From Viola Shipman, Author of The Charm Bracelet
MARCH 2018 ISSUE

The next Heirloom book is coming soon...The Recipe Box

The Recipe Box publishes … ON TUESDAY, MARCH 20!

This is a deeply personal and very special book to me for many reasons. The novel is inspired by my grandmother’s recipe box and recipes, as well her life, love and lessons. Moreover, food is what connects us all.

I spent much of my childhood in my grandma’s country kitchen, tugging at the hem of her crisp white aprons embroidered with bright strawberries or pretty flowers.

My tiny grandma and her little kitchen seemed larger than life to me as a child: A vintage oven anchored one side, while her sparkly countertops were engulfed by a bread box that held Little Debbies and Wonder Bread slices. But the most prized possession in her kitchen was her recipe box. A brilliant baker, my grandma cherished the burnished wood box jammed with beloved and secret family recipes, all organized into different categories – Pies, Cakes, Cookies, Breads – and all written in her slanting cursive.

Her pink Formica table was the glamorous backdrop for her desserts: Fresh fruit pies – apple, blueberry, cherry, strawberry-rhubarb – with golden crusts vented with a pretty “S” for Shipman, as well as lemon with mile-high meringue that resembled a heavenly cloud. And her cookies – chocolate chip, oatmeal, thumbprint filled with homemade jams – were devoured before they even had a chance to cool.

When she died, my mom inherited my grandmother’s recipes. After my mom passed, I became the keeper of those recipes and memories.

Some of my Grandma's recipe cards

The Recipe Box is about a woman who rediscovers her family – and herself – through the recipes that have connected generations. The book is a tribute to our elders, especially the women in our lives whose voices were often overlooked in their lifetimes but whose love and strength united us.

Each chapter in The Recipe Box is centered around a treasured family dessert. Among the beloved dessert recipes included in the book are Cherry Chip Cake (see recipe in March 2017 newsletter), Apple Crisp, Peach-Blueberry Slab Pie, Thumbprint Cookies, Ozarks Ice Cream Sliders with Chocolate Chunk-Cherry Chunk Cookies, Strawberry Shortcakes, Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffeecake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping, Triple Berry Galette, Apple and Cherry Turnovers, and Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Food, recipes, baking and cooking are what unite us, transport us, connect the past to our present. We all have special recipes, ones we make every holiday and special occasion, the ones we ask our moms, grandmas, sisters and aunts to make because they capture treasured memories and transport us back in time. Even if our loved ones are no longer with us, when we get out that old recipe card and make that favorite recipe, they are still with us in the kitchen, and we remember their hands on ours as they taught us to roll a pie crust or add just a pinch more cinnamon.

I’m honored to open the recipe box of my family and share a slice of our lives – and our pies and cakes – with you. I hope you will share in this tradition, pass along your heirloom recipes to those you love and get someone in the kitchen to bake with you today. And I hope you will add a copy of The Recipe Box to your bookshelves as well as your favorite cookbooks.

There's lots more in this newsletter. I am sharing my tour dates; I love to meet readers as I travel. Along with this is a list of Upcoming National Dessert & Baking Holidays with lots of suggestions of what to bake from the book to celebrate them. And there are a few nuggets of praise for The Recipe Box, which I know would have made my grandmother smile.  

One last thing....if you enjoy this newsletter, may I ask you to suggest that your friends subscribe here? Or, you can share it with them or forward it to them with the links at the bottom of this page. Thank you. 

Easter Brunch: A Recipe Suggestion from The Recipe Box for Your Family (PLUS a Recipe NOT in the Book)

Since my birthday (March 30) falls on Good Friday this year, and Easter is April 1, I thought the following recipes – one that is in the novel, and that is not – would be perfect to share as you plan your family’s Easter dinner this year.

My family loved Easter. But it wasn’t a normal family holiday. Yes, we went to church, often rising at dawn for sunrise service. Yes, we had a lovely family brunch with all of my grandparents, who bestowed lots of games and toys upon me and my brother. But our Easter celebration had a big asterisk: My father used to bury our Easter eggs. You heard me right. My dad believed that it was just too easy to put the eggs in a basket or place them at the base of some tulips. He thought the after-church hunt should be more of a challenge, say akin to The Hunger Games. On Easter, my father would give me and my big brother little spades and hand-drawn maps and send us on our way to dig up the yard. An engineer and child of the Depression, my dad believed in precision and hard work over frivolity.

