My Favorite Things from the 2009 Seattle Edible Book Festival

The peace of the grocery store at 9 am. Janet and Kelly and I had agreed to wear vintage aprons. I had mine on already. I felt conspicuously cute pushing a cart full of ice and milk.

Pregnant yoga ladies taking all the parking spots in the Good Shepherd Center lot. Pregnant yoga ladies holding the doors for us while Heather and Jen and I carried cases of bottled water up to the chapel. How after people started arriving for the festival, the chapel didn't feel so large.



Loading fifteen canteens of coffee into Heather's car without spilling most of it.

Spilling pickle juice in my purse.

Jason calling me on his way to the Good Shepherd Center: "We're in Woodland Park. I'm waiting for my friend to wake up so we can keep walking. Yeah, she's taking a nap on a bench. I'll be there in ten minutes."

My favorite books: Much Ado About Muffin, The Old Man and the Brie, Chow Mein Kampf, The Velveeta Rabbit, Good Night Moon-Pie, Olive or Twist? and Gorky Pork.

Edible books where the pun was the food, not the title. Like "Hamlet."


Edible books that looked like books.


Edible books that incorporated text bubbles.


Edible books that incorporated pen-and-ink drawings on Kraft singles.


Edible books that looked great but tasted gross, and vice versa.

Janet and Kelly, my co-producers. Heather and Jen, my morning volunteers, lunch cohorts & coffee carriers. All good buddies to have on a sunny day in Wallingford.

Janet's 50 first line cookies (see the first image of this post).

The bustle of three hundred people cutting and scooping edible books into eco-friendly to-go boxes. Then the sound three hundred people licking their fingers.

Sifting barehanded through a dumpster full of cake (from the festival) and dirt (from Seattle Tilth) in an attempt to find a garbage bag of Janet's spatulas that we'd accidentally thrown away. That moment when disgust turned to delight and I had to restrain myself from jumping in. We couldn't find the bag, which was a bummer.


All day I couldn't stop doing the math. It took us eight months of semi-regular meetings to plan the festival. Over one hundred people took the time to brainstorm an edible book (or two...or six!) and then make one, an investment of hundreds and hundreds of hours and about 90000 volts of creativity. It took us one hour to admire the books and twenty minutes to consume them. And then it was over. In the trash. As ephemeral as birthday cake.

Those eight months of going over to Janet's, sitting with her cat in my lap while brainstorming prize categories, judges, sponsors, and getting the details to line up nicely, all that was just as fun as the festival.

By the end of the day I was body tired, with achy feet and a sick stomach from eating too much frosting, but I felt energized. Screw the math, I had fun!


I'm proud to say that my edible book, though it won no awards, disappeared five seconds after Janet declared, "It's time to eat!"



Their Pies Were Watching God
an edible book by Kate Lebo

Holy Toast stamper from Archie McPhee's
one recipe pie crust
4 cups pitted cherries, fresh or canned and drained
1 cup dried sour cherries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon unsalted butter cut into small pieces
milk and sugar for the glaze

1. Prepare the pastry and refrigerate for at least one hour.

2. Roll out the bottom crust and invert it into a 9.5 inch deep-dish pie plate. Pinch the overhang into an upstanding ridge. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3. Combine pitted cherries, dried cherries, sugar, tapioca and almond extract and mix well. Let the mixture juice for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

4. Roll out the top crust on wax paper. Flour the toast stamper and firmly impress it into the center of the top crust. Push hard enough to leave a deep imprint but not so hard the the pie crust gets stuck in the stamper. Place another sheet of wax paper on the stamped crust, flip everything over, and peel off the top sheet (which was the bottom sheet) slowly, at a sharp angle away.

5. Spoon the cherry mixture into your pie shell. Sprinkle with nutmeg and dot with butter.

6. Invert the top crust over the pie so that the stamped design is centered and clearly visible. Peel off the wax paper. Cut the edges of the top crust off so it rests easily within the bottom crust, leaving a small margin of cherry filling exposed around the rim. Poke several cross-shaped steam vents into the top crust with a knife. Brush with milk and liberally sprinkle with sugar.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, then rotate the pie 180 degrees so it browns evenly. Bake for another 30 to 35 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack for at least two hours, or until you can get it to an Edible Book Festival.