S6PP: Our series through new eyes... GoT DEATH POOL!

Season 6 Premier Party

Game Of Thrones Through New Eyes

It does not escape our tribe of bandits that this season will be the first time that we have no flippin clue what is going to happen.  We've all read the books and watched the podcasts - we are nerds, after all, and have to maintain our delicate reputation on these things...

That being said, we are going to have to up our game a little.  Before the start of every episode last season, (and the season before) we took a "Nipple Bet." There are, of course, rules to the nipple bet.  Man nipples did not count unless accompanied by woman nipples. Nipples are also counted independently.  Groups of 10 or more independent nipples did not count (angry mobs of slaves, for example).  The person who guesses the correct amount of nipples without going over wins.  Bets are placed before the show starts and a winner is announced when the credits are over.

I won't lie, the nipple bet is fun.  It may be a tradition we carry into the completion of the series - it's a lot of fun during a tense moment of the show when everyone is silent on edge for some random member of your posse to suddenly shout out "NIPPLE!"   It's good times....

This year, however, we are in the dark!  Just as all other masses who have not taken on George's task and picked up the books.  We know it's going to be awesome, just as we did before but we also knew when key characters were going to lose their heads... we don't know anything now.  That being said, I'm playing around with a dangerous idea...

The Game Of Thrones Death Pool

Here is how this works:

During dinner we will all have an opportunity to place our bets on who is going to die this season.  You get 10 points for guessing the correct person and 5 points additional if you correctly guess the episode.  You do not lose points if you incorrectly guess the episode.  You get minus 10 points if you incorrectly guess a person (so you can't bet on EVERYONE, k?) but you can never go below 0 points.

The person who has the most points at the end of the season will win something effing amazing at the finale party.   More details on that as soon as my brain births it...

Presentation:

I bounced this around in my head for a long time before settling on simple.  I could get a big piece of plywood and modge-podge everyone's pictures on it with a map of Westeros in the background and a hand-painted title and little metal cocktail swords but... WE ONLY HAVE 6 DAYS LEFT.  So lets settle on something a little more manageable here...

I printed pictures of all of my living characters on some parchment paper and will cut them out.  I'm going to pin these to a cork-board.  Yup!  That's it, nothing fancy, just a cork board.  I was able to find some super cute weapon thumb tacks that I'll use for my guests - get to that in a minute.

The pictures will be pinned to the cork board with regular boring pins, title and decorations at the top, of course.  Each guest will have a pile of  little flags at their plate - each one is a different color labeled with their name.  They will also have a pen - on the back of their flag they will write the name of the person they are choosing to die and an episode number (if they wish) then will use a weapon to pin their flag to the character.  Betting is CLOSED once the show starts and will remain that way for the entire season.  As people die, they will be marked with a red skull and crossbones and each guest will be updated of the stats via text.

I have room on my board for 7 more people and suddenly names start flying from my husbands lips like he's an auctioneer... Eventually we found ourselves having the John Snow discussion.  He is NOT ON THE BOARD.

SPOILERS!?!?  Ok, seriously, you haven't read the books and you haven't watched the series yet, what are you doing here??  Don't get all huffy over spoilers when we are going into season 6 and you haven't done your homework!  At this point, if you aren't caught up yet that's on you.

I digress.  John Snow is not on our board because he is "dead."  A LOT of people are going to be disappointed when they set his body on fire, that's all I'm sayin.  (Not saying that's a certainty but all this talk about him being alive means he's dead and he's not coming back..... my guess - I mean, who doesn't live and breathe for the moment that Game of Thrones dashes our hopes and ruins our dreams?)

The seven we must consider are, according to the Lord of the house, are as follows:

 What do you think?  Is there anyone who is more worthy?  

Here are all of the images I chose for the board - if you want to make your own, feel free to copy+paste away!  OR you can just save this post and I will update as the season progresses.  Don't be too shy to put your own best bets in the comments- If the hype is any indication, this season will be BRUTAL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Death comes for us all... can't wait to see what this thing looks like when the season is over!!!

