My love affair with Austrian desserts

If I asked you to picture delicious European desserts in your mind, most of you would probably start imagining some sort of mouthwatering French concoction: macaroons, crepes, Creme Brulee, etc.

However, there is a country in Europe that often gets overlooked when it comes to dessert, but is right up there in terms of decadence and deliciousness: Austria.

This is the country that gave us the the Sacher Torte, the Linzer Torte, strudel, and a whole host of other delicious pastries.

While I was in Austria, I devoured two very popular desserts: the Sacher Torte and Salzburger Nockerl.

Now I'm sure most of you have heard of Sacher Torte. It's the chocolate cake made famous by the Hotel Sacher in Vienna and whose recipe is a closely guarded secret. Many people have tried to imitate the Sacher Torte, but if you want the real thing, you must go to the Hotel Sacher in Vienna or Salzburg.

Well it just so happens that I was in Salzburg on my most recent trip to Europe and as you can see, an authentic slice of Sacher Torte was a necessary diversion in our sight-seeing schedule.

Now, as a rule, Austrian desserts are not as sweet as American desserts so when you look at the decadence of the Sacher Torte, just know that your taste buds are not going to be overwhelmed by sweetness. A Sacher Torte is a bittersweet chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle. It is traditionally served with a generous dollop of unsweetened whipped cream on the side, some say to counter-balance the somewhat dry nature of the cake.

Now I am not a huge fan of chocolate, but even I will go out of my way to sit down and have a piece of this cake when I am in Vienna or Salzburg. Just make sure if you're ever in one of these two places that you have the ORIGINAL Sacher Torte and not an imitation.

Even Ninjas like Sacher Torte...

...And can make it quickly disappear

 The second dessert I inhaled while in Austria is not as well known as Sacher Torte, and is much more simple, but it is equally delicious: Salzburger Nockerl.

What is Salzburger Nockerl you ask? Well basically, it is a giant meringue that is cooked in the oven with a layer of fresh raspberries or fruit preserves like lingonberry jam. The Salzburger Nockerl my husband and I had at the Goldene Ente restaurant had fresh raspberries on the bottom. At first, Americans might balk at such a dessert because the sugar content is very minimal. In fact, as someone who often prefers salty foods to sweet, I kind of thought that the Nockerl needed a bit more sugar.

But as I think back on it, I think that more sugar would have perhaps masked some of the other exciting sensations happening inside my mouth while eating this dessert. The outside was crispy and golden brown and the inside was like eating a cloud. Then you have the tartness of the berries to add another layered dimension to the dish. Even though I kind of balked at the dessert while I was eating it, proclaiming the need for more sweetness, now that I look back on it, I can still feel the divine experience of  letting that light, fluffy meringue melt in my mouth and now I want to go in my kitchen and start whisking some egg whites.

To try your hand at making these desserts yourself, here are a couple recipes to give it a go:

Salzburger Nockerl: Epicurious
Sacher Torte: Wolfgang Puck

The Scorpio Races book trailer

Not only is Maggie Stiefvater an amazingly gifted author, but I continue to sit with my mouth agape at her artistic and musical talents that are an extension of her writing. This trailer for The Scorpio Races is just another example of her multi-faceted, awe-inspiring talent:

Contest Winners and a Reminder

I've been a bit remiss in announcing the winners of a couple of contests. I'm still fighting a bit of jet lag and have been unpacking for what seems like days. Unpacking is always the worst part of coming home from a trip.

The winners of my Summer Blog Hop Giveaways are:
Sheila from Wannabe Writer won the copy of Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins.
Lucy won the copy of We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han


The five winners of the Bad Taste in Boys swag are:
Nicole
Vindisha
Julie
Lisa from Lisa Loves (Books Of Course)
Barb from FL Mom's Blog

All winners have been contacted and confirmed. Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who entered.

As I mentioned in the blog hop, Monsoon Summer is in its last printing, so if you didn't win and you really want to read the book, get it while you can!

Author Interview: Audrey Vernick

So if you haven't been paying attention to the past few posts, then you might not already know that Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? and Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums are among my favorite picture books of all time. I got to meet the illustrator, Daniel Jennewein, on my recent trip to Germany, and now Audrey Vernick has agreed to stop by for an interview.


Foodie Bibliophile: OK, so what inquiring minds want to know is: why a buffalo? Why not an elephant? Penguin? Monkey? What made a buffalo seem like the perfect character for a picture book?

