Beauty

Beautiful Stark Direwolves

I sometimes browse DeviantArt and the realization hits me fresh in the face every time: There is so much good art on the internet.

What a magnificent tool to present, express and develop your talent in a way that was never possible before. You can promote yourself commercially, too. Freelance has never been easier. Work from anywhere, anytime. Offer your illustration services for a price, with quite a few examples for demonstration. No applications, no credentials; just plain old demonstration. Get paid in bitcoin. If you are good and make sure to be visible; pretty soon the jobs will come raining down on you. And it’s so … free. No publishing or paper costs (unless by choice, of course).

Just look at these direwolves! Just like I imagine them. Their gazes are so intense and their pelts gorgeous. All in some undefined cold desolation – beyond the Wall, perhaps – with “Mormont’s Torch” lighting their way. Ahh.

Artwork: http://jessyr.deviantart.com/art/The-Direwolves-of-Westeros-327679135. By user Jessy Ross.

My intent is only display – hope this is sufficient 🙂

A Taste of Provence

French cuisine always had a special place in my heart. No, it’s not all about baguettes – it’s much, much more. Ingredients are mostly local: fish from the Mediterranean Sea; tomatoes, squash and salad from local farms; olive oil from centuries old mills; local wine and cheese; high quality meat etc. I love the fact that they don’t seem to save the good stuff in restaurants – whenever you get a salad, even just a couple of leaves next to the main course, it’s always sprinkled with a homemade vinaigrette. France is actually quite paleo friendly as long as you refrain from eating all the bread they keep throwing at you during restaurant visits. And the croissants. And the pain-au-chocolats. And the crêpes. But yes yes; very paleo friendly.

Here are some of the highlights from my very recent (in fact I am still there) gastronomic tour of southern France. Bon appétit!

Roasted, locally farmed chicken w/ratatouille:

Selection of grilled mediterranean seafood w/salad and mashed potatoes w/olive oil:

Salad of tuna and celery sprinkled w/olive oil and balsamic vinegar:

Salad w/grilled squid:

Omelet w/bacon and emmetal cheese, salad and a beautifully viscous vinaigrette of lemon juice and olive oil:

Salmon mousse w/cream:

Lamb w/herbs, mushrooms, vegetables and carrot purée:

Chicken w/vegetables and a chive cream sauce:

Salad of cured duck, fried duck, foie gras and roasted potatoes:

… and the obligatory glass of rosé wine.

I use Trip Advisor and instantly find the best restaurants nearby. I have been in the area before: see this delicious recipe for quail in raspberry vinegar that I made as a participant of a five day cooking school the last time I was in France.

Not paleo, but just I want to show you our breakfast table at the guest house. Isn’t it cozy?

Game of Thrones Travel Guide

I can go to King’s Landing, WInterfell and Astapor? What is this epicness?! Right here, from The Luxe Travel: Game of Thrones Travel Guide.

Shut up and take my money.

Garden Update: Crops Coming On

Time for an update on my newbie botanical project! Trying to keep track of everything I’ve learned this year proves a challenge. I document some things and trust my memory with others, but … I’ll probably have to make some of the same mistakes again. And that’s ok. I have a lifetime for that.

And boy is this fun! Feelin’ dat dirt on my fingers, like there’s sum connection to mother earth, a greater meaning to it all, yo? No? I’m a huge fan of geometry and the slightly ordered chaos, so I’ve arranged my kitchen garden as a double hexagon – by way of digging down planks of appropriate length and at proper distance so I can reach out from both sides. The plants are somewhat arbitrarily placed in the resulting lanes, but as long as there is some framework it’s easy to maintain. Works like that with most things, really. And of course it looks good.

Earlier this year:

Now:

Vegetables

I’ve exclusively chosen to grow what I would later like to eat. I always keep that in mind when caring for my veggies. Here are some of them:

Fennel.

Arugula.

Pumpkin. Hoping for a big one.

Strawberry.

Green squash.

Baby leaf salad.

Spaghetti squash. I have never eaten it, and can’t wait till they’re ripe. I shall make ALL the pasta sauces!

Kale.

Carrot.

More salads: baby leaf, spinach and arugula.

Tomatoes. Not cultivated by me.

Herbs

My herbs are mostly perennial. I just love to bring a basket and scissors to collect some thyme, mint and oregano for the stew!

Thymes.

Peppermint.

Flat leaf parsley.

Chives.

Nasturtium Love ❤

Ever since I saw The Hobbit I wanted to recreate a Shire garden. The flowers most notable were nasturtiums and hollyhocks. I ordered several strains of nasturtiums, and they’re doing well! Their flowers are edible too, and give a salad or dessert a beautiful finishing touch. Not exactly Bag End yet – but we’ll get there, we’ll get there.

