About the Book
In Cooking for Halflings & Monsters: 111 Comfy, Cozy Recipes for Fantasy-Loving Souls, Tolkien scholar Astrid Tuttle Winegar has created 'eleventy-one' original recipes to inspire you. Lovingly illustrated and written with dry humor throughout, this charming cookbook is sure to delight you and your family, friends, and any other lucky halflings (or monsters) who show up in your kitchen. So crack open a beer, rustle up some "Gündürnüb's Grüb," and come along on this epic culinary journey. Your quest for delicious recipes is complete!
The eight chapters of this cookbook each imagines a restaurant (inn, café, or bistro) which caters to particular archetypal characters in the fantasy genre and presents a delicious meal for them. But don't worry--you don't have to be a gourmet monster chef! You simply need to love comfort food to enjoy all the recipes within.
"Halfling Hideaway" is the perfect cozy spot for characters small of stature, yet big of heart. Here, you can enjoy Stout & Sturdy Chicken & Dumplings, Six of One Half a Dozen Soup, and Nutty Honey Bars.
"The Inn of the Doughty Hero" provides hearty food for the hero on the move. This is the place to bring your freshly acquired game and any sort of fruits or vegetables you've managed to forage during your journeys in the wild. Beery Beef Stew, Cress Composition, and Healing Chocolate Chai will fortify you for your next outing. For now, stay and eat--and you might consider washing your hair and clothes for a change...
"Council Catering" helps you develop a sophisticated menu to help convince your heroes to risk their lives fulfilling dangerous quests. Order your impressive Celebration Cake here.
"Quest Depot" is your one-stop shop for nutritious, more portable goodies to bring on your Seemingly Hopeless Enterprise. Cheesy pies and buttery cookies will help you survive those perilous road trips.
"The Epic-Urean" caters to wizards, witches, and alchemists--characters who like a bit of danger and complexity in their meal preparations. You can dabble with Crackling Caramel Sauce, and enjoy the precision of Treasured Tidbits (sushi) and Sine Qua Non Chicken.
"Glitnír's Hall" serves wholly hearty food for dwarves; mushrooms and bacon are quite popular in this establishment.
"Monstrous Morsels: The Hot Spot for Egregious Enemies" prepares surprisingly elegant food for trolls, orcs, goblins, and zombies. Monsters need comfort too, you know, and they will find it with dishes such as Fungus Liquid, Cold Dead Livid Bread, Chunks & Gobbets, and Must Eat Brain Food... Don't worry--all the recipes in this restaurant come with more civilized names, so you can serve these dishes to people who don't have warped senses of humor.
"Nympha Nemorosa" prepares delicate treats for woodland elves and sylvan sprites. With delicious dishes such as Leeky Potato Soup, Sweet Sylvan Buns with Honey Almond Butter, and Marmalade Gems, you might decide just to stay at home for days at a time--cooking, baking, and reading The Lord of the Rings and all of the Chronicles of Narnia. Now, that sounds like an extremely pleasant way to spend some time!
About the Author :
Astrid Tuttle Winegar is the author of Cooking for Halflings & Monsters: 111 Comfy, Cozy Recipes for Fantasy-Loving Souls. Astrid has been cooking, baking, and reading fantasy (and plenty of other literature!) for over 40 years. She has a bachelor's degree in English and Latin and a master's degree in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of New Mexico. She has loved C. S. Lewis since childhood, J. R. R. Tolkien since middle and high school, all Star things, both Trek and Wars, all things Whedon, and many other things besides... She lives in the enchanted city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband; she is also a mother and a grandmother. For more information, go to astridwinegar.com.
Review :
Winner of the 2025 American Legacy Book Awards
Finalist in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards 2018
A Recommended Read in the IHIBRP 2018
"This is an eminently giftworthy item for fantasy-loving cooks." ---Mythprint
"This book is clearly a labor of love... Even though many of the recipes call for butter and cream (and bacon and mushrooms!), we found most of them to be surprisingly light... I would recommend Cooking for Halflings & Monsters for the serious cook who wants to try something fresh and slightly different." ---Beyond Bree
"The research and testing that went into putting together each of the delectable dishes in Winegar's grand opus was obviously an enormous undertaking for the author who personally created, tested, captioned, and illustrated each one of her 111 recipes-including recipe substitutions and variations for those with specific dietary needs, not to mention those of us who are of the vegetarian persuasion. Each of the eight chapters featured in Winegar's book is complete with an introduction to the lifestyle of whatever fantasy creature may find a certain dietary menu appealing-a hobbit, elf, or wizard, and is geared toward a specific venue set one might frequent in their particular fantasy world-a café, inn, or pub. Fortunately for us mere mortals, these homey, comfort-food recipes also happen to be tailor-made for everyday people in our own world who enjoy everything from pub-style grub to more elegant fare." ---JB Richards, author of the Yeshua and Miri Novel Series
