No matter the fate that awaits the fox that stole the grapes, the monk who made Stone Soup, or Little Red Riding Hood, the stories in “Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters,” by Jane Yolen, have happy endings: recipes.
Yolen shares 20 classic childhood stories from many parts of the globe, with a type size and brevity that invite reading aloud. Her notes in the margins shed light on the stories’ origins, alternative versions and lore about the main ingredients.
And the doable recipes – breakfasts to desserts – have age-spanning appeal, laying out details for equipment and serving suggestions. What else would you do after midnight with a retired coach, asks the headnotes for the recipe that follows “Cinderella”? Make pumpkin tartlets, of course.
“Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters” is available at www.amazon.com.
Lonely Planet’s travel guides share valuable information and details about exotic places. Now, they are also including details about the foreign foods found in these locations.
From Lonely Planet’s “Guide to Estonia, Latvia &Lithuania” (June 2006):
* Verikkk are balls of blood, rolled in egg and flour and spiced with pig’s fat.
* Rigas Melnais Balzams is a thick, dark, bitter and potent drink the consistency of motor oil.
* Siupinys is a pork stew. Most recipes are as follows: take a pork snout, pork foot and pork tail and place in cooking pot and cover with water and boil until soft. Add peas, onions, barley, potatoes and beans.
For more information, visit www.lonelyplanet.com.
Along with a French chef knife, useful tools for grilling include:
* Barbecue fork, spatula and tongs. For safety reasons, use long barbecue utensils to avoid the heat and flames of the grill.
* Slicer. Use this to slice a baguette for grilled garlic bread..
* Shears. For an aromatic and flavorful taste, use the kitchen shears to cut fresh herbs and fresh or dried citrus peel to add to the fire.
* Butcher knife. It can do more than cut through large cuts of meat. Its heavy-duty, straightedge blade is also ideal for slicing through the thick rind of melon.
* Vegetable knife. This knife is designed to chop, slice and dice. Its wide blade allows you to easily transfer ingredients from the cutting board to the bowl, pan or wok.
Source: Cutco Cutlery
Tips for handling ice cream, frozen yogurt and sherbet:
-n Store ice cream in a sealed container in the freezer compartment of your refrigerator, which is typically set at 0 degrees.
* To soften ice cream, transfer it to the refrigerator for 10 to 20 minutes before serving. A faster option is to use a microwave. Place the ice cream in its cardboard container into a microwave set to high: microwave one pint for 10 to 15 seconds; one quart for 15 to 25 seconds; and a half-gallon for 30 to 40 seconds.
* After serving ice cream, return carton to the freezer immediately to help prevent the formation of ice crystals that often occurs when ice cream is partially thawed and then refrozen.
Source: California Milk Advisory Board
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