Easter can be a time of overeating and retelling of family stories for the umpteenth time.

Shake up your gathering this year by joining the Game of Peeps Challenge. The idea is simple: stage memorable scenes from Game of Thrones, using Peeps. Send in your submissions (innatthecrossroads@gmail.com), and I’ll post them to the gallery here and on Facebook.

Viserys and his golden crown, by @fifthdream

Peep in the North!

post-Red Wedding peeps, by Erica

“Peep will never betray us…”, by @Winterlarks

Red Wedding Peep, by Chris and Audrey

Grand Maester Peepcel, by Chris and Audrey

Sam the Slayer Peep, by SK Snyder

“The Things I do for Peeps”, by SK Snyder

Every Peeping Chicken in the Room, by SK Snyder

Golden Crown of the Peepar King

Burning Peep Florent

Peep-dor, by SK Snyder

Mother of Peeps, by Jodi

“All peeps must die”, by Jodi

Red Peep Wedding, by Blythe

In the Game of Peeps, you win or you die, by Jodi

“We are the peeps on the Wall…”, by Jodi

“You served the king. You’re really going to die for a chicken?”

“Someone is.”

Polliver and the Hound, Season 4, Episode 1

Thoughts:

Arya and the Hound are everyone’s favorite murder-hobos. I mean, think about it. If anyone else were ranging around Westeros picking fights to the death, it’d be a problem. In fact, there are a lot of ruffians doing just that, and we find it incredibly objectionable. But Arya and the Hound? We are cheering them on, because they are our favorite Murder Hobos.

I know they say chickens in the show, and you could easily adapt this recipe for chickens, but I opted for game hens for a few reasons. First, I wanted to be able to photograph a heap of birds, to really make it look like every effing chicken in the room. That’s a tall order, if using multiple chickens. I’d have to invite everyone I know over to eat said pile of chickens, and there would still be leftovers. Plus, I already have the terrific honeyed chicken recipe. Second, I figure medieval chickens would be smaller than our modern chickens. Probably not as small as game hens, but who doesn’t love a game hen? They’re a little unusual, and fun to serve.

But that’s probably me justifying my choice. Really, I just wanted a heap of hens.

With this recipe, I wanted to create something that would be found at the Inn. Rustic, hearty, and tasty. My version is likely far tastier than what the actual Inn would serve, but let’s pretend. I have a reputation as innkeep to uphold, after all. At any rate, I figured the ingredients had to be mostly local, with the possibility of something quirkier brought in by merchants on the road. Herbs, vegetables, mushrooms.  Everything used, nothing wasted. The giblets go into gravy, and the picked-over hens would go towards making soup.

The end result is a wonderful, filling, rustic dinner that is as satisfying as that scene in the show. The hens are moist and richly flavored. Fragrant herbs and hearty mushrooms imbue the meat with that little something extra. But one of the real stars of this meal is the giblet gravy. I have to admit that until now I was always one of those people who sort of awkwardly disposed of the giblets. But no longer. This gravy is rich, creamy, and packed with the extra nutrients from the giblets. Just the sort of thing to power a pair of Murder Hobos on their way.

So there you have it. Visit the Inn for the food, but stay for the company.

Recipe for Game Hens, with giblet gravy

Ingredients:

• 4 game hens (save the giblets)
• 4 Tbs. butter, divided
• 8 oz. small whole mushrooms
• 4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
• 1-2 onions, sliced thick
• 3-4 carrots, sliced
• 2 medium parsnips, sliced
• ~10 whole cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1/4 cup finely chopped savory herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, marjoram, etc.

Melt 2 Tbs. butter in a small pan, then drizzle it over the vegetables. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and toss the veggies to coat them with the butter. Spread these over the bottom of a roasting pan large enough to hold the 4 game hens. Place the birds on top. Stuff each game hen with a few mushrooms and one peeled clove of garlic each.

Melt the remaining 2 Tbs. butter, then add the herbs and allow to sit together for a few minutes on very low heat. Remove from heat and brush onto the game hens, taking care to get the herbs onto the birds.

