Munchies & Minis | The Faerunian Holiday Special

Welcome back, Geeky Gluttons, to another episode of Munchies & Minis!

For those just joining us, Munchies & Minis is a live Twitch cooking show where I make a tabletop RPG-inspired snack and then paint a miniature. To kick the first season off, I decided to start @RaineRysa‘s #52WeeksofDnD fanart challenge. Far too long ago, we made some Tymora-inspired beer bread spice rolls for “Luck.” Sadly enough, though, I reached the end of the year without finishing the challenge.

That’s ok, though. It was a long year, full of surprise–both bad and good. One thing I discovered about a challenge like this is that it sparks your creativity while simultaneously draining your mind of the idle time it needs. It also creates a whole lot of frustration when a recipe doesn’t work out how you want it the first time. That’s right folks, the first edition of the “Shopping” recipe NEVER HAPPENED, ok?

So, where does that bring us for today’s episode? I decided each season of Munchies & Minis should end with a holiday special. It makes sense, right? End out the year with food perfect for gatherings of friends and RPG family. I’m not talking about earth holidays, though. I like to be inclusive on this show, and I don’t know enough about every tradition to attempt representation without appropriation.

I’m talking about making dishes inspired by the winter holidays from our favorite campaign settings that could also perform at our holiday potlucks and game nights. So with that in mind, I chose three holiday festivals from Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms campaign: Fouth Feast, Midwinter, and Simril.

Since this is going to be a long post, I made jumpcuts!

• Hunt down the Fourth Feast and Fourth Feast Meatballs.
• Sit and chill during Midwinter with Auril’s Midwinter Ceviche.
• Learn how to make Fourth Feast Meatballs and Auril’s Midwinter Ceviche.
• Find your star of fortune on Simril with Tymora’s Lucky Crumble.
• Cook the recipe for Tymora’s Lucky Crumble.
• Find out how to get recipe cards for all three recipes.

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Fourth Feast Meatballs

On the 20th day of Nightal (or December 20th) is the recognized Winter Solstice in Faerun, and followers of the Forest goddess Mielikki celebrate the Fourth Feast with food and song. I couldn’t find much in particular about Fourth Feast, but I found out a lot about Mielikki.

Dungeons & Dragons, in fact, bases their Faerunian patron saint of rangers on the Finnish goddess of the same name. Finland’s Mielikki, much like her RPG counterpart, protects and heals forest creatures. Prayers to protect wandering cattle, as well as to offer luck to mushroom and berry gatherers, often cross the woodland maiden’s ears.

In honor of her feast, then, I made a Mielikki-inspired Lihapullat (meatballs). It would make sense that cattle farmers would offer a sacrifice after a year of protection so I used beef as my base. Then I mixed in cremini mushrooms and wild-growing herbs like rosemary and thyme.

The Finns traditionally serve Libapullat with lingonberry sauce or brown gravy. And then so I made my lingonberry and glögi glaze with a mushroom stock cube. More word-salad for you? Glögi is a traditional Scandanavian winter drink of spirits-fortified wine mulled with cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves. Feel free to make a batch without the jam and bullion to go along with this cold-weather treat.

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Auril’s Midwinter Ceviche

Next up on our Faerunian holiday feast lineup, we go to the city of Waterdeep for The Longest Dance or better known as Midwinter Night. Celebrated on the coldest night of the year — somewhere between the months of Hammer (January) and Alturiak (February), this festival involves ice skating well into the night. I admit I first confused this holiday with Auril’s Blesstide — when the first frost arrives. But either way, blessings are offered to Auril the Frostmaiden.

Both festivals show deference to Auril. So I figured that both also observe the tradition of not consuming or serving hot meals. And that’s why I chose to make ceviche — a Latin American dish where raw fish is “cooked” with acid–most often citrus juice. 

The thing is, Waterdeep is a significant port trading hub full of races and cultures from all over Toril. I wouldn’t put it past an immigrant from the Latin American-inspired continent of Maztica to capitalize on this festival. While the fish may be fresh and flash-frozen by a cold of cone spell, other tropical climate-based ingredients may be harder to come by. So with that, I used seasonal winter fish, fruits, and vegetables — sole, red onion, apple, fennel, and parsley. 

Acid and fresh fish are the key ingredients to this dish, though. I used apple cider vinegar, grapefruit juice, and sole, but you can also use grouper or halibut. Believe it or not, though, this is the time you want frozen fish. Fish, when first caught, is flash-frozen to preserve its freshness. This process also kills parasites. Can’t find any of those? Use tilapia. Avoid freshwater fish at all costs.

My tip? Serve these with crackers. They soak up all that delicious marinade.

Want to learn how to make Fourth Feast Meatballs and Auril’s Midwinter Ceviche for your adventuring party? Watch the video or find out how to get the recipe card below!

Also, keep scrolling for the third recipe on our post today!

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The Faerunian Holiday Special 

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Tymora’s Lucky Crumble

So I did promise you three recipes, and I will deliver. As you might’ve seen in the above video, my recipe for shortbread star cookies DID NOT WORK. Lucky for me and lucky for you, though, I made something even better on New Year’s Day. 

Let me backtrack here to introduce our third Faerunian winter holiday of Simril. Like Fourth Feast, on Nightal 20th people gather to honor a goddess. This goddess, though, is Tymora — or Lady Luck, herself. You may recognize her from the last Munchies & Minis episode in our recipe for Snowbread.

Simril, also being the Winter Solstice, is when the most stars appear on a very long night. People of all races gather with food and warm drinks, celebrating the entire evening while sweeping the skies for their lucky star. Finding one’s birth star on a cloudy night is considered especially lucky.

So with that, I made a gluten-free crumble using apples, pears, and other ingredients traditionally associated with luck and success. Lemon extract and calendula (marigold) petals add citrusy and grassy notes, and the color yellow to banish negativity. Allspice in the witching world increases determination and energy to chase one’s dreams. And oats and sesame seeds represent coins and wealth in the folklore of multiple cultures. 

I leave it up to you to bless your friends with these honey-coated sesame-apple star garnishes. But I can say from experience that they will find it a lucky part of their day.

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Get the Recipes!

If you want to cook Tymora’s Lucky Crumble, keep scrolling. That recipe and the video on how to make the other two Faerunian holiday dishes will always be free on this site to work with. But I also have the printable PDF recipe cards available for my Ko-Fi and Patreon supporters.

This week both my blog post and Munchies & Minis recipe cards are available in exchange for a $2 donation on my Ko-fi page.

-OR-

If you join my Patreon community at the “Kitchen Twitch” ($5/month) level or higher, you will not only get access to ALL of my Munchies & Minis recipe cards. You’ll also get blog-post Spotify-playlists, community-polls, random digital and physical-swag surprises, AND a welcome gift of my Lord of the Rings recipe cards and playlists.

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A Taste of Fortune