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12 Pop Culture Cookbooks
Everyone could use a cookbook. Experienced cooks are always looking for something new to try, and beginner cooks can use step-by-step instructions. But you want to give a gift that’s special and meaningful to someone you love! You can combine the utility of a cookbook with the personal touch of your loved one’s favorite book, movie, or TV show with cookbooks that have the added value of a connection to that particular world they enjoy.
1. Baking Bad
Recipes include: Ricin Krispie Squares, Buried Barrel Dessert, Tighty Whitey Bites.
If you are suffering from the tension of withdrawing from the TV show Breaking Bad and are counting the days until Better Call Saul appears, then you might want to try cooking something up from Baking Bad: A Parody in a Cookbook. Written by “Walter Wheat,” the book has no meth recipe. Imagine that. However, it does teach you how to make Blue Meth Crush. See, Walter Wheat is a retired Home Ec teacher instead of a chemistry teacher, and he must sell cookbooks to pay for his cancer treatment. Try out some sample recipes here.
2. The Star Trek Cookbook
Recipes include: Kate Mulgrew's Pork Tenderloin, Peptide Cake, Pipius Claw, Plomik Soup.
The Star Trek Cookbook is written in the voice of USS Voyager chef Neelix, from the Star Trek universe. The book includes all kinds of food for all kinds of alien species, and many beverage recipes, although none with real liquor.
3. Aunt Bee's Mayberry Cookbook
Recipes include: Mount Pilot Pecan Pie, Flora's Meatloaf Mallerby, Kerosene Cucumbers.
Fans of The Andy Griffith Show will appreciate the down-home Southern-style recipes in Aunt Bee's Mayberry Cookbook. Some of the recipes are favorites from the show’s cast members. The 300 recipes are accompanied by fictional tales about them set in the world of Mayberry.
4. Love At First Bite: The Unofficial Twilight Cookbook
Recipes include: Get Out Your Forks Lemon Pie, Bat Chips, Edward’s Thirst Quencher.
Love At First Bite: The Unofficial Twilight Cookbook might be the last piece of Twilight ephemera the fan in your family wants, and I can understand that. However, the reviews of this cookbook are awful.
5. The Unofficial Recipes of The Hunger Games
Recipes include: Creamy Roasted Katniss Soup, Peeta's Burnt Raisin Nut Bread, Beloved Lamb Stew With Dried Plums.
Just the title of The Hunger Games cries out for a cookbook. The Unofficial Recipes of The Hunger Games has 187 recipes inspired by the trilogy about young people who have trouble getting enough to eat. This cookbook is different from others on this list in that the recipes are directly related to what the characters eat in the story, arranged in chronological order in reference to the original books.
6. The Sopranos Family Cookbook
Recipes include: Shcarole and Garlic, Sunday Gravy, Chicken Francais, Lasagna.
You better believe this is an Italian cookbook. The Sopranos Family Cookbook is written in the voice of Artie Bucco, the chef of the Vesuvio Restaurant in the show (along with other characters), although it was compiled by chef Michele Scicolone.
7. The Snacking Dead
Recipes include: Semiautomatic Garlic-Parmesan Popcorn, Sweet-Ish Fleshballs with Red Berries, Lil’ Ass-Kicker Punch.
The Snacking Dead: A Parody in a Cookbook contains the kind of recipes that those in the zombie apocalypse only wish they could eat. Just watch out behind you while you prepare them. Bonus: check out the The Drinking Dead game. It can be played while watching the New Year marathon of The Walking Dead.
8. Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook
Recipes include: Marcia Marcia Marcia Muffins, Sam Loves Alice Lamb Chops, Showstopper Zucchini and Swiss Cheese Pie, Boiling Water.
Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook was written by Ann B. Davis, who played the Brady’s housekeeper Alice. It contains down-to-earth recipes in family-size amounts, plus trivia from the TV show. Strangely, when the book was published, Davis admitted that she couldn’t cook. The recipes were supplied by other cast members and her co-authors.
9. The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes
Recipes include: Boba Fett-Uccine, Princess Leia Danish Dos, Crazy Cantina Chili, Tusken Raider Taters.
The Star Wars Cook Book: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes is a cookbook for Star Wars fans of all ages. The recipes of are accompanied by humorous illustrations of Star Wars action figures giving us basic cooking tips. Wookiee Cookies by Robin Davis came out in 1998. Since then, it's been followed by several others. Davis also wrote Wookiee Pies, Clone Scones, and Other Galactic Goodies: The Star Wars Cookbook. There’s also The Star Wars Cookbook II -Darth Malt and More Galactic Recipes by Frankie Frankeny and Wesley Martin.
Buy The Star Wars Cookbook on Amazon
Buy The Star Wars Cookbook II on Amazon
10. Fifty Shades of Chicken
Recipes include: Dripping Thighs, Sticky Chicken Fingers, Holy Hell Wings, Mustard-Spanked Chicken.
Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook is obviously a parody, but it’s still a real cookbook. The prose that accompanies the chicken recipes is written in the style of the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, and the recipes are quite seductively-named. If you happen to have someone on your Christmas gift list who cooks and also got a kick out of the original novel (which could be a large crossover population), they will appreciate both the humor and the recipes. First they will laugh, then they will cook. Check out a sample recipe here.
11. The H0BBIT Cookbook
Recipes include: Tea with Dwarves, Green Sandwiches, Rhubarb Marmalade, Sausage Toad in the Hole.
The H0BBIT Cookbook has recipes that will please children and whet a young Tolkien fan’s appetite for new tastes. The recipes are heavy on fresh fruits and vegetables and organic ingredients. The book was written by a French chef, and the translation to English has a few problems according to reviewers, but nothing that can’t be overcome.
12. Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook
Recipes include: Pink Yink Ink Drink, Who-Roast-Beast, Green Eggs and Ham
Finally, a pop culture cookbook for children! The Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by Dr. Seuss goes much further than adding food coloring to eggs. Adult supervision will be necessary, but the recipes will cause young Dr. Seuss fans to suddenly be interested in preparing food.
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