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Hey! I’m Mingo Mung Bean the speediest sprout in Seed City! Mung Beans are ready to eat in just 3 days, let me share with you some of the hows and whys of sprouting beans and seeds.

You can make your own sprouting jar with a jam jar conversion kit – a piece of net and a rubber band.  The book The Mighty Messenger starring me, Mingo Mung comes with Mung Beans, the jam jar conversion kit, instructions and a recipe.

This is what mung beans look like when they are ready to eat, shiny white skin like my face, curly bits like my hair and green shells.

Sprouting with Mingo Mung

So you sprouted your little pack of mung beans, how did you like them? Did you pop them in to your mouth as soon as they were ready? Or did you choose some delicious ingredients to mix them with in a stir fry? However you ate your mung beans, they aren’t the only things you can sprout, have a look in your store cupboard and see what else might sprout.

What else can you sprout?

I asked Shena to take a look in her kitchen cupboard, this is what she found…

Lentils sprout really easily and have a great flavour. You can also try peas and other beans like aduki, you may discover more mung beans, chick peas too. Have a go! Some beans can’t be eaten raw, kidney and black eye beans. If you are unsure as to whether a seed or bean can be eaten raw have a look here. Let us know what you sprout.

If you can not find anything in your store cupboard visit Secret Seed Society Shop there are variety packs of beans and seeds and gadgets so you can sprout for all the family.

Why should you sprout beans and seeds?

Inside every bean and seed is the secret to life. A seed contains so much goodness that it can grow into a whole plant, so seeds are very nutritious. The magic of seeds is that all that nutrition is locked away and preserved. Once you you sprout a seed you unlock it and your body can access that goodness easily and without the farting that beans that aren’t sprouted are famous for! Yes, no farting!

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: March 8, 2012

A Delicious Way to Bring your Favorite Stories to Life

When I was a child, I fell in love with a cookbook called Wild Foods. Just the idea of foraging the woods for berries and creating a delicious soup filled me with wonder. Years later, when my daughter was small, we discovered a lovely cookbook for dolls called Mudpies and Other Recipes. We lovingly prepared Wood Chip Dip, Dandelion Soufflé, and Rainspout Tea for her dolls. Cooking with children is such a wonderful way to spend time together. Within these superb cookbooks, you’ll recall your favorite stories and feast on mouth-watering dishes.

Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes and Roald Dahl’s Even More Revolting Recipes

By Roald and Felicity Dahl and Josie Fison; illustrated by Quentin Blake with photographs by Jan Baldwin

Your children will scream with delight when they read and recognize the many treats from Roald Dahl’s memorable books. Bunce’s Doughnuts! Bruce Bogtrotter’s Cake! Frobscottle! Both of these cookbooks are a great tribute to his nutty genius and were largely compiled by his widow Felicity after Dahl’s death. For adults, I recommend Memories with Food at Gipsy House and also Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights by Roald’s granddaughter Sophie. She has a new cookbook Very Fond of Food available from Random House in April. (Ages 8-11. Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) and Puffin)

The Secret Garden Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden

By Amy Cotler; illustrations by Prudence See

This exquisite cookbook reminds us of the beauty of Burnett’s classic The Secret Garden and the magic of making things come to life. Mary’s rambling walks along the moors in the countryside with Dickon and their hard work in the garden stirs a great appetite for porridge, little sausage cakes, and jam roly

This year, for the first time, Little Dude asked me to MAKE the cake for his birthday party. 

For a moment I sat, stunned. "You don't want me to get it from the bakery?"

"No, I want you to make me chocolate chip-cookie dough cupcakes. Because I love your baking the best." He flashed me a smile and dashed off to play Ninjago or Pokemon or some other game that involves teenish boy-men smacking each other with magical creatures or swords. 

Because he loves my baking the best.

I was sunk.

Happily, I found that chocolate-chip-cookie-dough cupcakes are quite The Thing on the internet. I made my own with this mix of methods, with my very own mixed but tasty results: 

1. I made the this "cookie dough stuffing" recipe for the middle and froze it overnight, which all the recipes seem to agree is critical. I went with an eggless recipe because I really didn't want all of Little Dude's friends to get food poisoning along with their rock-and-roll goody bags at the party.

2. I mixed up a boxed yellow cake mix and filled the cupcake tins. Then I plopped a dough ball in each. No need to cover it or otherwise mess with it. The cake will take care of it.