Cook for a little over an hour at 350F, or until the hens start to look slightly golden, and their juices run clear.

Remove the hens to a separate platter, tilting each to drain the excess juices out (mine were *very* juicy!); cover to keep warm. Scoop the veggies to a serving bowl with a slotted spoon, and keep warm while you make the gravy. Using a small ladle or deep spoon, gently collect the fat from the top of the drippings and discard. Use the remaining drippings as below to make the gravy.

Giblet Gravy Recipe

Gravy Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. salted butter
• giblets from 4 game hens, or 1 chicken
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 handful mushrooms, diced small
• ~1/4 cup flour
• drippings from hens
• 1-2 cups chicken broth

Cook the giblets in the melted butter until they are cooked through, then remove to a cutting board, saving the butter in the pan. When they are cooled enough to handle, dice the giblets very fine, discarding any chewy bits. Set aside. Add the garlic to the pan with the butter and cook for about a minute, then add the mushrooms. Cook until they are soft, another minute or two, then add the diced giblets back in.

Take the drippings from the hens, minus the skimmed fat, and add to the gravy pan. Toss with flour until you have a thick paste. Cook this over medium-low heat for several minutes, then gradually stir in the chicken broth until you have the consistency you desire. Serve alongside your hens, and enjoy!

Thoughts:

Almond milk was one of the staple ingredients of a medieval kitchen. Often used in place of milk, it was invaluable, particularly on church-proscribed “fish days”, many of which fell during Lent. It’s difficult to even casually flip through a medieval cookbook without finding it listed. Depending on the recipe in which it was required, medieval almond milk was usually made with either wine or a meat broth, but our modern stuff is made with good old palatable water.

So, I thought I would try my hand at Wonderful, and a fun experience. I didn’t have a working food processor when I started this post, so I decided to try making a batch the old fashioned way, with a mortar and pestle.

Let me tell you. I’ve never before so fervently wished for apprentices, upon whom I could foist such a grueling task. It took a long time, and produced only a small amount of almond meal. It worked, but I soon thereafter went out and bought a food processor. I can’t fully recommend the old fashioned method as anything other than an amusing and tiring trip through culinary history, but as to making one’s own almond milk? YES.

I cannot sing high enough praises of this stuff. I thought I didn’t really like almond milk, having only tried the store variety. But this… this is something entirely different. Rich and smooth, it packs a powerhouse of almond flavor. My batch didn’t even require sweetening, it was that good. Friends queued up to try it. Seriously.

So while it might seem like a lot of effort, I encourage you to try it, just once.

Recipe for Almond Milk

Cook’s Notes: I found that straining the mixture through cheesecloth proved easiest, since it allowed me to really wring the liquid from the grounds, which in turn made it easier to dry them for other uses. I also used raw almonds, but would be curious to try it again with roasted.

“28. And again, flans of almond milk: according to the quantity of flans which you are making take the quantity of almonds, have them well and cleanly blanched and washed and then have them very well brayed; and take very clean fair water and let him strain his almond milk into a bowl or a cornue which is fair and clean according to the quantity of flans which he should make….” -Du Fait de Cuisine, 1420

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups whole raw almonds
• 4 cups of water

In a large bowl, cover the almonds with boiling water. Let sit for around 15 minutes, then strain and rinse with cold water. This should loosen the brown papery skins enough that you can easily remove them. If you like, you can soak the blanched almonds overnight to further soften them, but that’s not strictly necessary. Combine the blanched almonds with 2 cups of water at a time, and blitz in a food processor or blender until the mixture looks like a thick paste. Add the remaining water and process until almonds are ground very fine, and you have a smooth looking puree. Pour this mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, squeezing to bring out as much of the liquid as possible. Taste, and sweeten to your preference, if desired. Voila! Almond milk!

Save and dry the ground almonds for making marzipan (recipe coming soon) or in other baking. It’s great for biscotti, or, my personal Achilles’ heel, French macaroons. Also, that stuff is expensive!

