The Remedy of Books

This Newbery award winner is a book that I read and loved as a child, but then forgot about for many years. Every once in a while something would remind me of it and I'd wonder, "what was that book with the volcano and the hot air balloons and the crazy houses?" but like a distant dream it had faded into the haze of my memory. I was SO pleased to rediscover it several years ago and to find out it was just as good as I had remembered it being.

The Twenty-One Balloons is an adventure story--including the aforementioned hot air balloons, volcanoes, crazy inventions, and daring escapes. The main character is Professor William Waterman Sherman, a schoolteacher who's decided he's had enough of people and wants to go on a year-long journey to nowhere in particular, as long as he's alone. He chooses to do it via a giant hot air balloon, which captures the attention and imagination of San Francisco society, and he takes off amid much fanfare. But to the surprise of the world, he is found just three weeks later floating in the Atlantic amongst the wreckage of twenty hot air balloons. What happened to his balloon? Where did the other balloons come from? And how did he get into the wrong ocean?

Readers will soon find out that Professor Sherman had ended up crash landing and was picked up by the "locals" on the island of Krakatoa (history buffs will already know how this is going to end). The population of the island is mysteriously wealthy, and is comprised of 20 families organized into a rather strange society which centers around an alphabetical culinary arrangement. Each family has been assigned a different letter of the alphabet and a country/nationality that corresponds to that letter (A-American, B-British, C-Chinese, etc.) Each family takes turns hosting dinner for everyone else at their home and of course the home and the cuisine also matches the family's assigned nationality.
Professor Sherman is welcomed, introduced to everyone, and shown around each home--noting that they are beautiful and full of ingenious inventions. Then he is let in on the island's big secret. Which I'm not going to tell you. Because you need to read the book.

Did I mention that Pene du Bois includes a lot of fun illustrations?

The magic of this book is in the way it inspires imagination. A secret island society hidden from the rest of the world; travelling across the ocean in a hot air balloon; crazy inventions to make life easier (such as a sheet roller for beds where you just turn a crank and new sheets roll onto the mattress); and who doesn't love the idea of society centered on sharing culinary inventions? (or is that just me?) I used to try to decide which nationality I'd pick if I had to decorate my home and cook in that style for the rest of my life (still can't decide, though Italian is a strong contender). In my mind this book belongs alongside the old films of The Swiss Family Robinson and Around the World in 80 Days - adventure stories involving a lot of ingenuity, danger, and exotic places.

For my own culinary foray, I decided to make something French to go along with this book. Not because of Pene du Bois' French name (he was actually American) but because Mr. F is the one who introduces Professor Sherman to Krakatoan society.

I chose to make clafoutis as it's 1. easy, 2. summery, and 3. delicious.
I used this berry clafoutis recipe by Honest Fare and to be honest (...) I didn't change it much at all.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 ¼ cups milk
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups berries

First, mise en place.


Then, preheat your oven to 350 F (177C).

Next you pretty much just blend the ingredients. Easy peasy. In your blender (or if you're me, your Ninja) put the milk, 1/3 cup of the sugar (the rest will be used a bit later), eggs, flour, salt, vanilla, lemon zest, and cinnamon.


Blend.

Mmm, custardy.

Pour a quarter inch layer of the batter in a lightly buttered baking dish (I used a small pie dish) and put it in the preheated oven until batter firms up a bit. In my oven this took about 12 minutes.

Remove from the oven (don't turn off the oven) and sprinkle all your berries over the firmed up batter. Now here's where I give a word of warning: if your berries were frozen, make sure to thaw them completely and drain them. I didn't (I knew I should, but was lazy) and ended up with quite a lot of red liquid watering things down and making it take longer to cook.
Sprinkle on the remaining sugar and then pour on the rest of the batter evenly over it all.


Bake for 45-60 minutes. The clafoutis is done when puffed up and a knife stuck in the center comes out clean.
It's absolutely mandatory to serve this with fresh whipped cream.

“My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.

The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn’t been for his ‘time machine’…”

When Al Chaudhury discovers his late dad’s time machine, he finds that going back to the 1980s requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, burglary, and setting his school on fire. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

• 1 3/4 cups (350g) white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups (abt 350g) all-purpose white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarb of soda)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Nail color brought to you by Essie

The view of my chopped cardamom, through a microscope. (not really)

Once the cardamom conundrum was sorted, I could get down to baking. First mix together the spices (sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, pepper) in their own bowl. Measure out 1/4 cup (50g) of this spice mixture and set it aside (you'll roll the cookies in it later). Then beat the spice mixture into the butter until it is light and fluffy. This takes a couple minutes with a stand mixer because even though the ingredients will be incorporated pretty quickly, you need to let the mixer beat some fluffiness and air into it so it gets creamy.

Isn't this beautiful? I love spices. (Except for cardamom, that bastard)

Let them cool on the tray for a minute or two before removing to a wire rack. This recipe makes 3-4 dozen cookies.

I have long been fascinated by King Arthur and the legends surrounding him, from Tennyson's Idylls of the King to T.H. White's The Once and Future King (to Disney's The Sword in the Stone, remember that?)
Some of the most famous Arthurian tales came from a poet called Chrétien de Troyes who lived in the 12th century, but these aren't necessarily on today's high school reading lists. It seems that while King Arthur and his knights of the round table are arguably the coolest bunch of not-quite-historical heroes around, it can be difficult to get today's middle grade crowd into reading Arthurian romances by long-dead Frenchmen (I wonder why).

