Food and AU wimbling

[gwendolyngrace]

Dear Gwen:

Don't ever buy Hamburger Helper again. Really. I mean it. Use up the ones you have if you must, but you really shouldn't get any more. Like Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Spaghettios, this is something you no longer ever, ever need to buy.

Kthxloff,

Your Stomach


Meanwhile, I'm in a personal crisis of sorts over AUness. Some of you may know that I have a Lucius backstory, a Snape backstory, and some other snippets flowting around on my hard drive, that have never yet seen the light of day, much of the background for which was laid during the writing of HMSS and developed long before "Order of the Phoenix," to say nothing of "Half-Blood Prince." Since the gulf between canon and my backstories has grown to a rather sizeable chasm, yet in many ways, I like my own scenarios Just Because, I've got major urges to just go ahead and put it all out there (probably here first, for some open beta, if nothing else).

But how AU should I go? Should I make any attempt to comply with any canon at all? For example, there are things I simply *won't* be changing, due to my storyline: Lucius will be 7 years older than canon-Lucius; for symbolic reasons, his father's name is Lazarus, not Abraxas; Narcissa will not be a Black; Bellatrix does not exist in anything like that format; my Lestrange boys have always been cousins, not brothers (though I'm very proud that I did figure there was another male Lestrange in addition to the married one).

But should I bother to canon-comply on things that don't matter to the story, like making Slughorn the potions prof and Head of Slytherin? Should I alter Molly's maiden name to make her a Prewett? Would it make the story slightly more acceptable, or would it simply be all the more jarring where I had veered well away from canon (before canon was ever revealed)?

The same principle applies to the Snape fic. I won't be using Tobias, and his mother's name was never important to me; the whole point of the AU-ness is the difference between my picture of his childhood and JKR's, so his heritage is a pretty firm point. But should I incorporate the book? Should I move them from London to Cradley Heath (heh. Thanks Jenna!)?

How AU is *too* AU, now that we know what canon says?


Or should I just swallow it, since they've never seen the light of day, and somehow figure out how to turn them to something original? (Which would be sorta difficult, considering)

Comments

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

Spaghettios? Maybe you haven't been eating them correctly? ;) Need to make a sandwich on Wonder Bread with Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Cream to eat with it. Ah, a feast fit for a king there alright! :)

I haven't had Macaroni and Cheese nor Hamburger Helper in years, but I do have cans of Spaghettios under my counter. Thank you very much! ;)

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Spaghettios with meatballs used to be one of about five meals I would reliably eat as a kid. Once I hit college, I went for about 10 years before I had any again, and when I did, I thought, "How disgusting! I used to *eat this*?"

I do still have some kraft dinner occasionally - but now I mostly use the easymac stuff.

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

My mom used to make alot of tuna casserole, but she also made this stuff called Tamale Pie. I wretch every time I get near anything that smells remotely like it. The Spaghettios and PB and M Cream sandwich is a good memory, I wasn't stuffed with it as kid, but yeah, it is just like alot of foods that are fun for kids to eat and don't fit an adult palate...but who says I have to be an adult? :)

[chrystie69.livejournal.com]

Go with your own vision. The more I see of the people writing fiction based on the Harry Potter series the more it reminds me of the hey day of the Star Trek Novelizations. Some of them stayed with Cannon, some strayed, but it really didn't matter because the stories were about the author's direction not Gene Roddenberry's.

Be bold about an AU!

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

The comment about Star Trek made me think--one thing I really enjoyed about doing an AU about Harry being aware of the "other world" was that he wasn't unaware that something had changed; he knew about that other world and had to make a choice, this world or that. You could do something that makes your characters aware somehow of JKR's version of their world and have them make a conscious choice--yours!

As for food, I've been making chicken quesadillas about once a week lately; they're really easy and even Ben eats them (and you saw his eating habits when you were here). Tortillas are easy to find, then I just spread half of one with black bean dip (it's really thick), add some pre-cooked chicken breast meat (I use Purdue--it's actually cheaper than buying and cooking my own), I also add some mushrooms, onions or spinach, top with thin slices of Monterey Jack cheese (Pepper Jack for more spice), fold it over and when it's on the grill or in the frying pan weight it with a saucepan filled with soupcans. Flip once during cooking and when the cheese is melted you're basically in business! You can make as much or as little as you want. Lately Rachel's preferred hers without chicken, so she's been having mushroom quesadillas. Either way it's a lot better than torturing yourself with the Hamburger Helper. ;) Oh, and it's great served with sour cream and salsa. (Ben has his plain, of course, and Rachel doesn't like sour cream but goes nuts with the salsa. :D)