August Round-Up - A Walk in the Woods ‪#‎thebookclubcookbookCC‬

I was provided with a copy of The Book Club Cook Book to use for this year-long endeavor of reading and food fun. All opinions and experiences and individual book purchases are my own.

August is almost over and I wanted to share all the great things people have been baking/making this month for our Book Club Cookbook Cooking Club. I loved the creativity! 

This month I selected to make the Lemon Meringue Pie recipe inspired by the "viscous, canary-yellow wedge of lemon pie. ...yellow enough to give you a headache, sweet enough to make your eyeballs roll up into your head - everything, in short, you could want in a pie so long as taste and quality didn't enter into your requirements." from the book. I can still remember a multi-day hiking trip that left me dreaming of cheeseburgers, so I completely understood the draw of the thick, sweet pie. In short, it is nothing like jerky and trail mix.

I mentioned before that I just adore lemon flavored anything... and I was so excited to bake my own lemon meringue pie inspired by the book. I have to laugh that I was more worried about something going wrong with the crust and meringue. In the end, I was preoccupied with first day of school prep for my kids and planning my daughter's 6th birthday...  

...and my filling didn't thicken as much as I would have liked. So with a lovely crust, beautiful meringue, my filling was runny!

Oh, the humanity!

This is the point when I should probably say something about life handing my lemons... but, well... you know.

Luckily, this was one delicious mistake that no one minded eating. Even if it did require a spoon! Yes, it was still delicious... VERY yellow.... and sweet. Just as described in the book.

As for the book? I really enjoyed A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. The book is Bryson's account of walking the Appalachian Trail. Along the way he has a lot of adventures, meets a lot of interesting people and shares his journey with his friend Katz. It was entertaining as well as laugh out loud funny. I can't wait to see it in the movie theater with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

Now remember, I invited everyone to come join me on this reading and baking adventure. There were some brave souls who decided to face the recipe or find other inspiration from the book. Well, I had plenty of folks step right up to the challenge! 

Here's what #thebookclubcookbookCC bloggers made with inspiration from The Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Though from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp.

Everyone did an amazing job pulling funny stories out of the book or coming up with their own take on "lemon meringue pie".  There were many mentions of food in the book, so plenty of chances to find something for everyone.

Camilla, from Culinary Adventures with Camilla, who also happened to have started this cooking crew, created a Perfect Peach Cobbler. It was inspired by MacKaye's vision for trail shelters having more of a proper hostel feel.

Last month Camilla went on her family's annual camping trip - 10 days, 2 states and 5 campgrounds. It sounded like the perfect way to enjoy this month's book selection. I envy her the chance to read this book outside.

Emily from Life on Food created Trail Granola Clusters for her recipe. She had  read other work by Bryson before, but not A Walk in the Woods. She remembers seeing this book on her Dad's bookshelf though.

While reading she noted all the junk food mentions and decided if she ever embarked on such a journey, she would plan better for food. She would instead pack a lot of granola.  I really enjoyed her nut choices of almonds, pistachios, and hazelnuts. That sounds far better than Hostess cakes for a long journey.

Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm created this delicious egg salad sandwich. You have to check out why she was drawn to share this recipe after reading about the fridge that was filled with only egg salad sandwiches...  I just loved her addition of artichoke/parmesan dip in the filling. Brilliant!  That is one version of the sandwich worth stocking an entire fridge with!

Wendy enjoyed the reading this month's selection so much, she had a little incident with her morning cereal getting sprayed across the table due to one particularly funny episode.

Sarah from The Pajama Chef shared a fun recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie Puppy Chow.  I have to agree with Sarah, who doesn't love puppy chow? This was her version of the lemon meringue pie that wasn't as complicated and also probably didn't require as many dishes to wash up afterward.

A great snack, this treat bring together the fun citrus in trail mix form. Wouldn't this be fun to take camping?

Sarah from Things I Make (For Dinner) found inspiration in a particularly troublesome personality (Mary Ellen) who both Bryson and Katz have a hard time with. They joked that if they couldn't ditch  her, they could, "Kill her and steal her Pop Tarts".  So, the homemade pop tarts were chosen for her share.  These Maple Brown Sugar Pop Tarts look amazing!

I also have to give Sarah kudos for enjoying the book with her husband. My husband, and his love of the outdoors inspired my selection and I love they were also able to enjoy it together.

Now Shannon cracked me up with her selection. She thought way outside the "lemon meringue" box to bring us Red Hot Dogs and Moxie Soda. Now, as they traveled along the trail they mentioned some of the local foods like Maine blueberries. Since Shannon has already shared her blueberry pie recipe, she took the chance to introduce the rest of us to some other famous Maine foods.

I have to say, I have never heard of either of these but after her description, I am dying to try Moxie soda. What a great flavor combo! Maybe this cooking crew also needs a little food exchange. Anyone know if I can get a can on the West Coast?

And then Renee from Tortillas and Honey was awesome enough to dive right into the land of Lemon Meringue Pie with me! I have to say that her slice turned out much better than my sad little slider. Isn't this gorgeous?

She shared this pie with her mom who is a lemon meringue pie fan. I know if must have tasted as good as it looked because her mom had 2 slices! 

Check out the full Cooking Crew below:

A Day in the Life on the Farm      

Adventures in All Things Food    

Cheese Curd In Paradise               

Culinary Adventures with Camilla             

Life on Food       

Mostly Food and Crafts 

The Pajama Chef              

The Spiffy Cookie             

Things I Make (for Dinner)           

Tortillas and Honey         

ZooeySuff   

Giveaway

This month Andrea at Adventures in all Things Food, this month's host, is giving away a copy of the book.* Enter to win a copy of the cookbook so you can join us for future months, if you wish!

One of our lucky readers - US and Canada only! - can enter to win a copy ofThe Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, courtesy of Tarcher-Penguin. Giveaway runs from August 1st till August 31st at 6 o'clock PM, Pacific time. Please see terms and conditions in the rafflecopter widget below. Many thanks to Tarcher Books. You may find Tarcher: on the web, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Pinterest.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
*Disclosure: Andrea received a complimentary copy of The Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp to use in this year-long project plus the opportunity to give a copy away. Opinions are our own. We received no further compensation for our posts.

Next Month

Renee of Tortillas and Honey will be the host next month (September). Keep an eye out for her invitation. I think I heard she will be pulling her recipe inspiration from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines... but check out her invite to get all the details and join in on the fun.