every food in: practical magic
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Originally published 1995
So…..well, today’s post was meant to be either the Wind Up Bird Chronicle or The Hate U Give but I had to do taxes, and apply for some jobs, and I didn’t want to do those a disservice by speeding through reading them.
Plus, I saved them as a reward for myself for not reading books for a few hours and actually doing my taxes, haha. Don’t tell anyone, this is my secret self-motivation ADHD-busting technique.
So today we’re doing an archive rerun of a book I intended to wait til later summer to post, and reviewing Practical Magic.
Many of you might have known that there’s a movie based on this, but like me, were less aware of the book. Many more of you might have gone through an embarrassing “witchy” phase after seeing that movie. (It’s okay. It happens to the best of us.) Something I didn’t know, however, was how much the movie in question is police propaganda in a way the book really, really isn’t.
Some major differences to note, just off the top of my head:
Sally stays with the aunts during her marriage, and doesn’t resent or avoid them as much
Sally moves to another city entirely, and is popular and well liked in it - not shunned by the other PTA moms at all
The dead man is not, in fact, some kind of zombie - really more of a lingering haunting or presence around the house
Gillian is a relatively positive influence around the house and has a sweet and touching redemption arc with one of the kids’ teachers, and a happy ending
Sally asks the investigator to come stay with her, and at no point does he try and investigate her thoroughly or threaten her - he’s sweet, supportive, and leaves his job (implied) at the end
The majority of the story is driven by the relationship between the sisters and healing from trauma, not by abusive or scary love interests coming back or uh, being a cop
The children are teenagers and it’s also a coming of age story on several levels
Yeah. It’s REALLY different. The movie almost feels like a bad fan fiction of the book. It’s still one of my guilty pleasure movies, but it’s really weird and uncomfortable how much they reduced Sally and Gillian’s agency + made the cop love interest front and center, plus really sensationalizing the violence committed by Gillian’s ex boyfriend. The sweet teacher doesn’t even exist.
Overall, I think I prefer the book. The aunts remind me of a very kindly, slightly more ambiguously creepy version of the Addams Family, and I loved that Gillian actually got to heal and that healing was part of removing the presence from the backyard. I’m not normally a big romance reader, but I really looked forward to the relationships developing between these characters and how they navigated them, and how each one was subtly different depending on the personalities and ages. It was really nicely done, in my opinion.
On to the food - there’s a lot. Nothing really requiring recipes here, they eat a lot of junk food.
Cold Dr. Peppers
Marshmallow pies
Yoohoo
Melty Hershey’s bars
Pickles and preserves'
“Sally was the one who cooked healthy dinners of meat loaf and fresh green beans and barley soup, using recipes from a copy of Joy of Cooking she’d manage to smuggle into the house. She fixed their lunchboxes each morning, packing up turkey and tomato sandwiches on whole wheat bread, adding carrot sticks and iced oatmeal cookies, all of which Gillian tossed in the trash the instant after Sally had deposited her in her classroom, since she preferred the sloppy joes and brownies sold in the school cafeteria, and she often had swiped enough quarters and dimes from the aunts’ coat pockets to buy herself whatever she liked.”
Tuna fish sandwich
Vanilla Coke with an extra squirt of syrup
Cokes and French fries
Lamb chops and baked beans
Cheeseburger and a coke
Hot fudge sundaes
Vegetable stew with spring onions
Split pea soup
Cold beef sandwiches and bottles of dark beer
Barley soup laced with whiskey
Cold beer and icebox cake
Pink lemonade and piles of jelly beans
Rosemary mixed into breakfast cereal, lavender in tea
Canned peas out of a tin
Slices of tangerine and cokes
Butterfingers for dinner
Broth and hot tea
Gumballs and red licorice sticks
Pot roast and chicken paprikash and lasagna
Ice cream cones and lollipops
A tipsy chocolate cake
A banana split with marshmallow whip
Homemade brownies and chocolate cookies
A bean and tofu salad, carrot sticks, and cold marinated broccoli, with angel food cake for dessert
An apple tart with black pepper and nutmeg
Blueberry pie
“the best bar in town, where special hors d’oeuvres are set out for festive occasions, hard boiled eggs tinted pale pink and aqua, or little turkey and cranberry burritos.”
