Still looking for a holiday gift for your tv/food-obsessed sweetheart? How about the new The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook. The author, L.A.-based Emily Ansara Baines, also wrote the popular Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. The Downton version teaches everything from Lady Mary's crab canapes to Mrs. Patmore's Christmas pudding.
Seems like a good way to stave off the anticipation of season 3. (The trailer is below, in case you haven't seen it yet.)
Says Wired:
...the first seven chapters are each devoted to a different course so if you're feeling ambitious, then you can channel your inner Mrs. Patmore and cook a veritable feast.
The recipes represent foods that would have been popular at the time. These aren't common, everyday recipes. Instead you have things like Saxe-Coburg Soup, Filet Mignon with Foie Gras and Truffle Sauce, and Pommes de Terre Sarladaise.
There's even a chapter dedicated to one of our favorite past times adopted from the Edwardian era:
tea time. The section includes recipes for cucumber sandwiches and crumpets.
Pinkies up!