Winter Is Coming.

The weather may be gorgeous and sunny where I am, but in Westeros Winter has come.

Tonight is the premiere of Game of Thrones season 3 on HBO, the first new episode in nearly 10 months! My fabulous friends in the Edible Geekery group have put together a blog-hop in anticipation of the new episode.

I think my favorite character from the series is Arya Stark. The girl takes a hit and keeps going. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that this girl is made of steel. I can't say she is exactly a good person, but she is tough as nails. The TV show moved the ages of all of the Stark children up a couple of years, but in the book Arya is roughly the same age as my Bean - 9, going on 10.

My Game of Thrones inspired meal is all about Arya Stark. "Valar morghulis" is a Valyrian phrase with some significance in the book series. It means "all men must die" and is commonly answered with "Valar dohaeris" - "all men must serve". 

For Arya, this phrase means little and less, but it opens doors for her which were otherwise closed (both literally and figuratively).

The Stark sigil is the direwolf, an oversized wolf from the North. I cut the direwolf head out of nori and rested it atop a bed of white rice.

The letters are cut from dill havarti cheese and Arya's shadow is a toasted corn tortilla, settled on black bean chili.

A clip from the episode 'Valar Morghulis' (season 2, episode 10):

Now, click the button to go through to Robot Squirrel and the Monkeys to follow the hop for more tributes to Game of Thrones:

Tune in tonight for the new episode, 'Valar Dohaeris', and if you get a chance be sure to read the books. They are very well written and rich in detail.

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