Spägsmiel

The forests of Stilton Head and the wildlands of Cotnor are forbidding places, prone to harsh winters and all-too-short summers. It is no wonder, then, that the origins of this beloved tradition stretch back through the ages to that area of Pax, and the taiga forests that encompass it.

Simply put, Spägsmiel is a meal that is cooked specifically to celebrate a guest, especially an unexpected one. Most homes in Pax have platters and decorations for just such an occasion, and will use any excuse to take them out, and cook up a veritable feast for a friend.

History

---

Explore Some Lore

For time out of mind, people have been putting candles in windows to beckon loved ones home on dark nights. It is said, by the researchers at that world-famous bastion of higher learning The Bardic College, that this tradition started when family members took to lighting a fire outside of their low Cotnorian longhouse during particularly bad storms. A beacon, calling out wistfully through the howling wind and blinding snow. It was a signal that safety lie in that direction, and that all of the family's members should hurry back home. Then, when the fierce regional storms got too bad to light a fire, they would instead put a candle in each of their windows, hoping to help lost loved ones find their way back to their loved ones.

In practice, however, this led anyone who was lost in a snowstorm to that soft, dancing glow. Oftentimes, it was not the person one was hoping for, and as the habit of placing candles in the windows of homes spread, more and more often would strangers end up finding their way to these homes. Eventually, people who lived amongst that harsh environment began putting candles in their windows whenever a storm would hit, and many lives were saved.

In typical fashion, the humans of the area eventually developed a friendly rivalry with their neighbors as to who could attract more people over the course of a year's storm season, and some of the more driven souls began decorating their homes in high fashion and haute decor. They would create families of snow-people outside of their idyllic cabins, and build guest suites into their barns and houses. Some would even provide a meal of fanciful make and service; plated pieces of pure art, arriving in multiple courses, with palate cleansers between each. Their guests were then bustled off to their perfect rooms for the night, where they were expected to sign the guestbook and sing the praises of the host family.

Some families, however, would cook hearty meals that would "stick to ones ribs", as the locals would say. Rich cheese sauces over chunked, spiced ham and pig-tail pasta, for instance, baked in the oven with breadcrumbs and freshly shredded hard cheese sprinkled atop it, until it glowed with a touch of golden brown. Or slow-cooked joints of elk or moose, served with rosemary gravy and herbed butter for the flaky biscuits. These homes always won the 'unofficial' challenges posed by their neighbors.

The care put into making these meals came to be cherished, and families began calling their own feast days Spägsmiels, for such things as birthdays or anniversaries, or other life events. Yet the connotation that it is a meal meant for new friends has stubbornly stayed rooted in the area's collective consciousness to this very day.

Execution

A meal is cooked, traditionally a large meal with several courses, and the table is set for guests. Over the years, slow roasted joints of meat have come to be synonymous with a good Spägsmiel, served alongside a pasta course, a soup course, salad, and dessert. Bowls of cashews and pistachios are laid out afterwards to signify that the hosts are willing to give their guests their very best in hospitality, but these nuts are so expensive most people only eat a few to be polite.

Components and tools

Platters, plates, and flatware have been cleverly designed and decorated with stags, foxes, moose, and elk. Cookie plates, stamped pie tins, and fanciful cups and mugs simply abound, some of them passed down from generation to generation. Cherished recipes are made from dog eared cookbooks with a hundred years of notes in the margins. Children make decorations for their parents to brag about. It is a big thing, and people are still proud of their hospitality and food.