Foodie Books for Kids: Tony and the Pizza Champions

I have repeatedly failed at making homemade pizza. My yeast doesn't work...or I roll it out all lumpy and uneven...or I burn the crust. I can't even get the pre-made Whole Foods kind right - I can never get an even crust and end up with a trapezoidal shape that is really thick in some places and paper-thin in others. Then Nigella Lawson turned me on to using naan and I've never looked back.

My troubled relationship with pizza dough aside, pizza is absolutely one of my favorite foods ever...if not the favorite. I love the play of salty and sweet, and I adore its endless diversity. I read about its cultural history, and I dream of new topping combinations. It really is the Every Food: there's a flavor for everyone. It can be vegetarian, vegan, meatlovers...I think it can even be gluten-free.

So imagine my delight when I got Tony and the Pizza Champions (Chronicle) in the mail! It's by Tony Gemignani (two-time Food Network pizza-tossing gold medalist) and illustrated by Matthew Trueman. It's the story of "Tossing" Tony, "Quick" Ken, and their team of master pizza-tossers who get invited to compete in the World Pizza Championships in Italy. In the midst of their travels, the reader learns all kinds of pizza trivia (in England, people sometimes order pizza with sweet corn and tuna fish on top...which, I have to admit, kind of makes me nauseous). The team travels to Italy where they compete against Brazilians and Italians, but can the Americans take the gold medal?

Each of the team members in the story is actually based on a real-life person, and the book ends with photos of each guy ("Silly" Siler really does ride a unicycle). Additionally, there's a recipe for "Tossing Tony's Pizza Dough" as well as instructions for tossing the dough. The book also says you can go to www.chroniclebooks.com/pizzachamps "to see videos of Tony making and tossing dough." But when I went to the site I saw a video of Tony "balling" the dough but the others weren't working...which is always the problem of including Internet content in books.

Overall, the story is spunky and fun - it has a lot of boy appeal, especially with its subtle play-with-your-food encouragement (though, I assure you, girls will enjoy this equally). The illustrations are reminiscent of Giselle Potter...but much more my taste than Potter's work. Body proportions are out of whack, but the formatting and bold colors have a grounding effect. There's definitely a cartoon quality to the art, which helps its appeal. This feels like a foodie book that is actually created with kids in mind - firstly, it's actually about a food that kids will eat! And it lacks the preciousness that sometimes seeps into foodie books for kids - no shades of pink here, no baking, no anthropomorphic animals. Just straight up stunts, action, and joy. An absolute blast.

Eat, drink, and give pizza another try.

NOTE: Once again, I find myself doing a complete 180 from the Kirkus review. What is up?!

You know you're a foodie when...

...you find this waaaaaay sexy.

Buh-bye date due stamps!

The Washington Post weighs in on the date due stamp being a thing of the past.

I have to admit: I'm kinda with him on this issue. It's not about the more-work-for-the-customer issue (though he is right about that)...I think it's more romantic and personal for me.

I loved seeing the other dates stamped and imagining who else checked out the same book. And I loved when I checked out a book more than once and could find my own previous date stamp on the card.

Now, there's just a complete disconnect with anyone else who might have checked out the same book as me. As if we need yet another disconnect from our fellow humans.

All that said, Montgomery County is only now getting rid of their date due stamps??? I was under the impression that most of the country had already done this...

Is it November yet?

I just spotted the cover art for Splendor:

Now the waiting and pining begins...

Linktasticness: The Young Readers' Edition

I'll admit it: children's literature has gotten short shrift from me lately. I know, I know. It's just that, with all the bacon and wine out there, I was momentarily distracted. But I'm about to remedy that and give kids' books their due.

• Teen blogger extraordinaire, Miss Erin, has a new look to her blog. Lovely. It inspires me to change my look at some point, as I used the generic Blogger design when I started up. Someday soon...
  
• So this is late of me to be reporting, but SLJ has kicked off their 1st Annual Battle of the Books. BOB has their own blog, and Brown Bookshelf also had a great post about it. I've filled in my picks and I'm hoping my friend/colleague Lori will compete with me: winner gets a bottle of Casa LaPostelle Sauvignon Blanc - one of our shared favorites. Like everyone, I can't believe the Frankie/We Are the Ship match-up...come ON!


