Good Reads, Good Eats: Candy 1 to 20

Remember waaaay back when (two years ago) when the Sugar Baby was obsessed with a candy cookbook? (Take a walk down Memory Lane here and here.) His obsessions have turned from candy to the Titanic of late, but just the other day, he got off the school bus and said, "Mom! It's Hanukkah!" (They had just learned about Rosh Hashanah in school.) "You know what that means? We have to get out the menorah and the dreidels and say we're sorry for something we did, like the time I peed on the book!"
Wow. Pretty amazing that 1) he remembered that book and 2) made the connection of Rosh Hashanah to Hanukkah, especially considering that we're not Jewish. In any case, I have to wonder how he would've reacted two years ago if this book had shown up in our mailbox back then:

The title got a little chopped off there. It's called "Candy 1 to 20" by Laurie Wolf and Pam Abrams. The cover kind of gives the book away. Each page is dedicated to a number that's illustrated with real candy. Fun! (As an aside, I've always kind of wondered why these types of books have multiple authors. I mean, once you get the idea, it kind of writes itself, doesn't it? Not to knock children's authors. I know what a cut-throat business children's publishing can be.) 
The photos are colorful and crisp. Frankly, I think I liked reading it more than the Sugar Baby did. Now, just because I'm this way, I'm about to give away the ending. Spoiler alert! Stop reading here if you don't want to know how it ends. Here we go ...

How's that for a surprise ending? Such a cliff hanger!

Full Moon Book Review!

Hello friends. It's time again for a looksee at some of the new fun books that are on the bookstore shelves just in time for Christmas. First up, "Intensely Chocolate: 100 Scrumptious Recipes for True Chocolate Lovers." Well, that about sums it up. This is a beautiful book with lots of great pictures (a must, in my opinion). Recipes include things like Cocoa Shortcakes with Semisweet Chocolate Whipped Cream, Creme-Fraiche-Bittersweet Chocolate Tartlets, and Intense Hot Chocolate. Okay, I can't look at this book anymore right now, because it's making me hungry. Onto the next one. "How to Build a Gingerbread House: A Step-by-Step Guide to Sweet Results" by Christina Banner. This is a really cute book that goes over everything you need to know to make your very own gingerbread house. What I particularly love about it is that it's not, "Place licorice here. Put M&M's here." She give you the basics and then you're free to create your own masterpiece. There's a section on candies that are good for roofs (Necco Wafers, shredded wheat, M&M's, vanilla wafers, gum, etc.); windows (Pez, graham crackers, wafer cookies); ground cover (coconut grass, brown sugar sand, Royal Icing), and more. And it's not just about Christmas gingerbread houses. There are ideas for a birthday house, Valentine's house, Easter Bunny house and even a sandcastle.
I will be honest and say this is a book that I will look at year after year, and live vicariously through, but I will be shocked if I ever attempt to make one of these. Not that it looks difficult. In fact, she explains everything so well that I *almost* contemplated making one. But the fact of the matter is, I just don't "do" three-dimensional creations. It's not my thing, as evidenced by the 3-D Design class I had to take in college. One of the first assignments (and supposedly easiest) was to create a monolith out of soapstone. The teacher held mine up, in all its hideous glory and said, "This, class, this you could find walking along the beach." He didn't mean it as a compliment.

Breaking News! CORRECTION!

Oops, my bad. A few posts ago I wrote a review of the very excellent book "The Candymakers." The first thing I pointed out was that "confectionery" was spelled "confectionary," which I believed to be wrong. Well, the folks at Little, Brown (the publisher) have set me straight. Yes, the spelling with "e" may be more common these days, but "a" is an acceptable, traditional spelling according to Random House Dictionary, among others.
This information came in a kind of round-about way. My Necco Door Neighbor Big Tony (author of the Secrets of Droon series and more), knows Wendy Mass, the author of "The Candymakers." He set me up with an interview with her so I could learn more about her research process for the book. In the meantime, she read the original review here, and naturally freaked about the "e" vs. "a" conundrum. Happily, it worked out for her. I, on the other hand, willingly take a demerit for not doing my homework.
Wendy and I talked today and she revealed how she came upon her extensive knowledge of candy making. Stay tuned. You won't want to miss it. In the meantime, get yourself a copy of the book. You (and your kids) will love it.

