Hand Mirror Cookies | Stealing Snow

          Tomorrow (9/20) is the release day for Danielle Paige's Stealing Snow, a young adult reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen (synopsis below)! I love Andersen's stories, and The Snow Queen is so beautiful in emotion and rich with setting and characters, so I'm very much looking forward to reading Stealing Snow.

          Danielle is visiting my favorite indie bookstore, One More Page Books in Alexandria, Va, this Thursday (9/22), and they asked me to help promote the event with a post here on Fiction-Food Café! And you know what that means–a recipe! Because I haven't read the book yet to discover what foods might be mentioned in the story, we decided to go for cookies inspired by the cover! I've been wanting to try my hand at "stained glass cookies", cookies with a hand candy window, and this was perfect. I hope you like them! And if you're in the VA, DC, MD area, stop by One More Page Books this Thursday (9/22) at 7PM to meet author Danielle Paige and get an autographed copy of Stealing Snow! Danielle is also the author of the YA series Dorothy Must Die, a reimagining of L. Frank Baum's OZ series.

Blackberry & Apple Cake | The Redwall Cookbook

          Happy #REDWALLAUGUST, everyone! Here is my contribution to the month-long celebration focusing on the lovely foods from and inspired by Brian Jacques' epic Redwall series. You can find the #RedwallAugust announcement post here and, more importantly, the feast link list here.

         The first Redwall book I ever read was the prequel Mossflower, after finding it all on its own in a tiny independent bookstore. I was in that bookstore because my awesome elementary school librarian took me there as a surprise after treating me to the lunch out I won for placing first in a short story contest (my story was about time travel, sadly, that's all I can remember). She let me pick out one book, I picked out Mossflower, and she bought it for me like a boss–nay, like a Madam–a literacy championing Madam. (Subsequently, it's the copy you can see in these photos).

          I loved stories with animals, perhaps because I grew up on a farm, perhaps because animals were more interesting and less tiresome than people, maybe because I felt safer associating with animals, making them more appealing and approachable, even in story. Whatever the reason, I devoured Mossflower, treating it as almost sacred for the duration of the read (which, proudly for my 9-year-old self, took only a few days) by being very careful to not drop it (which I guess was a problem of mine? if I had to make a rule about it and all...). It's a strange thing to remember; the way I held that book and took care of it (not that you could tell from its present condition, but my young self trying to protect and mend it with tape was a sign of reverence) and savored it. It was one of those books that I fell into and that stayed clinging to me after I clamored back out. I discovered there was a series and got what I could, being the start of the 90s though there certainly wasn't the collection of books that there is now.

#REDWALLAUGUST Recipe Link-Up!

** Come back next year for #RedwallAugust part two! **

For the month of August, share your Redwall food and drink creations using the hashtag #RedwallAugust!

#RedwallAugust is open to everyone; seasoned fandom foodies and novices alike! If you create a recipe post (this can be on a blog, tumblr, instagram–anywhere you can type up a recipe with a photo) share the link here on the #RedwallAugust Feast Link-Up!

Note: The recipe post must be of your own creation (meaning don't link-up to someone else's recipe), and if the food you made is from another source, like The Redwall Cookbook for example, make sure you give proper credit.
The #RedwallAugust tag is also open to share non-food related (GASP!) Redwall things like cosplay, figures, book collections, fond memories, etc., but this link-up is only for recipes.
You can find the original #RedwallAugust announcement post here.