Friday, December 30, 2005

Of snow and sausages

Every year the Treehouse hosts a very small New Year's Eve party, just for our own family of Squirrels. We usually have a theme of some kind: Star Trek, the Red Green show, fairy tales. This year's theme was almost a given: Narnia.

This is definitely the year to be searching the 'Net for Narnia feast ideas: every other youth group is putting on a Narnia event, every other fancy restaurant has some kind of four-course Narnian menu online. Ideas range from a medieval feast gone wild to a Mr. Tumnus tea with toast and sardines. Most of them feature Turkish Delight. I haven't seen one yet with barbecued bear meat wrapped around apples, but maybe that's a problem of supply. Tim's Mom has a description and photos of their family's annual Narnian dinner--the toddlers in their cloaks are adorable.

But anyway, we had decided to do a small-scale feast for tomorrow night, and I found a website with some food quotes from all the different books. The one that appealed to us most was from The Silver Chair:
"She had a vague impression of Dwarfs crowding round the fire with frying-pans rather bigger than themselves, and the hissing, and delicious smell of sausages, and more, and more sausages. And not the wretched sausages half full of bread and soya bean either, but real meaty, spicy ones, fat and piping hot and burst and just the tiniest bit burnt. And great mugs of frothy chocolate, and roast potatoes and roast chestnuts, and baked apples with raisins stuck in where the cores had been, and then ices just to freshen you up after all the hot things."
Except for the chestnuts, those are just about all of our favourite cold-weather things, and if you add in some Really Good Grapes (from Prince Caspian) and a few cookies (we just happen to have a lion-shaped cutter), it sounds like a perfect New Year's party meal.

Jackdas obviously liked the quote, too, and included it in an absolutely delightful (and mouth-watering) blog post; it's archived here, so you'll have to scroll down to his October 14th post.

As for Turkish Delight...we haven't quite decided. Tim's Mom included a recipe in her post, and we do have a Middle Eastern store nearby that would probably have some, but after all, that was the BAD food in the book! (Not to mention what I've heard that the university students used to put in it in C.S. Lewis's day...Turkish Delight seems to have been the Hash Brownies of its time.) I think baked apples and cookies (and ices just to freshen you up) would be just as good.

So we'll be making some glittery jewellery, having a Narnia scavenger hunt, and eating sausages, maybe just the tiniest bit burnt. What are you doing New Year's Eve?

4 comments:

Leslie Noelani Laurio said...

Your Narnia theme party sounds fun!

I'd advise you to buy your Turkish Delight (and you really should have some - our boys took some with them to the movie instead of buying popcorn.) It really stinks when you make it. Bubbling, boiling, steaming gelatin has a sickening smell.

I hope you post pictures of every detail of your party!

coffeemamma said...

Your plans sound wonderful!

We're not exactly having a party, but we do have a traditional way we 'ring in the New Year'.

We started with Second Breakfast (boring people call it brunch), then the three littles and Daddy competed in the annual Toilet Paper Cup (basement hockey tournament, trophy being an empty toilet paper tube). The names have been duly inscribed with this Year's winners (Daddy and Baby).

This afternoon will be full of reading aloud, playing games, and finishing off Christmas cookies and chocolate.

Tonight the kids will have an early supper followed by a movie, then dh and I will order in Chinese food and watch a movie.

Not as exciting as Times Square, but we like it ;-)

Happy New Year!

Mama Squirrel said...

Sounds like a great time! Nice to see you back, Coffeemamma!

Tim's Mom, I think we are going to take a pass on the Turkish Delight this time, just because we have the other things to eat as well. But we'll try it later on if we can get down to that store.

Anonymous said...

OK, you. are hilarious. Thanks for repeatedly making me smile. repeatedly :)