      
These cute little cheese wedges are my tribute to The Nutcracker’s main antagonist: the Mouse King! They’re super easy to throw together and simply delicious. They’re also really easy to customize based on what you’ve got in your fridge (I found lots of different versions on Pinterest and altered them to suit my needs). Whip some up to enjoy while watching The Nutcracker…or for your next Christmas party!
Normally I make a reading kit for my menu of the month, but since The Nutcracker is a play without any dialogue, there isn’t much to read. Still, I thought The Nutcracker would be a great theme for a series of Christmas gifts, so I present you with the Nutcracker Christmas Kit: a set of small Christmas presents themed around the famous play, perfect for giving to a friend…or saving as a gift for yourself! 😉
        
One of my favorite parts of The Nutcracker is when the Christmas tree grows to giant proportions. I wanted to include a tribute to the tree in our Nutcracker menu, and before long I stumbled across this clever pastry recipe from a website called Tavolartegust. I made a few changes to make it my own, and before long I had a delicious prosciutto and pesto Christmas pastry to snack on.
I think one of the best things about it is that is has that visual wow factor while still being really easy to make. You just put your filling between two layers of puff pastry, cut the pastry in a simple pattern (I’ve included visuals in the instructions below), and twist the sides into branches. Presto: instant Christmas meal! 🙂
When planning my Nutcracker tea, I knew I wanted to go with something nut-flavored, but I had a TON of options in that regard. Almond? Hazelnut? Mocha Nut Mate? In the end I decided to make a nod to my roasted chestnut recipe and go the chestnut route. And to make things just a little more festive, I added some of Adagio Tea’s custom gingerbread tea to the mix. Enjoy! 🙂
This month we’re making a menu for a play: The Nutcracker! The story is so well-known and beloved that I knew it would be downright sinful to pass up the chance to make a menu for it. Plus, what better way to get in the mood for Christmas than with some Nutcracker food?
When I was brainstorming Christmasy, Nutcracker-themed recipes, roasted chestnuts sprang to mind almost immediately. I’d never made roasted chestnuts before planning this menu, so I was really excited to try them. There’s a little bit of a trick to making them easy to peel, but the warm, savory nuts inside are well worth the extra effort.
P.S. I used a method outlined on Tori Avey’s blog, which you can check out here.
A few months back, I joined a pop culture recipe group called Fandom Foodies, which hosts a different themed recipe linkup every month. The theme for December is Narnia, which I’m a HUGE fan of, so I volunteered to be the host! 😀
Got a Narnia recipe you’d like to share? Submit a link to your recipe below, and share about the linkup on social media using the #AslansFeast hashtag!
Also, don’t forget to check out the other recipes people have shared. Cook on, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve! ^.^
A
Can you believe Advent is already here? I haven’t even used up all my Thanksgiving leftovers yet! Still, despite the chaos of the holiday and weekend baby shower travels, I managed to find an hour or so on Sunday night to do most of my Christmas decorating. I set the lights low, turned on some instrumental Christmas hymns, and set to work. Believe it or not, it was super cathartic. I feel SO READY for Christmas now, which is great, considering my January baby is probably gonna make this the last Christmas I decorate for in a loooong time! 🙂
But you probably wanted to hear about the blog, didn’t you? We wrapped up our very last Moby Dick recipe on Thanksgiving day. It featured delightful lemon cookies with white icing and gold sprinkles, inspired by Captain Ahab’s gold coin. I gotta admit, I’m pretty proud of them. They’re my own recipe, and developing baking recipes is HARD (at least for me). It feels really good to have a cookie recipe to call my own! ^.^
Let’s take a look back at the rest of our posts for the month, shall we?
‘Tis the season to deck the halls! As I started planning my Christmas decorations for this year, I thought about how great it would be to use wintery decor as a way to celebrate my love of books. I searched the interwebs, and it turns out there are TONS of gorgeous, festive literary decorations out there. Here are my top ten!
Howdy, folks! We’re back for the final few days of National Novel Writing Month, and we’ve got a new literary-themed tea to help you mark your achievement! No matter how high or low your final word count may be, starting a new novel is something to celebrate. ^.^
P.S. What are the 5 Teas of NaNo? Check out my intro post to learn more!
      Â
Captain Ahab’s gold coin is such a famous bit of Moby Dick iconography that I wanted to pay tribute to it in our Moby Dick menu. But how?
I decided to save the coin as inspiration for dessert since it’s so special, and I whipped up some lemon butter cookies with vanilla frosting and gold sprinkles: gold coin cookies! I’ve been working on developing a lot of my own recipes for baked goods lately, so I decided to make a lemon version of my own butter cookies and combine it with my new frosting recipe. The results were delicately sweet with just the right balance of lemon and vanilla. The cookies themselves are tender and soft, and the sprinkles add just the right combo of shimmer and texture. A fitting dessert for such a classic book!