Kevin's Watch

Hearthcoal and Seasauce were both cooks aboard the Giant's ship, Starfare's Gem in The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The ships in SRD's Gap series had galley's too, of course, though not always "human" cooks. (They sure consumed a lot of coffee in that series.) While there is no galley, per se, in Mordant's Need, there is still a good deal of eating going on.

Since food figures in all of these stories, I thought it would be fun to have a place to post recipes and talk about "fantasy" food. If you have a favorite food related website, feel free to post a link.

What fantasy food would you like most to drink or taste? The answer to that question doesn't have to be from an SRD fantasy. I wouldn't mind trying lembas (waybread of the elves from LOTR), but I have my reservations about cram (waybread of the dwarves).

And like a lot of people, I daresay, I would like to get my lips on some diamondraught, just a sip or two would be fine, for starters.

It's Easter Sunday here on the West Coast of the United States. I'll be leaving the Discussion Board in a few minutes and hitting the "galley" to whip up a couple of desserts and a salad, my contribution to the Easter Dinner that Seasauce and I will attend later today at the home of a friend. (Seasauce was a cook in the TCTC2, but, alas, in real life he barely boils water!)

I'll be back later to post a couple of recipes.

2 much Diamondraught could really knock a mere mortal out! Pitchbrew sounds just fine 2 me, what was it Diamondraught mixed w/vitrim? metheglin will do in a pinch. I'd also like 2 kno exactly how tolache effects 1, say smoked a bit of it in Neverness! And 4 greater visions: the Spice Melange in Dune!

1 package (6 oz./170 grams) fresh spinach leaves

16 oz./454 grams strawberries, cored and sliced

1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil
1/4 cup (60 ml) white wine vinegar
1/2 cup (120 ml) white sugar
1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) paprika
2 tablespoons (30 ml) sesame seeds
1 tablespoon (15 ml) poppy seeds
pinch of salt

In a large bowl, combine the spinach and strawberries.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, paprika, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Pour over spinach and strawberries. Toss until well mixed. Serves 6.

I tried this on the friends we had dinner with this past Sunday. Everyone liked it. I think it got better as the spinach began to wilt a little from the dressing and the seasonings began to blend.

I am not sure about metric conversions. Here in the USA we are still cooking with "cups" and "spoons" and volume, but I know that in other places cooks use metric measurements and weight.

I found two sites that provide metric/conventional conversion:

Conversion Table for Cooking

On-line Metric Converter

I would never have envisioned mixing spinach leaves with strawberries .. certainly worth a try tho' .. albeit a little bizarro-esque .. I have my own Seasauce who can fortunately boil water and turn a hand to a delightful meal .. so I will be back with recipes ..

But first recipe may be the finest baked chocolate cheesecake .. I will ensure the recipe is typed correctly this time!!!

then I will add my favourite ... ' fatoush' a lebanese salad .. delicious on all occassions

I found the Spinach & Strawberry Salad on the internet, so I cannot take credit (nor blame) for putting that combination together.

It is tasty. I forgot to mention that I added pine nuts (aka pignoli nuts) to my salad. I think just about any kind of nut would be nice (walnuts, sunflower kernels) and toasted nuts even better.

Yum! I tried that. Very good. I used sunflower kernels.

And now to the fantasy food. Aliantha Jello! hehe... Maybe vitrim.