A stick of gum
Great brownies with m&ms in the batter
Diet Coke
Cheeseburgers, ginger ale, and coke
Tofu dogs and “some sort of bean that is supposed to be good for you”
Coffee
Pancakes and fresh orange juice and fruit salad topped with coconut and raisins
Vegetarian lasagna
Diet cokes
“Let’s get two pepperoni pizzas.” “You don’t eat meat,” Antonia reminds her. “Then I’ll have another glass of Chianti,” Sally says. “And some stuffed mushrooms. Maybe some pasta.”
A beer and eggplant rollatini
Two pizzas-plain, no pepperoni- three orders of stuffed mushrooms, an order of crostini, some garlic bread, and two insalatas
A cappuccino
Tomato rice soup
Soft boiled eggs
Chocolate syrup and marshmallow topping, as well as sprinkles and maraschino cherries and wet walnuts
Chocolates wrapped in pretty foil, but with poisonous centers that give off a foul odor every time he breaks one in half
Snickers bars
“Several casserole pans of lasagna and broccoli with cheese soufflés, a carton of milk, cold cuts, bottled water, bunches of carrots. Right before they had to leave Tucson in such a hurry, there was nothing in their refrigerator but six packs of Budweiser and Diet Coke. One package of frozen burritos was wedged way in the back near the ice trays, but anything left in their freezer always defrosted, then refroze, and was better left alone.”
“Ben fixed carrot soup the next evening, a salad of leaf lettuce, and a pot of Welsh rabbit, which Gillian was extremely relieved to hear was nothing more than melted cheese served with bread.”
Plates of pancakes and eggs with coffee
Lemon pound cake spread with butter
A chocolate chip cake with maple frosting
Rocky road ice cream
Chicken noodle soup, and tea
Toast with grape jelly
“At noon, Ben left the hospital and went to the Owl Cafe, where he had three cups of black coffee. He didn’t have lunch; he didn’t order the hash and eggs that he liked, or the bacon, lettuce, and tomato on whole wheat.”
A pitcher of margaritas with coarse salt
Lemonade
A glass of iced tea
“a picnic lunch of cream cheese and olive sandwiches, pita pockets stuffed with salad, thermoses filled with lemonade and iced tea”
Vegetarian lasagna and green bean salad with almonds, and cherry cheesecake for dessert, all homemade
Two pots of thick black coffee a day
Shredded wheat on weekdays, and on Sundays pancakes, spread with molasses and jam
A cold can of coke
A pot of tomato sauce with onions and mushrooms and sweet red pepper
A fruit salad or some blueberry waffles
A fried chicken franchise’s onion rings
Shrimp with cashews and pork fried rice, egg rolls, orange soda, pepsi
Chamomile tea
A bucket of fried chicken, onion rings and fries
Mashed parsnips and potatoes, noodle pudding, and apple tart for dessert
Beans and toast, soup and crackers
Peanut butter and jelly, graham crackers and alphabet soup, Mallomar cookies, and handfuls of m&ms
Grape juice
Cookies or cakes or bowls of eggnog sprinkled with nutmeg
Chocolate chip cookies, perhaps a Sara Lee cake
A pot of mint tea and a chipped cup
Two large pies to be delivered, one with anchovies, for the aunts, the other cheese and mushroom with extra sauce
Instant chocolate pudding
Gin and bitters
Cold coffee
Apple pie from magic apples
Orange juice, cakes
“Cabbages are growing there, although some of them will be plucked from the rows this morning, and cooked with bouillon. Potatoes have already been dug up, boiled and mashed, and are currently being flavored with salt, pepper, and sprigs from the rosemary that grows beside the gate.”
Broiled chicken, now replaced with a turkey
