Foodbuzz 24×24: A Magic Tree House dinner

May 1st, 2011 by justJENN

The Kid loves to read, but imagine my surprise when he came up to me and said, “I have a favorite author, her name is Mary Pope Osborne.” A favorite author at 7 years old? Those must be some books. Turns out they are – Mary Pope Osborne is the author of the popular series of “Magic Tree House” children’s books. It follows the adventures of Jack and Annie who use a magic treehouse to transport them through time on wild adventures. The Kid had started reading the books at the school library and was immediately hooked.

There are over forty (!!) of these chapter books and kids around the world are in love with them. As luck would have it, I was selected for Foodbuzz’s 24×24 (where 24 people from around the world are chosen to make one meal on the same day) and I chose to make a meal influenced by one of the Magic Treehouse books.

I decided to make a dinner inspired by Magic Tree House #39: Dark Day in the Deep Sea.

The title of chapter 6 is: “Pea Soup”. This was in reference to the weather since it was so foggy, but I thought it’d also make a great, hearty meal for the kids. In the book Jack and Annie find themselves aboard a pirate ship, where the sailors tell the kids what’s for dinner…it’s not good.

“What are we having for lunch?” Annie whispered to Henry.
“The usual,” said Henry, sighing. “Salted meat, pickles, dried biscuits.”
This is not good, thought Jack.

He’s right. It sounds awful. So I thought I’d take this idea and make it into something wonderful. A meal that you’d really want to enjoy on a pirate ship. But what’s to drink?

“…he reached for his cup and took a long sip of water.
Jack immediately spit the liquid back into his cup. It was unbelievably sour!
“You just guzzled your lime juice, lad,” said the Professor.
“…It prevents scurvy,” said the Professor. “Every day we all drink a cup of lime juice for the vitamin C. Otherwise we’d get sores and rotten teeth”

So far, things don’t sound so good, but I promise – *my* version of this meal will knock your socks off:

Pea Soup with salted meat (recipe, here)
pickles
dried biscuits (Bacon+Cheese biscuits recipe, here)
lime juice (lime floats recipe, here)

It just so happens that the Magic Treehouse live tour was going across the country and would coming to Los Angeles the same weekend as my 24×24!

At the Magic Treehouse live event at the local bookstore, Jack and Annie appeared live, straight out of the books and encouraged the kids to explore, travel and most importantly – READ.

Jack and Annie gave a great performance and afterwards all the kids got to go up and talk to them while they stamped the kids books and gave them reading passports. The store was PACKED with kids and parents, with the line snaking all the way out onto the street!

The meal was fun and the kids got really into it – but more importantly the Kid got to experience his favorite Magic Treehouse books come to life. It was something he’ll never forget and will hopefully encourage him to keep reading!