[Sca-cooks] Masked Ball wrap-up

[Morgana Abbey]

It's been 2 weeks now, so I feel like writing about Masked Ball.  This
was the Jewish-themed event in the Barony of the Rhydderich Hael (Buffalo
NY)  Oh, and thanx again Avraham (sp?) for the shalom.  It made a great
watermark on the promo flyers and I carved it into a stamp for the
tokens.

People DEVOURED the sideboard, which was a surprise as the day started
late and attendance was slow.  In general it was underattended.  We were,
as the autocrat put it, in the doughnut hole of weather and that didn't
help matters.

I had pre-prepped as much as possible (deep freezes are great) so we
didn't have any time problems with that.  I made a time flow chart and
that helped *lots.*  I still had a couple of problems with carb
calculations and cooking at volume.  I really need to break down and get
a copy of "Food for Fifty."

The feast:
First course was Ashkenazi dairy.  The kugel took a bit longer to set
than planned, so it went out last.  No one seemed to mind as they were
chowing down on the bread and seasoned butter (with grains of paradise),
krupnik, red cabbage with apples, carrot tzimmes, and onion tarts.  The
marinated smelts were as coolly received as I figured they'd be.  The
"warner" was a small dish of shrimp, tossed in the smelts' marinade.  I
served water with black currant syrup as the beverage.

Second course was Sephardi meat.  Everything was on time.  We sent out
torshi left (turnip pickle)--if you liked it, you *really* liked it, or
you looked at it.  Apyo (celery cooked in oil) this had lots of lemon
juice and is really good.  Loubia (room temp lentil salad) and a bulgar
pilav were the starchy bits.  The meats were nanaeya (meatballs with a
lovely garlic/mint/lemon sauce) and djaj mahshi.  This is usually called
stuffed chicken; it's actually chicken roasted with lemon and garlic and
served on a bed of spicy rice and ground meat.  Apparently our seneshal
had a "Tim Allen" moment with this.  This course's "warner" was a tapada
of spinach and feta.  The beverage was orange blossom water.

Dessert course:  A bit of both.  Lekach (honey cake) and Turkish haroset.

The head of the baronial cooks' guild is now on a bit of a warpath.  It
seems that attendance was down because of culinary wussiness.  "Waah,
she's serving weird food."  The menu and my e-mail and phone had been
available since August.  He knew the dishes I served and was very happy.
The people who bucked up were full and happy.

The temple manager stopped in a few times.  He and the rabbi were very
happy with the menu.  After he tasted the soup, he asked if we'd like to
do his son's bar mitzvah.  I'll assume he's joking--unless he calls.

We bagged the leftovers, cleaned up, bagged the gear and were out ahead
of schedule.

Our darling steward had a hot tub waiting for us.

Still, I'd have liked for a better attendance.  I'm having fits of " if
all you want is burgers and fries, go join a 1970s appreciation group."

Having a beer now
Morgana

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