leslie muir

leslie muir, my cajun queen

~ jama ~ 41 Comments

#14 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Who dat? My beb Leslie Muir!

Choooh, she cute, no?

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Leave it to Leslie, one of my favorite picture book authors, to two-step into our little shindig and kick it up three, four, ten thousand notches. No surprise, dis hot mama peppery poet is always cookin’. When she’s not baking her famous bread or assembling yet another doughnut cake, she’s tossing together a bunch of tasty, chewy, spicy words and making new stories. We don’t call her “Bakery Babe” for nothing.

Cafe du Monde beignets via Chuck Yaeger

Remember when she had those mice baking a birthday cake in the middle of the night? What about that grumpy hedgehog sucking down his celery soup and shaking his maracas with his neighbor Paprika? Maybe you prefer sinking your fangs into something juicy or chomping on crispy beetles? Whatever your pleasure, Leslie knows how to serve it up!

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soup of the day: c.r. mudgeon by leslie muir and julian hector

~ jama ~ 57 Comments
Alphabet Soup Curmudgeons give this book a 3 pins up!

It’s Tuesday, it’s Tuesday!

For eminently sensible hedgehog C.R. Mudgeon, Tuesday is the day to pick a fresh fig for dessert.

For all of us here in the Alphabet Soup kitchen, this particular Tuesday is the day we get to shake shake shake our maracas, cause we’re celebrating the official release of C.R. Mudgeon, a brand new picture book by Leslie Muir and Julian Hector!

*cues in mariachi band music*

Before I tell you about some of the things I love most about this charming book, a couple of party favors. First, put on these hedgehog slippers if you’re like C.R. Mudgeon himself — a creature of habit who likes things just so and gets grumpy when faced with change:

 

If you’re a little firecracker who makes friends easily and likes to spice things up, put on these sassy red polka dot pumps, cause you’re just like C.R. Mudgeon’s new bushy-tailed neighbor, Paprika:

 

Yes, we have party hats! Team Celery for all you hideaway hedgehogs, Team Chili Pepper for you squirrely squirrels.

 

Now, I know you’ve been wondering about the maracas. Plenty to go around. Paprika wants you to choose your favorite design, but DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT shake them until instructed to do so.

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the little bitty bakery: sweet talk with leslie muir and betsy lewin

~ jama ~ 14 Comments
Dark Chocolate Coconut Eclair via Ang

Roll out the pink carpet and fire up your ovens! Put on your best dress aprons and fill your pastry bags with vanilla buttercream frosting! Bakery babes Leslie Muir and Betsy Lewin are here!

*licks chocolate off éclair*

We are thrilled to be the third stop in The Little Bitty Bakery Blog Tour. It’s no secret that when it comes to bakeries I go a little insane. I think in a past life I must have lived in a French pâtisserie, where I had pain au chocolat for breakfast, cherry clafouti for lunch, and an apple tarte for dinner. Of course there were plenty of macarons for elevenses and madeleines for afternoon tea. Le yum!

So you can imagine how giddy I was to read The Little Bitty Bakery, a thoroughly charming tale of an elephantine pastry chef who bakes away her birthday. How her heart aches when she realizes it’s too late to celebrate. She’d worked so hard making treats all day long, but now there would be no birthday cake for her. She climbs into bed and in the middle of the night is awakened by the aroma of scrumptious “swirls of sweetness.” When she goes downstairs, she discovers a delightful surprise — a Crumble Jumble Cake prepared by the mice! “They had a celebration and nibbled cake till dawn./ When they set their napkins down, every crumb was gone.” Such heartwarming goodness!

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