked ham with carrots and peas on Mondays, lamb chops and mashed potatoes on Tuesdays, leftover baked ham sandwiches and apple jelly on Wednesdays, and broiled veal cutlets and fried tomatoes on Thursdays, miniature hors d'oeuvres of stuffed mushrooms, salmon mousse on toasted bread, olives and oysters, molded individual Jello salads with slices of tomato, cucumber, celery and green pepper, omelets, a maple Bee's Knees cocktail, hot cocoa, coffee, oranges, boiled egg and bread, lemon cake, and corned beef, carrots and cabbage. 

For my bookish dish, I found the Duchess Soup intriguing of course, and I thought about an egg sandwich with a spinach "frill" as Olive said she didn't want to be thought of only as a "biscuit in a frilly dress." The Brown Derby's crab's legs with avocado, celery and Thousand Island dressing called to me, as did their Peach Melba. But ultimately it was Olive meeting her mother for tea at The Plaza Hotel that was my inspiration. Olive, trying to impress her mother, orders anchovy canapés, stuffed celery to start, and offers up the cassoulet of lobster to her mother who wants "just tea." The stuffed celery pulled my attention as my mom used to make a cream-cheese stuffed celery appetizer when I was growing up, and I wanted to make a verson. When I Googled "1920s stuffed celery appetizers," many recipes came up, some with olives in the cream cheese mix. So, there you have it--Olive Cream Cheese Stuffed Celery for Olive Shine, The Show Girl. 

I looked at several different recipes online but ended up doing my own thing.

Olive Cream Cheese Stuffed Celery

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Makes about 1.5 Cups)

1 (8 oz) container of whipped cream cheese, brought to room temperature

1/3 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped pitted mixed olives of choice (I used an Italian mix with pimento added)

1/4 cup cornichons or small pickles, finely chopped1/2 tsp celery seed

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (for a little spice) 

cornichons or small pickles, finely chopped

1 Tbsp lemon juice

sea salt and black pepper to taste

celery stalks, cut into thirds

dill or chives and sweet paprika to garnish

Gently mix softened whipped cream cheese, sour cream, olives, cornichons,  spices and lemon juice together until blended. Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste. Chill 1-2 hours to firm up and allow ingredient flavors to meld.

Use a pastry bag with a tip, or a plastic bag with a piping hole cut out, or a small spoon to fill the celery sections. Serve immediately or chill, covered for another hour or two.

Notes/Results: OK, first don't be lazy and not cut up your olives and cornichons finely so they will fit through a piping tip (I was and mine did not). But looks aside, these are tasty little bites of crunch, creaminess and briny goodness. My mom's didn't have olives and was mostly cream cheese and spices prettily piped into the celery but these brought me right back. I think the mix will also be great on toast. I would happily make them again. 

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to this week's post. 

Check out this link for the #TheShowGirlParty at The Book Club Cookbook to see the other bloggers taking part in this event and their delicious recipes!

Mahalo to St. Martin's Press (@stmartinspress) and The Book Club Cookbook for the review copies of the book, and for hosting this fun event. I received no compensation for my participation and, as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  

Find The Book Club Cookbook here: 

Facebook: TheBookClubCookbook

Twitter: @bookclubcookboo

Instagram: @thebookclubcookbook

Pinterest: @bookclubcook

 

Revisiting a Pickle Soup for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

So yeah, I was going to make a chilled cucumber soup this week that literally is just the easy steps of chopping/blending/chilling, and I got caught up in one of my book clubs this morning. Then I had a headache. Basically, I was just lazy again. I was going to do a round up of soups but I was thinking about the great love for pickle-flavored things lately (not just me it seems) and thought about this Pickle Soup I made a few years ago.

It was from one of my soup "bibles," Love Soup by Anna Thomas. I made it for Mother's Day in 2016, when I was missing my mom, the year after losing her, So the original post is a bit of a downer but the soup was really delicious--and I know my mom would have enjoyed it too.

