Top Ten Tuesday: Books Involving Food

This TTT topic is about books involving food (but not cookbooks). Have you ever read a book that inspired you to try a recipe? Here are some books I've read that involved food, even some that inspired me to put on an apron. 

1. Melville : Moby Dick : clam chowder

I had to make clam chowder after reading the chapter "Chowder" in Moby Dick. Yummy!

2. Stowe : Uncle Tom's Cabin : pound cake

I wish I had taken a picture of this delicious pound cake I made for our book club discussion of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is a shame I did not save the recipe either. In chapter four, Aunt Chloe made a little pound cake for Tom one evening. So it seemed like the right thing to do, too. 

3. Ingalls Wilder : Little House on the Prairie : 

heart-shaped cakes

These were my favorites. Ma made little heart-shaped cakes to put into the girls' stockings at Christmas.  I made these for our Little House Christmas Party.

4. Ingalls Wilder : The Long Winter : pumpkin pie

Actually, Ma made a green pumpkin pie for Pa because they had to salvage the pumpkins before the winter, and Ma was always creative and resourceful. And of course, Pa loved it. We used the recipe from the Little House Cookbook and made our own pumpkin pie. 

5. Ingalls Wilder : Farmer Boy : taffy

Speaking of the WILDer family, Almanzo and his siblings were left home alone for a week while their parents went out of town. The kids ate all the sugar, but not before making taffy. Then Almanzo gave some to his pig, which was hysterical. Therefore, my kids and I arduously made taffy using The Little House Cookbook recipe. 

6. Ingalls Wilder: On the Banks of Plum Creek : 

vanity cakes

Ma made vanity cakes for Laura and Mary and their friends from school. Ma said they were called vanity cakes because they were puffed up and hollow inside, just like a vain person. My kids and I made these, too, and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. 

7. Barrows/Schaffer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

If I remember correctly, this book-club/potluck met in secret during WWII. They had to hide the roasted pig, too. They made potato peel pie, a wartime inspiration, obviously. I felt like some of the descriptions were not very appetizing; however, when food is scarce, you are grateful for anything. That was why it was a feast. 

8. Dickens: A Christmas Carol

The foods served at Christmas brought out some of the joys of the season, even for the Cratchits, who lived in poverty. Stuffed goose, potatoes and gravy, fruit, soup, and even fish. And don't forget that huge turkey that Scrooge sent over to the Cratchit's on Christmas Day!

How in the Dickins can I lose weight?

9. Hemingway: A Moveable Feast

This is NOT a book about food. But it definitely could be. 

10. Alcott: Little Women

Of all the books that mention food, I think Little Women is the closest to a whole foods diet. Fruits, veggies, meats, and fish. Nothing fancy, but everything that is good for you.