There’s a joke somewhere on the internet about how you can use your cat to tell how cold it is. At some point around freezing the cat gets friendly enough to let you pet him, below freezing he’ll actually cuddle with you, and at some point near zero the cat tears open your midsection while you sleep and warms himself in your viscera a la Luke on Hoth.
That’s not quite how it works in our house.
I bet you are thinking I am going to talk about dachshunds in the snow and such. Well, you don’t know much about our dachshunds, then. When it’s ridiculously cold outside, like it is now, just getting the dogs out to do their business can be a trial, especially if precipitation is in progress. So most of their winter activities consist of a) trying to stay warm, b) trying to get more food than they are normally allowed, and c) sleeping. Frequently a) and c) are combined.
It’s not often that I will use the phrase “bitter cold” to describe the weather in Greater Boston. But the temperature here has already fallen more than they thought it would tonight. Currently it is 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5, to be precise) with a wind chill of -16 degrees. That is bitter cold, at least for Cambridge or Boston.
And tomorrow was supposed to be the really cold night.
And that snow total just keeps on climbing, too. In fact, I may just have to use another term that doesn’t get tossed around much… snowpocalypseageddon.
Cue the dramatic music. Dun dun dun!
Maybe we need to worry about White Walkers after all. Wonder how much snow we will have by tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to shoveling.
-Geoff
It is nice to not have anything to do today, except for dropping off our rent. It is a cold day outside, about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and we have lots of cuddling animals following us around the house. And it is going to get even colder, and we are going to get a foot of snow by Friday, maybe a little more. A Nor’easter is coming our way and there may even be blizzard conditions for a while. That’s ok, as long as there are no White Walkers or wights.
Goodbye, 2013. May 2014 be a much better year for us all.
-Geoff
We’re back from our hiatus. We’ve had our battle with Mass Health and we came out victorious. So, it’s time to catch all of you up on what we’ve been reading and doing other than preparing to fight for our right to health care.
I promised I would post a picture if I managed to make anything that came out reasonably tasty, and so here you go. This is the Pork Pie recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire, but made with a “Ground Sausage” from one of those companies that make meat substitutes. It came out delicious, despite my inability to do the top crust correctly (hopefully do better next time).
Anyway, I think I might try something else this week.
Happy Thankgiving everyone! And happy Hannukah too!
-Geoff
Thanksgiving is next week, and for those of us who love to cook, this is one of the absolute best times of year. And ever since I decided to explore medieval cuisine, I have been wanting to try new dishes, and so I have been collecting books on the subject (and not just Chelsea and Sariann’s awesome Game of Thrones cookbook). Thank goodness for ABE Books, or else I would never have been able to find many of these, or afford them once I did find them.
One of my favorite things about New England is the seasons. I love the seasons here, and how we actually have four distinct ones. The ground is now covered with leaves and the trees are mostly bare. We woke up this morning to snow coming down, although not very hard. More like heavy flurries, if that makes sense. It wasn’t really sticking either except for a few elevated surfaces. But it was still kind of cool to see. Just a sneak preview of the winter that is coming. At least for us it won’t last for years, like the poor folk in Westeros. The temperature today is not supposed to get much above freezing. Now, at 1 PM, it is still only 33 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the sort of day to make you glad to be indoors, enjoying a good cup of coffee.
It is also the second anniversary of our wedding, and my brother Greg’s birthday as well. So happy anniversary, Kelly my love, and happy birthday big brother!
-Geoff
Nathaniel Philbrick is one of my favorite historians. I especially love his superb maritime history books. And it turns out that one of his books is being made into a movie. Heart of the Sea is based on his book In the Heart of the Sea, in which Philbrick recounts the story of the Essex, a whaleship that was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820, far out in the Pacific Ocean. Its crew was stranded in small boats for several months until they were rescued and in the meantime they had been forced to commit cannibalism. The disaster served as inspiration for Herman Melville, who used it and his own experience on a whaler to help him create the novel Moby Dick.
The film, directed by Ron Howard, is set to be released sometime in 2014. And there are at least three actors from Game of Thrones that are also in this film: Joseph Mawle (Benjen Stark); Donald Sumpter (Maester Luwin); and Jamie Sives (Jory Cassel). Good Northmen all, and all dead, sadly.* So that frees them up to be in this film. I am looking forward to it.
-Geoff
*Technically, Benjen Stark is missing, but let’s just say that it isn’t looking good for him to be alive at this point.
As I mentioned before, I have been doing a lot of experimenting with medieval recipes in recent years. And this includes trying many of the delicious-sounding foods from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Thanks to the diligent work of Chelsea and Sariann, we ASOIAF fans have a fantastic resource to explore our foodie sides. Everything I have made from their website and their book has been delicious, so seriously, try making some of their recipes.
Recently, I noticed something about George’s books that I had not noticed before: an utter lack of potatoes, Irish or sweet. Now, at first glance this would seem to make sense, because they are both “New World” foods that would have been unknown to medieval Europe, which is the historical basis of much of Martin’s writing. Potatoes would not be introduced to Europe until the 16th century, when the Spanish brought them over. So no potatoes in Westeros, right? Makes sense, right?
Yes, it would… except that there are plenty of examples of other New World foods that are present in Westeros. So why include them but not potatoes?
Continue reading “A quick note on history and food in ASOIAF”
The Books are Taking Over... 