As a little kid, it seemed like great fun, an adventure, a pirate hunting for his bounty, a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek. But as I grew a bit older, I just wanted to be like everyone else. I was embarrassed when friends found out about my Easter. When I grew up, however, and began spending holidays away from my family, I suddenly missed not only the way my mother smothered our Thanksgiving sweet potatoes in a cloud of marshmallows and the way my dad sang Irish songs at the top of his lungs on St. Patrick’s Day even though we weren’t Irish, but our Easter egg hunts.

My family wasn’t “holiday normal,” I realized, and that was okay, perhaps even a gift for a writer. More than anything, my family made me realize that being myself was important, that listening to my own voice would take me far, and that once I gave up what made me unique I’d be just like everyone else. My parents are now gone, but their love, memories and influence remain.

Which is why in a couple of weeks – in honor of my father – a few eggs will be buried in my yard, and guests will be given spades and maps. Because that’s how my family does Easter and always will.

Here are a couple of family-favorite recipes that we often served for Easter brunch. The recipe (and backstory) for Triple Berry Galette is included in The Recipe Box, but the Sausage & Egg Casserole is not (this hearty brunch casserole is delicious and filling, and can be prepped the night before). By the way, my Grandma Shipman never used the term “galette”; that was much too fancy for her. She called it a “breakfast pie.”

Both are wonderful recipes and perfect for Easter brunch. Enjoy!

Sausage & Egg Casserole

Ingredients:

For pre-prep the night before:
1 1/2 lbs. sausage (I use Bob Evans … 1 roll regular and 1 roll spicy)
1 box seasoned croutons (small size)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

For the morning:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

The night before, brown the sausage. Beat together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and mustard. Grease a 9x13 pan and layer as follows: 1) Croutons; 2) Cheese; 3) Sausage; 4) Pour egg mixture on top. Refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, mix soup and milk. Spread mixture on top of casserole. Sprinkle cheese over the top.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes.

Triple Berry Galette

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 (level) cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking spice
1/2 cup of chilled, unsalted butter (small cubes)
3 tablespoons ice water (needs to be icy cold; you can add ice cubes to water)
Brown sugar and cinnamon (add at end, after rolling out dough)

For the filling:
3/4 cup blueberries
3/4 heaping cup blackberries
3/4 heaping cup raspberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking spice
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon orange juice
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

For the pastry:
Place all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Blend together with a fork.
Break apart cubes of chilled butter and add slowly, a few at a time, to dry ingredients, quickly coating each cube with fork or fingers.
Cut chilled butter into dry ingredients with pastry cutter, rotating bowl as you go (scrape butter off of cutter, as needed).
Cut until mixture resembles small crumbles or pea-sized gravel.
Slowly drizzle cold water, one tablespoon at a time, into ingredients, mixing until dough forms (add additional water if necessary).
Form dough into ball with hands. Lightly dust with flour and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough.

For the filling:
Add berries to a large mixing bowl.
Add lemon juice and sugar. Stir with spoon.
Add brown sugar. Stir.
Add flour. Stir.
Add baking spice. Stir.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of orange juice. Stir.
Dot room temperature butter into fruit. Mix.

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Place dough ball on lightly floured wax paper.
Roll out into 10-inch circle, using lightly floured rolling pin.
Transfer to air bake sheet.
Lightly dust rolled crust with brown sugar and cinnamon.
Place fruit in center of pastry, leaving a two-inch border. Use remaining flour and sugar in bowl to sprinkle over top of fruit.
Fold edge of crust inward toward fruit (not covering), pinching corners to seal as you go (this is a rustic dough, so edges will resemble pizza dough; center of fruit is not covered)
***Lower temperature to 425 degrees before placing galette in oven.
Bake 25 minutes.
Let galette cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Grand Giveaway:
“Books & Baking Basket”

To celebrate the release of The Recipe Box, I’m excited to announce that I’m doing a grand giveaway of a “Books & Baking Basket.”

One lucky newsletter subscriber will win a beautiful basket filled with my books and a bonanza of baking goodies. The basket will be filled with all three of my novels – The Charm Bracelet, The Hope Chest and The Recipe Box – as well as some baking supplies to help you make some wonderful recipes from The Recipe Box, including: A vintage-inspired apron; an assortment of holiday cookie cutters; an Easter Bunny cake mold/pan (SO CUTE); six of my treasured family recipes, including five NOT included in The Recipe Box (and all printed on adorable recipe cards); a full set of measuring cups and spoons (with adorable pink handles); a cookie spatula; a pink silicone spatula (for batters, etc.); a wooden spoon; and an assortment of colored sugar sprinkles for decorating your cookies and baked goods.  This is a prize worth $175!  

