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| Dreamflower's Mathoms I by Dreamflower | 11 Review(s) |
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| Queen Galadriel | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/23/2006 |
| Mmm, I'll have to make that recipe for my family sometime. It would come out perfectly, as there are six of us. That is, unless my Pippin of a sister decides to eat like a Hobbit. LOL! Yes, I imagine it would be difficult for Pippin to live alone. And really the Brandybucks were silly to insist upon a flower name. It had the same outcome either way. Wyn sounds lovely. God bless, Galadriel Author Reply: It really is quite delicious! If there are six of you, perhaps you should make two pies, LOL! I don't think Pippin was really constructed by nature to live alone--it would have seemed very unnatural to him! The Brandybuck tradition is one that Marigold had pointed out to me--so many fics do have Merry naming a daughter after Eowyn, and though I could see him defying the tradition, I thought it was cuter to have him simply flout it instead! And just think what a satisfying mouthful "Simbelmyne" will make when she gets in trouble! | |
| songspinner | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 5/31/2005 |
| Just got around to reading these...and I have no idea what took me so long. I really liked this one. The contrast for Pip trying to live on his own and longing for his own little one with Diamond was nicely done. I remember going to grad school away from my friends and feeling terribly "hug-deprived" to the point of driving for two hours on a weekend just to see them. Family is what you make of it, after all. :) Anyhow, good characterization and a cute sense of humor. Very hobitty... -Laura Author Reply: Thanks. I think living alone would have been harder for Pippin than for any of the other four, even Merry. Pippin is just so sociable, and he needs the company of others. That's why he found Bilbo and Frodo so incomprehensible for living alone. Still, it was good for him to have to try it, for even a short while. And it certainly made him appreciate Merry, Estella and little Wyn when they got home. And I'm glad you think it hobbity. That's a very big compliment! | |
| elisabeth | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/21/2005 |
| What a fun little story (one of many, but I am only now going through them with time to write) and a very nice recipe. I am not a fungus-lover, but I may try the technique with other ingredients. I liked Merry's trick to get his own way over his daughter's name--with his herb studies, I imagine there will be something suitably botanic for his next daughters, but people are more important than plants for him. I also liked Pippin's planning ahead with his pastry-lessons. Of course, visiting Sam and Rosie also gave him some company--it was rather funny when the poor extrovert wondered if it was the Ring that made Bilbo and Frodo so content to be alone! Since the other reviewers were discussing seed cake and I just finished trying out a suitable version, here's yet another. (I was considering using it in a story of my own, but probably will not, being fonder of Mrs. Glasse's Rich Seed Cake, with its two hours of beating, just to make us all grateful for the invention of chemical leavening and electric mixers. This recipe comes from Lydia Child's American Frugal Housewife of 1833. I cut the original recipe in half, approximately (that is, I didn't actually get the food scale and the teacups out, but approximated the amounts). Caraway Cakes. Cream together half a cup of butter and three-fourths a cup of sugar. Add 2 eggs, a quarter-cup of rosewater, one and a half cups flour, and 2-3 tablespoons caraway seed, beating well after each addition. The dough will be stiffer than cake batter, but thinner than most cookie doughs. Drop tablespoonfuls on a cookie sheet (if it's not a non-stick sheet, better grease it first) and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. I found the cakes browned only on the bottom when they were cooked through and they didn't rise much, but then, I didn't go to town on the beating. I was pleasantly surprised that they are neither as highly rose-flavored nor as highly caraway-flavored as I had feared. --elisabeth Author Reply: OOooh! Those sound remarkably like my renaissance recipe for Shrewsbury Cakes, except for the caraway-seed. I adore the way rosewater-flavored baked goods smell in the oven, and you are right they do not have nearly as much rose flavor as they smell like. I will definitely have to try your variation! I need to check the date on my rosewater though. It's been in the fridge a loooong time. Yum! And a group I belong to has a bake sale coming up--good excuse to make them! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 4/20/2005 |
| Nice story, and thanks for the recipe. Author Reply: If you should try it out, let me know how you like it. | |
| Saoirse | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 1/28/2005 |