Book Review Monday! "The Candymakers" by Wendy Mass

It's book review time! I received an advanced reading copy of "The Candymakers" by Wendy Mass. What this means is, the book still has some errors that need correcting. Having been a proofreader, I find it jarring to read advance copies because I just want to get out my red pencil and mark it up. In this case, it took me a full five minutes to get past the first page because my eye kept focusing on "Confectionary." Ahhh! It's supposed to be spelled with an "e." Confectionery. It was like I was trapped in some OCD spelling bee. How could they get this word wrong? It kept appearing over and over. Every time it came up, I had to force myself to move on. But that's neither here nor there, really.
The book starts off with a letter to four children who have been accepted to compete in a candy contest. The next page brings us an "article" from a newspaper about some shocking news that a local candy factory will be closing down. This was sounding awfully familiar. Kids, a candy factory, the future ... it was just a wee bit too close to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for me. I was starting this book with a bad attitude.
I'm happy to say, however, that things turned around quickly. I feared the worst: that this would be some sort of Willy Wonka wannabe, but in fact, it's quite different. The book deals with some majorly heavy themes: death, guilt, disabilities, all in the context of a candy mystery. It's aimed for ages 8-12, and I think I would have really loved this book at that age. Heck, I enjoyed it now. I liked the characters, the story grabbed me and it was a fun read.
I'd be interested to hear how the author went about her research, because clearly she knows her stuff. She goes into detail about candy-making techniques (panning, enrobing, tempering) and ingredients. The candies have fun names (a la Harry Potter), like High-Jumping Jelly Beans, Oozing Crunchorama and Neon Yellow Lightning Chew. The candy details add a mouth-watering, believable tone to the book, and the rather intense sub-story makes for an edge-of-your-seat mystery.
"The Candymakers" is set to be published in October. Let's just hope they get the spelling of "confectionery" right before then.

Candy Yum Yum Book Nook: Read All About It

So check this out. The Baroness gave this to the Sugar Baby for his birthday.
What a tease, huh? It's a cookbook but it looks like one giant block of chocolate. My friend came over the other day and saw it on the coffee table. She was like, "Hell, yeah!" Needless to say, she was disappointed to discover recipes instead of chocolate. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I'll be sure to report back when I do.Look at this gorgeous magnum opus. This book is big enough to be a doorstop, however I'm happy to say that it's being used for reading, not propping. (In fact, I just got chocolate on the cover while I was writing this. Dang!) If you have any interest at all in food styling, get thee to Amazon right now. I find food styling fascinating, although I'd be terrible at it. It takes a special kind of Type-A perfectionist to be a stylist. I worked with one dude once who was supposedly very in-demand, however he took my recipe (which could've been absolutely stunning appearance-wise) and turned it into a wonky-looking lame dessert. I still harbor ill feelings toward him. But I digress...
I skipped forward in the book a bit to the section entitled, "Chocolate: The Problem Child for the Food Stylist." "This is a food that illustrates chemistry in action," writes the author Delores Custer. "It blooms, seizes, and melts at different temperatures."
Chemistry in action. I like that. Needless to say, while I find food styling captivating, I won't be doing it anytime soon. But I do like reading about it.

Read Any Good Books Lately? The Sugar Baby Has.

This weekend we went up to Vermont. Here's what I packed to entertain the Sugar Baby:

• Travel lap desk with markers, crayons and pencils
• Stamps and stamp pads
• An assortment of books
• Stuffed animals
• Matchbox cars
• Stickers
• Toy magnets

Here's what he occupied himself with the entire time:

Click here for visual

I kid you not. He spent the entire three hour drive staring at the See's Chocolates catalog I had left over from Christmas. He carried it up to the check-in desk and proudly showed the inn-keepers his "book." Later, that night, as bedtime reading, I had to tell him what each and every chocolate was.
I swear to you, I have not tried to encourage a love of chocolate in this kid. Apparently he comes by it naturally. (He does also love grapefruit, so maybe there is something genetic about taste.)
On the ride home, he slept the entire way, making me wonder what he was going to be like when he woke up. Certainly he'd demand all of my attention, when all I really wanted to do was take a nap.
By some miraculous intervention, this was waiting on my doorstep:
"Chocolates and Confections at Home with The Culinary Institute of America," written by Peter P. Greweling (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010).
"Whoa! Look at this!" I said to the Sugar Baby.
He swiftly grabbed it from me (it weighs about as much as he does) and he hauled it over to the couch. Three hundred pages later, we had looked at each and every picture. Then he took the book and ran downstairs with it where he had his own quiet reading time.
Here's where my official review comes in. This is a beautiful book. The pictures are gorgeous and the recipes are easy to read. I particularly like the third chapter on Master Techniques. This section takes you step-by-step through tempering, dipping and garnishing-- all things that make me quake in fear whenever I consider making my own chocolates. This book makes me feel like I could actually do it.
I had the thought of doing a sort of "Julie & Julia" kind of thing-- dedicating myself to creating every recipe in the book over the next year. I'd love to do it, but I'm not sure I have the stamina. This is something I'll have to give a little more thought to.
In any case, I've only gotten to look at the recipes briefly because the Sugar Baby has pretty much had it under lock and key since its arrival. (He went so far as to take it to school with him.) When I went to the library last night to return some books, he shouted after me, "Look for another chocolate book, Mom!"
I'm telling you, it's got to be in the genes.

