Folklore and Fairy Tales Archives

Folklore and Fairy Tales•Horror Movies•soups

The Curse of La Llorona-inspired Pozole Verde

The Curse of La Llorona, from New Line Cinema and director Michael Chaves, came screeching into theaters this Friday. It stars Linda Cardellini and Patricia Velazquez, two mothers troubled in different ways, and haunted by the wailing, weeping woman of Mexican folklore. The legend of La Llorona that the film is based...

Folklore and Fairy Tales•Horror Movies•main dish

SUSPIRIA-inspired Snow White Roasted Vegetables and Sausage with Red Wine Reduction

In the same way folklore transforms over time, 2018’s Suspiria is a thorough retelling of the classic 1977 Dario Argento Giallo horror. Though both films tell the twisted fairy tale of a beautiful, talented and determined American ballerina coming to an elite, witch-inhabited dance school in Germany, the space between...

Folklore and Fairy Tales•main dish

Cinderella Cassoulet

Shake and quiver, little tree, Throw gold and silver down to me. This cassoulet is “authentic” the same way Cinderella in various film adaptations is “French.” Which is to say not really, but I think it definitely captures the spirit. It’s hearty and simple, made with common ingredients so it...

drinks•Folklore and Fairy Tales

Sour Medicine (Strega Cocktail) | Pinocchio

“Are you not afraid of death?” Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio (1883) is a tumultuous and winding morality tale of a little wooden puppet who wants to be a real boy. (I was originally going to say it’s somewhat darker than the Disney interpretation, but that scene where Lampwick turns into a...

baking and desserts•Folklore and Fairy Tales

Juniper and Almond Baked Apples | Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Juniper Tree

“The Juniper Tree” (full story below) is one of the darker stories from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and as a dark little kid it was unsurprisingly one of my favorites. I wrote and performed it as a puppet show in middle school, a puppet got decapitated and everything! It’s got all...

baking and desserts•Folklore and Fairy Tales

Khobz Eddar – Algerian Bread of the House | More Beautiful than the Moon

The MENA Cooking Club celebrates the food of the Middle East and North Africa, and this month we’re cooking Algerian food! I chose to bake khobz eddar, or “house bread.” You can learn so much about a country from its folklore, so I spent some time reading about the stories...

drinks•Folklore and Fairy Tales

Homemade Strega Liqueur

Strega is a sweet and herbally Italian liqueur, created in 1860 by Guiseppe Alberti, who founded a distillery with his father Carmine Vincenzo Alberti in Benevento, known as the city of witches. Benevento has a rich history of Stregheria, and is home to a mythical walnut tree, underneath which witches...

Folklore and Fairy Tales•soups

Winter White Parsnip and Hazelnut Soup

Spring is almost here but winter is still lingering; last week we finally had some snow, which is what we call icy rain and slush in North Carolina. Gloria came over for another lovely Sunday in the kitchen. We’ve decided to get together about once a month and master a...

Folklore and Fairy Tales•Halloween•main dish

Mash o’ Nine Sorts

This month I’ve made a couple of traditional recipes associated with Samhain (namely Irish Boxty and Barm Brack), so here’s an English one for the mix. It has nine ingredients – hence the name – and is also played as a fortunetelling game, with a ring (symbol of marital happiness)...

baking and desserts•brunch•Folklore and Fairy Tales•Halloween

Figgy Ginger Barm Brack

Barm brack is an Irish sweet bread studded with dried fruits and candied peel. Though traditionally made with sultanas, I changed it up with dried figs and ginger, one of my favorite combos. It’s a Halloween tradition to eat it and play a fortune-telling game for the coming year based...

Folklore and Fairy Tales•main dish

Money Penne

The pesto has lots of symbolic prosperity ingredients: basil for prosperity, almonds for money, leafy greens for bills and sweet corn for coins. It’s super healthy, and the sweet corn, which is deliciously in season, makes it the perfect easy end-of-summer recipe that’s a little more interesting than your average...

Folklore and Fairy Tales•holiday•salads, veggies and sides

Persephone Salad

I am often put in charge of salad. I guess salad is a girly thing to make so I get it by default, but maybe it’s also because I can be artful in diving into the depths of the produce drawer and pantry and emerging with interesting salad ingredients and...

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