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Published:
2025-08-28
Completed:
2025-08-31
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3,385
Chapters:
8/8
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Gran Su's Cookbook

Summary:

A recipe blog is just an excuse to tell stories. Susan has collected as many stories as recipes over her long life.

This is her way of sharing both.

Notes:

The original recipes this blog is based upon are all sourced in the chapter end notes. If you are interested in trying any of these dishes, please follow the originals instead of Susan’s imprecise versions here.

Chapter 1: Home

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

About This Blog

I’m Gran Susan. My children and grandchildren have been pestering me… [Read more.]

Favourite Recipes

Sardines on Toast

Lucy’s Roast Apples

Turkish Delight

Wiggle Stew

Calavar-Style Kebabs

Hamadryad Pie

Top Comments

donna_lee: love the blog, mom! looking forward to your biscuits and gravy recipe you picked up from your time in america. 

drearyenglishguy: Dryads? enchanted food?? this lady off her rocker lol

jenjen: dont like dont read asshat

    gran_su: Please don’t be rude to strangers on my blog, Jenna dear. 

    jenjen: but gran…

    gran_su: No buts, Jenna. 

gran_su: I pity anyone who must suffer your closed mind and lack of imagination on a daily basis, good sir. 

    jenjen: GRAN!! :O :D

sarai-arai-arai: Remind me to show you how to block trolls when you come over next week, Susan.

    gran_su: Trolls have never scared me, Sarai. All one needs is a good dagger and some iron shavings. 

eddiewardian: Gran, would you mind not bringing up my dating life on your blog pls? Ps. i tried making the turkish delight and something came out wrong… [picture attached]

gran_su: Eddie, dearest, I cannot begin to imagine what you did. Come over on Sunday and We’ll try this together.

Chapter 2: About

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Welcome to Gran Su’s Cookbook!

I’m Gran Susan. My children and grandchildren have been pestering me for just about as long as I can remember to write down my best recipes--as if you can capture these types of dishes in exact measurements and timings. But I’m too old to be badgered anymore, so I have given in. Here you’ll find recipes I’ve gathered from my long life, some all the way back from 1940s London when we had to deal with food rationing. I have adjusted these to account for modern ingredients and sensibilities ove the years. 

Edit: My granddaughter Jenna told me recently that a recipe blog is just an excuse to tell stories. I like that. Everyone in my life is well aware that I have collected as many stories as recipes over my life. 

I suppose this is my way of sharing both.

Chapter 3: Sardines on Toast

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Sardines on Toast

Sardines on toast had been a rare but delicious treat long before my siblings and I met our dear friend Mr. Tumnus, but he’s the one I think of whenever I make this snack. Picture this, my dears: a warm fire in a homey cave; thick-cushioned seats pulled close to the hearth; a steaming mug of tea; and a deep voice spinning magical tales of dancing dryads and hunts for the white stag. Now imagine the salty taste of sardines on toast, with just a hint of lemon juice and black pepper. 

That, to me, is the taste of home. 

The sardines on toast have been a staple of my life ever since that time. I served them for tea to my American friends, enjoyed them with Roger long before we were ever married, fed them to my children as they were growing up. And I still whip out a can of sardines as soon as I hear that the grandchildren are bringing their own broods over to visit. Plus, this is always a hit with the bookclub ladies! 

You know, it was only many years after meeting Mr. Tumnus that my siblings and I learned the ignoble sources of this tasty snack. Sardines were not readily available in the country during the winter, tinned or otherwise, and it was only collaborators who were rewarded for turning on their fellow countrymen with such devices as a toaster. That Mr. Tumnus had once been a collaborator was not news to us; my dear sister Lucy was aware of this soon after sharing her first afternoon tea with him, while my brothers and I had learned of his past before we ever met him. 

All the same, Mr. Tumnus repented of his actions. More importantly, he acted to correct them by standing up to the fascist government in order to protect the persecuted. Which I think is something we can all keep in mind in this day and age, now that fascism has crept out of the woodwork again. 

Note: Do not substitute the bread with crackers or the sardines with tuna, Maureen. It isn’t sardines on toast if you do that. 

Ingredients

sliced bread
butter
tin of sardines
lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best)
black pepper

  1. Toast the bread as desired (with a toaster or, for authenticity, over a fire), and butter lightly. 
  2. In a small pan, heat the sardines in a little of their own oil. 
  3. Top the toast with sardines, and sprinkle with a few drops of lemon juice and a little pepper.

