Nature's Yucky

An Antidote to Holiday Cookies

The Nature’s Yucky! three-book chil­drens non-fic­tion series fea­tures ani­mals doing what we humans per­ceive as gross behav­iors. My co-author Karen Shragg and I then describe how these yucky actions help the ani­mals survive. Karen likes to cook and does a lot of exper­i­ment­ing, whip­ping meals togeth­er. Since she likes cook­ing so much, we include a kid-friend­ly recipe in every book.… more
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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Reading my books, you could be excused for thinking I’m a foodie. I’m not—I just like to eat! And so do my characters, apparently. Food and recipes play a role in many of my stories, including all three Pumpkin Falls mysteries.
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Honey Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

Author Gen­nifer Chold­enko con­tributes this recipe, which is just right for autumn, Hal­loween, or curl­ing up with a good book. Have you read her Orphan Eleven yet? It’s num­my, too. Hon­ey Peanut But­ter Pop­corn Balls ½ cup honey 3 T peanut butter 2 T water 4 T butter 12 cups popcorn 1 cup salt­ed mixed nuts Toast­ed Sesame seeds (option­al) 1. Melt hon­ey, peanut but­ter, but­ter and water.… more
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fried rice

Fried Rice and Ohana

Imag­ine a clus­ter of smil­ing keikis, (kids), sit­ting around a cal­abash filled with mouth-water­ing Hawaii local-style fried rice. Shar­ing deli­cious food from a cal­abash serv­ing bowl is a Hawaii tra­di­tion. As it does every­where around the world, not just in Hawaii, eat­ing meals togeth­er cre­ates com­mon bonds for every­one, chil­dren and adults alike, solid­i­fy­ing the feel­ing of ohana, or fam­i­ly.… more
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Melanie Heuiser Hill

Cardamom Scones

I adore books that have food details. I like to know what the char­ac­ters are eat­ing. Even bet­ter, I like to know what they’re cook­ing and bak­ing. And if there’s a food or feast that plays a promi­nent role in the plot, I’m hooked. Turns out, these are the sorts of books I enjoy writ­ing, as well. My nov­el, Giant Pump­kin Suite, has a grand­moth­er who is quite ded­i­cat­ed to the culi­nary arts.… more
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Connie Van Hoven

For the Love of Pickles

Know some pick­le crazy kids? I do! A favorite birth­day din­ner that my grand­kids request is Pick­le Pas­ta (recipe below) — not the cold pas­ta sal­ad vari­ety, mind you, but warm but­tery noo­dles dot­ted with briny pick­les. My daugh­ter cre­at­ed this sim­ple but oh-so-sat­is­fy­ing dish dur­ing her col­lege days when the cup­boards were some­times near­ly bare. I guar­an­tee you will have eaters who pick the pick­les out to savor sep­a­rate­ly; and eaters who will pre­fer bites of pas­ta with their pick­les — either way it’s the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to chant: “Peter Piper picked a plate of pick­led pas­ta.”… more
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Carrot Soup

Carrot Soup

Carrots are most often served raw in our home due to our sons’ preferences. But five years ago at the library we found the book Carrot Soup by John Segal.
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An Autumn Salad from Karen Cushman

Warm Salad with Roasted Squash, with Cranberry Vinaigrette, Hazelnuts, and Chèvre
I must admit I’m more of a free-form cook. I don’t real­ly fol­low recipes but adapt them to what I have on hand or what my cre­ative juices are call­ing for. Usu­al­ly. The fol­low­ing recipe I love so much that I make it as sug­gest­ed except for the squash.
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rice pudding

Lucy’s Easy Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding

Reading Ahead recommends McDuff Moves In, a picture book about a rescue dog's search for a new family, written by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by Susan Jeffers (The Gryphon Press, 2019). This recipe is included in the book and featured here with the permission of the publisher.
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beef chili

Cozy Reading Chili

We've been outside enjoying the summer and fall weather, but now it's time to settle in for a winter's worth of reading. Enjoy this yummy chili while you read.
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Sarah Aronson

Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

Just Like Rube Goldberg author Sarah Aronson shares her recipe for a yummy, sugary treat, one that she believes Rube Goldberg would have loved because he was a fan of Cool Whip.
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Pumpkin Muffins

Author Melanie Heuiser Hill believes that Gram, from her book Giant Pumpkin Suite, would be baking these pumpkin muffins this month.
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Woodcut frog by Claudia McGehee

Squashed Fly Cookies

My British mom was fond of making these for us as children. It is a cookie (or “biscuit” if you live in the UK!) she knows from her own childhood. The moniker may suggest an unusual, rather disagreeable ingredient, but in reality, no insects were sacrificed for the dough!
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Potato Latkes

Potato Latkes

One of the traditional foods served at Hannukah celebrations, this recipe for Potato Latkes will have your nose twitching and your mouth watering! Happy Hannukah!
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Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

We recommend giving kids cookbooks for the holidays. Yumm. For kids who are inspired by relatives who cook, TV cooking shows, or their innate wish to make (and eat) good food, a cookbook will travel with them throughout life. (And it's a sneaky way to encourage reading and math!)
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vinegar pie marthastewart.com marcus nilsson

