Books From the Basement Podcast

Greetings to all our amazing listeners! We've been away for a while and would like to update you on recent events. Lisa underwent hip replacement surgery in May, followed by two dislocations and a subsequent hip revision surgery at the end of July. Meanwhile, Amy experienced a biking mishap in Germany, resulting in a hospital stay and leg surgery. Fortunately, she's now back in Santa Barbara. We're both recovering and will release a new episode for you soon. We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding. You are truly the best!

Hip teplacement surgery #2 has been conquered. Hopefully, discharging from the hospital today and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed!

What did you think about this year's Halloween episode? We had so much fun recording it!!

Invitation templates for the Daniel Boone Party!

Here is my interpretation of the lake on the Wheeler Estate as described in "The Secret of the Unseen Treasure." This is based on the map that is used in "The Black Jacket Mystery." Most of the books don't follow this map, but I posted it because it shows the lake off Glen Road rather than behind Manor House.

#21 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: The only recipe I made from "Black Jacket Mystery" was the sugar-and-cinnamon-covered doughnuts with milk! I had to add a few frosted with sprinkles because they're my favorite!

The Books From the Basement Podcast is back in action with the next Trixie, and The Secret of the Unseen Treasure is on the agenda! ALL the BWGs are included in this one--along with virtually every other character in the first six books! Even Reddy and Patch have cameo appearances! Part one is available wherever you listen to your podcasts! Here are some links to the episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1544569
https://podcasts.apple.com/.../books-from.../id1544343334
https://open.spotify.com/show/7h7Rvo4ezIfQKVJ3O36vx6

#19 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: Mysterious Code's Belden Family Dinner Party. The Beldon's host a dinner party for the BWG's. On the menu: Waldorf Salad, Hamburgers, scalloped potatoes, baked beans, homemade ketchup, homemade corn relish, homemade beet pickles, various vegetables and pumpkin pie. Whew! That's a was a lot to make for one dinner, but I managed to pull it off! (Pumpkin pie not pictured. It was already included in the Belden Thanksgiving dinner)!

#19 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: In When Trixie spent the night at Mrs. Vanderpoel's house in "The Mysterious Code," she was treated to a meal of sausages and fried apples!

#18 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: I've moved on to the "Mysterious Code!" I used Moms' Hamburger Recipe (hamburgers with crumpled bread soaked in milk) to cover the Valentine's party and a classic meal at Whimpy's Diner! I wasn't a fan of the burger (a bit soggy), but the fries and chocolate malt were amazing!

#17 of Lisa's Trixie Belden's Food Project

I'm finishing the "Mystery in Arizona" with three items:

(1) Blueberry pancakes with bacon eaten both at home and in Arizona,
(2) Di's "rice dish" which I interpreted as red rice. I added some black beans, frijoles and rolled it all up into a burrito just like Mart's "Mexican Sandwich"
(3) Pan de Los Mu***os. This is an orange flavored bread shaped with bones on top. I highly recommend making it if you love the taste of oranges. Tedious to make, but worth it!

On to the "Mysterious Code!"

#16 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: Mexican Feast. In The Mystery in Arizona, there was a lot of cooking and eating going on! I put some things together to make this "feast." It included Mart's "Mexican Sandwich" and what I presumed was a mole sauce of some sort. Also, guacamole was mentioned, so I threw that in as well! And the tortilla chips are homemade!

#15 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project

"The Mystery off Glen Road" had a few recipe options for me. I'm putting them all together in one post.

The famous "Crabapple Special" sandwich made its first appearance in this book. I've already made this and even did a poll in a prior post. I've included the mention in the book but chose not to make it again. I like my PB & Js without butter!

Bobby "peetends" his vegetable soup is "hunter's stew" and Mr. Maypenny makes venison stew. I made my beef stew which is the closest thing to a "hunter's stew" that I'll ever make.

Lastly, the Belden family eat "Macaroni with Cheese-and-Tomato Sauce," so I cooked up some of that

Enjoy!! Next up: "Mystery in Arizona" and some authentic Mexican food!

