Russell Colver
Folktale Recipes: Cinderella
While its origins are unknown, this dish
was introduced into Europe during the 17th century
and has many names:
Rhodopis, Cenerentola, Cendrillo, Cinderella.
It is best known today by its more familiar name,
taken from the Spanish, Dayana.
While its main ingredients have remained essentially the same,
the exact nature of each dish is determined by cultural traditions
and local availability of foods. This recipe,
popularized in England during the late 20th century,
is less highly spiced and gristly than earlier versions
due to the ready accessibility of more refined ingredients.
Ingredients
1 dreamer, a sweet confection aged in mild loneliness and marinated in romanticism for some years
1 prince, heirloom variety, available at any Purveyor of Fine Necessaries to the Crown
1 noblewoman, blonde varietal, complementary in flavor to the prince, apt to root deeply and cling tenaciously
1 courtship, bedecked with fresh, highly fragrant flowers
2 cups expectations, separated, one frothy and only lightly stirred, the other hearty and flavored with traditional winter vegetables from ancient stock
Assorted Flavorings, which may include infatuation, seriousness, loneliness, gaiety, intellect, compassion, disappointment, betrayal
Sugar glass, edible pearls
Combine the dreamer and the prince in an ornate antique container. Stir in the courtship – the fragrant flowers will give the mixture a faint, pleasant aftertaste, which will gradually fade.
Carefully blend in expectations, followed by flavorings. This step can be tricky: to prevent the possibility of curdling, lay a heavy weight of duty on top of the mixture, to remain in place as long as necessary. Decorate with sugar glass, pearls, and a dusting of trumpets.
Once the mixture has cooled, very gently fold in the noblewoman, trying to blend her in so smoothly she leaves no visible trace.
Let set. When ready, serve at once. This dish does not keep.
Ecology
When the first thin cylinder appeared under the porch eaves,
we let it be. A few days later it was followed by a second,
then a third, brittle tubes of tawny clay, ridged and parallel
like a 3-fingered salute, or a generous measure of Scotch.
We rarely saw the gentle blue-black wasps who built them,
an occasional iridescent float through sunlight, no threat to us
as we came and went. At one time we’d have scraped them off
after saturating them with Raid.
Charmed by our own enlightenment
we will fail to see, in the hollow darkness of the nest,
a cream colored worm feasting on a living spider
paralyzed in its cell, then spinning from bits of offal
a shroud from which it will emerge translated, a fairy creature
lifted by translucent wings, blue-black in the sun.
Russell Colver lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Her poetry has appeared in such publications as One, the North Carolina Literary Review, Rattle, the American Poetry Review, and others. She was the winner of the NCLR James Applewhite Poetry Prize in 2016.