Notes:

Recipe from The Official Narnian Cookbook.

Chapter 4: Lucy's Roast Apples

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Lucy’s Roast Apples

The grandkids went camping this weekend, and doesn’t that bring back old memories? I used to love camping in the wilderness, far from civilization, nothing but the light of the campfire holding back the night. To be so close to nature always felt like a such a gift. 

And of course, a night around the campfire is never complete without a dessert. S’mores are traditional but I firmly believe my family’s favourite campfire dessert is far better: hot, sweet, roast apples. 

I’ve seen plenty of variations on these in my time, but I still maintain the best is the version my sister Lucy preferred: rather than filling the core of the apple with sugar, cinnamon, and granola, she would coat the outside of the apple to form a delicious, sugary crust-like coating. 

Like apple crumble in a ball, she would say, tossing the hot coated apple from one hand to the other rather than put it down to cool. 

Back when I would camp with my siblings, we’d visit the orchard to collect apples for our trip. The dryads would be ever so kind in finding us the perfect apples for roasting--firm, crispy, and mildly sweet. We would pack them in our saddlebags before leaving, with a couple of extra apples for snacking along the way. 

(If you don’t have an orchard handy, store bought is an acceptable substitute. Buy more than you expect to need; you’ll want them in the end.)

Once we’d made camp, and the sun had set, and the fire had begun to burn low--that’s when the apple dessert preparation would begin. Lucy was always the one to take charge, making sure we threaded the apples onto our sticks properly, and were holding them close enough over the coals and turning them consistently at just the right speed, and pouring the sugar and cinnamon and oats into little dishes for when the apples were ready to coat. 

It’s harder for me to accomplish all this nowadays, what with my knees as they are. I highly suggest bringing along some flexible youngsters if you’re as old and fragile as I have become: they’ll be happy to roast the apples as you supervise--so long as they have the patience for it, and don’t run off halfway through to go hunting for bugs or whatever it is kids do in the campgrounds these days.

And for the love of god, make sure you keep an eye on the young roasters lest some fool child nearly pokes out an eye with one of the roasting sticks again.

 

Ingredients

1 apple per person
brown sugar
cinnamon
granola

  1. Push a roasting stick through apple top until apple is secure. 
  2. Hold the apple just above the hot coals--too close and you’ll burn it, but too far and the apple won’t cook. Make sure you get the distance right. No, Sarai, I can’t be more specific than that. Don’t forget to turn the apple constantly as it cooks.
  3. When the skin is loose, remove the apple from the fire and carefully peel the hot skin off. You are not allowed to throw the peels at your cousins, they’re hot and could burn someone. Roll the apple in a mixture of the brown sugar and cinnamon, then roast again over the coals until the mixture forms a glaze. 
  4. Remove apple from the heat and, if desired, roll in granola. If someone did get burned by a peel or stabbed with a stick, fetch the first aid kit while the apples are cooling. 

Notes:

Recipe based on https://www.backpacker.com/skills/cooking/recipes/trail-chef-recipe-apple-pie-on-a-stick/

Chapter 5: Turkish Delight

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Turkish Delight

There are a lot of stories about the dangers of consuming enchanted foods. Persephone and Izamani are both trapped after eating the the food of the underworld; visitors to Faerie are warned against eating the food of their hosts; Adam and Eve invite sin into their lives (and ours)  by consuming the forbidden fruit. 

My brother Edmund once encountered an enchanted food--Turkish Delight, of all things. Naturally, once the enchantment had worn off, he had lost his taste for this particular confection; this did not stop the rest of us from enjoying Turkish Delight during the holiday season for many years to come. 

In fact, I remember quite clearly one winter evening in the kitchens with my elder brother, Peter, as we attempted to recreate Turkish Delight from a half-remembered recipe of our childhood. Things had gone poorly; the pot had just boiled over on the stove, and we were both covered in sticky-sweet water and powdered sugar.

It was a good thing Edmund was the one who found us rather than the Cook, who would have banished us from the kitchens on sight. Edmund, on the other hand, simply sighed heavily and asked why we insisted on making such a foul treat. 

Peter: It isn’t the Turkish Delight’s fault you were enchanted. If you had asked for Liquorice Wheels that day, would we have to avoid eating those instead? 

Edmund: You don’t even like Liquorice Wheels.

