I’ve been near-bursting for weeks to share this news with you. And now I can finally say that (*drum roll*) I’ve written the introduction to a literary-themed cookbook!
A Literary Tea Party: Blends and Treats for Alice, Bilbo, Dorothy, Jo, and Book Lovers Everywhere is written and compiled by Alison Walsh, the “chef” of the literary food blog Alison’s Wonderland Recipes. It will feature over 50 recipes of finger-food savories, breads and scones, desserts, and homemade beverages from tea blends to punches and hot cocoas – all of which can be served for afternoon tea or other festive gatherings. The best part is, all of the recipes are inspired by foods that appear in well-known novels such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and (of course) Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
I’ve been following Alison and her work at AWR for a couple years. We’ve also had many blog-comment conversations about food (why not?), books (turns out we have similar tastes in literature), and tea (again, why not?). So when Alison announced her cookbook deal several months ago, I wanted to throw armfuls of confetti to celebrate. She’s incredibly smart, enterprising, and enthusiastic, and I’m SO excited she has this amazing opportunity to reach a wider audience.
Then I received an email from Alison over the summer – and she asked if I would write the introduction for her cookbook. My first reaction was something like this:
Once I had recovered, I told Alison this:
A Literary Tea Party is currently scheduled for publication via Skyhorse in June 2018. If you’d like to learn more about the cookbook, check out the links below to some of Alison’s AWR posts. You can also add the book to your Goodreads shelf or pre-order it at Amazon U.S., Amazon U.K., Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound.
- “More Exciting News: I’m Writing a Cookbook!” (February 28, 2017)
- “Cookbook Update: A Post of Food Photos and Sample Covers” (July 25, 2017)
- “Cookbook Update: Manuscript Submission!” (October 18, 2017)
I’m also hoping to have Alison stop by for a guest post or interview before A Literary Tea Party comes out. So stay tuned! 😉
Congratulations from Ireland! We’re the third biggest tea drinkers per person, after Turkey and Morocco. The Turks drink 5 times as much as us, but we drink 12 times as much as the Americans!
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XD I’ve never heard of that statistic before! And thank you, John! I’m really excited to see the finished product.
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Lol! That’s pretty awesome. Congrats to both you and Alison!!
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Thanks, Zezee! 🙂
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Congratulations for your contribution to this cookbook!! It sounds fun, entertaining, and delicious.
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Thanks, Mandie! 🙂 And having tried a couple of Alison’s recipes in the past, I can confirm the deliciousness of her work. *lol*
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Huge congratulations – what a lovely idea, Sara! I cannot think of a better person to write the introduction to this type of recipe book:)).
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*blushes* Thank you, Sarah. I’m really excited to see the final product, too. 🙂
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Small wonder – it looks as though it’s going to be fantastic:)
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That’s awesome, Sara! I can’t wait to read a few sneak peeks of this cookbook.
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Thanks, E.! 🙂
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That’s so exciting that you got to write the introduction! I love Alison’s recipes. I’ve made over a dozen and many have become regular meals for me. ^ ^
storitorigrace.blogspot.com
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Thanks, Tori! 😀
I need to try more of her recipes, tbh. The only one I’ve made so far is her grilled tilapia with roasted tomatoes and garlic-basil cream sauce from Sabriel. And it was really, really good!
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I’ve made the Killer Bunny Bites, Shrubbery Salad, Deeper n’ Ever Pie, the devils horseback bacon wrapped dates, the Monty Python cheese balls, poppadums, the veggie curry, lamb and plum stew, the borrower’s potato soup, amity salad, abnegation pea fries, the Little Women sweet potato and apple turnovers, the gouda and apple dumplings, the basil pesto nutcracker christmas tree (which has now become christmas tradition at my house. I’m making it again this year) … That’s all I can think of right now, but like I said, A LOT. XD And none of the recipes have I disliked. All of them are delicious!
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Oh my gosh!! SARA!!! This is the most exciting news!!! Cannot wait for this cookbook to release! Congratulations. ❤
Does it still feel surreal?
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Thank you, Faith! 😀
Does it still feel surreal? Yes, and no. Now that I’ve written the introduction (the first draft of it, at least), it’s very much real. Or, on its way to becoming real. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. *lol* It probably won’t feel completely real until the cookbook is published, and I’m holding a copy in my hands and reading the words I wrote.
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Oh how exciting! This cookbook seems like such fun. And yay for you on writing the introduction. I would have flipped if someone had asked me to do that for their book. What an honor.
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
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Thanks, Lauren! And Alison’s website is a lot of fun, too. If you haven’t visited Wonderland Recipes yet, I highly recommend it. You never know what foods you’ll find there that you’ve read about before – and which ones you might want to make yourself at home. 😉
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Congratulations to you both! This sounds like a very yummy project. 🙂
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Funny, I was just over at your blog, commenting on your November month of writing post. 😉
And thank you! I can’t wait to see the final product next June!
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That sounds amazing (and I love that your first reaction was from Mulan). Congratulations to you both.
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LOL! Thank you, Lisa! And how appropriate is that gif, too, since Mulan is pouring tea? 😉
The cookbook will be out in June, btw. So stay tuned to this site and Alison’s for updates!
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