My wife baked cookies for a Halloween event at her work. I love cookies and these are some of the best I have ever had!! She will be starting her own blog soon. Ideas for NaNoWriMo are constantly running in my head now. Her baking got me thinking about using one of her actual recipes in my book.

I would love to use her wine recipe but that is a family secret and is only passed on from mother to daughter. I am not allowed to go near the kitchen when she makes it. I do not buy the ingredients either. I may end up using the ritual though.

I cannot pick any recipe that I like. First, the ingredients should be available in my world. For instance, I cannot use her Coconut and Lime Sorbet. The first obvious problem is freezing the mixture. The second is I have not created an environment conducive to growing coconuts. The flip side of this is that a simple idea like this creates a great opportunity for trade and commerce.

Beef and lamb are probably off the menu for normal people as the animals would be more valuable for their milk and wool than their meat. I think Venison and pork can be options. I may use her authentic pork vindaloo menu which again is a traditional family recipe. My wife is of Portuguese descent and this is the real deal. It is not the rubbish that you get in most restaurants and microwave meals where vindaloo signifies a curry that is hot. I like my pork vindaloo higher up on the Scoville scale but heat is something that can be controlled. Flavour is the thing that is difficult to create. Writing about it is making my mouth water. Food in fantasy is as essential as the main character. Sadly I also think that it is one area that is often looked over by many fantasy authors. One person who does do justice though is Raymond Feist. The scenes in Magician at Castle Crydee is amazing.

One of my characters has epilepsy. I am a strong supporter of using cannabis for epilepsy where traditional medicine fails. I have decided that my character will consume cannabis to control epilepsy. I have not decided how my character will consume this. My wife has an amazing cake recipe and a brownie recipe. I may use one of them.

I hope I will be able to make my novel more colourful by making food more alive.