The Girl Who Chased The Moon

 

 

 

 

The Girl Who Chased The Moon **** by Sarah Addison Allen

 

 

 

 

I’m joining Jain with my Edible Book Review at Food for Thought, where in her words, pages from your book magically mix with the kitchen and your camera.

 

 

 

 and Michael Lee at Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday. . . the perfect little food corner in blogland.

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

Mullaby is a small town of North Carolina, that is full of gossip, ghostly lights that dance in the moonlight, and magical wallpaper that changes color. When 17-year-old Emily comes to live with the gentle giant that is her grandfather, she hopes to solve some of these mysteries including what caused her mother to leave town and vow never to return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julia Winterson has returned to town to run her father’s barbecue business. Mullaby is a town with more BBQ restaurants per capita than any other place in the state. Julia’s father’s restaurant has a loyal small following.

 

 

 

 

Lexington-Style BBQ is something my family is very familiar with. 

The fictitious Mullaby, is loosely based on Lexington, with more barbecue restaurants per capita than any other place in the state. It’s also home to the famous Lexington Barbecue Festival. Lexington-Style to us, is the epitome of North Carolina BBQ and nothing rivals Lexington #1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

With BBQ on the brain, I borrowed this idea from Southern Living Magazine, where Foods Editor Scott Jones fondly remembers the BBQ Sundae served at the Rebel Barn BBQ in Oxford, Mississippi. An entrée, not dessert, the sundae layers pork, slaw, and baked beans, all covered in thick, sweet red sauce, or Lexington-Style sauce in this case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This would be a great idea for tailgating or an outdoor party for serving your BBQ~

 

 

 

Julia’s dreams to open a bakery have to be put on hold, while she works off her father’s debt, so she begins to add cakes and pastries to the menu. To Julia, baking is a language that calls to those you love.

 

 

  

 

  

“There was a mood of magic and frenzy to the room. Crystalline swirls of sugar and flour still lingered in the air like kite tails. And then there was the smell–the smell of hope, the kind of smell that brought people home.”

 

 

 

Milky Way Cakes typically have the candy bars melted into the batter. 

 

My version of a Milky Way Cake~aka  Incredible Melted Ice Cream Cake Recipe

 Here

 

 

 

 I used a yellow cake mix and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Everything But The… (everything BUT Milky Ways :-)  I did cut up 3 miniature bars and added it to the batter for this Edible Review. This is an easy cake recipe, and it can be altered lots of ways, depending on your cake mix~German Chocolate, Devil’s Food, White… and then with the addition of your flavor of melted ice cream, according to your taste.

 

 

  Julia runs into Sawyer, an old flame, when she returns to town.

 

Sawyer:

 

“You know how some people have a sweet tooth? Well, I have a sweet sense. When I was a little boy, I could be playing across town and know exactly when my mother took a cake out of the oven. I could see the scent, how it floated through the air. All I had to do was follow it home.”

 

 

 

  

“His mother had tried to hide cakes from him when he was small, but he always found them. He couldn’t help it. At that age, he hadn’t yet developed the willpower to resist. He’d inherited his sweet sense from him grandfather. It was the reason he felt so close to him, closer than to anyone else in his family. His grandfather had been the one who taught him how to turn it off, after one to many stomach aches. And he’d also been the one who’d told Sawyer that not everyone could see what he saw, so be careful who he told. Sawyer normally left it off now, unless he was distracted or tired, then he would unwittingly see the silver glitter undulating out of house windows, or the sparkle trailing out of a child’s lunch box.”

 

 

 

 

 Julia:

 

“It was what you told me about how you always sensed when your mother baked cakes. I loved that story. I started baking when I was away at school. That’s a whole story unto itself. The point is, at a time in my life when there were a lot of bad things happening, you gave me something good. Something to hold on to. I’m opening my own bakery when I move back to Baltimore. And it all started with you.”

 

 

  

 

 

 

“You said you followed the scent home when your mother baked, so I have it in my head–in my heart–that if I just keep baking, she’ll find me. That this will bring her home.”

 

 

 

 

In Mullaby, Emily discovers some of the answers to her questions but also discovers that her disbelief could be suspended further than she ever thought.

 

 

I enjoyed this book~ reading it was a piece of cake :-), easily done is a day or two. You do have to suspend your sense of disbelief, just like Emily. You should be warned that it will make you want to bake a cake, or follow your sweet sense to find some!

 

Be sure to stop by Designs by Gollum and see what’s being served this Friday &  Food for Thought and find out what everyone is reading & eating!