Season's Readings & Festive Eating: Book & Recipe Pairings

As we near the end of December, the staff at the Birmingham Public Library share one last assortment of book recommendations and holiday recipes.

What better way to spend the final days of 2022 than by cooking, eating, and reading?

Mary Anne Ellis shares a recipe for a batch of savory cheese straws, and Theodore Rowe recommends several books, like J. R. Ackerley's memoir of his overly dutiful relationship with his German Shepherd in My Dog Tulip. Enjoy a stack of ginger molasses cookies—one of Campbell Davis' favorites—while submersing yourself in Jean Rhys' depiction of early 20th-century Paris. 

You'll probably need something richer (like an opulent fudge cake reportedly from Ensley High School's recipe!) to delve into Gerald Murnane's Inland. Murnane's work is complex and emotionally powerful.

Last but not least, Cheyenne Trujillo suggests checking out Hoa, a video game she compares to "a visual novel accompanied by relaxing music and hand-painted art." If you've found time to prepare all three recipes, pile the goodies up on a platter and host a video game party with family and friends. 

Even though this is the last blog in the BPL's Season's Readings & Festive Eating series, we encourage patrons to continue sharing reviews of books, music, films, and video games, as well as favorite recipes, with us. We look forward to publishing them on the BPL website in 2023!

Please consider contributing to the BPL this December. Your gift allows us to provide the community with informative programs, enlightening activities, and books that empower. 

We wish our patrons a very happy New Year!

MY DOG TULIP
J. R. Ackerley 

An elegant and hilarious account of Ackerley's love for his impossibly neurotic German Shepherd and all of the hard, often improbable, allowances made for Tulip in a very crowded mid-century London. Ackerley does not shy away from the animalistic needs of Tulip (which might be a turnoff to some readers), producing an honest portrait of a human and pet relationship.

My Dog Tulip is also available on DVD. 

Theodore Rowe

Central Library—Catalog Department

CHESSE STRAWS
Mary Anne Ellis, Central Library—Southern History Department

These were a fixture at my great-aunt's open house, always held on Christmas night. It was a great time to see members of the family we might not see at any other time of the year. If you need a break from all the sweet holiday treats, this is the perfect change of pace—spicy, cheesy, crisp, and savory.

Ingredients

½ lb butter 3 C flour 1 lb grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 tsp salt 1 (scant) tsp cayenne power (more if you like more heat)

Directions

Cream butter with mixer and add grated cheese until it is all blended smoothly. Sift together flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter and cheese, just until combined. 

Using either a pastry bag with a large tip or a cookie press with a star tip, pipe cheese straws onto cookie sheet. You can either pipe them in about 2-inch segments or pipe long strips and cut them to about 2-inch sizes. You can put baking parchment on the cookie sheets or use a bit of cooking spray. 

Bake at 350 degrees for around 10–12 minutes or until lightly browned. Keep an eye on these as they can burn easily. Cool on wire racks and enjoy!

GOOD MORNING MIDNIGHT
Jean Rhys

A story of woman memorializing the lives she lived in the shadow of destruction and pleasure. A work of fiction that reads as autobiography that goes back to fiction. Early 20th–century Paris, through Rhys' eyes, looks like endless temptations of drink, relations, and scrappiness. Deserving of its status as a masterpiece of Modernist literature. 

Theodore Rowe

Central Library—Catalog Department

GINGER MOLASSES COOKIES
Campbell Davis, Avondale Regional Branch Library 

A few years back, I quite literally woke up with a love of gingerbread and had to find the perfect recipe. Naturally, I switched between cookbooks and Pinterest until I stumbled across this recipe. It is from iheartnaptime.net, and I have made them every year since my discovery. I love rolling them in sugar because it gives them a lovely crinkle, and the spice combination is warm and delightful. 

Ingredients

¾ C unsalted butter, softened 1 C light brown sugar, packed 1 large egg ¼ C molasses 2¼ C all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger ½ tsp ground cloves ¼ tsp fine sea salt ¼ C granulated sugar (for rolling the cookies)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Cream for one minute or until fluffy. Add in the egg and beat until smooth. Next add in the molasses and mix until combined. 

Place the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt into a sifter (if you don't have a sifter, whisk in a bowl) and then add to the butter mixture. Mix with a spoon, just until combined. Be careful not to over mix. Refrigerate dough 10–15 minutes. 

Using a medium cookie scoop (or about 1½ Tbsp), roll the cookie dough into a ball. Place the granulated sugar into a shallow bowl and then roll the dough into the sugar. Place on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Lightly flatten the tops with the palm of your hand. 

Bake 8–10 minutes and let cool on the pan 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. If your cookies aren't cracking as much as you'd like, band the pan on the stove right after they come out of the oven to crack the cookies. They will settle as they cool.

Once the cookies have cooled, dip cookies in melted white chocolate, halfway if desired, and place on wax paper or parchment paper. Allow to harden. Makes 24 cookies. 

Click here for full recipe notes and reviews. 

INLAND
Gerald Murnane

Though impossible to summarize in a line or two (or in ten or twenty pages), Murnane's novel might be said to be a love letter from a writer to his editor living across the world. However, whether or not the editor is a person dreamed up by the narrator, whether or not she lives in the Institute of Prairie Studies (which may or may not be real), and whether or not all of the ruminations in the text unfold as a response to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights can only be answered by the individual reader meeting Murnane through his remarkable page-by-page extrapolations. A novel of imprints that will trace every work of fiction a reader comes to thereafter.

Theodore Rowe

Central Library—Catalog Department

FUDGE CAKE
Mary Anne Ellis, Central Library—Southern History Department

This cake always appeared at Christmas and family reunions. Family lore has it that it was based on the fudge cake served in the cafeteria at Ensley High School. How about it, Ensley grads? Do any of you remember the fudge cake?

Ingredients

4 eggs, slightly beaten 2 C sugar 1 tsp salt 2 tsp vanilla

1 C + 2 Tbsp melted shortening or oil 1⅓ C cocoa 1½ C plain flour  1 C chopped pecans

Directions

Blend together first four ingredients. Add shortening or oil. Gradually add cocoa sifted with flour. Mix by hand until well blended. Add pecans to mixture. 

Grease and flour a 9"x13" pan (will also work with slightly larger sheet cake pan). Place mixture in pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25–30 minutes. Top will look shiny when done. Ice while hot and let cool before cutting.

Icing Ingredients

3 Tbsp cocoa 6–8 Tbsp cold water Pinch of salt

1 box confectioner's sugar 1½–2 Tbsp butter

Icing Directions

Mix together and heat to a boil. Add butter and stir until melted.

HOA
Skrollcat Studio 

I discovered this video game while writing a blog for AAPI Heritage Month and checked it out from the BPL shortly after. Vietnamese for the word flower, Hoa is like a visual novel accompanied by relaxing music and hand-painted art as you travel through the forest as a tiny fairy person solving puzzles.

This is a visually striking video game that will remind you of Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. Enjoyable and family-friendly, Hoa has some surprising elements that will still challenge more seasoned gamers. The BPL has copies available for checkout to play on the Nintendo Switch.

Cheyenne Trujillo

Central Library—PR Department 

You can find more recommendations and recipes in Season's Readings Week One, Week Two, and Week Three, and Festive Eating Week One, Week Two, and Week Three blogs.

By Margaret Splane | Library Assistant Ⅲ, Development Office