In King’s Castle Rock novella The Sun Dog (in Different Seasons, 1982), Kevin Delevan has a pretty stereotypical all-American family, living with his mom, dad, and little sister Meg in middle-class suburban comfort. While everything is pretty good for the Delevans (at least until the incident of Kevin’s birthday Polaroid Sun 660), the invisible specter of Aunt Hilda seems to hover over them, reminding them collectively that things could be better. 

Aunt Hilda never actually appears in the novella, though her presence hovers around the edges. When Kevin opens his birthday presents, there’s his usual gift from Aunt Hilda among the rest: a string tie, with a different clasp each year. This one has a woodpecker on it and is destined to end up in Kevin’s drawer with the rest of them, held on to just in case she turns up some time and wants to see him wearing one of them. Aunt Hilda doesn’t come around much, but it’s best to be prepared because “Aunt Hilda presented a certain golden possibility at a point where two essential facts about her crossed: she was Rich and she was Old” (587). There’s the largely unspoken but expected possibility that “Someday … she might DO SOMETHING for Kevin and Meg” (587), specifically through whatever she leaves them in her will. 

As the monstrous dog-like creature in Kevin’s photographs turns to face the invisible photographer, he sees something around its neck, recognizing Aunt Hilda’s latest string tie with its woodpecker clasp. This makes two things abundantly clear to Kevin: first, that this mystery and this monster are his, just like the string tie. He is the monster’s target and stopping it is his responsibility, despite Pop Merrill’s meddling. And second, whatever supernatural, inexplicable thing is happening, it’s real and has potentially deadly consequences for Kevin the real world, as he discovers when he goes home to find that the string tie from Aunt Hilda is actually missing, physically drawn into that other world and now hanging around the monster’s neck. 

Like Aunt Hilda, Pop Merrill has undefined and unshared riches, using that wealth as power to control and exploit those around him. Aunt Hilda doesn’t seem to have the same predatory intent as Pop Merrill (at least not from what we see in The Sun Dog), but her wealth does ensure that people do what she wants them to do. As Kevin tells Pop, “She comes and spends Christmas with us once every three years, and that’s about the only time we go to church, because she goes to church. We have lots of broccoli when Aunt Hilda comes. None of us likes it, and it just about makes my sister puke, but Aunt Hilda likes broccoli a lot, so we have it” (649, emphasis original).

In Castle Rock Kitchen, Theresa Carle-Sanders includes a recipe for “Blue Cheese Broccoli,” inspired by “the favorite vegetable of Kevin Delevan’s not-so-favorite aunt” (159). This is a savory, spiced up broccoli recipe, with the vegetable tossed in Carle-Sanders’ Nouveau French dressing (the recipe for which is also included in Castle Rock Kitchen), olive oil, salt, and pepper, then topped with blue cheese. The end result is crispy, savory, and flavorful. 
The Delevans may not be too crazy about broccoli, but I really like both broccoli and blue cheese, so this was a home run in my book.

While Carle-Sanders’ recipes inspired by The Body attempted to create something delicious out of the grotesque, she takes an opposite approach here, taking the objectionable and making it delectable, subverting expectations and reframing the significance of broccoli in The Sun Dog.

You can check out Castle Rock Kitchen here.