Domino Day

Here is how one thing leads to another. We start with a sky the gray of a hobo's underwear and a mild wind that whistles around the windows and eaves like a cheerful asthmatic. Enough to get me to contemplating a fresh loaf of bread, with the comforting aroma and psychological warmth to ward off the wind's woo-woos. In spite of all my captive bread recipes, I can't resist mounting the Google pony and riding it along the Information Highways and Byways in search of new specimens for my collection. It works like one of those complicated domino arrangements, with each piece knocking over the next. Click, click, click ...

I do remember checking out some recipes for Monks Bread before finding myself suddenly and surprisingly led to John Baker's blog and finding -- what's this? -- a recipe for Cottage Bread! (And it does look mighty tempting, thank you, John.) But here's where John placed another domino by puzzling over what might have been Virginia Woolf's version of this unique loaf. That speculation was enough to set me on the hunt myself.

Next thing I knew, I was exploring what turns out to be a more well-traveled road than I had previously imagined -- the mating of famous folk, in general, and famous authors, in particular, and their favorite foods (or beverages). One of the first treasures I found was this article by Tom Nugent, wherein he does wonderful pastiches of four writers and presents recipes they might have left us, had they been so inclined.

That was just the beginning. One domino after another hove into view and toppled the next, and the next, and the next one after that. I must now concentrate on winning lottery money so I can afford to buy these delicious books. For instance, Diane E. Holloway edited a gem with the unwieldy title of: Authors' Famous Recipes and Reflections on Food. She gathered over 200 recipes from well-known authors, along with quotes and factoids. Rex Stout, Charles Dickens, Hemingway. Dumas shows up with, believe it or not, potato salad while Vincent Price offers Chicken in Champagne Sauce. I have one eyebrow raised at Sir Walter Scott's Cauliflower and Whiskey recipe and the other at Alice B. Toklas' Brownies and Gazpacho.

Then we have Mark Crick, called a "literary ventriloquist," who wrote and illustrated another pastiche called Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes. He does the same sort of thing Tom Nugent did in the above-mentioned article -- and I really, really want a copy, dammit.

The fun doesn't end there. Oh no. Poisoned Pen Press got me with a double-whammy: two cookbooks, each with 150 recipes donated by mystery writers and edited by Jo Grossman and Robert Weibezahl. The first is A Taste of Murder and the second, logically enough, is A Second Helping of Murder. Included, I'm promised, is Kinsey Milhone's infamous peanut butter and pickle sandwich.

So here I sit, at the shank-end of the day. Haven't got any bread made. Or anything else. But dayum! It's been a fun ride! Now, if you'll excuse me -- I'm going to make a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Really.