Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownie

Sometimes when you need a bit of comfort, sharing a dessert with a good friend, while you’re both tucked away in a bakery’s corner booth surrounded by the smell of baking cookies gives you that. Sometimes when you need a bit of comfort, you don’t want to pick only one dessert from the menu. You want two or three. Why can’t you have that?

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

As the end of the school year approaches, kids become fidgety and excited for the freedom of summertime. Their eyes become brighter and their smiles wider. They skip up the sidewalks in Mystic Water and chatter about upcoming vacations and days spent exploring around Jordan Pond.

Anna bakes up the school children’s favorite candies in all sorts of sweets. One of the town’s favorites is her Peanut Butter Cookie Pie, rich and chocolately and decorated with favorite peanut butter candies.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": S'Mores Brownies

Fall is a beautiful season in Mystic Water. People gather around fire pits and bonfires and laugh, tell stories, and make S’mores. But what about in the spring and summer when the heat starts rolling in and you’d burst into flames if anyone so much as a lit a match around you?

That’s when Anna starts baking S’mores brownies. She knows when people are longing for the changing leaves and the crackling flames that the next best thing to a campfire S’mores is a brownie version.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Cheesecake Waffles

I love breakfast. I could eat breakfast for any meal—I’m not picky. Give me grits and eggs for lunch; pancakes for dinner; waffles for a snack. I’m also not ashamed to admit I could eat cake for breakfast.

Tessa Andrews, one of Anna’s best friends in The Baker’s Man, is with me on having cake no matter what time it is. In fact, she told Anna one day that she wished she could combine two of her favorite foods—waffles and cheesecake—into one mash up.

Cooking Through Fiction: Moby-Dick

There are a few books that have first lines that when read aloud are immediately recognizable. For example, this next one:

Call me Ishmael.  Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. 

You guessed Moby-Dick, correct?

Many of us are fanatics about something. Music, sports, books, food. Captain Ahab, captain of the Pequod, was a full-blown, maniacal fanatic about the great, white whale: Moby Dick. And can you blame him, knowing that on a previous voyage, the whale bit off Ahab’s leg? He must find the whale. He must kill it. He has one singular focus, but does he succeed?

Cooking Through Fiction: The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J. D. Salinger, was published in 1951 and was originally meant for adults, but its popularity rose among teenagers due to its rebellious, angst-driven themes.

Holden Caulfield, the protagonist and narrator, is a sixteen-year-old, six-foot-two-and-a-half-tall cynical, foul-mouthed young man who despises all things phony. And yet, he is still one of the most loved characters of the 20^th century. He’s one of my favorites as well. But dang, that boy has the mouth of a sailor on a bad day.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies

Valentine’s Day in Mystic Water is a red-and-pink paper hearts, cupid-shooting-arrows, and overload-on-chocolate kind of day. People leave anonymous valentines pinned beneath windshield wipers, kids shove suckers and conversation hearts into handmade Valentine’s Day shoeboxes, and townsfolk rush into the bakery for chocolates and sweets of all kinds.

Anna’s red velvet cream cheese brownies will soften the heart of anyone, even those who loathe Valentine’s Day. So spread love and a lighthearted feeling all day—buy a dozen and share them with your friends. No one will turn these down, and smiles will abound.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

When it comes to baking, there are victories and there are failures. Sometimes the cakes don’t rise, and sometimes they rise like lopsided mountains. Sometimes cakes stick so badly to the pan they have to be eaten with a fork and never make it to the cake plate. Being a baker means accepting that your recipes (and you) will never be 100% perfect every time.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Donuts with Peppermint Bark

During the month of December, it seems as though sweets are waiting for you around every corner. Cookies spring up like daisies in the spring. Cakes lie around beneath glass domes and entice us to them. Truffles and candy canes and sufganiyot crowd inside gift bags for your enjoyment.

Bea’s Bakery in Mystic Water fills to bursting with sweets and treats of all kinds during December. Townsfolk flock to the glass cases from morning until closing time to fill their bellies with gingerbread cookies or snowflake sugar cookies.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Oreo Truffles

Poet Pablo Neruda wrote, “Laughter is the language of the soul.” When was the last time you laughed? Can you remember when you last laughed so hard that your face and your stomach ached, when tears rolled down your cheeks?

