Dinner Train: The Raven Boy

The Raven Boys meets The Raven Boy

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I lived in a castle atop a hill with several other beautiful princesses, a fire-breathing dragon, and our loyal manservant, Maurice.  That’s only sort of true: it was sixish years ago, we lived on a cliff in the top two floors of a run-down Victorian house, the fire-breathing dragon was an oven that shot fireballs out when you turned it on, and our manservant was neither loyal nor male, but rather a birthday cake stealing, pregnant racoon named Maurice.  

The one truth?  There were in fact beautiful princesses (and more as the years went on), and we had a magical fresh out of college experience, navigating the perils of the new adult world (running out of French Onion Dip, Brazilian DJs showing up to your housewarming parties, a bathroom without a door, and a landlord who once tried to fix a broken door using only a snow shovel) way more classily (sometimes), and well fed than the girls seem to do on Girls.  More importantly, a group love of YA/fun literature swept through the ranks in the house - we did group reads for things like Breaking Dawn, hazed new roommates with gifts of Outlander, made mixes for books...you get the idea. This appropriately titled blog started right back about then!

Pretty pretty princesses.

It seemed only fitting that in a year when three members of the first generation of the house would be turning 30, and another is having her first baby, that said first generation (and moi, generation 1.5) should muster and eat way too much cheese, drink some wine, and reflect upon these momentous life events.  Naturally, we decided to have a faux book club in anticipation of this event, and even more naturally, choose a YA book about a group of magical friends: The Raven Boys.  JUST LIKE US.  I reviewed it last year, but was really glad to reread it and discuss with like-minded BFFs, especially in light of the sequel (one of...several? I’m unclear what “cycle” means, publishing world.), The Dream Thieves, dropping in just about a month.  Maybe I have a copy.  Maybe you should stay tuned for that review...

A pizza feast fit for Welsh kings,
Raven Boys, psychics?

We’re a little older and theoretically wiser now (which is just a polite way to say that we don’t bounce back like 22-year-olds anymore; our drinks better be worth it!).  We’ve certainly become way better and more confident chefs, even when faced with the daunting challenge of making pizza (in honor of Blue’s job as a pizza parlour waitress, and meeting the Monmouth boys for the first time at work) in a 1970s kitchen lacking any baking sheets.  Over several rounds of Marry Shag Cliff (Does anyone keep Noah?  Poor guy.) and group casting as characters in the book (apparently I’m Maura? Whattt? Disagree?), a feast fit for Glendower was prepared.  I whipped up a little something I’m calling the Raven Boy to toast both our reunion, and the Raven Boys with.  It’s got a little bit of everything from the book in there: mint for Gansey, Bourbon for the Southern Henrietta accents (also alcohol, for Ronan), black-blue for both Blue and the Raven boys, and is served ice cold.  Like Noah! 

Making magic happen in old kitchens since 2005.

This is our kind of tea reading.

Recipe below - but do note that you can use the syrup with more seltzer to make a non-alcoholic version of this, any teens who may stumble across this recipe.  

The Raven Boy

(Blackberry Lime Julep)

The Raven Boy, inspired by Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys

Tidbits: Gitmo' Shady

• If you follow this blog on the casual, you well know my fervent dreamwish of one day partaking in a live-action version of Oregon Trail (seriously, reality tv - make it happen).  Thank you, Mental Floss, for providing this history lesson on the history lesson game. 
• Shame on you, reader.  You forgot Harry Potter's Larry Bird birthday (he turned 33 yesterday)!  Don't worry.  I did too.  Here are some cakes to celebrate, and here is Ron Weasley's message to his bff.

• Recipe for a Downton Abbey Party (or like 50 - so more of a guide!): I'm in if there's costumes involved.

• Some clever fiend who knows YA Lit and wants to make you nonreading, judging adults read made a Buzzfeed.  Well played, sir or madam.  (This is like the YA Librarians guide to some of the best recommendations in YA today.)

• Jane Austen's got mad scrilla, y'all.  Incidentally, some truly horrible Internet trolls cant handle it, and have nothing better to do than hide behind an IP address and threaten the woman who made it happen.  Grow a pair, dipsh*ts.   

• In other things British that you probably already know about, someone named JK Rowling published a book under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.  And then someone spilled the beans.  Luckily, the New York Times saw this as an opportunity to make other authors come up with some pretty fantastic pseudonyms.  Especially you, Carl Hiaasen

• Jellicoe Road movie news (I'd totally partake in a Kickstarter, for the first and only time, for this to happen.  Just sayin'...)

• Are you even more behind the time than moi?  Well, get with it campers: the Catching Fire trailer is out, and it's pretty solid (spoiler alert: Peeta gets a hair upgrade, Finnick sans shirt, Stanley Tucci will probably haunt your dreams, you get the idea).  The Forever YA girls break it down here. 

• Shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior.  Fifty Shades is the most popular book at Gitmo?  Get out, Reuters!

