EATING POETRY: Cooking with the MUse

Late last year, Pleiades asked me to review a charming new "book lover's cookbook," a challenge I happily accepted. My review of Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare by Myra Kornfeld & Stephen Massimilla is forthcoming in Issue 37, Volume 2. In addition to the longform review itself, I decided to cook two of the recipes and take some photos as well. As you can see, cramming a proper mise en place onto my tiny apartment kitchen counter proved to be my greatest challenge. The results were delicious, and the book got me thinking about anthologizing practices, the confluence of bodily and intellectual nourishment, and my own Irish heritage. Food has a magical way of drawing us closer to the past, to those we love, and to ourselves. The full review is archived on Project MUSE here. I hope you're hungry.