Audrey Vernick: I have realized, in answering this question, that I am a lazy, uncreative, uninspired thinker. Years ago, in response to my dog's interest in some pumpkin muffins, I said to my son, "You're going to need to teach your dog to bake." I added that I should just sit down and write a whole series of children's books, beginning with that title and continuing with Teach Your Cat to Surf and Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums. The last one stayed with me. It kind of wrote itself that day. And it never once occurred to me to seek out another animal--it just was a buffalo.

That was made ever-more true when Daniel Jennewein, the brilliant, entered the picture. Once I saw his pictures, the idea of a buffalo was transformed into THE buffalo, that buffalo. His buffalo. Our buffalo.


FB: What part of the process did you team up with Daniel Jennewein as your illustrator?

AV: Daniel had met the HarperCollins art director in Bologna and she had seen some of his artwork, including, miraculously, a drawing of a buffalo. My understanding is that he was asked to provide some sketches while the book was still in the acquisitions stage. His sketches were, of course, hilarious and wonderful. I was thrilled when he agreed to illustrate the books. I can't imagine what these books would be without him.


FB: What was your reaction when you first saw Daniel’s illustrations for The Buffalo?

AV: There he is!

Many picture book writers describe themselves as visual thinkers. I am whatever the opposite of a visual thinker is. I don't write text with a visual image in mind. I try to leave room for the illustrator to tell his/her story, too. Seeing the first visual representation of my words always feels like a gift from the artist to me. With buffalo, it was my first illustrated picture book, so it was a profound gift. A much-loved gift. An exactly right gift.

FB: In looking at your body of work, your first two picture books were nonfiction and more educational in nature, how did it come about that you went from informing kids to making them fall off their seats laughing?

AV: You made me blush! I don't know if I have an answer for that other than luck.

Well, there was something that happened around the time I switched from one agent to another. A little background: my first agent, a fabulous agent, was well established in the adult fiction market. I wrote both adult and children's fiction when I signed with her, but kept skewing ever-younger in my writing. She did not know the children's market well, so I spent a lot of time figuring it out and requesting specific submissions. Once I signed with my second agent, who is well established with children's publishers, all the energy that had gone into market-oriented thoughts was freed. I don't think it's a coincidence that that is precisely when I started writing funny books.


FB: When did you realize that The Buffalo was more than just a one-hit wonder?

AV: When HarperCollins signed the book (the one I submitted was TEACH YOUR BUFFALO TO PLAY DRUMS), they offered us a two-book deal, a wonderful show of faith in a brand new character. IS YOUR BUFFALO READY FOR KINDERGARTEN? was written second, but published first.


FB: Can we expect more adventures with The Buffalo in the future? (I HOPE!)

AV: We hope so, too. That decision lies with our publisher.

FB: Your first novel, Water Balloon, is coming out in September. How did you go from picture book author to novelist?

AV: I wrote an earlier version of WATER BALLOON before I wrote any of my published picture books. I came to children's writing by way of fiction writing. I received my mfa in creative writing (fiction) from Sarah Lawrence College, and for more than a decade, I wrote literary short fiction for adults. Within that world, it's assumed that just about writer has a novel in her, so it might have felt inevitable for a long time. The other push was the desire to find an agent. The thinking at the time--and to some extent, to this day--was that it's easier to get an agent with a novel than with picture books.


FB: What is your writing process like for a novel compared to a picture book?

AV: I liken it to very painful, long-lasting torture compared to a brief and delightful romp at the beach. Seriously--right now, I'm trying to find my way through a first draft of a new novel and it's killing me. Picture books come relatively easily. I rarely have to force myself to write--I enjoy writing picture books. Working on them fits into the little pockets of time my life naturally provides. For novels, I send my family away. Or I go away. And I try to write thousands of words each day, just to get through the misery of a first draft. I seem to recall liking it more once the first draft is completed, but right now, I'm in the poorly ventilated mines and it's darkness in all directions.

Sorry to sugarcoat it.


FB: Since you are so varied in your writing abilities, I’d love to know what some of your favorite reading experiences have been, either as a child or an adult.

AV: Mmm! I love that question. I've been thinking so much about childhood reading experiences, as they're discussed a lot on my new blog (http://literaryfriendships.wordpress.com). I remember the very strong connection I felt to the main characters in HARRIET THE SPY by Louise Fitzhugh and THE SECRET LANGUAGE, by Ursula Nordstrom. I have a nearly visible love for Scout and Jem, book and movie versions, from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. A strange and incomplete list of favorites: Lorrie Moore's short fiction, memoirs by Mary Karr and Frank McCourt and Dave Eggers; The Magician's Assistant by Anne Patchett; the three adult novels by Alison McGhee. I actually stink at listing favorites, so this is a woefully incomplete list. For children's books, you can't beat this one, by my friend Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich: 8TH GRADE SUPERZERO.


