Daily Creativity: “Not Today”

20120313-232717.jpgwhat do we say to death when he comes? Not today.

My love of A Song of Ice and Fire is known far and wide, and Arya Stark is quite possibly my favorite character. I fully admit I used a photo of Maise Williams to draw over for this one. I’m not that good and not on my iPad :)
I was more practicing on how to draw on the iPad so slightly cheating is ok, right? Either way I’m still happy at how this came out, I love the blues.

Also posted from my iPad so formatting might be off and typos are expected

OmNoms of Ice and Fire! I created foods of Westeros

My Game of Thrones main feast.jpgTonight was the premier of Game of Thrones on HBO. As many of you know I have been looking forward to this series for a very long time.  Rather then go into detail about the show (I’m saving that one for The Beyond the Wall Podcast and for two I have vowed to be spoiler free as some people important to me have not seen the show yet) I will discuss my celebration of the show.

 

Tonight I decided to make a feast fit for Westeros, but rather then go crazy like the awesome gourmet chef Tom Colicchio of the Game of Thrones food trucks I had decided to make the food as simply as I do most dishes.  First off I was sad I don’t have a source for some good game meat, not the first time I have lamented this, so when I went shopping I looked for Cornish Game Hens, I couldn’t find any.  It is a good thing I couldn’t, when I told my husband this he turned his nose up at the idea, he would much prefer having a whole chicken… I can do that, and it’s cheaper.  For tonight though I bough some pork, while I can’t make a suckling pig I can make roasted pork.  I used a sauce we just discovered thanks to a friend and roasted it slowly in the oven leaving the center tender and moist.  The CousCous I bought ages ago was perfect, it had walnuts in it and field mushrooms and while I thought I was off mushrooms for a while, I can’t resist the tasty things.  Most importantly you tasted more of the walnut then the mushroom so that’s good.  Then (for me only as my husband shakes his head at my obsession for cheese and fruit) I sliced up a Gala apple and spread herbed goat cheese on it.  I swear this dinner was stupid simple.

LEMON CAKES.jpg

 

Next up was dessert.  Lemon Cakes are the signature dessert in Westeros, I swear GRRM must have a lemon fetish.  I looked for  Tom Colicchio’s lemon cake recipe and while it looks tasty it looks like a lot of work for something that will only last a day.  I wanted to come up with something I could transport and bring places, like BalticonViv, one of my co-hosts on the Beyond the Wall podcast teasingly challenged me to come up with something for our Live Game of Thrones viewing.  So I tried it out.  This is stupid simply, anyone can make it.  I bought some generic lemon cake mix and mixed that with a can of seltzer till it was nice and creamy.  I poured that into a cupcake tin and baked on 350 for 20 minutes.  After they cooled I filled them with store bought lemon filling, yeah store bought.  I could have made it myself but why?  Even when I worked in a bakery we used the premade stuff.  To fill them I used a pastry bag, if you don’t have one just take some wax paper or a ziploc baggie, make a cone and cut the end off.  Insert the tip into each cake and squeeze out a little filling.  Don’t do too much or you will make the cake burst.  I then sprinkled confectioner sugar over then.  These look a touch rough, but it was my first time.  Next time I will not fill them so high and I will find my sifter for the sugar.

 

Before the show we ate the main course, it was delish!  You will notice the difference between my food and the food truck food is that it is in proper Westeros proportions :)  We ate the lemon cakes during the show, they were insanely good.  My husband said “Yellow is my favorite flavor!” and gobbled his down.  It was far too tempting to go and eat them all, but neither of us wanted to tear ourselves away from the show to get more, so I think it might be wise to only eat these while distracted hee hee.  I put two aside and plan to open their Tupperware in two days time to see how they kept.

 

What did you do special for the premiere?  Or am I the only crazy one?  I can’t be the ONLY crazy one.

Epic Fantasy thy name is A Song of Ice and Fire

AryaWhen GRRM says Epic, he means it “It took three films to make “Lord of the Rings,” and the entirety of “Lord of the Rings,” all three of Tolkien’s books, is only the size of one of my books.”

This is an except from the interview NYTimes did with George R.R. Martin

Many of you know I’m a HUGE “A Song of Ice and Fire” fan, and when I say HUGE I mean HUGE.  Some people know this series as “A Game of Thrones” because that title is taking on new life thanks to the HBO series being developed from the books.  I have talked about the series briefly on the podcast and insesently on facebook, twitter and with any other fan I can find.  I’m addicted, I know it.

I love that HBO is doing this show.  It never could be a movie, but also it couldn’t be a TV show on any other network other then HBO (or similar) where they can show as much nudity, violence and use any language they want to.

The Game of Thrones Food Truck is in NYC this week (yeah the week before I head down for a trip) and in LA next week.  While I didn’t get to eat there I have been following the pictures and posts of all my friends who got to feast on lemon cakes and other tasty tidbits. (H8 you all)  After reading the books for years I’d love to taste some of that stuff, though I will admit to introducing apples with cheese to my family way back straight from the books, it’s really good.

So if I gush, it’s more then a few little books I’m gushing over, each book is almost as much material as most trillogies and I’ve read four of those now.