• I just got the inside tip - and hopefully it's okay to share - that School Library Journal will be hosting their first-ever Day of Dialogue (but they're spelling it Day of Dialog?) at BEA this year. It will be on Thursday, May 28th. Stay tuned for more news!
  
• Books of Wonder here in NYC is having a ridiculous amount of events coming up. I would love to meet Dan Yaccarino and, while I don't feel the need to attend the event, I do have to compliment Viking for Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales : that cover is absolutely wicked awesome! Not to mention that the book is a veritable who's-who of children's and YA authors. Well done!
  
• I was forunate enough to meet one-on-one with the Director of Children's Publicity and Marketing at Chronicle Books recently to hear about their upcoming titles. It doesn't come out until September, but I am particularly excited about Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman, which is a concept book version of his adult title Creature . It's stunning and will appeal to a large age range - keep an eye out for it.


• At a publisher's preview yesterday, a couple of us were bemoaning the fact that we hadn't read anything truly exciting lately. What's going on? Even if I'm hearing buzz about the book, it usually has a cover that so turns me off that opening the book becomes all but impossible. Lots of meh. Especially in the middle-grade fiction department: I keep joking with my YA compatriots that they get all the good stuff! Picture books are faring better - here are a couple of the books I'm really excited about*:

- The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown, 9.09)
- Tsunami by Kimiko Kajikawa, illustrated by Ed Young (Philomel, 2.09)
- Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek (Greenwillow, 2.09)

- Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas (Beach Lane, 1.09)

- Dinotrux by Chris Gall (Little, Brown, 6.09)

- Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed by J.C. Phillipps (Viking, 3.09)

• Eli, Peyton, and Archie Manning have signed with Scholastic to publish a picture book called Family Huddle. I'll admit it: I'm totally judging this before I see it. And so are you.
  
  

* Based on what I've seen so far. For instance, I haven't seen Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Gennady Spirin or A Book by Mordecai Gerstein yet. I also really want to see Redwoods by Jason Chin.

Spain...On the Road Again (The Book)

Like all good librarians, I check books out from my local library.  Like a bad librarian, I love to write in my books...which is why I am a book buyer.  I dog-ear to mark my place and I love using a highlighter to mark special passages.  And my cookbooks are the worst: they've been dog-eared and highlighted...but I also spill things on them and make all kinds of notes for each recipe I try.  I'd feel bad except that I feel that I'm personalizing my books and, years from now, perhaps my grandchildren will read all my notes and be able to see the passages I loved and it'll make it all more personal.  But what I do with cookbooks is check them out from the library first and try some recipes to see if the book is worth buying.  If I like the test group, then I'll go ahead and buy it so I can start making my notes.  

I recently checked out Spain: A Culinary Road Trip by Mario Batali "with Gwyneth Paltrow."  And the first three recipes were a smashing success.

I made the Tortilla Espanola* first, and it was simple beyond belief.  I didn't change a thing from the recipe and, as it suggested, I served it with jamon and a salad for dinner:

The second dish I made was the empanada.  This one surprised me a bit because I'm used to eating empanadas in restaurants where they come more individually packaged.  This dish confused me as to the difference between calzone and empanada (is it just the difference between Italian and Spanish?).  Either way, the flavor was rich and outstanding.  I halved the recipe for Adam, Bug, and me and it was more than enough for the three of us: I had enough leftovers for two lunches.  And be careful on the cooking time - I cooked it about 27 minutes and it was about 7-9 minutes too long - perhaps because I had halved the recipe.  Anyway, watch the cooking time:

The last dish was the migas, and it was both unique and simple.  The flavor was insane.  I did modify the heck out of this one.  Unfortunately, I don't have photos (my parents were here and I didn't want to be all weird and bloggy about our dinner)...but here is my version of the recipe:

4 c. bread crumbs (I used a baguette)

2 c. panko bread crumbs (I ran out of baguette)

1/3 c. olive oil

6 garlic cloves, not peeled

1/2 lb. Spanish chorizo, casings removed and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1/2 lb. pancetta in one piece, cut into 1/2-inch dice

A large bunch of grapes

4 roasted red peppers, peeled, seeded, and cut into wide strips

Tear up approximately 1/2 a baguette into a food processor.  Process until roughly ground.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add the garlic and stir until lightly browned and fragrant, 1-2 minutes.  Add the chorizo and pancetta and cook, stirring, until the meat is lightly browned and starting to render its fat, about 8 minutes.  Add the bread crumbs (baguette and panko), mix thoroughly, and cook, stirring, until the crumbs are lightly browned (the crumbs are going to soak up all the oil and pork fat - I told you it was insane).  Serve with the grapes and roasted peppers (peel the cloves if you like, or let your guests do it...I peeled mine).

