I returned this cook book without actually reading through the whole thing. All of the recipes are vegetarian, which is great! Except that most of the dishes don't involve more complex spices than salt and pepper. This is not the way to get kids (or adults, ofr that matter) interested in vegetables.

The one dish I made from here, "Mole's Favourite Turnip and Tater Deeper'n'Ever Pie," was a disappointment. It would make a good base dish if you're handy with cheese & herbs, which is what I ended up doing when I reheated it. Lots of gorgonzola, lots of thyme.

Brian Jacques' introduction, however, was worth the disappointment. It turns out that the reason why there are so many mouth-watering descriptions of food in his books is that he was raised during the WWII era, and food became extremely important to him since all the nice & tasty stuff was rationed.

I will probably re-check this book out in the spring or summer - they have a lot of drink recipes (non-alcoholic) that sound like they'll go nicely with those seasons.

One of the hardest and best things about Brian Jacques 'Redwall' series is surviving through the lavish descriptions of delicious feasts. They make the mouth water, and the only time to effectively read these books is during the holidays when leftovers and goodies are abundant. Or during a good garden harvest.

Happily, there is this wee, handy cookbook with recipes and short Redwall stories. I haven't tried the recipes yet, but they look good and read well. And I am really looking forward to reading Redwall or Mossflower (or any of the other zillion Redwall books) aloud to my kids, and then serving them "Shrimp & Hotroot Soup" or "Foremoles Deeper'n Ever Pie" for dinner.

Lovely.