Here's what I wrote:

When I went to the tabbed recipe, I took a moment to read the story behind it, something I had forgotten about, and realized that the author made this soup for her own mother when she was old and in failing health to tempt her appetite because it was "full of the flavors of her Polish kitchen." The connection between that mother and daughter seemed another reason that this soup called to be made this weekend. I think my mom would have enjoyed it--she was a great fan of barley soups and although not the dill and pickle fanatic that I am, she enjoyed the flavors and as Thomas points out, "...the pickles are one small part of this soup. They melt into the whole, and if you weren't told about them, you wouldn't necessarily know--you'd just love the tangy, dilly flavor of this great soup." 

And the recipe:

Pickle Soup
Adapted from Love Soup by Anna Thomas
(Makes 10 Servings)

1/2 cup pearl barley (I used 1 cup quick-cooking pearl barley)

1 1/2 tsp sea salt, or to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup chopped leeks, white & light green parts (I used 2 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 oz portobello, cremini, or other brown mushrooms, chopped
thyme
8 oz Yukon gold potatoes, diced
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 medium turnip, peeled and diced
1/2 bunch green chard (I used about 3 cups baby spinach)
1 wedge savoy cabbage (I used 1/2 head green cabbage)
1 medium red bell pepper, cored and diced or large roasted pimento from a jar
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used fresh tarragon)
3 cups good vegetable broth (I used 4 cups + 4 cups water)
1 cup finely diced dill pickles, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper 
optional garnishes: (vegan) sour cream, yogurt cheese, or farmer cheese 

Rinse the barley, put it in a large soup pot with 8 cups (2 liters) water and 1 teaspoon salt, and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet and add the chopped onion. Lower the heat to medium and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the chopped leeks and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, or until the onion and leeks are soft and beginning to color.

In another skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and stir the garlic in it over high heat for about a minute. Add the mushrooms, a dash of salt, and a pinch of thyme and sauté the mushrooms until their excess liquid cooks away and they are sizzling, about 10 minutes.

Add the potatoes, carrots, celery, and turnip to the barley, along with another half a teaspoon of salt. You can add a cup or two of water if it is needed to keep everything submerged. Bring the liquid back to a simmer and cook, covered, for 15 more minutes.

While the root vegetables are cooking, wash the chard, remove the tough stems, and chop the leaves coarsely. Shred the wedge of cabbage into 1/2-inch strips. Add the sautéed onion and leeks and the sautéed mushrooms to the soup, deglazing the pans with a bit of water. Stir in the chard, cabbage, bell pepper, dill, parsley, and vegetable broth. Simmer for 10 minutes, then add the finely diced pickles and simmer for 10 minutes more.

My method: I used the soup pot to sauté my onions and leeks, then my carrot and celeryuntil softened, then I added my broth, turnip and potatoes and simmered it for about 10minutes. Meanwhile, I sautéd my garlic, thyme and mushroom in a separate pan as directed and set aside. I then added my 10-minute barley, red pepper, cabbage, spinach, dill, tarragon and the mushrooms (deglazing the pan) to the soup and cooked it for 10 minutes. Finally, I added in the dill pickles and simmered the soup for 10 more minutes before tasting and adjusting the seasoning.  

Taste the soup, and adjust the seasoning with more salt and some freshly ground pepper. The pickles become milder over time, releasing their acidity into the soup as they cook; your soup will have a more subtle flavor after it simmers a little longer. 

Thomas says, "This is an old-fashioned soup, and tastes great with a spoonful of sour cream or yogurt cheese, or plain white farmer cheese. ... You'll have a big pot of soup--enough for about 10 meal-sized servings. I like to freeze it for another time."  

