Yes, friends, I took a short break. You’ll have to forgive me. I had to go off and get myself hitched. Real life took over and a little break from gaming was needed so I could get settled down. Ha! Me? Settled down? …Yeah right.

I missed Lotro, I missed the community and I missed the cooking too! Speaking of, my Mom gave me some new recipes to try. Can’t wait to try them myself. I digress. For my return, I’ll pick up where I left off with Journeyman Cooking. Read the rest of this entry »

We have all ran the pies around The Shire for Holly Hornblower. We’ve also found the rash of bad pies she was putting out. I’m frankly just a little concerned that Journeyman Cooks are making her pie because she obviously had issues with a very important batch or two.

The best I can see with Holly’s pie is the main ingredient is blueberries. This is a great start. After doing a lot of searching through recipes, I realized that Hornblower’s pie isn’t your typical blueberry pie. After all, a Hobbit made it!

So here is my adaptation of Hornblower’s pie. It’s easy to make and pretty darned good. This is a “store bought” recipe meaning most the ingredients are store bought. So, it’s pretty fool-proof. Read the rest of this entry »

In Middle Earth, coney is well known as “good eatings”. Here in the real world, we have a lot of things that provide us with different types of meat to cook up; pork, beef, chicken, etc. The following recipe is an actual rabbit stew. If you use beef or pork, make sure to lightly brown the beef or pork before putting it in the pot to cook. It will keep you from having rare beef or pork in a stew.

Ingredients
2 1/2 to 3 pounds of rabbit, cut in cubes and cleaned (substitute beef or pork for this)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 quarts of boiling water
3 yellow onions, halved and sliced
1 cup diced celery
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups diced potatoes
1/2 cup of flour
3/4 cup water

Directions:
Dry the meat well. If you use beef or pork, brown it lightly before putting it in the boiling water.
Add celery, carrots, onions and seasonings.
Simmer on low to medium for 1 and 1/2 hours.
Add potatoes into the simmering stew.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, blend flour and 3/4 cup of water in a bowl.
Stir into the stew.
Cook until stew is thickened (about 15 minutes to 30 minutes)

This isn’t actually a catfish cake. It calls for salmon. Sure, you can use catfish if you’d like. I guess you can use pretty much any flaky fish for this recipe. By the way, tuna is BAD in this recipe. Don’t use it. Yuck.

Ingredients:
1 lb salmon, cooked and flaked
1 lb potatoes, cooked until tender and peeled
2 tablespoons of butter (eyeball it)
flour (for the dredging)
1 egg, beaten
panko or bread crumbs (for dredging)
oil for frying Read the rest of this entry »

A little more complicated. I’ll admit, it’s not my favorite recipe ever but some people love it.

Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 400°F and spray 10-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Filling
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
4 1/2 cups blueberries, divided Read the rest of this entry »

I would like to dedicate this recipe to two friends I game with often. The Bullroarers and The Bounders of The Shire. In our time of playing together, those two kins have given Daro a Maetho a lot of help and accepted payment in the form of blueberry muffins. Dinkum of the Bounders even fought alongside my character Eine for muffins! So, this is for the Bounders and The Bullroarers and for muffins! Read the rest of this entry »

On a personal note, I’m not a fried food person. Though I do like mushrooms I prefer them sauteed or fresh. However, sometimes I get my splurge on and go for delicious fried mushrooms. Of course, making them at home is more fun. Here is a recipe for yummy fried mushrooms.

Since we’re keeping this very Middle Earth, I figured the beer batter would be suitable. We’ll just pretend it’s some type of ale. I wouldn’t recommend blueberry ale though. Maybe a nice stout or something.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of beer

• 2 cups of sifted flour

• 1 tsp garlic powder (to taste)

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1 tsp of parsley flakes (optional)

• 3 - 6 cups of oil for frying. Peanut oil is best, but cooking oil will do

• 1 - 2 pounds of whole, cleaned mushrooms Read the rest of this entry »

Ale? Not really. It’s a blueberry drink, without the ale. Because I’m not sure how turbine would react to me posting up an alcoholic drink recipe, I will tell you this; the recipe here is for a non-alcoholic drink. However, if you use your imagination I am sure anyone over 21 can figure out what mystery ingredient I didn’t add to the recipe.

…I think that’s sufficient enough of a hint, yes?

The recipe for Sort of Blueberry Ale! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s really a no-brainer. Put carrots into a pot and boil them. They’re cooked. Yes, this is true. I am a person who is very picky about my vegetables. Heck, I’m a picky eater period. I don’t like overcooked vegetables. I also don’t like veggies that have just been boiled and served. It’s blah.

This isn’t a recipe but more of a way to cook carrots without having the “blah” boiled vegetable thing going on. Steaming carrots is the best way to cook them. You will need a pot and a steamer basket in order to do this. You don’t have a steamer basket? That’s OK.

Here’s how you get through that issue. Fill the pot just a little bit with water. About an inch or so is all you need. Save the tops of the carrots, cutting off any leafy green parts. Place the tops of the carrots on the bottom of the pot to create a sort of “rack” for steaming. Now, put the peeled carrots into the pot. Read the rest of this entry »

With many of our heroes soon on their way to Mirkwood, we have decided a celebration is in order to see them off properly. Daro a Maetho will be holding a Tournament and a Ball in honor of our heroes.

The ball will be held in Duillond on November 14th at 7:30 PM (CST).
There will be a tournament in the form of sparring matches, minstrels to play music, dancing and food. Wear your best for the ball!

(OOC: It’s time for another RP event! A little different than the Faire, thanks Sayenith for the idea for the ball and to Lilybelle and Navaros for the sparring match idea!

If you would like to participate in the sparring match, please send an in-game mail to Eine or PM me here on the forums. We’ll try our best to match you by levels. Also, let us know in the mail if you don’t mind going more than once in case of uneven numbers.)