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Philadelphia author Dinah Bucholz adapts recipes from children's classics

I'M SURE C.S. Lewis didn't intend this, but every time I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book in his beloved The Chronicles of Narnia series, it leaves me feeling one thing: hungry.

I'M SURE C.S. Lewis didn't intend this, but every time I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book in his beloved The Chronicles of Narnia series, it leaves me feeling one thing: hungry.

Each time I open the pages of my well-worn copy, I yearn for Turkish Delight, the candy the evil White Queen uses to bribe Edmund into giving up his siblings. If family safety is on the line, Turkish Delight has to be pretty freakin' delicious, right?

Rather than barter my entire family for a taste of Turkish Delight, Dinah Bucholz's The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook: From Turkish Delight to Gooseberry Fool - Over 150 Recipes Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia allows me to make it myself.

Bucholz lives in the Northeast with her husband and four young children and "someone always has their nose buried in a book somewhere in my house," she said.

In between caring for the kids, Bucholz re-created the meals eaten by the Pevensie children and others who inhabit Narnia. Of course, Turkish Delight is in there (take note: it's not easy to make for first-time candy-creators), but there are 150 other recipes in Bucholz's arsenal that Lewis either directly mentions or references in his seven-book series.

This isn't the only novel Bucholz has given the cookbook treatment to. Two years ago, she released The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. It spent five weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.

Bucholz started writing these adapted cookbooks, despite having no culinary background, because of the treacle tart - think of it like a syrup pie - that was constantly mentioned in Harry Potter. "It sounded so good and Harry is always eating it," Bucholz said. "I had no idea what it was, but I wanted some."

Food creates a connection between the worlds created by authors such as Lewis and Potter scribe J.K. Rowling, making places we can never go feel immediate.

"Food brings back memories. It's a shorthand way to bring you into this world with something you recognize, even if it [involves] a faun in an enchanted forest," said Dena Heilik, the Fiction Department Head of Philbrick Hall at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Heilik added, "This is fantasy, it's not happening in real life, but the food is. You can grab on to that."

(When I explained Bucholz's work, Heilik immediately referenced Turkish Delight. "Are you disappointed in it? I was expecting it to be the most delicious thing in the world," Heilik said, laughing. We agreed, it's not worth handing your family over to an evil queen for.)

Bucholz's work exists in a legal gray area. Her books aren't officially sanctioned by the Lewis estate or Rowling, but the food referenced in the books is technically fair use, so they have let her slide. There's one series Bucholz has tried and failed to adapt: The fiercely protective estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, told her she "better not," a shame considering hobbits' proclivity for eating breakfast several times a day.

But when it comes to taking the books she is allowed to adapt, research is key. Many of Narnia's recipes, for instance, are rooted in medieval British cuisine, so Bucholz adapted the recipes for modern times.

She read a cookbook written by the cooks of Richard II in the 1390s and learned some Middle English.

"Once you're immersed in it, you kind of pick it up," Bucholz said, as if picking up the medieval dialect is easy. "There were some 17th century cooks who had written notes in Latin [in the cookbook]. They would say you have to take a chicken and hew and smite it and cast it in the pot. Like these chickens were wearing armor."

Since smiting chickens isn't a technique used in modern cooking, Bucholz revises the recipes and cooks them over and over until they are perfected. "When I was testing fudge and I had to make 20 batches of fudge, my kids didn't complain. Even if it was gloop, it was delicious gloop," Bucholz said. "There were certain things they did not like. A sweet and sour veal stew is not something you expect an American kid to say, 'Yummy, I want more.' "

Want to win a copy of The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook? E-mail eichelm@phillynews.com with your favorite Narnia character and why they are your favorite, and you could win one of two copies of Dinah Bucholz's book.