Cooking the Books

Edible Flowers and Occasional Poison : Cooking the Books with Arkady Martine

Fran Wilde — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:37:46 +0000

When Arkady Martine sets out to do a thing, she does it completely and thoroughly. That’s true whether she’s running an academic conference on Byzantium or creating an entirely new universe and an exquisitely intricate space opera to go in it. A Memory Called Empire is just such a narrative within such a universe, and we’re delighted that Arkady was able to join the first Cooking the Books of the year to discuss everything, from the menus (along with food reviews) to the poisons she constructed for the Teixcalaanli Empire.

We hope you’re strapped in tight for this month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #042: Edible Flowers and Occasional Poison : Cooking the Books with Arkady Martine contains:

poison (duh)
so much space politics
in spaaace
a very new ambassador
assassination (character and otherwise)
edible flowers
the most overthought steak sandwich
And much more.

Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it… AND to our new resident genius David Shaw who is helping us for the first time with sound engineering and podcast management we are so excited. More changes are coming soon too!)

Podcast #042: Edible Flowers and Occasional Poison : Cooking the Books with Arkady Martine

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/042arkadymartinemarch.mp3

And Arkady pays as much attention to her recipe(s) as she does to her worldbuilding. We are not surprised in the least:

Fried Squash Blossom with Goat Cheese

The squash blossom – often a zucchini flower but there are lots of other options – is a staple of both modern and traditional Mexican cuisine, where they’re called flores de calabaza. They’re delicious in salads, soups, quesadillas … and, when stuffed with cheese and fried, a fine-dining appetizer and a streetcart staple at once, depending on where you are.

(Personally, I’d recommend buying them from a street cart in Mexico City.)

16 zucchini blossoms or other squash blossom
1 cup soft goat cheese
2 tbsp white onion, chopped
1 Serrano pepper, minced (optional)
salt and black pepper
oil for frying (vegetable or corn oil)
1 large egg
1/3 cup flour
¼ cup beer (a light lager is best)

Carefully remove the pistil from the blossoms with kitchen shears or the tip of a scissors. Wash the blossoms and pat them dry with kitchen paper.

Sauté onion and Serrano pepper in a small amount of oil over medium heat until onion is translucent (2-3 minutes). Combine with the goat cheese. Then carefully spoon around one tablespoon of the cheese mixture into each blossom. Twist the petals of the stuffed blossom closed, so the cheese does not escape during frying.

Prepare the batter: Beat the egg in a medium-sized bowl. Add the flour and the beer. Mix well.

Heat the frying oil to a low-medium heat in a nonstick pan (the oil should be approximately ¼ – ½ inch deep, and a drop of batter placed in it should sizzle but not smoke). When the oil is hot, take each stuffed blossom, and holding it by its stem, dip it in the batter and place it directly in the pan. Try not to pile the flowers on top of one another.

Fry until the flower is a light golden brown (approximately a minute and a half on each side). Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.

Consume hot.

Teixcalaanli Flowers-of-the-Earth Cocktail

A warning: Mahit Dzmare did not like this cocktail at all. Unless you are very partial to violets, neither will you.

1 oz Crème de Violette
½ oz Domaine de Canton
1½ oz botanical vodka or gin (try Ketel One Botanicals in the Grapefruit & Rose version, or if that goes odd on you, a botanicals-forward gin like Greenhook Ginsmith’s American Dry Gin or the easier-to-find Hendrick’s Gin).

Serve in a cognac glass or other bell-shaped snifter.

Arkady Martine is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr. AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. Under both names she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda, and the edges of the world. Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada, and Sweden, lives in Baltimore with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw. Find Arkady online at arkadymartine.net or on Twitter as @ArkadyMartine.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard. (plus several new & exciting chefs to be announced soon!)

Check out our archives.

Candied Ginger and Ghost Eagles: Cooking the Books with Alex London (& Family!)

Fran Wilde — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 12:04:34 +0000

Alexander London‘s first young adult novel, Proxy, blew me away. His middle grade books are wonderful.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

And now the newest addition to the London library, Black Wings Beating hits the Cooking the Books crew right in the feels with its giant murderbirds and amazing world building!

