After a long and tiring journey the hobbits finally arrive in Bree and settle into the Prancing Pony.
In a twinkling table was laid. There was hot soup, cold meats, a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe cheese: good plain food, as good as the Shire could show, and homelike enough to dispel the last of Sam’s misgivings (already much relieved by the excellence of beer).
– The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 9: At the Sign of the Prancing Pony
Though I have no beer, I do have wine and tea! Both good choices to help feel warmed up and relaxed. There’s a lot to eat for this meal and hopefully the hobbits would approve.
For the soup I decided to make a beef barley soup, a hearty meal that would surely fill the hobbits up. Ingredients include:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cans of beef broth
- 1 pound chopped steak
- 1 cup chopped leeks
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1/2 cup barley
- Salt & pepper
In a large pot over medium-high heat put together the olive oil, meat, spices and cook until the beef is cooked. Add in the vegetables and stir occasionally. After the vegetable are cooked slightly pour in the broth and bring to a boil then cover the pot and let it simmer for an hour.
As the soup is cooking, boil 2 cups of water in a separate saucepan and add in the barley. Let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes uncovered, drain it and set it aside for the soup. After the hour is up, add in the barley and cook the soup for another 10-15 minutes.
Since I am not the most experienced baker I was quite nervous about making the blackberry tart. I ended up making a pretty big one… one that resembles a pie!
After hours of researching recipes I found one I liked which included toasted almonds. It was very fun to make, especially the filling (had to stop myself from eating most of it, shh). The filling included cream cheese, corn starch, sugar, vanilla extract, and milk.
After baking the crust, I added in the filling and topped it off with fresh blackberries, the almonds and sprinkled a little brown sugar on top. After letting it cool in the refrigerator for a little while it’s ready to eat (it was very tasty)!
Aside from the soup and tart there is still a lot of food to eat.
- slices of fresh baked bread
- soft butter on the side
- cold chicken
- various types of cheese
Even though it isn’t mentioned in the text I decided to add in some mushrooms (what hobbit meal is complete without them!), fruit and a small salad.
Phew, that was a lot of food to prepare and it was all absolutely delicious!
Well that’s it. Today is the last day of Feast Week and we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did! Be sure to check out the other delicious meals the staff have cooked up this past week.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go grab myself another hot bowl of soup and curl up with a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring.
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