Enter: M.T. Anderson and Andrea Offermann. These two talented individuals have taken one of Chrétien de Troyes' tales of adventure, love, murder, trickery, daring rescues, and frankly odd weather, and turned it into an accessible and exciting graphic novel.

The story follows a young knight of the Round Table, Yvain, who goes off in search of adventure in the forest of Broceliande. After killing a local lord in a fight, Yvain falls desperately in love with the lord's bereaved widow, Laudine, even as she is weeping over her husband's dead body (I know, right?). He decides he must have her. After being sort of tricked into it, Laudine marries Yvain who then decides to leave her for more adventures. She makes him promise to be gone no longer than a year. Of course, he is gone longer, and Laudine sends a messenger to disown him and tell him not to bother returning ever. He then goes a little mad with grief, but after a while becomes a knight errant, wandering the land in search of people who need his knightly services. After a series of adventures (dragons, giants, monsters, etc.) and good deeds (mostly saving fair maidens), he returns to Laudine who once again is tricked and forced to "forgive" him and accept him back. And they all live happily ever after?

At the core Yvain: The Knight of the Lion is still Chrétien de Troyes' original story (in all it's slightly disturbing details) but the gorgeous illustrations and updated dialogue give it new life.


Though the core has been kept, M.T. Anderson has managed to bring a new perspective to the story, especially to the characters of the ladies, who definitely get the short end of the stick. In this version of the story you are left knowing that Yvain doesn't quite get away with jilting his wife. I loved that Laudine's anger and unhappiness is clearly shown, even in the end.

How lovely is this art?

When deciding what dessert would pair well with this graphic novel, I was inspired by the beautiful flow and swirl of the art on the cover. So, I made my cookies to match. I used this Chewy Marble Sugar Cookie recipe by Food52 to create some flows and swirls of my own.

Some of my own thoughts and methods are included here along with most of the original recipe's directions.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ounces dark chocolate
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder 
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190C). Line 2 large sheet pans with parchment paper.
Melt the chocolate and allow to cool slightly (I find the microwave is the easiest and least-messy way of melting chocolate). Stir the espresso powder into the chocolate.

You know any recipe that starts with melting chocolate is going to be good.

Skull-headed spoon adds character. If you don't have one, I suppose it will taste okay without...

Action shot!

Make a well in the middle of dough and pour in the melted chocolate.

May have made them a little too big?

Swirly whirly goodness

Now it's your turn.

Darkus Cuttle's dad mysteriously goes missing from his job as Director of Science at the Natural History Museum. Vanished without a trace! From a locked room! So Darkus moves in with his eccentric Uncle Max and next door to Humphrey and Pickering, two lunatic cousins with an enormous beetle infestation. Darkus soon discovers that the beetles are anything but ordinary. They're an amazing, intelligent super species and they're in danger of being exterminated. It's up to Darkus and his friends to save the beetles. But they're up against an even more terrifying villain--the mad scientist of fashion, haute couture villainess Lucretia Cutter. Lucretia has an alarming interest in insects and dastardly plans for the bugs. She won't let anyone or anything stop her, including Darkus's dad, who she has locked up in her dungeons! The beetles and kids join forces to rescue Mr. Cuttle and thwart Lucretia.

Following the scientific method of "asking friends" I discovered that it's definitely something you can do. Or at least maybe. Well, someone heard about someone doing it once. But microwaving is definitely safe. So...

• 1 pound apples, peeled and thinly sliced (when baking I usually use Granny Smith apples, however they tend to be rather tart and when combined with the tartness of the cranberries it could get a little overwhelming. I recommend choosing a sweeter baking apple.)
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) cranberries, coarsely chopped 
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• salt 
• 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for dish 
• 1/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped 
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/8 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 tablespoons packed dark-brown sugar

Fancy pink knife not required.

Don't cranberries just have the best color?

When everything is cool, grab your book (and some squirty whipped cream) and settle down for a tasty read!

No beetles in this mug!

If someone recommends a good trilogy to you, you might by default imagine it's a set of adult or YA fantasy books before hearing any more about it. Or maybe that's just me? Either way, it's probably safe to say your brain won't race to the conclusion it's a picture book. But that is just what I am about to recommend.

I have loved the writing of Lewis Carroll since reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a child. But I was an adult before I really was able to appreciate his humor and true brilliance with words. The Hunting of the Snark is no exception to Carroll's usual cleverness and is packed with nonsense and fun.

I recently discovered that the poem was originally published with illustrations in 1876. The version I grew up with was part of an anthology and thus sadly picture-less. However, I've now seen the illustrations and in my personal opinion the originals are a bit on the scary side (everyone but the bellman has massive heads and exaggerated features).

Original illustration by Henry Holiday. Scary scary.

I am happy to say, that The Hunting of the Snark was recently re-published by Macmillan Children's Books with beautiful new (non-scary) illustrations by children's laureate Chris Riddell.

I loved re-reading the poem alongside Riddell's imaginings of the story. The illustrations perfectly fit the absurdity of the poem, while also being in a style that will appeal to a younger audience. Each character is given a unique visual personality which helps the reader keep everyone straight. The beaver particularly caught my fancy.


Riddell doesn't just illustrate the poem. Like an actor putting a personal spin on a Shakespeare character, he manages to add his own flair by not only illustrating the story, but adding his own mini sub-plot into the images. (I won't spoil it, but I will say that the baker might not be exactly what he seems!)

I loved this image.

While the original illustrations never included an image of the snark itself, in this new version, we get not only to see what a snark looks like, but also a bandersnatch and a jubjub. What more could you ask for, really?

Not at all how I pictured a snark. Not even how I pictured a boojum.