Food, Friendship & Math

In addition to enjoying cooking, I also love to read - hence my ever-expanding collection of cookbooks. But how do you "collect" an e-book? 

I recently did some traveling for business, and took along a paperback and an e-book. I liked reading from both. The paperback was Perdido Street Station, and -let me tell you- you don't want to cook anything from the steampunk book unless it's for Halloween. (It's a good read, certainly, but not a cookbook.)

The e-book was The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel with recipes by Melissa Clark, and was published in 2009.

It's a breezy read, mostly composed of a series of emails (current times) and letters (from childhood) written between two "friendemies" who were once best of friends. 

Recipes were created specifically for the book and reflect story lines a la "Breakup with Boyfriend Wine and Dine;" that's not an actual recipe title from the book, but you get the idea. 

The Recipe Club is clever, but not pithy: I read from e-cover to cover in less than a day. I didn't care for the stereotypical good girl/bad girl contrast, nor the way everything works out perfect (too perfect) in the end. 

Regardless, this is the kind of marshmallow fluff of a book I like to snack on, a sort of literary comfort food. 

My favorite recipe title has to be the "Mighty Math Muffins." I'm math-challenged, but after reading this recipe, I'm wondering if it's simply an aversion to math class versus recipe calculations? Here's hoping you can solve the story problems in the recipe; the book gives answers.

Mighty Math Muffins

What's 3/4 cup of sugar times 2?

What's 1/2 of 1/2 cup of butter?
What's 1/6 of a dozen eggs?
What's 1/2 of 32 ounces of all purpose flour?
If a tablespoon has 3 teaspoons and you need 2 tablespoons minues 4 teaspoons, what do you need?
What's a teaspoon of salt minus 3/4?
Waht's 1/4 teaspoon of lemon zest times 4?
What's 1/4 of 16 ounces of milk?
How many cups of chopped cranberries do you need if you need 16 ounces?


Grease muffin tins. Then, when you have the math solutions, mix up the mysterious ingredients. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.