#14 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: The orange sherbe(r)t pumpkin from "The Mysterious Visitor."

Even though the BWGs planned a meal for Di's Halloween party, fake "Uncle Monty" insisted on catering it with Hams, Turkeys and other unnamed foods. I'm not making the ham and I've already made a Turkey, so the only thing left to do was make the orange sherbet(r)t pumpkin! It's a scaled down model and very rudimentary, but you get the gist of it, right?

This is the only thing I'm making from "The Mysterious Visitor," so it's on to "Mystery off Glen Road!"

#13 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project. Here are two of Mart Belden's favorite foods: Fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. This was my first time making fried chicken! This finishes off the Gatehouse Mystery and it's on to Mysterious Visitor!

#12 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: Strawberry Sherbert (because that's how I was taught to spell and pronounce it). This is from "The Gatehouse Mystery." It's always hot in this book, so the gang had a cool dinner at the Wheeler's Place. A shellfish allergy prevented me from making cold shrimp salad, but I did go all out on the homemade strawberry sherbert. Thanks to Amy Berkowitz Tharakan for surprising me with the fancy strawberry dishes!

#11 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: Moms' random turkey dinner! To finish off The Secret of the Mansion, I invited all my friends over to my place for my Friendsgiving Dinner with all the trimmings. I made sure to put lots of onions in the stuffing! I skipped the green salad because only rabbits want lettuce with a turkey dinner!
Note: This dinner also covers the Belden's Thanksgiving party in Glen Road and any other turkey dinner that might pop up in future books!

#10 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: Mrs. Smith's waffles, sausages & hot chocolate. Trixie was "hustled" by Mrs. Smith to enjoy this country breakfast. This is the final food post for The Red Trailer Mystery. Moving on to The Gatehouse Mystery!

#8 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: Mrs. Smith's spiced grape juice and layer cake.

In Red Trailer, Mrs. Smith treats Trixie and Honey to a chocolate layer cake along with her spiced grape juice. I served the juice cold because it said they were drinking from glasses. Also, I made the cake yellow instead of chocolate per someone's comment that a chocolate layer cake can be considered yellow with chocolate frosting in some regions. Also, I just made a chocolate/chocolate layer cake for the last book, so there's that... It is homemade, though, and I did make it four layers! My first time doing that!

#7 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: We're moving on to The Red Trailer Mystery! When talking about their impending chores during the trip to find Jim, Trixie brags about making baked beans for her father. Even though we don't read about Mr. Belden eating these, I'm making an exception for this one because I've always wanted to make homemade baked beans!

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#6 of Lisa's Trixie Belden Food Project: In the Red Trailer Mystery, Trixie and Honey make friends with Mrs. Smith after her dog causes Trixe to fall off Susie. Mrs. Smith shared her oatmeal cookies and lemonade with Trixie.

#4 of Lisa's Trixie's Food Project: In Secret of the Mansion, Trixie & Honey were alone at Crabapple farm one night. Jim came over and they ate a meal of frankfurters, rolls, salad and chocolate milk shakes. Here's my version of that dinner! I like to think Moms would have fancy malt glasses!

#3 of Lisa’s Trixie Food Project. Still in Secret of the Mansion. When Trixie has her first sleepover at Honey’s she’s promised a breakfast of Popovers with Strawberry jam and a bacon omelette. We don’t read about them eating it, but I’m sure Celia and cook wouldn’t let her down! This was my Sunday breakfast today! And the jam is homemade and delicious!

#2 of Lisa's Trixie Food Project
Who remembers this interesting combination? Trixie and Honey are swimming at the lake when a "trim little maid" magically appears with a large chocolate layer cake and fresh lemonade.
--The Secret of the Mansion.

Interestingly, the illustration makes it look like a white cake with chocolate frosting... I went with the text, though, and made chocolate. The lemonade is fresh squeezed with simple syrup--never done that before!

For my first Trixie cook/bake recipe I chose from. The Secret of the mansion. During the first meal Trixie, Honey and Jim ate together at the Frayne Mansion they enjoyed an entire Lemon Meringue Pie!