FB: Thanks so much for stopping by Audrey! I can't wait to read WATER BALLOON and we'll hopefully be on the lookout for more Buffalo books in the future!

An annoylingly gushy post about my favorite book blogger and children's book illustrator

I haven't been posting much on my blog recently because I just returned home from a trip to Europe. My husband is in Germany for the next month on business, and since we both used to live there, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to use his company's footing the bill for his plane ticket to plan a trip.

I'll probably be sharing little facets of the trip in small, separate posts rather than doing one long, endless post.

This particular post is about our last night of the trip - I know I'm doing this backwards, but oh well. This is my blog. I does things hows I wants to.

When my husband and I lived in Germany, we lived in the town of Schweinfurt. It's about a two hour drive from the Frankfurt Main airport. Since international flights to the U.S.generally leave in the morning, we would always get a hotel in Frankfurt the night before so we didn't have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn to make our flight.

When I found out I was coming to Germany, I contacted Lenore Appelhans of Presenting Lenore since I knew she lived in Frankfurt. I suggested we get together for dinner the night before my flight back home, but being the gracious person that she is, she actually suggested that my husband and I stay at their place the night before my flight home (he's still in Germany on his business trip so he didn't fly home with me).

For those of you who don't already know, Lenore is not only a rock-star book blogger, but she is also a soon-to-be published author. Her YA dystopian novel, Level Two, comes out Fall of 2012. As if that weren't impressive enough, her husband Daniel Jennewein is an amazingly talented artist and children's book illustrator who illustrated my favorite picture books, Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? and Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums:

We arrived at Lenore and Daniel's around 3:00 in the afternoon and were immediately greeted by their three adorable cats, which if you read Lenore's blog, you already see on a weekly basis every Tuesday in a feature she calls Cat Tuesday.

We sat around and talked for a little bit and when Daniel found out we had two pugs back home, he was over the moon. He even went so far as to offer a trade: their cats for our pugs. Ha! I don't think so Daniel. ;)

After shooting the breeze for a while, I produced the copies of the Buffalo books from my suitcase and asked Daniel if he could sign them for me. Well, he did one better. He created an impromptu Buffalo drawing in each book and asked me what I'd like the Buffalo to be doing. Since he was so smitten with my dogs, I told him to draw the Buffalo with Frank and Guenter, our two pugs, which I had already showed him many pictures of on my iPhone a few minutes prior.

Now every time I pass by the Buffalo books in my house, I have to stop and open them to look at my personalized drawings. As if the Buffalo didn't make me smile already, now I'm beaming from ear to ear when I see him with my boys:

While Daniel was drawing my Buffalo pictures, they were both gracious enough to show me their Top Secret Book Project they've been working on together. I can't say anymore about it since it's still in the editing stages, but I was bursting with glee to be able to see a book project in process. I'm always telling my students that the process is more important than the final product, so that is why seeing a "work-in-progress" stage of the publishing process is very exciting to me.

After getting all in a dither at being to read Top Secret Book Project, my giddiness continued as I drooled over Lenore's YA book collection, and she even let me take some of them home. By the time she was done, I had to rearrange my suitcase so that I could fit eight new books in it. When we left their apartment to go to the airport the next day, I thanked Lenore for all the books, she told me she'll expect to see those book in an "In My Mailbox" post. I told her that wouldn't be a problem at all. Although maybe for this week I'll have to call it "In My Suitcase" instead of "In My Mailbox."

A few hours later, after the torrential rain stopped (thankfully one of only two times it rained on our trip), we walked to a nearby restaurant called Frankfurt & Friends, and it was during that walk that I couldn't help but admire their neighborhood. It's within walking distance of so many things, and whatever's not in walking distance, is just a short tram or subway ride away. It kind of made me wish that our experience in living Germany a few years ago had been in a bigger city with more things to do.Schweinfurt is a nice, clean city, but it was fairly isolated in terms of cultural and culinary experiences. While Frankfurt is certainly not the most beautiful city in Germany - not even close - it has a New York vibe about it, where neighborhoods feel like their own unique city.

Frankfurt & Friends was a cool, sophisticated restaurant with traditional German food, but also international selections as well. The main thing I cared about though in terms of restaurant selection was making sure I got to drink one last Hefewiezen before flying home. German beer... nothing beats it.