The only thing I would change about this one is I would double the garlic.  Seriously.  The garlic ends up getting roasted in its skin so it's incredibly soft and sweet.  It takes each bite to the next level and we all ended up fighting over the measly 6 cloves in the recipe.

So this makes it official: this cookbook is a buyer!  I'm looking forward to writing notes in the margins for posterity!

Eat, drink, and be okay with owning a book by Gwyneth Paltrow.

* Apologies for my lack of proper accents on the Spanish words.  Does anyone know how to do this on Blogger?  Normally I just import from Google Docs, but...

Playlists

Two weekends ago, I went to a Twilight viewing party and had an absolute blast. Heckling and unintended laughter were encouraged, and we made wildly inappropriate remarks about Robert Pattinson's ridiculously good looks, despite the odd makeup. Our hostess served, among other things, Hot Tamales, Twizzlers, Swedish fish, strawberries, raspberries, red wine...get the theme? And we all sported Team Edward/Jacob shirts...any guesses which one I wore? It was a case of "30 going on 13"...

In the midst of the event, we admitted to listening to the songs on Stephenie Meyer's playlist*, and I praised Meyer for introducing me to Blue October. And then I further admitted that I made a "Bella & Edward" playlist, comprised entirely of Meyer's music, and listened to it continuously while reading Breaking Dawn. Believe me, people, this isn't an easy thing to admit. See how I'm willing to make a fool of myself in front of all of you? Now, that is love.

But that got me thinking of playlists. They're so personal: how many times have you looked at a friend's playlists and thought, "Huh? I don't get the organization or the vibe or what they were going for." Which is why I am fascinated by how others do it.

Music plays an integral, inextricable role in my cooking and eating every night. Seriously, not a single night goes by that I am not playing music. One of my favorites to cook to on weeknights is the "Martini - cheers!" mix. I usually play this while I'm cooking, waiting for Adam and Bug to get home. Sipping wine and munching on a couple slices of Idiazábal is usually involved. Here is a sampling of my "Martini - cheers!" mix**:

• "Pick Up the Pieces" - Average White Band
• "Got to Be Real" - Cheryl Lynn
• "Hiphip Chinchin" - Club des Belugas
• "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" - Dean Martin
• "The Best is Yet to Come" - Frank Sinatra
• "We Are in Love" - Harry Connick Jr. (Don't laugh!)
• "30 Something" - Jay-Z (thanks, Amy!)
• "Golden" - Jill Scott
• "Mucci's Jag MK. II" - Joey Altruda
• "Une journée fade" - Kohndo
• "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" - Lenny Kravitz
• "Chilly Winds Don't Blow" - Nina Simone
• "Sea Lion Woman" - Nina Simone (Feist ain't got nuthin' on Nina!)
• "Anna (El Negro Zumbon)" - Pink Martini
• "Let's Never Stop Falling in Love" - Pink Martini
• "Austin Powers (Soul Bossa Nova)" - Starlight Orchestra
• "Caramel" - Suzanne Vega
• "The World Keeps on Spinning" - The Brand New Heavies
• "Beyond the Sea" - Robbie Williams (is it wrong to prefer this version over Bobby Darin?)
• "Jump in the Line" - Harry Belafonte

Eat, drink, and don't forget the music!

* I linked to the "soundtrack" for Twilight but, if you click on each of the books on the left side of screen, you'll see that Meyer made a soundtrack for each book.

** All of these songs should be available through iTunes - I checked before posting them.

Apologies

I'm sorry for my lack of posting lately. My home computer has utterly failed me, and I have had extremely limited Internet access for the last week. Add two rounds of houseguests in the past week and, well, you know how it goes.

I'll be back soon! With photos! And reviews! And news!