Now here's the first thing I wish I had done differently. I didn't have any boy-birthday-appropriate cupcake wrappers/papers: I only had Christmas ones. So I merrily sprayed the heck out of the pans and trusted that would work. 

Wrong. I spent a lot of time and anxious energy trying to coax those cupcakes out of the pans. Thankfully, first graders don't really evaluate whether a cupcake is PERFECT before shoving it in their mouths. Husbands are a different story. They point out the raggedy sides. And then they shove the cupcake in their mouths. 

And then I boot them out of the kitchen.

3. After the cupcakes cooled, I frosted them with icing that tastes like cookie dough--for real. This stuff tastes AMAZING. 

But here was my second mistake: the recipe says to dump all of the confectioners sugar in at once, then blend. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE. The sugar went everywhere. Happily for me, my sweet and helpful mother was visiting. As she wiped away probably a half pound of sugar, she simply smiled and said, "you have never done anything halfway, my dear". Look, at left. She really did smile.

Blend the sugar in gradually. Little bits at a time. Or you'll wish you had listened to me.

So how were the cupcakes? Raggedy. Rich. Delicious. I would definitely make these again, so long as I had suitable cupcake wrappers. In fact I have some extra dough balls stashed in the freezer, just waiting for another opportunity to whip these up. 

Little Dude's review: "They were really good, Mom. But I didn't like the frosting."

Me: "Oh. OK. Well, I won't freeze the leftovers to put in your school lunches, then."

Little Dude, panicked: "Wait, no, you can freeze them. I'd eat them for LUNCH." (As opposed to breakfast, I guess... not that we EVER have cake for breakfast in this house...)

So, you might want to consider vanilla frosting if you're making these for kids. But for grown-ups? Go whole-hog and do the dough frosting!

Last week the ever-interesting Barbara Fister observed over on Inside Higher Ed,

People are beginning to notice that big publishers are not really all that interested in authors or readers; they are interested in consolidating control of distribution channels so that the only participants in culture are creators who work for little or nothing and consumers who can only play if they can pay.

Barbara elegantly collapses into one sentence the last several years of the ebook wars and, even more importantly, identifies all stakeholders in the reading ecology: not just publishers and libraries, but authors and readers.

The Growing Crisis

Over the last year or so, there has been spluttering (sometimes from me) at individual publishers such as HarperCollins (they of “26 checkout” fame), distributor-packagers such as Overdrive, and of course, the idiot library administrators who sign contracts they obviously haven’t read, or they would never have entered into those agreements, right? (That spluttering definitely didn’t come from me, being one of those administrators.)

But Barbara is pointing out that while the problem has many moving parts, the entire reading ecology is at risk; we are, in her terms, in an “apocalypse.” It is really nothing less than an outright assault on fair use; the publishing-industrial complex won’t be happy until readers are paying, not just by the title, but by the page-turn.

Barbara and I have an interesting convergence: we are both librarians-authors-readers (except she can write entire books, while my attention span ends at the essay). By author, I mean (full disclosure: HUSTLE AHEAD!) non-industry writing, such as the forthcoming The Cassoulet Saved Our Marriage (Roost Books, Fall, 2012; edited by Lisa Catherine Harper and Caroline Grant), in which you will find my revised and republished essay, “Still Life on the Half-Shell” (first published in Gastronomica) about oysters, the locavore movement, and how I came to terms with life in Tallahassee. My essay includes exquisitely clear instructions on eating oysters Southern-style (complete with a photograph), making Cassoulet an obvious “must buy” for all library collections.

But my point isn’t about whether I am expecting to make a living from essays such as “Half-Shell.” My day job is my income; I can’t even remember if I am getting a small one-time payment, though I had such good editorial input from Lisa and Caroline that the revision process was its own mini-post-grad workshop, and I have a food essay floating out there that is significantly better for the lessons learned for “Half-Shell.”

My point is that it’s important, both ethically and strategically, for advocates of the right to read to understand that creators should have the option and the right to make a living from their creations, and that our advocacy, right now, at this moment in history, is crucial to ensure that right.

It’s also the reader’s right to support creators, which they can do either directly (buy my book!) or indirectly (fund libraries, and they will buy my book). Some of us in society will “buy” books, by way of funding libraries, that we never read ourselves or that we choose to purchase on our own, but we understand that the town pump benefits everyone — a take on the world that is less popular in certain circles, but only underscores our value to society.