What I said about the flavor and how it turned out:

Notes/Results: This soup is a homey, nicely balanced bowl of great flavors and textures. The pickles mellow as the soup sits and cooks so it isn't like you are biting into a sour dill pickle, but it gives the soup a lovely acidity. The dill is prominent but the thyme and the small amount of tarragon I added are there too, adding to the layers. I put in extra barley and of course it absorbs liquid readily, so that with all of the veggies it has a definite stew-like feel. The veggies are a good mix too with the sweeter carrots and red pepper, slightly pungentturnip and cabbage, the earthiness of the mushrooms and the buttery goodness of the Yukon gold potatoes. I had some vegan sour cream in the fridge and I liked the way it added creaminess to the soup when stirred into it. Thomas suggests serving it with pumpernickel or rye bread but I had some dill pickle Kettle Chips that I thought were fun, slightly crushed and sprinkled on top. It's a good thing I like this soup because it makes a lot, so I intend to try freezing some for later. I would make it again.  

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Perhaps I will make it again one of these days or find another pickle soup recipe to try. Next week, I'll try to be back with a new soup. Until then, let's see who is in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week.

Judee of Gluten Free A - Z Blog shared this Exotic Fruit Salad Platter, made for a birthday celebration for her son who avoids inflammatory foods, saying "The exotic fruit salad platter included: Dragon fruit, papaya, kiwi, guava, mango, strawberries, and star fruit. His candles were placed in a banana. Everyone enjoyed a healthy celebration made with fruit salad instead of cake!!"

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor brings Smash Burgers, accompanied by hash browns, saying, "Hash browns can be a nice part of breakfast or a side with a grilled sandwich. There are quite a few varieties available at the market if you don't feel like using a potato ricer or shredding your own potatoes with a grater. ... We've had hash browns with breakfast as well as lunch with burgers. Not in the same day 😗The grill press was also used on ground beef to make smash burgers."

Shaheen from Allotment2Kitchen shared her Chargrilled Courgette Quiche with a Side Salad of Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Onions, saying. "It was handy making this Chargrilled quiche in advance, as last week it was extremely hot and this made for buffet style lunch and dinner. I am also taking the opportunity to share this slice of quiche with a simple side salad of cucumber, tomatoes, and red onion with  Soup, Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen."  

Thanks to Judee, Tina, and Shaheen for joining me this week! 

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.
• Although we are pretty wide on what defines a soup, sandwich or salad, entries that are clearly not in the same family (ie: desserts, meats, random main or side dishes that aren't salads, etc.) are meant for another round up and will be deleted. 

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Light Through the Leaves" by Glendy Vanderah, Served with a Recipe for Easy Vegan Cauliflower Tacos

I am so happy to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah, her second novel. Accompanying my review is a recipe for Vegan Cauliflower Taco Filling, made into Easy Vegan Cauliflower Tacos. 

Publisher's Blurb:

Go on a powerful journey of forgiveness and healing with The Light Through the Leaves, a transcendent novel of love, loss, and self-discovery by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Where the Forest Meets the Stars.

One unbearable mistake at the edge of the forest.

In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended—for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction. Convinced she can only do more harm to her family, Ellis leaves her husband and young sons, burying her desperate ache for her children deeper with every step into the mountain wildernesses she treks alone.

In a remote area of Washington, a young girl named Raven keeps secrets inside, too. She must never speak to outsiders about how her mother makes miracles spring from the earth, or about her father, whose mysterious presence sometimes frightens her. Raven spends her days learning how to use her rare gifts—and more important, how to hide them. With each lesson comes a warning of what dangers lie in the world beyond her isolated haven. But despite her mother’s cautions, Raven finds herself longing for something more.

As Ellis and Raven each confront their powerful longings, their journeys will converge in unexpected and hopeful ways, pulled together by the forces of nature, love, and family.

