Leggo my Lembas!

Who needs Lembas? Who doesn't?!? And this informative product commercial explains exactly why. 

Lembas [from Wikipedia]
Appearing in The Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion material, lembas is a special bread made by the Elves, also called waybread in the Common Speech. Shaped into thin cakes, it is very nutritious, stays fresh for months when kept unbroken in its original leaf-wrappings, and is used for sustenance on long journeys. It is tastier than cram or Beorn's honey-cakes. It appears brownish on the outside and cream-coloured on the inside. Lembas is a closely guarded secret, and only on rare occasions is it given to non-Elves. Like other products of the Elves, it is offensive to evil creatures; Gollum outright refuses to eat it, even when starved. Melian, the queen of Doriath, originally held this recipe. Later it was passed to Galadriel and other Elves. Galadriel gives a large store of lembas to the Fellowship of the Ring upon its departure from Lothlórien. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee subsist on it through the majority of their journey from there into Mordor.

As with cram, Tolkien may have modelled lembas on hardtack, and commentators have noted that lembas has Eucharistic overtones in accordance with Roman Catholic teachings. Lembas literally sustains the hobbits' lives, strength and will, while the Eucharist is the spiritual "Bread of Life". Also, Gollum and other evil creatures cannot abide lembas, while Catholics are instructed not to receive the Eucharist if in the state of mortal sin. Further, the Eucharist is sometimes called viaticum, a Latin term meaning 'for the way,' literally the spiritual food for the Christian's arduous journey through earthly life to heaven. The term viaticum was more commonly heard in Tolkien's day than today. In a private letter, Tolkien acknowledged that lembas bore religious significance.

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the term "lembas bread" is occasionally used; because the gift of lembas at Lothlórien is not included in the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (though the scene is included in the "Extended Edition" DVD of that film), the redundant term "lembas bread" was probably chosen in order to immediately identify the substance to filmgoers at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. In the extended cut of The Fellowship of the Ring Legolas says one bite of lembas "is enough to fill the stomach of a grown man" (while Tolkien says that one whole cake is sufficient for "a full day's march"). Pippin eats four - a reference to the large appetites of hobbits. Lembas is used as a plot device in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Gollum uses crumbs of the remaining waybread to frame Samwise Gamgee for consuming all the rations, contributing to his separation from Frodo Baggins prior to his encounter with Shelob. This sequence does not appear in the novel. In the DVD commentaries, director Peter Jackson notes that the prop lembas used in the trilogy was a sort of unsweetened shortbread.

After searching troll high and hobbit low, here is the best & easiest recipe I could find in all of Middle Earth.

Minutes to Prepare: 15
Minutes to Cook: 15
Number of Servings: 12

Ingredients 

• 2 1/2 cups of flour 
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt 
• 8 tablespoons of cold butter (1 stick) 
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup/honey 2/3 cup of milk/heavy cream (or more, if necessary) 
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celcius (425 degrees Fahrenheit). 
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. 
3. Add the butter and mix with a fork or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine granules. 
4. Add the sugar and cinnamon, and mix them thoroughly into the mixture. 
5. Add the milk/cream and vanilla and stir them in with a fork until a nice, thick dough forms. 
6. Roll the dough out about 1/2 in thickness. 
7. Cut out 3-inch squares and transfer the dough to a cookie sheet. 
8. Criss-cross (DO NOT cut all the way) each square from corner-to-corner with a knife. 
9. Bake for about 12 minutes or more (depending on the thickness of the bread) until it is set and lightly golden. 

[Recipe from SparkPeople.com, submitted by user PESCETARIAN]

♚ Long May She Reign ♛

I may be a california-born urban faerie, I may be in my 20's, but I could never forsake my British roots.  Today begins the year-long celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 60th year as monarch of the Commonwealth.  And I for one intend to join in the jubilee.  Regardless of politics, regardless of privilege, I consider The Queen to be an incredible woman and role model.  She has been through challenges most of us can hardly comprehend.  In one year alone (1992), at what in the U.S. would be considered retirement age, she experienced what she has since dubbed her 'annus horribilis' (horrible year).  That was the year her sons Charles and Andrew separated from their wives, her daughter Anne divorced, and a fire wreaked havoc on a portion of Windsor Castle.


Most of us recognize her at a glance.  In fact, any photo of a 'cute white-haired lady with a hat' brings to mind The Queen.  But today I want to touch on just a few of the sweet moments of her life that we seldom see photographs of these days... And I will mention some of my favorite bits about her, per ever-useful and omniscient Wikipedia.

Princess Elizabeth aged 7, 1933 Painting by Philip de László

Elizabeth's only sibling was Princess Margaret, born in 1930. The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as "Crawfie". Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music. To the dismay of the royal family, in 1950 Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses. The book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, and her attitude of responsibility. Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant." Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved."

Under service number 230873 she trained as a mechanic and driver during WWII... love this girl!

At the end of the war in Europe, on Victory in Europe Day, Elizabeth and her sister mingled anonymously with the celebratory crowds in the streets of London. She later said in a rare interview, "we asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognised ... I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief."

As a beaming bride, age 21

The Queen's 4-tiered wedding cake was created by British snack food company McVities & Price and measured 9 feet high and weighed 500 pounds.

Coronation day -- age 27

Prince Charles, sister Anne and a Corgi friend. Photo taken by Queen Elizabeth. 
Photo Credit: Photo News

xoxoxox
God Save The Queen!