Mushroom Fajita Burritos | Voltron: Legendary Defender

          Ack! The 8th and final season of Voltron: Legendary Defender premiers tomorrow on Netflix! It has been such a wild and fun ride and I'm sad to see it draw to a close, but am looking forward to how things culminate and conclude. Those boys need some rest!

          Last season (season 7, episode 5) Hunk was his resourceful gourmet self again and made some yummy-looking breakfast burritos for the gang while they were all stranded in space in their lions. Though he procured the ingredients from creatures and in ways that the other paladins didn't want to know about, when Hunk was making the food it looked like bell peppers, mushrooms, avocado slices (though cut from a vegetable resembling a zucchini), salt, verde sauce or guacamole, and flour tortillas.

Dragon Berry Jelly Tarts | The Dragon Prince

 

         The Dragon Prince from Wonderstorm is one of the Fall Netflix premiers that I've been greatly anticipating and it's finally arrived (Sept. 14)!! One of the things that got me really excited for the show, aside from the fact that it's an awesome-looking animated fantasy, is that The Dragon Prince has a couple of the creative minds behind "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and promises action, character depth, engaging story, and humor (the voice actor of Sokka is even in it!). Wonderstorm is even working on a video game based in the same world (release TBA)!

"Uhh, jelly tart?"

–Crown Prince Ezran, "The Dragon Prince"

Celebratory Milkshake | Voltron: Legendary Defender

(Recipe originally posted on January 13, 2018 on Instagram)

“Hey, hey! I made celebratory milkshakes for you two! Just a little welcome gift to Matt from me and Kaltenecker. No big deal. Fun fact about Alteans, they don’t get brain freeze! Coran and Allura just totally Hoovered up their shakes in one slurp. [chuckle] I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

—Hunk, “Voltron: Legendary Defender”, S. 4 Ep. 5

What's Up: 2018

Hi, All!

This a house-keeping post to let you know what's up.

Some yummy German food!

     I now live in Germany. We're still in the process of settling in (it takes a long time for household goods to ship from the States!). I like my new kitchen and have made a few things (some food inspired by Undertale, a milkshake for Hunk's birthday from Voltron: Legendary Defender and Field Golem Stew from Delicious in Dungeon), but am looking forward to getting my appliances and dishes, etc. to do more. It's a nice place and I have a good amount of space. The thing I am most looking forward to is unpacking my books. I put a ton in storage, but still brought so many with me (my TBR pile is ridiculous). Shelving; touching and looking at and smelling and organizing *deep breath* my books is so appealing and therapeutic to me *exhale*. I'm also happy about the thought of putting up my Japanese figures; I plan on doing more figure photography this year. All in all, I'm excited to be making a new home. I'll be sharing pictures on my Instagram, if you're interested in seeing how it goes. :)

     Which leads me to...
     I've mentioned this before, but want to reiterate, I'm mostly active on Instagram @fictionfood. It's where I post food pics (both general and fandom related) plus easy recipes every once in a while, book and comic photos, and really just lifestyle stuff/stuff I like.
     I also have an Instagram account called @ifblankwasafood where I post photos of book and food pairings based on what authors have said their book would be if it was a food. This has been a lot of fun. It's a question I've asked authors for a long time at events and online, and earlier in 2017 I finally decided to do photo shoots of the answers and share them. :) My Twitter account @fictionfood is mostly where I share cool fandom food things that others have done that I thin you all might be interested in.

     Concerning the Fiction Kitchen Podcast I co-host with Carrie over at Witchy-Kitchen, we've been on a long hiatus but are coming back in February or March. The program will be in a different, more free format suited to our individual interests and media consumption–still food related with recipes, of course! We'll also be putting the recipes related to the podcast on our own sites as opposed to the Fiction Kitchen Podcast website were they have gone in the past (the podcast website will have links to the recipes).
     Along with this change we'll also be posting our past FKP recipes on our own blogs during the next little while so all of our recipes will be in one place. :) So all of Carrie's FKP recipes will be on her site Witchy-Kitchen and all of my FKP recipes will be here on Fiction-Food Café. So expect a bunch of recipe posts soon!

Zelda: Breath of the Wild foods!

     Recipes, recipes. So there will be an influx of recipes from FKP, but I also have several recipes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to post that I made in 2017 for an unfinished project. That project may or may not come to fruition, but at least I can share the recipes I put so much effort into making. :) I've already posted a few (Veggie Cream Soup, Hearty Truffles, Meaty Rice Balls).
     I also have several recipes from Bee & PuppyCat to post that I submitted and were accepted to Easy Eats: A Bee & PuppyCat Cookbook back in 2016, but the wording of which was changed.... I'd like to post the recipes so perhaps they'll be more understandable. Also, I want to share the photos I took of the food! The Easy Eats cookbook doesn't have any food photos (but it does have very cute food illustrations).
So, those are two food projects that I'll be sharing. I've really enjoyed focusing on one theme and doing many dishes for it in a short amount of time–I've done this with Big Hero 6, Bee & PuppyCat, Breath of the Wild. I'd like to do it again. :)

Those are some of the things going on with me. :) I hope you are all having a good start to your 2018!