Paperback : 463 pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (April 1, 2021)

My Review:

Glendy Vanderah's debut novel, Where the Forest Meets the Stars was a sleeper hit for me two years ago (see my review post here). It was a book I enjoyed and recommended to others, who found it equally wonderful. I was crossing my fingers that I would like The Light Through the Leaves just as much and I indeed I did, in fact, I might love it even more. I was a bit worried as the subject matter seemed depressing--Ellis, a young mother loses her baby and falls so deeply into grief and despair that she feels she needs to leave her sons rather than damage them with her pain and her addictions. The book tackles some difficult and sometimes triggering subjects--grief, addiction, mental illness, kidnapping and child endangerment, assault, martial issues--but it doesn't wallow in it. The story is told by both by Ellis, and her chapters and story are very painful, and also by Raven, a young girl growing up in seclusion with her mother--and her story has its pain as well. But in that pain is hope, healing, and growth, and also friendship and love, and it all comes together in a book I was immediately engaged in and didn't want to put down. 

Glendy's love of nature and passion for the land and its inhabitants, plants, animals and people permeate her books, so woven into the story that the settings are their own characters. You can visualize each place; feel the cold of the mountains or the humidity of a Florida summer, smell the mossy earth, and see the river and the meadow wildflowers with each well-crafted sentence. It's only March but The Light Through the Leaves will definitely end up on my list of favorite books for 2021. Highly recommended. 

If you would like to win an autographed copy of Where the Forest Meets the Stars and you have a U.S. or Canada mailing address, head over to my Instagram account @DebinHawaii for a chance to win. 

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Author Notes: Glendy Vanderah is the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of Where the Forest Meets the Stars. Glendy worked as an avian biologist before she became a writer. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in rural Florida with her husband and as many birds, butterflies, and wildflowers as she can lure to her land..

Connect with Glendy on her website or Instagram. 

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Food Inspiration: 

Funny story. As mentioned I reviewed Glendy's first book and I follow her on Instagram and left a comment on her post that I was excited to start reading this one. She replied back: "Thanks to your long list of food mentioned in my debut, I tried to cut back on food mentions in this book. But there's still quite a lot."  Yes there is still quite a lot, including grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, apple slices, pizzas, martinis and old-fashioned, butterscotch candies, coffee, ice cream, whiskey, Bugles and Cap'n Crunch, strawberry jello with peaches in it, hamburgers, cereal, bourbon, fancy French cognac, salad and a grilled cheese sandwich, fried venison strips for a sandwich, vegan enchiladas, ham, baked potato, squash, green beans, hummus, avocado , and vegetable sandwiches, leftover casserole, soda, vegetables, oatmeal with strawberries and sweet soy milk, cupcake, cookies and cream milkshake, food from a Mexican restaurant, hot beef and barley soup, bread, hot spiced cider, vegan tacos and burritos, popcorn, greasy fries, Prime rib, baked potato with butter and sour cream, salad with bleu cheese dressing, homemade cheesecake with blackberry preserves on top, casserole with greens and a bean salad, a vegetable-and-fried-seitan wrap, scrambled tofu and veggies, steak, and kombucha. 

A few of the characters in the book are vegetarian and vegan and Glendy mentioned she recently transitioned to veganism herself. Although I'm not a vegan (fish, eggs and cheese all make their way to my diet), I eat that way regularly and I knew I wanted a vegan recipe to represent the book. The mother of Raven's friends made the vegan Mexican food mentioned above so I decided to make vegan tacos. Since I was making them after a long day at work, I needed them to be quick and easy so I decided to use packaged cauliflower rice with taco seasoning as a base. I intended to buy those little taco bowls and layer things all pretty but of course the store had known to be found so I ended up with taco shells. You can make these tacos as homemade as you like--rice your own cauliflower, chop your own veggies, and make the guacamole but I went the easy route and bought or pulled together most of it from the pantry. It's still delicious and it was on the table in under 20 minutes. 

