Welcome back, Geeky Gluttons, to another episode of Munchies & Minis!
For those just joining us, Munchies & Minis is my tabletop RPG-inspired live cooking show. Once a week, I make a snack or meal to pair with a side of dice rolls. You can catch me on Twitch (unless indicated otherwise on social media) Wednesday nights at 7 pm EST.
Last time I posted the video for smoked turkey and chickpea stew inspired by the canine fantasy RPG Pugmire. In this week’s video, we brew some spiced blood orange and ginger marmalade inspired by Blue Rose RPG.
“Mama-Ladeh,” or Orange Honey
If you have never heard of Blue Rose RPG, but are a fan of authors such as Mercedes Lackey and Tamora Pierce, you are in for a treat. While D&D stems from sword and sorcery tropes, Blue Rose lets players play in the romantic fantasy genre. And by romantic, I don’t mean bodice/codpiece-rippers.
In the strict academic sense, romance literature “involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual storyline where the focus is on a quest that involves bravery and strong values, not always a love interest.” In turn, the romantic fantasy subgenre often involves egalitarian societies, environmentalism, nature-based magic, and gender equality.
For today’s recipe, though, I’m going to focus on Blue Rose’s capital city of Aldis and the Villa Fruta Orchard. Starting as a tiny establishment, the orchard skyrocketed in popularity after a Roamer fruit picker invented marmalade. According to Aldis: City of the Blue Rose: “Villa Fruta originally touted the orange preserves as a cure for seasickness, but it quickly became popular as a topping for biscuits, a filling for tarts, and even a glaze on meats.”
So how am I going to make a marmalade that fits the Roamer-styled “orange honey” of Villa Fruta fame? By going straight to the source. Roamers in Blue Rose RPG are styled very much after our real-world Romani culture. As I’ve covered before in my Golden Compass gingerbread post, black pepper is ubiquitous in Roma cuisine. So that went in this pot of citrus-scented pectin.
Blue Rose’s Roamers travel in caravans and practice divination and mysticism. So with that in mind, I also mixed in blood oranges, juniper berries, and fresh ginger. Juniper and black pepper were used in many cultures to deflect negative energies. When sliced, blood oranges resemble the red wagon wheel on the Romani flag. Ethnologists believe this signifies a sanguine life on the move. Finally, ginger makes sense as a cure for seasickness as it is a folk remedy for indigestion.
Want to learn how to make Villa Fruta Marmalade for your adventuring party? Watch the video or find out how to get the recipe card below!
Villa Fruta Marmalade
Sing for your Supper & Bonus Recipe!
This video will always be around to cook along with. But I also have the printable PDF recipe card available for my Ko-Fi and Patreon supporters. This week, I have an additional Blue Rose-themed bonus recipe card that uses this marmalade!
This week, 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.
I hope that this episode inspired you to start a culinary campaign of your own. Next week, I’ll continue the second season of Munchies & Minis with a recipe chosen by my Patreon subscribers!
Make sure to join me live Wednesday on Twitch from 7 pm – 9 pm EST. OR you can catch the archived episode on YouTube.