To enter:

-Like and follow the Viola Shipman Facebook Fan Page and Instagram (if you are not on those sites, no worries...you can still enter.)

-After liking those sites, e-mail Gary@violashipman.com 

-You have to send an e-mail in order to be eligible. 

A random drawing will determine the winner (continental US only). I will announce winners the week of March 26 on my web site under the What’s New section and also on the Viola Shipman Facebook fan page.

It is because of readers like you that I am able to write the books I love. This is just a small token of my appreciation for your love, faith, support and belief in me and my work.

Pre-order The Recipe Box now, and I'll send you an autographed, personalized bookplate and a family recipe not included in The Recipe Box

For an author, pre-orders of a book are the equivalent of first weekend ticket sales for a movie’s release, the first week’s box office for a Broadway play, or opening day attendance for a professional baseball or football team. In short, presales of a book demonstrate surefire support of a book and enthusiasm. I’m hoping that you will consider ordering the book NOW from your favorite bookseller or bookstore, in advance of its March 20 release. AND IF YOU DO … I will send you an autographed, personalized bookplate for your book, which you can have on hand to place in The Recipe Box as soon as it arrives. In addition, I will include a beloved family dessert recipe NOT included in The Recipe Box (a few of my favs just didn’t make the cut for a number of reasons). Just message me privately at contact@violashipman.com and send me your mailing information and to whom you’d like the bookplate personalized, and I will send a bookplate and recipe at no charge. In advance, THANK YOU for your support.

Spring Has Sprung (And My Books Are Blooming Everywhere)​

In addition to The Recipe Box, I am proud to announce that my other novels are popping up in new formats this spring.

The Charm Bracelet is now out in mass market paperback. The Charm Bracelet is about how the charms on a grandmother’s bracelet reconnect her to her too-busy daughter and granddaughter and remind them of their family’s history and of what’s most important in life. 

The Hope Chest is now out in paperback. The Hope Chest is a beautiful story about the unconditional love and support of family and will remind you that hope can be found where and when you least expect it.

I hope you enjoy all of my books. And if you’re part of a book club, contact me to visit with your club.

The Hope Chest
Trade Paperback Available Now

The Charm Bracelet
Mass Market Paperback Available Now

What's New?

Richard Paul Evans Loves The Recipe Box...

I was honored to receive a glorious endorsement for my new novel from one of my favorite authors of all time, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Richard Paul Evans. I fell in love with Richard’s novel, The Christmas Box, many moons ago, and it not only become a beloved book in my home but it also became a holiday gift I shared with many. Richard writes the kinds of books that I do: Novels that have beautiful family storylines and inspirational themes that resonate with readers of all ages. To say I was humbled by his belief in my new novel would be an understatement. Here is what he wrote: "Filled with cherished memories and treasured recipes, The Recipe Box is a touching tribute to the women and food that unite us and connect our past to the present."

… And So Does Good Housekeeping...

Good Housekeeping magazine is featuring The Recipe Box in its March issue. GH calls the novel “an easy, delightful novel” and highlights it in its books section, saying it’s the perfect choice for book clubs.

… And Julee Rosso, Author of The Silver Palate Cookbook...

It’s a small world after all … famed chef Julee Rosso, founder of Silver Palate and author of The Silver Palate Cookbook (now in the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame), lives in the same small Michigan resort town as I do. And she runs a charming inn in town (the Wickwood Inn). Julee provided a wonderful blurb for The Recipe Box, and we’re going to celebrate its release together this spring. (I’m asking her to cook.) Rosso writes, “Shipman’s charming stories remind us how family recipe collections link the generations and spark our fondest memories. Treasure them!”

The Recipe Box Event Calendar
(PLUS A Cooking Calendar)

I am so excited to announce The Recipe Box tour schedule (which will feature lots of wonderful food at lots of wonderful places). I hope to visit a bookstore or library in a city near you. The tour is ever-evolving, so please visit the Appearances section of my website for the latest. In addition, I thought it would be fun to provide a monthly calendar listing the major food holidays, so that you can bake along with me this spring and summer. You can see this below. 

