Clever Cooks: A Ready-Mix of Stories, Recipes & Riddles

Start with a basic collection of clever cooks, such as Betta, a rich merchant’s daughter who creates her true love out of marzipan. Or Grethel, who eats up her employer’s chicken but neatly avoids punishment. Stir in a few recipes—quick butter cookies, hearty soup, molasses milk shakes. Sprinkle in some riddles and a charm or two, and you end up with a most delightful concoction.

This is precisely what Ellin Greene has done in this charming anthology. She has put together a dozen stories involving clever cooks who outwit fairies, giants, kings and just ordinary people. Interspersed among the stories are charms, riddles and recipes that augment the stories and tickle the imagination.

Mrs. Greene has woven a wide variety of material into a cohesive whole that is laced throughout with warmth and humor.