| What a sweet story... ^_^ And mmmmmm that pie sounds so delicious! You've gone and made me hungry now! (I think now to stem my grumbling belly perhaps I'll have to try that recipe...how convenient)Thank you for the wonderful story, and pie! hehe Author Reply: Glad you liked the story, and hope you'll let me know how the pie turns out for you if you try it. I *love* recipe fics! | |
| SharonB | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 1/28/2005 |
| Yes Bodkin, thank you for the recipe. I was telling Dreamflower I may have to make one up on my own. I'll try this out although caraway seeds are not my favorites. If not, I can fall back on making one up myself. | |
| pipinheart | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 1/27/2005 |
| Nice..Pippin learns to cook... He learned from the best of course, Sam... Not a bad mushroom pie by the description. Merry was sneaky by the naming of the baby,but got the name he wanted either way. Pippin bored to death,not a good thing...great story... Author Reply: Well, he knew how to cook, but he definitely needed pie-crust lessons. That's a tricky thing to do well, and you are right--Sam's the best. The mushroom pie is a favorite on our table. Trust me, it's pretty good. Sneaky Merry is right. Our clever Brandybuck lad does know how to get his own way! Bored Pippin=not good! But he's grown up a bit, and learned that he can't get into certain kinds of mischief anymore, and no fun anyway without Merry. Still, it's probably just as well Merry and Estella came home when they did... | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 1/27/2005 |
| I love the picture of Pippin and Sam testing out their pies on Rosie. And that's real forethought from Pippin - getting pie-making training so he can treat his friends. He must really be looking forward to getting them back. I can't imagine he has enjoyed the silence that much. (Great Smials and Brandy Hall are so big and rambling that solitude must be almost impossible - even when a hobbit is on his own, there would always be someone just round the corner.) Seedcake - here is a recipe. I haven't tried it. Unlike Pippin. Molly Bloom Seedcake INGREDIENTS • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature • 1/2 cup sugar • Grated rind of one orange • 2 large eggs • 2/3 cup orange juice • 2 cups all-purpose flour • 1 teaspoon salt • 3 teaspoons baking powder • 1 tablespoon caraway seed METHOD Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in orange rind. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in orange juice. Mix until smooth. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together. Add the flour to the butter mixture gradually, beating well after each addition. Fold in the caraway seeds. Scrape into a 9x9x2 inch glass baking dish. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in a 350° F oven, until top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in dish 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. Author Reply: OOooh, thanks for the lovely recipe! I will definitely have to give it a try, sounds yummy! You are quite right about the Great Smials and Brandy Hall. Even hobbits like my Pearl (who is widowed and childless) would be surrounded by folk except when she was in her own rooms, and even then, she'd know someone was just across the tunnel, or on the other side of the walls. Solitude such as Frodo and Bilbo had at Bag End was an aberration, as even JRRT acknowledged. (Which is why I've often wondered about the Ring's influence.) Even they did not necessarily endure it well. After all, Bilbo did adopt Frodo, and after Bilbo left, Frodo had visitors as often as he could get them. As for Pippin, this was a wholly new experience for him, and not one he cared for much. Imagine if he'd tried spending the whole time at Crickhollow alone, poor lad. | |
| lovethosehobbits | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 1/26/2005 |
| What a cute story and thanks for the recipe, I'll have to give it a go. tree Author Reply: I'm glad you liked the story. And let me know how it comes out if you do try it. | |
| Hai Took | Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 1/25/2005 |
| Oh, how nice! Very sweet of Pippin to make lunch! I had to laugh when I read the bit about Merry wanting to name his daughter after Eowyn and then the strange flower name he picked so he got his way with her being called Eowyn and then it being shortend even futher! Thanks for the fun! Author Reply: Our Pippin is a sweet lad, and he would be so glad to have his cousins back home after bumping around the house alone for a month, that lunch would be a good way to celebrate. It seems to be a fanon thing that Merry would name a daughter after Eowyn--and it seems in keeping with Merry as we know him. But Marigold once pointed out to me (and I checked it for myself as well) that *all* the *born* females on the Brandybuck family tree had flower names. If this was a Brandybuck family tradition, I could see them giving Merry fits for wanting to break it. His solution of using a "foreign" flower that no one knew quite how to pronounce, so that he could get her called what he wanted seemed fairly Merry-like to me. | |