Vinegar Pie

In honor of our Bookstorm, Presenting Buffalo Bill: the Man Who Invented the Wild West, we discovered that on the wagon trail, when fresh apples weren't available, apple cider vinegar made a tasty pie.
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Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Inspired by our Bookstorm feature this month, Let Your Voice Be Heard: The Life and Times of Pete Seeger, there was a pot of stew bubbling in many a hobo camp during the Great Depression and many a hootenanny in the '50s and 60s'. This quick-to-assemble version can stay in your slow cooker until you're ready to eat.
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Louis Armstrong’s Red Beans and Rice

A Cajun-inspired favorite recipe from jazz musi­cian Louis Arm­strong, this is a per­fect accom­pa­ni­ment to your read­ing of Jazz Day by Rox­ane Orgill.
Louis and Lucille Armstrong’s Red Beans and Rice
Total Time6 hours
Serv­ings: 8
Ingredients
1 pound kid­ney beans12 pound salt pork strip of lean, strip of fat1 small can of toma­to sauce if desired6 small ham hocks or 1 smokedpork butt2 onions diced14 green bell pepper5 tiny or 2 medi­um dried peppers1 clove gar­lic choppedSalt to taste
Instructions
Wash beans thor­ough­ly, then soak overnight in cold water.
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Lighthouse Beef Stew

Author Aimee Bis­sonette writes, “To accom­pa­ny your read­ing of Miss Col­fax’s Light­house, here’s the type of recipe Har­ri­et would have cooked in win­ter months. It gets incred­i­bly cold on Lake Michi­gan in the win­ter and Har­ri­et was always so busy! She would have need­ed some­thing that was pret­ty easy to make (no time to fuss) but would warm her inside and out.… more
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Twisted Tots Hotdish

We wouldn't be surprised if Travis's grandmother had a frozen version of this hotdish stored next to the state fair butterhead. This recipe is a staple across the Midwest.
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Taylor Pork Roll Sandwich

Pork Roll Sandwich

One of New Jersey's most famous foods, the Pork Roll sandwich is made from John Taylor's Pork Roll, first made in 1856. We've chosen it as our featured recipe this month, honoring William Carlos Williams, who lived in Rutherford, New Jersey.
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Kim-Chee

Kim-Chee

Kim-chee, a traditional fermented side dish made of vegetables, is the national dish of Korea.
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Flowerpot Cakes

At a spring conference we organized back in 2004, Karen Ritz, author, illustrator, and baker extraordinaire, made one of these for each of our guests. They were a hit! We think they'd work well with a construction-themed party or storytime, too.
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orange slices

Orange Omelet

Gen­nifer Chold­enko’s Chas­ing Secrets takes place in the late 1800s — this recipe is one that might have been served at a lun­cheon. From the Boston Cook­ing School Cook­book: Orange Omelet Ingre­di­ents:
3 eggs
Few grains salt
1 tea­spoon lemon juice
12 table­spoons orange juice
12 table­spoon but­ter (for pan)
2 oranges
2 table­spoons pow­dered sugar Sep­a­rate yolks from whites.… more
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Divinity Refrigerator Cake

In a 1954 cookbook, we found many recipes specific to the era and quite a few classics. In our Facebook poll, we asked whether you'd prefer this recipe or the recipe for Prune Whip. This recipe won!
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Dinosaur eggs

Dinosaur Eggs

When you're done with a day of tromping through the primordial savannah, on the lookout for dinosaurs, have some of these on hand for your avid dinosaur fans.
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Garlic Beef Enchiladas

Garlic Beef Enchiladas

We've been fixing this recipe for more than 20 years. We had a friend who attended the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California (July 24-26, 2015) each year. She raved about the garlic enchiladas she enjoyed there, so we adopted this recipe to celebrate the love of garlic. We hope you find it tasty.
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Soup

Birdy’s Lentil Soup

Karen Cush­man passed along this recipe from the Cookin’ Canuck with the note that it was just the sort of cold weath­er meal that would grace tables in the Cather­ine, Called Birdy world.
Hearty Lentil Soup
Just what Birdy would have eaten!
Prep Time20 min­utes
Cook Time45 min­utes
Total Time1 hour 5 min­utes
Author: The Cookin’ Canuck
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil12 large onion chopped2 large stalks cel­ery diced2 cloves gar­lic minced2 tsp smoked papri­ka2 bay leaves1 14 oz.
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Steve’s Spaghetti Sauce

In Leroy Ninker Sad­dles Up Maybelline’s favorite food is spaghet­ti. Here we share our best recipe for a savory sauce to top any pas­ta. Serves four (or one hun­gry horse).
Steve’s Spaghetti Sauce
The secret of this savory spaghet­ti sauce is the pepperoni.
Prep Time15 min­utes
Cook Time30 min­utes
Total Time45 min­utes
Serv­ings: 4
Author: Steven Palmquist
Ingredients
1 15- oz can toma­to sauce1 6- oz can toma­to paste¼ cup sher­ry or white wine1 tsp beef stock con­cen­trate such as Bet­ter Than Bouillon®7 oz 12 pkg turkey pep­per­oni or regular2 tsp gar­lic salt1 Tbsp dried pars­ley1 tsp dried oregano1 tsp dried basil
Instructions
Using a microwave-safe plate, arrange 7 oz.
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