(Mr. Goodbar indulges the Sugar Baby with some pre-dinner reading)

Candy Obsessed? I Prefer to Think I'm Focused

When the Ice Cube Queen was in town a few weeks ago, she was excited to view the Candy Yum Yum headquarters. She wanted to see the stockpiles of candy, the desk where I craft my entries and, of course, the chocolate river. She caught me at one of those times, though, when my candy larder was empty and my desk was buried under various Hello Kitty notepads, books to donate and birthday cards that I should've sent out months ago. (And as for the chocolate river, well, that remains a secret).

In contrast, my friend Kate (you might remember her from this post, where I divulged her love of 3 Musketeers) was here this weekend for her 20th high school reunion. I haven't seen her in 12 years, and it was her first time meeting the Sugar Baby. For some reason, she caught us on a sugar high. Not only was I stockpiled with tons of candy (lots of reviews and giveaways coming up!), but the Sugar Baby also decided it was going to be a candy-themed weekend.
I present to you the evidence: The books he was reading over and over and over again: "A Baker's Field Guide to Holiday Candy & Confections," (which has since been tossed since he accidentally peed on it while reading in the bathroom) and "10 Trick-or-Treaters," a very cute book about counting backwards. (You might remember the Field Guide from this post; now the Sugar Baby loves shouting "World's Easiest Fudge!")

Of course, we played Candyland (he is always the red gingerbread man)And he re-discovered his awesome plastic chocolates from Valentine's Day. Are we a little obsessed here? Nah, I don't think so!

Fair Warning: There are Clowns in This Post

Sorry to do this to you, dear Yumsters, but it's time again for another installment of "Ah! My Eyes!" As you may recall, the last time I said this was when I saw the creepy m&m's baby collectibles. I mentioned a few things that most people find universally frightening, such as dolls, shows by Sid and Marty Kroftt and, above all else, clowns. Hold onto your hats, because this one may just frighten the lollipops out of you.

One day recently, Mrs. Connection and I were at the library with the Sugar Babies. In the front area, there's a box where you can "give a book/take a book." Mrs. Connection came running over to me with this gem:
"Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives" by Ruth Heller.

"How cool!" I said, because I love candy and well, frankly, who doesn't love adjectives? Standing there, I quickly flipped through it and was instantly freaked out. When I tell you this is one whacked out book, I mean, hoo boy, we're talking someone was smoking a little something the day they created this horrifying (yet educational) work.

It starts off all nice and sing-songy in a Schoolhouse Rock kind of rhythm: "An ADJECTIVE's terrific when you want to be specific ... It describes all things with style and grace ... [now this is where it starts to get freaky]

"... and it also describes a place-- Mysterious, Star-Spangled, Asteroidal outer space ..."

Okay, first of all, star-spangled should only refer to banners, in my opinion, and "asteroidal"?

Moving on ...

This page illustrates some crazy homeless man with a bandaged up knee, elbow and finger, ready to play tennis.

It reads, "[an adjective describes] any special member of our precious human race-- a weary, wounded, bearded and bandaged tennis ace."

The freakshow continues with all sorts of bizarre stuff, like a page with a Pegasus and a terrifying dragon about to pounce on a little puppy. (This page illustrates "Astonishing beast, more Astonishing beast and the most Astonishing beast." Why on earth would the puppy be the most astonishing?)

But my friends, the most terrifying page (see, I used the word "most"), is this:

Yes, the text is mine, but the illustration comes right before the title page, as if this creepy clown is inviting you to take a walk through his world full of weird, kooky, far-out, asteroidal adjectives. But don't let me sway you. If you think you might find this book to be delightful, you can order it from Amazon. Or contact me-- I'll gladly send you my copy.

Hallelujah, indulgences and the good book

Well, first of all, shout Hallelujah! I finally figured out how to turn the flash off of my camera, so at least now my crappy photos won't have a big shiny spot in the middle.

