November 17 from 2-4
Come on down to Two Sisters for our Holiday Open House!
Ellen Elizabeth Hunter will be at the store to sign copies of her latest Magnolia Mysteries book: Christmas Wedding.

At last, the long-awaited event that followers of Hunter's Magnolia Mystery series have been eagerly anticipating is finally happening!

Or is it?

In the most recent book in Hunter's popular Wilmington-based mystery series centers around Wilmington's social event of the season: Ashley and Melanie's lavish Christmas-theme double wedding with their princes charming, Jon and Cameron. Vows will be exchanged at St. James Church, out-of-town guests are comfortably ensconced at picturesque B&Bs, and the wedding planner in none other than Colin Cowie himself. What could possibly spoil the nuptials? A hyper-critical mother-in-law known to an older generation as the Sweetheart of the Silver Screen? A Wall Street hunk who has vowed to proclaim his love for one of the brides? A "Queen of the Tarot Cards bridesmaid who is predicting catastrophe for the wedding day? Or is it the mysterious wedding crasher whose life of lies just might cost the brides their own?

Here's a tasty excerpt:

"Earlier we had been out to our caterer Elaine's bakery in Leland to check on the cakes with Celeste, a baker who is a wizard with cake floor and who creates flawless fondant. We had selected pear-vanilla cake with a cinnamon-cappuccino cream and hazelnut nougat filling -- Celeste's own creation. She would begin baking the cake tomorrow, then assemble and decorate it during the week. There would be four square layers. Each layer would be spread with fondant that was skillfully sculpted to look like gift wrapping and ribbons on Christmas gift boxes. Life-like American Beauty red roses made from sugar would separate each layer and form a crown bouquet on top. . ."

Pear Vanilla cake? Mmmmm. . .

Cook's Canvas Fresh Pear Cake (page 236)

4 cups grated, peeled and seeded pears (do not use Bosc pears)
2 cups sugar
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspons baking soda
1 teasponn freshly grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

Combine the pears, sugar and pecans in a large bowl and toss until coated. Let stand for 1 hour. Stir in vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the flour, baking soda, nutmeg and salt and mix well. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured large tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overcook.

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Two Cookbooks That Will Get You Through the Holidays

Why read when you can eat? We're especially happy about two cookbooks that came out this fall. 

The Cook's Canvas 2: Coastal Carolina Artfully Entertains is the follow up to the the classic but now out-of-print Cook's Canvas from St. John's Museum of Art. But a new museum naturally means a new volume. Cook's Canvas 2 contains recipes collected from more than two hundred Wilmington cooks as well as from a few friend around the country with Wilmington connections. Each recipe was tested by volunteers at tasting parties (it's a tough job, but someone has to do it).

The other cookbook we wouldn't want to face the holidays without is Jean Anderson's A Love Affair with Southern Cooking. The book is exactly what it's title suggests-a paean to all the wonderful foods the author grew up eating in defiance of her Midwestern mother's ever more feeble objections. Anderson, who has a long and varied career as a food critic, journalist, agricultural extension worker, and most recently "recipe doctor", gathers together in this unusual and diverting cookbook about two hundred different recipes that range from the classic ("Nana's Lima Beans") to the weird ("Pine Bark Stew", which is not nearly as awful as it sounds and does not contain any actual pine bark).  Recipes are usually accompanied by stories-either stories of where she first ate the dish or where the dish was first historically served-whichever, frankly, sounds better in the telling. Among the recipes are vignette histories of famous Southern foods-Moon Pies and Krispy Kreme Donuts, but also Planters Peanuts and Maxwell House Coffee, the latter an item many Southerners don't like to brag about.  And if this weren't enough, she fills any leftover space on the page with food quotes and an extended time line of important Southern foodie moments-from the time Ponce de Leon first set foot on the Florida peninsula (and presumably started looking for something to eat)  to the celebrated re-opening of George Washington's plantation still earlier this year. . .read Rosa's full review

Thanksgiving at Mama's~ In memory of Ruth:

When I moved to the South, I traced my acclimation to the new climate by the food. I used to joke about it with the friends and family I'd left up north-when they were shivering under late winter frosts, I was planting spinach in the garden.  Picking over the wilted late-winter produce in their grocery stores, I was picking up quarts of strawberries at the local farmer's market. I passed some kind of invisible milestone when I started using Martha White flour for my bread and Duke's mayonnaise on my sandwiches.  I was re-educated about the term "barbecue". 

But when fall arrived, or what passes for "fall" in coastal North Carolina, I ran bang up against a wall of Yankee upbringing- so hard that it knocked my right off my high southern horse.  I will always remember the unhappy, disoriented feeling I had sitting at my first Southern Thanksgiving dinner; I hardly recognized the meal in front of me. The fruit salad in the big bowl had mini-marshmallows all over it.  There were oysters in the turkey stuffing.  The turkey had been injected with something and dumped in a deep fryer.  When my friend Fay smiled at me and said "you want some chicken 'n pastry?" I turned gratefully in her direction, immediately imagining a nice steaming chicken pot pie in a flaky golden crust. I was utterly shocked when she passed me a bowl of oily broth, swimming with shreds of boiled chicken parts and slimy lumps of dough that slid right off the spoon.  I froze, appalled, and then gingerly set the bowl to the side of my plate and turned back to the deep-fried turkey with sheer determination. . . read the rest

Chicken and Dumplings
from A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson, p 132

2 cups sifted all-puprose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1/3 cup firmly packed lard or vegetable shortening
1/3 cup milk
8 cups chicken stock or broth
1 chicken bouillon cube, if needed to boost the flavor of the stock
1.2 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon sage
½ teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled
5-5 ½ cups slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieced of cooked chicken meat
¼ cup coarsley chopped parsley

Combine the flour, baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of the salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut in the lard until the texture of coarse meal. Whisking hard with a fork, drizzle in just enough milk to forma a soft but manageable dough. Scoop onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a ball, cover, and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the chicken stock, bouillon cube, if needed, the rmaining 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper, sage and thyme in a large Dutch oven or stockpot and set over low heat.

Roll the dumpling dough as thin as pie crust on a lightly floured surface, and cut into 1 ½-inch squares. Gather any scraps, reroll, and cut.

Add the chicken to the Dutch Oven, bring quickly to a boil, then ease in the dumplings, a few at a time. Adjust the heat so the stock barely bubbles, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the dumplings are done, stirring gently now and then.

Add the parsley, taste for salt and pepper, and adjust as needed. Ladle into heated soup bowls and serve.

Gifts from our Holiday Catalog

Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night by Sallie Ann Robinson, $15.95

Sallie Ann Robinson was born and reared on Daufuskie Island, one of the South Carolina Sea Islands well known for their West African-influenced Gullah culture. With this cookbook, Robinson highlights some of her favorite memories and delicious recipes from life on Daufuskie, where the islanders traditionally ate what they grew in the soil, caught in the river, and hunted in the woods. Includes 75 recipes and 25 folk remedies.

Eat Dessert First!: The Red Hat Society Dessert Cookbook edited by Carol Boker, $24.99

The Red Hat Society cooks are back With a beautiful full-color dessert cookbook filled with enthusiasm, humor, and really good desserts.

"Life is uncertain, eat dessert first " This beautiful cookbook maintains that you should "Eat Dessert Always " Even the Red Hatters who no longer bother to cook regular meals will still strut their stuff with chocolate, meringues, pastries, and cakes.

Compiled by Red Hatters from around the country, this luscious collection ranges from simple to sublime, delightful to decadent. Beautiful full-color photos will inspire cooks of all ages and tempt cookbook buyers to add this book to their collection. More than 200 recipes include cakes, pies, candies, breads, puddings, cookies, and much more. For the non-cooks who still want to impress, there will be a special section of non-cook, easy-to-assemble desserts guaranteed to succeed.

"The Red Hat Society Cookbook," published in the fall of 2006, was a huge success. Publisher's Weekly said, "The fun spirit of this cheery cookbook makes it a winner." "The Red Hat Society Dessert Cookbook" contains all new recipes; none are duplicated from the earlier cookbook.

Gameday Gourmet: More Than 80 All-American Tailgate Recipes by Pableaux Johnson, $16.95

From Notre Dame's cheesesteaks to Memphis ribs to Penn State's grilled stickie buns, the Gameday Guide to Championship Tailgating brings together 75 of the finest regional recipes from the nation's most-hallowed tailgating meccas to teach fans how to make the most of a college football Saturday. Floating above the smoke of our parking lot grill, you'll find a rich mix of history, tradition and lore. Visit the artisans of Columbus, Ohio, who lovingly recreate the Buckeyes horseshoe stadium out of spongy layer cake, the Southeastern Conference diehards who recreate the world's greatest cocktail party outside the Florida - Georgia game and the true professionals of Oxford, Mississippi, who magically transform The Grove at Ole Miss each week into a five-star banquet complete with candelabras. Because tailgating is fun, you can also expect a healthy serving of ESPN humor: The members of our All-TailgateTeam, the number of hotdogs it takes to fill William "The Refrigerator" Perry, and so on.