VALAR MORGHULIS!

2013 Game of Thrones Premier Party Photo Gallery

Oh Jess, where'd you go?

After all of that work we poured into 2013 it occurs to me that there isn't a single record of the results anywhere for the masses to see.  Well, in case you are curious, here it is.  It was A LOT of work and I can tell you that I don't think I will be biting off that much again any time soon....

Here is how it all turned out - 

Scotch Eggs

Made with hot Italian sausage - YUM! "Stick em with the pointy end!"

Grazing Spread

Mixed fresh olives, artisan breads, variety of cheeses, grapes, scotch eggs, and mice (little smokies wrapped in biscuit dough and decorated to look like mice - InnAtTheCrossroads strikes again!)

White Walkers

Iced milk with honey and vodka... didn't last long enough to get a picture of the full glass.....

The Table

That is a Yukani Maize Popper in the background... ahem...

Here, the wall of sigils, our map, and on the tables you have the stained house sigils which were a huge success.

Hearth

Complete with vials of salt, kazoos of winter, and dragon eggs.  

Pork Pie

This was REALLY GOOD except that when I made it, I couldn't find the pepper grinder so like a dork I tossed in WHOLE PEPPERCORNS.  Don't do this.  This is a terrible idea and I have no effing clue wtf I was thinking....  

Dragon Eggs

Obviously when it was all said and done, they didn't end up staying in the fireplace... it was too dark and I wanted to show them off so they when on the mantle.  I never did finish my heated box for them but maybe someday, I'll get the ambition to complete the set.

 And then!

 It was a fantastic night and one we will never forget.  This was the night all other premier parties will be measured to.  Though I may not be able to strive to this level of greatness again, we will sure keep trying!  

Valar Morghulis!

S6PP: More Maize...

That is REALLY corny, you guys...

(har har....)

Many people know of the great city of Myr.  They know of it's craftsman, it's glass, it's lace, it's finery but many don't know that there is a dark underbelly of Myr that is hidden from the fine tradesman of stature.  A part of Myr reserved for the free-er folk of the free city - this part of Myr is not a place for the faint of heart, nor a place that one with any sort of reputation would ever dare to go... 

You see, there are those reputable tradesman and craftsman who exchange business and they deal without the slightest knowledge that among them, hunters lurk.  Eyes, ever watchful for some poor naive soul who would be swept away to a dark alley and not heard from for several anxiety-laden hours.

These poor people are suddenly tangled up in what the local story tellers refer to as "MYR LAND."  They're lured unsuspectingly down to the bowels of the city by the smell of  Myrish fire maize and the promise of amazing things - here, vendors have amassed an unimpressive collection of trinkets and fodder meant for stopping doors or for young children to destroy.  There's a two headed snake, (which is obviously a severed snake head sewed on to the body of another snake..) theres a lady-fish, (which is obviously a man in terrible make-up wearing the bottom half of a tuna...) Three is even a vendor you can buy goat rides from... Yet the visitors of this dark and secret place are swindled by pushy sales tactics and outlandish promises - They emerge from this dark and horrendous place with not a penny to their names, pockets full of things they will likely never find a good use for, and a bruised ego.  The only thing to show for their foolery is a bag of  Dragon Cured Fire Maize of Myr... at least their taste buds will be happy as they sulk back to their companies...

I have... ahem... no idea... where I heard this from.  Must have... ummm.. been at a brothel.. or something...  Yeah... 

Shuddup and eat your fire maize.

S6PP: Fire Maize of Myr

Season 6 Premier Party: Fire Maize of Myr

Sriracha?  Yes, please!

Fellow blogger and Game of Thrones guru Phoenix posted a fantastic place for all of your premier party needs - here you'll find all kinds of amazing stuff ready for you to download and share to make your party BANG.  