“No taste for pork pie, my lord? The best pork pie we ever tasted, our fat friend would have us believe.” She gestured toward Lord Manderly with her wine cup. “Have you ever seen a fat man so happy? He is almost dancing. Serving with his own hands.” -A Dance with Dragons

“M” stands for… Manderly?

Thoughts:

We may be fresh into a new season of the show, and several books past A Storm of Swords, but I haven’t forgotten the Red Wedding, and neither has Lord Manderly. The North remembers…

I’ve wanted to take a crack at this recipe ever since reading about it in A Dance with Dragons. In the book, the pie is described as being big as a wagon wheel, “stuffed to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy.” YUM. (mostly…) Naturally, I made one key ingredient substitution here. If you don’t know what that was, then you need to go back and read between the lines. Enough said on that. Any spoilers will be deleted!

I found the pork at the store, then added a bit of pork belly on a whim. That proved to really add to the flavors and textures of the finished pie. The gravy, beef and beer based, is dark and savory, given further oomph by a pinch of smoked salt. The vegetables provide a lot of heftiness, between the dense carrots and turnips, and the occasional sweet pop of a pearl onion.

Manderly Pie Recipe

Cook’s Notes: I made my pie in a spring-form pan, which gave it that nice tall shape.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. pork belly, diced large (thick cut bacon could also work, or simply omit)
• 2 lb. pork, or other white meat, cut into 1″ cubes
• hearty pinch of salt, pepper, and savory herbs
• 3 Tbs. butter
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup pearl onions, paper peeled off
• 1 medium turnip, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped parsnips
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth
• 1 1/2 cups dark beer
• 3 Tbs. butter
• 3 Tbs. flour

Ingredients for Crust:

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 stick butter
• hefty pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• water or milk enough to bring it all together
• 1 extra egg, for glaze

In a large skillet or frying pan, toss the diced pork belly over medium heat until it’s cooked through. Set aside in a large bowl, reserving any fat in the pan. Add the cubed pork and gently sear until each piece is browned. Remove the meat to the same bowl as the pork belly and set aside.

In the pan, melt 3 Tbs. butter and add the veggies. Add a splash of broth, salt, and cover and let simmer until soft, around 10-15 minutes. Pour into the bowl with the meat.

In the skillet, melt the remaining 3 Tbs. butter and add the flour, stirring until it’s a nice golden color. While stirring, gradually pour in some of the liquid from the vegetable mix, adding beer and more broth until you have a nice, thick slurry. Pour the rest of the vegetables and meat back into the pan and let cook until the whole mixture is thickened. Removed from heat and allow to cool.

Mix up the dough: Combine the flour and salt, then rub or cut the butter into this mix. Stir in the egg, then enough liquid to bring the dough together.

Divide the dough into two pieces, one larger than the other. Roll out the larger piece of dough to about 1/8″ thickness. Carefully drape this over your pie pan or springform mold. Fill with the cooled meat filling. Roll out the remaining dough and drape over top for the lid. Trim the excess dough (this makes for great medieval honey biscuits!) and crimp the edges down. Decorate with extra dough, if you like. Brush with egg glaze.

Bake at 400 for about 45 minutes, or until the crust is just shy of golden. At this point, you can remove the side of the springform pan and brush the pie with remaining egg wash. Return to oven for another 10 minutes or so, then remove. Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

I’ve got to come clean.

This year, I really wasn’t planning a giant blow-out party for the premiere. I’d already seen the first episode, and now sort of live far away from my friend groups, so I just figured it would be a quiet affair.

At least until HBO sent a box of swag, and asked me to tweet about how I used it. What started as a simple email to friends quickly became a large undertaking, involving several days of food, games, and many, many helping hands. My favorite of the swag, apart from the epic iron throne wall decal, is probably the wax seal coasters. I’m a sucker for wax seals:

There were so many highlights to this party that I don’t even know where to start.

