Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover’s Courtship, with Recipes by Amanda Hesser

A writer and a food writer meet. She once cooked with Julia Child and he likes pizza and cheap beer. What happens when they fall in love? A book.

I loved this book and could not put it down. Hesser’s story is a story of finding love with someone who has a completely different relationship to food than her own. She learns to compromise and to appreciate food even more. Hesser finds that relationships are about bringing two lives together. My only complaint is that she comes across as a food snob, granted she is a food writer, while in other chapters she claims that her relationship with Mr. Latte is making her appreciate the company meals bring not just the food. She criticizes foodies but she is also one and won’t admit it. She appreciates fine food but she also has a whole chapter about food on a airplane. I found it ridiculous that she thinks it is normal to pack a gourmet meal for a flight. Yeah right, even the top chefs like to eat junk.

But otherwise it is a very romantic story for food lover’s. It is a quick read and since reading the book I cannot find another book that grabs me like this one

Bonus: Every chapter comes with recipes. Most are very simple.

I recently finished Marusya Bociurkiw’s Comfort Food For Breakups: The Memoir of A Hungry Girl. I loved it and could not put it down. Contrary to the title, it is not about breakups but instead about the relationships with friends, family, and lovers. She demonstrates how closely people relate life events to food and how our relationships with humans are similar to our relationship with food. Sometimes you have to stop eating certain dishes and other times you only eat dishes because they are passed down. Every chapter was either an ingredient or a dish and her relationship to it.

“In my family, it’s not necessary to lay a place setting for the dead. They’re always with us, encouraging us to eat, and love, live better.” (pg. 60)

Note: The book was very difficult to find in the library and bookstore. I requested mine through my public library’s inter-library loan and it came all the way to Iowa from Klamath Falls, Oregon. I recommend trying to track it because her stories are worth it.

Piña Colada Cupcakes

(mini-cupcakes – yields 24).

I just checked out Gail Wagman’s Cupcake’s Galore. I made the Piña Colada cupcakes. I have a mixed review of her recipes. The frosting she suggests was not good so I created my own recipe. The cupcakes were good though. In addition, she has unnecessary steps that take too much time and do not make the cupcakes any better. I will have to try more recipes and report on whether I like this cookbook. There are some recipes that I hope are promising.

Here is my version of her recipe. Moreover, my own creation: Piña Colada Frosting.

This version is awesome and yummy. The cupcakes were eaten up in seconds. I am craving more.

Piña Colada Cupcakes:

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup unsalted butter (½ a stick), at room temperature

¾ cups sugar

1 egg

¼ cup pineapple juice

¼ cup Pineapple or Coconut Rum (I used Pineapple Rum)

¼ cup shredded coconut

1)      Preheat oven to 350F.

2)      Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

3)      In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Add egg. Then beat in flour mixture and pineapple juice and rum, alternating.

4)      Stir in coconut to large bowl.

5)      Fill cupcake tins, about ¾ full.

6)      Bake for 10 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

7)      Cool in pan.

Piña Colada Icing:

¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tablespoon milk (1%)

3 tablespoons pineapple juice

1 tablespoon pineapple rum

Yellow food coloring

2 cups powdered sugar.

1)      Mix butter, pineapple juice, and rum.

2)      Add powdered sugar until desired consistency.

3)      Add more liquids or powdered sugar until desired spreading consistency.

4)      Add a little yellow food color to create a faint yellow tint.

-          Frost cupcakes, then rim the cupcakes with sugar sprinkles like a Piña Colada glass and then top toasted coconut.

On my recent (and disastrous) trip to Minneapolis I listened (yeah, for books on CD) to Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. I returned it promptly after returning to Iowa City.

I do not have enough desire to write much more, so here is a list:

1) The book was funny and insightful.

2) There is too much whining. Maybe it is because Ephron aims the book toward older women and I am younger but it seemed to be too much whining about life. Positivity please.

3) Each chapter is a stand-alone story. Each chapter gives different insight into the life of a single older woman. The things women think about and the things we worry about daily.

4) Moral of the story = love and independence.

Iowa City and Coralville look like a war zone.

I love this commercial.

Just hope it is never true!