Wednesday, March 21, 2018
6:30 pm
Palm Springs Public Library
300 S. Sunrise Way
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Reading and Signing

Wednesday, April 4, 2018
12:15 pm -1:30pm
2018 Texas Library Association Annual Conference
Dallas, Texas
Keynote Speaker, Opening Author Luncheon

Wednesday, May 16, 2018
7:00pm
Grand Rapids Public Library
111 Library Street NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Reading & Signing

Thursday, May 17, 2018
5:30pm
Nibbles, Novelists and New Beginnings
Ever After Banquet Hall and Conference Center
230 N Michigan Ave
Hastings, MI 49058

Wednesday, May 23, 2018
6:30pm
A Cook and a Book with Ron Block
Vitamix
6134 Kruse Drive
Solon, OH 44139
(440) 782-2002

Thursday, May 24, 2018
7:00pm
Cuyahoga County Public Library – South Euclid Branch
1876 South Green Road
South Euclid, OH 44121

Friday, June 8, 2018
5:30-8:00pm
Special Event at Crane’s Pie Pantry, Restaurant & Winery
The Recipe Box Book Reading and Dinner With Author Wade Rouse
“Wine, Words & Pie!: An Evening of Food & Fun in the Orchard As Wade Rouse Discusses His Latest Novel, The Recipe Box & The ‘Crane’s Inspiration’ Behind It
6054 124th Avenue, Fennville, MI 49408
(269) 561.2297
contact@cranespiepantry.com
Limited tickets available

Wednesday, June 13, 2018
6:30pm
Frugal Muse Books, Music & Video
Chestnut Court Shopping Center
7511 Lemont Rd. #146
Darien, IL 60561
(630) 427-1140

Friday, June 15, 2018
6:00pm
The Book Cellar
4736-38 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60625

Tuesday, June 19, 2018
7:00pm
Forever Books
312 State Street
St. Joseph, MI 49085

Thursday, June 21, 2018
11:00 a.m.
Luncheon & Address
Grand Rapids Women’s City Club
The Sweet House
Women's City Club
254 Fulton Street East
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Phone: 616-459-3321

Thursday, July 12, 2018
6:30pm
Loutit District Library
407 Columbus Ave
Grand Haven, MI 49417

Wednesday, July 18, 2018
6:00pm
Wine & Pie Reception
Special Event: I will be partnering with Suzie’s Pies, who will provide a pie making demonstration and plenty of pie to suit your sweet tooth. Reservations are requested. To reserve your place, call 231-347-1180 or email events@mcleanandeakin.com.
McLean & Eakin
307 E. Lake Street
Petoskey, MI 49770

Thursday, July 19, 2018
6:30pm
Saturn Books
127 W. Main Street
Gaylord, MI 49735
Reading & Signing

More dates are being added all the time. Visit my tour page for updated details.

Cooking Calendar

Here Are The Upcoming National Dessert & Baking Holidays

March

National Flour Month
Berries and Cherries Month
(Suggestion: Make Triple Berry Galette...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

April

National Bake Week-First Full Week of April
(Suggestion: Make My Family’s Thumbprint Cookies...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

April 7: National Coffeecake Day
(Suggestion: Make My Family’s Rhubarb Sour Cream Coffeecake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

April 28: National Blueberry Pie Day

May

National Strawberry Month

May 11: National ‘Eat What You Want’ Day
(Suggestion: Make My Family’s Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

May 13: National Apple Pie Day

May 15: National Chocolate Chip Day

May 26: National Cherry Dessert Day
(Suggestion: Make My Family’s Cherry Turnovers...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

June

First Friday in June: National Donut Day
(Suggestion: Make Cider Donuts from the Pie Pantry that Inspired the Setting in The Recipe Box...Recipe in the book)

June 9: National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day

June 14: National Strawberry Shortcake Day
(Suggestion: Make My Family’s Strawberry Shortcakes...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

July

National Ice Cream Month
(Suggestion: Make My Family Ice Cream Sandwiches...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

July 10: Pick Blueberries Day
(Suggestion: Make Peach-Blueberry Slab Pie...Recipe in The Recipe Box)

Happy Spring, Happy Reading, and Happy Baking

There is something about opening my family’s recipe boxes and pulling out a beloved recipe card that centers me. Holding the same flour-flecked, ink-smeared recipe card my mom and grandma held, and making the same recipe they did, makes it seem as if they are still with me. And they are. The smells and flavors are the same. I shut my eyes and take the first bite of a pie, cake or cookie, and I can hear the voices of my family. Although we are an online society now – recipes exist on our laptops and phones, and videos show us how to make a dessert in under 30 seconds – nothing can replace the history found on a recipe card. If you have your family’s recipe boxes, pull them out and use them again. If you don’t, I urge you to start one for your family. Start writing down favorite recipes. Share them. Honor your food and your family.

Here are some photos of my family’s recipe boxes, recipe cards and vintage baking utensils and supplies. Happy Baking!