We tried a number of new things this year, with great success. One of the best antics was based in stealing. When guests arrived, each was given a small pouch that contained a number of coins and gems. I declared that the person at the end of the night with the most loot would win a prize. Apart from storing one’s gems in the pouch, there were no rules, and chaos ensued. Purse strings were cut, guests who had imbibed too heavily found themselves bereft, and general amusement reigned. What I liked most about this was that it worked so well with the other parts of the evening. Buying, bartering, and betting also featured heavily: Want a temporary tattoo to honor the Red Viper? No problem! That’ll be just one coin, please. Want a better seat for the episode? How much is it worth to you? When several games came to a neck and neck conclusion, bets were place on who would win. It was a blast!

Games throughout the evening included Liars’ Dice, the Game of Thrones card game, and Cards against the Realm, our own homemade version of Cards Against Humanity. And yes, I’ll probably make a version available as soon as I’m able… We kept a stack of blanks nearby, and added cards as we felt inspired.

Specialty cocktails were created by Chris and Alix. They used a number of amazing specialty ingredients, the most versatile of which had to be the King’s Ginger liqueur. My two favorite cocktails were the Dornish mimosa (with blood orange, siracha, and champagne) and “Political Intrigue”, Chris’s Lannister cocktail, with ginger, champagne, goldschlager, and sparkling cider. He’ll be creating one for each episode, and I’ll put them together in a recap post, with the recipes.

Food was somewhat of a potluck affair on Saturday, as friends were coming and going most of the day. I made a few new recipes, which will be posted soon, including elk meatballs and marzipan. Alix fielded the food for Sunday, starting us off with corn fritters and a decadent Beef-and-Bacon pie, made with black forest bacon. Leftovers also abounded, despite our best efforts. Bread and salt made a brief appearance just before the premiere aired, and was gone by the time the credits rolled. I made my first Manderly Pie (recipe coming soon!), with one key ingredient substitution.

Check out the photos, and be sure to send along yours, too, for the FB gallery!

I love a bit of fun for a premiere party, and season 4 is fast approaching!

I’ve wanted to do something like this for a few years now, and this seemed like the perfect time for it. I missed the window for Battle of the Blackwater cupcakes, although I had some pretty epic ideas for those… ;)

With a few exceptions, cupcakes are pretty much cupcakes, tasty and small. The impact of this, though, is the presentation.  Although it looks like a cake, the base of this direwolf is actually made from a bunch of cupcakes, with one flipped upside-down on top of another for the snout. It took a little trimming to get the shape I wanted, but in the end I’m very pleased with the result. It took under an hour to decorate, making it a good candidate for showy party food!

Direwolf Cupcakes Recipe

Cook’s Notes: This is a gingerbread cupcake recipe, but you can use any type you like, or even a mix, if you are pressed for time. For the exact shape I used, you need about 14 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 Tbs. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup milk

For Decorating:

• ~4 cups frosting (2 small tubs of storebought)
• black gel food coloring
• yellow candy for eyes
• candy for teeth (look for the bananas from a package of Runts – I couldn’t find any!)

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and molasses. Mix until completely combined, then add the spices, followed by the milk and flour. When the batter is all one smooth consistency, spoon into paper-lined muffin tins, and bake at 350 for around 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.

Method for decorating:

When I began to lay out the cupcakes for this project, I quickly realized that all round cupcakes was simply not going to work. I pulled the paper off my cupcakes and set to trimming and arranging. Make sure that you have the cupcakes set up on a large plate or cutting board, since they can’t be easily moved once iced. I ending up with this combo:

To make the fur on my direwolf, I used a star tip on my pastry icing bag, and that worked great. The trick to making the frosting fur look layered is to start on the outside and work your way in. That means beginning with the darkest grey, and gradually adding layers as you go to give the look of overlapping fur. For some of the sections, I even used two or three colors, which gave the fur a great striated feel. I looked at a photograph of a real wolf as I went, mostly to help with the colors. When the frosting is complete, you can add the candy for the eyes.

I had extra frosting left over, which I used to quickly ice the sides of the cake, partly for looks and partly to keep the cake fresher.