Vegan Cauliflower Taco Filling

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Makes about 4 cups of filling)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 sweet onion, diced

1 packet taco seasoning of choice + other spices you like to taste (I used 1 tsp roasted garlic powder, 1 tsp mushroom umami powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp mojito lime seasoning, 1/2 tsp chili powder)

1 head of cauliflower, riced or 2 (8.5 oz) packages of cauliflower rice. (I use this one)

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat and add onion. Cook about 6-7 minutes until onion softens and turns translucent. Add seasoning and spices and mix together, then add the rice cauliflower. Stir mixture until all of the cauliflower is covered with the seasonings. Cook about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until cauliflower filling is warmed and onions are cooked through. Taste and add sea salt and black pepper to taste. 

To Make Tacos: Layer taco shells (toast in oven or heat in microwave if store-bought)  with cabbage mix or shredded lettuce, Vegan Cauliflower Taco Filling, guacamole and salsa. I used this pickle salsa I found because...why not?! ;-) Add other toppings as desired--roasted corn, chopped tomatoes, green onion, cilantro, vegan cheese or non-dairy sour cream, etc. 

Notes/Results: These are really good! I am not going to claim that you will fool meat-eaters or anything with them but the flavor and mouthfeel is there, they are satisfying, and they are pretty darn healthy too. I think the key is too use more spice than you normally would with meat, mushroom or even plant-based soy crumbles because cauliflower id like tofu in that there isn't much flavor so you want to give it that extra oomph. I like the dried mushroom powder--I ran out of my Trader Joe's version but found that Target (which we do have here in Hawaii) has a knock off. It, and the roasted garlic powder give the taco filling more depth of flavor. I will happily make these again. 

Note: A review copy of "The Light Through the Leaves" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here. 

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The Stills" By Jess Montgomery, Served with a Recipe for Beet Pickled Hard-Boiled Eggs

I am very excited to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Stills by Jess Montgomery, the third book in her Kinship series. Accompanying my review is a recipe of purplish Beet Pickled Hard-Boiled Eggs, inspired by the book.

Publisher's Notes: 

The third in Jess Montgomery’s exquisitely written Kinship series, The Stills is a triumph of storytelling by an extraordinary new talent in crime fiction…

Ohio, 1927: Moonshining is a way of life in rural Bronwyn County, and even the otherwise upstanding Sheriff Lily Ross has been known to turn a blind eye when it comes to stills in the area. But when thirteen-year-old Jebediah Ranklin almost dies after drinking tainted moonshine, Lily knows that someone has gone too far, and–with the help of organizer and moonshiner Marvena Whitcomb–is determined to find out who.

But then, Lily’s nemesis, the businessman George Vogel, reappears in town with his new wife, Fiona. Along with them is also her former brother-in-law Luther Ross, now an agent for the newly formed Bureau of Prohibition. To Lily, it seems too much of a coincidence that they should arrive now.

As fall turns to winter, a blizzard closes in. Lily starts to peel back the layers of deception shrouding the town of Kinship, but soon she discovers that many around her seem to be betraying those they hold dear–and that Fiona too may have an agenda of her own.

Hardcover: 352 Pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (March 9, 2021)

My Review:

I am a big fan of the Kinship series, having been on the blog tours for the first two books The Widows and The Hollows. I love the intersection of two favorite genres--historical fiction and mysteries and, Sheriff Lily Ross, is a strong, female main character to root for, as are the other strong women in the book. Widowed in the first novel, Lily took over her husband's job as Sheriff of their rural Ohio community, no easy feet, especially in 1927 but Lily was reelected on her own merits last year. Lily's Thanksgiving with her family and friends, Marvena and Hildy and their families, is interrupted with news that a local boy is in a coma after drinking some local moonshine that puportedly came from Marvena's still. Complicating matters is the fact that George Vogel, a shady businessman who Lily has dealt with in the past is in town with his wife and seems to be up to something involving illegal alcohol distribution. The book's POV bounces back and forth mostly between Lily and Fiona Vogel, now George's wife, a former local girl and the widow of a local deputy. Fiona is brought to town by George but has a definite agenda of her own. 

