Mid-Challenge Review Round-Up

I have really been enjoying reading food-related books the last few months, and it seems you have as well! There are still two months of eating reading pleasure to go for the Spice of Life Challenge, so if you haven’t yet finished your choices, keep on reading!

In the meantime, here is an easily accessible round up of the reviews that have been posted to this site as of October 27. This may help you decide on your next read if you’re undecided still!

If you’ve read something for the challenge and/or if if you’ve reviewed something for the challenge and it is not on this list, please leave us a link on one of the Reviews pages or on this post so I can include you in an “end-of-the-challenge” round up. I tried to get everyone who’d given me a link but I may have missed something! Sorry!

Mini-Challenge #2: Favorites

(Where has the month gone? I meant to put this up last week, but time keeps slipping away from me)

Mini-challenges are a way to enjoy The Spice of Life Challenge beyond reading your selected works. Feel free to participate if you’d like; if not, don’t feel bad skipping it. It’s just for fun.

The second mini-challenge is all about favorites because sometimes the joy of eating, cooking, and living is returning to those favorite dishes and foods and cooking personalities. We can interpret this as favorite foods, favorite dishes, favorite cooks, favorite restaurants, favorite food magazines or favorite books about food. You name it, as long as it’s your favorite.

I thought of this because I like to revisit my favorite foods, my favorite recipes, and my favorite cook books. This month, let’s think about those things related to food that are our favorites.

You can do any of the choices below; there is no need to do all of them if you don’t want to. I’ve included at least one that doesn’t require you to cook or to eat, so that way The Spice of Life Challenge can still be calorie free for you if you choose!

• Cook: Make a favorite dish and share the recipe with us.
• Eat: Eat three different dishes with your favorite food in it, because sometimes variety makes things fun.
• Ponder: Find pictures of at least five foods that are your favorite color. Or find pictures of your favorite foods. For fun, make us guess what they are.
• List: Tell us your favorite food blogs, magazines, cooks, restaurants, foods, or anything else. We want to know about them!
• Write: If these mini-challenge ideas don’t appeal to you, write up your own blog post that somehow relates the concepts of “favorite” and “food” and/or “the spice of life.” I look forward to seeing your results!

Mini-challenge #2 will be active until October 31. If you participate, leave a link to your post(s) below. If you decide not to post about it on your blog, simply let us know what you did in the comments below.

Reading Update

How is your reading progress? What are your favorite reads so far? I’m really enjoying my choices, and I think my favorite has been A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg (a memoir) and Pretend Soup (a pre-schooler cookbook).

It seems Julia Child is everywhere, thanks to Julie Powell’s memoir. What did you think of the movie? Have you seen it yet?

I’m hoping I may sneak in the book and the movie of Julie and Julia soon. I keep hearing great things!

Keep reading!

Spice of Life Mini-Challenge #1: New

Mini-challenges are a way to enjoy The Spice of Life Challenge beyond reading your selected works. Feel free to participate if you’d like; if not, don’t feel bad skipping it. It’s just for fun.

The first mini-challenge is all about new because this challenge is a new one. We can interpret that as cooking something new, eating something new, or just thinking about those foods that we’ve never tried before.

I thought of this because I’m sometimes afraid of new foods, whether it’s a recipe I’ve never prepared or a food I’ve never tried before. This month, let’s think about those foods that are new to us or that intimate us.

You can do any of the choices below; there is no need to do all of them if you don’t want to. I’ve included at least one that doesn’t require you to cook or to eat, so that way The Spice of Life Challenge can still be calorie free for you if you choose!

• Cook: Prepare a new-to-you recipe. Perhaps it’s a recipe that you’ve been afraid to try, or maybe you’ve just always wanted to prepare it. It doesn’t have to be a hard recipe; it just needs to be new to you. If cooking a cheese sandwich intimidates you and you’ve never made it before, go ahead and give that a try.
• Eat: Try something you’ve never eaten before. It may be something that intimidates you, or maybe it has an ingredient you have never before liked; sometimes tasting those foods prepared a different way may change our minds.
• Picture This: Find a picture of something edible that you have heard of but have never before eaten. What intrigues you about that food (or drink)?  What would it take for you to try it, or are you just waiting for your chance?
• Write: If these mini-challenge ideas don’t appeal to you, write your own blog post that somehow relates the concepts of “new” and “food” and/or “the spice of life.” I look forward to seeing your results!

Mini-challenge #1 will be active until August 31. If you participate, leave a link to your post(s) below. If you decide not to post about it on your blog, simply let us know what you did in the comments below.

On Your Mark, Get Set, READ!

The Spice of Life Challenge has officially begun!

If you’re trying to figure out what to read first, check out the reading ideas lists I created for cookbooks, nonfiction, memoirs/autobiographies/essays, and fiction. You can also check the comments of the sign up post; some people have created their own read lists and left us a link.

Anyone is welcome to join at any time before Decemer 31, 2009.

Happy eating reading!

Reading Ideas: Fiction

I haven’t read most of these books, but I have found them on various lists as novels about food. This is, of course, just a sampling. The possibilities are endless!

Any book that has a memorable or significant scene revolving around food, eating, or drinking could count for this challenge. Do you have any recent reads you could recommend?

Reading Ideas: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Essays

Note that I haven’t read most of these, and this is just a sampling of options. I compiled it by referencing Amazon listmania lists and the most recent bestsellers. The possibilities are endless!

Can you recommend any other great memoirs or essay collections revolving around food?

Reading Ideas: Nonfiction

Note that I haven’t read most of these, and this is just a sampling of options. I compiled it by referencing Amazon listmania lists and the most recent bestsellers. The possibilities are endless!

I separated nonfiction into a few different categories so you might be able to find what you might be most interested in. There are tons of options out there! You may want to browse through Amazon, which lets you search by category.

What nonfiction books about food have you enjoyed?

Reading Ideas: Cookbooks

Note that I haven’t read most of these, and this is just a sampling of options. I compiled it by referencing Amazon listmania lists and the most recent bestsellers. The possibilities are endless! What’s your favorite cookbook?

Welcome to The Spice of Life Challenge

I like to read and I also like to cook. I’m quite the amateur when it comes to cooking, but I certainly appreciate a good meal. Nevertheless, I wanted to put my two hobbies together.

The Spice of Life Challenge, then, deals with something we all like, at least to some extent: food. Although it crosses over with some challenges that happened in the past, it is a new chance to read some of those books that you love to get to and to share them with others.

I’m most excited to hear what everyone else chose to read, so I encourage you to come back and share your thoughts on the books you’ve read.

• Learn about the challenge and join in
• Add a challenge button to your site
• Read others’ reviews or link to your own

If you don’t have a blog and would like to participate, you can still add your reviews to the comments section.

I’m hoping to have an edible prize of some kind for participants. However, I’m not sure about the logistics of mailing something like cookies internationally, and I wouldn’t want to have a prize that international people can’t participate in. Anyone know the rules? I’m also not sure I have the funds (especially internationally), so I’d happily take a sponsor :).

I’m Rebecca and I normally blog about books at Rebecca Reads and I blog about eating (i.e., my attempts to feed my family) at Rebecca’s Cooking Journal.  Contact me at rebecca [at] rebeccareid [dot] com with any questions.