If you can’t immediately recall when laughter burst from your smile, then you need to stop by Bea’s Bakery in Mystic Water and order at least a half dozen Oreo truffles.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Peanut Butter Truffles

Ever felt like a hamster on a wheel? Or like just another rat in the rat race? Ever feel as though one day leads into another, leads into another, leads into another, and you’re tired of being tired?

Sounds like you need a vacation, a place to rest and relax, or at the very least, a visit to Bea’s Bakery in The Baker’s Man. Anna O’Brien can whip up just what you need to feel rested, rejuvenated, and like your old self again (back when you had energy and you were excited about every new adventure).

Cooking Through Fiction: The Giver's Red Apple Pie

Can you imagine living in a seemingly ideal, although colorless, world of contentment and conformity? Your freedom of choice and your independence are non-existent. Instead, you are surrounded by sameness, but you don’t even know everyone is all the same.

Imagine not knowing the vibrancy of colors, not knowing what sunshine feels like as it warms your face, or the pelt of rain against your cheeks. Imagine never feeling pain or sadness, but in giving up the difficult emotions and experiences, you are also forfeiting true happiness and real love. Is it worth it?

Cooking Through Fiction: Frankenstein's Cake

When most people hear the name Frankenstein, they immediately imagine the monster depicted in the movies. The tall, grotesquely built lump of flesh given life by whom….? Victor Frankenstein.

Frankenstein isn’t the monster stitched together with human remains; he’s the monster’s creator. After reading the novel many times and even watching the movies, I think people are right in thinking that Frankenstein is the monster in Mary Shelley’s novel, but only if they’re referring to Victor.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Critters

 

If you’re passing through Mystic Water on a Tuesday, you should stop by Bea’s Bakery. On Tuesdays, Anna creates a few animal-themed treats that the after-school kids love as well as the adults.

Feeling tired? Out of sorts? Heart-weary? Anna has a cure for you on Tuesdays. She makes turtles and bears and critters, oh my! Customers in need of a boost of happiness buy dozens of turtles (chocolate-covered pecans) every Tuesday. Those who need peace in their weary hearts buy bears (chocolate-covered walnuts).

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Hazelnut & Peanut Butter Cream Donuts

I love surprises (of the good variety), but it’s difficult to surprise me. I tend to pick up on people’s shifty behavior, and I seem to know when something amiss is afoot. I don’t like to ruin surprises, honest, but if you keep acting weird around me because you’re trying to surprise me, I’ll figure it out. Your goal: play it cool, and I won’t notice a thing!

Anna, Mystic Water’s baker extraordinaire, oversleeps one morning and wakes to the smell of donuts cooking. She runs downstairs to her bakery and finds a surprise of the most epic variety in the kitchen. And I don’t mean the chocolate-glazed donuts she sees sitting on the counter. 

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Double Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Most people have Saturday rituals, such as two cups of coffee before breakfast, reading the newspaper at the table, or sitting on the back porch watching cardinals.

I like to sleep past 6:00 a.m. (what a rebel!), think about what I’m going to eat for breakfast, and relish being a rebel who sleeps past 6:00 a.m.

Cooking Through Fiction: Percy's Blue Cheesecake

When I need comfort, there are a few items or activities that spring to mind. Just to name a few: 1) my twin-size Mickey Mouse quilt that used to be on my dorm bed in college; 2) my too-big Northwestern sweatshirt with frayed arm cuffs; 3) a long walk in nature; 4) laughing with friends and family; and 5) watching one of my favorite romantic comedies.

Food offers comfort of its own. For me, nothing quite beats a home-cooked southern meal. And then there’s homemade pizza. And melty double chocolate chip cookies. And rice (yeah, this is weird, but I really do love rice). Obviously, lots of food offers me comfort. For Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, he finds blue food especially comforting. And, boy, does he need comfort on his latest quest.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": American Flag Cake

There are a couple of events to celebrate this week. First, the US Men’s National Team faces Belgium in Round of 16 at 2014 FIFA World Cup. Go USA!

The second event to celebrate is my birthday. Happy Independence Day America (and happy birthday me)! What better way to celebrate than with cake?