WHAT A GLORIOUS FEAST THIS IS!!!! These are the words that echoed through my head during the weekend of food and drink that we just partook. Now the real question is...who said it? I am fairly sure all of us enjoyed ourselves, each person ate and drank and laughed and revelled, celebrating the weekend as the momentous occasion it was. However a sneaking feeling is that the larger than life persona of Chadivus Maximus dressed in full ceremonial battle regalia was the entity shouting the exclamation that started this account. I get ahead of myself, let me just explain that this weekend was the 1st annual Thorrablot held at Kalehalla. It was a feast meant to celebrate the upcoming end of winter and it also happened to coincide with Lord Darksteel LaDouche's Birthday which in and of itself is a worthy celebration. So on behalf of Kalenar, Lord of Kalehalla, I the most humble Chadivus started preparing the feast about mid morning on Saturday. Lord Darksteel and I traveled to Snider Brothers Meat Market in Cottonwood Heights and purchased the lamb shanks and a lean beef roast, then quickly came home to assemble the meal.
The lamb shanks were my first endeavor, being that a shank is the foreleg of the lamb and has a tendency to be a tougher cut of meat, I thought it best to braise it in a simple stew of brown ale, 3 onions, garlic, salt and pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage and 1 can of diced tomatoes. I assemble the ingredients after trimming the excess fat (which I then rendered to brown the onions with before putting them into the pot) and slow cooked for 9 hours. I then prepped the root vegetables (red potatoes, carrots, yams and parsnips) for roasting and lastly made sure the beef roast was put into the oven to cook to a fine medium rare just before the guests arrived.
As we were waiting for the time to put the vegetables in we made a trip to the Draper Liquor Store because we found out that it was the only one in the area to carry the Linie Aquavit which we were able to purchase after a bit of a panic(in addition to the weird Utah laws involving booze, there is very little consistency in how the State Liquor Stores display their wares).
Now that all of the portions were assembled we awaited our guests. Kalenar, Lord Darksteel and myself were already there along with the Wee Dancer (my youngest daughter). Pretty soon Vladimir, Bomba and Signor Una Traccia all showed up and lastly my eldest daughter Regina Elsa arrived.
We served the food and the evening started. First we raised a drink to Odin, Thor and Lord Darksteel including pouring an offering to Odin with the Aquavit. This drink hit everyone differently. Some stated they tasted mint, others say it tasted like absinthe, Lord Kalenar felt it was like a taking a shot of a mojito and to me it tasted like ouzo. It was apparent however that this was definitely a vodka based drink, the shot itself went down like a vodka or gin shot as opposed to a liqueur. We ate the food and took more drinks and then it was decided we play Cards Against Humanity. Any of you who have played this game know it is not a game where one can easily 
state what cards won or lost and the answers are sometimes funnier than the question. Suffice to say that there is a great deal of inappropriate commentary while this game is going forth. Also I want to remind you all that we were still partaking of the alcohol during the playing so it did get very silly very quickly. Some of the highlights of this game session included the answer card "toweling my folds down" the "large flightless birds" card being disqualified, various meanings of cards being explained to the uninitiated and numerous other items that are very hard to recall after several shots.
We had drank our fill of the Aquavit and the drinking inclined individuals moved on to their individual favorites. Bomba started an almost full bottle of Evan Williams Honey, Lord Darksteel and Kalenar opened an ice cold bottle of Jagermeister and I finished off a half full bottle of Concannon Irish Whiskey and then moved on to a bottle of Lord Calvert Canadian. Suffice it to say Chadivus Maximus was in his full glory by the time we were finished. The best quote of the night came in a text to me the next evening from Bomba " Apparently I was more drunk last night than Vlad or I realized. I didn't remember leaving last night and beyond" This after draining half the bottle of Evan Williams.
Now I was looking for a memorable quote on feasting and friendship and whiskey and such and such. I was unable to find something that did not include subtle messages of guilt if you do not worship a certain way or insults about friends not being grateful and messages of dangerous alcohol, so I will end this with my own quote. I find no other time of life better than the time I spend with loving friends and family over good food and strong drink. It is at those times we become closer and the hardships of the world become less because our community becomes more.
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