SC - Aoife's Bull---Update

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

Hallo! I am recovering from the First Endless Hills Baronial Investiture,
and would like to re-hash it here for you.

When we arrived on site, all the big pots that had been in the kitchen when
we toured the sit weren't there. My drop-dead cook ran home to get his.
Since he was making lunch, this meant that lunch was late. Since everything
was running late due to the snow/ice storm that blanketed Pennsylvania the
night before, that was OK. Morning Court was an hour late,  and by the time
it was over Lord Valerie had his Cheese Goo (Digby's Savory Toasted Cheese,
on bread rounds), persian meatball soup, beverage, etc. ready to go.  our
Hospitality table had been hit pretty hard by the early lunchers amongst us,
but that's why we do that---so no one goes hungry, ever. While the good
gentles played chess and held a bardic contest and "Gentle Hunt", we
struggled to catch up---two hours behind in the world's smallest kitchen!

Many of the dishes were made ahead and frozen. Thank goodness for that. Half
way through getting the apricot chicken together, Ragnar K rushed in and
said that one of the sotelties had self-imploded. It was a lantern made of
cut-work gingerbread. Luckily, he managed to salvage it. We got the end
course ready ahead of time (all desserts) and had them waiting on the side,
covered with plastic wrap. The first remove was cooked first and went into
the oven on time. The second remove straggled a little because the dumplings
took a little longer to boil than we allowed for. Luckily we had New Year
Cakes (bread rolls with pennies, buttons, rings, and a Bean for the King of
Misrule) to entertain the masses while we got everything ready to serve.
Curiously, no one found the Bean we planted in one of the cakes. Someone
must have eaten it!!!! The Queen of Aethelmearc, Caryl, declared the maker
of the Beautiful Baronial Coronets King of Misrule, and his companion Tom
was the Queen of Misrule. A good time was had by all, and by then the last
of the food was ready.

If I had to do it over again, I'd say that I would not put Cusknoles at the
end of the feast. They were good, but few folks ate them since it was
snowing like mad outside, and they wanted to be on their way. Although some
folks have frowned on coffee at events, Announcements that Turkish Coffee
was ready and waiting were greeted with wild cheering in the hall, and the
coffee pot was stormed and emptied within minutes.

About the Sotelties:
First let me prepare the way with two statements: 
1: The feast had a bird theme, which some of the sotelties carried through.
2: The event had a Bull theme, due to our Baron's device and persona's
religeon. When invested,  we all donned felt horns among the kitchen crew
(except for Valerie, who made a huge set of real steer horn affixed to a
head band that looked hysterical), and Moo'd our new Baron into office! 

 There were five. First was my Persian Miniature, made on a square slab of
shortbread, executed in fruit leathers gummmed down and sealed with simple
syrup. It was really cute, and I enjoyed doing it. All in all, about an
hour's work and about $5.00 in materials. Not bad, and my kids ate the
scraps of fruit leathers, keeping them busy while I worked. I bought three
different kinds, and had enough color variations in them to do some neat things.

Second to be served was the lantern. Ragnar and Rowan made this, and it was
from gingerbread (cookie type), cut-work held together with royal icing. The
damaged side was held towards the presentor, and I don't think anyone
noticed. It was quite dramatic when paraded around the hall, with a lit
candle inside. Simply beautiful!

Third was a set of gold keys on a gold key-ring to honor the new Chatelaine,
dear friend of all the cooks. Again, Rowan made this from gingerbread
pressed into molds and baked. She found some sort of gold powder which, when
mixed with orange extract, made a paint. This was brushed on, and some
greenery painted with food colors. The keys were attached to the ring with
golden threads. Again, simply beautiful.

Fourth was an enormous egg. We had a sort of bird theme to the feast
(phoenix tail salad, apricot chicken, apple peacocks, etc.) so Ragnar and
Rowan made an enormous, perfectly smooth  white egg, presented in a
nest-like basket, symbol of the birth of our barony, from cake. When sliced,
it looked like a real egg inside. I have no idea how it was done, but it
knocked them cold. They gasped when it was broken open. I am hoping Ragnar
will read this and enlighten us about the process. It was devoured, and
folks were asking for more.

Last came the bull, at the end of the feast. I was unaware of a fortuitous
legend from the Zaroestrian religion, wherein the God Mithras wounds a
celestial bull, and the blood spilled became all of  creation. This made the
soteltie more appropriate than I could have hoped, given that our new
Baron's (my brother) device was a Bull. Two stalwort fellows carried out the
table bearing the bull. Khasar announced the last soteltie which "wasn't
subtle at all. In fact, it could be downright offensive". Naturally that got
them all crowding around. I explained the originals the bull was based on,
and had the good Baron Tigranes recieve the first cup of wine when the
corking arrowhead was removed. And then I began to explain about how we had,
like all groups going barony, gone through some rough times, with a lot of
BS. I was leading up to opening the trap door in the rear so that the
chocolate cookies could fall out. But my 8-year old (who ahd been keeping
the secret for 2 weeks) joyously shouted "And he POOPS cookies". So I simply
explained that even the BS in Endless Hills was delightful and let the
cookies fly. Gratifyingly, the first cookie went flying out and rolled
across the floor. I had to "help" the rest, a substantial paylod, but no one
seemed to mind. It was a big hit, got lots of laughs, and folks really
enjoyed their "bulls blood and BS for dessert." I had to donate the wine,
since the SCA money cannot buy alcohol for drinking purposes, which I was
happy to do.

So all in all, that's it. I got home at midnight, and now the next day I'm
still exhausted. I think I'll take a breather for a few months before I do
this again. We have lots of cooks in our group now, so a temporary
retirement is perfectly feasible.

My crew were troopers, and I hope they realize how wonderfully well they
did. I was told the feast was excellent. A cook can't wish for better than that.

Aoife 

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