Peter: Exactly. So next time a lovely witch offers you anything you desire to eat, choose those instead.

Edmund had no response to that, except to leave us to clean up our mess on our own. 

I recently recounted this memory to the Jenna’s children while they were watching me make some TD and would you believe little Petey asked me why he hadn’t been offered any enchanted food yet? Children! They say the silliest things. 

Note: You should always cover your face when you sneeze but please especially do so when you are rolling the Turkish Delight in powdered sugar. 

Ingredients

3 envelopes unflavoured gelatin
½ cup cold water
½ cup hot water
2 ½ cups granulated sugar
¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp lemon extract
½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

  1. Soften gelatin in cold water. Set aside. 
  2. In a saucepan, bring hot water and granulated sugar to a boil, stirring constantly. Stir in salt and softened gelatin until completely dissolved. Simmer for about 20 minutes. 
  3. Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in lemon juice and lemon extract. 
  4. Rinse a 6” square pan with cold water. Pour mixture into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in a cool place overnight. 
  5. Sift some confectioners’ sugar onto a plate. Moisten a knife in very hot water and run it around the edges of the pan to loosen the candy. Invert the pan over the plate. Cute the square into equal-width strips. Roll each strip in sugar then cut into cubes. Roll each cube in additional sugar to coat well.

Notes:

Recipe from The Official Narnian Cookbook.

Chapter 6: Wiggle Stew

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Wiggle Stew

The weather is getting colder, which means it’s time to add Wiggle Stew back into the rotation of meals. Hearty and warm, this is one of my favourite dishes to eat after a day out in the cold English drizzle. 

I tried my first Wiggle Stew in the swamplands, as is appropriate. My host was a very dour, pessimistic woman who fed me a heaping bowl that she described as “barely enough to keep you alive, probably.” It was, of course, the most delicious and filling meal I had had in weeks. 

Usually when I choose the vegetables for this stew, it depends on what’s in season. Back when my husband was alive, I would send him off to the farmer’s market every Saturday to see what local ingredients he came back with. One time, he returned with six jars of honey! I told him, Roger, I love you, but I cannot make a meal from that. 

(Side note: my granddaughter has started dating a beekeeper, and yet I haven’t seen a single jar of honey…)

I’m getting off track. Throw in a bunch of vegetables, add some eel, and you’ve got yourself a Wiggle Stew. Perfectly hearty and filling for a cold evening. If you don’t have eel available, you can substitute with some sort of white fish but it really isn’t the same.

PS. You would not believe the number of people who have asked me what Wiggle Stew even is. I would think it evident from the name. 

 

Ingredients

skinned eel
turnip
 onion
 (and other root vegetables as desired)
 lots of potatoes
 at least 2 cloves garlic
 salt
 pepper
 cold water
 2 tbsp butter

 

  1. Cut eel into small pieces. Place in saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to boil and then reduce heat, simmering for half an hour. Drain. 
  2. Chop up the turnip, onion, and potatoes while waiting for the eel. Place turnip, onion, and garlic in a large saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until the turnip is partially cooked. Add the potatoes, fish and butter. Continue cooking until vegetables are tender. Season as desired. I don’t keep that part written down, just go with what’s in your heart and your spice cupboard. 

Notes:

Recipe based on: https://parks.canada.ca/culture/gourmand-gourmet/recette-recipe80

Chapter 7: Calavar-Style Kebabs

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Calavar-Style Kebabs

Summer’s coming to an end, which means we’re running out of time for the barbecue! The other day, my daughter Donna invited me over for kebabs “while the weather’s still nice.” Her children are all grown up and have flown the nest but I remember when she had me over to help cook for the whole family. Warning: if you have small children, consider removing the food from their skewers, otherwise someone may lose an eye! 

(You do NOT want to know how many times my offspring started a swordfight with their skewers over the dinner table!)

Given this is such a classic meal for my family, you might be surprised to know I was first introduced to kebabs by a beau in my early twenties. Over the course of a week, he took me all over his city: we saw everything from the palace to the temple district to the grand bazaar. I remember that bazaar so clearly even now: so many magical colours and scents, amazing treasures available at every booth, and food vendors at every corner.