At dinner Lenore and I probably bored our husbands as we talked about books and blogging. I liked being able to hear from someone who has perspective on both sides of the aisle, as a book blogger, and also someone who is familiar with the publishing industry.

At dinner with some new friends

When we got back to their apartment, Daniel endeared himself to me even more by asking if we'd like him to make a watercolor of Frank and Guenter. I was touched by his generosity and thanked him profusely.

An artist at work

This is definitely going in a frame!

As if they hadn't already been generous enough, Lenore then read me a few paragraphs from Level Two and I was blown away. I almost wish she hadn't read it to me because I want to read the entire thing RIGHT NOW! :)

The book blogger and the YA community has been kicked to the floor and stomped on for quite some time now but Lenore showed the very best that this community has to offer. Not only did she open her home to two people she'd never met before, but she and her husband were more than generous with their time and talents. So thank you Lenore and Daniel. I will be forever grateful for your kindness. I hope we can meet again someday.

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums by Audrey Vernick & Daniel Jennewein

From Goodreads:

Does your buffalo pound on pots and pans?
Tap out rhythms at the dinner table?
It’s not as unusual as you might think.
He’s simply at the start of an exciting new journey.
 
A very loud musical journey that begins by teaching your buffalo to play drums.
(Did we mention it might be loud?) 

So, you might recall my review of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? back in June when I gushed about how, despite the fact that this book was written for little kids, my sixth graders absolutely loved it. It's one of those books that transcends age groups. 

When I told my sixth graders there was a second book, they were elated. They told me I had to read it to them. But when I discovered it didn't come out until July and had to tell them I couldn't read it to them before the end of the school year, they were greatly disappointed. They even went so far as to ask me if I could come to their seventh grade class and read it to them. 

So what were my thoughts about this second installment of Buffalo antics? It's just as wacky and hilarious as the first! Audrey Vernick has such a unique sense of humor that really sets her stories apart from other children's books, and Daniel Jennewein is probably my new favorite illustrator. I continue to be amazed at what expression and emotion he can portray in just a few simple lines. I have to admit though, my opinion might be a bit biased since he did create a watercolor of my dogs for me when I visited him and his wife Lenore Appelhans in Germany a few days ago (more on this later in a separate post). Though, I did share that opinion of his work even before I met him personally so I'm not THAT biased. :o)

It is my sincere hope that since this is the second Buffalo book, that this will be the start of a long and mad-cap series of books featuring that lovable, crazy Buffalo!

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein
Published: July 1, 2011 by Balzer + Bray
Pages: 32
Genre: Picture Book
Audience: Primary

Summer Giveaway Hop

Thank you to I Am a Reader, Not a Writer, BookHounds, and Forever Young. (Adult) for hosting this giveaway hop!

I am giving away two summer-related books for this blog hop. The first one is:

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins
Published: April 2006 by Laurel Leaf
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Middle Grade/Young Adult

From Goodreads:

Jasmine “Jazz” Gardner heads off to India during the monsoon season. The family trip is her mother’s doing: Mrs. Gardner wants to volunteer at the orphanage that cared for her when she was young. But going to India isn’t Jazz’s idea of a great summer vacation. She wants no part of her mother’s do-gooder endeavors.

What’s more, Jazz is heartsick. She’s leaving the business she and her best friend, Steve Morales, started—as well as Steve himself. Jazz is crazy in love with the guy. If only he knew!

Only when Jazz reluctantly befriends Danita, a girl who cooks for her family, and who faces a tough dilemma, does Jazz begin to see how she can make a difference—to her own family, to Danita, to the children at the orphanage, even to Steve. As India claims Jazz, the monsoon works its madness and its magic.

This is probably my favorite summer read of all time. Mitali Perkins writes of India so vividly that you feel like you're actually there, sensing the rain pounding on your skin, and taking in all of the intoxicating scents of the Indian spices. I was devastated to discover that this book is in its final printing and after all the copies are sold, they won't be making anymore. If this book interests you at all and come August 8th, you haven't been announced the winner, I highly suggest you snatch it up before it's too late!

Read my review here


The second book I'm giving away is:

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han
Published: April 2011 by Simon & Schuster
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

From Goodreads:

It's been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college-- only, their relationship hasn't exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It's time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.

Giveaway Rules:

• Must be 13 years or older to enter
• Open only to US residents
  
• You are not required to be a follower to enter but it is greatly appreciated
• Contest ends August 7th at 11:59 EST
• Winner chosen at random using Random.org 
• To enter, fill out this form

While you're at it, don't forget to visit all the other great blogs in the hop: