As I’ve written before, my family truly enjoys time together in the kitchen…not just eating, but also preparing goodies to share with each other. Being the math and science geek that I am, I might or might not have been able to sneak several math lessons into our family’s cooking.
My sons are older (11 and 14); they are now pretty independent in the kitchen, making intermediate to advanced recipes completely on their own such as scratch-made pancakes and Emeril Lagasse’s chicken etouffee.
When I accepted the offer to review the Adventure Time: The Official Cookbook, I was thinking the recipes would be pretty simple for the kids. Boy was I wrong! There is an incredible variety of recipes and requires an incredible variety of skill levels. I’m pleased my sons enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, because with this cookbook you can expect to bake yeast-raised breads, bake with pureed meats, and even ferment vegetables!
These amazing recipes are from the creative brains of San Francisco chef Jordan Grosser, who has worked with numerous restaurants in the San Francisco area since 2004. He added some pretty fancy touches to what might otherwise sound pretty repulsive on the show, such as “soy people tofu.”
For the serious Adventure Time television series fans, you will know that food is an integral part of many of the episodes. If you pay attention, there is mention of “animal-shaped chicken nuggets,” “softy cheese,” and of course the ever-popular “bacon pancakes!” The colorful pages, background stories, and high-quality photos of the finished recipes make this a fun cookbook to add to your collection.
Today I will share with you the two recipes we’ve tried so far in this cookbook. We made two of Jake the Dog’s favorites: Bacon Pancakes and the Everything Burrito.
Bacon Pancakes
Now, I will be the first to admit that I made bacon pancakes LONG before Adventure Time popularized them. I would make these elongated pancakes and lay entire strips of bacon into the batter. Even though I have a basic pancake recipe that I know by heart, we tried the book’s recipe which calls for a LOT of butter and buttermilk.
The bacon pancakes turned out easy to make—my 11-year-old made them all—while I baked the bacon in the oven and cut the strips into 2-3″ pieces.
The Bacon Pancakes recipe also includes recipes for walnut honey butter and maple jelly, which looked delicious, but the rest of the family had no interest in trying it.
Everything Burrito
The Everything Burrito was featured in the Season 3 episode “Conquest of Cuteness” and, according to the Wiki, contains:
…sunny-side-up eggs, a spatula, purple berries (presumably grapes), a fluffy pink swirled substance (presumably cotton candy), a buttered waffle, a green teacup, a stack of buttered flapjacks, a frying pan, a drinking glass with a straw and yellow liquid inside, a carrot, a hamburger, lettuce, some grapefruit, a pineapple, a slice of lemon, a box of noodles, a bowl of cereal, sandwiches, a carton full of eggs, tacos, a loaf of bread, a ham, a donut, a pumpkin, a banana, a milk carton, bacon, a turkey, cheese, a hotdog, a few strawberries, a cake, some more noodles with a meatball, half of an apple, a tomato, two oranges, some pretzels, a few French fries, spam, a plum, a slice of chocolate cake, a slice of pumpkin pie, a speared olive, scrambled eggs, a mushy brown substance (presumably beans), probably poison, (put in by the cute army) and a large tortilla-bread piece to wrap around it.
Jordan Grosser’s recipe has a different set of ingredients, but is just as “everything”-ey as the one on the show. In the cookbook you will find instructions for a homemade carne asada marinade, pickled red onions (see? I told you you’d have to ferment vegetables!), and a list of assorted fillings ranging from tater tots to sliced raw jalapeño to Cotija cheese. I also included lime slices and grilled red pepper to ours.
Bake the tater tots, slice the vegetables, crumble the cheese, and grill the carne asada! This is an easy dinner for the family to contribute, and if you prepare the marinade ahead of time, this will even work well as a weeknight meal on a busy evening.
As I had said before, these aren’t necessarily kid-friendly recipes: as you just read, the Everything Burrito includes pickled red onions and jalapeño slices! There are recipes that involve nutritional yeast, Korean gochujang (red chili paste), and even making kombucha with a SCOBY.
You will definitely stretch your cooking skills with this cookbook…which I feel is totally in the spirit of Adventure Time, right? Explore your world, expand your horizons. Our family is looking forward to other recipes to explore: Marceline’s Super Porp (grape kombucha), Breakfast Princess’s French Toast Dip Sandwich, Princess Bubblegum’s Perfect Sandwich, and Jermaine’s Anti-Demon Fried Rice, which includes shrimp and Chinese lap cheong sausage.
Adventure Time: The Official Cookbook, with recipes by Jordan Grosser, text by Christopher Hastings (author of Fear Itself: Deadpool), and photographs by Andria Lo, will be available on November 29th and can be preordered through online retailers such as Amazon. The MSRP is $29.99 but pre-orders are available for lower costs.
GeekMom received a complimentary sample of this book for review purposes.