(PS: what made this interview especially exciting was the gargantuan feat of not getting distracted by the adorable Baby London… who you might hear cooing in the background. It was difficult, but Aliette and I saw our way through, because it is important to know what to feed a murderbird, right? Exactly.)

To prepare yourself to face such birds, or immensely cute babies, or both, please hasten to your nearest bookstore or library to acquire Black Wings Beating. And enjoy our discussion of all things falconry and food, including what to pack for a bird hunt! Do give a listen on Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (Check out Alex London’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers… including the pokemon answer!).

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #041: Candied Ginger and Ghost Eagles: Cooking the Books with Alex London contains:

murderbirds
giant ghost eagles (aka murderbirds)
lots of feathers
siblings
magic
queer romance and boys kissing
the world audio debut of the most adorable baby London
candied ginger
possibly a little bourbon
only a few torn off faces (murderbirds, for real)
chocolate and beef jerky — not together! — okay a little together. Gross, right?
shoutouts to many wonderful books
falconry (ie: murderbirds)
And much more.

Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #041:Candied Ginger and Ghost Eagles – Cooking the Books with Alex London

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/041alexlondon.mp3

Recipe: Ortolan

adapted from The Illustrated London Cookery Book by Frederick Bishop, 1852

My recipe is truly a dark one. A traditional and illegal dish of France, Ortolan is a dish eaten under a white cloth (a) to savor the aromas and (b) to hide the shame of it from G-d, who apparently can’t see through napkins. The dish, the tiny ortolan songbird, is eaten bones, head and all. As three Michelin starred chef Michel Guérard told the NY Times, “[Ortolan] is enveloped in fat that tastes subtly like hazelnut…and to eat the flesh, the fat and its little bones hot, all together, is like being taken to another dimension.”

So, it’s a bird, it’s brutal, and it takes place on a secondary earth fantasy world apparently…how could I resist posting?

The bird should be kept in the dark, so that it will perpetually eat. Ancient Romans used to blind them but keeping them in a box works just as well. They should not be killed with violence, like other birds; this might crush and bruise the delicate flesh, and spoil the coup d’ceil – to avoid which, the best mode is to plunge the head of the Ortolan into a glass of Armagnac, drowning it. Drowning in fine brandy sounds a terribly literary way to go.
Having picked the bird of its feathers, singe it with the flame of paper or spirit of wine; cast off the beak, and ends of the feet; do not draw it; put it into a paper case soaked in olive oil, and broil it over a slow fire. Some methods simply say spit roasting will do. Lastly, they may be cover’d or strewed with breadcrumbs and salt, and/or eaten with Salt and Orange.
That last direction isn’t so helpful, but I never plan to make this, so I suppose have no way to test it. Enjoy!

Alex London is the author of the middle-grade series, Tides of War, Dog Tags, and The Wild Ones and the young adult novel Proxy, which was an ALA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, a 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults selection, a Texas Lone Star Reading List, and TAYSHAS Reading List selection, among many other state awards lists. It is currently in development as a series with SyFy/Universal Cable Productions. Black Wings Beating is his first epic fantasy. You can find him online at calexanderlondon.com, @ca_london, and his Patreon mostly for Harper Lee as an alien bounty hunter fiction: https://www.patreon.com/alexlondon

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

Secret Messages: Cooking the Books with Lauren Teffeau and IMPLANTED

Fran Wilde — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 16:46:15 +0000

Author Lauren Teffeau’s Implanted debuted just before worldcon in San Jose, and she’s been journeying far and wide to talk about her high-tech science fiction novel.

(confession: Lauren keeps me and my hatch green chiles habit happy, plus I blurbed Implanted, so I’m a little biased about this book and this author. Both are fantastic.)

My co-host Aliette and I finally found time to sit down and talk with Lauren about all things near future — from food in dome cities to ways to stay motivated. We’re so glad you can join us, and stick around to enjoy Lauren’s recipe, below.

PS Keep an eye out for Lauren at Mile-High Con this October!

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #040: Secret Messages: Cooking the Books with Lauren Teffeau contains:

training montages
brie quesadillas
more training montages and hidden cravings
ways to feed your writing
cooking and writing retreats
various opinions (good, accurate ones) about okra
a guest appearance by Luna the dog because we need to work on our audio professionalism
shout outs to Kelly Lagor, Tor.com science columnist, to the Critical Mass writers group, and to writing groups everywhere.
And much more.

Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #040: Secret Messages: Cooking the Books with Lauren Teffeau

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/040laurenteffeau.mp3

~ Answer for our Homework Question (inspired by The Fabulous Booksmugglers) ~

“You are throwing a dinner party for your main character, Emery. Who would you invite?”

A Dinner Party, featuring: Guest of Honor – Emery Driscoll (AKA M-37) from Implanted

Attendees:

Tally from The Uglies
June from The Summer Prince
Yours Truly from Snow Crash
Logan 5

Regrets: Johnny Mnemonic & The man in the suit from Person of Interest

No Response: James Bond

Brie and Mango Quesadillas

(You could place the mango salsa ingredients directly into the quesadilla, but I find that makes cheesy melt-through harder to achieve and can get cumbersome to eat.)

Mango Salsa:

3 medium-sized, ripe* mangos (*the riper they are, the more liquidy your salsa will be)
1 half onion, small dice
1-3 serrano peppers, small dice (or pepper of your preference, heat levels etc)
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
juice from 1-2 limes
salt to taste
pinch cumin
cilantro, chopped

Break down your mangos and dice flesh into small pieces. Put all the cut mango and juice into a bowl. Depending on the yield, you may adjust the remaining ingredients based on how the proportions look and taste. Add onions and peppers. Add garlic using a garlic press preferably. Add lime juice. Add salt and cumin to taste. Stir.

You could serve it fresco style. Or refrigerate overnight. The salt and lime juice will break down the mangos even more (so you get that salsa texture) and the flavors will blend.

If you like cilantro, you can add it as a garnish or incorporate it into the salsa directly.

Brie Quesadillas:

Medium quality brie. Too cheap, it won’t melt well. Too expensive, it will be too salty and pungent and melt into a gooey mess.
Flour tortillas (corn or corn chips could also work)

Cut chilled brie into ¼ inch slices and fan out on tortillas. Cover with a second tortilla. Bake in a 350-degree oven until cheese melts and tortillas begin to brown, 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and use salad plates to press down the tortillas while they cool for another five minutes (This will allow the cheese to set up and keep the tortilla from curling up). Cut into quarters or sixths, and serve with mango salsa.

Lauren C. Teffeau was born and raised on the East Coast, educated in the South, and employed in the Midwest. Lauren now lives and dreams in the Southwest. When she was younger, she poked around in the back of wardrobes, tried to walk through mirrors, and always kept an eye out for secret passages, fairy rings, and messages from aliens. Now, she writes to cope with her ordinary existence. Besides the obligatory bachelor’s degree in English, she also holds a master’s degree in Mass Communication and spent a few years toiling as a researcher in academia. Her short fiction can be found in a variety of speculative fiction magazines and anthologies. Implanted from Angry Robot Books is her first novel. She also had a blast talking about worldbuilding during the latest Tor.com Roundtable. To learn more, please visit laurencteffeau.com.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

A Taste of Light: Cooking the Books with Jeannette Ng

Fran Wilde — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 11:26:31 +0000

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng arose earlier this year from Angry Robot Press and my Cooking the Books co-host Aliette de Bodard and I have been working to catch the author ever since.

We’re so glad to have found a time to do so — the conversation took place over three continents, in between several major conferences, and it ranges all over. We hope you enjoy the banquet of topics set forward – from masquerades to vast wastes of ice and frozen holidays; from the familiar to those things that are not often discussed.

Luckily, Under the Pendulum Sun is the kind of book that can host all of these topics within a very tasty plot.

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Angry Robot

One of my favorite parts is the discussion about engaging with gothic texts like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre — do give a listen on Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (Check out Jeannette’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

In addition to Jeanette’s brownie recipe below, she also answered two reader questions from twitter – those of Joseph Brassey and Tade Thompson.

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #039: A Taste of Light: Cooking the Books with Jeannette Ng contains:

creepy food
the unseen
a disconcerting bowl of blood
sun physics
frozen grapes
alternate allegories
how one approaches condiments
forbidden foods
nursery rhyme research
a shoutout to Emma Newman’s Split Worlds series and the Split Worlds Ball.
And much more.

Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #039: A Taste of Light: Cooking the Books with Jeannette Ng

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/039jeannetteng.mp3

~ Answers for questions from twitter ~

Joseph Brassey: “Jeannette has previously mentioned the idea of getting outside of feeling beholden to conventional wisdoms of writing, realizing that specific methods are designed for specific ands and might not apply to what you’re trying to do in a given book. Can she unpack this a bit?”

So, a lot of general writing advice presupposes that one wants to write an airport novel, something thrilling, relatively easy to digest and brisk to read. The aversion to exposition and filter words are rooted in that. And if one wants to write in that style, the advice can be incredibly useful, but if one is attempting something a bit more folkloric, it can be incredibly unhelpful as it pulls you in a different direction.

A lot of sff writing advice is rooted in the preferences of John W Campbell, who is both an awful person and also spearheaded the golden age of science fiction with his very specific tastes. Many things we take for granted in the genre aren’t mandates from above, they are relics from their creation. The definition of “hard scifi” revolving mostly around physics and chemistry, for example, is rooted in Campbell’s preferences. He just didn’t think much of biology, geography or even the social sciences, thus he didn’t consider them important when recreating a science fiction that was scientific.

And to me, knowing all of this helps me challenge the norms of genre writing, because these conventions are not written in stone and passed down to us from time immemorial. It makes the defiance feel smaller. It also helps to read the myriad exceptions to these rules, many of which are themselves are revered classics. Though even more are forgotten and erased.

But of course the question remains what best serves the story one is trying to tell and that is always the trickiest to answer. It may indeed fit well into the beats of a plot-heavy thriller riddled with cliffhangers. It may be best told as a deep dive into the mindset of a single character or sprawled across multiple voices. Everyone has their preferences both as a reader and as a writer (some people hate reading present tense, for example, others find first person uncomfortable), but those preferences are just that.

Tade Thompson: “Durian! What’s the best way to consume it?”

I confess not to be the biggest fan of the fruit raw. It was a deeply divisive fruit in my household when I was younger and my mother would always bring up how she had triumphantly converted my father, a longtime hater of the fruit, to the cause. How he had went from buying a fruit he doesn’t eat for her out of love to hoarding it all for himself.

Being my stubborn self, I refused to be swayed. Reminiscences aside, I’m quite partial to it in cake of various sorts. Especially the pancake rolls that Honeymoon Dessert in Hong Kong do with them, all bundled with squirty cream.

Brownies

Recipe preamble: This recipe is built around the idea that I want as little leftover ingredients as possible as I used to cook it in a shared kitchen at boarding school. I usually double it and thus use all of a 500g bag of sugar and half a dozen eggs. Sadly butter comes in 250g pats, which was a perpetual source of frustration to me and the reason why I started making cookies.

200g dark chocolate (or rather, one packet of Tesco plain chocolate)
200g white or milk chocolate (one packet Tesco milk chocolate)
200g butter
250g granulated sugar
3 eggs
a few drops vanilla extract
100g all-purpose flour

Melt 200g of dark chocolate and 200g of butter in non stick saucepan, using the lowest setting of the electric hob. Stir to make sure it doesn’t burn.
Take off the heat and allow butter/chocolate mixture to cool. Smash up the remaining chocolate into chunks with gleeful violence and/or catch two minutes of tv in the common room.
Some people transfer the butter/chocolate mixture into a mixing bowl, but I am profoundly lazy and thus don’t. Add sugar to butter/chocolate and mix with wooden spoon.
Add eggs and mix into the mixture one at a time.
Fold in the flour in a sort of figure-of-eight motion.
Pour into buttered tin, stud the chocolate chunks into the brownie mixture and bake at 180C for 25-30mins until crispy on the outside and toothpick comes out clean.

