Enjoy lunch at Hogwarts

Junie B. Jones and SpongeBob SquarePants are popular with students, but nothing gets them as excited as Harry Potter, says Eda Henries, a third-grade teacher who works for Teach for America. “If you get a whole group of kids together who read Harry Potter, it becomes a little club, and they want to dress, talk and act just like the characters in the book,” she says.

Some would also like to eat like the characters — although not everything served at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry appeals to certain young tastes.

“The meals look great,” says Alex Gerig, a 9-year-old reader from Alexandria, Va., but he adds: “I probably wouldn’t want to eat Bertie Bott’s Beans flavors like grass, soap or earwax. Those are pretty gross.”

Children and adults alike are anticipating the imminent arrival of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth book in J.K. Rowling’s popular series. Since the publication of the first book in 1997, more than 200 million copies of all the Harry Potter volumes have been sold. Come midnight on July 16, readers will be lined up to collect the long-awaited installment — and many will not sleep until they’ve finished it. Such a literary feast begs a culinary celebration.

The routines of Hogwarts School have become commonplace in conversations from playgrounds to water coolers. Readers vicariously enjoy the welcoming feast for students returning to Hogwarts, and the tantalizing tastes of Honeydukes Sweetshop and the Leaky Cauldron. Harry Potter’s lifestyle has become part or ours.

Though moviegoers have become familiar with the sights and sounds of Diagon Alley, the Weasley home and the Dursleys’ Privet Lane, the scents and tastes of the series are still up to the imagination.

But you don’t need floo powder to get a taste of Harry’s world. The dishes here — one adapted from a television show, one adapted from a Web site and one newly created for Harry lovers — are offered to herald the arrival of the sixth book.

Potter fans will recognize pumpkin pasties and butterbeer as adaptations of Harry’s favorite snacks. The Disappearing Pretzel Wands, however, are just fun, child-friendly pleasures in the spirit of the book.

While cockroach clusters and fizzing whizzbees are not among the offerings, more daring readers are welcome to create their own.

Pumpkin Pasties

Adapted from a recipe by Britta Peterson, a California Harry fan

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 prepared, uncooked pie crusts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Slightly beat eggs and mix together all filling ingredients in a large casserole dish. Bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake until knife inserted in center of the filling is clean (approximately 40 minutes). Cool on wire rack but do not turn off oven.

Prepare pie crust or thaw store-bought crust to room temperature. Cut crust into circles about 3 inches in diameter. Put a generous spoonful of the cooled pumpkin mixture on one half of the center of the circle. Fold the crust into a semicircle and firmly pinch the edges closed with a fork; slice three small slits in the top for venting.

You’ll probably have quite a bit of pumpkin left over — serve it as pumpkin pudding. (If you want to use all the pumpkin, you will need about three times as much pie crust.)

Bake the pasties on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees, until they are slightly golden (approximately 20 minutes or slightly longer with certain prepared crusts).

Can be served warm or cool.

Yield: About 20 pasties

Nutrition per serving: 120 calories, 5 grams fat (2 grams saturated, 38 percent fat calories), 2 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrate, 29 milligrams cholesterol, .7 grams dietary fiber, 152 milligrams sodium.

Butterbeer

Adapted from “The Rosie O’Donnell Show”

1 pint of vanilla ice cream, softened

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 bottle (3 cups) sparkling apple cider

Allow ice cream to soften, about 30 minutes, and bring butter to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Cream together butter, sugar and spices in large bowl. Add to ice cream and refreeze. Heat sparkling cider in a pot until warm but still carbonated (at least 3 minutes). Fill each glass with a generous scoop of ice cream mixture and pour warmed cider over ice cream. It will foam like beer; hence the name.

Yield: 6 servings

Per 1/4 -cup serving: 329 calories, 20 grams fat (12 grams saturated, 55 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein, 23 grams carbohydrate, 102 milligrams cholesterol, .5 grams dietary fiber, 61 milligrams sodium.

Disappearing Pretzel Wands

You can make the wands more creative by adding food coloring to the vanilla or using different varieties of sprinkles. They “disappear” while you eat them!

1/2 cup chocolate fudge frosting

1 dish of candy sprinkles ( 1/2 cup)

10 pretzel rods (the thick kind)

2 tablespoons vanilla frosting

Transfer chocolate frosting to a microwave-safe glass baking dish.

Microwave on high for 10 seconds or until melted; stir until smooth.

Roll each pretzel rod in the melted frosting, making sure to coat completely. Dip each stick in candy sprinkles and lay on a piece of foil.

Refrigerate to set the frosting (about 40 minutes). Transfer foil to a countertop work surface.

Place vanilla frosting in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 10 seconds to soften.

Dip the tip of each pretzel in the vanilla frosting until coated; return wands to foil.

Let stand for 2 hours.

Yield: 10 wands

Nutrition per serving: 132 calories, 4 grams fat (2 grams saturated, 18 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, no cholesterol, .4 grams dietary fiber, 170 milligrams sodium.