Swamplandia! inspired Red Seth Bites with Swamp-Ass Dip

Swamplandia! inspired snacks:
Red Seth Bites and Swamp Ass Dip

I don't think it is a stretch to say that Swamplandia! is probably the best all-around thing I will read in 2013.  I mean...can you fault me?  Gorgeous language, stunning writing, storytelling that distracts from the elevated writing, swamps, likeable kids facing realistic challenges they don't understand, coming of age...yeah, Karen Russell got me hook, line, sinker.  Yes, I've spent some time in South Florida, been to the Everglades, and I've seen gator wrestling live (let's just be clear: I have no desire to partake, but gator does sure taste good!); this book made those memories come alive again like I was experiencing them for the first time.

PopTart, werk that grill!

I was inspired to cook, naturally.  Also naturally, I thought about what we feed gators in captivity: chicken.  YUM.  There was also the visual inspiration July 2013 cover of Bon Appetit, which just kind of looked at me as I ripped through Swamplandia!, tempting me to take a bite.  The resulting skewers, which I'm calling Red Seth Bites, were good enough that my mother requested that I make them again, a week later, for my father's birthday.   By lucky coincidence, the marinade was initially way spicier than I had intended for my sissy family (it wound up not being too spicy at all when cooked, so up the pepper and hot sauce if you like a slow burn), so I whipped up a yogurt based dip to cool things down.  What resulted was so good I may or may not have taken to eating it with a spoon...and then used it again with my leftovers the next day.  I used about a pound of chicken with my marinade, but I suspect you could use any protein you'd like.  Please, please: someone use gator and tell me all about it.

Reth Seth Snacks, other delicious things on the grill.

Recipes:

Swamplandia, by Karen Russell: Even alligator wrestlers grow up

Swamplandia!
Karen Russell
Vintage Books: New York, 2011
ISBN: 9780307276681

The indomitable Bigtree family has owned and operated Swamplandia!, an alligator wrestling amusement park in the Everglades for decades.  But changes come, as they must, when Hillola Bigtree, matriarch of the current tribe, dies suddenly of cancer, leaving her husband the Chief and their three teenage children, Kiwi, Osceola and Ava to continue running the fading park.  Kiwi, self-proclaimed genius, runs away to the mainland to work for the rival amusement park, ostensibly in the hopes of paying down the mounting debts of Swamplandia!, while Ossie becomes obsessed with the spirit world, convinced she can commune with her ghostly boyfriends.  Chief Bigtree heads to the mainland for an extended business trip leaving Ava and Ossie to run things in his absence.  Meanwhile, Ava, the baby of the family, struggles to accept her mothers death and to understand Ossie.  When Ossie runs away to elope with the ghostly Dredgeman, Ava sets out on a journey to save her that will challenge them all.  Part coming of age tale and part quest, to say this work sparkles with gorgeous descriptive language and crushes you with the sadness of a childhood ending is a vast understatement of Russell's considerable talent as an author.  A Pulitzer Prize finalist, the work is strongly recommended for older high school aged teens and adults for content, complexity in language, and some adult themes.

Tidbits (of cheese and other literary goodness)

I'm sorry, two loyal readers, one of whom I'm pretty sure is a spambot! I've been super busy - ALA, work, other job, other things...but in good news, I do have some recipes and reviews forthcoming...errrr...as soon as I get the chance to write them.  I have, however, been hoarding up way, way, old news and things.  You've probably already seen them, but I don't care!  Enjoy them or not; as Captain Planet would say, the power is yours!

Food

• Behold, the greatest post I have ever seen: author and cheese pairings.  I mean...does it get any more fantastic than that?  But I have to ask, why no cheddar cheese pic for Ernest?  
• Do you want to make a chocolate loving librarian very happy?  Give them a library of exotic chocolate bars.
• Enjoy this map of the United States of Burgers, just because it is summer, and you are thinking about BBQs, right? 

Art

•  This artists description says it all ("art inspired by and made from books"), but her method of delivery - finger prints - is really cool!  
• Just because I loved it so much when I came upon it, I'm going to share the best, loveliest watercolor prints that would be great in a kitchen.  Speaking of making a librarian very happy, I happen to know a librarian who loves the olive oil print...

Movies

• Stills from The Maze Runner!  I'm not even in a tither about how much the actors are not 13.  It looks great! 
• However, the kid who just got cast as Jonas in the Jeff Bridges adaptation of The Giver?  He does not look like a preteen.  Just sayin'...
• There's a run on Jane Austen on the interwebs this week!  First, check out the trailer for Austenland, which I'm really, really looking forward to, because OBVI.  Then, check out this gigantic waterlogged statue of Colin Firth's Darcy.  Wouldn't you love to know what he thinks? And more importantly, what happens when birds poo on that super white shirt?

Books

• This is olllld news at this point.  John Corey Whaley - he of the dipples who shared his woodpecker tattoo with us - is coming out with a new book! YAY! The cover art was released, and now haunts my dreams.  #creepydolls
• Best. Manicures. Ever. 
• Are you a demigod?  Do you want to be one?  Good thing we had this talk.  There's a Camp Half-Blood you can attend! Percy Jackson camp, y'all!  Is there one for grownups?  I want to go! (I think I may have posted about this a million years ago, but if I've forgotten, so have you!) 
• There was an EW issue about Divergent!  There were lots of pictures for your eyeballs to feast upon, and the trailer is being released at Comic-Con.  But I've posted the most important information below:

PAMUKED!