Book Appetit! - Lord of the Rings

It's quite well-known that I'm a big fan of food, so when I saw Sheila's challenge to plan a menu to go with a bookish discussion, I couldn't resist.

Sheila wrote:

Take one of the books you are reading today.  Now lets pretend that you are going to have a book discussion with friends regarding that book.  They are all coming over to your house and you are providing food and beverage to go with said book.  That’s right, your challenge is to share with me here:

1.  Title and author of the book

2.  The menu:  the food, the beverage (if you want you can go as far plan background music, decor, whatever.   )

Now, the book I'm currently reading is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Again. And the Lord of the Rings is all about hobbits - who, as you are probably aware, are huge fans of food. Add this to the fact that The Lord of the Rings is a huge, three-volume book, and one that I could always find a lot to say about it, and I realised that we could quite easily be there all day. When I was in sixth for, my friends and I used to spend plenty of our free periods reading the books, writing bad fanfiction and discussing the details of the book and  films - which were new at that time. (Perhaps I shouldn't be sharing with you just how much of a nerd I was!)

So why not go all out and have a full day of Lord of the Rings bookclub/Hobbit party?

This Lord of the Rings day would take place in the garden, on a sunny spring day.

We'd start off with a fried breakfast of "tomatoes, sausages, nice crispy bacon" - and enough mushrooms to satisfy a hobbit.

For lunch I'd set up a buffet table full of simple, delicious food. We'd have fresh-baked bread and creamy butter, cold meats and cheeses and salad, lots of fresh fruit: crunchy apples, juicy cherries, plums and berries, served with whipped cream. In memory of Gollum, we'll serve sushi, and for those with elven tastebuds I'll try to recreate lembas bread with one of the many recipes available online. Finally, there will be a big cake, but not a stodgy fruit cake, something tasty and flavoursome. I'm thinking of a spiced pound cake or suchlike. This table would be set up first thing, and available to nibble at throughout the day, for those feeling the need for second breakfast, elevensies, afternoon tea... etc. etc.

Dinner would be some sort of stew or casserole. By rights it ought to be rabbit stew, but I haven't the heart to cook bunnies (which I know is hypocritical of me because I like other meat) so maybe it would be chicken stew, with carrots and parsnips, and a few good taters.

To drink, we'll serve plenty of tea and home-made still lemonade, and in the evening we'll light lanterns all around the garden, bring out wine and beer, and if too much of these are imbibed, no doubt Frodo's "bendy-knee chicken-dance" from the film will ensue...