Theresa Carle-Sanders’ Castle Rock Kitchen features two 4th of July-inspired recipes, one drawn from the novella Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) and the other from the short story “Drunken Fireworks” (in the 2015 collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams). Only one of these (“Drunken Fireworks”) is a Castle Rock story, but with the holiday inspiration, these two recipes are perfect for this week, so we’ll check these out then head back to the Rock. 

King’s Cycle of the Werewolf is an excellent early example of his constant innovation and experimentation, originally written in a calendar format, with illustrations by the legendary horror comics artist Berni Wrightson. (Other examples of King’s innovation include ebook exclusives, serial publication, and graphic novels). The novella features twelve brief chapters, one for each month, coinciding with the events surrounding the full moon and the werewolf’s transformation. Cycle is set in Tarker’s Mills, just next door to Under the Dome’s (2009) Chester’s Mill, and the small town goes through a range of responses to this horrific threat, from denial to constant vigilance and (attempted) mob justice. In July, the Beast appears to Marty Coslaw, a boy in a wheelchair, who is able to fight the monster off with some fireworks his cool Uncle Al snuck him earlier in the day. Al is Marty’s mother’s brother, a devil-may-care bachelor who does things like taking his nephew driving fast in his convertible and turning up with silver bullets in December when Marty asks for them. Marty is bummed that the town’s fireworks display has been canceled because of the curfew, and “Only his Uncle Al, who blew into town late this morning to have the traditional salmon and fresh peas with the family, had understood” (62). 

It is this salmon recipe that Carle-Sanders takes on in Castle Rock Kitchen, with her “Poached Salmon for the Fourth.” The final dish bursts with fresh flavors of parsley, lemon, and dill, which is complemented by the creamy richness of the egg sauce that accompanies the salmon, with layers of butter and hard-boiled eggs, though this sauce is also lightened and brightened by lemon and fresh chives. I had actually never poached fish before trying out this recipe, but Carle-Sanders’ detailed instructions made the process easy to follow and the result was delicious and memorable (though thankfully not quite as traumatically memorable as a werewolf attack or a firecracker to the face). 

In “Drunken Fireworks,” Alden McCausland and his mother have a different kind of 4th of July, getting drunk out at their camp on Abenaki Lake outside of Castle Rock as they have a (mostly) friendly fireworks competition with their neighbors across the lake, the Massimos from New Jersey, who have a summer vacation home, though Alden is dismissive of calling his neighbors’ place a camp, exclaiming “A camp! Sonny Jesus, that place was a mansion” (453). There are plenty of tensions to unpack between the McCauslands and the Massimos, including Castle Rock residents vs. people from “away” and the difference in their socioeconomic status, with Alden’s mom saying the lottery-winning McCauslands “‘accident rich,’ but the Massimos were real rich” (453). 

The families’ Fourth of July competition to see who can shoot off the biggest and best fireworks is fairly good natured and grows in size and reputation as the years go by, with locals and vacationers alike turning out to line the shores of the lake and see the show. But while the McCauslands put up a good fight, the contests seems to be a foregone conclusion: the Massimos will always have more money and more connections, and will always have something tremendous up their sleeve when the grand finale comes … at least until the final year of the competition, when Alden buys a massive illegal firework called Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, which takes flight, takes flame, and then sets the Massimos’ house and the surrounding woods on fire, with the reader hearing all about it as Alden is interviewed at the police station afterward (the tone and style is reminiscent of King’s 1992 novel Dolores Claiborne, with Alden making his confession and serving as the sole voice of the story until its final pages). 

Following his father’s hefty life insurance payout and his mom’s big lottery win, Alden and his mother live lives of leisure, spending the bulk of their time drinking at their camp, as he makes passing reference to the cocktails they imbibe, like Muddy Rudders (453), Orange Driver (458), and Dirty Hubcaps (463), but it’s the “sixty-proof Moonquakes” (474) that get them in trouble, the cocktail of that fabled Fourth when Alden set of the Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. King doesn’t provide details for any of the McCauslands’ cocktails, though Alden’s mom does have a strong liking for coffee brandy, which features prominently in Carle-Sanders’ “Deadly Moonquakes” recipe. The cocktail is strong, almost straight liquor, and it’s pretty easy to imagine how things could take an ill-considered turn after a few of these, with Alden admitting to the police officers interviewing him that “those Moonquakes are deadly” (476). 

The moon’s nearly new this Fourth of July, so we should be pretty safe from werewolves. I hope your fish is fresh and your fireworks are beautiful—though you should stay away from the Moonquakes while setting them off. 

You can check out Castle Rock Kitchen here.

[Page numbers from Cycle of the Werewolf are from the Signet paperback edition and page numbers from “Drunken Fireworks” are from the hardcover first edition of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.]