Okay, so I saw this book called "Meat" at Jessica's Biscuit (a discount cookbook website) and it just looked so perfect for Ms. Chops that I had to get it. Then it turned out that I only had to spend three dollars more to get free shipping, so I allowed myself this little indulgence:

I'm not necessarily big on making chocolates and confections, but the fact that it was a field guide intrigued me. So this is the part where I give you my review, right?

Wrong. Because from the moment I took it out of the box, the Sugar Baby hasn't let it leave his side. Here I was, thinking he wanted to read "Goodnight Moon" and "Fun Dog, Sun Dog," when all along he just wanted a cookbook. Forget Legos. Forget Play-Doh. Those wickedly expensive Thomas trains? Nope. It's all about "the book." That's what he calls it. "The book," as if it's the only one in the whole world.

Believe me when I tell you, this thing has kept him entertained for hours on end. He goes through each page saying, "What's that?" and then he goes through the book again repeating all the names. The guide is organized by the calendar, so the first page is Star-Shaped Marshmallows for New Year's Eve. Then it's on to truffles and heart-shaped lollipops for Valentine's Day, Sweet Wine Chocolate Apricot Balls for Purim, Mint Jelly Leaves for the vernal equinox, and then these:
Kitty Crunchies for April Fool's Day. Yep, they sure do look like the deposits that Bud makes every day down in the basement. But, ho ho! As the book says, "These may look disgusting, but they taste great as they are a combination of cocoa crisped rice cereal, melted marshmallows and Grape-Nuts."

That's all fine and good, but how does one explain this to a 2 1/2 year old? "We don't eat cat poop!" is the best I could do. So here he thinks he has a book filled with delicious, yummy, candy treats-- and one random page of cat poop.

What can I say? The Sugar Baby gives this book a big thumb's up. So the next time you're looking for a gift for a 2 year old, you might want to consider it.

Candy Yum Yum Book Nook (Or, This is What My Taxes Pay For?!)

Check out this piece of awesomeness that the Baroness sent me. It's a photocopied book called "Jack's Delicious Rocks" and is an Easy Reader for National Candy Day-- November. (I particularly like that it says "Fiction" on it, just in case you might get confused and think it's a true story.)

So it goes something like this (I'll paraphrase): Jack is a gnome who lives in Candyland but he's all stressed out because he doesn't want to make candy. He, of course, has bigger ideas. He wants to be a geologist. His therapist suggests that perhaps he should take some time off from work and consider his options. So one day he calls in sick and goes fishing in the syrupy lake with gummy worms. He doesn't get any bites on his line, so he leaves his fishing pole there, because he's going to blow off work again tomorrow. Back at the candy shop, all the responsible elves are busy painting stripes on candy canes and sprinkling sugar on gumdrops (and they're probably all pissed off because they had to work overtime to pick up the slack from Jack).

Jack goes home and drinks away his problems, then he gets up the next day and heads back to the lake. When he pulls his line out of the Blue #2 Lake, he gets a surprise: his fishing line is covered with crystals! Like any good scientist, Jack does the most obvious thing first: he takes a bite. They're delicious! Hooray! Jack has discovered rock candy! Now he can be a candy maker AND a geologist.

Here are my observations.

1) I like any school that celebrates National Candy Day.

2) I wonder why no Swedish fish nibbled on his line.

3) I'm concerned that the story will prejudice children against candy workers and brain wash them into thinking that they can actually make money by being geologists.

4) I'm not entirely sure this is fiction.

Monkeying Around

I've read this book roughly 73 times in the past 48 hours. It was a gift from The Connections' Wee One to the Sugar Baby and he is obsessed with it. The story goes like this: George (who, by the way, doesn't have a tail, despite being called "everyone's favorite monkey") and the Man With the Yellow Hat are out for a drive when they see a chocolate factory. They stop in, and while Yellow Hat Man is busy flirting with the sales girl, George sneaks into the factory and accidentally speeds up the conveyor belt. Hijinks ensue, but George ends up saving the day. This is my favorite page in the book:

When I was little, the Baroness and I would play a game where we take a page in a catalog and rate the items on the page in the order we liked them. Here's my pick for this page:

1) Orange fluff

2) Banana Cream

3) Nougat

4) Marshmallow

5) Caramel

6) Truffle

7) Fudge

It makes me wonder why there's no such thing as banana cream chocolates. Have you, dear Yumster, ever seen one? What flavor chocolates would you like to try that you've never seen before?