SC - Help!!!!

[Christina Nevin]

Saluti everyone!

Due to various catastrophes, I have just this week accepted position of Head
Cook for Drachenwald Coronation on March 18. Yes, two months - eeeep! 

The 'theme' of the weekend is to be medieval courtly love, especially the
importance of one's own consort, not just those of the fighters in the royal
list. So I have said I'll do it as though it were a feast at Queen Eleanor
of Aquitane's court (i.e. latter half of the 1100s). Now comes the fun
part...

I know very little about that period (Tudor England/Renaissance Italy is my
thing), medieval courtly love (again, "The Courtier" is a tad late) and the
type of feast this will entail - both in structure and typical dishes. 

So if anyone has any relevant feast info or URLs they can send me online,
and suggestions about feast structure and appropriate recipes or in-season
foods, I will be most humbly grateful. Things which have worked well for you
at past feasts especially.

Also any suggestions for subtilties, illusion foods or 'nice touches'. I
know this is cheating a bit, but I really don't have the time to research
like I usually do (i.e. no time to read the Capellanus book or others, but
thanks for the suggestion <smile>), as I need to start working out costs,
quantities and drumming up appropriate recipes for the (as yet non-existent)
assistant cooks.

In terms of relevant cookbooks I have Take 1000 Eggs, Maggie Black's two,
Pleyn Delit, To the King's Taste, The Medieval Kitchen and The Original
Mediterranean Cuisine and online access. This should be French, rather than
English medieval though???

Other problems include the fact the feast will be held somewhere in Wales -
whereas I live in London and can't drive (one of my New Years resolutions -
learn!). So kitchen facilities are currently unknown. Dishes which require
large amounts of on-site preparation are therefore Not A Good Idea. Easily
pre-prepped dishes would be ideal. The feast will be for 80. And just to
liven things up even more - HRM Elffin is a meat kind of guy, and HRM
Melusine is a vegetarian (of the non-fish/chicken but diary OK flavour). 

So, any suggestions?

Al Vostro e al Servizio del Sogno
Lucretzia

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lady Lucrezia-Isabella di Freccia   |  mka Tina Nevin
Thamesreach Shire, The Isles, Drachenwald | London, UK
thorngrove at geocities.com | http://www.geocities.com/~thorngrove 
"There is no doubt that great leaders prefer hard drinkers to good
versifiers" - Aretino, 1536 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

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".

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