What I like most about this series is the well-researched history that Jess Montgomery weaves into  the story. I have learned a lot about Prohibition and other historical events from this series, and it usually has me looking for more information while I am reading it. The author works in historical figures (like the very real Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt) into the books which it doesn't distract from the mysteries and teaches me more about history and subjects I am not familiar with. In this book I found the medical treatments of the times for diabetes and asthma especially interesting. Marvena's young daughter, Frankie, has severe and worsening asthma and part of the treatment is inhaling the smoke from asthma "sticks." Having asthma myself, the thought of breathing in the smoke from these medicinal cigarettes makes me cringe and I feel lucky to have a nebulizer and more modern treatments. I also love unpacking the layers of Lily and Marvena and getting to know more about these women and their friendship with each book. The writing is vivid and descriptive and puts me right into the setting. This third book did not disappoint in any way, and I can't wait for the next one!    

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Author Notes: JESS MONTGOMERY is the Literary Life columnist for the Dayton Daily News and former Executive Director of the renowned Antioch Writers’ Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Based on early chapters of her novel The Widows, Jess was awarded an Ohio Arts Council individual artist’s grant for literary arts and the John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence at Thurber House in Columbus. She lives in her native state of Ohi

You can connect with Jess on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
 

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Food Inspiration:

There was food to be found in The Stills--much of it related to the Thanksgiving holiday of the books time setting in 1927. Unfortunately, most of my food highlights in the later half of the book "disappeared" from the e-book advanced readers copy I was using so I am going to have to go from memory here. Food mentions included a bouquet of sage from the garden, sugar pumpkins and acorn squash, tomato vines and corn stalks, a quart jar of canned apples for pies, pumpkin pies, turkey, turkey broth, home-canned goods, dried grape bricks marked "Vino Sano Grapes" that could be reconstituted in water with sugar and made into grape juice if consumed within a week, or wine if left in a dark cupboard for three weeks (one of the work-arounds of the Volstead Act of Prohibition), moonshine, biscuits, corn pone, Ginger Ale, whipped cream, jars of blueberries and pickles, tea and toast, eggs, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, pickled corn, rolls, soft butter that the children made by shaking heavy cream in canning jars, sorghum pie, turkey bone broth which will be made into turkey soup with homemade egg noodles, coffee, various teas, pickled red cabbage and sauerbraten, schnitzel, turkey sandwiches, and biscuits with jam. I'm sure there's more but that's all I got! ;-) 

For my bookish dish, I decided to go with the beet-pickled eggs on Lily's Thanksgiving table: "...even pickled eggs turned purplish red from pickled beet juice. Usually those were saved for Easter, but Caleb Jr. had begged for them and finally Lily relented..." Since we are closer to Easter than Thanksgiving, it seemed like a good fit. I used a recipe from a favorite preserving book, Salt Sugar Smoke by Diana Henry to make my eggs.  

Beet Pickled Eggs
Slightly Adapted from Salt Sugar Smoke by Diana Henry

14 eggs 
4 cups white wine vinegar
1 beet, sliced
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 cinnamon stick
3 dried chiles (I omitted and added 1/2 Tbsp black pepper corn)

Boil eggs to your preference, then then drain, run cold water over them, and peel. Make a few punctures in each egg with a toothpick and set aside.

Mix together all of the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heating let simmer for about 15 minutes. Put the eggs into a sterilized jar and pour the hot vinegar over them. Seal with a vinegar-proof lid and once cool, keep in the refrigerator. The eggs will taste better after a couple of days. They'll keep--covered with the vinegar and refridgerated--for about a month.  

Notes/Results: I like pickled eggs they have a nice salty, sweet and acidic bite to them and a slight earthiness from the beets. I even like the rubbery texture the eggs get from the pickling--not chewy per se, but firmer than a regular boiled egg. My eggs were not perfect, most of the 5 I used ended up with flat bottoms which can be related to temperature going into the water, if the eggs are too cold and these were straight out of the fridge. It didn't effect the taste though and that's the important thing. I would make these eggs again. 

Note: A review copy of "The Stills" was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.  

You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.