SC - Turkey Day post-mortem

[Richard Kappler II]

Well, the holiday at Puck's Glen was an absolute delight.  The turkey slow
roasted all night long, was ready early which was not a bad thing.  It gave
us all incentive when cooking the rest of the feast ;-).  We talked well
into the night, solved the problems of the red paint folk and I vaguely
remember a discussion of tribes from the Great Northern Circle that preceded
anything out of Africa, plus a potential future feast germinated as well.
The Big Yaller Dawg and I finally crapped out about two A.M. and called it a
night.  Awoke Thursday morning to the most wonderful smell (no Lainie,
neither of us had gas that night:-) and tried to start cooking.  Realizing
that, though OOP, coffee was appropriate and downright necessary, I tried to
pour a cup.  Missed.  <sigh>  Finally got it right and started cooking.  By
3 of the clock we decided that we had more than enough food, though not all
the planned dishes had been done.  We skipped the parsnips, the cuskynoles
and the savoury toasted cheese.  It just became a matter of too much food as
it was, why cook more?

Menu comments:
The Glazed Lamb with garlic and rosemary is to die for!  Highly recommended.
Very subtle glazing/sauce that, if the recipe is followed as written,
infuses very subtle flavors into the meat in the beginning of the roast and,
as time goes on, you add the juices from the roast to the sauce which makes
it more and more rich as you go adding stonger flavor components to the
outer layers of the glaze and the  sauce covering at the end.  What you end
up with is a complex flavor in the lamb itself with a very deep, rich lamb
and herb sauce to pour over when serving.  Absolutely delightful!  Cooks
note:  I think the key to succesful cooking of this dish lies not only in
the preparation of the glaze, but in following His Grace's recommendation to
let the roast rest in the oven after cooking.  Seems to allow for much
better infusion of flavor.

The Salmon Roste in Sauce and the Dish of Cooked Lentils are both excellent,
but I would not recommend serving them in the same meal.  Both use cinnamon
as a major flavor component giving two dishes too close in taste for the
type of menu I like to present.

The mushroom pasties were nothing short of superb!  Well done Rob!

The Armored Turnips were okay, but I think I used too much cheese, which
masked the flavor of the roots themselves.  Also, the turnips I bought were
of different sizes and I did not account for that in boiling times so I
ended up with different consistency from layer to layer.  Poor planning on
my part, Next time I'll have to put more effort into this dish.  It was
tasty, though I suspect not as good as it should have been.

I'll let Margali comment on the Spinach tarte.  I thought it was delightful,
but it was her dish and she had some interesting ideas for improving it.

>Hope you all had a delightful holiday! (And Puck? Hug your dog. I think
>he needs it.)
>
>'Lainie


What that Dawg needs is a swift kick in the.....well anyway, we caught the
sucker stuffing Stoopid Cat into a pot when we weren't looking.  I hear
Margali has pictures ;-).  He thort I was mad cuz he was gonna cook the cat.
I wasn't, I just got pissed cuz he wasn't using any of the period recipes so
generously provided by the list!

Oh.....The WonderDawg and I did go appetizer hunting Thursday morning, but
apparently we were too late in the day.  And to think I bought all that
kosher salt...:-O

cheerful regards, Puck

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