On this site there are a lot of great finds but one in particular I grabbed like a dog with a bone - the popcorn bags.  They are so cute!!  And of course, I could grab this genius and print it up and it would be super easy and un-complicated but... that's not my style!  I have to reinvent the wheel.  I have to make it my own version of awesome.  I love a challenge so I have taken this amazing idea that I can in no way take credit for, and gave it a good twist.  

I'm still tweaking with the design because I am not quite sure I am happy with it... I think I'll change the color from black to a dark red which will look great against the brown paper bag.  

As for the Sriracha Popcorn?  Ironically, I have been making this for years when I eat popcorn (which is as often as humanly possible) and never thought to actually stuff it in a bag and give it to my guests for our premier party.  I love sriracha so my measurements are a bit more stacked for the hot stuff.  The recipe is linked above for your convince but if you want to make it like I make it (and I would highly suggest it because it's freaking awesome) then here is how I do it:

Sriracha Corn

Ingredients:

8 cups of air popped popcorn

3 tablespoons of melted butter

3 tablespoons of sriracha

2 minced cloves of fresh garlic

a pinch of salt (to taste)

a pinch of pepper (to taste)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (you can omit this if you have someone who really hates the stuff like my husband does.... or you can make it anyway despite their picky pallet.  More for me!!)

In a small bowl, mix your butter, sriracha, and garlic.  It should almost look like buffalo sauce (and, by the way, coats wings just as well!) 

Pour this over your popcorn.  Sprinkle your Parmesan over the top and add salt and pepper to taste.  Mix everything together in a bowl before placing it in your bags for showtime.

I love finding other resources to make our Game of Thrones experience that much more amazing.  Thank you so much to Phoenix for posting that planning guide for us and making us oogle even more!  Your hard work is something we can all benefit from!  (I mean seriously, have you seen these wine labels???) 

Happy Throning!

S6PP: MULLIGANS!

Season 6 Premier Party: Mulligans!

After all - sometimes we all need a do-over.

Good intentions are all good unless you completely drop the ball and get caught up in baby-land thus letting your awesome party plans crash down in a fiery inferno.  As fun as it is to come up with all of these wonderful ideas to wow the masses it's kind of pointless unless you can actually pull it off, right?

With that being said, we are hosting ANOTHER Direwolf Adoption Day at Castle Forrest for our premier party - - since the last one wasn't really as fancy and amazing as I would have liked it to be.  And luckily, since I didn't actually pull this off to my standards last year, I can pull up all of my files and tweak some minor things and I'll be in business once again!

The great thing about doing these every year is that I always have left over stuff from the year before.  Let's start with the invitations (posted above).

I had to do some digging since in the recent move, my apothecary kit from 2013 was buried in the garage somewhere but luckily, my amazing husband was able to find it so I could pull out the wax sealing set stored inside.  Unfortunately in the move, the Basilisk Venom jar leaked and drenched the inside of my box with thick green goo...  That was a fun mess to clean up...

I attached the invitation to the menu... (ahh yes, the food - we'll get to that in a minute, I promise you!) and waxed sealed them shut.  I then addressed them with a gold pen which to be honest doesn't really show up on the yellow parchment all that great so if you can find a black sharpie somewhere in your house and not lost in a box in your garage like a sad and lonely needle in a messed up haystack then I would suggest using that. I would have loved to burn the edges on these a bit to give them a little more age but they look just dandy as is.  Last thing I need is to burn down my house and knowing my luck, we will just leave that one alone.


The other thing I will do to make our adoption day a success is print pamphlets for each persons plate so they can learn about the good our amazing made-up foundation is doing to help the direwolves.  I used all the ones I made up from last year but had to make one more....  (sadface..)

These will be fantastic conversation pieces as I am in the kitchen making everything beautiful.

Good Help is Hard To Find....

My amazing and loving husband has brought to my attention that some of these files have some spelling errors.  I very gently told him that the WSPVBMCD is a non-profit organization, and thus, is currently looking for educated scholars to assist in creating our propaganda.  Sadly, the bakers wife has only the most minimal of grammatical education and thus, is not keen to pick up such remedial mistakes such as these.  I appreciated his feedback, however, and will be looking for a new writing wench after I clean up the blood from the direwolf pen... 

