Learn how to (and how not to) make strawberry wine worthy of the Woodland Realm with Kili!
STRAWBERRY WINE (1 gallon)
Ingredients:
3-4 lbs of fresh, ripe strawberries
2.5 lbs of sugar
1 gallon of pre-boiled water
2 tsp citric acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp yeast
Instructions:
Mash the strawberries. Add mashed berries and sugar to a crock pot. Add 2 tsb citric acid. Pour the boiled water over the mixture and dissolve the sugar as much as possible.
Once the mixture cools, add yeast nutrient and yeast. Stir.
Let the mixture sit for a week, stirring every day.
After one week, strain the strawberries and squeeze out the juice into a sanitized glass carboy. Good luck. If needed, sterilize more water by boiling. Allow it to cool then add it to your wine. Attach an airlock and let sit for 4 weeks.
After a month, rack your wine (siphon it into another sanitized carboy).
Just a couple of days on the heels of another wizard’s birthday, Sir Christopher Lee turned 93 today. He was born in Belgravia, Westminster, London on May 27, 1922.
A true titan of cinema if there ever was one, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the shoes of the great wizard Saruman the White. We hope you had a wonderful birthday and we wish you many happy returns, Sir Christopher! Continue reading “Happy Birthday to Sir Christopher Lee!”
We here at TheOneRing.net would like to wish the wonderful Sir Ian McKellen a very Happy Birthday! Ian was born on May 25, 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire. Today he turns 76.
Thank you Ian for all that you’ve done for the fans of Middle-earth. You’ve led us there and back again, and we couldn’t have had a better guide. We wish you many happy returns. Continue reading “Happy Birthday to Sir Ian McKellen!”
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.
So come and join us by the hearth and enjoy!
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
This weekend in The Hall of Fire we’ll return to our chapter-by-chapter discussion of the Hobbit with Chapter 9 — Barrels out of Bond.
Bilbo saw that the time had come to explain his idea, as far as he could; but he did not feel at all sure bow the dwarves would take it. His fears were quite justified, for they did not like it a bit, and started grumbling loudly in spite of their danger.
“We shall be bruised and battered to pieces, and drowned too, for certain!” they muttered. “We thought you had got some sensible notion, when you managed to get hold of the keys. This is a mad idea!”
When Fili decides to bake a surprise to celebrate the release of Kili’s latest book, her sister catches wind and tries to spy while wearing a certain hoodie…
Kili’s (K.M. Rice) books can be found here, and check out LOTH Hoodies here! Recipe below.
SARUMAN’S SECRET SURPRISE CAKE
For the cake:
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter (plus more to grease with pans with or you can use a baking spray!)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for the pans
1 cup of milk
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or a little more!)
For the frosting:
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped, plus shaved chocolate for topping
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
A small amount of cocoa powder for dusting!
Make the cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Butter two 8-inch-round cake pans and dust with cocoa powder, tapping out the excess.
3. Combine the butter, milk and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.
4. Transfer to a large bowl, add the cocoa powder and granulated sugar and whisk until smooth. Let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
5. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
6. Whisk the eggs and vanilla into the cocoa mixture then stir in the flour mixture until just combined (it’s ok if there are a few small lumps in this Saruman pool!).
7. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
8. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 35 minutes.
9. Let cool 10 or more minutes in the pans then run a knife around the edges and invert onto a rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting:
1. Put the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring, until smooth; let cool.
2. Beat the butter and salt in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Beat in the melted white chocolate until combined. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth and fluffy; beat in the vanilla. (If the frosting is too soft to spread, chill 15 minutes or more! This makes a LOT of frosting so you may not end up using it all!)
4. Place one cake layer on a platter and spread with one-third of the frosting. Top with the second cake layer; cover the whole cake with the remaining frosting.
5. Top with dust of cocoa powder and enjoy a bit of Saruman’s surprise!
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our 
This weekend in 