Last year, I really wanted to do a little Narnia-themed tea party for myself. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of stuff with me but I tried my best to recreate my own version of what Mr. Tumnus served to Lucy in his home when she first came to Narnia.

The main thing I wanted to make was a "sugar-topped cake." I ended up making a type of spice cake that I topped with a sugar/cinnamon mix. I made cookies with tea leaves baked right into them. Along with a good cup of tea of course! Plus toast with three different toppings (mine were butter, honey + cinnamon, and pineapple jelly.)

I would really love to do a more elaborate Narnia-themed tea party one day.

Since I was going to see The Horse and His Boy (at the Logos Theater in South Carolina), I thought it was appropriate to make "bacon and eggs and mushrooms all frying in a pan".

Quite so, & that is what we are having for dinner. Not too many mushrooms as the Australian ones used are commercially grown ones, rather than native varieties, & not all those brought up with them are so enthusiastic about them. What C.S.Lewis describes is a very English sort of breakfast. Ideally, mushrooms should be cooked in a bit of butter, rather than oil. The same is true if you want to lightly cook banana pieces which I do sometimes as well. Sliced tomatoes cut thickly & singed on each side, with a dusting of black pepper is more than enough.

Usually English breakfasts include not only eggs, (I don't like runny eggs, whether fried or poached), but also a sausage of some sort. As one sort of substitute we have corn fritters, because I have no idea what cornpone is, quite frankly, & thought it might be a nice accompaniment to bacon, eggs, mushroom & tomatoes. I don't know why C.S.Lewis doesn't like bread & oil, a typical type of Calormene bill of fare when people are poor. When on a cruise in 2015 in the Aegean Sea & up to the Dardanelles, for the 25 April Anzac Centenary, we did have rolls & bread where the condiments on the table included infused olive oil & balsamic vinegar. On the whole, I rather enjoyed bread this way, & found it delicious, unlike Shasta, himself. Olive oil is my preference to use when pan frying anything & it doesn't hurt that now Australia has its own olive oil industry.

I've had apples in various baked and roasted forms, but never with the special treatment they get in the Narnia books. I'm not sure how bear meat would go with apples, but I would definitely like to try them with the raisins substituted for seeds!
And I can confirm with Edmund that dirt does indeed taste rather nasty.
Well, ordinary dirt that is. Sand is all right if it's properly cooked.

The main thing I wanted to make was a "sugar-topped cake." I ended up making a type of spice cake that I topped with a sugar/cinnamon mix. I made cookies with tea leaves baked right into them. Along with a good cup of tea of course! Plus toast with three different toppings (mine were butter, honey + cinnamon, and pineapple jelly.)

Sounds delicious! And your toast toppings sound much better than sardines.
I hope you have the opportunity to have a more elaborate tea some day.

Quite so, & that is what we are having for dinner. . . Sliced tomatoes cut thickly & singed on each side, with a dusting of black pepper is more than enough.

I like the idea of tomatoes with it!

Cleander, I'm hoping to hear if someone has actually had bear meat!

I've had bear meat, first as sausages, then as roast and hamburger. It's not my favourite,--I much prefer venison--but if it's done right, or you were really hungry....

That said, it also depends on what it has been eating (as I believe a certain author mentioned). Apple-fed bear wrapped around apples and roasted over a fire actually sounds pretty good.

I've had apples in various baked and roasted forms, but never with the special treatment they get in the Narnia books. I'm not sure how bear meat would go with apples,

Roast pork, or any sort of grilled pork usually goes very well with apple sauce, usually. It is quite likely apples, or even just apple juice would go well with most meat dishes. Apples & raisins are often a good combination as well, & an apple & raisin stuffing would be a quite nice sort to use with roast or barbecued poultry as well as in salad side dishes & sauces when cooking pork.

I don't know anything about bear meat, as the only creature we have wild that even remotely looks like a bear, is definitely not for eating. Firstly, since Koalas live almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves, they would probably taste horribly like an oversized eucalyptus cough drop, with hints of washing up liquid, and secondly because if anyone was caught killing, let alone, eating one, the fines & jail sentence for doing such horrible things would be sickening in themselves. Thirdly, did I mention that massive doses of eucalyptus is poisonous to humans, & I might not live to tell the tale, let alone survive to be tried for crimes against the environment? Or that Koalas, who live on such plant life, expend so much energy finding the tastiest, most nourishing eucalyptus shoots, that they have little time or energy for anything else, let alone hunt little girls, such as Lucy?