Our Grand Feast of Ice and Fire (spoilers)

The pictures from our Game of Thrones night are here! As mentioned earlier, my sister and I hosted a “Feast of Ice and Fire” last weekend, and it was a sumptuous success. We watched the first seven episodes of season 3 of the HBO show and dined on the most splendid meal I have ever participated in creating.

Most of the recipes are either taken from or inspired by A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Offical Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer, but we added our own touch. See earlier post for review. I absolutely recommend this book to any fan.

I’ll include from which book of the Song of Ice and Fire series each dish is taken, and by whom it was eaten (hence the “spoilers” tag).

Appetizers

Dates Wrapped in Bacon. This is the only dish not from the book, but all you fans out there know that it definitely could be. We felt it was consistent with all of George R. R. Martin’s other abundant food descriptions. And by the way: It. Was. Delicious.

Remove stones, wrap in bacon and bake at 200°C for 15 minutes. Yummy.

Beverage: Local apple cider, produced on a farm nearby.

Starters

Cream of Mushroom and Snail Soup. The first course at King Joffrey’s wedding feast in A Storm of Swords. We made snail the optional ingredient for the guests.

Vegetable broth, heavy cream, mixed mushrooms, leeks, spring onion, parsley, thyme, oregano and canned snails (stuffed in decorative shells if you like).

Cheese and Onion Pie. Also a dish at King Joffrey’s wedding feast.

Pie dough, eggs, onion, cheese, herbs, nutmeg, pepper. Our own recipe.

Salad at Castle Black. Eaten by Jon Snow and his Night’s Watch buddies at their initiation feast in A Game of Thrones. Up on the Wall you need to think preservation – dried nuts, legumes, fruits and meat; and storable vegetables.

Baby spinach and other baby leaves, chickpeas, raisins, olive oil, salt and pepper. From the book, slightly altered.

Sansa Salad. Eaten at the afternoon feast of the Hand’s Tourney in A Game of Thrones. More lavish than the Castle Black one, this salad clearly represents the more extravagant southern style in Westeros.

Mixed leafy green salad, diced prunes, walnuts, raspberries, mint leaves, edible flowers and a dressing of raspberry vinegar whisked with olive oil, salt and pepper. From the book, slightly altered.

Beverage: Valhalla Mead, a Danish brand. Good quality mead, we found; is a tempting alternative to wine.

Main Course

Quails Drowned in Butter. Eaten by Tyrion and Lord Janos in A Clash of Kings. OK, much to our very short-lived disappointment we didn’t get the chance to buy real quail. But we did get so-called “spring chicken”, which is much smaller than regular chicken. It even tastes more like quail, in my opinion.

Spring chicken, butter (lots of it), salt and pepper. Our own recipe.

Buttered Carrots. Eaten by Cersei and Tyrion in A Clash of Kings. As the chicken was so brutally drowned in it, we substituted the butter for coconut oil here.

Chunky carrots, coconut oil, parsley, vegetables broth; cooked until soft. Our own recipe.

Beverage for the main course: Red wine of the house, ale of various colors and tastes – most from a micro brewery called Ægir (being the Norse god of brew-craft, Ægir supplied the citizens of Åsgard with ale). They are exquisite.

Dessert and snacks

Baked Apples. Eaten at a feast in Winterfell in A Clash of Kings. My favorite dessert right now.

Cored apples, a good chunk of butter, honey and cinnamon. May be served with whipped cream. Our own recipe.

Lemon Cakes. Known as Sansa Stark’s favorite, these cookies appear all the time in the books. They are made from a 1690 Elizabethan recipe. Which is pretty cool, and the fact that they don’t taste like a 300-year-old recipe even cooler.

Flour, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, milk. Straight from the book.

And, last but not least: Mulled Wine. We’d be no true fans if we didn’t include it. A classic among the Night’s Watch, especially good for warming your insides after a long patrol on the Wall. Our guests were given the choice between Medieval Mulled Wine (right) and Southron Mulled wine (left). Some chose both.

Medieval Mulled Wine: red wine, ginger, rose pepper, sugar, nutmeg, nuts and dried berries (optional).

Southron Mulled Wine: red wine, clementines, cloves, orange juice, ground cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, honey, sugar, lemon juice.

From the book, but we added a little star anise to both wines.

…

Decorations and Atmosphere

Important stuff, and of course lots of fun! We used natural materials like earthenware, wood, worn metal, furs, linen, roughspun, etc. We had tapestries, maps, candles, swords, musical instruments and music (from the HBO show, medieval music, from Skyrim, from Sims Medieval, the Hobbit, some folk music etc.).