In short ... I had better get around to fixing that - this of course, after I printed them all and beautified them... grr.. If you see any more please let me know!

Now... lets talk about the GRUB.

Starters:

I try to keep this simple - as we all know, the real show-stopper is always the main dish, right?  No one likes a bridesmaid who tries to outdo the bride, after all.  Most of my guests usually like to save themselves for the meal anyway so the odds that you have leftovers on the starters is high.  

I will be getting most of these from the store - ready to eat.  A loaf of olive bread from the bakery, a small container of fresh kalamata olives from the deli department, some prosciutto wrapped mozzarella also from the deli department, some smoked cheese and some hummus.  The only thing I will be making is the stuffed chilies that I have made before from InnAtTheCrossroads.com - who I have said time and time again are the air with which I breathe - these women are amazing and I definitely have a girl crush on their wonder.  You can find that recipe here.

I do make some changes with it though - I use smoked gouda instead of sharp cheddar, I add just a dash of sriracha because - well, why not?  That stuff is awesome.  You can omit that if you like though.  The only other thing that I am going to play with is that when making these amazing little nuggets of awesome, the corn flake coating doesn't stick very well to the skin of the jalepeno.  It's a real problem since you really want as much of that crunchy goodness as possible so I am going to try scoring the skin and roughing it up a bit to give the egg wash some texture to grab on to.  If that doesn't work... well, I'm not quite sure what, I'll have to play with it a bit.  

The Main Event:

A delectable Crown Roast stuffed with a delightfully hearty Oaten Stuffing served on a bed of slow roasted leeks and root vegetables.  Fit for a king.

Word food porn.  Mmmmm.

Sounds yummy, don't it?  Thank you again to my homies at InnAtTheCrossroads.com for providing the inspiration to this dish, you can find that recipe for this here.

I chose this dish because I sort of fancy myself a rib-aficionado... You can't get enough ribs in life, I promise you.  And the presentation of these is spot on for our premier party.   I am planning to do 2 racks but I'll deviate from the recipe just a bit - I'm going to tie off the ribs and roast them in the oven at 225 for 1.5 - 2 hours on a bed of chopped leaks, onions, garlic and carrots so that the rib juices saturate the veggies giving them a deliciously smoky flavor.  It is important to note, however, that when roasting veggies with your meat, you want to give them a light coating of olive oil and whatever spices you'd like so they don't burn.  There is a time and a place for blackened veggies and this ain't it!

Once they hit the 90 minute mark in the oven, I'll very carefully take them out and wrap the bottoms with bacon, stuff them, give my veggies a good turn and pop them all back in the oven to party for another 2-3 hours at 375 as the recipe indicates.  Why the extra cooking, you ask?  Well because I like my ribs SUPER tender and this should do the trick.  If you like them to stick to the bone a bit more you can omit the pre-cooking part and just follow the amazing recipe!

All Things Must End:

As always, we will be making a batch of Wildling Cider and White Walkers (Iced milk with honey plus vodka) - we have these with every party and they are always a big hit.  We run out every.time.

I have linked the Wildling Cider recipe for you but you'll have to fork over some dough to the ladies at the Inn for their amazing cookbook as the recipe for iced milk with honey can be found there.  You can also buy it on Amazon.

I will serve these with some Jammie Dodgers renamed The Mountains Tea Biscuits - because there is something strangely satisfying about picturing the MOUNTAIN with dainty little tea biscuits - pinky out and all.  We are keeping the ending SUPER SIMPLE as, you know me, we will have TONS of leftovers if folks are still hungry but they won't be... we will be rolling them out to their cars once the night is over..

Speaking of leftovers - Don't forget your doggie bags!

Good luck on planning your party - there is STILL TIME!  Lots of it, in fact (and sadly...) I hope some of these things were able to inspire you.  If you have questions or requests please let me know!

VALAR MORGHULIS.  All men must die.