SC - NRW Feast Menu 4/14

[Morgan Cain]

We certainly needed to get a shorter title on this thread.....
>>> The event announcement says Camp Rock Creek here in Norman.
>>> I vetted the kitchen about 6 months ago.  IIRC, * * *

Thanks, Bear!  I had not gotten around to finding out those details.  Sounds great!

I planned for 96 to seat, plus High Table, plus ten musicians, plus servers and cook staff.  Obviously the last three groups would not be taking up table seats in the hall during feast.

>>> Tell the steward you want the quarters behind the kitchen,
>>> so that you don't have to run across the site. 

I had assumed I'd get that, but you're right, better to confirm.

>>> One comedy egg I considered was to write "HELP" backwards,
>>> looking like a normal brown egg with a distressed chickie
>>> inside...

Selene, I like your style.

>>> My ancestry and upbringing was Jewish as well.  It all
>>> started when some very conservative Jews on a convention
>>> committee plaitively wished aloud for something they could
>>> eat at the con suite... and I went a little overboard.  So
>>> you should eat and be happy.

A nice Jewish sentiment.  <G>  This is my theory, and too often I find that Jewish dietary restrictions are overlooked by cooks, even when the Jews contact them to ask.  I know of exceptions, and I am a fairly secularized Jew, but this is one of the holidays where I am extremely observant.

(Boy, do I ever want a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich when Pesach ends!  Come that Monday night, I am baking bread.....)

>>> I knew that already, I was speaking of margarine for the
>>> roots.

They are moist enough without the butter, if necessary.  I figured it was easier to leave out the butter, and if anybody REALLY wants, and it does not interfere with dietary, they can stir it in.  Just having it on the table could be bad for the really strict Jews, but I am trying to have a table that Jews, Christians, and All The Rest can sit at together.

>>> I've seen schmaltz served as a spread at a fleschig
>>> table, odd though that seems.  Maybe a regional thing?

Maybe.  I guess it would make sense, but I've never seen it.

>>> Kosher products are not necessarily cheap though.  It
>>> appears there are budget issues, and you might opt not
>>> to buy any expensive Kosher products if you don't have
>>> to, like grape juice for everybody.

Most purple grape juice is strong enough to stand some watering.  I was not going to buy a LOT, and there is not so much of a budgetary issue (both Laidan and I were well under budget if what she said is accurate) as there is that Liadan was concerned about paying for overruns and extras.

>>> Not to put too fine a point on it, but technically speaking
>>> you probably shouldn't be handling chametz at all.  The
>>> extent of your religious observance is up to you, of course.

I am aware of that -- which is why I have at least one "Pesach goy" on my kitchen staff.  <S>  As I said, I am fairly secularized, but I do try to be cautious.  And I'll note that in addition to the bread, I'm Ashkenazic, which means I also cannot cook the Grene Peysen or A Cooked Dish of Lentils.

>>> Not too many people actually gave a flying fig about
>>> keeping pisci-vegetarian [is that a word?  Is now]

Sure!

>>> .... the last few times I've cooked for SCA during Lent.

I would bet that people who are observant at all do so only on Fridays anymore, and not the whole of Lent.  So I figured I had some leeway being the feast is on Saturday.  That is also why I am serving the dishes at the same time and on the same tables, instead of saying "Jews Here" and "Christians Here."  That will let everybody determine their own level of observance of whichever set of dietary laws are in effect that night.

>>> One time, I had one of our local "Saint" types write
>>> out an Indulgence, which she illuminated as well.
>>> What a saint, indeed!

Seriously cool!  I don't know if NR has a saint around, though -- do you, Bear?

Kateryn observed:

>>> I think that Morgan was trying to recreate a lenten
>>> version that would have been served in medieval times.

Bingo.  Or as close as a Jew can figure one out.  Pretty much, I figured if it doesn't grow in the garden, you cannot eat it during Lent -- right?  Nothing that had a mother, could have had a mother, came from a mother, or might be related to a mother.

                          ---= Morgan


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"There is more to life than increasing its speed."
                           ---= Mohandas K. Gandhi