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[Keith Christensen]

Sorry; didn't get this Digest till after I sent my last post... 


Date: 16 Mar 1998 09:15:19 -0800
From: "Marisa Herzog" <marisa_herzog at macmail.ucsc.edu>
Subject: SC - Kat's Whiteshield feast

brid writes:

> I thought I would start the applause for Kat's feast for Whiteshield in
> Darkwood, Mists, West, on Saturday.

<<blush>>  Thank you! 


> The feast started 1/2 hour later than it was "supposed to" which
> merely whet all appetites.  The kitchen I hear was a bit inadequate-<snip>

Inadequate is not the word.  I knew beforehand (thank the Gods) that there was only one oven and one 4-burner stove; but even with the preplanning and prepping we were able to do on Friday, it was still a logistical nightmare.  

It's my intention to recommend we use that site just for potlucks, unless next year's WS cook decides to haul in a spit-roaster... 

  
> Many meat eaters were lusting after the "Lenten" things than they
> saw passing by.

True; and I'm feeling very smug about this... we have a lot of vegetarians, and some of them never get enough to eat at feasts.  One of my primary goals for this feast was to send my herbivores AND my carnivores home satisfied... 

> The servers were consciencious, especially the "smalls" we had
> serving our table.

Our servers were real troupers, all things considered... they did a great job.  I must confess that I groaned when I first learned that almost half my serving staff were pages; but they were terrific and I'm pleased that others thought so too. 

> The only problems:  everything was cold, and dishes could have
> come out a little closer together- a couple of times we actually got
> hungry waiting for the next part of the course to come out.

I feel bad about this; I didn't realize stuff was getting cold getting to the tables.  Most hot things were hot when they went through the window...


> The best parts:  the salad in the last course and the cut strawberries 
> were a lovely end to a rich and well balanced feast- and the 
> PEACOCK and GILT SALMON were beautiful.  

The strawberries were a massive stroke of good fortune.  I say, when God gives you strawberries for $5 a half-flat, you stock up!

> Huzzah! to Kat for a lovely evening.  I hope she got to sleep in on
> Sunday!

We actually managed to sleep till about 11, which was really nice.   My dad (the folks were visiting) got up and fixed us breakfast, which was a lovely thing to do... 

Cassie also writes:

> I also went to the feast, but was unable to stay for the last course
> because it was past my smalls bedtime and they were getting very
> cranky.

I am so sorry I didn't get the opportunity to meet you, my lady!  Perhaps next time?  

> I was also glad to see them note specific changes that they made,
> Like using chicken instead of rabbit. I later asked one of the cooks,
> I do not know the gentles name, why the made that particular 
> substitution, he said that rabbit wasn't popular in the barony. 

That, and I couldn't have afforded that much rabbit.  ;-)   

Darkwood is a difficult place to try to serve "specialty meats;" and when you consider the fact that out here they consider VENISON a specialty meat... I could no more serve eel or ostrich here than fly to the moon.  I was pushing it with the goose and the salmon...  


> <snip>The one dish that I was served that did not come out as I 
> expected according to the source provided was the asparagas 
> dish. We were served aspargas with a cheese sauce. Whereas I 
> expected to see a cheese sauce with aspargas in it on a piece of 
> toast. This was probably the single dish that really needed to be 
> served quite warm.
<Snip>

and brid replied:

> That would have been an interesting version!  kinda "welsh rare-bit"
> with asparagus...  I wasn't expecting toast, but after all the 
> discussions of salamanders and such I was expecting it hot.  I 
> found out later that not only had there been *no broiler* available but 
> the microwave was so archaic as to not be useful.  It was still tastey 
> tho.

Actually, I *had* planned for that, but my sweetie forgot his blowtorch.  Oh well...

Also, there were a few more disasters that my reviewers have kindly edited out... the Rosee never made it out of the butcher paper because we never were able to find rose petals; and the Armored Turnips (which my dad was really looking forward to) got cut due to lack of time and lack of a pot to blanch them in.

More disasters?  My salmon, which my fishmonger faithfully promised me at 8 AM, arrived at the market at 11:30 and got to site after noon; completely blowing my carefully crafted oven schedule.  My geese were almost incinerated because someone "helpfully" bumped the temp from 325 (first-hour directions) to 400 (second-hour directions), and I was so busy I missed my timer.

Our main problem was that we were really hustling for dishes.  The Baronial kitchen gear, though voluminous, is lacking in medium bowls and has NO pots and pans.  So essentially each serving bowl got recycled multiple times during each course.  And until the second course I had *one* wash-and-dry man...  

But above and beyond all the disasters, the feast went well.  No one complained of hunger, almost all the bowls came back empty, and the spectacle dishes and sotelties got lots of "ooohs."  So all in all I'm pretty happy with the way it went... 

"...and sing ye in chorus, "never again, never again..."


brid adds:

> ...definitely would have flipped out in the face of so many logistical > challenges...

hey, my hands are *still* shaking...  no joke... 

	- kat


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