Danielle's comments (member since Feb 04, 2009)

Danielle's comments from the Romance Readers Reading Challenges group.

Congrats!!! I love borrowing cookbooks too - just reserved Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey after drooling over it (well not literally) at Borders! Looks really interesting.

I've just been reading Firethorn, a fantasy novel set in a medieval-type society, with some interesting food. The main character has spent some time living rough in the woods and supplements her pretty awful peasant diet with plants and roots she finds in the wild.

Ok, an update - I enjoyed the start of it, it was unusual. Then it got pretty unpleasant, with some dodgy stuff around their treatment of a captive (female) creature. At this stage, I'm in two minds about finishing it and will probably grab my back-up Antarctica book.

If you still wanted to tackle this one, I'd be keen to hear your thoughts! But I understand if you've just been put off :)

Annvelwis, I see you're reading Cold Skin for this challenge, too! I've just started it and will be interested to know what you think. So far, so strange, but I'm enjoying it. No idea where it's headed, which is kinda fun.

Also, I've slogged through two over 500 page books recently and it's SOOOO nice to pick up something short!

I made the Aunt Dimity Calico Cookies! I'm still not sure I used the right kind of oatmeal - I tried a type of oats found in the porridge aisle of the supermarket - and I used dried cranberries, slivered almonds and mini M'n'Ms. They were great but maybe might be better with finer oatmeal?

Oh rats, sorry to get your hopes up :) we have that in our library, not much help to you, though!

I picked Morocco as my country and found Lulu in Marrakech. Again, not an author I've read before but it looked interesting!

Briansgirl, if you're interested in Harlequins set in Africa, I've found reference to one - Her Very Special Boss.

I have no idea what it will be like, but I'm reading Brasyl, which has the following description:

Think Bladerunner in the tropics... Be seduced, amazed, and shocked by one of the world's greatest and strangest nations. Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling.

I chose all my continental books by picking a country on the continent at random, and doing a search in our library catalogue for any books with that word along with 'fiction' in the subject headings. Then I just cruised the results till I found something that took my fancy!

If we're talking tea, I drink nothing but Dilmah if I can help it, I love their English Breakfast tea. Perfection in a cup.

Kasia, I too remember the pastries in Sunshine and know what you mean about Anita Blake and coffee - though it's confusing for me, as I hate coffee. Love the smell, hate the taste. I'm a tea-drinker all the way, but it's easy to come by good tea in NZ.

In the end I picked Cold Skin, which sounds quite eerie and is translated from Catalan. Looks interesting, anyway. If it's not my thing, my backup is Dark Winter, which looks like more of a straightforward crime-thriller.

I'm actually really looking forward to the snapshot of life in the Antarctic, I think it will be fascinating.

Ah, cool, I can re-post my question here!

I did a search in our library catalogue for novels with Antarctica in the subject heading, and while there were plenty, they all seemed to be thrillers where either something supernatural/alien was discovered, or someone went on a killing spree.

I was curious to know if anyone found any fiction set in Antarctica that was of a different genre - romance, for example? But really anything non-thriller.

Don't get me wrong, I like thrillers, I was just curious if the only stories that amazing place seems to invite are scary ones?

I mostly read fiction too but for some reason any scene where people have something nice-sounding to eat tends to stick in my mind. My first dish will be from a mystery novel where the soup got a one-line mention but I've never tried to make it before, and it's so cold here at the moment, that it appealed. When I thought of the challenge I hadn't realised that there were actually a lot of novels out there with recipes in them.

Cheers for everybody's links, they looks great! I wouldn't mind trying some historical recipes sometime, too.

Ok, I haven't read the books but I am definitely trying Carrie Vyne's Calico Cookies - toffee bits and cranberries, yum!

My first challenge meal is going to be Potato Soup, as read about in Iron Lake, a mystery novel by William Kent Krueger. The novel was set in snowy Minnesota and as we are well into winter here now, the thought of a tasty pot of soup is very warming.

I'm going to try two different recipes from two vegetarian cookbooks on my shelves; one with caraway seeds, dill and leeks (Vegetarian Epicure) and one with cream and fresh herbs (Meals Without Meat: Vegetarian Recipes).

Thanks, Briansgirl! Yes, excellent point about the copyright.
Tentatively, then, it might work like this. Each month, people could post:

- What they're going to make/cook

- What book(s) inspired this food

- If the recipe is available online, ie. as with the Aunt Dimity recipes, or if you are have used online recipe sites to source a recipe for a meal in a book that doesn't include a recipe, post the link to the recipe, or maybe link to a GR record for a cookbook you used

- Any feedback you want to share about progress, how delicious it was (or otherwise), maybe any changes you made to the recipe?

And maybe people could set their own limits as to how many they want to try?

Some might want to try a lot of different recipes, some might just want to try different versions of the same basic meal to get it tasting just right!

I love to cook, and I love trying new things. A lot of my favourite stories include lovingly detailed scenes with food, including recipes I've never made before.

I was wondering if anyone else would like to join me in creating some sort of challenge based on cooking something new each month, inspired by a dish or a meal found in a book you're reading? This could be anything from trying out a new soup recipe to trying to concoct something fantastical only previously found in the pages of a paranormal romance!

I don't have a lot of spare time and energy to cook, but I reckon I could easily tackle one or maybe two new things a month? It would be fun to share good recipes along the way, too.

Would anyone else be interested in that type of challenge, and could help me come up with some guidelines? I wouldn't want to make it too restrictive as you never know what kind of food is going to come up in your current TBR, so it's kind of a potluck meal :)

Oh! One more then I'll give it a rest. For the ultimate in screwed-up bad boy romance, try Season 1 of Veronica Mars. Great, slow-burning romance and great snappy dialogue.
That's all from me!

Yup, Doris Egan, also appears as Jane Emerson. She has some cool posts on her blog that detail what might have happened on Tru if it had continued, and she also has plenty of behind-the-scenes talk about House (particularly the scripting process):
http://tightropegirl.livejournal.com/
Plus, she's written some great sci fi novels, as Doris Egan, and if you enjoyed Dark Angel, she also wrote for that and Smallville.

I'll fourth Firefly (or pretty much anything by Joss Whedon) and suggest maybe checking out Alias, which is also by J J Abrams (the man behind Lost) - lots of spy fun with romance, cliffhanger endings, an excellent soundtrack and of course great dress-ups and wigs :)
Also, maybe, Tru Calling, a supernatural series about a woman who gets the chance to rewind time and save someone from dying each episode. It didn't last long, but one of my favourite House writers wrote some of the episodes and I thought it got stronger as season 1 went on and the plot thickened!
Oh, plus, how about Dead Like Me, about a girl who becomes a grim reaper? It's funnier and more heartwarming than it sounds, but also snarky and full of dark comedy.

M-Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
A-The Asking Price by Caroline Upcher
Y-The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
I've given up on The Asking Price, so will substitute Andrews, Ilona - Magic Burns

Finished! I really enjoyed the Ilona Andrews and am looking forward to getting my hands on Magic Strikes, eventually.

No 5 is Jared Padalecki, right? Just the irritating but cute self-righteousness I'd expect from Richard, yeah!

One of the reasons I love fantasy and paranormal is that not only is there often that level of detail, but some of it is really creative and fictional, interwoven with the realistic, gritty and everyday. It's lovely.