THE CLUB
Besides playing a wide assortment of board games, our family has taken up a bit of reading.
One morning, I woke up to find posters taped all over the house. Apparently, one of my sons had taken it upon himself to Photoshop our faces onto random characters as a marketing strategy to inspire interest in a book club.
So that evening became the first of many book club gatherings. We took a vote and decided the first books we would tackle are the Chronicles of Narnia. I hadn't read them since I was a child, and my youngest son had never read them at all. In fact, it was at his age (12) that I had read them for the first time. I was excited to see if it sparked the same creativity and love of books that I had experienced back then!
We decided to individually read one book every few days until we had finished them all (there's seven books in total). I was very proud to see my kids relaxing in different parts of the house, casually reading on their phones or tablets. It was definitely one of the positive things to result from our time in quarantine/lockdown.
AN IDEA
Once we all finished book two (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe), we decided it would be fun to watch the movie. That way, we can compare the movie with the book and give us more things to talk about. I decided it would add an extra layer of fun to EAT the same foods which were described in the book WHILE we watched the movie.
My dear wife 
The most famous food item in the book, of course, is Turkish Delight. After researching recipes, we decided that it was way too time consuming to tackle. So I found a website for a boutique in Turkey that specialized in gourmet treats like Turkish Delight. They had all SORTS of different kinds to buy! Luckily, the order did not take that long to get here (even during the pandemic)!
THE FEAST
The movie night was a huge success, mostly due to my wife's hard work in the kitchen!
I forgot how good the movie is. I thought the production quality, acting, and special effects were all top notch. We all really enjoyed it, particularly since we had just finished reading the book.
The first opportunity to stuff our faces came with the scene where Edmund first experiences Narnia. He quickly crosses paths with the evil White Witch, and she tempts him with magically addictive food.
“It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating,” said the Queen presently. “What would you like best to eat?”
“Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty,” said Edmund.
The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle onto the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very center and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable.
Here's a pic of the Turkish Delight we grubbed on. The colored cubes are mostly likely the closest to what Edmund was eating. However, I did enjoy all of them. Very tasty treats!
The next scene involved dinner--with talking beavers!
It turns out beavers eat pretty well.
There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr. Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes, and all the children thought—and I agree with them—that there’s nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan half a minute ago.
Here's a pic of our fried fish and potatoes, which I dug into once the scene appeared on the screen, haha!
And you can't forget dessert!!!
And when they had finished the fish Mrs. Beaver brought unexpectedly out of the oven a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaming hot, and at the same time moved the kettle onto the fire, so that when they had finished the marmalade roll the tea was made and ready to be poured out.
Yum! I love my wife!
We had lots of fun. It makes me think about all the books I've read with glorious descriptions of extravagant feasts! My wife is gonna hate me.
I think we need a Splinterlands cook book next, don't you? Remember, the idea started here!
For those of you who are Narnia fans, did you know that Netflix bought the rights to Narnia, the books, and all the characters? I'm eager to see what they come up with. I think a show would be cool.
Disclaimer: Images of the movie belong to Walt Disney Pictures. Excerpts of the book were written by C.S.Lewis. Pics of the food are all mine!
