Month: August 2012

I have been inspired after being sent this yummy picture from bookmarkcorner (via the lovely Mrs Mack). I mean seriously, book AND cake, you can’t really go wrong! It got me to thinking about the links between books and food. Obviously there are cook books, of which I have many, but what I’m talking about is the recipes and good things that are deliciously described in the books that we read.

So I started looking around and I found this great blog www.diamondsfordessert.com which is quite simply inspired. I can’t bake at all, but my middle froglet can, so I am planning to steer her gently in this direction. You cannot deny that these cakes are a touch of genius.

     

Not only are the cake designs quite frankly amazing, but the blog itself is a great read, even if you can’t/won’t/don’t bake. After reading and watching the video clips, I actually feel like I could have a go and make a fair attempt at re-creating something half decent. If not, I’ll make big puppy-dog eyes at froglet number 2 and hope for the best.

And then I remembered a couple of great children’s recipe books that I have in my kitchen. The first one which sprang to mind was my very well loved Winnie the Pooh classic ‘The Pooh Cook Book’. My teaching partner and I used recipes from this book with our Year 1 class. After a week of lovingly reading Winnie the Pooh stories, we celebrated with a spot of elevenses in the form of shortbread and scones. Delicious!

The other absolute must in my humble opinion is Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Recipes‘. Again, this is a very well thumbed and slightly crumb-strewn edition in the Radford house. We have sampled ‘Lickable Wallpaper’, ‘Snozzcumbers’ and ‘Bird Pie’ to name but a few. All very tasty and hilarious to watch come to life before your eyes. I can’t think of anything better than creating a Dahl-esque feast for family and friends.

I think that there is something incredibly decadent and outrageous in terms of the links between food and my favourite children’s books. Here’s my top 5:

1.

     The Mad Hatter’s tea party from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ 

2. 

    Turkish delight from ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’

3. 

     The chocolate river from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’

4.    

     Winnie the Pooh and his love of honey

5. 

     The Halloween feast from ‘Harry Potter’

I must say I found it very difficult to narrow it down to 5! What your top 5 be and why?

This is the first book by author Katherine Rundell, and as such I did not really know what to expect. The blurb introduces us directly to Wilhelmina Silver, painting a picture of a rampageous, feisty protagonist. And she turns out to be just that!

I’ll be honest, there was one element of the book which irked me. I didn’t enjoy the way some Shona vocabulary was explained, as I felt it was quite patronising and unnecessary. On saying that however, the book wasn’t written for my demographic (rapidly approaching 40), so perhaps this wouldn’t irritate the target readership. Also, I felt that the characters were so powerfully depicted that there was no need to overtly clarify the meaning of their speech; the meaning was unmistakable due to incredible characterisation from Rundell. So you see, my only criticism has a silver lining!

Will’s journey is a roller coaster, both physically and emotionally. This stunning young girl is ripped away from all that she knows and is transplanted into an alien-like world. An adult would flounder and more than likely fail, but the stamina of Will is such that her floundering only makes her ability to survive stronger. She is a true heroine; courageous, proud and fiercely independent.

I am pleased to say that Katherine Rundell is currently writing a second novel. If this is the quality of her first, then I look forward to seeing what the second one will bring.

The second of our little jaunts in King George’s Playing Fields is done and dusted and what a jolly time we had. Last week was crazy busy, this week was completely bonkers!! We got through about 20 bags of recycling to create monsters/robots/rockets of all shapes and sizes. Thanks again to the wonderful creativity of Mrs Mack  and the brilliant children of Brentwood:

As well as a great deal of fun fur and pva glue, there were, of course, stories aplenty. And, just like last week, the children got involved in the storytelling, joining in with repetitive phrases and ‘looking after’ a whole array of props. Once again, apologies for the very odd faces I am pulling.

Thanks again to Brentwood Council for hosting (and funding) another great FREE event at King George’s Park. Here’s looking forward to our next event where we’ll be celebrating diversity in Brentwood by making paper plate faces which will then be displayed in the town centre.

It is very rare these days to find a genuine treasure; something which is priceless in the true sense of the word. But today, in a rather wet Upminster, I did just that.

In the middle of the High Street is a charity shop. Not just any old charity shop, it is packed full of books. Books about foreign lands, children’s books, dictionaries, fantasy, sci-fi…a huge range of previously loved books. There aren’t any super glossy signed first editions, but there are a ridiculous number of books none the less. That would have been enough for me – heaven! I found yet another Alice to add to the collection:

But it got better. These books have been rescued and donated to stop them being packed off to a land-fill site. The shop is run by a very dedicated team of wonderful volunteers, who have a real passion for books. Pretty good stuff heh? And – yes, there’s an and – the books are free! Well, almost. The deal is that you can take up to five books and give a donation of your choosing. Since May 2011 the good people of Upminster have donated £12,134 and saved a multitude of books from being scrapped. The charity who run this initiative is ‘Healthy Planet’; they are a charity committed to tackling Eco issues in a practical way.

I would urge you to check out their website and certainly pootle down to Upminster if you get the chance. You never know what you might discover!