Today is very cold and very wet. 

Even Starnberg came inside the huge kitchens of the Cold Mountain Castle…he said, ‘if I wanted to turn into a water dragon and put up with the endless chatter of mermaids then I would stay outside where the water is flying sideways, but I am very fond of flying, breathing fire and not talking to chittering mermaids.’ 

And then he came inside quite calmly and said hello to Cook. 

I am quite sure that Starnberg does not like talking to mermaids. But now I know they’re real because he kept talking about them! I find that quite exciting.

While Starnberg was drying his green scales in front of the roaring fire Cook always kept going, I spoke with my friend Serena. You remember her, she’s the secret undercover fairy in the Cold Mountain Castle’s kitchens and she pretends to be Cook’s apprentice.

Both Serena and I had noticed that Starnberg seemed, shall we say, out of sorts. 

Cook was busy pouring melted butter all over tonight’s roast dinner so she had forgotten to tell Serena what to do next. 

Naturally Serena handed me a tea towel and expected me to dry the dishes while she started to wash up pots and pans left over from breakfast. I quite like drying plates but I won’t ever tell Cook that in case she truly forgets that I am a princess and she makes me do kitchen work forever after whenever I pop in to say hello. Cook hardly ever remembers to call me Princess. Sophie says it’s because Cook marches to the beat of her own drum but really Cook should remember because my sister is our queen. But maybe Cook forgets that too. I don’t know. 

Anyway, while Serena was wrestling a giant frying pan into a giant soapy washing tub I asked her if she could think of anything we could feed Starnberg to help him cheer up from all that rain. Anything at all. Well, anything which wasn’t cute and fluffy like a sheep (Starnberg refuses to eat meat in front of us now because he says it will put us off our friendships and truly, it was not pretty to watch him eat up my completely wicked uncle Jacob once upon a time).

Serena gave up washing the giant frying pan and stared into space while she figured out her ideas inside her head. 

“There’s plenty of large potatoes in the pantry. We could try cooking those for the dragon Starnberg?’

Serena is always extremely polite when she refers to Starnberg. That’s why she always calls him ‘the dragon Starnberg’, and I wonder if it’s because she’s a fairy or if it’s because he brought her here to work undercover for whatever mysterious secret that I still do not know. 

However, Prince Toleymus is not particularly polite…although that could just be because he is a boy fairy and a grown up. I do not know. Fairies are a mystery and I really do look forward to whenever it is that I am allowed to visit the Fairy Court of Silken Tents. 

I thought a bit about whether Starnberg would like to eat jacket potatoes and decided that he would. He really liked baked apples and really they are not so very different in the cooking. They are both hot and about the same size and have an awful lot of butter.

“We’ll have to put the butter and cheese in for him at the end, otherwise he won’t enjoy them very much.”

Serena agreed with me, dragon claws are not much use for delicate cooking chores. And to be honest, the whole point of jacket potatoes is enjoying the melted butter and cheese inside them.

So we began our cooking chores and Serena hummed a little tune while we scrubbed the dirt from the potatoes. 

“You have a nice tune to be singing,” said Starnberg to Serena. 

“It makes me think of stars Serena,” said I.

Starnberg gave me a look and I could see he was thinking very hard about something. He almost looked quite cross but I knew he wasn’t because the look he gave me was the same sort of look the little grey pony gives me when she is thinking about going for a ride away from her stable. Without me. In other words, I rather think Starnberg was having a mischievous thought.

Serena blushed and got the butter from another table. 

“Well that is a great compliment Princess,” said Starnberg.

Serena’s skin had returned to its normal golden-type of colour and was not bright pink from the blushing.

Starnberg shuffled his wings and curled his tail around his heels. 

You see, even a dragon calls me Princess, so why on earth doesn’t Cook? Do you think it is possible she is teasing me by forgetting to call me princess? I wonder. And given how piratey Cook sounds whenever she does talk I decide to decide that she is indeed teasing me.

Suddenly I remember that pirates are not famous for following rules so I decide to stop fussing about not being called Princess by our bossy, piratey cook.

What you will need:

2 large potatoes per person, cleaned,

One hot oven (or dragon), 180 degrees Celsius

Butter,

Cheese, grated

Salt and pepper,

forks and knives.

Serena placed the potatoes on the fire’s hearth which Starnberg is now snoozing in front of. Honestly, he looks even more comfortable in front of that fireplace than Toleymus’ great playful hounds.

Cook says to put your potatoes in a hot oven (your adult can do this for you) and it will take about an hour for the skins to go all crispy. 

When the skins are all crispy you should be able to feel that the potatoes are soft through their middle. This means they are cooked through. There is nothing worse (or poisonous) than raw potato. Every potato is an adventure, who knew?!

Sadly, Starnberg did not wake up to help cook our potatoes. 

It was extremely boring and dull of him because I really do like watching him breath fire. It is what he is meant to do as a dragon and I like it because he is so delicate and careful with his sparks when he is concentrating.

Also I know he likes to breathe fire because he says so.

The plus side is that because I got to help Serena finish drying the dishes that meant we could have some sweet apple tea while we waited for the potatoes to soften up in the hot oven.

The sweet apple tea was delicious. It was piping hot and sweet and made me ravenous for hot buttery potatoes.

Serena put oven mits on both of her hands to take the potatoes off the fire hearth. She gave the biggest one a firm squeeze and she said it felt all soft and fluffy inside so we knew lunch was on its way!

Carefully, put the potatoes on a bench and cut each one in half with a small sharp knife. Ask your adult to help or they can do it for you. 

Put four potato halves on each plate. 

Dig the centre of each potato half out using a fork. 

Take a dollop of butter and grated cheese and push them into the bottom of the empty potato jacket. 

Use the fork to push the fluffy scraped out potato back into the jacket potatoes and press down firmly with the fork so the fluffy white cooked potato stays inside the crispy potato jacket. 

Now put a dollop of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper on top of each potato half.

Some people also like sour cream and chives on their baked jacket potatoes.

Ouch! 

I was impatient and bit straight into a jacket potato half and burnt my tongue. It was piping hot still! 

Serena gave me a glass of water and Cook gave me a loud look of ‘that’ll learn you, me heartie.’

I sighed and woke Starnberg up while I waited for the potato to reach ‘warm’ rather than ‘piping hot.’ 

He was not exactly delightful to be woken up but changed his mood immediately when Serena placed eight jacket potato halves in front of him. He gobbled them down and sighed contentedly. That means his food made him happy. 

Sophie taught me the word last week and made me write down the definition and use it in a sentence every day so I would remember it forever. That made me sigh, but not contentedly. I found it hard to use the same word in a different sentence everyday for a week…! Teachers, honestly. 

Yes, I have just rolled my eyes.

Starnberg and Cook had a lovely and interesting conversation about a place I have never visited called Reindeer Pass while the rain continued to fall sideways outside the kitchen windows in our cold mountain castle. 

I think jacket potatoes can fix everything.

Even grumpy wet dragons.