Sunday 15 February 2015

Winter is coming... on Valentine's Day

For several years now, I've cooked some kind of a theme dinner for my DH (Dashing Hero) on Valentine's Day. I've done everything-heart-shaped, we've gone medieval and celebrated courtly love, we've partied in togas like the ancient Romans... These days, our daughter joins us, and she's always excited about these events. (We also try to schedule some private time for celebrating later; this year, we had the theme dinner on Friday, and on the actual day, my DH and I went out to eat.)
Now, Game of Thrones seems like an odd choice for a romantic dinner theme, but my DH and I both liked the first couple of books in the series and we've found the TV show very entertaining. Besides, my DH once implied that GoT would be a great idea for one of our dinners... so, why not?
I started by searching for appropriate recipes. I guess one could very well just go and develop them, but I had happened to come across this amazing site, Inn at the Crossroads, which features a large collection of recipes based on descriptions in the books. There are so many interesting ones, it was difficult to choose. However, I wanted dishes that are fairly easy to prepare, or rather, things that don't take a long time to cook or can either be made in advance or found in a grocery store. I do enjoy cooking, but time is always an issue, especially in a household with a small child. Another concern was that the ingredients had to be available in a supermarket in Finland.
The beautiful first course - assembled by a six-year-old!
For starters, we had Greens Dressed with Apples and Pine Nuts (see above). The main course was Honeyed Chicken from Winterfell, with fresh-baked bread (okay, I didn't bake the bread... well, actually I did; it was one of those pre-baked things that you shove into the oven for ten minutes and out comes freshly baked bread). The dessert was Strawberries and Sweetgrass. I had to make a few changes in some of the recipes, mostly because one or the other of the ingredients was simply not available. But since the descriptions in the books, while detailed, didn't list the exact ingredients (at least for the dishes I cooked), I thought adaptation was fine as long as I used ingredients that might well exist in the world of GoT.
Wedding goblets, perfect for special occasions.
I didn't really have much time for decorations etc. but I used the pewter goblets from our wedding (see above) and put together a simple centrepiece of grapes and pears. I debated between linen serviettes and paper ones, but finally went with the latter because the pictures just seemed so fitting. A couple of candles, and the table was set.
Just happened to have some suitable serviettes.
The invite I sent to my DH (click for a bigger pic):
This feast was certainly a success. My DH was surprised, the food was tasty, and we all had a wonderful time.

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