Our Blog

Even though she's busy taking over the Internet with #MarshMadness, Shauna Sever isn't going to stop there. She's hitting New York this week, visiting Posman Books at Chelsea Market.

At Posman Books at Chelsea Market, Shauna will be signing books for an hour and handing out samples in the cozy bookshop. Chelsea Market is the food mecca for a lot of New Yorkers, so we're psyched to see Shauna in such an awesome place. For more information on the signing, visit Chelsea Market's official website.

Marshmallow Madness Signing @ Posman Books
March 7th, 6:30pm – 7:30pm

Chelsea Market
75 Ninth Ave.
New York NY 10011
www.chelseamarket.com

Lucky Charms Marshmallows by Barbara Bakes

The (marsh) madness continues! Last week we saw some incredible recipes, whipped up by Barbara Bakes, Foodie Bride, and Baked Bree. Here on Quirkbooks.com, we joined in the fun by posting some recipe cards on our Facebook page, which you can grab here. Caroline over at Serious Eats has the full recap, and here are the links to the recipes below.

Barbara Bakes: Lucky Charms Marshmallows

Foodie Bride: Baileys Marshmallows

Baked Bree: Chai Latte Marshmallows

And bonus, check out Eat The Love’s custom made carrot cake marshmallows. Wow!

Keep an eye out for the next contenders! And make sure you’re following the bracket on Twitter via #MarshMadness.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

173 years ago settlers living in Mexican Texas made it official: they broke away from Mexico and formed the Republic of Texas.

And while March 2nd is an official holiday only in the Lone Star state, we wanted to give them a nod this year by cooking up some Frito pie. A simple Texan dish to make, Frito Pie consists of corn chips (Fritos are originally from Texas) piled on with chili, shredded cheese, onions, and other optional toppings.

For an easy, breezy recipe that bypasses day-long chili simmering, check out The Homesick Texan. This site has an hour-long chili con carne recipe that is a piece of cake to pull together. Once the chili is done, put a heaping handful of Frito chips on a plate (or just open the Frito bag if you are feeling intrepid), add a cup of the chili, some shredded cheese, chopped onions, and other toppings you fancy.

We were inspired by the additions Serious Eats’ vegan Frito pie recipe used. Sure, they are probably not authentic Tex Mex, but the avocado, jalapeños, scallions, and cilantro trimmings gave our meal even more texture and flavor. Just make sure to have your fat pants on while eating this savory pie: it’s delicious, but thankfully for our waistlines, Texas Independence Day is only once a year.

Oh, Horse_ebooks. You are easily my favorite Twitter account.

Unfamiliar with it? Horse_ebooks is a Twitter spambot designed to sell… that’s right, eBooks about horses. The account spews out a seemingly endless amount of randomly generated text and sometimes, just sometimes, an actual line from a book. The tweets are hilarious and have spawned webcomics, fan fiction, and now, thanks to some guys here in our hometown of Philadelphia, t-shirts.

Born from their mutual love for Horse_ebooks, Philadelphians Adam Teterus, Aaron Grando, and Brett Strycharz decided to pay homage to their favorite Twitter account with finely-crafted fashion tees that subtly nod to the source. The name of the product line? Horse_elooks.

Their company, What Say Co., currently has three Horse_elooks shirts up for grabs, my favorite of which is pictured above. Head over to the official What Say Co. website to scope out the rest.

Well done, gentlemen!

Ah March! The month that rings in Spring, gives us all a reason to be Irish, and celebrates the lives of pigs. Say whaaa? Yes, that’s right. March 1st is National Pig Day, a holiday instituted in 1972 by two sisters to honor the pig for its intellect and greatness. Probably a bad day to eat bacon.

To do my share in honoring the pig I have gathered a list of the greatest porkers in literature. I lift my glass to all of them, but also slightly apologize for giving you more information on pig characters than you probably need to know.

1. Wilbur: Oh, Wilbur. The beloved children’s book Charlotte’s Web introduces Wilbur, a rambunctious pig who befriends the clever spider Charlotte when he learns he’s on the menu for Thanksgiving dinner.

Interestingly, E.B. White wrote Death of a Pig years prior, based on a true event of how he couldn’t save his sick pig. Some believe Charlotte’s Web was a way for White to retroactively save that pig. I think E.B. would have been all smiles on Pig Day.

2. Piglet: I almost turned a blind eye to Piglet because he has received enough attention throughout the years, but then I realized it would give me an opportunity to talk about “Pooh Sticks.”

For the uninitiated, Pooh Sticks is a game created by the Hundred Acre Wood clan whereby each player drops a stick over the side of a bridge to see whose stick first appears on the other side. There is even a World Poohsticks Championship, which takes place annually on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England. Nerd alert!

3. Gub-Gub: Who, you say, is Gub-Gub? Gub-Gub was one of the first animals that Dr. Doolittle spoke to in the 1932 children’s book Gub-Gub’s Book, An Encyclopedia of Food by Hugh Lofting. The book is told from Gub-Gub’s point of view. Gub-Gub is a great lover of food. He is also the first animal to experience Dr. Doolittle’s onset schizophrenia.

4. Napoleon and Snowball: These two young pigs were born from the mind of George Orwell in Animal Farm, published in 1945.

The Stalin-inspired Napoleon starts off as a regular ol’ piggie but soon becomes dictator of the farm animals. Snowball, on the other hand, is busy trying to stir up other farm animals in a massive riot against humans. I think Snowball masks would have been way cuter than Guy Fawkes’ masks during Occupy. No?

Today is Leap Day. For some of us, it means trading childrens’ tears for candy. For others, its an extra day to read, write, and/or bake.

If you’re the sort that can’t wait to spend the extra free time whipping up some treats for post-Leap Day festivities, you’re in luck. Tomorrow happens to be National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day. So to help you out, we’ve got this delicious recipe from our Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook.

Read on to learn how to make peanut butter swirl brownies. Yum!