Winter is coming. The Night King has brought down the Wall with his new undead pet, Viserion (V-ICE-rion? I know, so sorry), and his army of White Walkers, wights, giants, and pale spiders big as hounds are making their way toward Winterfell, where our heroes and anti-heroes gather and make ready for war. Declare your love, knight the knights, sing one last song and say your goodbyes, the Battle for Winterfell is about to begin.

This week we make an icy offering to the Night King with Mini Baked Alaskas - a sweet treat of ice cream and cookie encased in snowy meringue browned to a sugary crunch and served flambéed by yes, setting the DESSERT ON FIRE. A snack of ice and fire, if you will, a perfect treat to mark the long anticipated arrival of Winter at the castle gates.

Weirwood trees with their stoic white trunks and blood red leaves, have borne witness to many of the dramatic events in Game of Thrones since the very beginning. Bearing mysterious faces carved in their trunks by the Children of the Forest, they watched with us as Ned Stark sat by the heart tree in Winterfell and received news of the death of Jon Arryn and the imminent arrival of Robert Baratheon, King of the Seven Kingdoms. This, of course begins the chain of events that is Game of Thrones. And now as we begin the final chapter in this story, Winter is coming and Bran Stark the Three Eyed Raven waits by the same weirwood for the arrival of the Night King.

This week, as we also wait in anticipation and dread for the Great War to come, we make our own offering to the great weirwood tree, witness to history, forever watching and silently weeping its bloody tears. In other words, raise your glasses and drink up friends, we think this next chapter is going to be a doozy.

Warning: Spoilers everywhere!
Season 1 episode 10: Fire and Blood
   Baby Dragons (doo doo doo doo doo!)
Season 3, episode 4: And Now His Watch Is Ended
   Dracarys!!
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From the moment Daenerys Targaryen steps out of the flames with three adorable baby dragons and claims her title as Mother of Dragons, we know that something BIG has happened in Westeros. Magic has returned to this world in the form of Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion and we've watched them grow up before our eyes. From their tiny, puppy years learning their 'dracarys' command on little skewers of meat and terrible warlocks (how cute are they?) to their tumultuous adolescence roaming the countryside past curfew until grounded and chained in the basement like any normal teenager to their full fire-breathing Lannister army decimating glory. We know these crazy kids and we fear for them as any other character we've come to know and love, and mourn their loss when something terrible happens, as it inevitably does on this show. So this week we honor each of our three beloved fire-breathing, wight-killing, high-flying dragons with a pile of fire-roasted wings in three tasty flavors. (And we're just going to ignore that thing that happened to our golden boy Viserion in season 7.)

Season 1 episode 3: Lord Snow
     Storytime with Old Nan
Season 6, episode 4: Book of the Stranger
      Better days and Old Nan's pies...

When Old Nan wasn't telling little lords tales of the Long Night or keeping young Hodor out of trouble, she was busy making excellent pies for the lords and ladies of Winterfell. For House Stark, whose words are 'Winter is Coming' Old Nan was an important part of the Stark household, a keeper of two most powerful weapons, for there is nothing like a good story and a good pie to keep the bitterness of winter at bay. And as the Night King marches toward Winterfell at the end of season 7, don't we all wish the Starks had paid more attention to some of Old Nan's scary stories about the Long Night and those pale spiders big as hounds?

But the Brothers of the Night's Watch also know a thing or two about bitter winters. Manning a 700 foot ice wall is no easy task, but a good soup and good ale can keep one going through many a cold night. Sadly, the Night's Watch ale is apparently pretty terrible (priorities, brothers, I mean really!) but luckily, a bad ale can easily be turned into a decent soup. Turn that soup into a family sized pie (AS BIG AS HOUNDS!) and it can get downright cozy - even at Castle Black, right there at the foot of a literal wall of ice. This week we celebrate the sweet reunion of Sansa and Jon at Castle Black with a hearty, family-sized Beef and Ale Pie with Peas and Onions, a taste of happier times at Winterfell and a pie worthy of Old Nan herself.