Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places, Reviewed

 

Whether you are interested in the paranormal or not, I’ll bet every one of you will admit to loving a good ghost story. I know that I do, and have many fond memories of sitting around a campfire with my fellow Girl Scouts, listening to them. A couple of my own rather strange experiences have pushed me in the direction of believing in the paranormal, if only slightly, versus scoffing at it previously.

 

Those of you interested in the paranormal may be familiar with Ami Bruni, co-star and Executive Producer of the widely successful paranormal series, “Kindred Spirits” wherein she helps frightened people reclaim their homes from the mysteries of the unknown. Bruni, who admits that she grew up in a haunted house, was also one of the stars of the program “Ghost Hunters,” with which everyone is no doubt familiar.

 

Her combined love of vintage regional recipes and the paranormal shine through in this unique and fabulous cookbook, Food to Die For, Recipes and Stories from America’s Most Legendary Haunted Places, a book dedicated to Lizbeth “Lizzie” Borden, “…whose killer meatloaf recipe inspired the idea for this book.” I don’t think I have ever enjoyed reading a cookbook as much as I did this one. It combines haunted sights across the country — mysterious hotels, eerie ghost towns, and possessed pubs (one of which was visited by “Ghosthunters” in my town) — pairing these with recipes reflecting happenings on those sites. Case in point, there is a recipe for Lizzie Borden’s meatloaf. What a perfect dish to serve at a Halloween party, proffering slices on the blade of an axe.

  Bruni is not wrong when she says, “Food can bring the dead back to life.” A rather frightening sentiment, but an accurate one, considering that I can’t make fried chicken without thinking about my grandmother. I could really relate to Bruni when she talked about her late mother, her signature dish being a Caesar salad recipe that the family loved, but for which there was no physical recipe. When her mother passed away, the recipe went with her. This caused her to associate food and recipes with the dead and paranormal experiences. She was delighted when she found a Caesar salad recipe from Sheboygan Asylum, that reminded her so much of her mother’s. I’m just going to leave that there. 

The recipes are largely gleaned from other sources, many of which are now out of print. Imagine serving cinnamon sugar cookies from Alcatraz. What a great way to give your kids a tasty dessert and teach them some history at the same time. Many of these recipes do come from penitentiaries, all of which have a haunted past.

If you are looking for a new way to host a dinner party, you need this book. Nothing, I guarantee, will make you as popular in your neighborhood, at family gatherings, or as a member of your gourmet club, but to follow one of the menus and recipes in this book, pairing them with creepy music and a complementary story.

The book is full of wonderful vintage photographs as well as fabulous full color photos, along with recipes from the corresponding haunted places. I was pleased to see two places from Missouri listed in this book, but at the same time surprised that one of the most haunted places in Missouri, namely the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis was not.

 

 If you enjoy entertaining guests in a unique and memorable way, this is the guidebook on how to do it. The book is divided into the following sections:

Eerie Hotels
Horrifying Homes
Otherworldly Watering Holes
Hair-Raising Historic Landmarks
Hellish Institutions
Ghoulish Ghost Towns

It was so much fun learning the creepy history of so many places, as well as seeing the interiors the way these places looked back in the day, and even, in some cases, seeing a photo of their menu. I have to tell you that this book is the best cookbook that I have read all year. This book will appeal to those who love cookbooks as well as those who love the paranormal. It is a must have for either one of these personal libraries.

 

It is available for pre-order with the publication date of July 30, 2024. You can get your own copy (and you know you want to) by clicking here.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

 Disclaimer: I received a complimentary digital copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 

A Literary Halloween

I decided to go in a different direction for Halloween this year inspired both by my love of Poe (I once had, in my youth, all 18 stances of his iconic poem, “The Raven” committed to memory), and by the fabulous offerings of Michael’s earlier in the season. The Poe bust and typewriter were two things I absolutely could not pass up.

I think this is one of my favorite tablescapes of all time. There are many layers here as you can see, from the chocolate brown table round, to the skeleton hand fabric, to the gauzy runner, all combine to give this table an ethereal look.

Simple black placemats are topped with tin chargers, on which I placed square black plates. Books, published in the 1700s (to give it a literary feel), were placed on top and serve to hold salad plates from Carly Dodsley, and then appetizer plates from the “Midnight Dreary” collection a number of years ago from Pottery Barn.

The skull coffee mugs are from Williams-Sonoma, a couple years back. A bit of sparkle is provided by Mikasa wine and water glasses in the “Parklane” pattern.

 The adorable mice place card holders really worked here, I thought, they can be found here.

 The amber tea lights, provide a bit of an unworldly glow, and can be found here.

The ravens were purchased years ago at a local shop, and have served me well over the years. The mirrored black flatware is a new addition this year, and I have found it quite versatile. You can find it here.

No matter how you plan to celebrate the year's spookiest of all nights, I hope you’ll do it with style.

 Happy Halloween!

 

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

This post is linked to: Tablescape Thursday

 

"Le Coq" - A Rooster Tale

There is a Chickens & Roosters party going on at Note Songs blog today, so I thought I'd join in.  My entry is probably a bit different than most as I'm showcasing an event rather than an item, but since it does indeed surround a picture of a rooster, I thought it would fit right in.

Read on...

When people learn that I live in a house that is 119-years-old, one of the first things they ask, usually with a look of intense curiosity, is if it's haunted. I always hesitate before responding. I think the answer is a resounding "No!" and yet a number of strange incidents have occurred during our 16-year residency that defy explanation. One such event concerns this picture.

A particular favorite of mine, it hangs in the kitchen just over the door that leads into the dining room. It was rather late in the evening on the night before my annual Thanksgiving dinner many years ago, and I was busily working in the kitchen doing as much advance preparation on the meal as possible. My husband was seated at the counter in the kitchen with his back to the dining room door, so was unable to witness the strange phenomenon that occurred. I was stirring a large pot of leek and potato soup on the stove when I heard a sort of swishing noise. Swish...swish...swish. I turned to see what he was doing and immediately looked over his head. The picture was violently rocking from side to side, swinging back and forth on the nail on which it had been hung. The lower right corner swung way up to the right, and then back again bringing the lower left corner way up to the left. I stood gaping at it for a while, the hairs raising on the back of my neck. Before I could get the words out to my husband to turn and look, the picture stopped and leveled itself perfectly. That alone was strange since nothing in this house is level. I immediately ran upstairs to see if either of my boys were doing anything that might have caused this most unusual and, I might add, creepy occurrence. Christopher was quitely sprawled on his bed reading a Jeffery Deaver novel; Andrew was sitting in front of his TV blasting something on a video game. Neither one, they said, had done anything other than what they were currently doing for the past half hour or so.

It was a quiet night. There was no traffic on the street. No high winds were blowing, in fact there was no wind at all. The weather was cold but clear, so no thunder to rattle things hanging on the wall. There was simply no cause for the picture to move an inch, much less rock back and forth, and yet it did that one night, never before and never again.

I've never looked at it in quite the same manner since that night, and it took me a long while before I could even take it down to clean it. Occasionally while in the kitchen I'll glance at it over my shoulder, and I still get goosebumps when I do.


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