Jeannette Ng is originally from Hong Kong but now lives in Durham, UK. Her MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies fed into an interest in medieval and missionary theology, which in turn spawned her love for writing gothic fantasy with a theological twist. She runs live roleplay games and is active within the costuming community, running a popular blog. Jeannette has been nominated for the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer for her novel Under the Pendulum Sun.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

Rocket Fuel: Cooking the Books with Mary Robinette Kowal

Fran Wilde — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:23:16 +0000

Links:

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Links: The Calculating Stars preorder link (Can get it signed, and delivered on release day!)
The Calculating Stars Universal Buy Link

What Mary Robinette Kowal brings to the Cooking the Books table is no fewer than seven novels, two short story collections, more than 70 short stories, a blog that boosts other writers with My Favorite Bit, advocacy and volunteering, the Writing Excuses Podcast AND Cruise, the Futurescapes Writing Workshop, and a somewhat unfortunate attachment to okra, although she explains to me frequently that I’ve just not had it cooked properly. There’s a lot more as well (audio recordings, puppetry, a serious dedication to both fashion and typewriters…)

Mary is an outstanding cook and has been visiting NASA often for research on her latest books — part of the Lady Astronaut of Mars series — The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, the first of which is out July 3 CLICK HERE FOR INFO ON THE LAUNCH PARTY. (the second appears August 21). So of course we asked her about space food.

Links: The Fated Sky preorder link (Can get it signed, and delivered on release day!)
The Fated Sky Universal Buy Link

She joins Aliette de Bodard and me for Cooking the Books this month (in our 65th interview & 38th podcast episode!) to dish on all the details.

It’s all for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out Chelsea’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #038: Rocket Fuel – Cooking the Books with Mary Robinette Kowal contains:

Thoughts on jiffy pop and early math
the taste of tinned beans
MANY ROCKET INNUENDO
chess pie and biscuits
What the food at Nasa is like
potential ROCKET INNUENDO VALENTINE CANDY
a make your own macaroni & cheese bar
Astronaut Kibble
That point at which we lose it over space food puns
And much more.

Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #038: Rocket Fuel – Cooking the Books with Mary Robinette Kowal

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/038maryrobinettekowal.mp3

Mary’s Recipes: Chess Pie and Sour Cream Pound Cake

Mom’s Sour Cream Poundcake recipe

Since I was little, this is the cake I request for my birthday. Mom mails one to me every year. We requested it for our wedding cake. This is the ur cake. This is the platonic ideal of cake.

2 sticks butter
3 c. sugar
3 c. plain flour
1 c. sour cream
1/4 tsp. baking soda
6 eggs separated
2 tsp. orange extract
2 tsp. lemon extract

Cream butter and sugar lightly. Add sour cream; mix soda, 1/2 c. flour and add; mix thoroughly. Add unbeaten egg yolks and remaining flour alternately. Lastly, beat whites light and fold them into other mixture — never beat them in.

Pour into funnel cake pan. Have bottom of pan covered with waxed paper and sides well greased. Bake in 325-degree oven for 1 1/4 hours. Never open door before this amount of time is up — then look. If cake needs more baking, do so.

Chess Pie

Piecrust – I make a standard crust, but substitute bourbon for the water.

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cornmeal

Heat oven to 350°F.
1. Prep pie crust and keep cool.

2. Combine butter, sugar and cocoa. Add the eggs and vanilla. Whisk it until blended and thickish. Stir in cornmeal until just combined; pour into crust.

3. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until pie is set and top begins to resemble the surface of the moon. Dark and crusty with cracks running across its surface. Cool it. Serve at room temperature. If it’s a dairy night, adding whipped cream is a lovely touch.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, and the forthcoming Lady Astronaut duology. She’s a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, three Hugo awards, the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit maryrobinettekowal.com

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

How to Feed Magic: Cooking the Books with Chelsea Polk

Fran Wilde — Wed, 30 May 2018 11:51:43 +0000

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Macmillan

Chelsea Polk‘s glorious debut novel, Witchmark, from Tor.com Publishing and Tor Books is almost here. Still time to preorder!

In Witchmark, an alternate post-War world has magic and sibling rivalries, a beautiful romance, and so many bicycles. It’s also filled with food — apples in particular, but other foods as well.

So when Chelsea Polk was able to speak with us for Cooking the Books from her home in Alberta, Canada, I was delighted. She also answered questions for the Booksmugglers!

Chelsea will be at 4th Street Fantasy in June, and celebrating the launch of Witchmark soon after, but you can hear her here first!

It’s all for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out Chelsea’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #037: How to Feed Magic – Cooking the Books with Chelsea Polk contains:

Energy-replenishment Guidelines After Magic Use
The food you eat with friends
LGBT Romance Recs (along with some adult recs)
Improper substitution of fountain pens for food by Aliette Pen Bodard
The best way to cook steak and pasta
A few thoughts about post-war PTSD
Cookies
And much more.

Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or click play below.

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Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #037: How to Feed Magic – Cooking the Books with Chelsea Polk

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/037clpolk.mp3

Chelsea’s Recipe: Trail Mix Oatmeal Cookies

I love oatmeal cookies. I’ll even eat them with raisins. but I greatly prefer the version I developed a few years ago, with dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and pecan pieces. this recipe is a relatively small batch of cookies, by my gluttonous standards – I make a dozen, and freeze the other half to make more later.

To make these cookies, you need:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

125g (about 2/3 cup) brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cardamom (cinnamon is a fine substitute)

1/2 tsp salt

95g (about 2/3 cup) all-purpose flour

120g (about 2/3 cup) rolled oats

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup pecan pieces

Order of Operations:

In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together, adding egg, vanilla, baking soda, cardamom, and salt. Stir in flour; mix in rolled oats in gradual doses, and then add cranberries, chocolate chips, and pecan pieces. mix well.
Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, maximum 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 350. Drop 1.5″ balls of dough on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes; leave on the sheet to continue cooking for 5 minutes.
Store in an airtight container to preserve the chewy texture. They will probably last in the refrigerator for several days, but I don’t have that kind of willpower.

C.L. Polk writes fiction and spots butterflies in Southern Alberta. She has an unreasonable fondness for knitting, single estate coffee, and the history of fashion. Her debut series beginning with the novel Witchmark is available from Tor.com Publishing.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

Dad Jokes Rock: Cooking the Books with Eric Smith and The Girl And the Grove

Fran Wilde — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 12:36:15 +0000

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

I’ve walked so many of the paths in The Girl And the Grove (Flux Books, May 2018) from Fairmount Park to Kelly Drive and now I’m slightly disappointed I’ve yet to see either an owl or a dryad.

That’s because this YA novel is filled with the people and places of my hometown.

So I was thrilled when Eric Smith found time to join us for Cooking the Books this month and talk about his latest novel, his anthology Welcome Home, nurturing kids, and… what dryads eat.

Yes, you heard right. Stay tuned for the answer (BTW that was a Booksmuggler’s question because they’re brilliant).

But wait, there’s more: Eric’s thoughts about coffee shops, brewing perfect coffee at home, and the writing process are ALSO brilliant.

It’s all for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out Eric’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #036: All the Dad Jokes – Cooking the Books with Eric Smith contains:

Dad Jokes (we warned you)
Several best friends
One excellent Corgi
Cameos — SO many cameos, including a Park, a number of Eric’s friends, author Jon McGoran, and the wonderful The Monkey and The Elephant Coffeehouse.
The perfect cup of coffee
The best name for an owl
And much more.

Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or click play below.

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(Aliette was out this month due to a mean old flu. Thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #036: So Many Dad Jokes – Cooking the Books with Eric Smith

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/036ericsmith.mp3

Eric’s Recipe: Pulled lime chicken tacos

Why? You might ask. Here’s why:

I was wrapping up some of the final touches on The Girl and the Grove while on a little writing retreat in Mexico with Adi Alsaid and Zoraida Cordova, two authors (and friends!) I fiercely admire. Adi took us on a tour of some of the greatest taco places in his town (Mexico City), and we did a ton of writing in lovely cafes.

I was wrestling a bit with some of the notes I’d gotten back on the novel, from folks who said I should cut the magic out, maybe make it just a contemporary story. When I brought this up to them, Adi and Zoraida insisted I keep the magic in. I did. And now here we are.

So, a recipe for pulled lime chicken tacos, something I’m literally making right now as I type this. NO CHEESE ALLOWED. Adi would be very disappointed in me if I allowed that.

Pulled Lime Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:

Onion
Two pounds of Chicken Breasts
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Lime Juice
Soft taco tortillas
Salsa of choice (verde is best!)

Place chicken breasts in a slow cooker, and liberally sprinkle in plenty of salt, pepper, and paprika, with about three tablespoons of lime juice. Cook for 5 ½ to 6 hours on low.
Dice the onion. And then I guess let it sit there for 5 hours or so? Maybe wait until later.
Breasts all cooked, shred with forks. Don’t dump out all that delicious lime and spice filled juice. Let the shredded chicken sit in it, and then place those delicious bits of meat on a soft taco with the chopped up onions.
Highly recommend topping with some salsa verde.

NO CHEESE ALLOWED.

Eric Smith is a literary agent and YA author living in Ann Arbor. When he isn’t busy working on other peoples books, sometimes he writes his own. His latest include Welcome Home (Flux 2017), an anthology he edited full of adoption-themed short stories, and The Girl and the Grove (Flux 2018). He can be found writing about YA for Book Riot and Paste Magazine, and co-hosts the Book Riot HEY YA! podcast with Kelly Jensen. You can learn more about him and the books he reps and writes at www.ericsmithrocks.com, and see way too many photos of his corgi and baby on Twitter at @ericsmithrocks.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

Schadenfreude Burrito: Cooking the Books With John Scalzi

Fran Wilde — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 13:12:19 +0000

John Scalzi: Man of international mystery, burritos, and pie? OR fleet-footed author of over thirty books on writing, spaaaaace, and the future?

Either guess is correct.

What do you win? You win the latest episode of Cooking the Books, an interview with John Scalzi — where co-host Aliette de Bodard and I talk with him about writing during tough times, the importance of lawn care equipment, and burritos, bacon, and pie.

It’s all for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out John’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

HEY ALSO: we’re doing a quick giveaway this month… on rafflecopter! Many thanks to Saga Press for the copy of Robots vs. Fairies, which has a Scalzi story in it along with many, many other great stories, plus a copy of the SFWA 50th anniversary cookbook, which has a Scalzi recipe in it, along with many other great recipes!

RIGHT: On with the show:

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #035: Schadenfreude Burrito – Cooking the Books with John Scalzi contains:

Bacon
A lot of bacon. Bacon is always there for you.
A shout out to this excellent essay by Kayla Whaley (@punkinonwheels on twitter): “The Difference a Meal Makes: On Losing the Ability to Eat Solid Food”
The true meaning of Schadenfreude Pie
The many foodways of the JoCo Cruise
That time Scalzi’s phone started playing “Rock You Like a Hurricane” all on its own.
HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE OPINIONS ABOUT POTATOES
And much more.

Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or click play below.

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #035: Schadenfreude Burrito – Cooking the Books with John Scalzi

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/035scalzi.mp3

John has obligingly shared with us his recipe for Schadenfreude Pie, discussed during the podcast!

“Let’s face it, schadenfreude is a dark emotion. It deserves a dark pie. Here are your ingredients.”

1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
3 large eggs (I used brown eggs in keeping with the spirit of things, but white eggs are fine)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 splash Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
1 graham cracker pie crust (9 or 10 inches). Choose regular or chocolate graham cracker crust according to taste.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (Fahrenheit). Melt butter in largish mixing bowl; add in corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix well. Melt chocolate; fold into existing mixture. Add eggs and Kahlua; mix vigorously until mix has an even consistency. Pour into pie crust (depending on size of crust you may have a little filling mix left over).
Shove into oven, center of middle rack, and bake for about 45 minutes. At 45 minutes, poke pie with butter knife. If butter knife comes out clean, your pie is done; otherwise give it about another five minutes.
Once you take the pie out of the oven, let it set at least 20 minutes before you dig in. It’s really good when still warm, however.
Serving recommendations: small slices (this is an awesomely rich pie) and an ice cold glass of milk to go with it.

John Scalzi writes books, which, considering where you’re reading this, makes perfect sense. He’s best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller “Redshirts,” which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word “Whatever” into Google. No, seriously, try it. You can find him on twitter @scalzi, and elsewhere.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

Of Mangoes and Radium: Cooking the Books with Brooke Bolander

Fran Wilde — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 12:43:20 +0000

Macmillan | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Brooke Bolander first captured our attention with the gorgeous short story “Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring” (2012, Lightspeed) and she hasn’t let it go since. Now with vivid stories like And You Shall Know Her By Her Trail of Dead, Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies, and Sundogs (to name a few) under her belt, Brooke’s novella, “The Only Harmless Great Thing” has arrived in glowing fashion. It’s a stunningly mesmerizing work and we’re so pleased to have Brooke with us to talk about elephants, radium girls, Coney Island, alternate histories, and dreamscapes.

