Its the same as veal marsala, only less expensive.

reading Nero Wolfe is an instant 5 pounds.
and I always have to rustle up a batch of scones when the characters have tea.

Many many years ago I bought the Nero Wolfe cookbook - but the recipes were too complicated for my rather impatient personality and the results not sufficiently interesting. Scrambled egg made very slowly over boiling water (the way you melt chocolate etc) may well be very refined, but it's also very bland.

I made some brownies from one of the Diane Mott Davidson early mysteries featuring Goldie Baer the caterer, and they were pretty bland. I haven't tried any more recipes from her books, although they are always given.

I picked up a bag of Pine Nuts at Trader Joe's and went home and make the Torta Della Nonna Frances Mayes wrote about in Under The Tuscan Sun. I fell in love with the description of motorist stopping mysteriously outside her home and jumping out and picking up she knew not what. Only to discover that they were unshelled nuts. Then, making the custard and baking the torta. We made it with the book lying open on the counter. We loved it.
Also, her description of her husbands favorite, caramelizing white peaces or pears in butter and then dolloping them with mascarpone and honey. Yum! I love her books and all the recipes included. We have roasted vegetables and made main meals from them. They never grow old.
Kim

I've always wanted to try a picnic as wonderful as the one described in Wind in The Willows!

And food and drink in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was always such an important part of the whole tale! (always leads to tea and goodies around this house!)

And let's not forget the scence as Scrooge sees The Ghost of Christmas Present! (and the joy of the Christmas Pudding at the Cratchitts! "singing in the copper")

And the many treats described in books by British writers like E. Nesbit and Edith Blyton's many books for children ..... ginger beer!

And how about the Turkish Delight in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe!

Just to name a few ......

I do crave goat cheese, asparagus and wine everytime I read a Peter Mayle book.

I have the Little House Cookbook which gives recipes and instructions for all the various dishes throughout the series and it's interesting reading although the foods nothing special.

A book I cannot remember the title but it is about a woman who decides to become a baker intriguied me for a while. The story weaves the art of making artisanal sourdough bread
as the woman learns about life, love and baking so I tried to apply all her bread making tips to my own sour dough but I veered to much from her loose recipe and failed.

I attempted curry for the first time while reading lots of books on the Raj. After much experimenting with various recipes I had to promise to make curry sauce only in mild weather when doors could be open. LOL The scent of curry spices does have a tendency to linger.

And I need hot tea and cucumber sandwiches while reading English authors. Not fond of fried fish but a bacon sandwich is delicious! Or a big hunk of cheddar with pickles.

Fun thread. josh

Reading about food is dangerous for the waistline. If the food that is temptingly described is not available to me, I'm likely to just eat something else!

While reading the Lovejoy books, I tried making Cornish pasties. I don't what I did wrong, but they turned out terrible.

Not a book, but the episode of Fawlty Towers in which the guest demands a Waldorf salad, "Apples, grapes, celery, and walnuts in a mayonaisse sauce" made me want to make some which I did several times. Once, I even made my own mayonaisse with walnut oil and apple-cider vinegar, but I mistakenly used stale oil, and it didn't taste too good.

I recall reading a recipe for Coq au Vin in red wine, in a novel by Gail Godwin. I simply had to make this, and did. I suspect the vicarious pleasures of tasting is mostly behind my enjoyment of the M.F. K. Fisher works, also.

cjoseph, I think it was former poster Kate who told us about the proper way to make Cornish pasties, and it involved a special kind of bread flour so that they stayed in their wrappers. I haven't tried to make them, but I do enjoy eating them in England.

A literary meal I often wondered about when I was a child was the red pottage that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for. I thought then it must have been something spectacular and irresistible, but now I know that it was not the soup that was so delicious, but Esau just thought he was dying of hunger. None the less, I would like to know what it tastes like.

Leel, what makes you think I have tasted veal marsala, or indeed anything marsala?

Netla, I was taught in Sunday School that Jacob's pottage was lentil soup. Now, I like bean soup and cornbread; but, really!

I own and have read many books about food or that feature food prominently. I agree on the waist-line comment! I am forever marking pages in one way or another but have yet to try many of the delightful recipes, most of which require lots of ingredients I fail to have "on hand". Whipping up some of the menu items I've read about has become a bit of a fantasy with me as is having a well-stocked kitchen tool and ingredient wise. I've never been much of a cook to date. Ruth Reichel's books come to mind-all three are enjoyable reads.

This is not so much a 'had to try' but 'had to buy' - reading Uwe Timm's The Invention of the Curried Sausage made me long for German fast food vans every time. The curried sausage is a culinary delight unique to the North (a fact I learned from that delicious novel).

On the other hand, Kathy Reich's constant detailed descriptions of her forensic anthropologist's takeaway meals is a real turnoff.

Recipes For Easy Living by Curtiss Ann Matlock has several recipes in it, two that interested me quite a bit, so I tried them.

the Raisin pie is ok, it's a good recipe but you'd better have a LOT of people to eat it, as one person can only stand so many raisins at a time lol.

The cornbread was beyond horrid. When you pour two cups of boiling water over cornmeal you get gruel. Baking it doesn't help. Luckily, the donkey's liked it just fine.

BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed that book, the third of a trio she wrote about the same bunch of people in Valentine, Oklahoma--an hour from Lawton. Which is darned near home territory for me, near enough to be neighborly at least. First on is "cold tea on a hot day', can't remember the second title & my neighbor has the set right now.

I always meant to try some of the recipes from the Covington books, but never got around to it.
j

As I child, I was always enchanted with the French fairy tale Stone Soup.
My copy was by Marcia Brown, the one with the sepia-like illustrations. We kids all knew the story and often fashioned our own version when playing outdoors. (which BTW was most of the time, summer and winter) ;-)

I definitely agree that Nero Wolfe books are bad for recipes (or, at the very least, snacking!). I did try his scrambled eggs as he described it in one of his books. Not bad, actually. I never tried the scrambled eggs in his cookbook. Heck, I didn't even KNOW there was a cookbook!

As for the Christmas meal in A Christmas Carol, I remember going to an authentic Victoria Christmas meal when I was in Fredericton in New Brunswick almost 10 years ago. The dinner was quite good -- the meal was so darned authentic that the house we were in was heated by cast iron stoves, insulation was minimal, lighting was provided by candles and some oil lamps, we had to trudge through a snow path with a guide holding an oil lantern, and, to top it all off, everyone (except the guests) was in period costume.

I didn't check to see if they had indoor plumbing. I didn't want to know. ;-)

I forgot to add a link to the Victorian Christmas meal. They're still holding it in Fredericton (well, close to it anyway) every November/December.

You can see the menu by clicking on the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas dinner

I've just finished reading one of Cecile Lamalle's foodie mysteries, and while it has not made me want to try one particular dish (although it may have put me off seafood for a while), it has awakened a longing in me for classic French food like the chef in the story serves at his restaurant.

I was tempted to try making chef Franck's soup in Anna Gavalda's Ensemble, c´est tout (Hunting and Gathering in the US) but I don't think I have the patience any longer. I have cooked an 8-hour bouillon a couple of times in my life but I think I shall wait until retirement before trying it again.