SC - Small Feasts

[Aine of Wyvernwood]

the first dinner party I gave was at age 12....for my family, the day after
thanksgiving.  I do not remember what I fixed, but I do remember the dessert.
It was the first cake I baked, instead of baking powder, I used baking soda.....

hey, I was twelve, gimme a break.........  The cake turned out beautiful,
looked
delicious...and everyone who ate it proclaimed it the best they had ever
eaten....  sigh..... My elder relatives still tell the story and recall how hard
it was to eat that very, very salty cake.  hehehehee, I have improved greatly
since then.

Later as an adult, each yr for about 12 yrs, I had this running party at new
yrs...
many told that they came for my venison pot roast.  As I lived in the High
Country of Colorado where mule deer abound, sorta like rats on a wharf...
much of my diet was game.
I sear the venison on both sides, then roll in flour to make a light coating
then
sear again to sorta cook and bronw the flour...oh, before I drop the venison in
the bit of hot olive oil, I added some crushed garlic about 2-3 cloves worth....

then the meat.  Ater all that I add water to cover, then diced celery, onions
salt peper and a couple of bay leaves, and simmer on very low for ages until the
meat is fork tender.  I serve it sliced with gravy over rice.
the gravy can be thickened one of two ways....with cornstarch or roux.

to make a roux you take a dry clean cast iron skillet on about medium heat....
add about 2 cups of flour...dry.... use a spatula or pancake turner to keep the
flour moving, the object is to brown the flour to a medium brown evenly without
burning.  I only use a about 2 tablespoons to make the gravy, the rest can be
saved in an airtight container in the fridge for later use....
I add a bit of oil and drop into the broth....the oil melts and keeps the flour
from making lumpy gravy.
I use this same recipe with a pork roast as well...but, since my kids think that

garlic [which I love] is in the same category as posion...I only use a tiny
bit...
aine

Decker, Terry D. wrote:

> >I'd be interested in other accounts of very small feasts, i.e. why they
> >were so small and how people handled that.
> >
> >Adamantius
> >______________________________________
> >Phil & Susan Troy
> >troy at asan.com
>
> I fear I've never had a truly small feast.  Thirty people is about the
> size of one of my really large dinner parties or pizza feeds.
>
> My first feast however meets the criteria of "interesting experience".
>
> The barony held an Althing the weekend before Pennsic and I said, "Sure,
> I'll do the feast."  Most Namron events on the Kingdom Calendar generate
> 200+ people, so I planned a feast for 120 (plus the additional food with
> which I feed my servers and entertainers) with a break-even at 90 (I
> learned the error of my ways.  My feasts now break-even at 50%
> occupancy.).  In addition to the feast, I was running a beer tavern and
> beer would be served with the meal.
>
> Two months before the Althing, a major event got scheduled around
> Houston.  For the three days before the event, we had torrential rains.
> Saturday morning everything was beautiful and bare.  Total attendence at
> the event was about 130.
>
> The site had a refrigerator, but no kitchen.  Most of the food, the
> pickled whiting, the pickled eggs, the danish apple pies, and the bread
> had been prepared early so that I could prepare the vegetables and grill
> the beef using a couple camp stoves and a small fireplace.  Looking at a
> major financial setback, Baroness Gwyneth and I started touting the
> feast.  By feast time, we had 83 people at the feast.  I put
> approximately four pounds of food per person on the tables and was
> declared a hero (the populace hadn't seen the accounts yet).  The left
> overs were put out for grazing on Sunday.
>
> The tavern saved me.  Between the feasts and the tavern income, we
> turned $1.85 profit on the entire adventure (no site fee or cost).  I
> was very fortunate on this feast.  I got an education in planning,
> pricing and controlling costs.  I also got to experiment with hall
> layouts, serving patterns (under a head server I've instructed, the cook
> needs to be in the kitchen), and how courses should be organized for the
> table (I like to start the feast with breads, finger foods and
> condiments on the tables and present two or three courses of three or
> four dishes each contrasting in color, texture and taste).
>
> A final sidebar:  There were two Vikings from Caid on their way to
> Pennsic, who stopped at this event.  They were so impressed by the
> feast, that they were trying to figure out how to get me to Caid.  I
> didn't have the heart to tell them that my "groaning board" was intended
> to be in less distress than they had witnessed.
>
> Bear
> ============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
> ============================================================================



============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================