It’s all for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out Bo’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #034: Of Mangoes and Radium – Cooking the Books with Brooke Bolander contains:

An elephant hotel
The effects of radium poisoning
Coney Island and Luna Park attractions
The Truth About Edison
How words feel in the mouth
sushi, especially uni
Something bittersweet, to go with the book, and maybe a little bit green

Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or click play below.

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #034: Of Mangoes and Radium – Cooking the Books with Brooke Bolander

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/034bobolander.mp3

For those Cooking the Books fans over 21, Brooke has created a beverage recipe that’s highly relevant to our discussion:

COCKTAIL RECIPE: TOPSY’S ADIEU

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz Saler’s Apertif
1 oz lime juice
1 teaspoon ginger-lime curd (recipe below)
1 egg white
1 teaspoon simple syrup/rich syrup

Mix all the ingredients in a shaker and dry shake (without ice) vigorously until combined. Add ice and shake some more until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and enjoy!

Lime-ginger curd:

3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup ginger juice
4 tablespoons of butter, unsalted

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a saucepan until combined. Add the lime juice and ginger juice and stir until they’re combined as well.

Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly (if you don’t, the eggs in the mixture will cook and you’ll have some super-funky dessert scramble) until the mixture thickens to a custardy consistency.

Trust me, it is way, way simpler than it sounds. Custard is the easiest thing in the world to make, so long as you don’t stop whisking.

Remove from heat and whisk in the butter.

Pass through a fine mesh strainer; you’re probably gonna have a bit of cooked egg white in there no matter what you do and this will take care of that.

Transfer to a jar and let cool before using in the cocktail or just eating by the spoonful; this is a no-judgment zone.

Even if you’re not a drinker, you’re probably gonna enjoy this stuff if you in any way dig tart sugary things.

Thanks again for having me on! ~ Bo

Brooke Bolander writes weird things of indeterminate genre, most of them leaning rather heavily towards fantasy or general all-around weirdness. She attended the University of Leicester 2004-2007 studying History and Archaeology and is an alum of the 2011 Clarion Writers’ Workshop at UCSD. Her stories have been featured in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Uncanny, Tor.com, and various other fine purveyors of the fantastic. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards, much to her unending bafflement. She can be reached at her website (brookebolander.com) or on Twitter @BBolander.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.

The Stitch of Story – Cooking the Books with Carmen Maria Machado

Fran Wilde — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 11:31:10 +0000

Carmen Maria Machado‘s short stories and essays grab the heart and the ear, the eye and the brain. They seam and sing. They steam. Her first short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties (Greywolf Press 2017) is out this week, already making All the Lists, and Aliette and I feel so lucky to have Carmen visit to talk about food and fiction today!

It’s all for Cooking the Books this month, both here and at the extension kitchen over at The Booksmugglers! (check out Carmen’s Booksmugglers Bonus answers!).

This month’s Cooking the Books Podcast, #033: The Stitch of Story – Cooking the Books with Carmen Maria Machado contains:

Olives
Kidneys… sort of
Unexpected pantsuits
Feminist Dinner Parties
The oppressed body
The way books smell
Liminality and Interstitials
New Podcast mentioned! – Racist Sandwich
Instructions On Not Disappearing

Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or click play below.

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Ready? Subscribe to the Podcast here! Or on iTunes! Or click play below:
(and consider supporting us on Patreon, hmm?)

And visit additional Cooking the Books content over on the The Booksmugglers!

(thanks as always to our friend Paul Weimer who helps clean up the CtB kitchen after we destroy it…)

Podcast #033: The Stitch of Story – Cooking the Books with Carmen Maria Machado

https://franwilde.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/033carmenmachado.mp3

Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She is a fiction writer, critic, and essayist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Guernica, Electric Literature, AGNI, NPR, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review of Books, VICE, and elsewhere. Her stories have been reprinted in Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and Best Women’s Erotica. Her memoir House in Indiana is forthcoming in 2019 from Graywolf Press.

She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, the Speculative Literature Foundation, the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, the University of Iowa, the Yaddo Corporation, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, and lives in Philadelphia with her wife.

Cooking the Books is a mostly-monthly podcast hosted by Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard.

Check out our archives.