I love running a cookbook blog – I’m always getting inspired, trying new recipes, and discovering new cooks and cookbooks I hadn’t heard of before. Today’s find is “The Little Library” cookbooks by Kate Young, whose blog is The Little Library Cafe. She creates recipes themed around her favorite books and works of fiction. You can read through some of her past recipes and articles at The Guardian’s The Little Library Cafe section.
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Kate Young’s first cookbook is The Little Library Cookbook, which came out in 2018. It’s garnered so many glowing reviews for her personality, storytelling and emotions her book stirs in readers.
Inside, you’ll find recipes for porridge inspired by The Secret Garden; baked beans from Little House in the Big Woods; crab and avocado salad from The Bell Jar; crumpets inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca; an Anne of Green Gables inspired vanilla layer cake; Queen Ann’s Pudding based on James Joyce’s Ulysses; and a fine curry for dinner inspired by William Makepeace Thackeray. Truly a treasure trove of recipes!
The Little Library Cookbook is sorted into chapters based on Before Noon, Around Noon, After Noon (Tea), The Dinner Table, Midnight Feasts, Parties and Celebrations; and Christmas. Oh, shut up and take my money already! Love this!
You can watch Kate’s video where she cooks up recipes inspired by Winnie the Pooh, Northern Lights and Anna Karenina over on YouTube:
I love living seasonally (eating foods that are in season, decorating your house differently for a particular season, changing your activities depending on what season it is, etc) so I am enamored with Kate Young’s second book, The Little Library Year. This book came out in October 2020, just in time for the reading season (think cozy pajamas, fuzzy socks and reading by the fireplace with a steaming mug of tea while it rains outside).
The book offers “Recipes and reading to suit each season.” It’s meant as a literary and culinary almanac. Kate Young feels like every book has a certain time of the year it’s most appropriate to re-read it – for example re-reading Harry Potter (with its train trip to school) in September and she reads Dickens at Christmastime.
Chapters are designated as “The long winter nights,” followed by “The first signs of spring,” then “Spring in abundance,” “The height of summer,” “When the leaves start to turn” and finally “As the days grow short.”
I just placed an order from my local library for this book, but I suspect I can’t wait for it to get here and I’ll give in and buy myself a copy straightaway!
Kate Young’s next cookbook comes out in November 2021, just in time for the holiday season: The Little Library Christmas. Inside, we’ll find fifty festive recipes for your Christmas feast, plus recipes for edible gifts, holiday cocktail party recipes, and ideas for what to do with leftovers. Plus of course, this book includes recommendations for festive reads, holiday books and literary reading recommendations.
Happy cooking and reading,
-Carrie
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