Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good by Kathleen Flinn + Giveaway
I haven’t done as much summer reading this summer as I would’ve liked. Running around after two kids, working on the next book, and keeping up with the house has taken up almost all my time. However, I had the good fortune of getting a copy of my friend Kathleen Flinn’s latest book, Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family, and I read the whole thing cover to cover in just a few days. I’ll admit, I pushed aside work in favor of reading and it was so worth it.
Food memoirs, or foodoirs as they are sometimes called, are one of my favorite forms of writing and Kathleen’s book doesn’t disappoint. It chronicles three generations of her family’s culinary endeavors and how they shaped the woman she has become. The stories are inspiring, hilarious, and at times heart-wrenching, with recipes to match. I haven’t had a chance to make a lot of her dishes yet, but my book is dog-eared and I aim to make quite a few this fall. First up, apple crisp!
There are so many stories I’d love to recap here but I will wait for you to read it yourself. I can guarantee you’ll enjoy Kathleen’s wry sense of humor and her journalistic storytelling style. Curl up with it on the back porch, savor every page, and you’ll be left hungry and satisfied all at once.
And, if you really want, you can enter here to win your very own copy!:
1) Leave a comment sharing one of your favorite family food memories.
2) Contest runs from August 21 – 28 at 7:00am ET. The winner will be announced in the August 29th newsletter. Good luck!
One of my favorite food memories is making homemade doughnuts with my grandmother. Oh, how I miss her, but to this day when I taste a doughnut made from her recipe it takes me back! Lots of love in her food !!
one of my favorite family food memories is when my late grandmother decided she wanted to cook Thanksgiving dinner all by herself (normally the ladies in the family would do the dinner as a colabrative effort). Everything looked good on the table but…. when the centerpeice (the turkey) was cut no one had noticed anything until you took the first bite, that she had cooked the turkey fully entact plastic bag inside (the one that holds the “parts”) and all. Everyone shuttered at the taste and my granny was soo embrassed. The entire turkey tasted of melted plastic. It was soo funny everyone was laughing, and to this day even though she has past away we still laugh and talk about that memorable Thankgiving each year.
One of my favorite family food memories is this story from my Mom:
Goulash the French Way
“This has been in the family for years, really don’t know its beginning, but it became my favorite meal growing up. During the Second World War we moved to Flint so that Dad could take the bus to work. He had to sell his car because there was no rubber for civilian transportation. At this time there was food rationing and received stamp books that were used to purchase food. Many items were scarce and one of these items was sugar. Also, the different cuts of meat were given as your turn for that particular cut came up. We were celebrating my birthday and knowing how well I liked Goulash, my Dad went to the grocery store to get hamburg, even though it was our turn for roast beef, he talked the butcher into giving him the hamburg instead. Can you beat that? I also had my favorite homemade chocolate cream cake.”
Making homemade Christmas cookies with my mom and my siblings
My favorite food memory is going apple picking in the fall and baking apple pies with my aunt!
SO MANY FOOD MEMORIES. SNAPPING BEANS IN THE PORCH SWING WITH MOM AND GRANDMA…BAKING CHRISTMAS DESSERTS WITH MY PAPPY…BEING SENT OUT OF THE KITCHEN WITH A SPOON OF PEANUT BUTTER! GOOD TIMES!
One of my favorite memories is of my Dad…we were visiting him & I burnt the toast…as I was apologizing for it, he said: “Why, I always thought that was a good thing, because you can scrape it to get it just the way you like it.”, in his thick Texas drawl…it made me love him all the more! 🙂
My mom always made dinner when we were kids! On the off chance that Mom had to work late, Dad would make dinner and his dinners were always so fun. It’s as if Mom being gone meant that Dad could spoil us with pancakes, potato dumpling soup, or tater tot casserole! I loved it!
My mom cooked dinner but my DAD always made us breakfast! I’m 50 now and he STILL makes breakfast for me when I’m with him!
I remember my mom making the best spaghetti with meat sauce
I loved going out for Sunday dinner with my family
My favorite memory was eating my mom’s homemade cookies
When I was younger my dad ate the rest of the homemade chocolate chip cookies. He decided to make a batch to replace it. He stuck the wooden spoon in the beaters and it splintered everywhere. So much for the cookies.