3:00 am on a Saturday morning—Granny in her nightclothes,  repeats a welcoming ritual for our family. We’ve just arrived from Indiana to spend the weekend or a holiday.  She and Grandpa knew we were coming.

Granny had prepared for our arrival with her usual comfort feast. She knew we’d be famished by the time we stepped through her door. To stave off those awkward growling sounds that would surely keep everyone awake for the rest of the night, she loaded the groaning board with a southern breakfast. It doesn’t seem to matter to her or Grandpa that by the time we finish eating, and unwind enough to go to sleep, they will be preparing for their farm day.

My brother and I sit at that big farm kitchen table, eyeing the platters, bowls, plates, and jars that she arranges down the center of the space. Medium platter supports three different types of fried eggs: hard, soft, and scrambled.

Her infamous small square biscuit pan sits on a handmade potholder near the homemade jams, jellies, and syrup for the golden brown pancakes hoarding their own personal bowl. Sausage patties, country ham, and leftovers from last night’s fried chicken hold court on a large platter on Dad’s end of the table.

Fresh coffee perfumes the room, aided by fresh milk, and  rounds out the “impromptu” meal, along with real farm cream to use on cold cereal.

Yep, we’re down home. An hour later, family talk has dwindled enough to expose sleepy eyes and yawns. Bedtime has come at last.

If we’d come during the winter, those upstairs beds would act as ice cube trays waiting to be filled. The upstairs of that house had no heat of its own. Heck, the down stairs only had Warm-Morning stoves that could take wood or coal. Finances determined which fuel was used.

Mom and I would take one bed and Dad, with brother, would get the other one. There were so many of Granny’s homemade quilts on the beds that Mom would have to hold up the covers so that I could position myself. Once I was comfortable, she’d lower the bedclothes.

I had to be very certain of comfort in that position because once those quilts lowered; I wasn’t strong enough to shift my position under them. They were heavy and cold upon first entry to the bed. As a rule, I would try to put my back to my mom’s. Her body heat would keep me from becoming an ice cube until my own body heat took care of warming my space. Sleep was the only refuge until real heat came along.

In the summer, only those floor to ceiling windows gave relief from the sweltering upstairs heat. No quilts were required for that season. The fear then was melting into the feather beds.

Dawn and downstairs activity led to anxious dreams and disrupted, food-induced sleep. Grandpa had milking to do. Granny had to get lunch on the stove so that she could take a bit of socializing time once all the kin arrived for that meal. These things didn’t take care of themselves.

Throughout our visit, for however long it lasted, that lady of the South, cared for the feeding and comfort of her quests. She prided herself in always having enough for anyone who happened to drop by on any given day. No one left he home without taking a meal with them.

A weekend lunch would supply victuals for a minimum of sixteen to twenty people, depending on family sched

This weekend I decided to make a recipe that my sister had posted on her blog awhile back: Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies from Picky Palate. 

They were just as delicious as you're hoping. 

Just a few photos to give you the flavor of making these big, decadent babies:

You start with double-stuf Oreos and a cookie dough that has an especially high amount of flour (I'm guessing it keeps the dough from spreading too much).

Then you put a full scoop of dough on both the top and the bottom. Here's the progression: innocent Oreo, having no idea what's coming for it. Nervous Oreo, wearing a dough hat and pants, wondering where this could all be doing. And finally, enormous Matzoh-ball sized Oreo, fully enrobed in dough and regretting the day it ever ventured out from the supermarket. 

I found it easiest to just take the scoops of dough between my palms, with the Oreo in the middle, and sort of just squish the dough all around the cookie. 

Above, the deed has been done, much like Han Solo dunked in Carbonite.

And then finally, the cross-section of goodness:

You could make a meal out of one of these things. Or... maybe two of them. Or three, laden with both happiness and regret. 

They really weren't hard to make and if you can get your kids interested in helping, they'd be a great family cooking project. Little Dude was only interested in CONSUMING them!

by Leda Schubert

THE PRINCESS OF BORSCHT is about Ruthie, who is afraid that her beloved grandmother will die of starvation in the hospital, where she is temporarily bedridden with pneumonia. Grandma, who is a bit of a character, says borscht—beet soup—might prevent this starvation, and when Ruthie and her father (who thinks borscht  is yucky) return to Grandma’s apartment, Ruthie searches for the recipe. All the busybody neighbors come by to help and order each other around.  Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Why is Ruthie a princess? You’ll have to read the book! It’s filled with royalty.

