Book Advent Calendar Day 10: Food and books, and cookbooks stash

   I love Terri Windling's blog Myth and Moor.  On Friday, December 5 she blogged about food blogs that have to do with books.  You have to scroll down to Dec 5's post.  She has put up photos of the most amazing foods recreated from novels, photos of dishes that several bloggers have been recreating  from various literary sources, or from poets and author's diaries and journals.  They are fascinating to look through.  I have listed all of the blogs she mentions under a new setting on my sidebar, Food and Book Blogs.  I will be going to peruse each one in depth.  Some have the most delightful stories and anecdotes about authors.  Glorious pictures about food.  I am so delighted to discover these blogs.  I love the idea of eating the food that characters did, or authors loved.  Especially older books.  Who can resist trying to recreate Jane Austen's Brown Butter Bread Pudding Tarts? 
 Or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell's Black Forest Raven Cake?

                                                

I also love Terri's blog because she talks about the creative process, what it's like to be an artist in today's world, the struggles to be creative.  She discusses nature, and fairy tales, and so many other interesting topics.  The post on Dec 4 is about the folklore of food.  In this post she talks about books that feature food, like Joanna Harris' Chocolat.  Her blog is interesting, creative, soul-nurturing.  And now I have all these lovely new-to-me food and book blogs to go visit!  This has been like a Christmas present for me, so this was my advent calendar opening for the day.

For your treat, I thought I would show a few photos of the cookbooks I currently have. Cath at Read-Warbler did a post last week on Show Your Bookstash,  from Carolyn at Riedel Fascination who come up with this idea.  Margaret at Books Please and Pat at Here, There and Everywhere blog did a post on Dec 7. So here are my cookbooks stash, on their bookshelf in the dining room:

The only cookbook not on the shelf is The Jane Austen Cookbook by Maggie Lane, which is on my classics shelf with the Jane Austen books.   If I feel like shaming myself in revealing just how double-booked my shelves are in my reading corner, I'll take some photos for you tomorrow.

I'm interested in the history of food, how we eat, how the way we cook and serve food has evolved over the centuries.  A book that I just realized you can't see on my shelves because it was hidden by some papers is Kate Colquhoun's Taste: The Story of Britain through its Cooking.  That's a book I've dipped into on occasion and loved.   The magazines on one of the shelves are all food magazines, which I love to look through and cut out recipes from. 

An idea I am forming is that I think in 2015, one of my goals is to start using my cookbooks more.  I like the idea of cooking my way through a book, like Julie Powell did with Julia Child in her book and the movie, Julie and Julia. 
      

I loved how she cooked her way right the way through the cookbook.  I might try something like cooking a recipe from every cookbook I own, or something along those lines.  I need to try expanding my cooking.  I love how cooking is a marriage of magic and alchemy in the kitchen. I love the comfort I get from making good food for my family, that tastes good and I know is nutritious and healthy.  I definitely want to explore taste and colour and spices more.  And maybe I'll check on those book and food blogs for some other creative ideas to do with cooking over the next year.  A literary feast sounds fun, doesn't it?

Of course I confess I haven't read Julie & Julia, I've only seen the movie.  And I haven't read Chocolat or Like Water For Chocolate yet, though I have seen those movies as well.  *hangs head in shame*

Here is something soul-comforting and immensely nurturing that I baked yesterday:
                                                   

The taste of homemade chocolate cookies is sublime.  Yum.

So what are some of your favourite books that feature food?  Have you discovered a favourite recipe/dish/food because of a novel? 

Thirteen Books I haven't read this year......

I just found this meme on Dorothy's site at www.booksandbikes.wordpress.com and I think it fits right in with all the challenges I've been preparing for next year - it's good to look back and see what I haven't managed to read - again - this year!
1. Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson. I guess because it comes in three volumes, and they split the second two volumes into two each, so that's five books to read this series!! has been a slight drawback as my time to read is not so large right now.....
2.Wicked - Gregory Maguire - I don't know why I haven't read this book yet!! Very annoying, so maybe I'll be so annoyed I'll pick it up and read it! Before January!
3.Mars Eclipsed - Karen Irving. 3rd in a Canadian mystery series set here in Ottawa. I actually like the series, i just haven't gotten around to this one. Maybe I can switch it onto my Canadian Book Challenge for next year....
4.1610 A Sundial in A Grave - Mary Gentle. I loved Ash, I loved Of Rats and Gargoyles, so I think it's because it's in trade paperback, which means I need a long weekend to read it....and it's too heavy to carry around with me......
5The Thief Lord - Cornelia Funke. I haven't read any of this author yet! And I really want to read Inkheart (which I haven't got yet)! Another annoying miss that may find itself being read next year....
6.London - The Biography - Peter Ackroyd. I've been meaning to read this since I gave to it my husband several years ago! We both love London and I am fascinated by it's history......so why not read? I don't think I'm saving it for anything special! I think I want more regular time to read, that's all, before tackling this one. And it might make me miss England too much to read now.
7.War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy. Forever, I've been meaning to read this book!!! And I still haven't done it!!! Why not? For years, I thought of it as a summer read for the beach, where I could read in uninterrupted bliss. But once summer holidays came (and I left home early, so that was my only holiday time of the year since I worked in retail then) I found I didn't want to read a 500 + page book. So, it languishes on my shelf. Maybe I'm afraid to read it because it is rated so highly, one of the best novels ever written? Nah. I want to read it for that reason! Ok, maybe year after next....
8. 1700 - Scenes from London Life, Maureen Waller. See above about London, it applies here too......and I love reading about daily life in earlier times, so this is one that I just haven't found time for.....so many books, so little time! If this hadn't already been taken for someone else's blog name, it was going to be mine!
9.Elizath - David Starkey. I've been meaning to read this book for 6 years now!!! I even went to see the author give a talk in Borders bookstore in York, England, in 2001, on this book, and it was interesting and enjoyable!!! but I am just not in the mood......maybe after I see the movie (which will probably be on DVD at the rate I am getting out to movies this year!)
10) A Gentlewoman in Uppper Canada, the Journals of Anne Langton. For innumerable years it has sat on my shelves, and I keep pulling it down, leafing through it, but i've never read it through. Again one that I put on and pulled off of my Canadian Book Challenge. And I am fascinated by Canadian Pioneer history. One of my favourite things to do as a tourist is to imagine what life was like back 'then', however far back in time it is. And Anne travelled to parts of Ontario in the 1860's when my family lived there at that time. So it's more again, picking and choosing books and this one didn't make it, but now that I'm writing about it I feel really guilty so maybe I can squeeze it into the Canadian Book Challenge too!
11). A Small Sound of the Trumpet - Margaret Lebarge. Very popular book on medieval woman and I enjoy medieval history, but this has sat languishing on my shelves for many years now. Maybe I prefer to experience history rather than read about it? Or maybe I have to be in the right mood for history, and young children in the house isn't conducive to quiet reading!
12) Life in a Medieval City - Joseph and Frances Gies. H-m-m, quite a few of my unread books are non-fiction, arent' they? I keep this for history reference too, for my writing. Guess I haven't needed to read it through yet, but I know I have referred to it.
13)The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell. I did try reading this a few years ago, but got bogged down with it. I still want to read it, hence it has remained on my shelves for years. This book is on my TBR list for next year, so I am intending to finally read the whole thing. It's like the White Goddess by Robert Graves, I can only read a little at a time even though i find it fascinating. I'm not sure why, I'll have to think on it.