And Another One Gone

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Damn. New plan for dinner tomorrow: now serving turnip'n'tater'n'beetroot* Deeper'n'Ever Pie. And then crying into a copy of one of my favorite books from childhood, Redwall--one Mom would read aloud while my brother and I listened and my sister bounced around the room like an excited gibbon. Good memories, those.

Farewell, Mr. Jacques, farewell.


*'n'cheese'n'mushroom, because I take artistic license here and cheese is delicious.

Comments

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure they had cheese in Redwall, even if they never managed to quite explain WHERE it came from. And mushrooms make everything more delicious. Especially Deeper'n'Ever Pie.

I am kind of wishing I had my copy of Mossflower on hand. I first read it when I was 6 or so, and re-read it so many times that the dustjacket has pretty much dissolved.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

They definitely had cheese. It always made me wonder.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I do remember that he cheated with something called "greensap milk," but I was never quite clear on how they got from that to cheese.

I don't recall the moles putting any cheese into their deeper'n'ever pie, but they SHOULD have.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Because cheese is delicious and belongs in more things. (Unless you are lactose intolerant, I guess. In which case cheese made from greensap milk is a good thing?)

Maybe making the cheese involved boiling? Goodness knows.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

At least in the first book, it is implied that they live in a world that includes humans. The rat army comes by way of a single cart that is clearly human-scale (and drawn by a horse that is not sapient). Later books moved away from this.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, and there was that whole human-sized barn with cats living in it and such. But... but the CHEESE. It its lovingly explained detail. (Well, a lot of the food.)

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Alllllll the food...

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

OH GOD THE FOOD PORN. I never got tired of it.

As kids we tried to make a few recipes going off the descriptions in the books (I seem to recall a few running comedic monologues by harried cooks that hinted at some recipes), and I remember thinking that there was serious money to be made with a Redwall cookbook. I was not the only one, either--the official Redwall Cookbook is now on hold for me at the library.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, what is your recipe for Deeper'n'Ever Pie? I'm thinking a stew of root vegetables in a pie crust with a sort of thick potato soup as a broth, flavored with some leeks, lovage, and a bit of garlic...

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that sounds good. My recipes have changed over the years, but the one I just did was the most successful--it combined my new favorite cheese and mushroom pie with root vegetables. I diced, boiled, and drained carrots, potatoes, and beets (beets separately); I also sliced and sauteed mushrooms and onions. I don't use a broth because that makes the pie too runny, but I mix together all those vegetables with some olive oil, mustard powder, salt, pepper, and a hellton of shredded Cheddar. Then load it all into a beaten-egg-coated double-crust and cook for about 25 minutes at 425 F.

I am still dithering about garlic. I love me some garlic, but I honestly can't decide if it'd help this dish or not, and I haven't brought myself to try it.

For the record, my version is not much like the official recipe (the one that appears in the Redwall Cookbook I checked out yesterday), which apparently uses the English meaning of "pie," as in "substance that is not remotely like pie." I remember finding this back in the day and feeling like I could do better. I'll note, however, that they do use Cheddar cheese.

To make up for it, though, some of the dessert recipes in this cookbook sound AMAZING.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the rats passed a herd of cows, too (not really an animal you'll find without humans, but eh), but I don't think anyone except the rats ever thought of them as a food source, either meat or dairy.

I spotted this as a kid, but for once, this did not bother my little mouthbreathin' mind; I recognized that Redwall was the first book and he was fine-tuning the world as he wrote, so I glossed them over by unspoken author/reader agreement.