My grandmother, Sonia Broffman (nee Lerman), was a great cook. I remember her faux chopped liver, made from green beans and something (walnuts? Chime in.), and her chicken-in-a-pot. My mother was also a great cook, but she owned her own business and rarely had time to inhabit the kitchen. Not to worry; I always managed to eat and maintain my plumpness.  

Though I myself am an only child, I have a whole lot of second cousins who are very proud of being descended from the seven Lerman brothers and sisters.  Perhaps I wrote THE PRINCESS OF BORSCHT as an homage to the women in my family, though I’m not sure I knew what it was about until I read a few of the reviews. This is not uncommon with writers, by the way. We need readers!

I first drafted the story in a writing group many years ago. Bonnie Christensen, esteemed illustrator, joined the group and drew me a picture of Ruthie, which I loved to bits and which I treasure. We dreamed of doing the book together, and thanks to Neal Porter, we did!  Bonnie included subtle tributes to her family, mine, and to Neal himself. Look carefully. She also messed up her kitchen by throwing borscht around to get the drips just right. Ah, research.

I don’t particularly like to cook, but I do love beets. I plant them every summer and watch them come up. Shortly thereafter they disappear. Is it the dog? A slug? Beetles? Mysterious forces from the universe? Then I go to the farmers’ market and buy some. Roasted, boiled, served in salad or in soup, they can’t be beat. The recipe on the back cover is only one of many possibilities.

Readers, I hope you like the book.

[Above, Bonnie throws borscht around (you can see her reflection). Photo by Bonnie Christensen]

I was feeling domestic today so I retrieved the pumpkin from the freezer - I have a new crop coming in - and made pumpkin butter in my crockpot.  The recipe I used called for apple juice.  I used apple cider and my "pumpkin" butter tastes more like "apple" butter because of it.  I used about ten cups of pumpkin puree to 1 cup of cider.  You'd think that would balance out.  Next time I will use water.  The resulting apple/pumpkin butter is pretty tasty nonetheless.

I also decided to try making candied - or crystallized- ginger.  Now that recipe called for a pound of ginger and a pound of sugar.  I had half a pound of ginger so I halved the sugar.  I did NOT halve the water.  So I had to overcook the ginger to boil off the extra water.

  The ginger has a very strong taste and is crispy but yummy.  So I am happy.  Life is a learning process.

Whoa! Your wrapper is starting to peel!

Oh my gosh!  That's so embarrassing!  We'd better get going!

• A Bake Sale Reading Group Guide.
• Read an excerpt here
• An interview with Sara Varon

• Eva's Book Addiction
• Publisher's Weekly
• And check out this great comic booktalk by Unshelved! (I love Unshelved!)

Yvonne Pat Wright returned to live in the United Kingdom from Jamaica in 2006. She fulfilled her desire to write by taking a course in creative writing. From Spice to Eternity is her first book, and she has plans to follow this up with a sophomore book.

Hi Yvonne, Please tell everyone a little about yourself:

Yvonne: I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and lived there for the first twenty years of my life. By the time I left to go to England, I was married and had two daughters. I matured in the UK and sometimes I feel I am more anglicised than Caribbean, but I cherish my Jamaican roots and will never relinquish them. I’ve worked in real estate, the world of media, radio and advertising.

I seem to shift bases in twenty to twenty-five year cycles. So it was the UK for twenty-five years, Jamaica for twenty years, and now the UK for the remainder of my life, I believe. A devout Christian, I teach Bible Studies and am a Lay Preacher.

When did the writing bug bite, and in what genre(s)?

Yvonne: I have always been a scribbler. In school I did a lot of essays. I remember, in boarding school, a group of us would gather round and I would read. In much later years, I did poems, none of which were published. I  produced church magazines and ended up writing most of the copy when there were not enough submissions. From Spice to Eternity was my first attempt to do substantial writing, and because of the genesis, it had to be non-fiction. I can see myself moving into the biblical saga type novels, which is the plan for my second or third book.

When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?

Yvonne: In whatever sphere, my aim and goal for the reader, the listener, is to come away thinking that there is something better to be had and having a desire to obtain it.

Briefly tell us about your latest book.

