James and the Giant Peach... Juice

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a safe and happy weekend. I rang in 2011 with an intimate collection of people I adore. Several of those people happened to be under the age of nine, so I wanted to find appropriate party foods and drink that we could all enjoy. 

On a recent trip to San Diego, I had the pleasure of combing through stacks of cookbooks at my parents house. When my mom handed me a book that she prefaced with, "this belongs to your sister" I immediately coveted the book, and tried in vain to memorize its contents. When my shoddy memory failed me, I did what any jealous sister would do, and bought my own copy. What made this particular cookbook so covet-worthy, is the fact that it was written by the popular children's book author, Roald Dahl.

The book is called Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes, and it contains the recipes of foods found in his famous stories. Even if you are not familiar with his work, the book would be fun to flip through for its creativity and wonderful illustrations by Quentin Blake. 

The beverage I selected for the New Year's Eve celebration with the little ones, came from the book James and the Giant Peach.

To make your own James and the Giant Peach Juice, you will need:

1 can (16oz) peaches in fruit juice
1 can (5 oz) mangos
juice of 1 lemon

Blend everything together in a food processor and serve in sugar-rimmed glasses for a touch of sophistication that every age will appreciate. We garnished with maraschino cherries as well.
It was extremely easy to make and quite delicious. A little tang, a little sweet, a lot of healthy fruit. This particular recipe would also make quite a yummy breakfast (minus the sugared rim.) 

There are many more treasures in the cookbook to be explored, and I'm sure I will enjoy making the chocolate cake from Matilda or the lickable wallpaper from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at some point soon.

Revolting Recipes would also be a great gift for any book worm who is handy in the kitchen. And if you don't already have the Roald Dahl collection, I would absolutely recommend the following:

Happy Monday and welcome to a new year!