Koalas are fragile little darlings which should not be handled too much by humans. Lucy would surely have loved them on sight. The worst thing a cuddly, gorgeous-looking Koala, with its big fluffy ears, & cute toy-like nose, would ever do to someone would be to pee on them, just like a North American skunk might do to its foes. It is just as well C.S.Lewis didn't have koalas in his Narnia talking menagerie, as sleepy koalas only ever grunt for communication, even amongst themselves. Since I would have to go to a zoo to meet any real bears, let alone that other, very special, bamboo-eating, bear-like Panda, I'd have to leave eating any bears to such time as I end up in Narnia....

waggawerewolf, Your post about Koalas is hilarious!

Has anyone had Turkish Delight? I remember having some several years ago and I was not impressed. It made me wonder why Edmond would have asked for it.

@Grandmama, thank you so much for your kind words! I don't like sardines anyways!

I've never had Turkish Delight. Maybe this summer I will go on a mission to attempt to make my own. I've seen them packaged up in stores but I never wanted to try those. I felt like those were "fake." Edmund would not have had those. I am sure he was served nice, fresh Turkish Delight. That's how I want to experience it.

Having grown up with English parents, I was familiar with these things - sardines were a TREAT when I was a child - on hot toast. Yum!
Turkish Delight was a special choice in a box of chocolates. I liked that too!
Baking apples as a dessert was also popular in our home - although we never tried them with bear meat, merely cored 90% to the bottom and the skin slit around the equator, then sultanas and a bit of marmalade pushed into the core space.

Baking apples as a dessert was also popular in our home - although we never tried them with bear meat, merely cored 90% to the bottom and the skin slit around the equator, then sultanas and a bit of marmalade pushed into the core space.

Sounds very tasty!

I see there is another thread about Turkish Delight, but I didn't see a recipe there. Do you have a recipe for it, mm1991?

Marmalade roll sounds like something worth trying as well.

@grandmama I simply did a quick google search and found via the site thethingswellmake.com - I like this one because it does not contain gelatin, which I would prefer to avoid. The recipe looks quite complicated for my skill level but I will not allow that to deter me from attempting to make it one day!

@coracle that sounds delicious! We've always had our baked apples with oatmeal + cinnamon stuffed in the middle!

Baking apples as a dessert was also popular in our home - although we never tried them with bear meat, merely cored 90% to the bottom and the skin slit around the equator, then sultanas and a bit of marmalade pushed into the core space.

Sounds very tasty!

I see there is another thread about Turkish Delight, but I didn't see a recipe there. Do you have a recipe for it, mm1991?

Marmalade roll sounds like something worth trying as well.

There is a recipe linked to my last post in the Turkish Delight thread. The link is in the word here, the last word of the second paragraph, but I think it might be the same non-gelatin one that mm1991 linked to.

Easter is coming up & within three guesses I have a sneaky feeling that I will end up with a Cadbury's (Fry's) Turkish Delight Easter Egg. If you want really authentic Turkish delight, do try Turkish delight in those hexagonal little boxes with Arabic writing on the top that are sometimes available in the sweets section of department stores at Christmas & Easter. Sometimes I've been able to get such delights when in parts of Sydney where there is a large Turkish presence around.

Sardines on toast are ok for a lunch time snack, especially if they have been packed in tomato sauce. (Ketchup to many of the rest of you. ) There are other similarly packed things of the fishy sort, eg mackerel, herrings, etc. which we get from Aldi's. I think it is herrings flavoured with pineapple & curry, or mustard, which is a change from tomato sauce, however much I might like that cure all that makes a whole range of items just a bit tastier.

It has just occurred to me that for millenia, there have been people on this continent who learned to eat a whole range of things most of us wouldn't touch with a barge pole, from snakes to lizards, termites, & even crocodiles if they were desperate. For a people who weren't into reading & writing as we know it, let alone writing up recipe books, according to early settlers, some of whom could barely read & write, themselves, our first peoples seem to have had quite a repertoire in the culinary arts, using bush ingredients, different ways of cooking around a campfire & a good knowledge of how to make food more palatable or at least less poisonous. And so I thought of Harfang, & what is next for lunch or dinner.

Now I don't know how to reduce the muddy taste of Marshwiggles, though I suspect whatever was in Puddleglum's square bottle might have something to do with it. Meanwhile, has anyone ever tried eel pie? Or frogs, frogs' legs, fricassee'd or otherwise? Once, years ago, when hubby & I first met, we dared each other to eat escargots (snails) in a French restaurant, but found we weren't quite used to the idea.

Meanwhile, has anyone ever tried eel pie?

Not in a pie, no. But I've tried eel a couple of times, both fairly freshly caught.

I cannot get on-board the seafood train, I'm sorry! No frogs or lizards or termites either!