Middle-earth Journeys

Love the idea Merry! As for the pork or pinced pies do you have a bakery in drivable distance. They would truly flush out your menu well. Dressings I can't imagine what would be used. I can't see the hobbits pressing olives for olive oil or corn for cannola oil either. lol Maybe a buttermilk dressing?

I'm jealous I'd love to see how your party goes.

I bet olives can't grow in the Shire. (I thought of that when Bilbo squeezed the lemon over his lovely fish in the movie: that would have to have been imported from far, far, away, maybe Ithilien in better days. No way!) The only salad dressing I recall my mother talking about from her youth in the midwest was hot bacon dressing. They used that on greens and for potato salad. Their dressing for slaw was vinegar and sugar--no fat. But I'm not sure what would have been available in Tolkien's youth in England--which is what he patterned these meals on, I imagine.

We have a lovely French bakery (owned and operated by real people from France!) within walking distance--a constant source of temptation! But I don't think I've ever seen pork-pie or minced pie at any bakery ever.

""the hobbit''Allez! je m'en remets une fois sur mon écran TV, je me fais plaisir cet après-midi, dans mon fauteuil, béate comme une petite fille devant un conte de fées!!

I watched it again this week, too, Michka! Still lots of details to notice.

I found a recipe for pork pie:

http://recipewise.co.uk/traditional-pork-pie-recipe

I think I'll pass!

My goodness that pie looked delicious Merry. I bet it has lovely flavor which I'm sure our massed produced pork pies have none. I don't cook meat any longer but it looked good to me.

Do we have massed produced pork pies?

I'm somewhat adventurous when it comes to food (I had quail for the first time last week!), but I'm not sure about pork jelly! Sounds like trolls were involved!

Helas je ne peux ouvrir les pages contenant les recettes, qui paraissent si appêtissantes et amusantes, alors une petite prière: quelqu'un peut poster au moins celle de la ''tarte'', svp?

Oh, no! I can't imagine that my method for making apple tarts would be any match for the tarts that are made in France! Mine is very humble, rustic really, but here it is:

I use a store-bought pie pastry (a sin, I know, but I'm not much of a cook!) and I roll it out a little on a cookie sheet to make it a little thinner. I slice the apples pretty thin (I don't bother to peal them--healthier that way, and more colorful!) and toss them with sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon--how much depends on how sweet the apples are. I tend to like Granny Smiths, which require a bit more sugar. I arrange the slices in a sort of pattern if I have time, or if I don't, I just dump them in. Then I fold up the pastry and pleat it to form a circle. Sometimes I dot the top with a bit of butter, sometimes I brush on some apricot preserves, if I have it. I bake it at 350 degrees until it looks done!

Nothing too special here, but I imagine that it is what hobbits would like!

merci, j'ai pris note, mais cela ressemble très fort à ce que je fais aussi moi-même, et du coup ça me donne envie de préparer une tarte, bon appêtit!!

Well, I had my hobbit dinner last night and served foods that came out of Bilbo's pantry. The only departure, probably, is that I made a balsamic vinagraitte for the salad--not very hobbity, but I think the meal called for it. I did have some radishes in the salad, in honor of the Gaffer. I wanted to have some root vegetables and I found some great radishes at the farmers' market.

Some of my prized possessions are beer glasses, given to me by my nephew a few years ago, which have the logos of the Prancing Pony and the Green Dragon on them. We had appropriately brewed local ale, as well as some red wine for Gandalf!

It was a lot of fun! All my guests were great Tolkien fans, so we did dramatic readings of our favorite passages after dinner. One of my guests, a priest, sang the song the goblins sang when the dwarves were trapped in burning trees, making up his own melody as he went along! My contributions were to read the passage from LOTR wherein Sam and Frodo, just having destroyed the Ring, waited for the burning lava to reach them. I also read Tolkien's letters to a lady who wanted to name her cow 'Galadriel'.

You have to have the right crowd for a theme party, I guess, but everyone really bought in! I'd recommend this as a fun activity.

I was just looking at the Hobbit calendar. The next entry will be July 19, when the dwarves and Bilbo escape from the goblins. That means they were there for 23 days!

Here's a nice little essay on The Hobbit:

http://hardhobbittobreak.com/?page_id=1027

There is also some interesting artwork there.

We missed wishing each other Happy Durin's Day yesterday!

I thought I heard the thrush knocking yesterday! Then again, more than likely it was one of the contractors here remodeling our bathrooms . . .

I hear those dwarf plumbers are the best!