It happened slowly over years: when I was in home economics, we had few cooking lessons, but were allowed to cook every day for the hour. We had a small staple pantry (flour, eggs, sugar, etc). I made medieval cakes, Gully Dwarf Stew from Dragonlance, and Solinari cookies from Dragonlance. Everything I made was always devoured by both the other students and the teacher. The class grew lax, so I started making the Solinari cookies, with some variations, every day. You know why? well, first it was from one of my favorite series, and secondly it's like a moist shortbread so ALL the ingredients were in the staple pantry. (A couple of other students tried to make things with just those items and failed so much so the teacher forbade everyone else from using it - but everyday they still had me teach people how to make Solinari cookies mainly so the class and teacher could eat them.)
That was when I was 14, then in college (17-now, 31), I started cooking medieval and roman recipes. I got a degree AA in Film and History, BA in Medieval Studies, Masters in Latin (2004), and am a year off finishing a PhD in History: Medieval, Late Antiquity, Early Religion, and Classics. I've taught classes for about 9 years now at the college level, and when I can, I get my students to even make recipes from the time era we are studying to give them more insite to the culture.
After my niece convinced me to read the Harry Potter series, I was fascinated by the food in that too. I went to the Wizarding World in Orlando and was able to obtain some recipes, to which I added to. These are the first in my blog because I've already made them and know my recipes by heart.
Just before this, I had formed an attachment of friendship with author Todd McCaffrey, who is a dear friend and lovely soul. I had already tried different versions of bubbly pies and klah from the PERN series, even making a klah liqueur (think Starbuck's Creme Liqueur with cinnamon and nutmeg - but handmade). So last month we had a conversation about what klah tastes like, which intrigued me to find the best recipe to fit Todd's description. Also on our official facebook dragonrider's group people were asking about Klah and even drooling over the copious amount of good food mentioned, especially in Todd's last series, I believe starting with DragonHeart. One person mentioned that just reading it made them hungry.
On top of this, I'm re-reading the A Song of Ice a Fire series (Game of Thrones for HBO viewers) and there is so much food mentioned: from pub fare, spit-fires, market vendors, high-teas, to feasts. So while reading these names of foods, I starting making recipes in my head (admittedly I did that the first time I read them too).
With all that going on this month, I decided to just create this blog. I will try to post one recipe a week and alternate between series. I hope you enjoy. Warning: I will not post a recipe until I've made it good; so if I say I'm working on something that week, it may take the week to perfect it. (And I'm finishing my dissertation which will draw nearly all my time.) So for now it has to be one a week. Though in the future, I may be able to step it up much faster. Thank you.
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