Quirky Cookbooks

This is a Hobbit-themed cookbook by an author who actually did her research into Tolkien foodways. The recipes themselves aren't quite professional-level (this one, in particular, could have benefited from her being a bit more specific about sizes and measurements) and the organization in the book manages to be both cutesy and random -- this sweet bread was considered a Supper dish, but similar recipes found their way into Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, and Dinner chapters, as well. Still, I got it with Kindle credits, so for a practically free book, it was pretty decent and this bread was okay, too. The lavender flavor wasn't pronounced as I'd have liked, which left it tasting like a lemon poppyseed bread minus the poppy seeds. Those seeds don't add a lot of taste, though, and the lavender supplied a similar level, if slightly different type, of texture.

Not strictly a cookbook, but the "cookery" sections -- there were 3 in all -- did offer a full cookbook's worth of recipes. The Lemon Lightning was just lemonade, although made with a shortcut that has been revived and rebranded as a "hack" numerous times since this was published. For the record, I don't think tossing unpeeled lemons in the blender is much of an effort-saver over just squeezing the lemons, although I'm still on the fence about whether the skin does or does not make it a bit more bitter. Also, I cut down the sugar by 75 percent and still would up finding this a little too sweet by the bottom of the 2nd glass (it made 2). Still, not a disappointment since I bought the yearbook purely for nostalgia reasons and the fact that it even has recipes in it is a bonus even if I can't/won't ever use most of them (and I never actually did learn to sew well or knit at all).

This little gem of a cookbook was published in 1973. Most of the names and inside references I don't get or remember. but others I do. Wow, ancient history. And weird recipes. And way, way too many Jell-O salads involving coleslaw. The Hubert Humphrey-themed chicken was too sweet, but overall ok. And as far as Humphrey's connection to Watergate -- turns out he could have prevented it, and the entire Nixon presidency. LBJ gave him some kind of "smoking gun" info in 1968 that would probably have tanked Nixon's campaign and gotten him elected instead, but oh well, that didn't happen. Makes me like Humphrey even more. For one thing, he didn't want to use the info because he didn't want to be a jerk. For another, it kind of makes him the secular patron saint of making what turn out in retrospect to have been very poor decisions, which is something I specialize in myself (although usually for less altruistic reasons).

WrestleMania was 2 nights, so I thought I could do 2 in a row, too. Cooking the chili (which was amazing) was put on pause while I watched the show and aftershow, though, so I didn't get around to actually patching together and uploading the episode until after the show. I would totally eat the leftover chili (cold, because that's how I like it) while watching Monday Night RAW, only we don't get the stupid USA Network. $5 a month for the PPVs on Peacock is totally worth it and Friday Night Smackdown is on free (with antenna) TV, such a deal, but if Vince McMahon could see his way to severing ties with the USA Network (not available a la carte so you need to pay for some pricey streaming service or cable package) then I could see my way to hating him and his family a tiny bit less. (I'm sure he's tempted by that generous offer.)

The obligatory Wrestlemania episode, featuring a recipe named after a wrestler who is actually not scheduled to appear (although you never actually know who's going to show up). The bean dip turned out to be one of those things that kind of looks like crap, all grey and lumpy and kind of spackle-ish, but it tastes fantastic. I stuck pretty close to the recipe, just leaving out the garlic because I finally realized that I don't really like raw garlic in anything. Plus, I'm not an edgy-yet-vulnerable teenage girl, so there's no reason vampires would be interested in me, anyway.