But to do so means danger, and not only for Epi but for all the Mistresses who have kept Psomi hidden from the Bread Guild for so long. In each Mistress's story, a Bread of Dreams enlightens Epi's journey into the world of her mother's agrarian cult, Psomi, with roots in the ancient rites of Elysium. Will Epi conquer her fear to look for Psomi, or will she succumb to a life of quiet and desperate doom with the Bread Guild?

Through sharing the recipes, portraits and tales of each Mistress in The Bread of Dreams, The Official Tales of the Mistress Companion Cookbook, you'll be able to make and taste their complex world.

Their world is fed with lusty and rustic elements like a rich dish of duck stuffed with cracked rye in a Roman style long forgotten. And another dish where field doves are stuffed with the seeds they've gorged on, then roasted, and served on a bed of vermicelli noodles, in an Arabic Medfouna style.

Another bread, eftazymo, began in Greece, where chickpeas are fermented to give rise to a fluffy bread, served with a sweet and salty salad composed of rustic and pilfered ingredients. 

And from the mountains of Languedoc, where chestnut trees grow prolifically all the way to the island of Sicily, meet the bread that melds new world tomatoes with thyme, and embeds them on slabs of old world chestnut flour bread. 

Walk along the port of Massalia, modern day Marseille, and find Navettes, the orange and semolina cookies of Epi’s lost mother. 

So, you can see from above that not all of the Bread of Dreams are in fact, breads. But all of the Bread of Dreams do invite you to find yourself in the world of the Psomi Mistresses. 

Advanced Praise for The Bread of Dreams

"Dorette Snover’s Bread of Dreams is an enchanting companion to her novel Tales of the Mistress, an elegiac journey on the wings of a dream through her sixteenth-century Mediterranean characters, illustrated with fascinating, unique, and delicious-sounding recipes for a variety of breads and other foods. Bread of Dreams is a poetic tour-de-force with intriguing characters, wonders, and enticing recipes that will have you dreaming of bread." 

Clifford A. Wright, Winner of the James Beard Cookbook of the Year and Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food for A Mediterranean Feast in 2000 and An Italian Feast

"Bread of Dreams just might make you dream of not only heavenly breads, but also sweet cookies, rich stews, and rustic dishes that will make you wish for a time machine to take you back to an era when everyone cooked these luscious dishes." 

Debra Borchert, author of Soups of Château de Verzat: A Literary Cookbook & Culinary Tribute to the French Revolution.