Isn’t it funny, how one can look back fondly upon a memory such as this despite all that occurred after? The beau turned out to be an entitled ass, and yet I still think longingly for that day in the market with the taste of the kebab’s spices lingering on my tongue…

Anyone remember that boy Eddie brought home for Easter a few years ago? You would not believe how strongly I was reminded of that old beau. I like to think I am a civil host but Jenna still had to pull me aside and tell me to be nice to the boy. How am I supposed to act when the people at my table are spouting right-wing nonsense? What was his name again--Richard? Robert? I can’t say I was disappointed to learn he and Eddie broke up shortly after. Good riddance. Eddie is far too nice to be mixed up with right-wing nonsense-spewing little monsters. 

Ingredients

boneless skinless chicken breast

Marinade:
1 cup Greek yogurt
onion, thinly sliced
⅓ cup olive oil
lemon juice
cayenne pepper
¼ cup saffron
salt

  1. Mix together all the marinade ingredients.
  2. Cut the chicken into cubes and add to the marinade and make sure all are fully coated. Cover and refrigerate for at several hours. Sometimes, I leave the chicken for a whole day--but it will go bad if you wait any longer than that. 
  3. When ready to cook, take the bowl of chicken out of the fridge and let it warm back to room temperature.
  4. Heat the grill while you thread chicken pieces onto skewers and place on a baking sheet. Do not let Darcy’s children help with this part, they will stab each other. 
  5. When the grill is hot, cook the chicken kabobs until golden and fully cooked on the inside. You’ll know when it’s done. Don’t overcook, or the chicken will come out dry. Don’t undercook either, or you’ll get sick.

Notes:

Recipe based on: https://www.unicornsinthekitchen.com/joojeh-kabab-persian-saffron-chicken-kebab/

Chapter 8: Hamadryad Pie

Chapter Text

Gran Su’s Cookbook
Recipes from another world.

Home | About | Recipes

Hamadryad Pie

If you have ever been lucky enough to feast with dryads and hamadryads, you are already well aware that the tree-folk eat a very different sort of fare than humans. Although their earthy dishes look absolutely delicious, they are in fact all made out of earth and therefore do not taste pleasant to us mere humans at all. 

(You should have seen Edmund’s face every time he tried. And yet, no matter how many times he’d been burned, he never learned. Always went in for another try, as if his tastebuds might have changed between one feast and the next.) 

Of course, it is a rare occurrence to see the dryads at all these days, let alone have the chance to watch them eat. I myself have not had the pleasure for a long time, although I did encounter a lovely dryad in the north of Canada about thirty years back; she had been awoken by loggers in the area and requested my assistance in saving her corner of the forest. I lobbied the government for a cease and desist order but in the end, the dryad saved herself: she rallied the local wildlife to repeatedly jam and destroy the loggers’ machinery until they eventually retreated in a mixture of frustration and superstition. 

Afterwards, I shared a very nice brandy with the dryad, who quickly grew tipsy and talkative. She told me many stories of the forest from the old days before trees went to sleep, describing great dances and migratory movements. It made me quite nostalgic. I would have woken the entire forest right then and there if only I were able; unfortunately, Lucy was the only one in my family who had ever had any luck waking a slumbering tree. 

Note: This recipe has been altered from the original in several ways, most notably by replacing fresh dirt with chocolate pudding and Oreo crumbs. 

Ingredients

For the crust:
At least one full box of Oreos
6 tbsp salted butter, melted

For the filling:
4 cups whipped cream
2 cups whole milk
instant chocolate pudding mix (you’ll probably want about 1.5 boxes of the Jell-o brand)
1 package cream cheese, softened to room temp
½ cup powdered sugar
mini marshmallows
1 cup Oreo crumbs

Prepare the Crust: 

  1. Crush Oreo cookies to a fine crumb. Set a cup of crumbs aside for the filling. Mix in the melted butter. 
  2. Transfer mixture to a pie plate. Press crumbs evenly around the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. 
  3. Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool completely before filling. 

Prepare the Filling: 

  1. In a bowl, whisk instant pudding powder and milk until smooth and thickened. Set aside. 
  2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Using a spatula, gently stir in pudding mixture until well-blended. 
  3. Add whipped cream, most of the reserved Oreo crumbs, and marshmallows until it feels right. Gently fold into cream cheese/pudding mixture. Be careful not to deflate the whipped cream or you’ll get the kind of flat filling you see in Terry’s pies.
  4. Pour filling into cooled pie crust. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs. Press in some extra marshmallows. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for several hours.
  5. To serve, remove from freezer and let sit at room temperature for about a half hour.