Black & White Cookies | Voltron: Legendary Defender

          Happy birthday today to Takashi Shirogane, AKA Shiro from "Voltron: Legendary Defender"! Shiro (voiced by Josh Keaton) is actually a Leap Year baby (Feb. 29th), so there's a joke that he's really only 6 years old ;). Before Shiro's birthday was announced, I had in mind to do these "black & white" cookies, but the birthday made the perfect occasion (like the roll cake pops for Hunk's birthday last month)! 

          At first glance, these cookies match Shiro because of his hair; black with the little white tuft in front, the white appearing because of his ordeal at the hands of the Galra (no pun intended). On another level, they represent his name "Shiro" which means "white" in Japanese and the fact that he's the paladin of the black lion. Going deeper still, the duality these cookies present alludes to Shiro's kind, calm, positive, and uplifting personality in juxtaposition to the darkness he experienced during his internment with the Galra, the lasting effects it has had on him (at the end of season 1 we even get a glimpse of a splinter of Shiro's personality brought on by Haggar's magic that fans have dubbed "Kuro" which means "black" in Japanese).

Food Goo, 2 Ways | Voltron: Legendary Defender

"Ahoy, young paladins! I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux." 

– Coran, S1 EP2, "Voltron: Legendary Defender"

          The paladins quickly dub this green fare "food goo", and it's featured heavily in the series, as it's the primary source of food in the castle-ship. We're not really sure how it's survived 10,000 years or what its makeup is, but it's supposedly very healthy, and very monotonous.

          Below I give you two tasty options for this wonderful food goo! One is a quick blend with beautiful green avocado (so healthy!), and the other is a simple pudding that gets it's natural coloring from saffron and spirulina (both also very healthy ingredients! You could also use matcha green tea powder in place of both of them). Whichever version you decide to try, be sure to eat it with a spork, because all advanced societies use sporks. 😉

Garlic Knots | Voltron: Legendary Defender

"Well, there's only one planet with Veradero Beach, pizza shack looking over the water and the garlic knots and my mom's hugs...(sniffles) I'm sorry. I think this Nunvill is getting to me. I gotta go."

– Lance, S1 EP4, "Voltron: Legendary Defender"

          This mention of Varadero Beach was allusion to the fact that Lance is Cuban, but if anyone had any doubts, Jeremy Shada, Lance's voice actor, confirmed it in an interview (you can watch it here. 2:25 is when Cuba is talked about)! And it sounds like we'll learn more about Lance being Cuban in season 2. 

          So, because Lance is Cuban and mentioned garlic knots, I wanted to give these garlic knots a Cuban flair! There's a popular Cuban condiment called mojo de ajo, or simply mojo, which is hecka garlic-y, so I went that route, but I also thought adding cheese would be yummy, so I incorporated manchego, which is a distinct, oft-used cheese in Cuba. Also, he mentioned the pizza shack, so these knots are made from homemade pizza dough.

Peanut Butter Rover Cookies | Voltron: Legendary Defender

          In "Voltron: Legendary Defender", S1 EP4, we learn that Pidge looooves peanut butter, especially peanut butter cookies (but not peanuts, because they're too dry). She also loves robots, and, for a time, had a precious little floating pyramid named Rover. 😢

"Well, I like peanut butter, and I like peanut butter cookies, but I hate peanuts, they're so dry. Also I sweat a lot, in general, un-related to the peanuts." 

–Pidge, S1 EP4, "Voltron: Legendary Defender"

Haha, okay, Pidge. 🙃


Rover! 😭

Roll Cake Pops | Voltron: Legendary Defender

Happy birthday to Hunk, the teddybear paladin of Voltron's Yellow Lion in "Voltron: Legendary Defender"! Hunk is perfectly voiced by actor Tyler Labine.

          I'm so excited for VLD to return for season 2 on January, 20th on Netflix! To celebrate, I'm making a few recipes for the show, the first of which is for these little roll cake deserts for Hunk's birthday😊🎉.

          In season 1, episode 4, Allura holds a castle-ship "open house" for the Arusians, and there are floating platters of these bright pink and green, be-sticked treats being served. At one point we see Keith spit out some nunvill (aka "space juice") directly onto Hunk who's unfortunately standing across from him. Hunk dips down, and then pops right back up with these little roll cakes on his face yelling, "my eyes!" Haha, what a ham. Keith probably would have spewed again if he'd had another drink. Elsewhere in the hall, we see Pidge sneaking a whole tray of these into her backpack. *wags finger* No, no, Pidge!