Thanksgiving passed recently, and in true Nerdd fashion, my wife and I celebrated in a non-traditional way. You see, we live in a different state from our families, and don’t care for turkey and cranberry sauce. So instead, we returned to a previous Thanksgiving celebration, and watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, while eating like Hobbits! We did change our menu from last time, as we realized we made too much food for two non-hobbits.
Hobbits famously eat seven meals a day, but we wanted to pace the day with Fellowship of the Rings with breakfast, Two Towers with lunch, and Return of the King with dinner. So we had to merge different meals together.
I will say that there is some inconsistency in the Middle-earth canon regarding hobbit meals. In the text, it says there are six meals (Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Tea Time, Dinner, Supper), but Bilbo in The Hobbit book and Pippin in the Fellowship movie both have or request a Second Breakfast. JRR Tolkien never writes out a menu for these, so it partially comes to personal taste what foods belong where. The following is how I personally interpret the meals.
In the future, we intend on making this a big gathering, similar to a Friends-giving, so others who live away from family, or even just enjoy having multiple Thanksgiving celebrations can come together and eat some good food.
Fellowship of the Ring
With the first movie, we included the meals Breakfast, Second Breakfast, and Elevenses.
Breakfast is a lighter fare, usually of premade or quickly made items, such as pastries and toast. This allows you to get something in your belly shortly after waking up, and gives you patience for the real breakfast to come. Very similar to an appetizer is to dinner.
Second Breakfast is where the real hot cooked food comes in. Meats, such as bacon or sausage, eggs, whether fried, scrambled, quiche, or hash, and potatoes. Both Breakfasts are served with coffee or a English Breakfast tea.
Elevenses is the equivalent to a casual snack in the morning. This is where you have some fruit or toast with jam. You’re full from the big delicious Second Breakfast, but it’s nice to nibble on things, and this is the perfect nibbler.
- Sausage links
- Toast with butter and jam
- Blueberry and Lemon Poppyseed muffins
- Coffee Cake
- Coffee
The Two Towers
In the second movie we have Luncheon and Afternoon Tea.
Luncheon is a nice balance in the day, in that you don’t want to have foods that are too heavy and make you sleepy, but you do want some nice savory foods, that are not just a snack. Foods can be cured meats, fish, veggies, and cheese, but in smaller portions that are lighter. Soups and stews are great for Luncheon, especially paired alongside a charcuterie board of meats and cheeses, with some crackers. Luncheon is paired great with a light beer or a white wine, depending on the main dishes.
Afternoon Tea, like Elevenses, is more of a snack than a full meal. Here you have a nice cup of tea, perhaps like an Earl Grey, with biscuits (English cookies), or maybe some cake.
- Loaded Baked potato soup with a side of sour cream
- Loaf of rosemary onion bread
- Hard Cider
- Earl Grey
- Cucumbers with dill dip
- Biscuits and Stroopwafel
- Buttered toast
Return of the King
Finally, with the finale we have Dinner and Supper.
Dinner is the biggest meal of the day, usually with some centerpiece. Since this is still a Thanksgiving article, dinner can absolutely be your classic turkey and mashed potatoes meal, something that really brings in a lot of ingredients and side dishes.
Supper is the final meal, and is lighter, only really eaten if you are staying up later into the evening and still hungry. Supper comes from the same word that brings us soup, so a good idea for supper could be some soup, even made with some leftover ingredients from dinner, like the meat and veggies. I know I’ve had meals made from Thanksgiving leftovers before, and throwing it into a big soup can help it keep for longer.
I find that when we eat this much in the day, I don’t find myself craving a dessert at night, because of the pastries in the morning, and the biscuits and cake in the afternoon.
- Shepherds pie
- Red wine and Stout beer
- Various salted pork
- Various crackers
- Various cheeses
- Mustard, Jam, Pepper jelly
The Lord of the Rings is such a perfect trilogy, and the food and atmosphere, to me, feels quintessentially fall, that I think this is the perfect way to celebrate Thanksgiving, and we look forward to continuing our new tradition.
The Nerdd 