I recall being completely enthralled by Masha and the Bear, when I was about eight – a pop-up book picked up by an uncle during one of his trips to Europe. I couldn’t get enough of the story, and it was as if I was in the jungle with Masha, tearing up at first on getting lost, and then cheering up and on as the plan of an escapade took shape.
I could smell the pie, I could imagine its buttery crust breaking into a million crumbs in my mouth.
And then there was James and the Giant Peach, a fruit so exotic in its sound and form, that I would salivate at the turn of every page, as James and his companions floated, drifted, and flew through time and undulating scrolls of geography. I remember going hysterical when, years later, I actually laid my hands on the real fruit, turning it into a dozen-odd varieties of delicacies, right from chutneys to cobblers.
There were several other bookish food references that left me a little smitten, a little curious and a lot intrigued; and I found out that my blogging partner at Tadka Pasta, Ruchira, had had a similar childhood, filled with reading experiences that led her to the kitchen, imagining herself producing stacks of pancakes, when she was flipping through Pippi Longstocking, or working up a batch of English tea sandwiches and lemon tea, during the Famous Five phase.
This was only a stepping stone, for both of us, into a world of delicious stories, as we raised our little girls, being neighbours in Chicago, over a decade ago. There wasn’t a day that went by that didn’t involve a conversation about books and food – we vividly remember throwing themed parties for our girls and their little friends on chosen winter afternoons, when going out wasn’t an option and playdates had to be spruced up: right from Strawberry Shortcake to The Berenstain Bears, Princess Pigtoria to Peppa Pig.
The two of them would pitch in, squeezing lemons and tearing up herbs, sprinkling sugar and creaming butter. There would be pitchers of pink lemonade and platefuls of cream puffs, buttercream frosted character cakes and salads on skewers, spiced up cheese balls and jammy thumbprint cookies to go around, until sundown.
With all these stories, experiences and memories behind us, it was only natural that the idea for a book like Bookworms & Jellybellies came up one day, about two years ago, when we were discussing the usual suspects: books and food.
Once we had the basic idea in place, we spent several afternoons filling up the shared Google document with names of books and possible recipe ideas. We had divided the project into age-wise categories and the first category was filled with the books our children had grown up on: Dr. Seuss books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Green Eggs & Ham, Winnie the Pooh, Jack & the Beanstalk.
The second category became a playground for us to jump up high with ideas from our own childhood years: The Little Prince, The Famous Five and the Secret Seven, The Wizard of Oz, Matilda, Peter Pan, the works. The third one filled up mighty fast too, with the favourite reads of our children vying for top spots: Harry Potter, Daddy Long Legs, Because of Winn-Dixie, Lemony Snicket, Wonder.
Even though the list grew substantially over the weeks that we worked intently on it, and looked promising, we had to pare it down based on a number of factors: copyright issues with usage of names, titles, references, book covers; feasibility of recipe; storyline and food and culture connections, etc.
As the page filled up and as the recipes started to take form, our pantries filled up too and we spent many mornings reading the chosen books, and afternoons cooking up the dishes, which mostly doubled as after-school snacks for our kids. With several tweaks and pinches, most of the recipes held their own, and some of them went back to the drawing board. There were a few mishaps, and a few misses. Burnt Makhana in an over-worked microwave, cookies spiked with coriander powder, and not to forget, garlic paste in our teas to keep us going, instead of ginger!
But we survived it all, and lived to, well, tell the tale.
Finally, when the manuscript hit the press, after all the edits and finishing touches, we were ecstatic to walk children through scores of stories – some familiar and some unheard of – and recipes that emerged from their heroes, traditions, or simply, settings. We imagined little hands assembling salads that looked like caterpillars, and rolling out dough with a magic rolling pin, like a magic carpet.
And when we look around now, we see all of that and much more. We hope the stories, trivia and the recipes in Bookworms & Jellybellies stir much more than curiosity and interest in little minds, and we hope, more than anything, that they continue to read and heed the rumble in their tummies.
(Ranjini is a mom, writer, teacher, head-hasher and a whole lot of other things rolled into one. She finds her chi in her little Bangalore kitchen, amid arrays of spices, frayed napkins and stainless steel kettles. She blogs at Tadka Pasta with a partner. She tweets @leftofwrite.)
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