Food and Fandom: Shades of Magic

It’s also been a while since I’ve actually done a Food and Fandom post, hasn’t it? Yeah, I’ve been real bad at keeping that going. (To be fair, the Mediterranean feast I had planned kind of went out the window when someone else broiled my lamb steaks, lol! Not that I minded too much…it was cooked really well that I had no complaints.)

However, time to get back to getting my feet wet, as it were.

So one of my birthday presents was this structure of loveliness:

This, my friends, is a wafflemaker. Isn’t it glorious?

Anyway, fast forward a month and a half later, and I still hadn’t made my own waffles. I mean, my sister’s utilized it at least four or five times since, but me? Nope. Hadn’t been compelled to experiment just yet.

Until the other day, when I decided, welp, might as well try something! (It might also have helped that we had fresh strawberries in the fridge…)

Shades of Magic

“Sure I do,” countered Lila cheerfully. “There’s Dull London, Kell London, Creepy London, and Dead London,” she recited, ticking them off on her fingers. “See? I’m a fast learner.”

I cannot gush about this series enough. I am terribly excited over the third book coming out next year. (“Terribly excited” is putting it lightly, considering I practically garbled my squeeing whenever I hear news about A Conjuring of Light on Schwab’s Instagram.) I have done an interpretation of A Darker Shade of Magic a ways back after I’d read the book, but honestly, I could have gone about it more elegantly.

For those who’ve not heard of the series yet…

So there’s this author named Victoria Schwab. She goes by V.E. Schwab for her adult novels, and she’s written the Shades of Magic series under this name. So far, A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows are out. They are absolutely fantastic books, and there are not enough words for me to tell you how many feels I had for both books (mostly for AGoS, because HOLY HELL THE KISSING ALONE). Come 2017, A Conjuring of Light will be released.

The series takes place in a world with four Londons. It’s about magic and of magicians long-thought to be extinct. It’s about a darkness seeping out of Black London and corrupting its parallel counterparts. It’s about a boy and his coat, a girl and her hat, and a prince and his crown. It’s about freedom at the expense of sacrifice, and shackles at the expense of love. It’s a lot of things to a lot of people, and honestly, I could go on and gush about this series, but all I’m really trying to say is READ IT READ IT READ IT.

So. This waffle. I’m eventually getting there, I swear!

I feel like it was the culmination of the first two books. And doesn’t the shape look like the cover for ADSoM? No? Not even when you squint?

Oh well.

In any case, as I sat there, eating away at the strawberry waffle, I thought: gee, this does sum up the loveliness of Shades of Magic in all its parts. There’s the strawberry waffle itself, which I’ve now decided is Red London. There’s the sprinkle of Black London in its attempt to take over in the form of melty chocolate chips. There’s White London with its magical syrupy goodness, also on the cusp, reaching into the depths of Red London in its attempts to make way for a lone powerful force. And then there’s Grey London, just chilling on the side.

Okay, maybe I am reaching for it. But this is totally what I saw when I was taking pictures of my waffles!

Strawberry Waffles

Making the batter itself wasn’t too hard. I got the recipe from Sprinkle Some Sugar, with only two changes, really.

1. I never really use actual buttermilk, because I hate storing that in the fridge. My grocery store always sells buttermilk in half-gallons, and I never use that much in a span of a month. So I substituted.

(In hindsight, I should have used whole milk to enable more fat to curdle, but my buttermilk substitute was the following: for every cup of 2 percent milk, stir in 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.)

2. I added the strawberries. We had plenty in the fridge, and I do love myself some strawberry waffles, so I cut a bunch up and threw them in the batter.

And then I let the wafflemaker do its thing!

Verdict: Add a bit of maple syrup, scramble some eggs, and cook bacon, and holy hell, that is one breakfast you can food coma over!