Yvonne: From Spice to Eternity is probably part one of two parts. It is a collection of inspirational true life stories drawn from my life and the lives of family and friends. The theme for the story is based on the characteristic of a herb or spice, which is described at the beginning of each chapter. The story is rounded off with a delicious spicy or herby recipe.

Do you have a specific writing style? Preferred POV?

Yvonne: I think I prefer a limited POV, and I rather like to use the ‘show’ rather than the ‘tell’ style of writing.

How does your environment/upbringing colour your wrting?

Yvonne: So far, I have written from my experience and the environments that I am very familiar with. I am likely to always anchor on to a very familiar aspect of my environment or upbringing as I am very comfortable in that zone.

Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve even had.

Yvonne:

The passion for both her cooking and her faith has allowed Yvonne Pat Wright to write a marvelous book that is both a cookbook and a devotional to God. Each of the forty-two recipes for cooking has an accompanying recipe for living a Christian life. The author first gives a description of an ingredient used in a cooking recipe. Not only are the ingredient’s uses given

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"Jam on biscuits, jam on toast,
Jam is the thing that I like most.
Jam is sticky, jam is sweet,
Jam is tasty, jam's a treat --
Raspberry, strawberry, gooseberry, I'm very
FOND ... OF ... JAM!"
- Bread and Jam For Frances by Russell Hoban

After picking eight pounds of strawberries on Father's Day, I decided it was time we tried making a batch of strawberry jam. I called on the experts (my mom and grandma) for a little advice and decided to make the Sure-Jell cooked jam recipe found inside the box of Sure-Jell pectin. The recipe calls for 5 cups of crushed strawberries and 7 cups of sugar and makes a nice sized batch. My grandmother warned me that I should wear long sleeves and rubber gloves while boiling the jam on the stove because it tends to splatter. I felt a little silly wearing gloves while cooking but at least I didn't burn myself! I didn't can my batch but instead put the filled jars in the freezer after they cooled. It's been awhile since I've had homemade jam, and I had forgotten just how good it tastes! The jam is well worth the time and effort --- I am very FOND OF JAM (and so are my kids)!





Of course we enjoyed reading a few books while eating our yummy jam:

Jam Day by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully. Harper & Row (1987); ISBN 0060230967; 32 pages
Book Source: Copy from public library

"Mama and Ben take turns squashing the berries with a potato masher. Then Grandmam pours the mashed berries, shiny and red, into a big kettle to boil into jam."

An extended family gathers together to cook up a batch of strawberry jam in Joosse's Jam Day. Ben travels with his mother by train and watches all the families on the train with longing. "Ben and Mama are just two," and he wishes his family was bigger, not just two. When he arrives at his grandparents' house for a "Jam Day" he joyfully realizes tha

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What’s your favorite and most unusual Easter tradition?

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This is a layered cake I make my husband on his birthday, which is today and I just ate two pieces! You’re probably saying to yourself, “Yes, Carolyn, but you’d eat two pieces of ANY birthday cake.” True, but this one is guilt-free and it doesn’t make John, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 28 years ago, feel like he’s being deprived.  We could easily order a regular birthday cake, but this one doesn’t force him to take an unusual amount of insulin and he doesn’t get a sugar rebound.

Here’s exactly what I did, but you can experiment with the flavors your family likes. The carb count on the Angel Food Cake is 11 grams per serving.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 boxes vanilla or banana-flavored sugar-free, fat-free Instant Jell-O pudding. (1 oz box)

• 2 boxes strawberry sugar-free Instant Jell-O. (0.30 oz box)

• 1 Sugar-free Angel Food Cake loaf made by Hill & Valley. (7 oz. Got mine at Jewell)

• 1 container of Cool Whip reduced sugar

• 1 banana

Make the strawberry Jell-O and pour it into an 8 x 8 baking dish. Slice banana and add to Jell-O. (I only used about 3/4ths of the Jell-O.)

Chill it just until it starts to gel. Slice the Angel Food Cake loaf length-wise so you have two retangular pieces. Remove Jell-O from the fridge, and press the pieces of cake into the Jell-O to make the second layer of the cake. The cake shouldn’t be completely immersed in the Jell-O. Return to the fridge and let it chill for about a half hour more. Make the pudding, and spread it on top of the cake for your third layer. Cover the entire cake with Cool Whip for the fourth layer.

Hope you like it!

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